Mage Parivar arrived at the fifty-second floor safe area a few hours behind Damion. Being that far behind was not unusual, considering he had flown as fast as he could on his Ice Sword. She did not appear to have suffered at the hands of Mage Teft, but the Transformation mage did not approach Damion when she arrived. Instead, she took a seat with a cluster of other A Rank mages and focused on resting before the upcoming battle.
With nothing to do but wait, Damion had been reviewing his various spells and readying himself for combat. He would have liked to focus on raising his magic power, but with no idea when they would move out and not wanting to have Magic Absorption active, he would gain very little, even in the SS Rank environnt. With little to gain, he decided it was best to make sure his body was well rested. There was no telling how long the battle would last, so he even turned off all of his passive spells.
Without Familiar Space active, Phil was forced to co out into the open, but that happened before the majority of the A Rankers were present and the S Rank mages around paid him little mind. Nyx was able to still hide inside Damion’s shadow and Phil was already known to pretty much every mage, so his presence was not questioned.
What did cause the mages around to glance at Damion for a mont was when he shut off Concealed Aura. His normal invisibility made everyone forget that he was an A Rank mage and the sudden reveal of his magical presence was a bit shocking.
Once all the A Rank mages arrived Mage Teft approached Damion to explain the situation.
“The S Rank mages have cleared several large waves of Demonic Beasts on this floor, however, after they killed the last group, most of the remaining Demonic Beasts on the floor flocked to the area near the guardian. There are now close to a thousand beasts we will have to fight through to reach the guardian.”
“Mage Harris is worried the guardian will join the battle as well,” Damion guessed.
“Correct. With so many Demonic Beasts gathered, the S Rankers need the aid of the A Rankers for crowd control. And if the guardian joins the battle, to prevent the weaker beasts from occupying the S Rankers.”
“Even with 90 A Rank mages, fighting an S Rank will be difficult.”
“The good news is, there are only a few S Rank Demonic Beasts left. Nearly all of the thousand are A Rank.”
“Any type of Demonic Beast we should be weary of?”
“Mage Harris should be briefing everyone in the morning, and Mage Veers is dividing people up into teams to handle specific tasks. Until they make their decisions on what your assignnt will be, no sense in planning out how to handle the different Demonic Beasts that are out there.”
“I guess I should just continue to wait around and twiddle my thumbs then.”
Mage Teft snorted and Damion laughed. When the ti ca for the group to move out, he was sure he would be missing the uneventfulness of the evening.
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When morning finally ca Mage Harris made his presence known to everyone present by flaring his magic aura for a brief mont. With everyone’s attention, the Ti mage started his briefing, much of which Damion had already heard from Mage Teft and rumors from the other A Ranks. After a few monts Mage Harris began to address items of great concern.
“We have theorized that the reason all these Demonic Beasts have co to the defense of the guardian is not because of an increased intelligence level, but because of the affinity of the guardian. While we have yet to confirm it, we believe the guardian has an affinity that allows it control other Demonic Beasts.”
“What if it doesn’t stop at Demonic Beasts?” Zachary Phinn, A Rank Lightning mage and a familiar face to Damion said, though the man would not recognize him, since he was not pretending to be Jas Picard anymore.
“That is why we intend to identify the guardian’s affinity before moving in with a full-scale assault on the guardian,” Mage Harris answered.
“And how are you going to do that?” Everitt Cromsdale, A Rank Earth mage asked. “Walk up and ask it nicely.”
A few people laughed at the Explorer Guild leader’s joke, but most were seriously considering the question. The typical way to tell a Demonic Beast’s affinity was to check what it looked like against the database of known Demonic Beasts. Sotis teams did not get ti to do such a thing and instead relied on the tried-and-true thod of seeing what types of attacks the creature used.
Neither of these thods were preferable when dealing with a Demonic Beast that might have mind control abilities. That was when Damion realized Mage Harris and Mage Veers were looking directly at him.
“I suppose I can identify what affinity the guardian is,” Damion spoke up. “But I will need to be within 250 ters with a clear line of sight.”
So present knew of Damion’s ability to identify affinities, while others were looking at him as if he had suddenly grown a second head. If it was not for the fact that he had already proven in front of Mage Association representatives that he could do what he said, probably none of them would have believed him.
“We will be able to get you close enough,” Mage Veers said. “My main concern is, how close is too close?”
“You an if the guardian does have so kind of Mind affinity?”
“Yes. The Assembly has discussed at length the various possibilities. That it can only control other beasts. That controlling mages would be more taxing than beasts. Or perhaps it has to force its control on others and that such a task is more easily accomplished with other beasts.”
“I imagine there are a few other ‘what if’ scenarios, but here is the truth of the matter, none of that matters,” Damion said, shocking many of the mages present. “If we don’t defeat the guardian, we can’t move forward. Looking at the situation from that perspective ans it doesn’t matter what the beast’s affinity is.”
“You are advocating for an all-out assault then?” asked Trevor Gaskin, S Rank Nature mage.
“Not at all, I think all possible information should be gathered, so that a comprehensive plan can be made. The affinity of the guardian is important information to have before we enter into battle with it. What I am saying is, we should stop worrying, and go and do.”
Damion received a few cheers for his directness, but most of the mages remained silent, including Mage Harris and Mage Veers.
“In that case, Mage Harris, you, Mage Wells, and I,” Mage Veers finally said, “will go and do so reconnaissance. Once we have a greater understanding of what we are facing, we will formulate a battle plan.”
Mage Teft looked like she wanted to object, but Damion shook his head towards her. This was the best plan. The fast way to accomplish the goal of opening the labyrinth to the Mother World. Plus, he was going along with two of the most powerful and deadly mages in Nerotath history, he was confident he would be safe in their company, even with their opponent being an SS Rank Demonic Beast.
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