Erick was hurt and surrounded by attacks in all directions. His Rank Spell was barely functioning and his consciousness was full of voices threatening to consume his sanity, but still, he was a Rank 1 Magus. He used all his power to concentrate on evaluating his situation.
'From the three attacks, the ones with a higher degree of damage are the ones in front and back, they are powerful enough to pierce my Rank Spell, but there is something weird in those spikes,' Erick's energy was rising and he prepared to launch a spell. With his current condition, he could block two of them entirely and one partially.
He was preparing to stop the two people when he realized the reason for the black glow in those spikes.
'Magic Penetration! But how? A rank 0 being can not possibly enhance their spells with this.'
He focused on the woman covered in a dome of ice at the distance and saw the reason for the uniqueness of the spell, there were runes in her arms.
If he uses a defensive spell to stop these spikes, most of the attacks will be able to trespass it and reach him.
Having understood the nature of the attacks, he chose to respond with what he thought was the best option.
Although this took some time to explain, it happened in less than a second.
"Flame repulsion!"
A blast of flames originated from him and push away all beings in his surroundings, having made that most of the power directed to his back, he was able to stop Ezequiel from perforating his lung, but the repulsion that reached Zatiel was not enough and he was able to get closer to the old man.
As for the spikes, they were able to pierce the flames but the Magus raised his hand to launch a spell at them.
"Fire Bolt!"
A ball of flames impacted the spikes and was able to destroy them, but before he could relax, a hand was buried in his stomach burning his insides and generating enormous pain.
The pain reached directly to his consciousness and with the previous damage, it almost made him pass out from the agony but taking hold of all his rage, he managed to retain some focus and saw how Zatiel had his fist embedded in his stomach.
"Die, you piece of sh*t!"
From Erick's hand, a blast of flames came out and consumed Zatiel, throwing him away and making him crash on the ground.
"Master!"
"Zatiel!"
The moment they saw how Zatiel was ravaged by the flames, both Ezequiel and Sophia could not help but panic. But luckily, all their fear vanished immediately when they heard a voice through their cores.
"Continue with the plan!"
After hearing that order, both of them regained their focus, and their energies spiked as they attacked the Magus.
Ezequiel's eyes were cold as he started to throw spears of lightning at Erick, moving through the air never stopping making it extremely difficult to land a spell on him.
Sophia was launching her spikes as well, but this time they no longer had Magic Penetration abilities.
If she were to continue activating that rank 1 rune, she would be exhausted in a moment.
Erick was able to conjure two of his magma shields, but even so, he was not able to control them well due to the splitting pain on his head and some of the spells manage to reach his cloak of flames weaken it even more.
'What the hell are these black flames?'
The most pressing matter for Erick was not the spells that reached him. After all, his rank spell was able to block all attacks inferior to 20 degrees of damage and although it was barely holding, it would withstand some time.
The thing that was bothering him the most was the voices in his head and the flame that was extending to the rest of his body. If he didn't use his energy to contain it, it would have already expanded and covered him entirely.
If Erick was alone, he could have easily used all of his energy to expel the flames, after all, they are formed by a rank 0 spell. But now with all this damage and the constant attacks, he could barely think, much less focus his mind into a concrete task.
Sophia managed to reach the place where Zatiel landed and she used her tentacles of her dome to turn down the fire.
When the flames were extinguished, Zatiel's figure could be seen. The chains were gone, they exploded the moment the attack landed, and as for the armor, it was covered in cracks all over.
His body was full of burn marks and his left arm was missing. It seems as if the damage had been immense but to have received a Magus point-blank attack and just finish with this injury is a miracle.
Zatiel stood up, and took a pink pill from his sack and consumed it. The moment he does, the bleeding starts to stop and his complexion gets better instantly.
'Her medicines are really helpful.'
Both the black pill and the pink pill were the creations of Sophia. It was thanks to the black pill that the injuries on his body were so little, after all, the attack of Erick almost reached 60 degrees of damage and it was the flame resist attribute of the medicine which protected him from the worst part.
Having taken care of his injuries, he focused on the Magus.
