Lucas closed his eyes as he started to continue working on his projects. Since the beginning of the Underground, he had been working day and night to improve his spells. One of the main things was flight, but all that time was wasted since he got it from one of his assassins, Selicia.
While pissed off at that loss of time, he also worked on tons of other things. Improvements of current spells, the development of new ones or even creating new applicable theories on elements, like his Darkness.
His personal experience from his youth combined with the pool of Darkness on the island gave him the necessary insight to experiment with willpower in his spells. Not just giving it a certain form, but ordering the element to follow his commands. Even if it was useless now, there was bound to be a day he would be able to use it.
"They should arrive shortly. I'll split the group in three by conjuring up two large walls. They can fly over them or break through, but the moment they do, the entire wall will explode.", Asta explained how he would organize the fight.
"No wonder you had to refill your core so many times."
"Just be glad that I've done most of the preparations in time. Considering the damage that will be done to them, the next wave will most certainly summon a Rank 3 mage. Then, no matter the things I prepare, it won't matter."
"No shit. But don't worry, my plan will work. If it doesn't, we bail.", there was only one thing Lucas was worried about, running out of energy. He had experienced it once and knew how powerless he felt then. Rubbing the ring on his finger, he was certain it contained more than enough energy to completely refill his core.
Of course, it was an emergency measure, but Lucas felt more secure having it.
"Here they come. Hmm, it looks like they already split up in three groups. I wonder why.", Asta quickly scanned the groups and noticed they were only with 75, leaving a quarter somewhere else. Right as he was about to comment on it, Lucas was one step ahead.
"Four, idiot. One is probably going to ambush us."
"Then I'll keep watch.", Asta spread his willpower far and wide, not bothering to hide his presence in the slightest. Most mages wouldn't be able to perceive everything since that would cause an information overload, but Asta seemed fine.
"You're a monster.", Lucas was genuinely impressed. He felt like he had a strong control and grasp over his willpower, but Asta far exceeded him in that department.
"Says the demon. Oh, please take care of her. She seems to have the highest affinity with Light. Kill her, and they'll lose their strongest healer.", Asta liked the compliment, and thought the same of Lucas. If he had to objectively classify both of them, they were monstrous geniuses, yet neither felt like one.
"Hah! Don't worry, I'll get rid of the entire group.", standing up, Lucas looked excited. Fighting against the previous squadron filled his mind with the thought that they were all easy prey, points, to be collected by him.
Raising his arms, two large balls of stone were formed. Swinging his arms forward, the massive earthen spheres shot towards the group. What was strange was the fact that the ball didn't seem all that compressed. Rocks and pieces of dirt fell off while it was flung towards them.
This was by design. Creating a basic fireball, it would've been easy to block, simply shoot a fireball at it and let it explode in the sky. While it might hinder visibility, that was all it would do. With this attack, no matter the element, you would have to deal with debris.
Falling chunks of rock or stone would appear no matter what. There was but one element that could remove this obstacle from the battlefield, Darkness. Despite it being legalized, not many openly used, the ones that did, used it often as it was one of the more destructive elements.
'Basically, the fools who have the best reflexes and powers will shoot at it with Darkness.'
'Making them the most dangerous of the group.'
It didn't take long before two men shot their spells in the air, removing not only the entire spell, but also preventing any kind of dangerous debris.
'Gotcha, fuckers!'
Lucas instantly remembered their position and faces, making them his first targets. Rushing towards them, five mages stepped forward. Using his Magic Vision, he was able to see they weren't just going to talk.
Preparing his defenses, Lucas slowed down to perceive what they would do. Rushing in might've been the best, but then the other mages in the back might attack him first. The strongest mages who used Darkness stood around the center, so he had to keep track of them.
'We might as well test our body while we're at it.'
'Indeed. I wonder if that trial was lying or not.'
'Immunity to spells below Rank 2? Let's find out.'
The third and final trial in the Underground gave him the reward of a strengthened body as well as immunity to spells that were below Rank 2. Spells weren't really split up by different ranks, although some runes were so complex one needed to be of a higher Rank to use it. Lucas assumed it had to do with the total amount of energy inside a spell, there was but one way to find out.
It didn't take long before the first of five mages shot in action. An Ice field appeared around his feet. Yet Lucas didn't feel that restricted. It felt cold, but it didn't have the effect it should've had. Lifting his foot, the resistance was minimum.
'Hmm. How strange.'
This wasn't only directed to the lack of effect from the ice, but also because of how the spell was activated. The mages were carrying staves around, which seemed to serve certain purposes.
One mage used elementless mana, yet the moment it went through the staff, it became elementally charged. Others used the mana stored in the staff or used it to enhance its powers or something similar to that effect. Lucas had no time to think it through as the next attack appeared.
A wave of fire appeared, but seeing it had around the same level of energy, Lucas felt like he should take the risk. Waving his hand, he blew the flames away. His confidence surged once he noticed his hand was perfectly fine.
The amount of spells that hurt his own body were immense, yet if he managed to tweak them to make sure the amount of energy around his body was limited, he would be able to fight without harming himself.
A smile bloomed on his face as the newly conjured Wind Blades flew towards him. Not even bothering to deflect or dodge them, Lucas lowered his defenses as he let them hit his bare skin, yet they didn't harm him. His smile deepened, his deduction wasn't wrong in the slightest.
