(No, I can't die like this, not without fighting. I am not a loser!)
Nick forced his eyes to widen amidst the pain and weariness that he was feeling and decided that if he was going to get past this hurdle, he had to act quickly.
(If it's to be, it's up to me.)
Nick quickly started to form the laws for Grey Room within his mindscape. The nature of the spell would allow him to quickly enter an adjacent space and maintain a non-physical form which would at least prevent him from dying from the impact of this fall. Whatever happened after that was not his concern at the moment.
The laws for Grey Room were complex but since he had cast it once before, the time needed to cast it again was significantly less and even more so when his space path attainment and talent were factored in. Nick tried to focus as he rushed the process of forming the laws which he would usually do carefully so as not to fail but he was now in desperate circumstances.
The last time that Nick had formed the laws for Grey room, it took him one and a half hours but this time, he only had maybe a minute or two before he fell to the bottom of the trench. The darkness covered Nick rapidly and soon, he became unable to see.
(Faster, faster.)
The laws for the spell formed rapidly within Nick's mindscape and by the time he was done forming the laws, one minute and fifty seconds had passed; he had made no mistakes which was an extremely unlikely outcome but Nick managed to pull it off. The magical laws for the spell shone with a dull blue light and hundreds of magic ice pillars shot up from the ground in response to their formation; the ice pillars broke apart, filling the mindscape with shining pieces of crystallized magic energy which were fed into the laws of Nick's spell.
(Grey Room.)
RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKK!
As soon as Nick cast the spell, the magic beast in the trench reacted by roaring and sending a massive gust of wind upwards but Nick was already about to leave the space that the magic beast's power could affect. Before the magic beast's power hit him, the space around Nick became a vacuum that was completely enveloped in a grey hue. Nick's body seemed like a mass of smoke as he continued to fall downwards; the magic beast's power just moved through his previous position within the adjacent space without affecting him within the 'grey room'.
(There is a flaw in my spell. Since I was not initially in control of my own movement when I entered this space, I am still not able to change the fact that I am falling despite me having used this spell to float over this trench the first time that I cast it.)
Nick could only sigh since his spells not being perfect was to be expected because he usually created them while having limited experience.
(The good thing is, however, that the images of the adjacent space aren't hidden by the ambient darkness and reveal to me a visible but greyed version of the scene in the trench.)
Nick soon stopped falling within the grey room since he had reached the equivalent of the bottom of the trench. With his magic energy rapidly decreasing, Nick used the opportunity to take a good look at the scene of the bottom of the trench. What Nick saw was an area that was completely covered in sand where a huge magic beast was currently resting on its stomach. The magic beast looked like a wolf with striped fur and an oddly bushy tail that had fur that perpetually stood up straight.
(That magic beast has to be about the length of an oil tanker and only a few feet taller. How do I prevent it from killing me when I run out of magic to maintain Grey Room?)
Nick couldn't come up with any good ideas and about three minutes later, the pain of his magic reserves almost being emptied by the spell hit him and he was forced to cancel Grey Room.
Nick was immediately forced back into the adjacent space where his flesh and blood body fell onto the sand but Nick could see nothing except pitch black. He suddenly heard the magic beast that should be resting over a dozen meters in front of him growl; Nick immediately laid still on his back in the sand and within a few seconds, the growling stopped.
(Cancelling the spell probably doesn't alert the magic beast in the same way that casting it does because the residual magic energy that results when a spell is cancelled isn't very intense.)
Nick was glad that he somehow escaped death but his circumstances were such that he was in close proximity to a creature that he had no hope of beating and which he couldn't even currently see.
(I can't even cast any spells because that would risk attracting that dog's attention which might really result in my death with it being so close to me. What do I do, I'm also still on the verge of starving to death?)
Nick felt lost and hopeless, probably the most hopeless that he had ever been. At this time, he reached out to the one person that could maybe give him some good advice.
(Slade, do you have any ideas on how to get out of this situation alive?)
Slade spoke to Nick indifferently:
[I do have an idea.]
(Really, what is it?)
