[Ouroboros' End]
Scalladras laughed internally as another volley of enemy spells tore into his fiery form in dozens of spots. Almost since the moment he had appeared on the battlefield like this, the smugglers had been trying to locate the physical body around which the flaming figure was formed.
A futile effort. He was a god of fire, the primordial one at that. He used a body of flesh and blood only for the utility it offered when interacting with others, not because he needed it. In battle, where he didn't have to worry about keeping his flames in check in an effort not to set anything aflame, he thus often discarded it completely. After all, why only encase himself in flames when he was fire given form.
Thus, there was no physical body for the smugglers to find. Only a constant stream of flames that rushed forth from the laughably weak copy of his original body's divinity, shaped into an enormous humanoid form that weathered whatever attacks they threw at him with ease.
As an ascendant, even if only barely in the weak avatar he currently acted through, it didn't even cost him any mana to repair whatever damage these attacks did to his flaming form. They simply closed themselves as wounds inflicted by mortals would've done on a body of flesh and blood. However, compared to the latter, it was far less obvious, as between elementals and a mage's elemental body, the ability to repair an elemental form wasn't any surprise, and they couldn't sense his lack of mana expenditure. The gap in power was simply too large for that.
In contrast, he could perfectly well sense how his attackers were rapidly burning through their mana reserves. At the rate they were depleting their reserves, Scalladras was confident his presence alone would be enough to practically ensure victory if he stayed for another ten, maybe twenty minutes. That is, if Neandra didn't break their resolve first by killing their leader.
Still, he had held back for days, so he wasn't going to stay passive for much longer. Deciding that wasting around a tenth of the mana reserves of over half a dozen enemy mages within barely five minutes was enough to consider his part in the greater battle done, Scalladras then swept his gaze across the smugglers still bombarding him to pick his first target.
His gaze soon landed on a man who, to his amusement, had apparently thought it a smart idea to bombard his flaming body with fire magic. One of the last mistakes he'd ever make, Scalladras decided.
In an instant, his gigantic body of flames that had almost even been able to look over the wall condensed into a form of barely three meters tall. Near a hundred attacks still flew through the area of space he had previously inhabited even as he was already moving toward the smuggler he had singled out, with the smugglers' and town's forces alike being caught in the aftermath of their misses.
Scalladras paid no heed to that. Even before the first of the attacks struck somewhere in the distance, he was already pressing the attack against his target with a flurry of strikes. With each one, his body of fire morphed to fit the situation. One moment, his hands sharpened into blades to augment his strikes. The next, they widened into massive shields to his side while a second pair sprung forth just below to counter in the midst of his enemy's attack.
This onslaught quickly overwhelmed the mage. This was only worsened by how ineffective fire magic was against Scalladras. Attacks that struck him perfectly did nothing to even slow him down, while barriers that the smuggler conjured didn't just fail to stop his attacks but outright strengthened them as their flames were absorbed by Scalladras as his body passed through.
Yet the smuggler held on, at least for some time. Fortunately for him, it was enough for him to survive until Scalladras was distracted by just over two dozen new mana signatures entering his sensory range.
Appearing just behind the front line on the smuggler's side, these new arrivals teleported onto the battlefield already prepared to join the fray. Mana surged and spells manifested a mere moment later, with the initial volley of attacks catching those of the town's forces targeted by them by surprise.
But while the attack was successful, it also drew Scalladras' attention toward them. Letting his mana sense sweep over them, he all but forgot about his previous opponent as he sensed them to be some of the strongest smugglers that had taken to the field throughout the entire battle. And to their misfortune, and his previous opponent's continued fortune, this made them far more interesting than the fire mage.
With that thought in mind, Scalladras then charged forth. Not interested in hiding his approach, he let his fiery body flare up until the flames burned so hot that they ignited the very air around him, leaving a fiery trail in his wake as he soon slammed into the enemy formation.
The reaction came almost immediately. Three of the smugglers shifted their aim toward him just as he broke past the still quite numerous crowd of mythic ranks that hovered above the brawl on the ground.
Yet, his speed and boldness apparently weren't enough to convince them of the danger he presented, as the first volley that flew his way was quite weak. A simple burst of fire consumed the two spells they launched at Scalladras, with the water magic erupting into steam while the wind blast erupted prematurely. The aura user who followed a moment after them didn't fare any better. Though the three darts of energy he launched managed to endure the burst of fire, they were grouped too closely to achieve anything beyond forcing Scalladras to shift half a meter to the right.
In contrast, Scalladras' response was far more effective. Just as the three aura projectiles shot past him, he unleashed a barrage of fire magic. The first of these spells were half a dozen fireballs. Streaking through the still scorching hot air, they burst through the vapor still left from the earlier collision and appeared next to one of the mages before they could react. The first explosion tore into his shields, ripping massive chunks out of the transparent blue energy shield as it slammed into it. The second explosion then finished the job, shattering the battered shield and opening the path for the other four spells to strike the mage directly.
