Nesha’s situation was a little strange.

Her Chaotic Execution was one of the most lethal attacks in the entire Valley, allowing her to take out any of the Greens with ease if only she had a second or two close to them.

Unfortunately, aiming the horrific butterflies accurately was tough, which limited the spell to short and medium range. Her opponents had clearly noticed, banding together to protect themselves. Whenever she tried to approach one, they would all pelt her location with spells, forcing her to retreat. She could still attack from farther away, but she wasn’t able to teleport the constructs directly into their bodies like that, which only gave them the chance to shoot them down.

At the same time, her Twisted Dance – the evolved form of her old Space Squeeze spell – gave her a ton of mobility. It was far more efficient than the Crude version had been, consuming less mana while allowing her to keep a larger patch of space compressed for longer. Her own movements inside it had also been honed to perfection through years of copying Percy’s technique – hence the spell’s name.

Like that, she was able to put a ton of pressure on the guards, yet without managing to take out any more of them. The Greens couldn’t assist their superiors until she was gone, but they couldn’t catch her either. Thus, the two sides had silently decided to put some distance from the Blues for now, unwilling to get caught in the apocalyptic storm of magic before their own battle reached a conclusion.

That didn’t mean their fight was at a stalemate though.

One side still held a clear advantage, so it was only a matter of time until things changed.

Nesha could store and regenerate a lot of mana thanks to her second core and Circulation, but not enough to compete with five Greens in an extended battle. She was forced to conserve her strength, her attacks growing less frequent as she focused on defence. She kept herself at a safe distance as her opponents chased her through the Valley.

At the same time, both sides paid close attention to one another, analysing the opposition in search of an opening.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Nesha and Percy’s clone to discover a problem.

Initially, they had considered themselves lucky that Acton’s guards weren’t too powerful. They all possessed common affinities and no notable bloodlines. Of course, most of them had already advanced, so it was Elaine who benefited from that, currently having a slightly easier time dealing with three of them.

Of the remaining two, the first had died during the opening shot, leaving only one among Nesha’s opponents. The other four Greens had come from Femel’s team. And they were all a lot trickier to deal with.

Nesha and Percy weren’t sure what had caused this discrepancy.

One possibility was that Femel was simply more talented than Acton, enjoying an elevated status in the Order. Another scenario was that Acton had been given a weaker squad as punishment for having lost a group of guards already. In fact, they thought this was more likely, as the first group Percy and Elaine had faced had definitely been stronger.

Either way, it made Nesha’s life a lot harder, as she was the one who had to deal with them now.

One had the same illusion bloodline that had troubled Elaine in the past. It allowed him to hide his position and sneak attack from elsewhere. Nesha had found this out the hard way when the man split off from the group at some point, ambushing her from a different angle.

The only reason she had even survived the attack was Percy’s armour. The clone kept it in its invisible and ethereal state for most of the battle so that it wouldn’t impede her. It was so comfortable that she’d almost forgotten she was wearing it. Still, he was able to turn it into an impregnable defence at a moment’s notice – blocking the Greens’ spells with ease.

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After all, Percy’s Regalia had been strong enough to weather attacks of that grade even before his recent promotion. Sadly, the clone didn’t have enough mana to fuel the enchantments properly, so any damage it did take couldn’t easily be reversed.

The person with the illusions wasn’t the only problem.

One had a strange mana type Nesha had never seen before. His spells were fast and difficult to detect, applying an invisible force from multiple directions in an attempt to hold her in place. Percy said it was probably a gravity affinity, though he hadn’t seen it used like that before.

Either way, it made her think twice before approaching.

Finally, the last two had an air affinity, but it looked different from Micky’s, their mana sporting a lighter colour. The winds they manifested seemed to move faster too, indicating they had a blessing. Most annoyingly, they used it to propel themselves and their teammates forward, giving the whole group the speed to keep up with Nesha’s own movements to an extent.

Unwilling to give up, she danced around the Valley, five Greens hot in pursuit. Every now and then, they tried to ignore her and return to the Blues, but Nesha always circled back to harass them when that happened, leaving them no choice but to stick to the chase.

Varying her attacks a little, she occasionally released some earth mana through her feet, sending a stone spear or two jutting up at them, trying to catch them by surprise. The flimsy spell was both weak and telegraphed, however, so it was mostly her space affinity they focused on.

“It’s over.” one of them said at some point, watching her breathe heavily.

Nesha had no clue how long they’d been at it – but her first core had almost run dry, her mana down to a fifth.

“Keeping five of us occupied for so long is commendable,” another added. “You’re clearly quite talented – as are your teammates. It’s such a pity you had the gall to attack – not one, but two – Holy Children… Some crimes just can’t be forgiven…”

Hearing the fake melancholy in the man’s voice, Nesha couldn’t help but smile coldly.

“On that, we agree. Unfortunately for you, that Holy Child you’re guarding has committed a couple too many.”

Seemingly realizing something, the man who had just spoken turned his attention down, his eyes widening as he noticed the patches of dirt shifting slowly beneath their feet.

He opened his mouth, about to warn the others, but it was too late. Nesha hadn’t just run blindly all this time. She’d not only lured them at one of her previously prepared ambush spots, but she’d even taken the time to slowly push her traps around, gathering them all in a single place. Studying the way these people moved, she wanted to ensure she would take most of them down once she acted, as the same trick wouldn’t work a second time.

As for those useless stone spears she’d fired?

It was just a misdirection – to divert their attention from what she’d actually been doing with her earth mana.

Over a hundred stone tablets shot up with no warning, surrounding the Greens from every direction. There were more than the ones she’d used in Bogside town, and she’d also improved a lot since then. She’d honed her runecrafting skills and advanced her grade, allowing her to pack more power into the traps.

At some point during her stay in the Valley, her Status had even recognized the constructs as a proper spell. On top of that, she’d taken a lot of time observing how the distortions stacked, fine-tuning the formation to maximize the destruction she unleashed, eventually upgrading the spell to Refined. Finally, she’d crafted the tablets out of her own earth mana this time, so that she could move them around more easily as needed.

Suffice to say, her enemies were already emptying their cores in a desperate attempt to shoot the constructs down. Sadly for them, their reserves weren’t much fuller than hers. Giving up, one of the air users abandoned his companions, trying to escape by himself.

Nesha ignored him for now, focusing on eliminating the rest.

The first trap activated, and then the second… the fifth… the twentieth. Intricate runes lit up in a cascade of black and brown, before space itself began to twist. The brown colour of the ground, the light blue of the floating globules and the unique pink of human flesh all blended into a turbulent lake, spanning an area dozens of metres in every direction.

The chaotic bubble rolled and twisted as various spots expanded or contracted. Four splotches of red bloomed for the briefest of instants, before fading back into the tapestry of madness. The spell died out a few seconds later, the emerging mess splashing down over a wide circle, more liquid than solid.

[Congratulations! Your spells have merged: Underground Currents – Crude + Spatial Collapse – Refined - Spatial Devastation – Refined!]

Nesha sighed, not even bothering to read the notification. Gathering what little mana she’d managed to regenerate, she chased after the lone survivor.

She didn’t know if Percy or Elaine needed help, but she couldn’t afford to let even a single enemy escape, or he would alert the countless mages stationed outside the Decree.