Joshua knew very well how to provoke the enemy; putting a target on his own back for days hadn't been in vain. He was studying the behaviors of the enemies, therefore it wasn't a surprise that the green-haired mage and her subordinates were the first to attack.
"Alis, this one is yours!"
Alis, darting forward from his left side, intercepted Ventus, the Leader of the Companions of the Wind Forces, halfway. Seeing this, the eyes of the Lands of Light forces sparkled; they had never seen someone charging alone at a fifty-man mage unit before.
Alis, carrying his two swords at his sides, kicked the air as he flew, increasing his speed a little more. The clash was imminent; the mages stopped at that moment and began to attack with the help of the inverted Pentagram-shaped magic circles appearing under their feet.
The fifty people split into five groups of ten, forming an arrowhead shape with Ventus at the tip. Alis was coming without breaking his speed, but his enemy had no intention of allowing him this; they opened with Wind Blades.
Alis, wearing a white battle outfit, continued to advance by changing direction in mid-air; he was as relaxed as if he were taking a stroll in the park amidst the mass attack of the mages. When the distance between them dropped to thirty steps, Ventus changed the attack pattern of the mages on her left side. With Wind Arrows, they completely blocked a direction the enemy used to evade.
"Dark Slash!"
One of Alis's weapons lost its milky white color and surrendered to the black of the night, and a breath later, it sliced through the magical arrows on the side it was aimed at. Judging by the bewilderment on Ventus's face, she wasn't expecting this; the magical attacks being shattered by a weapon carrying Elemental Energy was no different from a slap in the face.
"Tornado Field!"
Meanwhile, the distance had dropped to ten steps, and the Leader of the Companions of the Wind gave her order. The form of the attack she spearheaded was to create tornadoes to both prevent Alis coming at them from getting closer and to ensure he took damage by getting caught among them.
The moment the mages on the right side of the fifty-man group executed the spinning attacks, taking the soil on the ground along with them, Alis's image blurred. Everyone thought he would try to evade this as he did the other attacks, but this time what they expected didn't happen.
"Pillars of Fire!"
The son-in-law of the Leader of the Holy Bone Cult pulled back, and four pillars of fire appeared where he stood. The flames mixing with the wind engulfed the Companions of the Wind forces in seconds; by the time the screams ceased, half of them had been reduced to ashes.
"Ignis, what are you doing? Nympha, help us!"
The green-haired Ventus turned towards the Companions of Fire forces and shouted in anger, but seeing that those there were merely watching what happened, she requested help from the Companions of Water forces.
"There is someone using magic in the enemy ranks!"
Ignis explained the situation; neither he nor any of his subordinates had used fire magic. Nympha, on the other hand, remained silent; she couldn't care less if people from her own civilization burned to death.
"When we return, I will report what you did!"
"Ventus, you were always a fool, but you are becoming even more foolish! As if it wasn't enough that you couldn't anticipate there being someone using magic among the enemy, you blame us for your mistake. When we return, report all you want; I will be arriving with the head of the enemy king by my side!"
The Lands of Light mages, unconcerned about the Mercenaries they came to help, were also in ruthless competition among themselves. The balance of power in their civilization was maintained by five focal points, and the weakening of one of these would be to the advantage of the others.
The deaths of mages who would form the future power of their societies served the others' interests, and this was what the deaths of Ventus's twenty mages meant to them. On the Hell Army Front, however, the situation was different; the young-looking old wolf Hueso was approaching the group with bright red stones at the tips of their staffs.
No one had noticed him vanishing among the tornadoes and pillars of fire; the Holy Bone Cult Sheikh, advancing underground, stopped when he reached the point where his target was. He waited when the bickering in the enemy ranks coincided with a perfect time; he emerged the moment their attention wavered and they began to rejoice in the power loss of their future rivals.
"Bone Forest!"
Five thick, milky white thorns the size of a human torso broke through the soil and saw the light of day. They continued to extend right into the midst of Ignis's forces, and when they reached the very center, they began to branch out.
The sight resembling a firework explosion was due to the blood spurting from the enemy's body; the mages, members of the Companions of Fire Society, were having difficulty understanding what happened. Their leader was the first to react; he sent the flames gathering at the tip of his staff towards Hueso's bone attacks, and those who survived the blow were joining him too.
"You must have something better than this to melt my bones!"
When Hueso resumed his attack, which he had paused for a few seconds, the panicked mages began to run backwards; indeed, their flames couldn't destroy the Bone Forest, but one person continued to stand his ground.
"Lava Lake!"
Ignis prepared his attack when he discovered the enemy's location, and now, the lava overflowing like a waterfall from the red stone part of his staff was piercing the ground and advancing towards its depths. Even Hueso's bone attacks had begun to erode; if he got caught in this counterattack, it wouldn't be very pleasant for him.
"Aqua Python!"
Giant water snakes approaching from the right and left sides entered Ignis's attack with their mouths wide open. When a mist covering almost the entire battlefield appeared, the attack of the leader of the Companions of Fire forces was losing its effect. It hadn't reached Hueso because it was intercepted by a completely opposite elemental energy, and the person carrying a corpse beneath his bright appearance could return to his comrades.
Ignis, who lost his subordinates even if not as much as Ventus, was far from his calm demeanor. The person responsible for the ten mages hanging at the tips of the milky white bones, however, was smiling a hundred steps away.
"I haven't had the chance to fight alongside druids using defensive magic before, but it's a pleasure being with you, kids!"
The two druid warriors bowed their heads in greeting without taking off their hoods. Even though it was their first time finding themselves in a struggle of this caliber, they looked calm, but unlike them, someone on the Companions of Light front was truly pissed off.
"Wave of Death!"
Faced with an attack obstructing their vision, the Hell Army forces looked like ants against the majesty of the wave that seemed high enough to touch the clouds. Behind the attack spearheaded by Nympha, the Leader of the Companions of Water Forces, was the combined power of a fifty-person unit.
The young woman, swinging her staff with a fist-sized water-green stone forward, was neither acting excited like the others nor carelessly. She had used her power unsparingly and knew very well the destruction her attack would create when it reached her enemy.
"It's your turn, druid warriors. Let's trim the height of that wave a bit!"
When the woman, who was the granddaughter of the Holy Bone Cult Sheikh, Alis's wife, and the mother of the new sheikh, gave her command, the two druids using the Earth Element stomped their feet on the ground, and the crack spreading from the magic circles met the giant wave halfway.
"Hidden Sinkhole!"
The key point was to reach; for the massive mass formed with the water element to work, it had to hit the enemy. When the cracks merged, the ground the wave rose upon began to collapse, and within seconds the waters filled underground, causing the attack to shrink to a third of its size.
"Bone Wall!"
Muslo was able to restrain the remaining water mass even with one of the basic skills of his cult; it was easy after managing to weaken the thing that initially seemed unstoppable with just a single move. Nympha's eyes flashed; could these people she came face to face with for the first time not be as simple prey as they thought?
"Absolute Tomb!"
She had also failed, but the Companions of the Earth Society forces didn't hesitate at all while making their move. The ground rising from both sides of the area the thirteen people stepped on wanted to merge right above them, and being caught between the soil mass weighing tons meant death for the people in between.