[Get off your ass and go face your fear!]
Nick was shocked by Slade's suggestion, he replied:
(What do you mean?)
[The mirror that sent you back to this trench was some kind of magic tool. Do you remember what it asked you before you were sucked into it?]
Nick thought for a few moments, then replied:
(It asked where was it that I feared being the most.)
[Exactly! You answered and it sent you here. That is because you actually had fear in your 'heart'. Why, because of that puppy over there? Listen to me, if something like this makes you afraid, then you still have more mental conditioning to do. Like I said before, if you want to get out of here, get off your ass and face your fear, the consequences be damned. No one else is coming to save you.]
Slade's words hit Nick like a brick to the face, forcing him to remain silent for over five minutes. During that time, Nick explored his own reasons:
(Why am I afraid of this place? The magic beast over there is certainly strong but in comparison to the many other terrifying magic beasts and Magicians within this realm and Grand Earth, that magic beast isn't really worth considering. I remember the rank 3 wisdom path magic beast that attacked me months ago, even it died despite its strength and is there anything wrong with that? Everything that lives must die in the pursuit of their desires, weak, strong, it doesn't matter. If I wasn't afraid to die, what else would I have to be afraid of?)
Nick spent some time trying to find an appropriate answer but the only answer he could come up with was:
(Nothing.)
Nick's expression became determined and he began to slowly pick himself up off the ground. Five seconds later, he stood up straight with his eyes shut, waiting for what was to come but even after a minute passed, nothing happened. Nick opened his eyes and still saw only darkness but he was suddenly filled with an indescribable sense of courage for standing up in the face of his fears.
Slade remarked at this time:
(Pursuing power is a leap of faith, Nick. That's all it is. Don't let your fear stop you from taking that leap.)
Nick replied:
(I understand.)
Nick began to walk in the direction opposite to the giant magic beast and kept walking for as long as he could. The trench was apparently a very large area because Nick did not encounter a dead end even after four hours of walking.
(Moving for this long in abject darkness is at first hair raising but soon, it starts to feel normal. I still would still rather not try to cast a spell because of the magic beast living in this trench; I dare not underestimate the power of a rank 3 magic beast.)
Nick had that thought and took only one more step with his right leg before he could no longer voluntarily move either of his feet but began to feel the sand around his feet moving forward on its own.
(Huh, what is this? Quicksand?)
Nick tried to struggle out of the sand but the suction force was too great and three seconds later, he was completely sucked into the ground. He soon felt himself free falling and that's when he reopened his eyes after being sucked in by the sand. Nick's eyes were almost blinded by the light in the surroundings and so he squinted his eyes. When his eyes became accustomed to the light, he paid some attention to the place above him from where he fell and realized that he had fallen through a ceiling made of semi-solid soil.
(Where is this?)
Nick fell rapidly and looked down, seeing that he was approaching ground entirely made of sand. Nick quickly cast Blink and suddenly stood upright on the sand. Nick looked around at his surroundings and realized that the was currently in some kind of desert setting. There was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Nick's stomach grumbled and then he cast Space, expanding his special space as far as it could go then teleporting himself to a random position at the edge of his special space.
Nick did that six times until he finally found what he had been searching for for so long. Bathing itself in the sand, Nick saw a reptilian magic beast that was the size of a Nile crocodile and almost looked like one too except that it had six eyes on its head, three on each side. It was now doing a roll in the sand and its entire body seem lined with reflective, brown scales that lightly shone when the surrounding light came into contact with them.
(I already lost my machete so, I won't be using any blade path methods to deal with this thing but that should be fine.)
The magic beast was rolling inside a bowl shaped sand pit and did not notice Nick's movements at his elevated position. Nick decided not to hold back and pointed his right index and middle fingers at the magic beast, casting his spell while exuding a large amount of magic energy:
(Rumbling Pillar.)
The magic beast sensed the change in the flow of magic energy almost immediately and stopped rolling in the sand. It turned its body towards Nick's position and raised its head, eyeing him with a vacant stare. The space around it soon started to violently warp and twist within an eight meter radius but the magic beast only lightly shook its head and seemingly disappeared from its position, not being trapped by the warping space. Nick was shocked:
(Where is it?)
