The Runic Alchemist

He had already memorized half of it, but not by intention—just by trying to figure out what the effect would be. It was a habit of his whenever he saw a new spell: trying to decipher it before it activated.

The runic circles were completed; in a second, over 20 giant, thick, interlinked chains started coming out of the runic circles. They were visible to everyone—bright sky blue with white ones mixed in. Each link of the chain was around the size of a grown elephant when they emerged, but the second they reached near Land-breaker, they shrunk down to his size.

The 20-plus chains wrapped Land-breaker in completely—even his giant sword attacks or the push of raw mana were very little effective against it.

There was a brief moment between a spell launching and its runic circle finishing when one could sense the full amount of mana required to create the spell—and this one had approximately 400,000 points worth of mana. Over double what a waygate spell required for activation.

The bright blue chains were the ones trapping Land-breaker, but the white chains were the ones that extended from Land-breaker’s body to the ground where the four runic relics were. One by one, they started changing color—and with it, Damian could feel visible changes in Asael’s body and surroundings.

A pure blue chain seemed to radiate cold from itself—when it connected with Land-breaker, it looked like his movements suddenly became slower than normal. A purple chain seemed to have an electric buzz in it; whenever Land-breaker tried to forcefully break it, the purple chain started giving him millions of volts of electric shocks. Then there was a green chain that seemed to move all the chains flexibly to negate Land-breaker’s applied force with constant shifting.

An abyssal black chain seemed to manipulate Land-breaker’s gravity artificially, keeping him forcefully connected to the land. There was another rustic brown-grey-like chain that seemed to mess with Land-breaker’s senses—the last one was just a guess, but Damian had recognized a runic section similar to those pink psychic attacks the pigmen monsters often launched.

That was one fucked up relic—specially made to trap powerful individuals. Guess this is where Hellstorm’s confidence came from. He was hoping to deal with Land-breaker using the two transcendents and this dungeon relic. He made Asael angry on purpose so he wouldn’t take long to come back and start fighting.

The only thing Damian could say to that was… it was a gutsy fucking move. The ambition of killing a fourth-ranker—it would indeed result in great rewards if they succeeded. Sea Snake’s biggest rival would be gone. Maybe Hellstorm would gain enough levels and insight to become a fourth-ranker himself. The possibilities were endless. But the cost of failing was huge too.

There was no way in hell he would let Faerunias succeed in their greedy attempts to gobble everything up. After all the harassment Sanctuary had gone through at their hands, a debt was owed. On the other hand, Land-breaker and Mindseer were simply closer to him than that damned Sea Snake and his lackeys.

Damian activated the mana disruption runic spells, and in a few seconds the chains lost their power—Land-breaker unleashed tremendous amounts of aura and broke the translucent chains into pieces. Then he swung his giant blade hard overhead and split the two vortexes like they were simple trees.

What irony that a spell powered by 400,000 mana points worth of mana could be stopped by barely 20 thousand mana points worth of spell?

After that, Damian just stood there watching the show, not doing anything at all. He did neutralize any attacks that might go in the direction of the city below—nothing other than that, till Land-breaker and Mindseer were finished.

A mage fighting alone against a swordsman was simply a disaster waiting to happen unless the guy had overwhelming spells or dangerous skills. But not every mage was the Spellmaster herself. Most mages never tried to master elements outside of their affinities, thinking it a waste of time—but when a fight was with an enemy of equal power, these variations in spells and the ability to keep oneself ready for every possible disadvantage were what separated a great mage from a mediocre one.

Vidalia actually wasn’t even a mage, yet she was called Spellmaster because elves had naturally high mana pools and practiced spells of different elements from a very young age—not to mention their long lifespans gave them plenty of time to master swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and all the tricks a seasoned warrior needed. Rarely did any elf in history choose a path other than spellsword or mage.

Hellstorm fought valiantly, but against a fourth-ranker, his strength and beautiful swordsmanship were simply meaningless. The Land-breaker slammed Hellstorm into the ground beside the corpse of Depthcaller.

Mindseer had shown not an inch of mercy. She didn’t hesitate for a second before she impaled the mage with her shapeshifting light sword.

Hellstorm saw his companion’s dead eyes and finally realized he was done for. He might have thought about being captured and imprisoned, but dying might not have felt like a real possibility until it was right before his eyes. Hellstorm’s face distorted—regret and sadness clear on his face.

He turned away from Depthcaller and just sprawled on the ground. His left hand was bleeding profusely—Land-breaker had cut it off with his huge-ass sword long ago.

“Do it,” Hellstorm said to Land-breaker towering above him. “If you are a true knight as they say in stories, tell them Hellstoren of Calmera did not beg for life while doing his duty. Tell them he died as a knight should.”

***

[Land-breaker’s POV]

Land-breaker gritted his teeth, his face filled with disappointment and anger. Not for someone trying to claim his home—but because power, strength, and individuals with immense talent and courage were wasting their hard-earned strength for nothing more than a petty dispute.

Why do they never see it?

This was not the only thing mankind was supposed to do. These useless games of power were not the point. There was more—there had to be more. They had been stuck here for far too many centuries.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!