BANG!
My shadow tendrils vanished in a black smoke, increasing the pressure on Klien. Using my zephyr rings I sped in his direction while chanting!
"Winds of the wandering sky, spiral and scatter—
shroud my presence in unseen paths.
Let no eye follow, let no ear hear.
Labyrinth of gales, rise—Wind Tunnel!"
Wind Magic: Wind Tunnel!
The world fell silent for a heartbeat.
Then—
WHOOSH!
Violent winds exploded around me, spiraling into a massive dome with hollowed tunnels of air. These tunnels twisted and split in all directions, hissing as they tore through the snow and corpses. Visibility dropped instantly within the storm as the air shimmered with wild, shifting currents, each one infused with my mana.
Grabbing Klien by the arm I jumped into one of the tunnels that circled the monster and gave us a one way trip to its blindspot. Within the tunnel, we slid with the wind, drastically increasing our speed greatly.
Within the tunnels, we could see the black death clearly but it couldn't see us. It abruptly halted its charge and stood in front of the wind dome, startled by its appearance. Its confused gaze trailed the labyrinth of wind tunnels that led in all directions, confusing it further.
It didn't bother with the tunnel that led behind it, probably because it expected us to flee, not fight. Silly bird, you will pay the price for looking down on humans!
SWOOSH!
Klien and I slid out of the wind tunnel, stealthily positioned some meters behind the black devil and well hidden within the labyrinth of wind tunnels. The howling winds from the tunnels were too loud for it to hear us.
BOOM!
Infuriated by its confusion, I watched the black devil swipe at the wind dome, splitting it in two in one swoop. However, we weren't there!
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
I inwardly chuckled at the human-like scream of frustration from the monster.
"We can't win in a game of force but we can limit its mobility, kite and slowly chip away its defense." I said to Klien but he just glanced at me and gave me a 'What-are-you-saying' look and I facepalmed.
All that talent and photographic memory, poured into an empty shell only makes it a dangerous empty shell.
'I really have to dumb things down for him.'
{Stop nagging. It's not like you are that bright, seven months ago you were living in the gutters.}
I flinched at Lin's vicious attacks. Why is this unpatriotic guardian spirit taking Klien's side?
"Are you on your menstruation period or something?" I retorted but not in my head, causing Klien to raise an eyebrow.
Fuck… I just embarrassed myself!
Shaking my head, I pushed my negative thoughts aside and focused on the matter at hand.
"Just hit its wing with your strongest spell. Use a spell that pierces." I said but Klien shook his head without giving my words a thought.
"It won't work." He shrugged. " Our individual strength can't hurt it. We need to combine our magic."
Eh?!
I wiped my ears with my thumbs, to make sure they weren't playing tricks on me. Did I just hear this kid right?
Combination magic?
Combination magic was basically two mages fusing their magic through a shared image to create a much more powerful variant of their spell.
This is difficult because it means both sides need to paint a fairly similar picture in their heads or the entire spell may collapse midway.
BANG!
Our attention was momentarily stolen by a ruthless attack on a few wind tunnels by the frustrated devil bird. Due to my mana getting mixed with the wind it was impossible to pinpoint my exact location.
"We can create something like a needle to stab its wing…" Klien's voice trailed off as I gave him a disgusted look.
"Are you dumb?" I felt dumb for asking the question when the answer was obvious.
The stubborn illiterate rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.
"It's not like you have come up with any good ideas."
His voice was low but I heard him!
"Excuse me?!" I stepped back and gave him a good look from head to toe. "Who the hell created the wind tunnels that got us here safely?"
First, I sacrificed everyone in the Black Guards to save us. Then I used the wind tunnel to save us from the black devil's deadly charge and this ungrateful blood sucking scoundrel has the guts to question my contribution?
"You just cast spells you stole from the library. If you are that good, come up with a spell to deal with that." Klien pointed at the raging devil bird.
This shameless bastard wasn't backing down!
Taking a step back, I rubbed my chin with a thoughtful expression. If I were to create a spell with a blood mage that could penetrate the black devil's steel feathers, what would it be?
"My wind can improve the lethality of your blood spells the best. But what do we create…" I mumbled to myself with a small frown while my hair and clothes wiped madly against the strong wind.
And then an idea crossed my mind
"Blood blades sharpened by my wind!" I blurted out and Klien's dull expression lightened up a little.
Yes!
I could remember the wind blade spell which was powerful at cutting and piercing. If we can join hands to replicate a joint attack of our combined power, we may be able to harm this thing.
Whoosh!
Klien and I frowned as the black devil rose above the wind labyrinth with a flap of its wing. It's malicious gaze was filled with frustration, darting around until it spotted our figures.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
Following a furious cry that sounded more like curses, the black death swooped down with murderous intent.
"Shit!" Klien frowned.
"We multitask!" I snapped and Klien nodded.
Without hesitation, he summoned a fist puddle of blood over his palm and melded it into a crescent moon shape. Klien tossed the blood blade at me and jumped into the wind tunnel behind him.
"Motherfucker…" I blurted out and glanced at the approaching devil, instantly regretting that decision.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
The beast was a few seconds away from impact so I had to move fast. I skillfully trapped the crescent moon blade in a wind sphere and jumped into the tunnel I came from.
BOOM!
The ground trembled due to the suicidal crash, but I had no time to pay attention to the aftermath. While traveling back to the starting point, I channeled the high-pressure wind sphere to coil around the blood blade, compressing and sharpening it to the molecular level.
Or at least that was what I was trying to achieve.
The blood blade trembled violently under my care as I compressed the wind sphere. The process was slow and if I tried to speed it up, it could make a mistake and shatter it!
Thud!
As soon as I got ejected out of the tunnel, I glanced in the direction of the black devil and paled. The bird was smashing all the tunnels in its path; without any specific target. It has finally realized it needs to destroy all the tunnels if it wants to get to us.
If it wasn't for the abundant souls on the battlefield I would be mana starved by now.
{How long will it take?} Lin's voice mirrored my calm desperation.
"30 seconds per blade." I frowned.
This was too slow!
{If it's going to cost you that much, you might as well make it worth it!} Lin scolded.
He didn't spell it out but I knew what he meant. Including a fragile soul wisp to the magic formula would improve its destructive power drastically.
'But Klien—won't he notice something?' I hesitated while my eyes darted around in search of him but he was nowhere to be found.
I suspected he was still hiding within the wind tunnels to avoid the black bird.
"FINE!" A green tongue of fire burst into life within my pitch-black eyes and a powerful suction force erupted my body, pulling souls in.
Buzz!
My leg levitated off the ground and I sat in mid-air in a cross legged position while my hands danced around the trembling crimson crescent blade.
My actions quickly caught the attention of the black devil and it threatened me with its war cry before swooping in.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
My brows knitted tightly at the terrifying sight of the approaching black devil but I didn't withdraw—i was willing to take the chance. Infusing my wind into the crescent moon was about ninety percent done so I introduced a soul wisp!
BUZZZ!
The crescent moon blade pulsated with life as the soul wisp fused with the spell, causing an abrupt expansion of the spell. From a fist sized blade, it expanded until it reached my size.
{Fusing soul wisps to your spells can increase the power drastically. While you can't use the death magic, you can still take advantage of it in this way!} Lin chuckled devilishly while I struggled to control it.
The crescent moon blade pulsated and vibrated under my grip, the soul added to its instability but thankfully, I was done. Using my zephyr rings I skidded to the left in an attempt to escape its deadly charge while hurling the enhanced crescent moon at its exposed wing!
"KILL!"