"The demon-dweller sword…DRAINDA!!"
When he finished saying that, Emrys felt an immense amount of his mental energy fade away, even more than yesterday when he had used Armament Haki.
The headache he felt at that moment was indescribable and the dizziness was beyond any common measure.
In place of his mental energy, a sword appeared before him.
The sword was completely black, except for a white clover that sat above the guard. There were six stars on either side of the base of the blade, separated three by three by a groove that ran along the entire blade.
The sword was immaculate, without any trace of rust or dirt, and its edge was visible to the naked eye.
(Image here)
"What is that?" murmured the girl standing off to the side, in a low voice.
"I didn't sense any magic. How did that sword appear?" she wondered inwardly.
"It's lighter than I thought," were Emrys's thoughts this time.
Grip!
Emrys gripped his sword with both hands and swung it at the cage of light.
The sword met no resistance and simply passed through the cage as if it were air.
The cage shattered in a shimmer of reddish black light, and thus Emrys and the little girl were freed from that ordeal.
Well, freed from that particular ordeal, at least.
Because the fight was far from over.
"You managed to break the cage?" asked the fifth assailant, a stunned little smile on his face.
Emrys had expected frustration, indignation, or annoyance. He certainly hadn't expected his enemy to be this pleased about his escape.
"Why are you smiling?" Emrys asked, managing to get past his fear and his tension.
"Hm, am I smiling?" The fifth assailant brought his hand to his mouth and realized it was indeed true. "Yes, you're right. Sorry, that happens to me sometimes when I come across an interesting subject."
"A subject?"
"You see, I can see, hear, and feel everything that happens inside the light cage, even the fluctuations of magical energy," he began to explain. "But I didn't feel anything before you summoned that sword. Worse, once it appeared, my link to the cage was completely severed."
"So what, you want to make me your guinea pig?"
"Among other things, yes."
"Where exactly are you people from?"
"We come from Belialuin, the capital of magic," answered the fifth man.
"And why are you chasing her?"
Emrys gestured toward the girl hiding behind him.
"That girl is the daughter of the head mage of Belialuin, as well as our greatest talent. You should understand by now that we mean her no harm."
"That's not what her behavior suggests. Are you sure you're what you claim to be?"
"Listen, kid. We…" the fifth man tried to say, but he was quickly interrupted.
"That's enough, Galileo, can't you see he's trying to buy time," the third man cut in.
When he heard that, Emrys's face darkened.
"Damn it, I've been made. Shit, I need time to recover. I can barely stand on my legs," Emrys cursed inwardly.
At that moment Emrys was using every ounce of his willpower not to collapse to the ground.
The world around him kept spinning, he could no longer even trust his eyes, forcing him to rely solely on his ears and on his haki.
Unfortunately, using haki only worsened his migraine and his dizziness, forcing him to rely on his haki even more, dragging him into a vicious circle that could only end in death.
"You're right, Copernicus. We should finish this quickly. We've already delayed too long," agreed the man named Galileo.
Galileo's mana ignited and he began chanting once more.
"Petrifying ray."
Piou!
A bolt of magic shot straight at Emrys.
Aware of the danger, he forced his body to raise his sword.
Fwish!
Like the cage before it, the ray was sliced apart.
But this threw Emrys off balance, and he very nearly stumbled.
Tching!
He managed to steady himself just in time by planting Drainda into the ground, but he knew that if he truly fell, he wouldn't be able to get back up.
He turned his head and spoke directly to the girl he was trying to protect.
"Run, I'll try to hold them off."
When the girl heard that, she was stunned, so much so that she couldn't even react.
"What are you waiting for, run?"
It was only when he asked her to run for the second time that she answered.
"But-but what about you?," she said, stammering.
"Don't worry about that. I can get out of this anytime I want. Your job is to run. So run!"
"B-But."
"RUN, I SAID!!"
His tone left no more room for discussion.
The girl stood frozen for a few seconds before turning around and starting to run.
"AND DON'T LOOK BACK!" Emrys shouted one last time.
"You see that, Averroes. He really thinks we're going to let them escape," said the fourth assailant to the first.
"Let's crush their hope right away," said Averroes. Unlike Galileo, he didn't bother reciting an incantation; as soon as his magical power was drawn upon, he launched his attack right away. "Air boost."
A wave of compressed air shot out, aimed not at Emrys but at the little girl.
"Not on my watch."
In a succession of blinks, Emrys appeared in front of the attack and then sliced through it with his sword.
Even though he couldn't directly see his opponents' magical energy due to the distance separating them, Emrys could see the particles around him being drawn toward them just before a spell was cast. This allowed him to react.
There was, however, one exception.
Emrys felt nothing when the so-called Galileo had used his cage of light earlier.
No particles displaced or absorbed, at least not within 10 meters around him.
"This is between you and me."
Emrys told them calmly.
"Does the blade cancel out magic?" Copernicus wondered, intrigued.
