Tainera's mouth stood open as she unloaded a torrent of starlight unto the Starsling Kingdom's navy. But she couldn't use her attack for too long since it took incredible amounts of mana and stamina, so the light eventually died down, revealing what remained of the Starsling Kingdom's ships.
The ships that hadn't been struck directly by the light were more or less intact. But their barriers flickered, showing how little it would take to finish them off.
Out of the ships that faced the beam of starlight head-on, the only one relatively intact was Dristel's ship. The other ships were mostly wreckage or completely disintegrated. Taienra hadn't held back against the Starsling Kingdom at all when using her strongest attack. Her grudge might not have been as harsh as Tasha's, but she and Asilean still hated the Starsling Kingdom with a burning fury.
When the Starlight faded and the Void returned to its usual ambiance, Dristel's ship still had most of its barrier up and ready to go, which caught Toz and the others by surprise. Taienra might still be a sixth level beast, but the power of her attack far exceeded her level with how powerful it was, especially when backed by the mana stored in the trees on her back.
The two sailboats carrying some of the Bunglehoppers, a couple of cats, and the pirate leaders, didn't stop just because the biggest ship had survived. They carried out their plan and targeted the ships that survived Taienra's attack. The pirate leaders could guess why the ship remained intact, and while they weren't sure Toz would be able to deal with it on his own, Toz didn't actually have to fight Dristel.
Dristel's phantom spear of aura that he used to defend against Taienra's beam shattered shortly after the starlight faded. And it showed on Dristel's face that it had taken a lot of energy to maintain that spear and defend the ship against the beam. However, Dristel was still far from being so exhausted that he would just keel over and die at the hands of the people who kidnapped his brother and baited him into a trap.
Dristel only took a few moments' rest before he conjured an almost solid spear of wind in his hand as he let go of his ordinary spear.
Dristel took aim and launched the spear at Taienra since she was the one responsible for the devastation of his fleet. Dristel watched, almost red-eyed, as his Piercing Gale tore through the air and the Void straight at Taienra.
However, his eyes widened in surprise and confusion as the spear stopped moving in the middle of its journey. No, it hadn't stopped moving completely. It just moved so slowly that it looked like the spear had frozen in the middle of the air.
Dristel had enough experience to realize instantly that the space mage had joined the battle, so he looked around while still keeping an eye on Taienra, Stris, and Toz. However, no matter where he looked, he only saw the two sailboats in the distance rummaging through the wreckage in search of survivors and treasure.
Dristel turned his gaze toward Toz, who had dumped Stris on Taienra's back. The black-haired man was a mage with multiple attributes. There could be several reasons for a mage to have several attributes, and a lot of inclinations that granted their mage those attributes didn't limit the amount or variety. It was just that mages rarely had enough skill with each element to use it proficiently in combat.
However, if Dristel's suspicions were true, the black-haired man used at least four different attributes with enough skill to contend against him, a ninth level fighter. Although Dristel had easily shaken off the first spell that was likely to be of the darkness attribute, he had no way to tell if it was because he was stronger or because Toz had held back.
Toz was also good enough at lightning and void magic to outrun one of the main fleets of the Starsling Kingdom. And that was without using the space attribute to try and actually flee. Though, as far as Dristel knew, using more attributes at the same time put a tremendous burden on the mage's mind, so maybe Toz was limited to using two attributes at once. However, Dristel didn't assume his guess was true as he prepared to face Toz, who slowly drifted through the Void to the ship.
Dristel held off on launching the Piercing Gale in his hand. He had dispelled the first one since it needlessly consumed his martial energy, but it would be useless trying to throw another if it would simply get stuck in space again.
Toz looked at Dristel and the ship, not really sure what to do.
Though he and Dristel would probably be irreconcilable enemies, so Toz's worries were mostly about how to kill him. It had taken a lot of effort to stop the wind spear by widening the space in its path. Toz could do it again and again if he needed to, but he wouldn't be able to do much else. Using basic magic to block a martial technique only worked because he wasn't blocking it. He was only extending its flight path.
Toz also wasn't confident in directly facing Dristel. The difference was four levels, and Dristel held an overwhelming advantage regarding techniques and fighting experience. Although Toz had his multiple elements and his body and mana at the sixth refinement, he wasn't sure he could match up to a fighter at the ninth level who had trained his martial energy rigorously by honing it with several techniques. The density of the Piercing Gale was enough proof of the quality of Dristel's martial energy.
Toz kept an eye on the spear of wind in Dristel's hand so that he could impede its advance as soon as it flew out of Dristel's hand. While doing that, Toz also began rousing his fire mana.
Dristel had easily blocked Taienra's beam of starlight due to its size and how spread out the power was. However, it wouldn't be as easy blocking a fireball the size of a human head.
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