"Here I go."
"Good Luck."
Mary readied her bow and pulled the string back to its limit. I quickly made a series of small walls of mana in front of us.
Swoosh*
An arrow of water flew downwards and hit the wall. A few moments later, another arrow flew behind it and in just a few seconds later, 20 arrows had been fired by Mary. Because she was firing rapidly, without considering the accuracy, I needed to concentrate on transferring the thermal energy to Emilia.
Also, ever since Carlos-sama and the twin's serpent familiars were summoned, the mana had become really hard to gather. It already takes a lot of concentration just to make a wall of mana. Because of that, the weapons we were holding right now were the only things we could use with ease.
Squinting my eyes, I found the twins flew in front of Carlos-sama and made a wall of water around them while the serpents flew towards us. Mary quickly increased her rain of arrows to suppress them. I also desperately tried my best to keep up with her speed.
Cold sweat dropped down from my forehead as we watched the two serpents avoiding the arrows. It had only been two minutes in reality, however, for Mary and I, those two minutes felt like an eternity. I quickly changed tactics. I quickly made the mana walls behave a bit differently to cope up with them. The mana walls would now make the arrows of her arrows split into smaller pieces, making their attack a bit weaker. However, it was just enough to suppress the serpents from going to us.
"Lumina-sama, please get away!"
Emilia, who had been receiving thermal energy from me and the surroundings, shouted at us. Mary and I quickly separated, making us stop our barrage. An instant later, a fireball that was around had a circumference of 20 meters flew between us. I then made five layers of mana walls in front of the fireball and the moment it passed through those walls, the fireball changed color and turned pale blue and it's speed also instantly skyrocket. It left streams of orange flares in it's wake..
Those walls were used to coat the fireball with high-density oxygen, which greatly increases its heat.
Looking at the fireball, a great sense of satisfaction washed over me as it head to the two tigers.
"""What!?"""
The three of us exclaimed as we saw the two serpents flew in front of the fireball and breathed out a stream of water when it was around 50 meters away from it. As the fireball clashed against the stream of water, thick clouds of steam could be seen travelling upwards as the water evaporated from the heat. This clash continued for a few seconds until the water had extinguished the fireball.
"..."
I was speechless by what had occurred.
"... I forgot... if the tigers could use magic, the serpents should've also been able to use it too."
I bit my lips as I stared at the familiars.
"Those things really are overpowered..."
"Lumina-sama..."
Emilia called out my name with a worried voice. When I looked back behind me, I noticed that the clouds behind us had become dark and streaks of lightning could be seen if I looked very closely.
"Run away!"
Thanks to my warning, Emilia managed to avoid the lightning by a hair's breath. However, Mary wasn't so lucky. She was hit by a bolt of lightning and started falling to the sky. Thankfully, Vertical Rolls quickly flew towards her and caught her.
"Only two of you remain."
We suddenly heard Carlos-sama's voice from below.
"Do you concede?"
I scowled at him and replied:
"And get framed? No thank you."
"Fine then."
Carlos-sama raised one of his hands and the dark clouds behind us started converging. Emilia and I quickly separated and flew down to escape the lightning bolts in the sky. As a result, we were now being chased by the twins and their serpents.
"We need to quickly turn the tables against them..."
We couldn't concentrate mana to create new weapons. If we made a mana ball and shoot it towards them, it'd only be absorbed by the magic they casted and disappear before it hits them. They can cast a lot of powerful spells and their defenses against null element magic is almost perfect.
"But how?"
"There must me a way... if only they weren't madly firing magic at us, we would've been able to make some countermeasures."
The two of us started planning as we evaded the streams of water and lightning strikes from the sky and from the tigers. Although we were under a lot of fire, we were still able to talk to one another, despite being far away, thanks to the mana screens.
As I narrowly evaded a streak of lightning, an idea floated up in my mind.
"Mana is used to control this lightning bolt, right?"
"... Lumina-sama.... Don't tell me."
Emilia had a very worried face as she guessed what I was thinking.
