[Ouroboros' End]
As Darganth dashed through the portal, he arrived just as the fastest mythic ranks of both sides were about to collide in a clash. Immediately, the world around him slowed to a crawl as he let temporal aura flow through his body, allowing him to survey the approaching enemies and pick his targets without hurry.
The first group he disregarded were those enemies that had halted just outside of the immediate danger zone. As they were thus also unable to launch effective attacks themselves and with them staying on the defensive, Darganth didn't see it as an effective use of his time and power to attack them. That was despite recognizing that they were likely planning on rescuing any of their allies that got into disadvantageous situations.
With a second look making him aware of parts of the enemy mythic ranks dispersing toward either flank, Darganth soon focused on only the fourteen enemies in the central group still heading for him. Among them, two were significantly faster than the rest and were on course to clash with three of the town's mythic ranks. Trusting the numerical difference to help his allies win, Darganth shifted his attention further toward the center of the enemy group.
Soon, he spotted someone whose mana signature carried both the characteristics of an aura user and a mage. Though the mana radiating from the man was slightly weaker than his own, it promised enough of a good fight that a grin flashed across Darganth's face as he readied the first spell.
Reining in the aura coursing through his body once he finished casting, Darganth pointed an outstretched arm at the approaching group of enemies and unleashed a ripple in space at them. Tearing through their formation, his spell distorted distances at random, causing even the smallest movements to scatter the enemy formation and leaving him an opening toward his target.
Bursting forward, Darganth left a sonic boom in his wake as he shot through the gap in the enemy formation. Conjuring a sword of condensed spatial magic into his right hand as he approached, he aimed at his foe's neck and swung at his target while still at full speed.
When it struck, the sword was met with a shimmering barrier. Sending ripples through the non-elemental shield spell as they clashed, Darganth's conjured weapon soon erupted with a small shockwave that forced him back a few meters.
In response, his opponent dashed forward. Drawing his sword in a quick motion, he let the sheath drop as he went in for a thrust. Catching his movements just as the man started the motion, Darganth shifted sideways in response before bringing his weapon up in an arcing swing right through his path.
Forced to shift his weapon lower to block, his opponent left an opening for Darganth to then swing the closed fist of his left hand at his head. When he then moved back to dodge, Darganth pursued, though his swing against his opponent's torso was blocked by the latter's sword. Binding his weapon in this blocking position, his opponent then moved both their weapon upward, steering them away from his body before turning and moving past under the swing while pulling his sword with him.
As Darganth swung through the empty air after the bind between their weapons was released, his opponent spun back around. Too far away to target Darganth's torso, he aimed at the outstretched sword arm instead, forcing Darganth to also dodge by flying backward.
Hovering a few meters apart, the fight briefly paused as Darganth and his opponent both understood that they were facing an equal when it came to skill.
"Impressive, those strikes took some effort to block." The smuggler said, stretching his right shoulder as if to reinforce that point.
"That was nothing." Darganth said, theatrically spinning his weapon with a twist of his wrist.
"I assumed so. Fortunately you've attacked me first, otherwise I fear you would have killed one or two of my colleagues before I could've intervened." The man said.
"There isn't anything fortunate for you in that." Darganth said confidentially, raising his weapon and pointing it at his opponent with those words. "Let's skip the boring part of exchanging half-hearted attacks and get on with using our full arsenal."
Seeing his opponent react with a nod, Darganth immediately unleashed his domain. A fraction of a second later, he also felt his opponent's domain burst forth, slamming into the wave of magical energy he had unleashed and halting both in their tracks. With the edges of both domains pressing against each other near the center point between Darganth and his opponent, their magical energies clashed, causing them to become visible to the naked eye and letting sparks erupt from them.
For a few moments, this clash simply hung in the air. Occasionally shifting slightly toward either fighter, it nonetheless stayed near the center as both domains were close in strength, seemingly achieving nothing but blocking the other domain and forcing Darganth and his opponent to remain in place or risk losing this contest of magical power.
