Everyone reacted at the same time.
As the Spells were shooting at Jerald's army, the warriors jumped with all their power.
In the past, this would have been a death sentence to the warriors. After all, they would be sitting ducks in the air.
But things had changed.
While still shooting upward, the warriors all landed on their weapons and shot forward.
Meanwhile, the Spell all of Jerald's Mages were casting was Mana Step.
Earlier, the warriors had blocked the Mages' path, but with them jumping away, the Mages were free to Mana Step into any direction.
Sylvia managed to avoid the Spell that was targeted at her with a simple Mana Step.
As a Late High Mage, she could react to an attack from another Late High Mage.
However, the other Mages were not as lucky.
Just like the Council members had chosen their targets, all the other High Mages had also chosen their targets…
And only a few of them had attacked the warriors.
Only ten Spells had been shot at the collective army of 65 True Path Stage warriors, and the Spells all missed.
This was only a show to force the warriors to break their formation.
The ten Spells were never meant to kill the warriors.
With the nine Council members targeting Jerald, Sylvia, and Shang, and with ten Mages targeting the warriors, there were still about 60 Spells unaccounted for.
20 of the remaining 60 Spells were shooting at the fortified building.
Susan had had enough time to scout out everything and come up with a plan, and when she saw the five Mid High Mages defending the building, she decided to deal with them directly.
20 Mid High Mages were targeting the five Mid High Mages with combined Spells, exhibiting the power of the Spells of a Peak High Mage.
Five Mid High Mages combined their powers into one in four groups, meaning that four Peak High Mage Spells were shooting at them.
These were all the Mid High Mages the Council had access to.
All the other Mages were Early High Mages, and there wasn't a single Initial High Mage in the army.
The nine Late High Mages targeted Jerald, Shang, and Sylvia.
The 20 Mid High Mages targeted the building.
Ten of the 55 Early High Mages were forcing the warriors to break formation.
And the remaining 45 Early High Mages were attacking the Initial High Mages of Jerald's army.
Even more, three Early High Mages were targeting one Initial High Mage each.
This was devastating!
If these attacks had been launched by Initial High Mages, Jerald's Initial High Mages would be able to react…
But the enemy didn't have Initial High Mages.
The 15 Initial High Mages of Jerald's army that had been targeted weren't fast enough to react with Mana Step.
All the Mages of Jerald's army had had their Mana Shields active for hours by now, but what difference did that make when they were targeted by three High Mages a level above them?
Nothing.
The Initial High Mages' eyes opened in horror and shock.
They knew that they would die.
Jerald had about 30 High Mages, but around 20 of them were Initial High Mages.
In just an instant, 15 of the 20 Initial High Mages died, leaving five of them…
And three of these five were inside the building to keep Shang's augmenting Spells active.
Nearly every single Initial High Mage outside the building was killed in the first attack.
Half of all High Mages under Jerald died.
This was a devastating blow.
At the same time, the four Peak High Mage Spells cast by the 20 Mid High Mages were shooting at the five Mid High Mages defending the fortified building.
The Mana Shield of a Mid High Mage couldn't resist the power of a Peak High Mage's Spell.
The five Mid High Mages looked at the Spell.
Jerald had already received devastating losses, and it would only get worse from here.
…
Or would it?
BOOOOOOOOM!
The four extremely powerful Spells arrived, but before they could hit four of the five Mid High Mages, a gigantic shield appeared around them.
Darkness' Veil was probably the best Hiding Spell in the Skythunder Kingdom, but that didn't mean that there weren't others.
The eyes of the 20 High Mages opened in shock when the gigantic shield appeared.
This shield was obviously created by a powerful Magic Circle…
But they hadn't seen such a Magic Circle!
Susan also hadn't warned them about it!
Where did that Magic Circle come from?!
CRACK!
Yet, the four Spells were simply too powerful, and after blocking them for an instant, the four Spells broke through.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
But the five Mid High Mages immediately shot their own Spells at them.
This short moment had given them enough time to condense an offensive Spell each.
Even more, the barrier had weakened the attacking Spells substantially.
Back then, George had been killed by someone essentially drowning him in wealth.
And today, four extremely powerful Spells were stopped by throwing wealth at them!
Mana Crystals with a collective value of 1.5 billion gold had been sacrificed at this very moment.
This was 75% of all the accumulated wealth Jerald owned.
All for this single barrier.
The four attacking Spells were destroyed, and the Five Mid High Mages were ready to fight back.
Of course, five Mid High Mages couldn't win against 20 on their own.
But they weren't alone.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Like a barrage of rockets, the 20 most powerful warriors exploded into the group of Mid High Mages!
The other 45 warriors shot at the 55 Early High Mages.
In the sky, violent storm clouds were gathering.
This was a sign that Jerald was also unleashing his power.
At the side, the remaining four Initial High Mages, five Early High Mages, and three Mid High Mages were readying their Spells to shoot at the army of Early High Mages.
In the back, Sylvia was preparing her Spells against her opponent.
In the sky, Jerald was preparing his Spells against the Council after having dealt with the initial attack.
The battles were set.
15 people on Jerald's side had already been killed.
However, in total, 16 people died.
And, in fact, the 15 Initial High Mages died after the sixteenth person.
Just before the Spells hit the 15 Initial High Mages, a bright explosion of light appeared in the middle of Jerald's camp.
An instant later, a humongous explosion of lightning and wind exploded 500 meters away.
Since Darkness' Veil couldn't hide Mana fluctuations, the ambushing Mages couldn't activate Mana Shield.
Their plan was to launch their attacks, activate Mana Shield, and begin the battle.
That should be easy.
However, the attack of one Council member was just too fast.
Lightning and Wind.
The fastest combination of Elements.
And when Shang used Reflection with his Colossal Sword on that attack…
Well…
The other two Council members looked with horror as their fellow Council member was turned into dust by his own Spell.
The first casualty in the war had been one of the Council members, something no one would have expected.
And then, their attacks arrived at Shang's location.
BOOOOOOOOM!
