Parallel Vol. 5

Chapter 32: Beware The Tigers' Tenacity

Bang! Stryke grunted as he skidded several feet backward. "Damn, he's strong!" Stryke glared at the Lich from above his smoking shield. Ahead of him, Hogosha leaped from a rock at the Lich's exposed back.

"Hmph!" The Lich snorted. It turned its palm toward the airborne Nespian Tiger and quickly fired a massive shockwave. Vwoosh! Hogosha realized the danger and rapidly covered its body in a thin mana field.

Bang! The air cannon did not damage Hogosha, but it sent the Nespian Tiger somersaulting backward. Psh... Hogosha landed and instantly resumed its charge. This time, however, it charged along the ground.

Blue Will o' Wisps in the Lich's eyes flared in anger at the Nespian Tiger's outrageous tenacity. The Lich raised a finger, causing several mandalas to appear above it. With a flick of its finger, dozens of fireballs instantly launched toward the charging Hogosha.

Hogosha, in reply, roared, and channeled mana through its limbs to the earth. Intriguingly, mandalas began to appear wherever its paws landed. Then, Earthen Walls shot up in front of Hogosha, to take the brunt of the fireball's attacks.

The Lich displayed its unnerving adaptability the second it saw Hogosha's defence. With a flick of its fingers, it transformed the fireball spells, reducing each one's firepower in return for increased speed and volume.

In essence, the Lich transformed the mandalas from bolt-action rifles to fully automatic machine guns. The new fireballs were only the size of a basketball, but Hogosha could only watch when hundreds shattered its walls in no time.

"Grrrr!!" Hogosha growled and was about to dodge, when a familiar figure charged to its front.

"Keep going!" Stryke skidded in front of Hogosha, and immediately initiated [Charge]. The young man shot forward like a rocket, and then called out as he infused his buckler with his ki, "[Bulwark]!" Stryke's shield burst to life as ki circulated through it. Several runes lit up at once, and a giant glowing tower shield spread out from the buckler. The ki-construct served as an effective battering ram, smacking the fireballs away like annoying bugs on a windshield.

Aided by Stryke's quick charge, both he and Hogosha reached three meters before the Lich's throne in the blink of an eye. Upon reaching this point, Hogosha summoned a rock spire that shot out over Stryke's head. It then charged up the spire and leaped toward the Lich from the air, while Stryke stabbed his sword from the ground.

The divide-and-conquer strategy was sound. By forcing the Lich to split its attention, at least one of them would score a good hit. At least that was the idea. Unfortunately, the Lich had not intentions of going by their script.

Bang!

"What!?" Stryke and Hogosha stared in shock as they both struck a transparent shield. "When did he set this up!?" That's right. They'd hit a mana shield, but neither of them had seen the Lich set up this spell, nor did they see any mandalas.

"It can't be. Has he had this up since the beginning? How much mana does he have!?" It had to be known that mana shield was an active spell. Aside from the initial cost to summon the shield, mages needed to constantly supply the shield with mana to either strengthen or keep it active. This fundamental cost was the major reason mages did not walk around with permanent mana shields.

"At the very least, he has had it on since we started watching him. That's put him at fifteen minutes at the minimum," Hogosha calculated as it narrowed its eyes. "We have to finish this quickly. I doubt our mana can outlast his."

"True. We'll treat this as any raid BOSS then." Stryke's eyes lit up amidst the sparks as he roared, "Are you ready!?"

With Stryke's roar, both he and Hogosha instantly gathered and then channeled their ki to a single point. For Stryke, it was the tip of his sword, whereas Hogosha's gathered at its claws. The gathered ki rapidly condensed in the blink of an eye into a tiny clump the size of a grain of sand.