Seems Maxwell wanted to fight us this time, amused at our display against his soldiers.
"Every group we have found so far has barely offered any problem to us... Yet, here you are. The Traveler warned us that someone might come and attempt to stop us... I suppose that is you, trying to prevent us from approaching the Gates."
I think he is confusing me with someone. Or at least, that is what I gather. I shake my head, trying to tell him that I have no clue what he is talking about. I just came here for an amulet and to take out those prisoners when I noticed them.
He breaks the distance.
I manage to cast [Magic Shield] in time. He attacks with his lance and fails to penetrate the shield, but it pushes me back.
He is inside my [Cold Area], so I take this chance to blast him with an [Electric Bolt].
He dodges out of the way and tries to attack me from the side.
Lucio cuts the distance and gets in the middle, using his dagger to deflect the trajectory of Maxwell's spear to miss me.
I raise Bloodless instinctively to defend, but I am not sure that would have done much in my favor.
"What do you know about The Traveler?" Lucio asks.
Is this someone I should know about?
"The Traveler? I doubt your kind has the right to learn about such details."
Oh, great, not willing to tell us the secret.
The ring of spears appears around us from the ground. Lucio squeezes between them, and I duck and make them miss me by a hair.
Maxwell reaches me and stabs me with his lance and lifts me off the ground. I feel the cold steel from his weapon penetrate my stomach, making the air in my lungs escape immediately, and launch me in pain towards a group of boxes.
[You are severely hurt (-2106)!]
My HP reached around 50%. I scramble to get up even when I can still feel the painful sting from his weapon.
Maybe I should have had Aurelia join the fight from the beginning, but I wanted to show off how strong I am... He is faster than I imagined. Maybe I have the same level of power as he does, but his skills and stats must have a much better, even spread.
"[Blessing]!" I hear Lisa's voice nearby.
[You have an easier time hitting enemies! You are harder to hit!]
I look around me and cannot see her. She must be sneaking around and watching when to support us.
Maxwell tries to attack again, but Lucio sneaks behind him, managing to stab him with his dagger. It causes the leader of the camp to stagger and cancel his attack while I stand up.
Turns around, swinging his lance, to attack Lucio, who stops it with his dagger, positioned between him and the hard shaft of the weapon. But Maxwell's body keeps rotating and lands a clean kick in his face.
I spam [Firebolt] at him, keeping the pressure going. He tries to advance but is careful about the firepower on each of my casts, jumping back at the slightest misdirection I give him with the attacks.
The show with his soldiers was enough to make him worry that one of those could be the last. He is not daring to advance, seeing that I am casting as many spells as I can.
The only problem is that I am seeing my charges go down. I am under 200 more casts before I have to recharge them.
Without resources, it will be hard to recover from this fight.
He jumps back and then skips to the side of a tent. Yeah, no, I know that trick, he is trying to ambush us when we regain line of sight.
Karian, who has done nothing else than observe, looks at me. I point at the tent and she nods. She goes behind it and rolls her eyes when she sees Maxwell.
I signal Lucio to wait for my signal.
SMACK!
Now.
I run and cast an [Icebolt] the moment I go into sight. Maxwell was turned around and scanning when I hit him with my spell on his back.
Karina must have thrown a rock or something similar at him, making his plan fail.
He recoils forward and tries to attack me by turning around in a precise reaction by lunging his spear, but I move to the side thanks to the [Blessing] buff. Lucio appears from the other side of the tent and stabs him with his dagger.
"[Destruction Drive]!" He yells, and the dagger explodes in Maxwell.
[Maxwell is critically injured!]
The notification appears.
"Enough!" He screams, frustrated.
Several spears made of magic energy appear on top of him, aiming at us.
"[Hell's rain]!" He casts, and the spears turn on fire, and shoot towards us.
I am forced to continue jumping back and dodge as his spears are keeping the pressure on me, and they explode once they touch the ground. I have no other way to defend myself other than to move away and avoid direct damage.
When the last one falls, I see Maxwell reading a scroll in his hands, then he looks at me as a white light engulfs him.
"We will see each other again, enemy of the Traveler!"
He disappears. That must have been a [Return] scroll, and he went back to a safe spot.
"What the hell was all of that..." I ask the air, then I hold my neck. "Oh... I can speak now..."
I am left wondering what that whole interaction was. He declared me the Enemy of the Traveler, whoever that is. I have not met anyone who holds that nickname so far, and it's the first one I have heard.
And the Gates... What are they planning to do with them? I know what those are... At least, I have a clue.
"Everyone! Come out!" I yell for Aurelia and Lisa to come out while going to check on the prisoners.