Chapter 1015 Tournament 3, the semi finals (2)


    "Erik!" Nikki shouted, receiving a quick reply.


    "I know." He said, focusing on his spells. While Nikki had moved to defend the group, Erik had healed the yers in the worst condition and then started takingmand of the surrounding nts.


    He was no where near the level of Akarui, or the Alicorns. However, Erik was more than able tomand nts.


    Matching his senses with the surrounding flora, Erik quickly honed in on where the arrows wereing from. As expected, there were five. Shooting from the cover of darkness. Their skills creating funnels of wind for the arrows to fly through the forest without being knocked off course.


    And, there used to be more there. The other enemies had already moved, but it didn''t take Erik long to find them.


    ''Seems they are staying true to their tactic.'' Erik noted. The group always moved in squads of five, normally a total of fifteen or twenty yers.


    ''Next, they should be moving to reposition. Leaving behind shadows.'' And indeed, they did. These arrows were capable of shooting illusionary arrows. A veryplex spell was needed for this. Most likely, each squad had a special item to support their attacks.


    ''These arrows can''t be ignored.'' While they weren''t real—unlike the arrows formed by the Elemental Quiver. The arrows still dealt damage. Albeit a fraction of what any real arrow would deal.


    Yet, that meant they remained a threat. Thus, once the group had left, Erik quickly destroyed all the shadows.


    At the same time, he had found the other two squads. A fourth he could not find. Though he couldn''t guarantee there wasn''t one.


    "Nikki, I''ve got them."


    "Alright, move out!" Nikki bellowed at the top of her voice.


    The yers under hermand moving quickly. While they had the number advantage, their group wasn''t in a good position for directbat. After all, they normally acted as reinforcements for the others. Which was precisely why they had been targeted by the Midnight Strike Force.


    To prevent themselves from being taken out by the more elite yers, their group of 22 split into two groups. Nikki led one and Erik the other. They focused on the Midnight yers who had just settled into their position.


    Nikki''s group used a spell of mirage type, hiding their advance. Though since none of the yers specialized in optical illusions, the spells could easily be seen through.


    That, however, didn''t matter. It only needed to buy them a few seconds.


    Erik''s group, in contrast, didn''t need to waste any mana on illusions. Erik instead started attacking their target with nts and distant wind magic. At this range, his spells weren''t urate, but they caused more than enough chaos for the group to reach their targets and overwhelm them with numbers.


    By the time the other squads of the Midnight Strike Force realized what was going on, Erik''s group had finished their task and were now tailing the other squad. Nikki''s group was in a slightly more fierce fight.


    —


    "As expected," Therdul mumbled, looking at the messages and battle logs. They had purposefully left Nikki''s group further behind. Luring the enemy to attack what was supposed to be the weakest group within Phoenix.


    Erik, however, had been their hidden card. In all their matches before this one, he had only ever focused on healing. Never revealing his offensive strength.


    This wasn''t a purely strategic n. Erik truly didn''t enjoy fighting. While he hade to ept that sometimes he had to, he preferred healing and alchemy abovebat. He was also far more specialized in those areas.


    Still, that didn''t mean he was weak. He had gotten a hidden ss, after all. Just that achievement alone ced him in the top echelons of yers. His personal tutge under the Alicorns allowed him to progress far faster than any other yer. Eldrian excluded.


    "Luckily, they don''t have any barrier devices," Zyviss murmured. Letting his arrow fly, his target dodging it with the bare minimum required movement.


    "True, but they might have some other trump card. We can''t let our guard down." Ilmadia said. Busy charging a mana crystal for a Nova. Which they nned to add to a runic-enforced ballista bolt.


    Most important, though, was the mana crystal she was using as arge one. With it containing over 100k MP, it should kill an entire section of defending yers in its explosion.


    The castle walls, however... would likely survive. Whatever material they were made of, it was beyond yers to destroy. At least that was the current consensus. after all, not even a focused volley of cannon fire could breach the walls.


    "Don''t talk." Judith snapped, watching the crystal in Ilmadia''s hands with fear.


    Due to the rarity and expensiveness (over 1000 gold) ofrge mana crystals, they hadn''t been able to practice this attack. Worse, Ilmadia had only used small crystals before.


    True, they had let her practice with three medium crystals (100 gold for one medium crystal) for today. Butparing 12k MP to over 100k just wasn''t fair.


    If Ilmadia lost her focus, everyone was nearby. Heck, everyone in several hundred meters, perhaps even kilometers, would die.


    Thanks to Judith''s worries, the rest decided to hold their silence while Ilmadia worked. However, soon they had to move to protect her and their siege equipment. Naturally, the Midnight Tea guild wasn''t going to wait for them to prepare.


    Their attack was certainly vicious, but with almost 60 yers focused here, it wasn''t really possible for Midnight Tea to defeat them while having sent their elite strike force at Nikki''s group.


    Still, they didn''t need to defeat Phoenix here. They simply needed to cause Ilmadia''s enchantment to fail. Though they only realized this when she was nearly done.


    "Get her!" One of their elite yers shouted, sending a weaker Phoenix member flying. Only to end up flying himself thanks to Judith''s swift charge.


    However, that shout had alerted the others. And some quick-witted yers quickly shouted, "Send AOE spells."


    "Any attack would do!"


    "Disrupt her casting!"


    They had seen enough videos of Phoenix''s battle strategies to be well aware of the famous Nova spell. And given the size of the crystal she was using, they shuddered.


    —


    Meanwhile, the chat was going crazy. The fact that Phoenix was using arge mana crystal was just insane.


    yers hade to expect this of the sponsored guilds. But Phoenix was independent.


    Debates quickly started. Some argued it must be because of Eldrian. While others said that the guild had plenty of achievements and massive ies thanks to their forts and all the guild quests they received.


    The debate quickly took over the conversation but died when Ilmadia was injured.


    Luckily, at that second Nikki appeared just in range. Riding on a vine above the trees. Erik behind her. Pale. He was just about out of mana. Had Elizabeth not told them of the urgency of the situation, they would never have rushed like this.


    Nikki immediately summoned the Dome of Protection around Ilmadia. Preventing the following attacks from doing any damage. However, they quickly drained her mana. After all, she had even less than Erik. And she had already used a significant portion while fighting Midnight''s strike force.