"Can you hold on? I plan to make a move of my own," Quinlan spoke up abruptly.
Black Fang didn’t even dignify his question with a response. Her silence carried more weight than any words. To her, the question itself was ridiculous. Of course, she could.
No matter what.
Quinlan smirked at her attitude, feeling he’d found quite the partner in crime.
"Good."
Then, without any further warning, his body twisted. His frame snapped a horizontal roll, making his stomach now face the open sky.
Black Fang, standing on his back, flipped with him. Her posure remained flawless even as her world turned upside down.
Quinlan’s elemental eyes locked on their pursuers. Now, at last, he was staring them down properly, face-to-face.
His hands swept outward.
A torrent of elemental power roared to life.
Water came first in the form of dozens of cutting streams that scythed through the air as liquid blades.
They converged on Void’s tethers with vicious precision.
Before the ripples faded, he exhaled, and a wall of wind followed, condensing into slicing gusts that ripped across the skies.
The Scarlet Lilies were forced to react instantly. Void’s tethers strained, yanking the formation out of direct collision paths. Lilith’s sword blazed with enchantments as she shredded water jets before they could shear through her. Jallen’s spear darted like lightning, piercing through currents to shatter the pressure. Scar’s blades hissed, intercepting where they could.
Through it all, Bronnya took the front. She braced with her shield up and tanker spells cast one after the other as another one of Quinlan’s attacks detonated against her.
The impact rocked her entire frame, with her armor sparking and shield groaning under pressure.
Blood sprayed from her lips in thick spatters now, no longer the light crimson trickles from earlier.
Still, she did not fall. In fact, despite her rough exterior, she was far from falling. She wasn’t the tanker of the Scarlet Lilies for no reason.
Her mad laughter tore through the sky like thunder. "Bahahah! This is so damned epic! Handsome guy, keep it up! Don’t you dare run out of mana! I haven’t had this much fun in ages!"
On Quinlan’s back, Black Fang moved with such fluidity that one might even mistake her for being fused with Quinlan. Such was their synergy; they might as well have been two people in one.
The shockwaves never stopped ing; serpentine bursts laced with violet energy exploded against the Lilies in relentless rhythm. She slashed them apart without missing a beat, her upside-down posture making no visible difference. To her, balance wasn’t a question; it was instinct.
"They are truly formidable. We can’t underestimate this man just because he’s not on our level yet," Lilith’s voice sounded all of a sudden. She was calm, steady. Despite her heart beating rapidly due to the excitement of this unique skirmish, she remained analytical.
Being a battle addict was good, but only so long as logic remained intact. She refused to bee a wild beast, remaining a woman who greatly enjoyed the art of war without going off the deep end.
"Void, remember what we talked about 150 years ago?"
"No?"
"... We thought of a unique formation for this exact moment. We theorized about one day having to fight the fabled creature of legends, a dragon. We didn’t know how we could beat one if it refused to land on the ground, and we had to engage it in the skies."
"Oh. You mean that..." The void mage’s lips curled into a little smile. "Well, why not?"
Void’s hands moved. Threads of darkness snapped taut, reshaping their entire formation like pieces on a board.
Bronnya remained at the front, being the bulwark at the very tip. Jallen was shifted behind her with the tether pulling her into line. Void herself fell back, anchoring the center. Then, with one last flick of her hands, Lilith was yanked to the vanguard of the group, being lifted right onto Bronnya’s chest plate.
"Hah?!" Bronnya blinked, confused, only for Lilith to plant her boots firmly onto the tanker’s stomach as if it were solid ground.
But she quickly got the gist of it. "Haha! I see! I’m the ground now! Let’s go, boss!"
"Damn right!" Lilith shouted back with a mad grin.
Bronnya released her shield with reckless abandon. Her hands clamped tightly onto Lilith’s legs, locking the Spellblade in place with all her might. Trust, absolute and unshakable, flowed between them.
The last piece of the puzzle was Scar.
She wasn’t fixed in place. Instead, she blurred around the edges of their unique structure with Void’s tether dragging her through the air at impossible angles. She blinked from spot to spot with her rogue arts, daggers flashing, striking at Quinlan and Black Fang from the most vicious angles.
But the brilliance of their formation wasn’t just in positioning; it was in synergy.
Jallen lifted her spear high, and light began gathering at its tip.
Normally a pure striker, her hybrid class flared now with divine warmth spilling from her hands as healing magic wrapped around Bronnya’s battered body.
Every time Quinlan’s gales or water blades struck home, Bronnya’s damage transmittance spell absorbed it all, funneling the pain away from her allies straight into her frame.
And Jallen was right there, every second, patching the wounds before they could stack too high.
It was a cycle. Bronnya tanked the storm. Jallen mended her. Void kept the formation alive in the air. Lilith, with solid footing at last, unleashed her Spellblade arts at full ferocity. And Scar darted like a phantom; her ambushes quickly being troublesome.
The result? The Scarlet Lilies became a fortress in the sky.
Lilith’s shockwaves now met Black Fang’s as an equal.
Sparks of violet and silver screamed with every collision, neither side giving an inch.
Bronnya, bleeding freely but laughing louder with each blow, anchored her with unshakable trust. Jallen’s magic turned their battlefield into a perpetual rebirth. Void’s tethers tightened the web, closing the distance on Quinlan. Scar’s flickering silhouette forced Quinlan and Black Fang to divide their attention, her angles always nasty, always threatening.
It was mad. It was reckless. But...
It was beautiful and fearfully effective.
This kind of madness was why they were feared. Why their contractors were willing to pay top coin for their services.
There was a saying among the nobles: if you need help, desperate help, spare no expense; hire the Lilies.
Quinlan now understood fully why that was the case.
But he wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet, especially when the living legend known as Black Fang decided to trust him as her battle partner.
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