"It doesn't seem to depend on the user's level, so we can assume the blade purely and simply cancels magical energy particles."
"You're too distracted, we need to catch up to @&&#&-@- quickly, said their Jordano" the fourth pressed once more.
The said Jordano didn't answer his companion and instead addressed Emrys.
"You have an interesting weapon, but your gaze betrays you." He pointed at Emrys, "You're afraid."
Emrys clenched his teeth.
He hated that.
The fact that he was right.
He was afraid. His hands trembled around Drainda's hilt.
But there was someone behind his back.
And that thought gave him the strength to remain standing.
"I don't need to win…" Emrys murmured. "I just have to hold on."
D'Aquin raised an eyebrow.
"Hold on?"
A smile appeared on his face.
"Do you really think you can withstand this?"
He raised his hand, and a display of death could begin.
"Burning ball. Blade of the breeze. Bolt of force…"
D'Aquin cast three spells directly at Emrys.
Everything happened at the same time.
Emrys opened his eyes wide and focused with his entire being on his Observation Haki.
He felt the attacks.
The direction.
The trajectory.
He knew he could dodge.
Even in this state he could have used several successive short-distance blinks to escape…
But the spells would undoubtedly strike the girl, who hadn't yet gotten far enough away.
But it's in the moments when all seems lost that true fighters thrive.
In a moment of pure instinct, Emrys channeled what little mental energy had been restored into Drainda.
"What's happening?" asked Averroes, puzzled and intrigued by what was unfolding before him.
The groove and the stars on Drainda's blade now glowed with a reddish black light.
The same one that had been seen when Emrys destroyed the light cage.
Emrys didn't think and simply swung his sword horizontally.
Swoosh!
An arc of black light shot out from the blade and struck all three spells at once, which vanished right after.
Vanish!
"Did he really cancel out all three?"
Jordano and the other four seemed surprised. Their faces turned serious, showing that the real fight had officially begun.
Each of them sent spells at Emrys. But strangely none of them sent more than one at a time, and they always waited a few seconds after another's spell had been set in motion before launching their own.
As if none of them were allowed to attack together at the same time.
This suited Emrys just fine, and he hadn't even noticed anyway; he was already far too focused for that.
He was already focused.
Blink!!!! (When there are several !s after a blink, it means he's using it several times in a row)
He dodged a spell.
Again.
He dodged another one.
Then another.
His body appeared and disappeared in small, rapid movements.
Was he fleeing?
You could say that. But if you asked Emrys directly, he'd give a different answer…
I survive.
Every time an attack drew near, he used blink.
Never too far, so as not to drain even more of his mental energy than he already was. He dodged so narrowly that several spells had already grazed him.
So all over his body you could see bruises, frostbite, burns, and god knows what else.
But for now it was working, he was surviving.
Chain-blinking to dodge the spells he couldn't cut through.
Drainda to cut through the spells he couldn't dodge.
But the mages were watching.
They were learning.
"It's strange," Galileo crossed his arms.
"He has no mastery of swordsmanship," D'Aquin nodded.
"Yes. His movements are poor. He's not even trying to attack," Averroes smiled.
"I think we've seen enough. No?"
Emrys heard their words.
And his heart tightened.
"They've figured it out."
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Your sword and your power are very interesting, kid," D'Aquin congratulated him while clapping.
"Even if your sickly complexion tells me they must be quite demanding when it comes to food," said Copernicus.
"You held out well," added Jordano.
"But it's time to finish this," Averroes finished the sentence.
"As a reward, I'll give you the name of my magical power," said Galileo. "My magical power is called Radiance, it lets me capture ambient light and shape it to give it a physical form."
He gave an example by creating an entirely light-made replica of Drainda.
"Unfortunately, objects shaped this way lose light's intrinsic speed. But they're still quite fast."
"So that's what the cage was. And the reason I didn't see it coming is because it wasn't a spell."
Thanks to Galileo's explanation, Emrys now understood the difference between magical power and spells.
"A spell uses the particles in the surrounding air. Whereas a magical power uses only the magical energy contained within a person's body."
That was the definition Emrys managed to piece together from the little information he'd been given.
"That's why I didn't feel any particles being drawn in before the cage appeared."
Emrys was glad to know that. It would certainly be useful information…
If he managed to survive this situation, that is.
"Well, now it's time to say goodbye."
Particles of light began to gather in Galileo's hand. And after a few seconds they formed a spear of pure light.
"Shining spear."
Galileo didn't bother throwing the spear himself. It rose into the air on its own and shot forward at full speed toward Emrys.
Fiou!
The spear was moving so fast that it had barely left before it was already right in front of Emrys.
Fortunately, Galileo had aimed poorly, because it landed directly on Drainda.
But had he really aimed poorly?
"We already know this sword's weak point," Galileo finally said.
Clang!
Drainda was sent flying into the air by the impact with the spear, leaving Emrys completely disarmed.