"Well, we're bound to get hit sooner or later. If this idea fails, then we lose, but if it succeeds, then we may just have a chance."
Emilia breath out a sigh and nodded to me. I quickly flew up to the sky and covered my body with as much mana as I could.
"You fool!"
The instant Carlos-sama shouted I was hit by five bolts of lightning.
"Kuh-!"
The mana surrounding my body crackled as it resisted the lightning. I quickly made another layer of mana over the lightning and covered it. Though it was quite painful, I managed to gain control of the lightning. I then quickly directed it to the serpent that was chasing after Emilia.
"GuraAaaA!"
Since it didn't expect such an attack, the serpent was hit by the lightning and roared in pain before it fell to the ground.
"Haa... Haa.... It... worked... haa...."
""" What!?"""
As I panted up in the air, the people from below screamed in shock with wide open eyes. Emilia then made a mana screen beside me and said:
"Are you okay, Lumina-sama!?"
"I'm fine... haha... I managed to make it work.... However, it's quite painful...."
This was an idea I thought up and it was based on the mana weapons that were ethereal shifted. They had the ability to rob the magician's ability to control their magic if it's from the same element. I thought that it was because the weapon was made out of mana, and if it comes into contact with a magic that has the same element as that weapon, the concentrated mana inside the weapon would overwhelm the magician's mana and rob its control. Though that was only a hypotheses, but because of what I did just now, that hypotheses had just been proven.
So long as I surround my body in mana, I'm able to steal its control the moment it hits me.... However, it's quite painful.
Carlos-sama recovered from his shocked and shot another lightning bolt at me. I quickly covered my arm with mana and caught the thunderbolt.
Though it's quite hard to concentrate external mana, but by combining it with a little bit of my internal mana, I was able to concentrate just enough of it to steal the control of the magic,
"What!?"
Carlos-sama opened his eyes wide as he looked at me holding a ball of lightning. I made a smile and shot it towards one of the tigers. However, it was evaded.
"I guess this is the start of our counter attack."
I landed on the ground and made a stance with my sword of ice as I faced the two tigers. I sprinted towards them. One of the tigers pounced at me as it covered itself in lightning. I concentrated mana to my sword and parried one of its paws. I quickly robbed the tiger's control and electrocuted it.
The twins shot a stream of water towards me, however, the moment it touched the sword of ice, the stream turned into ice. I quickly slapped with my hand, breaking it apart. By using magic, I made the shards of ice fly towards them.
As I sprinted towards the other tiger, I explained to Emilia the theory behind this. She made a very hesitant face as she nodded to me. She then stopped lying in the sky and extended on of her hands to the stream of water that the last serpent fired.
Fwooosh*
The moment the water came into contact with her hand, it turned into steam and evaporated. She brandished her sword and swung it to the serpent. However, it's scales were too hard, so she wasn't able to slash it.
"Fuuu... this takes care of the tigers."
I stepped on the last unconscious tiger while I wiped the sweat out of my forehead. Since they were just animals, they were quite monotonous. When I met the charge of the second tiger, it still covered itself in lightning and, as a result, it got electrocuted just like the first tiger.
I looked up at the sky and watched Emilia. Because the serpent didn't cover itself in magic, she was having a hard time.
"Your familiars are down, you're next."
"Don't get too cocky!"
Carlos-sama raised his hand to the sky and 12 bolts of lightning descended to me. I raised my sword and covered it in mana. As the bolts of lightning descended, it became sucked in by the sword I held. Using the flick of my wrist, I redirected the lightning to him.
The twins quickly made a wall of water around them and blocked the lightning. Though I don't really know why, but the water they use to create the barrier was able to resist the lightning I redirected.
I made a small smile as I ran up the sky, leaving blue ripples behind me. While they were under the barrage of lightning, I stabbed the sword into their barrier and froze it. As a result, the twins became encapsulated in ice.
Brandishing my sword in front of Carlos-sama, I asked him with a smile.
"Do you concede?"
He warped his face badly before he raised his arms and said:
"I... concede."