Gregory and Chronos shifted their positions to better cover the casters as they ran.
After traveling for a short time, the orca guard saw a shift in the water that led away from the normal current.
"Pup, we're coming up on the outer current, be ready for anything."
"Right." Chronos could tell even without the warning.
The danger he felt coming from the shadows had drastically increased in the past few minutes.
Just as they approached the turn a black ball shot at them from the shadows. Sensing extreme danger Chronos acted as fast as he could.
[Isolate]
A bubble of spatial energy appeared around them halting their charge and stopping the black ball simultaneously. When the black ball touched the barrier, it gave off a pulse of energy that was blocked by the barrier, before it dispersed into a thin black mist.
"Bravo, you blocked my attack quite well. I wouldn't mind playing with you if it weren't for my mission." Came a patronizing voice.
Looking up they saw a young blonde human with black bat-like wings extended from his back. He was wearing the attire of the Vhalic empire but that didn't mean he came from the empire. It was more likely that he was trying to stir up unrest between the Leighla kingdom and the Vhalic empire as they had been sworn enemies for the last five hundred years.
His body gave off a thin almost imperceptible mist that spread to his surroundings.
"Who are you and why are the devils acting now?" Chronos called out.
"Hmph, you don't really expect me to tell you why I'm here, do you? As for my name, you can call me Lucan Dreth." He mocked as he flew around them.
Suddenly rushing at them with black mist gathering around his hand slamming it into the [Isolate] causing cracks to spread over their barrier.
That black mist must be the miasma that devils were rumored to possess.
"Looks like you aren't as strong as I thought." He sneered.
The miasma had been interfering with his senses when Lucan had been far away, but when he was this close it was easy to sense his power.
Chronos scowled, Lucan was a fourth rank, but he couldn't tell if he was a warrior type or a magician type. Considering that he had attacked with both methods he could be a mix between them.
Just then a song cut through the water right at Lucan who flapped his wings once to avoid it.
"Hmph, do you really think you can hit me so easily?" He condescendingly asked.
Right then Gregory's nightweave threads bound his wings and yanked him towards the shattering [Isolate].
"Yep."
Lyla's vicious smile was the last thing he saw before a flaming mace collided with his face.
Bam!
Chronos winced remembering how much it hurt to get hit with that mace.
"[Withering Pulse]," A pulse of miasma burst from Lucan's body as he freed himself. "YOU B—H! How dare you harm my face!"
[Rotbite Claw]. Miasma gathered on his hands once more as he slashed at Lyla.
Clang!
Chronos had blocked the attack for Lyla but the strength behind it had thrown both of them 3 meters back.
Looking at his heartwood sword, he saw that it was rotting from where it had collided with Lucan's claws. Channeling aura into it the sword purged the rot, returning to a perfect state.
"Be careful, he is enhancing his physical strength, and his attacks carry the rot attribute." Chronos called.
"Noted." Varkesh's voice came from right behind Lucan.
Varkesh and two of his guards had leapt from the water, surprising Lucan, swinging their tridents and shark tooth blades at him before they dove back into the water.
Looking down Chronos saw that most of the orca guard and half of the singers were holding their heads while muttering to themselves. The deep priests and unaffected singers were doing their best to remove whatever magic had been cast on them with little success.
Regaining his calm Lucan laughed, "I wouldn't count on them for help."
Seeing that Lucan was arrogant enough to talk during battle Chronos tried to get more information from him.
"Whatever spell you cast will be resolved shortly, then it will be your end." He mockingly said.
"Hahahaha, as if you weaklings are worthy of a spell. Just my presence is enough to drive the weak-willed insane." He said with pride.
So, it wasn't magic? That miasma mist drifting off of his body must attack a person's will. That would be rather difficult to block, the mind might direct a person's will but the origin of will was the heart.
Magics to protect the mind would only partially protect your will as the miasma could attack the heart directly corrupting your will with anger, greed, fear, or other emotions that could cloud your mind.
And if your mind wasn't strong enough to correct the corrupted will you might just betray and attack those close to you further corrupting your will in the process.
[Miasmic Arrows]
Lucan formed the miasma into arrows intending to strike them down only to have every shot fly wide of its mark.
Turning to Sariah he yelled, "You! How dare you curse me!"
Sariah had cast [Whispering Doubt] which decreased one's accuracy and stacked multiple of them to make his accuracy terrible. It would be a wonder if he hit anything in that state, sadly it only lasted for a few seconds before he broke the curse.
"Well, you made it rather easy. You're barely defending yourself." She pointed out.
"You people are beginning to annoy me!" Swooping down he targeted Sariah who was clearly the weakest in close combat.
Varkesh erupted from the water just in front of him blocking his attack as Chronos and Gregory hit him from behind.
Thump. Thump.
Lucan's wings had caught their attacks! Flicking his wings outward he forced all three of them back and swung his [Rotbite Claws] at Sariah.
Whoosh. Bang. Bang.
Lyla had thrown two white, glowing gavels that had collided with his head buying enough time for Chronos to close the distance again.
Lucan's claws and Chronos' sword repeatedly collided as they both sought a weakness in the other's style, then a throwing knife broke their rhythm.
When the first knife hit Lucan his wings suddenly shattered, the second knife hit his shoulder and the third knife dug into his thigh as he fell. The fourth knife was blocked by Lucan's claws but by then Varkesh was back on him swinging his sword at his head.
Without his wings he was forced to roll to avoid being decapitated, giving a very disgraceful show.
"Yes, finally, [Mark of Collapsing Structure] always takes so long to activate." Sariah cheered when Lucan's wings shattered.
[Mark of Collapsing Structure] would build up damage releasing it all at once to shatter any defense set up. It could also stop a defensive technique or spell from activating if one wasn't yet in use.
It would take a few seconds for Lucan to rebuild his wings after Gregory's throwing knives had activated the curse, during which Chronos and Varkesh did their best to end the battle before they started taking losses.
Unfortunately, despite the injuries he suffered Lucan managed to rebuild his wings and take flight once more.
"Enough! I will not tolerate your disrespect any longer!" Shouted Lucan.
He flew out of their reach and began casting a much larger more deadly spell, forming a black ball that had small needles around its edges in his hands.
"Orca's retreat!" Yelled Varkesh as he grabbed Chronos and dove into the water.
The orca guards that could move grabbed their friends and Chronos' friends before rapidly putting distance between them and Lucan.
Boom!
Even from a distance they could feel the result of Lucan's spell as it tore apart the current they had been in.
After swimming to the nearest sandbar, they resurfaced. Lucan had not chosen to chase them, prioritizing his mission over killing them.
"Well, that was annoying. Even when we brought his defenses down, we barely injured him and it took most of our techniques to do that." Chronos said in frustration after spitting out the water he had swallowed.
"It can't be helped. It was our first battle against a devil; there were bound to many unexpected spells and techniques in this battle. Retreating was our only option once he was back in the air." Varkesh replied.
"I know but it doesn't make me feel any better." Chronos complained. "How are your men doing? That weird mist he kept giving off had the ability to attack a creature's will, I wouldn't be surprised if they needed time to recover."
Varkesh looked at him, "You could see how he attacked my men?"
Chronos looked at him in confusion.
"I thought it was rather obvious with all that mist he was giving off."
Lyla sat down next to him giving Chronos a curious look.
"Chronos, nobody else saw any mist, except when he used that pulsing spell of his."
"Really?" Chronos looked around only to see everyone giving him confused looks.