Within less than a second, the large crocodile appeared in front of Nick having lunged at him from its original position with its maw that was filled with razor like, pointed teeth wide open and surrounding Nick on both sides.
(Shit!)
Nick balled his left hand without thinking and pumped it forward into the mouth of the magic beast, casting a spell that he had never used before but put much of his mental effort into completing it during the previous few days:
(Rumble.)
The space immediately in front of Nick's left fist loudly crackled and visibly shook, then a explosive linear force was released from that point that blasted the magic beast back into the sand pit. Nick had already cancelled Rumbling Pillar so the sand pit was as quiet as a grave after the magic beast landed in it.
(Blink.)
Nick appeared beside the still magic beast's body and examined it. It's six eyes were still opened but its stare was completely vacant, even more so than before; it was clearly lifeless. Nick forcefully opened its mouth with his two hands and looked inside of it. The insides of the magic beast were completely destroyed, only blood and mangled flesh being visible.
(Rumble is only a rank 2 basic grade spell but it is very effective against flesh.)
Nick didn't waste any time and cupped his right hand, taking up scoops of the magic beast's blood and drinking it while keeping its mouth open with his left hand. After his his thirst abated, Nick used his right index finger to cast Sever and separated pieces of the magic beast's flesh from the rest of it and swallowed those pieces until his hunger was satisfied.
Nick cast Growth thereafter and feeling a burst of magic energy within himself, he sat in the sand pit cross legged to meditate. The usual whirlpool of magic energy formed overhead and Nick spent four hours processing the magic energy within his body and then afterwords taking in magic energy from the surroundings until he began to feel mentally fatigued.
(Sigh, after so many days without any sleep and being under constant stress, I'm barely able to get through a session of meditation.)
After his physical needs were taken care of, Nick began to ponder about his situation:
(Where the hell am I? This place seems like some kind of desert and is well lit but I don't, in fact, see a light source anywhere, just a broad expanse of sand.)
Nick stood up and walked out of the sand pit and looked towards the horizon in front of him, thinking:
(Even if I use Space to cross all that distance, I may not be able to find anything worthwhile that way since I may not be able to accurately sense every inch of this desert with my special space. I'll be walking from here on out.)
Nick dusted off his clothes and began walking forward with the sand at his feet. Nick didn't carry the magic beast's carcass along with him because he didn't want the smell of it to attract other magic beasts.
(I've now seen two rank 3 magic beasts since coming to the Never Ending Battlefield and I'm not looking forward to seeing any more so I'll keep as low a profile as possible while I'm in this place.)
Nick walked in the desert for hours but did not come across anything of note until he encountered what seemed like an oasis in the desert. It was a small pool of clear water that had clumps of grass growing at its edges. Nick quickly moved towards the oasis in order to check it out.
He knelt down on both knees at its edge and scooped up some of the water into his mouth, then he washed his face with it. Feeling refreshed, Nick decided to rest at this oasis for a while before he moved on. He sat cross legged near to the water, merely thinking about the events that led him to this point since he came to the undergrounds months ago. Nick was wrapped up in his own thoughts for a seemingly long time until he heard someone speak right beside him:
"It's boring here isn't it?"
Nick absentmindedly turned his head to find the person that had asked the question. To his surprise, he saw someone that looked identical to himself, even the clothes and muck that were on his body was identical to Nick's. Nick somehow felt unperturbed by the person's mysterious appearance and asked calmly:
"Who are you?"
The person replied:
"Me? I'm no one. You don't looked very frightened by my appearance. Aren't you afraid that I might be a magic beast that's come to eat you?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders and replied:
"After the past few months that I've had, I don't think that you're worth being afraid of. If you're going to try to kill me or eat me, just go ahead and see what happens."
The person sitting beside Nick laughed in response to his words saying:
"Oh, so you're not afraid. That's good. Tell me, what do you think of these little sub-subterranean floors?"
