?"I'll go for the one with the pointed hat; the rest of you cover each other!" Alba shouted.
If there was one thing that was quite clear with these mages, it was the fact that they were organized. Their strength wasn't that strong, but they were able to cover each other's backs.
There were similar things that other clans did with formations and techniques that were meant to be used by one or more people.
So, in this case, Alba thought it was best to go for the leader of this little group.
Lilly charged in with her spear, but it was hit by the side several times by a strange beam of light energy. It just veered the tip of her spear to the point where it would touch the floor, and right after that, it was frozen on the ground.
It was only for a few moments, but it gave an opportunity for them to try and strike; thankfully, Tilon was there with his shield, which was able to mostly block everything that was sent their way.
A few ice attacks had landed on his shield, freezing it slightly, but with an almighty roar and burst of his Qi through his weapon, he was able to break it to pieces without damaging his weapon.
When Alba charged towards the pointed hat squad leader, he had jumped and pushed himself back with wind magic. At the same time, he swung his hands through the air, creating wind slices that were aimed towards her.
"Are you running away? Come and fight me directly!" Alba shouted.
"Running away? All you warriors are as barbaric as the next. A mage fights with distance, in order to create an even larger spell!"
Lifting both of his hands above his head, a large fireball could be seen. It was the size of an entire cart. He then hurled it straight at Alba. It was as if a meteor was coming right at her.
When Alba's foot touched the ground, instead of jumping to the side or trying to run back, instead, she kicked off her foot and went forward. She tucked in her chin towards her chest and placed both swords by her side.
On the other side, the mage had landed back in the sand and was looking at the area around him.
"It's unusual for us to run into warriors, but it has happened on the odd occasion. It's a good thing that they upgraded the mages to 3-star that are on this expedition."
The squad leader himself was a 4-star mage, with the commander Eston being a 6-star mage. There wouldn't usually be this many star mages in an expedition like this; it was only due to the last events.
When looking in front of him though, he expected the fireball to hit the ground, but instead, it was still floating there in the air until a large cross shape could be seen in the fire.
It had split apart into four different sections, and coming right through the center of the flames was Alba.
"Your powers confused us for a bit at first, so we were a bit hesitant, but let me tell you we aren't by any means weak!"
When Alba landed on the ground, she kicked off her leg and spun. Both her blades were placed together as she slashed right past the squad leader.
He was standing there in place; he couldn't even see her movements, and the top half of his body fell onto the ground.
Right after, Alba didn't move straight away; instead, she was staying in her position, and a sweat mark could be seen running down the side of her face.
'I used up a lot of Qi dealing with that attack, and the fight with that Hybrid from before. We haven't really had time to rest; the rest of them… I wonder how they're doing.'
Alba turned to look, and there was a smile on her face. Just like her, the trickiness of the spells they were going against, they were getting used to it.
Kizer was charging in, wildly swinging his blade one after the other, and he felt a rise in strength. The more enemies he went up against, the stronger the power from his weapon.
Swinging his sword to the side, he managed to knock two away, killing them on the spot.
Froma was offering support, constantly on the move, jumping and firing her arrows. At first, when her arrows hit the mage's robes, they looked to have bounced off in some way.
However, as time went on, it looked like whatever barrier was protecting the mages from her arrows, it was starting to fade away.
Now she was able to accurately hit them, and with nothing protecting them, she was taking them out one by one, until all 11 of the mages that they had gone against were dealt with.
The Crimson Crane group, all of them were a bit tired, but were satisfied with the result.
"It looks like we managed to do it in the end," Kizer said, digging his sword into the ground and leaning up against it.
"Sorry I couldn't help out much," Reno said. "I was a little worried that Raze would get hit in all of that mess."
"I couldn't help much either, since I lost my weapon and all," Elvlin said. "They were quite tricky to get close to."
"It seemed like fighting from a range was their forte," Froma commented. "And that they had fought against warriors like us before, whereas it was the first time for us, for that, I would have to say I think we did pretty well."
"You sick scum!" A loud voice shouted.
When they turned their heads to look at the situation, they could see almost a sea of white heading their way.
They were standing around thirty meters away from them, and it wasn't just in one direction either. From all the different areas, there were more mages that were heading their way.
The Crimson Crane and Alba grouped up in the center, with their backs facing away from each other so they could cover all of the sides.
"This is… it's all the groups that had gone out before; it looks like they've come here, there's around forty of them here," Reno said.
Alba was thinking about the situation. Together they were strong, and now there were even more of them, and their group was worn out as well; was it something that they could handle?
Now there were four of the pointed-hooded mages as well.
"That attack in the air from before, of course, it was a signal," Reno added. "I was so thankful that we had gotten out of the current situation that I had forgotten about it."
"At least, their commander or whatever he was doesn't seem to be here. I wonder what he's doing?" Reno commented. "Do you think these guys will be so nice as to let us talk this one out like the man from before?"
The mages started to gather magic, swirling around their hands, a flurry of different lights and colors were showing from all over.
"I didn't think so," Alba commented.