However, soon the truth became apparent. Domains were an offensive tool, unable to fully counter another equal domain. As such, even as they clashed, more and more energy pushed into the other domain, slowly melding them together in areas where they overlapped and gradually causing both Darganth and his opponent to be affected more by the other's domain.
Though while the domains started pressuring them at the same time, Darganth's opponent was the first one to be affected. Briefly dropping a few centimeters as his flight spell was disturbed for just a moment, he tried but failed to hide this moment of weakness.
Upon seeing it, Darganth burst into action. Reeling back his free hand, he gathered flames into his open palm and thrust them toward his foe. The torrent of fire this unleashed shot across the few meters separating them in an instant, forcing the smuggler to quickly conjure a barrier of water ahead of him. Though this stopped the flames, it also split his focus enough that his flight spell broke under the disruption effect of Darganth's aura.
The effect was immediate. With nothing to keep him in the air, the smuggler plummeted toward the ground. A moment later, Darganth rocketed after him, his flight noticeably slower than before thanks to his opponent's domain. No matter how much he pushed himself, his target gradually gained distance. And with each additional meter that he pulled away, the effect of Darganth's domain weakened.
About halfway toward the ground, this weakening was enough for the smuggler to regain flight. Suddenly shooting forward, he moved out of Darganth's path while spinning around with one hand outstretched.
This move took Darganth by surprise. Following his opponent's flight path with wide eyes, he had barely started to slow down when he saw a block of ice manifesting between them and rocketing toward him. Too late to dodge, he brandished his spatial blade and swung at the ice boulder flying his way. Cutting through the frozen material with ease, he cleanly cut the block of ice into two halves, allowing him to squeeze through in between.
Emerging on the other side, Darganth already had his counterattack prepared. As he raised his free hand, electricity started to crackle around his arm. With a flick of his wrist, the gathered lightning magic then surged out of his palm as a net of electric arcs.
As it headed toward him, the electric arcs forced the smuggler to sharply turn to the side. With a quick burst of speed, he then barely dodged out of the spell's path, with arcs of electricity still stretching toward him from the edge of the net but failing to reach him.
Not just watching this happen, Darganth kept up the pressure with yet another spell. Flames gathered around his hand before erupting in a series of short bursts that each released a palm-sized projectile. Shooting out one after another in fractions of a second, each ball of fire flew across over a hundred meters toward the smuggler in just a few moments. Under this onslaught, the man was forced to constantly evade as a steady wave of attacks flew toward him before erupting into small explosions a few meters after passing him.
Channeling this spell with his left hand and moving his arm to lead his foes' movements, Darganth kept up this wave of attacks for multiple seconds. Each moment, dozens of projectiles hung in the air. On the other side, their target weaved high and low, occasionally banking hard to one side only for Darganth to mirror this movement to keep him just at the perfect range for this.
Over the course of a few dozen seconds, Darganth slowly forced his opponent further toward the ground through this. Soon, barely two dozen meters were left beneath them. Seeing this, Darganth switched up his approach and pivoted to gravity magic. Launching a fireball just after the last flaming projectile from his previous spell left his palm to obscure this change, he waited until it erupted into a fiery explosion multiple meters across before triggering the next spell.
With his opponent blinded and disoriented by the sudden blast that had slammed into his back, Darganth struck him with a formless spell and linked the gravitational forces affecting his opponent toward himself. As a result, the smuggler abruptly found himself first shooting upward as lift provided by his flight spell was no longer counteracted by gravity. This was almost immediately followed by him being pulled toward Darganth when the spell caused gravity to reassert itself from the latter's direction.
Already waiting for his foe to come rocketing toward him, Darganth had his hand already pulled back and punched out. As his fist moved forward, air seemed to be pulled toward it, gathering around his arm and shooting out as a concentrated blast as he fully extended his arm. Shooting forward at high speed, this blast slammed into the chest of Darganth's opponent with enough force to send him flying backward.