Nick was a little wary of this person since this entire situation was bizarre so he asked Slade internally:
(Can you tell what or who this person is, Slade?)
Slade replied indifferently:
[No, I cannot see through this person but they are definitely real and are emitting an odd power that I am having trouble identifying.]
Since Slade could give him no answers, Nick decided to converse with the person:
"The undergrounds is strange, some parts of it that I've seen indicate to me that this place has been designed, at least in part, by something intelligent."
The person beside Nick replied:
"Oh, do you have any idea who?"
Nick answered indifferently:
"How would I possibly have any idea? It's only a suspicion, nothing more."
The person smiled and asked another question:
"What if there was a way to find out more about the origins of this place, would you be interested in finding out?"
Nick's interest was piqued and he replied:
"Sure, do you have a way?"
The person's smile grew even wider and he replied:
"You should turn this place into a real battlefield. There are too many complacent people here wasting the opportunity that they have."
Nick was confused at hearing that and asked:
"How would I do that?"
The person looked Nick squarely in the eyes and said:
"You don't need me to tell you that. I think that you already know how."
Nick suddenly heard a rumbling behind him and turned around while getting to his feet to witness a large stone monolith rise out of the ground. This stone monolith was similar to the one that had risen to the surface months ago except that the drawings on it were different.
Nick looked at the monolith then tried to find the person that he was just talking to but they seemed to have disappeared. Nick asked internally:
(Slade, did you see where he went?)
Slade replied:
[That person vanished without a trace, I didn't notice when they left either.]
Nick felt that this entire situation was just too strange but he ignored his doubts for the moment and decided to examine the monolith in front of him. It took him only a few seconds to get an overview of what the drawings on the monolith were about.
"This is another rank 4 spell, drawn in the same style as the rank 4 water path spell from before except that this is a space path spell."
Nick felt excited all of a sudden after realizing that he was being given some kind of opportunity but he did not quite understand why he was being given it.
(What does this mean?)
Nick quickly shook his head, getting rid of those thoughts since there was no way for him to get an answer. He placed his entire focus on the monolith and began studying it.
"This rank four space path spell is called Gravity Field and it is made up of three sub spells, namely: the rank 1 spell, Pull, the rank 2 spell, Push and the rank 3 spell, Gravity Shift. All of the the spells are intermediate grade except the rank 1 spell which is basic grade."
Nick spent some more time examining the monolith before coming to a few conclusions:
"This rank 4 spell is very complex and even if I was to learn its laws, I cannot actually cast it. I can't even cast the rank 3 Gravity Shift with my rank 2 magic energy. All in all, its going to take me a long time to learn this spell even with my master attainment in space path."
Nick remembered Jessica and the condition she was in the last time that he saw her.
"Ha, if she can spend so much time on studying that monolith, why wouldn't I be able to do the same. Not to mention that I doubt that Jessica is a water path master."
Nick sat down at the base of the monolith and began studying it that moment. Time passed and whenever he felt thirsty, he would drink the water from the nearby oasis and occasionally, an unfortunate magic beast would wander towards the oasis and become Nick's next meal.
In this manner, eight months passed...
Nick got up from his sitting position and flexed his muscles, saying:
"I'm finally done with this monolith. It was an interesting read and I certainly learnt alot but now its time to go. Oh!"
Nick suddenly felt a rush of information enter his mind and he was now aware of how to return to the first floor of the undergrounds from his current position. Nick smiled, muttering:
"Make this place into a battlefield, huh? That's probably in my best interest now that I think about it since the exam should end in about two years."
Nick thought back to the person that he had talked to months ago that made the suggestion to him and remarked:
"Will do."
***************************************
Jessica Jones rose from her position in the grass and looked at the monolith in front of her with eyes filled with emotion.
"I can't believe that I spent almost two years studying his monolith. I bet Gramps and Rebecca would praise me for it."
Jessica suddenly heard a deep voice behind her speak:
"You're referring to Rebecca Jones, right, the light path Traveler Magician?"
