Chapter Sixty-Nine: Malakas, the Lord of Sorcery (Second Update)

So it turned out that Nalorak had transformed during the attack this time, reducing the gap between actions and preventing Aurelia from finding another opportunity to escape.

“Pain, follow me!” growled the voice of the Bear Spirit.

Aurelia, seasoned in battles against trolls, was well aware of their combat patterns. As the massive bear paw swung directly at her, she arched her back, bending away at the waist, and the enormous claw swept past her body, missing her by a hair’s breadth.

Yet the force of the wind driven by the bear’s strike still left her struggling; she barely managed to land on her feet. But Nalorak seemed to have anticipated her landing spot—the bear’s claws turned crimson in an instant and crashed down at her again.

In that very moment, a figure flashed before Aurelia. Intense arcane energy surged up, encasing her. Patrick had blinked to her side, shielding her from the bear’s crushing blow.

The bear’s paw struck Patrick’s arcane shield, which absorbed the force. Only a gust of wind, tinged with the scent of blood, brushed across Aurelia and Patrick’s faces.

Patrick’s hand supported Aurelia from behind, his right arm slipping under her knees, lifting her effortlessly into his embrace. The elven woman’s head was close to Patrick’s; each could feel the heat of the other’s breath.

Nalorak, seeing his attack blocked by Patrick, was unwilling to concede and struck again. But the blow hit only the arcane shield—nothing more came of it.

Arcane energy was gathering, focusing Patrick’s mind. Channeling the power at his fingertips, Patrick and Aurelia rose from the ground, floating upward. Akil’zon had already been defeated and retreated; only Nalorak remained, and he knew no magic. In the air, Patrick was utterly fearless.

Within moments, Patrick’s arcane power transformed into a barrage of missiles that streaked toward Nalorak. Nearly every missile hit its mark, but such simple spells did little to harm him. The giant bear roared in pain, but the damage was slight.

As a champion of an animal god, it was only natural for him to be shielded by divine power.

The bear prowled the ground below, helpless against Patrick in the sky, and so turned its wrath on the other elves nearby. Seeing this, Patrick called forth his arcane energy, forming a spell of fireblast in his hands, flames blazing hot.

Below, the Bear Spirit seemed to sense danger. Animals are instinctively attuned to threats. Watching the searing fireball hurtling down from above, the bear conjured a divine shield around itself. Light flashed as the fireblast exploded; some of the bear’s fur was scorched, and at last Nalorak sustained real harm. It was only fur, but it proved that even divine protection was not without flaw.

After the hot wind of the explosion swept past, the bear god looked on disdainfully, thinking the fireblast nothing impressive. Yet before he could savor his pride, he saw a second fireblast already formed and coming straight at him. Startled, he hastened to channel his divine power, once more armoring himself against the blazing assault.

A thunderous boom resounded. When the flames cleared, a large patch of fur on the bear god’s head was burned away, the skin beneath singed—a look reminiscent of a receding hairline, or perhaps a shining crown. The sight nearly made Patrick laugh aloud.

Seeing this, the giant bear immediately shifted back into troll form and fled, choosing to retreat. Patrick hovered in the air; Nalorak could not reach him. On the ground, trying to fight the elven rangers would only risk getting roasted again. Better to retreat than to stand firm like a live target, have his divine power drained, and be reduced by Patrick to a charred corpse.

Nalorak’s withdrawal left the trolls bewildered. With both their leaders gone, what else could they do? Reluctantly, they too began to retreat. Their morale soon crumbled, and they fled in droves.

When the elves saw the trolls begin to withdraw, their spirits soared, and they lost themselves in the one-sided slaughter. The battle had forced many elves to tap into their hidden reserves of strength; with their stamina nearly spent, only sheer battle fervor kept the rangers going.

As the trolls retreated into the distance, some elves simply collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, grateful their enemies had fled and that they themselves had survived.

Aurelia and Sylvanas also breathed a sigh of relief. Only moments before, they had been encircled by trolls—forced to either cut a bloody path or fight to the death, hoping to take some trolls down with them.

Patrick cast a grave look toward the altar, where a troll was conducting a ritual. Malakas, seeing the trolls’ rout, burned with rage but was powerless to leave the ceremony. When his gaze met Patrick’s—the elf who had defeated Akil’zon and Nalorak—they saw in each other’s eyes a deep wariness, and... a murderous intent.

“We’re not done yet,” Patrick reminded the rangers. “The main target is still at the altar. Our mission is not complete.”

Aurelia nodded in agreement, and seeing this, the others shook off their fatigue and readied themselves once more.

The air grew thick with the scent of voodoo; evidently, Malakas’s ritual had reached its critical moment. The trolls gathered around the altar grew even more excited, their muscles bulging with anticipation.

Patrick reached out with his senses, detecting that the Voodoo Lord was weaving a massive spell.

“Shadow will fall upon you…”

Through their psychic link, Patrick heard Malakas’s incantation—those same familiar words, those same familiar gestures, unchanged.

A soul arrow, crackling with voodoo and shadow energy, tore through the sky toward Patrick. As it flew, the green mist in the air seemed to empower it—something Patrick had not anticipated.

“What are you waiting for? Blast it away with fire!” Allen’s voice rang in Patrick’s mind, snapping him back to focus.

He quickly gathered his energy, and in an instant, a fire blast formed, trailing a long tail as it shot toward Malakas’s soul arrow.

(Surprised? Unexpected? The author is doing a double update for the first time. Writing truly isn’t easy…)