Technomancer: Genesis Chapter 33: Backup

Two of the knight's cast baron ranked [Fireballs], which were met by Catalyna's [Stone Gauntlet]. The other knight went beside Aerwyna and made an [Earth Wall]. Aerwyna repaired her damaged armour behind the wall and then she threw spears at Catalyna's location. Then knight beside her launched an attack on the space where he predicted Catalyna would land. The attack connected but it barely injured her. She was once again on the earthen platform and used the opportunity to go back underground. One of the knights used [Flame Blaze] on the hole hoping it would deal some damage to the former wet nurse. The other three expanded their aura in order to detect the presence of Catalyna, but she did not seem to be in the vicinity.

"Has she fled?" inquired the knight beside Aerwyna.

"I doubt that,"Aerwyna readily replied.

The knight who had cast the fire spell went near the hole then a boulder launched upward narrowly missing him by a few inches. Catalyna appeared ten yards away from the hole and shattered the ice. There she started chanting again. Aerwyna and the others sent over a barrage of spells to distract Catalyna from executing her spell. In an instant, the whole vicinity was shaking.

Aerwyna screamed,"Watch out! That is a viscount ranked spell!"

The knight that was near the hole was sucked downward as he attempted to jump in evasion of the spell but it was too late. He lost his footing and failed the leap as he was sucked down the opening as the Earthen Hole which collapsed on his body. The other knight had narrowly escaped.

Aerwyna threw more Ice spears at Catalyna. She used an earth wall to deflect the assault. The knight who survived was breathing heavily, he was running out of mana, Knights can only cast five barons ranked spells, his mana depletion was weighing down on him. He gathered he was down to his final spell. Aerwyna noticed this.

"Don't use your remaining mana on any kind of spell. Use it to strengthen your body and raise your agility. You will have a higher chance of survival if you do,"Aerwyna instructed the knight as she dashed toward Catalyna, skating through the ice.

"Yes, Milady," he said as he used his magic to steady his breathing.

Aerwyna condensed magic on her feet as it poured out water, flooding the block even more while immediately freezes it. The result was she kept on gaining altitude with each step finally gaining a seven-yard high height where she launched a [Flood Cannon] toward Catalyna in order to sweep her and then freeze her body.

Catalyna had foreseen this and made a crevice beside her and jumped to evade the raging high powered water stream. But Aerwyna suddenly condensed the water even more so that the pressure would be extremely high. The result was a water stream that was one inch thick but had the penetrating power that could puncture steel. She directed the flow toward Catalyna immediately who was not expecting this move, she narrowly evaded a full blast which would have torn her body in two. She only suffered a wound that looked like it was a sword slash on the left part of her stomach. She fled three yards away while instcasting fire on her hand as she put pressure on the bleeding lesion, cauterizing the wound preventing any blood loss. But while doing this she also cast a rock bullet at Aerwyna to disrupt her momentum.

Aerwyna was surprised, this had disrupted her concentration as she fell to the ground cancelling the high pressured [Flood Cannon] as well as her advance on Catalyna. She rolled away the force of the momentum and recovered with a flip. Catalyna was already ready for this and launched a boulder a yard in width which hit Aerwyna's right foot. The impact was distributed to the armour but she still felt the pain, she was injured and her mobility would suffer after this injury.

She attacked Catalyna again with an ice spear. Catalyna dodged this and moved forward donning her rock gauntlets. She kept on evading the projectiles of Aerwyna, as this was happening a knight hurled a boulder toward Catalyna. Aerwyna had already anticipated this as she ducked the boulder passed her. The wet nurse tried to dodge but was caught by the attack. She went along with the momentum of the boulder but in a split second, she crushed it in two, as she suffered light injuries. She was now eight yards from Aerwyna but she dashed toward her closing the gap between them. Aerwyna then used her ice spear as a melee weapon to hit Catalyna who sidestepped this and hit her with her rock gauntlets on her right foot. Aerwyna shuddered and howled in pain.

This blow hurt Aerwyna as her speed was cut in half by the injury. Her movements were now sluggish. Catalyna rolled away at the attempt to slice her with her frozen spear. Catalyna backed away for a while as she smiled. She had Aerwyna cornered. The two knights with her were no threat, they could not cast spells anymore and could only advance toward her slug it out in a melee. She grinned at the thought of this. She now had the upper hand.

As Sir Evan was nearing the battlefield he felt more and more disheartened. He could see the corpses of his comrades and some of them were his close friends.

"Lord Ezra, We should go back to the Castle it is dangerous here look at the wake of that spell, it is truly formidable," beseeched Evan to the lordling.

"Let me ask you a question. Given this situation, that half of the guard is dead. You can see that the other party is truly a high ranked mage. Now given this, if my mother really died battling Catalyna, who would have the capacity to save me today? I would still be abducted if Catalyna won. You can only support mother in battle and hope that both of you win. I know that you are worried about me but, tell me if she dies could the remaining forces of Bren save me from Catalyna? Without my mother, she would just come and go as she pleases in the castle," Ezra answered.

What he said was only half true. While Catalyna might be a truly formidable mage, the possibility that she would exhaust her power in the fight was high but since almost half of the guard had been obliterated she also would most likely escape and recover. The very next day she could come for Ezra, there was no way to determine if Reitz would return by then. Even if the messenger went away that morning Reits would probably return two days later as the travel time to Reitz's camp was around a day. Hiding inside had a high chance of him being abducted if Aerwyna lost the fight so the only recourse was to put the odds of winning in Aerwyna's favour and to do that all capable knights must come to her aid. That is why he asked Evan to help his mother.

Evan could not answer the logic behind Ezra's words. His blood was boiling, he did not even mind the fact that the infant he was carrying was so intelligent.

"Wait before we go back could you launch a stone bullet first. I need to see something," Ezra asked.

Evan was bewildered but he obliged.

"Can you repeat this spell with the same speed again and again?"

"Of course, this is a standard for Earth mages."

"Good. Now could you tie me behind your back? You need two hands for fighting. Do this so that you can carry me as well"

Evan scratched his head.

"You mean to say I'm going to help your mother with you behind my back?" asked a bewildered Evan.

"Yes, but don't worry we won't go near. Also, pick up that bow and get as many arrows you can fill with that quiver over there."

Evan was reluctant and could not decipher what lordling was planning but he obliged. Maybe this infant could really produce miracles.

"Okay now, Let's go"

Chapter end