Jessica turned around, feeling soreness in her muscles and looked at the person who had spoken to her. He was a black man with very neatly cut hair that wore the green Ministry of Magic military uniform. She asked with a course tone:
"Who are you?"
The man gave a light smile and replied:
"My name is Roy Mathers and I'm an officer with the Ministry of Magic as you should have already guessed. I was feeling bored being in my office so I decided to come and take a look at this monolith since I never actually bothered coming to see it before. You're a water path Magician, right? I heard that you've been sitting in front of this monolith for a long time so you must have learnt a great deal."
Jessica kept her mouth shut as Roy walked closer and kept eyeing the smile on his face.
(That's the smile of a hypocrite. I've seen it alot when Gramps used to bring his 'friends' around.)
Roy noticed Jessica's silence and continued speaking anyway:
"Word is that this monolith details a rank 4 spell and although other water path magicians tried to learn it, they eventually got tired of the long process and left to fight for the other unearthed benefits of the undergrounds. The fact that you stayed to study the spell for so long makes you quite special. What do you say to putting your comprehension to the test, Ms. Jones."
Roy raised his right hand and pointed in towards Jessica. Jessica immediately went on alert but her body felt so weak that she had trouble maintaining her focus which made it almost impossible to cast a spell. The air around Jessica suddenly felt like it turned into iron restraints as she could no longer move her body and simply looked at Roy with unconcealed malice. Roy spoke in response:
"Oh, relax. I'm just probing you a little since you're one of the heirs to the Jones fortune but you seem to be too weak to put up a fight so I won't impose any further. I wouldn't want your sister asking me for an explanation later."
Jessica suddenly felt as if the restraints around her were released and she could move freely again.
Roy moved a bit closer to Jessica and said:
"By the way, after you get cleaned up, why don't you and I sit down to have a good dinner in my office? I'll have the chef cook you something nice."
Jessica spoke weakly in response to Roy's offer:
"Suck on my..."
Before Jessica could finish her sentence, however, Roy's phone rang and he quickly answered it, asking:
"What, I'm busy?"
Roy's face contorted for a moment and then he asked:
"What do you mean that someone is massacring students and soldiers at the settlement?"
************************************
A few minutes ago...
Nick suddenly appeared on the surface of the grassy plain, at the edge of the opening to the undergrounds and took a look at the surroundings, thinking:
(There are many students here right now but not enough to kick start my holy war. I should go to the settlement.)
Nick cast Blink and disappeared from his position, casting it a few more times afterwords until he arrived at the settlement. Many tents filled the area that was busy with the movement and chattering of students and soldiers. Nick waited for a few minutes to recover his magic energy, then cast two of his spells:
(Pull.)
(Push.)
Nick slowly began to raise himself into the air and stopped when he was nearly eighteen meters above the ground.
(Pull and Push are both space path spells with the former having the effect that it pulls an object along a defined space and the latter does the opposite of pushing an object along a defined space. Using them together allows me to achieve a similar effect to flight or at least levitation.)
Nick stood out in midair, mostly because he was so disheveled and also due to the fact that he was exuding a large amount of magic energy at the moment. Some students looked at him from their positions on the ground and recognized him, saying:
"Hey, isn't that that Nick Capitol guy? Rumors are that no one has seen him for months but man, he sure does have alot of enemies."
"I know, right. They've been harping on his name for months while looking for him in the undergrounds but no one found him."
"What's he planning to do up there?"
"Maybe he is going to make an announcement."
...
The soldier's who were witnessing the same scene, however, jumped to different conclusions. Someone commanded the others around him:
"Quick, someone report this to Sergent McKoy."
"For what? Its just some kid making a scene, the Sergent is currently exploring the undergrounds with a platoon and won't be coming back for a while."
"Yeah, that kid looks like he's about to try something but we can certainly handle a lone student ourselves."
...
Nick cast Space to cover the entirety of the settlement, then he pointed his right arm forward with his palm wide open, facing forward and softly muttered:
"Push."
A large cloud of magic power erupted from Nick and before anyone could react to what he was doing, a violent pushing force spread throughout the entire settlement, displacing everything that was covered by Nick's special space.
