Ice ford around bodies with speed that was almost instantaneous. Crystals growing from the ground upward and from the air downward simultaneously until tars were completely enclosed in solid frost prisms.
Not killing freeze. Selphira had carefully calibrated technique to incapacitate without causing direct death. Body temperatures dropped but not to fatal levels. At least for most silver tars…
But a trap that none of the affected could break on their own without considerable external help. Ice was thick. Reinforced by ongoing energy that prevented normal lting.
A Silver 3 tar with fire affinity could probably escape. Silver tars without fire or heat capabilities wouldn't escape at all without assistance.
Hundreds of Silver-rank tars were trapped in ice during the attack's first second.
Arturo counted maybe 400-600 individuals entirely immobilized. Another 200-400 partially caught, legs frozen or arms trapped but upper bodies still mobile.
600-1000 combatants removed from action in a single technique. Maybe 15-20% of the enemy's total Silver-rank force neutralized before battle truly began.
Devastating…
So attempted invoking their own beasts to provide defense or counterattack. But when the cold penetrated too deeply, they couldn't think clearly. Others tried retreating but discovered the ground beneath their feet was already frozen. Lost opportunity making them engulfed by implacably advancing ice.
It was a first attack truly worthy of inspiring fear… demonstration of what a tar of Selphira's rank and experience could accomplish even when containing her power out of concerns about collateral damage.
This was her restrained. Her being careful not to kill unnecessarily. Her showing rcy.
The thought of what she could do without restraint made several of the enemy tars visibly pale.
It was a declaration communicating negotiations had completely ended and now they operated under her judgnt.
But not everyone in front was caught so easily.
Those with advantageous elental aptitudes managed saving themselves through intelligent applications of their own capabilities.
Tars with fire affinity generated sufficient heat around themselves to lt the ice as it ford, creating small bubbles of temperate air preventing complete crystallization. Maybe 80-100 individuals using this thod successfully.
The cost was high, maintaining that heat output required burning through mana reserves at maybe 3× normal combat rate. But better expensive survival than cheap death.
Others with earth control that reacted quickly buried themselves beneath the surface, excavating downward faster than the ice could trap them. Maybe 50-60 using this approach.
And those of higher rank, specifically the 3 Gold leaders who'd been at front during failed diplomatic attempts, managed to evade through a combination of enhanced speed and higher elental defenses their beasts provided.
The leader manifested an earth barrier that absorbed the initial impact. The woman surrounded herself in a fire aura that lted approaching ice before contact. The younger man simply dodged, enhanced reflexes letting him jump out.
All three fell back, putting distance between themselves and Selphira's area of control.
But even having avoided being caught directly, all three had to retreat several ters from positions they'd held monts before.
Not tactical repositioning but forced withdrawal. The kind that acknowledged you'd lost the opening exchange and needed distance to regroup.
Smart still… Surviving ant being able to regroup and respond. Pride was worthless if you were frozen solid.
They regrouped with the remaining Gold-rank tars who'd been positioned further back. 21 Golds remaining mobile out of the original 24.
3 had been caught in the ice wave's periphery. Not completely frozen, their rank provided too much protection for that, but slowed, encumbered, fighting off cold that crept through their defenses.
There was now a recognition that the front wasn't defensible against a tar who could project attacks of that magnitude repeatedly without apparent difficulty.
Each technique of that scale should have cost Selphira so important part of her total mana reserves. That she'd launched it looking completely unaffected suggested either she had reserves advancing 3-5× what Gold 2 normally possessed, or the technique was more efficient than it appeared.
Probably both… 4 centuries of refinent ant her core was denser, her control more precise, her efficiency higher than any modern Gold rank could achieve through normal thods.
And that forced retreat revealed a fundantal reality about power disparity between the two sides of this confrontation.
The Gold-rank tars on the enemy side weren't doubles like the core of the group Selphira and Arturo had brought.
Of those leading the rebel army, only the oldest leader was genuinely double with only one Gold-rank beast fully developed and another in high Silver.
The rest had a single Gold 1 or Gold 2 beast. It was a standard separating competent from exceptional.
In contrast, of the 35 tars Arturo had brought, most didn't have two Gold beasts certainly. Many were in configuration of one Gold and one high Silver. But those were genuinely all doubles and offered a power core exceeding what the enemy side's numbers alone could match.
Maybe 8-10 true doubles with two Gold beasts. Another 15-20 with one Gold and one high Silver. Remaining 5-10 with one mid or low Silver but all maintaining double-beast bond.
Quality over quantity. Individually superior over collectively adequate.
And there was an additional factor many forgot in superficial evaluations of relative strength: the retroactive bonuses tars received when ascending two beasts to superior ranks.
When tar with two beasts elevated one to Gold, the other beast remaining in Silver received improvents to its basic capabilities making it considerably more powerful than ordinary Silver without that connection, sa for the Gold.
It was a resonance effect between bonds making a tar with one Gold and one high Silver more formidable than a simple sum of those parts would suggest.
And that was before considering the possible active fusion between the beasts during combat.
It was an advantage Selphira's side had in every individual matchup when comparing tar against tar. And it was the reason why 35 could face hundreds with confidence that wasn't simple arrogance but cold evaluation of relative capabilities.
But there was more concerning observation Arturo had noticed during rapid analysis of enemy forces' mana signatures.
Underground there was intense mana presence.
Multiple powerful sources arranged in defensive formation beneath the ruin's structure.
Orion had apparently entrenched himself with the most powerful doubles at his disposal inside the ruin rather than deploying them to lead the army in open field.
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