The ball of fire was immense and the heat that it generated consumed all the oxygen in 50 meters around the explosion.
Of the three people covered by the spell, from the center of the ball of fire two were blasted out. One of them was a badly wounded short man with a ring that created a glow that covered all of his body and the other one was someone covered in a cocoon made of chains.
Although there were parts broken in all places of the cocoon and it looks like it would vanish in the next second, the figure inside was still fully covered. As for the third one, it looked like it was disintegrated by the flames.
Three hundred meters away the air started to change and four people and a group of ogres appeared.
At the head of the four were a man and a woman. The man held a parchment that was glowing, this person had ash-colored hair, a delicate face, a height of 1.8 mt and he was laughing as he saw the explosion.
As for the woman, she had a beautiful face and crimson hair. In her hand was a clown-like mask full of cracks. At the back of these two were Luis and Johann with a respectful expression on their faces.
Erick, like most rank 1 Magi was someone who likes to put contingency plans. So in the group of apprentices he sent, there were two of his disciples.
They were tasked to keep themselves hidden and make sure that there was no problem in the mission. When the acts of Alan raised suspicion, they revealed themselves and took control of the ogres, and the other two apprentices. They then tracked Alan and attacked them by surprise.
"Hahaha. That assh*le of Alan really thinks that could trick us. He deserves tasting the power of a rank 1 spell made directly by Master," The man keeps laughing as he watched the flames.
"Concentrate Cristian. We wasted almost all the power in the mask to not be detected and take them by surprise, but the target is still alive," The woman looked at the direction the cocoon made of chains, and a grave expression appeared on her face.
"Who cares? Even if he used his magical equipment to cover himself, he should be barely breathing in the 35 degrees of damage that the explosion caused. Don't tell me that you are scared of him Barbara," Cristian was openly disdaining the fearful attitude of the woman.
"Hmph, those chains are not magical equipment but a spell. I guess I don't have to explain what that means," Barbara sneered at the foolishness of her comrade.
"Impossible! Even if a parchment can only bring out the weakest power of a rank 1 spell, it is impossible for a rank 0 spell to match. If those chains are truly a spell then..." Cristian's smile vanished from his face and was replaced by gloominess.
The reason for the apprentices' apprehension was simple. When two spells crashed, the one with the most power should eliminate the weaker one.
Although the winner would lose potency, it will still manage to damage the target. So for the chains to be still active even after being reached by the explosion, it means that the spell launched by the apprentice has the power of a rank 1 spell.
Even if it was the weakest one, it was still something that no apprentice should be able to do without external help.
"Ogres, attack that cocoon with all you have," Cristian wasn't stupid and will not put himself in danger when he has a disposable task force at his command.
The ogres were ordered by their leader to obey the commands of the apprentices, so they immediately started to march to where the cocoon was.
The four apprentices were focused in the ogres to see what the person in the cocoon would do, but just as they were at half the way, the ground under their feet started to tremble.
A figure came out of the ground right in the center of the four of them.
The person was Zatiel. His robe was destroyed and the upper part of his body was exposed showing his perfectly attuned muscles but also the severe burns all over his body. His eyes were cold and not letting the apprentices recover from the surprise, he attacked ferociously.
His first target was the strongest of the four, Cristian. Zatiel grabbed the arm of the apprentice and with his other hand threw a punch with all his strength at his head.
The moment the fist was going to impact, an armor made of earth covers his head. Although it managed to save his head from exploding, the power of the punch was so much that he was blasted away, and since Zatiel had his arm grabbed, it detached from the rest of his body, making the apprentice scream in pain as he was sent flying away.
'Already in the process of developing his Rank Spell, how annoying,' Zatiel didn't chase after Cristian and attacked at his next target.
Barbara barely managed to recover from the shock with Cristian's scream and made the energy in her body explode as she prepared to launch an attack.
"Wind Bla..." But just as she was about to finish the preparation and launch the attack, she saw two eyes staring at her with such coldness and savagery that made her lose focus.
Although it was just for a moment, she was the closest to the place Cristian was, so her carelessness allows Zatiel to reach her.
Zatiel grabbed her head and blasted it on the ground, but just like with Cristian, an armor, this time of wind, covered her head and allowed her to diminish the impact just enough to save her life.
But still, she was severely hurt. Zatiel prepared to give her the finishing blow when spears made of bones came rushing at him. They were incredibly fast and he was barely able to dodge due to the close distance.
Just when he managed to dodge the last spear, an enormous fist crashed into him, barely giving time to cover himself before being thrown away. He managed to stabilize himself twenty meters away.
Zatiel looked in the direction where the spear came from and saw Luis surrounded by bone shields and a five meters gorilla by his side.
"Johann, we have to delay him the most we can and wait for the ogres. Besides, by the lack of spells he is throwing, I bet he barely has any energy left," Luis may not be the strongest of the four, but he had an excellent battle sense so the actions of Zatiel give him a lot of information.
Johann nodded and adopted a defensive posture.
Zatiel didn't say anything and only looked at them. The guess of the apprentice was correct. After killing all the goblins his energy was already low, and with the explosion, he had to use an immense amount to maintain the chains and use Abyssal Regeneration to heal his body. So he was not able to use any spell by the moment.
'Darkness elementium and a bloodline apprentices. One has stealthy attacks and the other great vitality. I need to end this fast and I can only depend on my physical might...'
Zatiel looked at the direction of the cocoon and a small flash of worry appeared in his eyes before he concentrated on the ogres that were already coming back. When he refocused on the enemies in front, a smile formed in his face, and a small laugh came out. "Haha, It has been a long time since I fought like a true abyssal, defeating enemies with brute power."
Zatiel took a sword from his spatial sack before flashed at the five-meter gorilla, just when he was about to crash with him, he made a stomp on the ground lifting a huge curtain of dust.
"Luis be careful, he is surely coming for you," Johann believed that Zatiel rushing to him to just blind them was to trick them and take the opportunity to kill the weakest of the two.
Luis arrived at the same conclusion and defused the spear he was summoned to focus all of his energy on his shields.
Johann was coming to help Luis when he saw a sword pierce straight to his eye, he moved just at right the moment making it fly past him.
"Hmph, if you think a trick like this is going to..." Johann didn't finish talking when he heard a scream and he saw how Zatiel grabbed Luis's head with a smile in his face before applying so much pressure that made it explode.
If the two worked together they could stop Zatiel for a couple of minutes but the moment Johann focused on defending himself, Luis fate was sealed.
Zatiel's face was covered in blood but his smile only became wider as he looked at Johann, "I have forgotten how good this feels! now it is your turn."
"You fu*king devil, die!" Johan roared and his body grew even bigger as he threw a punch with all his strength.
The fist was the size of his chest and came with crushing power and impacted Zatiel, but instead of being sent flying away, he managed to catch the fist making marks in the ground as his legs sank in it.
"Not devil... demon!" Zatiel roared and grabbed a finger with each hand he pulled in separated directions splitting the fist in two.
"Aah!" Johann could not even stop screaming from the pain before Zatiel reached for his head and started bombarding it with his fist.
"BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!"
Every time his fist crashed on his skull a blast could be heard, and although the bloodline apprentice had great vitality it didn't take long for Johann to be dead.
But Zatiel continued punching until his skull opened and his brain matter splattered.
