The fight entered a lull, the mist was still trying to engulf Edward but it wasn’t able to find any grasp through the darkness protecting him. Thana was waiting, her senses were unable to penetrate the darkness, and she was still believing that the panthers she had summoned were harassing Edward. He had been able to fend them off before, but not to take the upper hand. With his previous display of power Thana estimated that even if the panthers weren’t able to kill him, they should be more than enough to distract him and cause an opening inside his airtight defenses.

However, as nothing changed, Edward maintained his position without any external display of weakness, she had to accept the facts. She had underestimated Edward and her panthers had perished without giving any result. Even if she had the advantage in terms of quantity, her mist surrounding Edward from all sides, he was like a rock anchored inside the sea. He may be battered by the waves but it would take ages before he yielded to the forces assaulting him.

The mist pulsed in annoyance, with new monsters being summoned. Rather than summoning more panthers which had proven ineffective and were costly in energy, another type of monster appeared on the battlefield. Strange quadruped covered in scales and the size of a large boars came out of the mist, they looked like lizards with a scorpion’s tail.

What is happening now? Is she summoning more monsters? It’s fine by me. Keep coming, I’ll keep devouring you. Once inside my domain, you won’t be able to escape.

One by one the reptiles bend their segmented tail above their body and shoot a glob of something at the darkness. Ranged monsters? Shit! The globs reached the darkness protecting Edward and exploded on contact, destroying parts of it and disturbing the rest, provoking weak points for the mist. Immediately the mist stepped inside and tore the darkness piece by piece.

Fuck!! Realizing he was losing control Edward had no choice but to decrease the range of the darkness, tightening it and consolidating it to resist the mist’s offensive. He regained control, the mist unable to progress further, however, the root of the problem was still there, and the monsters were already preparing themselves for a second salvo.

I can’t let them do as they please. At this rate, I won’t be able to resist for long. I have to stop them before they can tear my domain apart.

Edward charged forward, willing to bring the darkness to them. He had defeated the panthers easily and those monsters appeared far weaker. However, even if he was able to move, he realized that the darkness wasn’t able to move with him, the mist was battering at it, locking it in place.

He wasn’t able to destroy the monsters before they fired their second salvo.

This time knowing what to expect, Edward controlled the darkness to let the globs of energy pass through his domain without touching them. However, this wasn’t as easily accomplished as he thought. His domain was still covering a vast surface, and any opening he made to avoid those explosive projectiles was immediately used by the mist as entry points. The projectiles passed through Edward’s dark veil and exploded when they touched the ground which still damaged part of the darkness. Additionally, Edward now had to fight back the mist that had managed to get inside, but he had at least prevented the darkness from being torn apart.

This can’t go on.

Edward summoned his clones, more than thirty of them appeared at once. They rushed out of the darkness, bouncing on the monsters before they could react. Being ranged attackers and taken by surprise, the monsters offered little resistance. However, even as they died, they simply collapsed into mist, merging with the ambient haze, their loss minimal.

Edward had his clones withdraw back inside his domain, the mist wasn’t able to destroy them immediately but it still applied low damage over time. The damage was low for each individual clone but multiplied by thirty it made a large quantity of aura to replenish.

Naturally, Thana wasn’t done, no sooner had the clones withdrawn that she summoned a second wave of monsters. The vast majority of them were the same scorpion-tailed lizards but there were also a few that were specialized for melee. They looked like starfishes with barbed arms and a single eye in the middle of their body.

This is not working. Killing them is not hindering her at all, she gets back most of the energy. I need to take their blood essence from myself.

His clones charged again, whatever he tried it would be better than staying passive and taking a beating. This time the monsters were ready for him and the starfishes interposed themselves, attempting to block the clones from advancing with their many arms. Even if they didn’t manage to kill the clones, it was a win for them as long as they prevented the clones from killing the lizards throwing explosive globs at the darkness. Moreover, the longer the clones stayed in the mist the costlier it was for Edward. The starfishes acted with no regard for their safety, satisfied with getting killed if it managed to stall the clones.

But Edward wasn’t stupid, he knew killing them wouldn’t amount to much. Instead of going for a killing blow his clones grabbed the starfishes and threw them at the darkness. With the path clear in front of them they were free to take care of the lizards. Depending on the state of the lizards, they either killed them if they were about to launch projectiles, or also threw them at the darkness if they still had the time to do so.