Canceling his gravity spell at the same moment, Darganth watched from above as his opponent crashed to the ground. The impact threw up a massive cloud of dirt and soil as the smuggler's landing punched a crater into the ground, obscuring Darganth's vision as the debris was scattered into the air.
Slowly descending through the cloud, Darganth landed at the edge of the crater. Not in the least surprised to find his opponent already having recovered and standing at its center, he stepped forward and dropped into the crater.
"Impressive that you've held out this long." Darganth said as he landed.
"Never had so much difficulty with that." His opponent replied.
Darganth respected the honesty with which his opponent could praise his skills despite standing on opposite sides of the battle. Combined with the appreciation for his opponent's skill, it made him extend an offer for a way out, "Then how about you surrender? I'd even leave the battle too so you wouldn't have failed in keeping me out of the battle."
"Sorry, can't do. I'm paid well to ensure that nothing threatens our operations. So while I personally don't care for the outcome of this war, as a professional I at last have to give it my all for my employer."
"A pity, you could've fulfilled so much more of your potential."
With that, Darganth shifted back into a combat stance. His opponent responded in kind a moment later. With it, the man's outlines briefly blurred as light magic gathered around him, followed by three copies of him appearing around him.
Seeing this, Darganth had to actively keep his lips from curling up in amusement while he shifted his transformation to reveal his dragon eyes. Immediately, the perfectly real-looking illusions became obvious fakes as his mundane vision was supplemented by multiple other ways to perceive the world, each one of which appeared in his mind as one of half a dozen separate pictures displayed side by side like a split screen showing different cameras on the same monitor.
Slightly surprised to see all four visible figures before him being illusions, Darganth internally applauded his opponent's move when he saw his real form standing invisible a few meters behind the copies. But just because he agreed with the tactical soundness of the idea didn't mean he'd take it easy. Dashing forward a moment after he had located his opponent, he raised his spatial blade over his left shoulder before slashing out in a horizontal sweep and unleashing a crescent arc of spatial magic wide enough to encompass all four illusions and his foe's real body.
In response, the smuggler had the four illusions move as if they had to dodge the strike. Moments later, he himself dropped low and let it pass above his head. As it did, he had his illusions move to surround Darganth, keeping him occupied for when he rose back to his feet a second later.
Watching this only through occasional glances as he kept up the ruse of being unaware that none of the illusions were real, Darganth kept pivoting at random as the illusions surrounded him. Raising his blade to block when the first one lunged after him, he purposefully widened his eyes to feign surprise when its sword passed through both his weapon and himself.
Knowing that he couldn't overplay the shock, he quickly recomposed himself and ducked beneath the swing of another illusion before swinging at the third one that approached him. Letting out a growl to act frustrated, he let himself stumble for a step to simulate the unexpected lack of resistance to his swing before abruptly pivoting to dodge the swings of two illusions that had crept up on him from opposite sides.
As their swords passed before him, Darganth swung at the left one of them. Not acting surprised when his spatial blade passed through its form, he quickly spun around to strike at the other one. At the same time, he gathered flames into his free hand as a third illusion rushed at him from behind, raising his arm behind him to unleash a torrent of fire that consumed it a moment later.
Stepping through the illusion when it emerged from his attack unscathed, he swung his weapon at the approaching fourth illusion and turned the ground in between them into mud. Only when it still ran as before despite this did he spin back around to where two other illusions were already jumping forward to strike him. Though this time, his invisible opponent was moving in just a meter or two behind the illusion on the right.
Smirking as he saw this, Darganth stopped pretending and dashed forward. Passing through the illusion without hesitation, much to the shock of his opponent, he battered the latter's blade away with his weapon before following it up with a clean punch to the face.
The hit caused the man's head to lurch back and sent him stumbling, allowing Darganth to press further. A swing of his sword forced his opponent into a hasty block, twisting his arm to the side as he failed to properly brace for Darganth's superior strength.
Darganth then immediately followed this with a burst of magic, conjuring a metal spike that erupted out of the ground. Scraping at his opponent's armor, it failed to pierce his torso but pushed him backward, allowing the spike to extend past the smuggler's chest and leave a bloody gash on his cheek as it scraped by his head.