This turned out to be too much for the enchantments in the woman's robes. While Scalladras sensed a surge of mana as they activated just in time for the first explosion, by the time the fire and smoke from the fourth spell cleared, the mage was already plummeting toward the ground, her body scorched to the point of being unrecognizable.
The shock of her sudden death didn't make the other two smugglers pause for even a moment. Her body had just started to plummet when they used the opportunity to launch a second wave of attacks at Scalladras, this time one far more powerful.
Faintly overhearing the wind mage voice out the name of a spell, likely a creation of the man himself considering he didn't recognize its name, Scalladras turned on high alert for whatever form its threat would take. Yet at the same time, he watched as the aura user rushed forward, forcing him to split his attention as the man came at him.
A sword of fire manifested in Scalladras's hand just in time to block the aura user's first strike. Quickly pivoting, he then tried to catch the man with a strike from the left. In response, his opponent let the tip of his sword drop low to his right, catching the near-horizontal swing at an angle and diverting it enough that it was no longer any danger to him.
Scalladras didn't leave it at this exchange. Trying to end it quickly, he pressed the attack, first attacking high before utilizing the vertical mobility flight offered to move above his foe after the latter blocked. The smuggler also rotated in response, hovering with his back to the ground as Scalladras first feigned a high slash before switching to a low thrust followed by a series of three slashes that forced the man downward each time he blocked them.
At that moment the mage's spell manifested. Not letting the annoyance that he hadn't managed to overwhelm the aura user in time before that happened interrupt his response, Scalladras sharpened his focus and observed as the green shimmer of wind magic appeared behind his back.
Moments later, a set of five straight claws manifested in a circular formation. Air surged around them as their tips shifted inward and aimed at him, followed by all five launching in unison.
Yet, by then Scalladras already wasn't present there anymore. The moment the mage's spell launched, his body of flames scattered in all directions as little more than flaming streaks in the air.
Instead of him, the spell then struck the aura user. The man barely had a moment to react and concentrated his aura around his chest before the first claw slammed into his stomach. The wind magic sent sparks flying as it scraped against the aura flowing around the smuggler, briefly shaking in place before overcoming the enhanced skin and digging into the man's flesh.
Four more times did the same happen in the same instance. All four claws pierced deep into flesh all across the smuggler's torso, sending a jolt of pain through him that caused his eyes to snap open in a silent scream.
Undoubtedly, an audible scream would've followed soon after. But before it could leave the man's lips, Scalladras' scattered form reconstituted itself behind his back, the tip of his sword already mere centimeters away from the man's neck. With all his focus on protecting his chest, the aura flowing around the area offered little resistance as Scalladras thrust the weapon forward, with the fiery blade cutting through skin, flesh, and bone with the same ease as it would with air.
The mage's eyes widened at the sight. Barely a few seconds into the fight and both his colleagues had already fallen, one at least partially by his own hand. The sound of the aura user's mouth filling with blood as he tried to get some last words out only added to this dread, leading the mage to slowly hover backward.
Yet he hadn't made it a full meter when Scalladras already disappeared again. Leaving the aura user to plummet toward the ground, his body scattered into multiple thousand motes of fire that rushed toward the last mage, halting the man's retreat as fear froze him in place.
Scalladras didn't care for that. He waited until the mage started to flail in panic, launching spells randomly into the cloud of fire in a desperate attempt to harm him, before moving in for the kill. Manifesting his body behind the smuggler just as the man's right arm swung out, Scalladras crushed the feeble shields that sprung up as he reached out with his hand and grabbed his foe by the neck. A last flare-up of enchantments across the man's tunic was similarly quickly crushed, with the lightning that tried to latch onto his arm simply vanishing into his fiery form before Scalladras' own magic surged forth and burned out the enchantments.
The backlash of this sudden destruction of the enchantments erupted so violently that he then didn't even need to strike his with hand. Stored mana of dozens of enchantments surged forth without purpose but still attuned to the air and lightning elements. Raging storms formed in an instant, their sharp winds cutting deep into the smuggler's body as lightning started to flash around him, latching onto his flesh and scorching his skin.
Though Scalladras also didn't remain unaffected. The raging winds forced him to put more power into keeping his body of flames together, while bolts of lightning tore through the same, blasting chunks out of his form and sending entire limbs flying as little more than glowing red sparks. And while his body regenerated just as quickly, he still responded with drastic action to this annoyance.