Of course, just like the mist the darkness wasn’t enough to instantly slaughter the monsters, but Edward’s clones withdrew again, rushing back inside his domain and slaughtering the monsters. Now trapped within the darkness the mist wasn’t able to escape and ended up feeding Edward.

The mist shook from anger but grew deathly still the next instant. Tension rose as eerie silence stretched for several seconds.

What is she doing? I would have preferred if she had become enraged and summoned an army of monsters. I have no idea what to expect, but I know for sure that I’m not done with her.

The silence was broken by the screeches and flashes of light from multiple high-powered lasers strafing Edward’s darkness. Thana had no way to know Edward’s position but she was targeting the darkness as much as his real body.

As the shroud of darkness became pierced from all sides, Edward had no way to maintain it, and he canceled the skill. However, this time the mist didn’t rush to consume the lingering pieces of darkness. It seemed the lasers were as damaging to it as the mist, and the two couldn’t coexist together.

Edward only kept a veil of darkness around him to protect him from the lingering mist. A few centimeters were enough to negate the mist’s devouring power while being small enough to not become a target.

Holes opened in the mist as they parted ways for the lasers to shoot. Most came from above at different angles, but sometimes they came from the side or even from the ground. Edward had no choice but to run around randomly to avoid them. With the mist hindering the lasers and Edward still impervious to it with the small layer of darkness protecting him, Thana let it dissipate.

With the mist thinning, Edward was able to discern the origin of the lasers. Portals opened seemingly randomly with the lasers shooting out of them for a second before closing and opening somewhere else. Edward had to stay focused to avoid them all as their numbers kept increasing. However, he didn’t have to multitask managing the darkness and his clones, so it was almost a relief for him. Running around avoiding multiple attacks coming his way was something he was used to, mobility had always been his strong point.

As the lasers kept multiplying, the air filled with the smell of ozone. The beams of energy left trails of ionized air and smoking trenches behind them, Edward could taste iron in his mouth.

He wasn’t faster than light, there was no way for him to outrun lasers but there was a slight delay between the moment a portal opened and the moment a laser came out of it. This delay was far too small for an ordinary human to take advantage of it but at Edward’s current speed, it was enough to adjust his position and avoid the high-power beams of energy coming at him.

Even though the situation would have appeared dire for an outsider, with Edward running for his life without the means to retaliate, he felt at ease. Those lasers may be powerful but as long as he wasn’t hit, Thana was wasting way more energy than him. He was fine with letting her exhaust herself. His speed and mobility were enough for him to weave through them even though they came at odd angles.

Even when he found himself in the air to avoid a laser targeting his feet while another shot at him from above, he was able to form aura platforms to act as feet and handholds to redirect himself.

She is waiting for me to make a mistake. Keep dreaming, this won’t happen. No matter how powerful your attacks are, they are useless if they can’t reach me.

Thana seemed to realize that Edward was worse than a weasel, enjoying the laser show rather than fearing for his life. From then on, the lasers became more cunning. Instead of lasers shooting at all times, they shot at irregular intervals. One moment the battlefield became deadly skill, and the next it resounded with a dozen lasers shot all at once. This prevented Edward from falling into a rhythm and he had to maintain his focus at all times.

Additionally, Thana was predicting his moves in advance, adjusting her lasers to force him into positions where had no escape. This worked especially well, forcing him into a dangerous position, that was until he teleported away. With a hundred-meter domain in which his teleportation had no cooldown, Thana had no way to pin him down.

The crater that Pescara had become was poked with smoking holes and trenches caused by all the lasers but Edward hadn’t taken a single hit yet. Nonetheless, Thana continued in her endeavor. After twenty minutes of lasers shooting at him from random angles and intervals Edward was already a lot less confident. The irregular attacks meant he couldn’t lose focus even for an instant.

Keeping perfect focus for a short duration wasn’t that hard, usually a battle of life and death was decided within ten minutes. But from the moment he had entered the mist already an hour had passed and the fight was far from over. Edward was struggling to maintain his concentration and already he had had to use his teleportation to correct for small mistakes, lest he got hit by a laser. He didn’t know the extent of their power, but from the way they were leaving holes of melting rocks behind them, he had no wish to test them.

How much energy does she have for her to waste it in such a way?

The extravagant cost of Thana’s attack was adding a mental component to her attacks. Only someone with a lavish amount of energy would waste so much of it, and it suggested that she was more powerful than him.