The Call to War

Chapter 30

Arthur looked on in horror as an assault of spells of every affinity rained down on Uto. Seeing this even Sylvie joined in. Soon the spells died down, leaving Uto hidden in a cloud of dust. With a simple wind spell Arthur blew away the dust, revealing Uto seemingly unharmed with an annoyed expression.

"You were supposed to wait your turn, but I guess you're eager to die!"

Arthur suddenly saw a tremendous amount of dark mana forming under the others.

"SCATTER!" Arthur yelled, assisted by sound magic, as the memories Alea had shared with him of her encounter with Uto flooded his mind.

Black metal spikes began shooting up, ripping through anyone unlucky enough to be in the way of a spike. Multiple wind mages used wind spells to jump up to avoid the spikes, several grabbing the person closest to them to save them as well. Arthur was relieved to see Tess was one of those individuals, with an arm around Stannard's waist as she pulled him up with her. Theo lightened the gravity around him, allowing nearly half a dozen others to successfully jump out of the way with him. Several others tried to use elemental barrier spells to shield themselves from the attack, but the spikes cut through nearly all of the spells like they were nothing.

Arthur tried to cancel the spell as he did with other affinities, but this wasn't like the previous retainer's magic that looked like a mutated form of plant magic, Uto's just looked black. Nevertheless he had to try, and used all four elements, all of his deviations, and even pure mana in hopes of something working. Uto however seemed to be using his spell in patches, so Arthur could only target three spells. The result, the metal shot out significantly shorter, and became dull and brittle. It wasn't canceled like he wanted, but no one in those areas died from the spell.

"Hmm, that was interesting," Uto commented, then looked at Arthur with his head tilted and a curious look on his face. "I've never had anyone do that before." A toothy grin formed as his eyes widened in excitement. "You really are fun."

With that Uto shot off towards Arthur, thrusting his harpoon forward once in range. Arthur sidestepped and used his sword to redirect the attack, knowing he wouldn't be able to hold out if he tried blocking. Arthur twists and kicks Uto in the side using sound magic as he breaks off before he gets too close. The dark mana appeared again to protect him, but Arthur wasn't too concerned as getting some distance to launch another attack was his goal.

"Arthur, you need to see this!" Sylvie cried out through their bond.

"A little busy now," Arthur replied as he and Uto exchanged strikes.

"It's about his magic. Something weird happened when he attacked the Trailblazers."

"Are you sure it wasn't something I did?"

"I'm positive. The spikes completely avoided a few areas."

"What?! Was there anything special about those spots?"

"Some mages created fire barriers to protect themselves. Not only did the spikes stay away from them but several feet away too. Maybe fire is the key to beating him! It's metal so it makes sense."

In that moment every instance when Arthur saw Uto use his magic flashed before his eyes, as a theory formed.

"I think you're right, but not how you think. I think..." Arthur started to explain, before Uto managed to connect the butt of his harpoon with Arthur's stomach.

Arthur doubled over gasping for air while also coughing up blood as he backed away. In his distracted state of figuring out Uto's magic he had for a brief second left himself open to an attack. He was lucky it wasn't the sharp end, but with Uto's incredible strength it didn't make much difference, as he was wide open.