"Throne of the radiant sun." When Scalladras chanted the name of his spell, his magic burst forth. Erupting from his entire body, his mana ignited as it compressed for but a moment before surging forth as brilliant orange flames. Within moments, these formed a miniature sun centered around him. Though as the glowing sphere of yellow and orange still measured near fifty meters across, it was only miniature compared to a real sun.
At the center of the sun, Scalladras hovered, his body back to one of flesh and blood. But while it looked similar to his usual form when it came to build and facial structure, it was noticeably distinct. Not only was its skin lighter, but his hair had also shifted from the usual red to an orange with some yellow streaks in it, as had his eyes and overall demeanor lightened.
Taking a seat on the throne that had formed behind him with practiced smoothness, Scalladras briefly reminisced as he immersed himself in the familiar but long-forgotten sensation of his spell. It was an old feeling that reminded him of a time well before he and his fellow primordials split, even before Visuria and Nemoress started their war. In many ways, a better time, though Scalladras wondered if he and Darganth would've still become friends had it never ended.
But more than the era in which he had created it, it reminded him of the universes he had spent much of those years in. It had been his first attempt at building something of his own, of being worshiped as himself and not just one of the six primordials. It was a time his fellows knew little of, making the spell well suited for his purposes beyond nostalgia. Though it would mark him as a god to any ascendant that heard of it, there was no being alive besides himself that could connect it to his identity as primordial of fire. And yet, the spell was still empowered by the worship he received, making it something none of the mythic ranks he was facing could hope to defend against.
However, the power this place of power spell could unleash at but a thought from Scalladras wasn't its true danger. Not to mention, if his goal had been to decimate the smugglers by his lonesome, he would've certainly chosen another, more efficient, spell. There was even one whose design and function were extremely similar to the one he had settled on and which would've allowed him to unleash far greater destructive potential.
No, the true danger of the radiant sun he had conjured was visible all across the battlefield. Wherever one looked, fire magic waxed and waned according to his wishes. In the hands of the town's forces, even a simple flare turned into a devastating fiery bolt that erupted with enough force to blast open massive craters in the ground. Meanwhile, fire magic almost wholly refused to function for the smugglers. The spells manifested as they should, but where they struck, they didn't bring destruction but rejuvenation, healing the wounds of men hit by them and even mending soil and plants with their blasts.
This drastically swung the fortunes of the battle. Even before, the smugglers had been on the back foot, with only the elite group near Scalladras that had joined as reinforcements allowing them to keep any initiative in the battle. In such a situation, even just a single volley by a fraction of them not achieving anything would've been an advantage that the town's forces could've exploited.
But it wasn't just any element and for just one moment. Just as one would find more nature mages tending to fields and improving crop production, fire mages made up a clear majority on most battlefields. Instead of accounting for one in sixteen mages, or one in fourteen when accounting for the rarity of people capable of using space and time magic, they made up almost a full fifth of the mages among the smugglers. More even if one also counted those that used it as a secondary element. The usefulness of fire magic in direct fights and especially large-scale warfare was simply that great.
Few of the affected mages managed to recover from this, not with the town's fire mages receiving the opposite effect. When the first of their empowered attacks had struck, most had been smart enough to capitalize on the opportunity despite their confusion. Singular destructive spells quickly became rarer, replaced with swarms of smaller spells that now struck with the same power.
It wasn't an immediate victory, but I came close. Dozens of fire mages conjured shields and barriers to defend themselves against the onslaught, hoping that their defensive spells weren't as useless as their attacks had been. That hope was misplaced. The town's fire magic burst through whatever they conjured as if it wasn't there, with even enchantments that used fire magic refusing to work properly. As a result, the initial confusion reaped the lives of tens of smugglers, almost all of whom were fire mages.
With that victory emboldening them, the town's forces then fell upon the rest of the smugglers. Led by fire mages that relished the newfound strength of their spells, they tore through the disorganized smugglers.
Meanwhile, Scalladras did the same with the small elite force near him. An almost lazy wave of his hand sent forth five bursts of solar fire eerily similar to the solar flare spell. However, their targets didn't have the time to gasp at the ridiculousness of a single person launching five mythic spells at once, instead being focused on defending themselves from that ridiculousness.
But even though barriers sprang up from both them and their colleagues, all five flares struck true. In their wake, barriers of water, earth, metal, and war magic hung in the air with one or more scorching holes in them, though just moments later these too were consumed by fiery eruptions as the edges around the impact points erupted. The five smugglers struck by the spells were, however, already dead by then, their bodies nothing more than charred husks that were consumed by similar explosions as the overflowing energy of Scalladras' attacks sought to escape.
Yet, even that wasn't the most demoralizing sight for the smugglers at that moment. For just moments after Scalladras had unveiled his spell, Neandra unleashed her own demonstration of power onto their leader.