Erick had managed to consume a potion that healed some of his wounds, but unfortunately for him, the damage to his consciousness was not so easy to heal, and the attack of Ezequiel and Sophia did not stop at any time.
"A.I. chip, scan him!"
Normally, the chip could not scan a Magus due to the protective effect of their Rank spell and their magnetic force field but now, because of the damage, it was able to do it.
[Bip... scanning target
Name: Erick
Race: Human (Rank 1 Elementium Magus)
Strength: 12.3
Physique:20.3
Agility: 11.2
Spirit Force:46.1]
'As expected from a Rank 1 being. Even though he is a pure Elementium Magi, and I bet he has never truly trained his body, his physique is even greater than mine despite my body being constantly enhanced by the core and my abyss aura.'
Despite his attributes being inferior, Zatiel didn't feel that there was anything wrong. After all, it had been less than two years since he became a Neo-Demon and his opponent was a Rank 1 Magus that had lived for hundreds of years.
Zatiel saw how Sophia and Ezequiel were constantly attacking the Magus but he didn't join them. All his attention was on Erick, waiting for the right time to make his move.
He didn't have to wait long before he saw how the Magus's face became full of wrath and the energy in his body spiked.
"I will show you insects, the price of making a Magus furious," Erick's consciousness was influenced by the chaotic effect of the abyssal blast and he used his energy without care as he tried to bring out his most powerful spell.
"Now!"
The rune in Zatiel's forehead activated and his eyes started to bleed. The rune was known as Mind Shock, it allowed you to use your consciousness to attack the consciousness of your enemies.
Due to him being rank 0, the effect that it should be almost insignificant, but there is something that helped the consciousness grow in power and that is will, and Zatiel's will is stronger than Erick's, that plus the fact that Erics's consciousness already hurt, made the outcome obvious.
'What is happening?'
Erick didn't understand what was occurring. In a moment he was preparing to launch his spell Meteor Shower, and the next he felt a stake plunging in his brain, his eyes blurring, and lost control over his energy and body.
Due to him launching a spell and not controlling the energies, it backfired and harmed him but what came next was worse.
The blackout of Erick won't last more than a couple of seconds, and that time would not be enough to launch a spell powerful enough to penetrate his Rank Spell, but at this moment Ezequiel acted.
The runes on Ezequiel's legs activated and he flashed to where Erick was, the speed was incredible and even Zatiel was not able to see him before he reached the Magus.
Erick was recovering the control over his body when he felt a sword burying in his chest and releasing a huge amount of lightning power destroying his left lung.
"Ba*tard!"
A torrent of flames generated in Erick's hand and were going to reach Ezequiel.
The boy separated immediately after attacking but still, he was too close to dodge the spell, but luckily, shields made of ice started to appear in front of him. Although they disintegrated almost immediately, they gave him enough time to dodge the flames and get away from the Magus.
Erick didn't follow after Ezequiel, instead, he created hundreds of small balls of fire and threw them at the three.
The attack filled the sky but the damage that it could create was minimal, so it was more of an annoyance than a threat.
As Zatiel and the rest were destroying the flames that headed in his direction, Erick put all that is left of his energy on the ball of flames under his feet and started to fly away.
Using the flame teleportation would be more effective but that spell uses too much energy and your concentration needed to be unaffected so it was impossible at the moment.
'I need to escape or else I will die.'
Although the fight looked like a hard one for both sides, Erick knew that he was the absolute loser, and besides the first attack where he was able to hurt Zatiel, he was never truly able to damage any of them.
Now one of his lungs was destroyed, he had a fist-sized hole in his stomach, his energy was almost depleted, not to mention the monstrous pain in his head.
So his only option was escaping, as for honor and courage, since when has a Magus cared for that?
As they saw Erick getting away, neither one of them started to chase him. Both Ezequiel and Sophia looked at Zatiel with reverence in their eyes, since from the beginning, every single thing that has happened was exactly as he said, even of the Magus leaving, and now they saw how he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, sealing the fate of a mighty Rank 1 being.