Ice Spears were conjured around him, shooting up in random areas aiming randomly. Having no structure also made it more likely to hit whoever was trapped in the field. Yet Lucas let the spears almost hit him since they didn't hurt him. There was but one spear that was aimed at his face that he caught between his fingers.
Instinctively, he defended himself. Breaking off the tip of the spear, the next spell was already flying towards him.
'Don't you even dare!'
Seeing the spell, it was a Dark Blade with energy levels similar to the previous spells, yet part of Lucas really didn't want to test this out during an active fight. And the other part of Lucas agreed as he threw the tip of the spear to create an opening for himself.
'They're all sitting ducks, I'm starting to lose interest.'
'Let's just finish this up so we can focus on what's important.', cracking his neck, Lucas's smile created a terrifying image in the mages' heads before him.
"Is that it? Let me show you how to create an Ice Field!"
Placing his hands on the ground, he only did so as an act. He had long prepared his spell and already executed it through his legs. He simply did so to enter a start position to sprint through the group.
The earthen spears popped up on specific places Lucas had calculated as he rushed through the group with two daggers made of Pure Mana. For each person he didn't prepare a spear for, he used his knife to slice open their throat or jab it in their submandibular triangle, a place with little resistance if attacked correctly. His movements were like a dance as he turned and twisted his body to keep his momentum.
Rushing through the group, Lucas obviously focussed his attention on the two mages who used Darkness, making sure they wouldn't last. Not only had he conjured two earthen spears for them, using his knife, he made sure their heart had a new opening.
Finally, Lucas focussed on the mage Asta pointed out, he didn't really found her as important as Asta, but understood his reasoning. If a person was dead, there was no point in healing them. Even so, she posed a danger to them, so Lucas set his eyes on her.
His steps hadn't been slowed down since he started his sprint, a deadly dance crushed all the forces in his path. Suddenly, a man from the other group had walked around the wall Asta conjured.
'That monster didn't think of people walking around it?'
'I'm already focussed on defense, whatever comes, use the back of our hands.'
Lucas almost clicked his tongue as the man in front of him looked like he had seen a devil. His eyes stood wide as he rushed his spell.
"Stay back monster!", a concentrated beam of fire shot out. Lucas followed his own advice, raising his hands to defend against the beam. It felt like his hands were starting to melt, but then he noticed he felt fine.
'I've upgraded the condensed stone to create an entire shield. It should be able to absorb this heat, although it might melt our skin, and it will only last a few seconds.'
Blocking it with one arm, he threw his small daggers with the other. He aimed at Garric's neck, but due to the stream of flames coming at him, his visibility sucked. Missing completely, he hit Garric's shoulder.
The other he aimed at the woman in the back, but he had no idea if he hit her or not. Still, he kept tabs on her through his magic vision to make sure she wouldn't surprise him.
'At least it's in him, better than nothing. Our arm is about to collapse, use it.', Lucas was glad to have himself to count on. While it seemed strange, to him, it was the most natural thing. The half in control of the body focussed on the fights, while the other focussed on mana control, defense and in case there's room to spare, analysis on the enemy.
"Time's up dumbass."
Letting the mana contained in the dagger loose, he let it explode. Blasting the man's arm away, he was at death's door without a doubt. After the stream of fire stopped, the shield part of Lucas created was already reduced to nothing but molten rock on his arms. The pain was excruciating, but Lucas was used to pain at this point.
His body was upgraded so many times, and had gone through much worse that at this point. As long as his bones were intact, Lucas felt like he would always recover. Standing upright in the attack, Lucas was able to see how it worked better than most of the spells he copied. This one was basic in its construction, making it even easier to use.
"That was a good spell, I'll make great use of it.", as Lucas was checking on his surroundings to make sure he wasn't in any danger, he thought of something.
'Hey, I've an idea.'
'Just don't break our bones.'
'Got it.'
Lifting his hand, a small layer of Darkness appeared. Wiping off his arms, the Darkness absorbed all the molten stone and destroyed skin, making room for Light magic to do its job, repairing it as quickly as he could.
'The trial lied, we aren't immune to elements or spells.', Lucas said as the Darkness did its job by consuming whatever came in touch with it. At least this was an efficient way to clean up his armored gloves of condensed stone, although be it a bit dangerous.
'Not exactly, I've looked into the effects, but I don't have a concrete conclusion yet. What I'm sure off is that most elemental spells under a limit are harmless as long as we don't get hit in a critical spot.'
'Like?'
'Eyes for example.'
'Got it.'
After removing the debris on his arms he looked over what was left. There was the man, who was laying on the ground with tears in his eyes and a woman who was so stunned to see a dagger in her stomach that she stood still.
Snapping his fingers, the other dagger exploded, effectively removing her from the fight. Readying his fist, he finished off the man on the ground as well.
"Isn't that wench a goddamn healer? Why the fuck didn't she do anything? What's the point of a healing mage if they don't heal? She might as well just fucking kill herself, making me waste precious energy for such a dumb bitch.", Lucas said as most of his body was covered in blood that was steaming off his body due to Garric's spell.
'Well, I believe she might've been in shock seeing that man protect her or something.'
"Like some bullshit love story or something? You entered a battlefield against mages, the hell were they expecting?"
From a distance, a voice yelled at him. "Lucas! Some help please? Jacob died on the left and I can't hold off two groups at once!"