Another wave of attacks ca screaming down from above.
Fire, lightning and wind. All of it aid at the advancing group.
"Barriers up!" one of the tankers called out.
The blue shields flared again.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The lobby shook. A section of the ceiling cracked and a chunk of it dropped sowhere to the right, crashing against the tiled floor.
Noah stepped to the side of the tanker line and looked up.
Third floor. Left side. A student leaning over the railing with both hands extended, charging another spell.
Noah raised his bow.
He let his mana flow into the arrow the way it always did now naturally, without forcing it. A smooth current running from his body down into the shaft and settling at the tip.
He released.
The arrow crossed the open centre of the mall in a straight blue line, moving fast and clean.
It struck the student in the shoulder before the spell could be released.
The figure stumbled back from the railing and disappeared from view.
"Nice shot!" Leonard’s voice bood from sowhere to Noah’s left.
Leonard hadn’t waited for a second invitation.
He had broken from the group the mont the tankers created a window and was already sprinting for the nearest escalator, his greatsword blazing with fire, his eyes locked on the floors above with an expression of pure excitent.
"Leonard, don’t go alone!" Damien called after him.
"I’m fine! Send soone to catch up!" Leonard was already halfway up the frozen escalator steps, taking them three at a ti.
Damien clicked his tongue but imdiately turned to a cluster of Strike unit students nearby. "Go after him. Don’t let him get surrounded."
Four of them peeled off and followed Leonard up.
Kaelan moved without a word, heading for the other escalator on the right side of the lobby. Three students fell in behind him automatically, matching his pace.
Damien stayed at the centre of the lobby, directing the flow.
"Mages, return fire! Target the upper floors make them keep their heads down! Tankers, advance ten ters and hold. Give our people room to move up!"
The mages in the group spread out across the lobby floor and began sending attacks upward, lighting up the open centre of the mall with streaks of fire and arcs of lightning that crackled against the upper railings and drove the B-1 students back from the edges.
Noah moved with them, staying mobile, shifting position every few shots.
He sent an arrow to the second floor. Then the fourth. He kept his movents unpredictable, stepping left after each release, never standing in the sa spot twice.
An enemy on the fourth floor leaned out to return fire and Noah caught them before the spell was halfway ford. The arrow struck clean and the student dropped back.
Another one appeared imdiately to replace them.
’They have numbers up there,’ Noah thought, drawing again. ’And they knew this building. They picked their positions before we arrived. Nice.’
He glanced toward the escalator Leonard had taken.
Explosions from sowhere on the second floor. The sound of tal against tal. Leonard’s laugh echoing down through the open centre of the mall, loud and completely unbothered.
At least he was still alive.
Noah shifted his attention back to the floors above.
A lightning bolt ca screaming down toward his position.
He stepped aside without breaking stride and the bolt cracked against the floor tiles where he had just been standing, sending fragnts of tile scattering in every direction.
He looked up toward where it had co from.
Fifth floor. Right side. A student with both arms raised, already charging the next attack.
Noah nocked, drew, and released in one continuous motion.
The arrow buried itself in the railing directly in front of the student, close enough that they flinched backward hard and lost their footing.
Close enough to matter. Noah was already moving to his next position. The battle for the mall had only just begun.
---
Damien was on the third floor, fighting three students at the sa ti.
His sword glowed with golden light.
One of the enemy students was holding daggers. Another was holding a spear. The third had a sword.
Yet none of them could stop Damien.
A sword covered in dense blue mana slashed toward him.
He ducked under it. Then a dagger ca at him from below.
It didn’t land.
A golden magic circle ford in front of him at that exact mont. From it, a white sphere of light burst outward, flooding the area around them with blinding brightness.
"Hey!"
"What?!"
All three enemies squeezed their eyes shut against the sudden glare.
That was enough.
Damien closed his own eyes. He already knew exactly where each of them was standing.
His sword, burning with golden light, moved sharply.
He swung it in one wide circular arc.
Swwish!
The blade cut across all three of their midsections in a single motion.
"AAAH!!!"
All three scread at once. Blood scattered from the wounds. The cuts were deep enough that their vitality began dropping imdiately.
One by one their bodies began to flicker.
Then they vanished.
All three eliminated.
The light from Damien’s spell faded. He opened his eyes, looked ahead with a steady expression, and moved forward.
---
On the other side of the third floor, a long corridor stretched between rows of empty shops on either side, dark and hollow.
A figure moved through the shadows with quick, nimble steps.
He moved like an assassin.
Kaelan.
Two enemies were in front of him. One holding a sword, the other holding a wand.
The sword wielder dashed toward him, wind coiling around his blade. At the sa ti the girl began to conjure a spell. A large orange magic circle ford in the air in front of her. From it, a massive spear of fire took shape and shot toward Kaelan.
Kaelan had a dagger in each hand.
Darkness coiled around both blades, leaving dark smoky trails behind them as he moved.
His right hand swept forward in a sharp horizontal slash.
Multiple arcs of darkness launched from the blade toward the charging swordsman.
The young man panicked. He swung his sword trying to cut them down.
Slash.
Splash
Two of the arcs got through, cutting across his right arm and chest.
"ARGH!!!" He cried out and fell forward.
Kaelan didn’t look at him. He was already moving.
He dropped low, sliding across the floor as the fire spear shot past just above him.
Then he was on his feet again, already closing the gap to the girl.
"No!" She tried to conjure another spell imdiately.
She was too slow.
Kaelan was already in front of her. The mana particles she had gathered began to waver and then pulled apart, drawn toward his body like smoke into a current.
"What the hell?How?" Her eyes went wide with shock.
It didn’t save her.
Slash
His blade crossed her neck cleanly. No sound except the faint whisper of the cut.
"Argh—!" Her wand slipped from her fingers. Both hands flew to her neck. She dropped to her knees.
Her body began to flicker. Then her wand did the sa.
Then both were gone.
Kaelan flicked his dagger once to shake off the blood. His dark grey eyes stayed cold and forward. He dashed ahead without breaking stride.
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