With this familiar's ability to harden and soften the water at will, Ragus was able to land a couple of hits on the dark child's body. He then noticed that his enemy's body heals extremely fast and small injuries wouldn't have any effect on it. He needed a move that could impede the enemy's healing ability.
With that in mind, he summoned another familiar. It was centaur, with the body of an upper body of a human and lower body of a horse. It was holding a bow and arrow in its hands and with Ragus's command, all his familiars attacked all at once. This barrage of attacks couldn't be compared with that the dark child had faced so far.
The archmage's attack was equivalent to five mages attacking all at once. The dark child was put into a predicament as its healing ability cannot keep up with the attack. It used its tails to protect itself from the attacks but some of it were still able to infiltrate his defense. It was also weakened by its first fight.
With a last resort, it gathered dark energy around its body and when it felt that it had enough, it released it outward. The outburst simultaneously destroyed its tails, stopped the attacks and pushed back the attackers. In that short amount of time that there was an opening, the dark child materialized several tails and pierced through the familiars and Ragus while they were still in the air after being pushed back.
His four familiars and he himself were pinned on the ground as several tails came at them, stabbing them relentlessly. His familiars slowly dissolved and disappeared while he suffered greatly if not for Aviel's help. Since she specializes in healing and using holy magic, she easily dispelled the tails and saved Ragus from having any further injuries.
She then surrounded the both of them with a holy dome while he attended to the bloody man. She managed to remove the poison and heal the wounds but the man was still unconscious. Her gaze shifted to the enemy that was still trying to break her dome at a loss because her magic was not suitable for fighting.
During this time, Archmage Celes appeared and fully blocked the dark tails from the dark child. He was holding a shield of golden light on his hand and used it to destroy the tails that were attacking the dome. "Leave the enemy to me. Go to the arena, there's a safe place established there. Help the other healers."
Some mages came and carried the wounded back to the arena while Celes stayed to face the enemy. Since holy magic can work against the enemy, he wouldn't hold back. He could use his holy flames to burn the enemy.
Celes and the dark child stared at each other for a while. They were both observing their opponent while simultaneously preparing for an attack. Dark energy started to gather around the dark child while Celes was ready to attack with his holy flame.
The dark child created the dark orbs once again and this time there are more of them. He threw these orbs towards Celes. The mage tightened his grip on the shield and braced himself from the impact of the attack. He was pushed back and left skid marks on the already uneven ground.
The power from those orbs were not a joke and his shield could only diffuse a small part of them as for the rest, he needed to grit his teeth and endure. Slowly the orbs force dissipated but another batch was already in place. He was assaulted from the back and there were also orbs that changed direction and aimed at his back.
Celes raised his shield and hammered it down on the ground. Once the shield was grounded, a replica of it in golden light appeared and surrounded the man. All of these actions were completed before the orbs could hit him.
He endured until he felt the orbs weakening before he broke his shield and charged towards the dark child. The enemy was surprised for a moment before it moved back to avoid the archmage but it was futile. Celes's holy flame could still reach him. He stretched his arm and with a snap, a golden flame surrounded the dark child.
The archmage did not stop there when he saw that the dark child was again using his dark tails as a shield. He increased the mana he was pouring into flame until it transformed into a white flame that was hotter and more deadly for dark creatures. The dark child started to struggle as the white holy flame started to eat the tails he was using to protect itself. Even the dark mana it was using as a shield was starting to dissipate.
The dark child's skin was showing signs of being burned. At first his healing abilities could heal the burns but as the white flame slowly enclosed it, its wounds couldn't heal. It started to wriggle and tried to escape from the flame but no matter how it struggled the flames were keeping him in place.
Celes was already on his knees as he maintained the holy flames. It was draining too much of his mana but the enemy was still alive. He didn't know if he could keep this up until the dark child was burned. Large bead of sweat was trickling down the side of his face and his back. His breathing was becoming shallow and he could feel that his mana core was about to reach its limit.
"You are about to reach your limit." He heard a whisper that brought down chills to his spine.
He did not notice when the other party arrived and before he could do anything, he was slammed down on the ground, hard. Cracks appeared on the ground below him as he coughed out blood. He could feel the man's cold hands closing around his neck.
Both of his hands went to stop pushing away the hand that was squeezing his neck but the grip was too tight. He could not speak as he continued to struggle. He was slowly losing consciousness because of the lack of air when he heard the man speak again.
"My master fancies that child so I'll be taking him back first." Mr. C stood up after making sure that the archmage has passed out.
The holy flames also dissipated and the dark child was on the ground. Its flesh was exposed but with the holy flame gone, his ability to heal kicked in again. The injured flesh was knitted and even the skin was fixed.
"Such a convenient ability," the butler commented. He walked forward and was about to carry the child when other mages came to surround him.
He recognized that two of them were elders from the tower while the others were at least at a grand mage's level. They were fast to act when their tower was being attacked but when the city was burning they were slow to move. Such an irony.
"Put that thing down," one of them commanded.
Mr. C looked at the child in his arms then at the man who commanded him. He shook his head when he realized what they were thinking. He could already tell from those greedy eyes that they wanted to have the child and perhaps see how they could have his power.
"Only my master can order me around," he once again looked at the man, "as for you, you do not have the qualifications to do so."
Mr. C disappeared from where he was standing and appeared behind the man. He gave him a kick packed with physical power from his modified body. The elder flew and hit one of the tower's walls.
His movement surprised the mages that were surrounding him. After the initial shock, they promptly attacked Mr. C and several magic attacks hit him. There was smoke and dust as the attack did not stop.
"Stop!" The elder who was attacked stood up and commanded the mages.
He was wiping the blood from his mouth and was glaring at the direction of their enemy. He could feel the pain from that one kick and he could tell that he had a fractured rib. He couldn't believe that someone could injure him without him even fighting back.
"I'm sure that he won't survive," he spat with a smug look on his face.
