"Now, why don't you just admit defeat and become my pawn, yeah?" Lucas laughed. "No matter how strong you are, you can't defeat me in your current state. I'll make this a battle of endurance and you'll lose."
Quinn replied with a roar, "If you think this can stop me, you're a fool!"
Immediately, dark, ominous energy enveloped him, crackling around him like a swirling tornado.
Powerful gusts of wind erupted, causing Lucas to squint his eyes in discomfort as the black vortex in front of him only grew even taller and wider.
"Must I always jinx myself?" Lucas sighed, resigning to his stupidity and hopping a few meters back to create a safe distance between himself and his opponent.
"From the shadows, I call forth the spirits of the departed!"
From the center of the black vortex, a thundering sound reverberated throughout the world.
The dark energy swirling around Quinn began to take humanoid shapes. Only now did Lucas see that this ominous energy was coming from the shadow beneath Quinn's feet.
"Rise!"
As soon as Quinn said that, the shapes materialized completely and around thirty or so humanoids and mana beasts like bears, wolves, giant mantis, etc. appeared before Lucas.
Quinn had used his perfect Necromancy spell.
The reason why he was called the Perfect Necromancer and others who practiced Necromancy did not hold that title was not one but quite a few.
For starters, instead of using flesh and bones to bring back the dead, Quinn uses a person's shadows.
When someone dies, he traps a part of their shadow on his own and calls them forth when in need.
That means, as long as he can keep supplying his shadow minions mana, they would keep coming back to life, unlike other Necromancers' flesh and bone minions.
These minions of his are completely obedient to him and have no free will whatsoever. They are puppets and Quinn is the puppeteer.
Sensing that things were getting heated up, Lucas got serious himself.
"Come on, you fucker!" he beckoned, taking out a glowing arrow from the quiver on his back.
"Charge!" Quinn barked, and at his command, the horde of his shadow minions immediately rushed at Lucas.
The archer didn't waste any time and drew back his bowstring before releasing it and shooting the shining arrow aimed directly at Quinn.
Swook—!
The arrow wasn't very fast but due to his weakened state, Quinn knew dodging it was impossible.
And since the arrow was glowing, he really didn't want to be hit by it. God knows what trickery it might be this time.
Thwack—!
Before the arrow could hit Quinn, his largest minion– a gigantic black bear-like mana beast made of shadow stepped in front of its master, shielding him from the incoming attack.
Thut—!
Dhak—!
However, to Quinn's surprise, when the arrow hit the bear, it radiated a blinding white light for a moment, making the bear fall back on the ground before its body started smothering into nothingness.
In a matter of a single second, the bear's body vanished completely without leaving a trace.
Quinn could still feel the bear in his shadow, but it was severely weakened and would take a long time and so much mana before he could call it out again.
When that happened, he quickly understood what had happened.
"That arrow must have been enchanted with light magic," he concluded.
His dedication was on point.
This was an arrow that Lucas had crafted before this event started.
Null Attribute Light Arrow
Info: A relic arrow that can nullify a dark magic spell or deal damage to the user up to [Bronze] rank and will severely weaken those above it.
Rank: Bronze
===
But of course, this wasn't Quinn's first time dealing with such a situation. Being a veteran user of dark magic, he knew just how to counter light magic.
There were two ways. The first was that he could supply his minions with so much mana that they would instantly regenerate after receiving damage.
However, his current condition made him unable to do that.
The second and only option was to avoid getting hit by one of those arrows. Since enchantment is hard and expensive, Quinn was sure Lucas must not have many of those arrows.
However, what still puzzled him more than anything was the fact that Lucas bought something like that here. It was almost like he knew he would be fighting him.
This made him question: Can Lucas see the future? Because this does seem like something only a person with the Future Sight could do.
"Hoo!"
Shaking Quinn out of his daze was the sound of Lucas letting out his breath.
"The big one down," he said.
But there was no time to rest for him. The horde of Quinn's shadow minions was still rushing at him.
Lucas quickly shot another arrow before coating it with a thick layer of mana.
The arrow split into six darts and hit several of the weak incoming humanoid shadow minions like tiny missiles.
However, since this was all he could do with the bow, it was time to change weapons.
The bow in Lucas' hand shone brightly before disintegrating into light particles and getting stored in his smart bracelet's dimensional storage.
Almost instantly, he summoned a long shiny red spear in his hand.
Taking a low stance, he aimed the head of the spear at the incoming crowd of shadow minions before he rushed at them himself.
"Arraaaaah!"
Letting out a battle scream, Lucas dashed head first towards the horde before thrusting his spear at one of the incoming shadow wolves, impaling it.
But the wolf was not dead yet. After all, since it was already a dead being, it couldn't die.
So to keep it in place, Lucas kept the spear impaled before he chanted a spell in high elven.
"Tonitru Palma!"
It was a Zap Touch spell.
A Burst of electricity erupted from Lucas' palms before it traveled down the spear's metal pole and electrocuted the shadow wolf.
However, since it was a dead being and didn't possess a nervous system, it didn't feel any pain.
But that didn't mean it registered no damage. The electricity disturbed the shadow construct of the wolf's body, rendering it immobile for a while.
But he wasn't going to get any rest.
As soon as he made the work of the wolf, a giant mantis appeared over him and swung its scythe at him to cut him in half.
Cling—!
Lucas reacted quickly.
He retracted his spear and used it to block the scythe of the giant mantis, causing a sound of metal clashing against metal to resound in the air.
"Ignis Ratoem!"
He chanted a spell in High Elven, and almost instantly, a blazing sphere of fire manifested in front of Lucas before hitting the mantis right in the face.
Boom—!
Smoke rose from the mantis' face, blocking its vision. Lucas used this chance to slip under the giant mana beast and make a run for Quinn.
Yes, he was targeting Quinn.
"Is that so?" seeing Lucas coming straight for him, the necromancer raised an eyebrow.
Cling—!
He slammed his twin daggers against each other, creating sparks before he roared, "Come one then!"