Following this, Darganth cast a quick time magic spell that briefly paused his opponent's shoe in time. Suddenly unable to move his right foot as he tried to scramble backward, his opponent fell backward just as Darganth dashed past the metal spike. Already having reeled back his weapon, he swung at the smuggler's torso just as he sensed an unidentified spell light up around him.
Now actually surprised, Darganth quickly let his aura surge in power as he briefly overloaded the capacity of his mana channels while materializing an armor of hardened aura around himself. As a result of this surge in power, his form abruptly accelerated as his physical might rose drastically, allowing him to reach his prone foe just as the spell around the man activated.
Immediately, two things happened. Firstly, a magical barrier made up of thick slabs of ice materialized between Darganth and his target. When his weapon struck it, the spatial blade actually froze over as it carved through the ice, with the frost slowly creeping up along its length toward Darganth's arm.
At the same time, the smuggler Darganth had been fighting was suddenly yanked into the air. Though the pull dragging him away was fast, even with the barrier blocking his way, Darganth was only a step slower. Thus, while he didn't strike his target's neck as intended, his blade caught his opponent at knee height, cleanly cutting through the gap in the armor there. Continuing, the strike slid down the leg protection of the other leg until it reached the ankle, once again catching grip with the gap in the armor there and severing his opponent's left foot.
The next moment, Darganth collided with what remained of the barrier. Shattering the ice as he broke through it with sheer momentum, he slid to a stop a few meters behind the fragmented wall that remained of it and looked up toward where his foe was being dragged.
Seeing one of those smugglers he had noticed staying back at the start of the fight, Darganth regretted his earlier choice to leave them be. The resulting frown only intensified when he noticed a moment later that his opponent wasn't the only foe retreating from the battle with their aid. Instead, about half of the smugglers that had joined the fight were being protected by spells from just this group as they pulled back, with the other half already having done so.
Recognizing that the battle was over, Dargant dismissed his blade and took a look around himself. Above, his group and the town's mythic ranks were moving to pursue the retreating smugglers, with those who had taken the fight to the ground flying back up to pursue their foes.
For half a minute, Darganth watched this spectacle. By then, merely a handful of enemies across the entire width of the battlefields hadn't yet pulled away from the fight. Meanwhile, the rest were already starting to pull back completely, moving into the direction of their camps and under the protection of their side's army-wide magic formation.
Using that moment to take a look at the result of the battle, Darganth found himself pleasantly surprised. In his area alone, two of the fourteen enemy mythic ranks lay dead on the ground while Serania and all of the town's soldiers he had arrived with still remained standing, either floating above the battlefield or sitting on the grass and recuperating.
The other areas of the battlefield looked similar. While not all fights had been without losses for the town's forces, on average there were about twice as many dead enemy mythic ranks as allied ones. And that was without considering the three other areas where members of his group had gone. Compared to those, his results could actually be deemed bad in comparison. Not only were none of them significantly wounded, which was the most important part of all of it, but the areas where they were had three, five, and six dead enemies respectively, though not without a total of four allied casualties spread between them.
Still, overall the results of the battle were exceedingly satisfactory, soon pushing the frustration of his own opponent escaping from Darganth's mind. A quick sweep across his allies even showed that most hadn't burned through too much of their mana reserves. Though none would be back to full power for the next day or two, a fully spent mythic rank might need upward of a week to fully replenish their reserves depending on ambient mana and their own abilities. And while they were not totally useless during that time, even this day or two would significantly weaken them for the coming days of the battle. Though that was precisely why only about a third of the town's mythic ranks had been committed to this battle.
As Darganth made those observations, the horn was sounded on the wall. Briefly halting his train of thought to hear the full signal, Darganth nodded and absentmindedly flew up once he recognized it as the order for the mythic ranks to pull back. Looking up, he searched for where Serania was hovering to group up with her and teleport them both back to the tower their group was living in, already looking forward to meeting back up with the others and hearing the details of how it went for them.