Dirt, rocks, tents, buildings, people and other things flew about, being thrown like rag dolls under the influence of Nick's spell; Nick heard many screams coming from below but he ignored them entirely and focused on controlling his magic power.
By the time, the effect of push ceased acting on the settlement, the area had become a shallow crater, no longer recognizable as the grass rich, flat area from before. The tents and other large objects were now lying around the edges of the crater like common rubble and the people who had not properly guarded themselves against Nick's spell and were not killed were now picking themselves up, out of the rubble; those latter persons were mostly students while the soldiers and students that had sensed Nick's intention and guarded themselves were now standing within the crater dusting themselves off and assessing the damage done.
One soldier remarked loudly:
"That kid up there sure has alot of guts to tear this place apart but those guts have landed him into hot water!"
"Hmph! by the time I'm done with him, his whore of a mother won't even recognize him."
"I'm going to shit down that kid's throat!"
"Sigh, young men are too impulsive. Just because we cannot kill him, does he think that we are easy to trifle with?"
...
While the soldiers were getting angry and rowdy, the students within the crater looked at Nick with a mix of suspicion, shock and awe. Many were saying:
"How is Nick Capitol so powerful?"
"We all came here at the same time almost eight years ago but he seems to have grown by leaps and bounds. No wonder he killed so many students single handedly in the past."
"All of you, stop dick riding that guy and prepare yourselves! He is obviously about to make a move!"
...
Nick looked down on everyone present and without saying a word, he cast Still Space while expanding his special space to cover a greater area and everyone immediately felt the effect as their magic spells became harder to control and maintain because the magic energy within the surroundings started to thin and even dissipate; the air within the surroundings was also getting thinner by the second.
One soldier immediately cast a spell while shouting its name:
"Frozen Rain!"
The skies above the area suddenly became dark and a shower ice spikes began to rain down towards Nick. Nick snorted and cast:
(Soul Pulse.)
An a strong, magical force suddenly erupted from Nick in every direction and shattered the ice spikes for many meters around. Nick then quickly directed the power of pull within the area of his special space and dozens of people were quickly pulled into the air, being raised fifteen meters withing less than two seconds. Nick then directed the power of Push once more to slam the affected persons back into the ground at terrifying speeds. Many that were not able to overcome the effects of Still Space were splattered on the ground like eggs that hit the sidewalk while the rest were able to use their various methods to cushion their descent or release themselves from the effects of Push; many specks of lights appeared and disappeared.
Suddenly, a middle aged soldier with a stiff expression and dark eyes appeared two meters away from Nick in midair and swung a one meter long, slim, one edged sword at him, casting a spell:
(Sword Flash)
A sharp sword aura was thrown at Nick at blinding speed but Nick was ready for such a ranged attack.
(Half A Kilometer.)
Nick's defensive measure activated, putting five hundred meters between himself and the sword aura and giving Nick enough time to move away from the trajectory of the attack by manipulating the effects of Push and Pull on himself. The attacking soldier, seeing that his attack did not reach Nick, cast another spell while swing his sword toward his roaming opponent:
(Catapulting Sword)
The soldier's body flickered and then appeared right beside Nick. The soldier didn't stop there, he swung the blade of the sword at Nick's head and cast a spell:
(Revenge Slice)
The sword emanated a bright red aura and seemingly crashed into the side of Nick's head but when the sword aura and blade were only millimeters away, Nick manipulated his special space, teleporting himself directly behind the soldier at which point Nick traced a horizontal line at the soldier's back, casting:
(Big Sever.)
A wide, formless curve of magic energy immediately flew towards the middle aged soldier's back but feeling the intense threat, he was about to cast another one of his spells when he sensed his soul shake and his mind suddenly went into chaos.
(Spirit Quake.)
Nick was simply too good at coordinating and casting his spells. Since he was a soul path scholar, casting a rank 2 spell like Spirit Quake only required milliseconds, outpacing the soldier who was probably not even a master of his main path. The power of Big Sever slammed into and pierced through the soldier from behind without any resistance. The soldier was cut in half at the midsection and transformed into specks of light and disappeared.
