The young magis detonated his mageia power, sending the surrounding winds into a turbulent, swirling gust.
"Ghoststep!"
He cast the spell with supreme velocity! Seraph's form dissolved into a blurred shadow, vanishing and reappearing before the Acidspora in a heartbeat, leaving the hundreds of thorny tendrils to strike nothing but an afterimage suspended in the air.
The young man leveled the Rubyflame Sceptre directly at the toxic demon's head to deliver final judgment!
"Flamus Telus!!" Seraph fired without a shred of hesitation.
[Crack-Boom!]
The ray of blazing fire from the attack spell pierced forward with lethal speed. The fiery projectile tore through its head with violent force—the report of the shot echoing throughout the forest!
[Crack!]
The demon's skull shattered as the Acidspora's brain matter exploded into oblivion. Murky green demonic fel and visceral remains splattered across the woods. A stench of decay and waves of toxic fumes corroded dozens of surrounding trees; pools of poison pooled upon the earth, eroding the soil and all life it touched.
The young man surged backward at high speed, leaping through the air to shake off the corrosive demonic fel mists that sought to burrow into his skin.
[Screech! Wail!]
The high-pitched shrieks of thousands of Raffblooms pierced the eardrums, harmonising into a melody of vengeance. Their howling and lamentations signaled that the diminutive Acidspora held a significant rank within the floral swarm. Indeed, such a specialized breed of Raffbloom was exceedingly rare; its speed and lethal toxins heightened its danger tenfold. Its small stature would have caused immense plight had it remained hidden. Slaying even one was equivalent to saving the lives of many demon hunters within the Darkwood by proxy.
The shrieks of fury from thousands of Raffblooms tore through the eardrums, inciting a throbbing migraine. Only a few of these specialized flora demons had been discovered and slain by the young magis—they were diminutive executioners, exceedingly perilous! Their celerity and lethal toxins could dissolve a demon hunter's frame in a mere heartbeat!
The swarm of flora demons entered a state of frenzy! Some cast off their twin razor-sharp leaves, hurling them as ranged projectiles in lieu of hidden blades. Other Raffblooms went so far as to unhinge their maws to their fullest extent, leaping forward in hopes of snapping shut upon a human head in a single bite! Blade-leaves, keen as scimitars, sliced through the air in a terrifying assault.
Beads of sweat splattered from the silver hairline of his long tresses, which billowed against the gale. His white cloak glowed with mageia light amidst the forest's gloom; the young magis's footsteps danced through the air, navigating a thicket of toxic spores that drifted like a field of floating mines. His hand gripped the Rubyflame Sceptre as if it were a life-raft amidst a drowning tide.
A crimson aura of fire surged from his white cloak as he prepared a sharp, new offensive spell.
"Flamus Blaszblade!"
[Whirr! Fwoosh!]
The incantation echoed through the woods with piercing clarity. A legion of orange-flame energy blades manifested, radiating an aura that countered the incoming razor-leaves. The fire-blade spells were unleashed, colliding and incinerating all in their path. Hundreds of razor-sharp heat waves radiated from his form, surging parallel to the earth. The roar of the flaming blades vibrated with a low resonance that warped the very air.
Though the hundreds of Raffblooms surrounding the human were driven by a maddened contagion that stripped them of their primal dread of heat and flame, they still scrambled to evade the mageia armada that swept forth to hew them down.
The high-pitched shrieks of the demons erupted throughout the forest like a frantic alarm. Tragically, their spindly limbs and stunted strides offered no sanctuary, failing to grant them the celerity required to outrun the descending mageia.
The flaming blades plunged toward the earth, hewing through the foremost Raffbloom; the demon's frame was instantly rent asunder, as if torn by a jagged saw of fire. Dozens of these fiery conduits maintained their formation, surging forward with unwavering precision. They dispersed in every direction across the woods, carving through the terrain so that no Raffbloom could hope to evade the slaughter.
The legion of fire-blades scoured the earth with unrestrained fury. Waves of heat radiated outward in a vast radius, accompanied by the thunderous roar of detonations that shook the firmament. Orange light seared through the black forest against the backdrop of the morning sky.
The Raffblooms' shrieks turned to harrowing wails. The flames incinerated their forms until they were nothing but charred husks. Greatwood trees were hewn and toppled, crashing into ruin as the forest endured a brief, tempestuous storm of burning steel. Soon, the flamus mageia dissipated, yet the blackened, scorched scars remained upon the carcasses of hundreds of Blood Floras and the surrounding soil.
Subterranean burrows were breached and collapsed by the mageia blades. Their own demonic miasma acted as a catalyst, accelerating the explosions until they claimed a vast perimeter; even dozens of Flora Demons lurking within the deep hollows could not escape the surging tide of mageia.
Flame and toxic air erupted from beneath the earth. A heavy, murky green shroud of smog began to diffuse demonic miasma throughout the forest, while massive boulders were corroded by the malevolent waves until they melted into toxic mire—
"Demonic Miasma!" Seraph exclaimed in alarm.
[Swoosh! Crumble!]
The young magis's feet struck the ground, propelling him upward as he leaped and surged across the treetops to flee the combat zone. He spared not a single glance for the rotting, charred remains of the Raffblooms left in his wake.
The swarms of Raffblooms surrounding the storm of flaming blades watched as the human silhouette dissolved into the gloom. A shroud of toxic, black-green demonic miasma veiled the horizon, severing their sight. They emitted high-pitched shrieks of unbridled fury.
The Flora Demons raised their blade-leaves and thorny tendrils toward the morning sky in unison. It was a silent vow of attrition—they would never concede this war until one race was purged from the face of the Macrocosmic!
By this hour, the Raffbloom swarms had run amok across every reach of the Darkwood, with nearly a hundred thousand Blood Floras still lurking within the shadows.
Though the young magis had incinerated over a thousand of their kind throughout the night, the swarm remained relentless. Wherever he manifested within the Darkwood, over a thousand Raffblooms would burst from their subterranean hollows, driven by a mindless zeal to slaughter him.
During the most ferocious bouts of combat, the moment the human exposed even the slightest vulnerability, a specialized breed of Flora Demon would emerge from the darkness to attempt a lethal assassination. It was these elite Raffblooms that acted as silent executioners, leaving the corpses of formidable demon hunters strewn across the Darkwood. These remains now stood as grim testaments of terror to all challengers.
✧ . ✶ . ✵ . ✶ . ✧
The young magis surged through the biting gale, ascending the massive trunks of the Greatwood trees. Before long, he reached a hollow within the timber—his own private, clandestine sanctuary.
"Sigh..."
The young man exhaled heavily as he stepped into the arboreal chamber.
"That mushroom thing was far deadlier than I bargained for," Seraph muttered, his voice thick with exhaustion. "A hair's breadth closer and I'd be a corpse. When this is over, someone's getting a piece of my mind; the Arkflame's intel on these specimens is bloody pathetic."