The students on the ground opened their eyes wide at seeing this, not believing what had just happened. In their minds, the soldiers combat abilities were far superior to theirs and they never thought that a fellow student would be able to kill on like Nick did. Some of the students, however, soon sobered and realized the predicament that they were in and so they began casting their spells, with difficulty, at Nick.
Wind blades, poison gas, snow pellets, fireballs and other spells were all cast at Nick but he manipulated his special space to adeptly dodge them all and when a few other soldiers tried to get involved by casting their spells from the ground, Nick immediately cast his own spell:
(Soul Pressure.)
An irresistible pressure began to bear down on the people below and almost everyone affected by it buckled except for a few older soldiers that gritted their teeth and stayed standing. One of those soldiers situated at the outer edge of the crowd who was a woman in her early thirties who also had an athletic body clapped her hands and the earth around her rumbled before two giant arms made of stone and dirt rose up from the ground and reached for Nick with swatting speed. Nick quickly pointed at the woman and cast Exchange Space, switching places with her but immediately used the power of Pull to drag her back to the ground with cannonball like speed before she could regain her composure.
Most Magicians knew a simple levitating spell that could allow them to 'fly' but it was actually very rare that a Magician at rank 2 could skillfully battle once they left the ground or a surface that they could stand on and so once a rank 2 Magician was forceful placed in midair, they were often momentarily disoriented. The woman fell towards the ground under the influence of Pull and Soul Pressure and found herself unable to cast another spell because of being bombarded by their influence and so she was quickly splattered on the ground, looking like an insect splattered on a windshield; her corpse transformed into specks of light and disappeared, leaving a big red stain in the surrounding grass.
The giant hands made of dirt and stone collapsed immediately following her death and Nick used Blink to regain his previous position and pointed his right index and middle fingers at the center of the gathering of over one hundred people, pouring much of his magic energy into one spell:
(Rumbling Pillar.)
Nick's body continued to exude a large cloud of magic power as the space below him warped and twisted in a frenzy within an eight meter radius, affecting dozens of people who were still being affected by the effects of Still Space and Soul Pressure.
For a few moments, that area became akin to a meat grinder as many students and soldiers succumbed to the tearing and crushing effects of Rumbling Pillar. Many specks of white light appeared and then disappeared, indicating the deaths of dozens of people.
When the effects of Rumbling Pillar had dissipated, more than half the remaining people had been killed. The remaining soldiers and students who had been injured to varying degrees eyed the floating Nick with a mix of hatred and rage. Just as Nick was about to continue his slaughter by casting another spell, he heard a loud shout from somewhere below.
"Terrible Qi Shock!"
From his high vantage point, Nick witnessed a cloud a pale red miasma spread into the surroundings then expand quickly after which the miasma exploded with a dull crimson light, breaking apart Nick's special space and forcefully cancelling the effects of Still Space. The surrounding ground rumbled, the air became filled with violent wind currents and most of the people within the vicinity except a few students and soldiers at the outer edges of the area of effect were all killed by the explosion, transforming into specks of light and disappearing.
Nick slowly fell to the ground coughing out multiple mouthfuls of blood and suffering from severe backlash, resulting from his spells being forcefully broken. He used the effects of Push and Pull to guide him to the ground safely and turned his attention to the source of that explosive spell who was now easy to pinpoint because of the massive amounts of magic power that he was radiating. The man who looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties walked towards Nick with both his hands within the pants pockets of his uniform while wearing a smug grin, shouting:
"Nobody move! I'm going to teach this young man here some manners and I do not want anyone to interfere! This is a direct order from Roy Mathers, junior military enforcer of the Ministry of Magic!"
The remaining soldiers immediately dropped their hostile intentions towards Nick and just watched as Roy moved in closer to the obviously hurting young man.
Nick looked at Roy indifferently and Roy looked at him the same. Roy spoke, revealing no intention to end the conflict peacefully:
"Let me teach you how to fear death."