Dux Canus frowned, refreshing his buffs on the group. Miallói was breathing heavily, bleeding from a couple of cuts and scrapes. The Legion frontliners were much the same, and the archer and sharpshooter already needed to restock on ammunition.

And King Uscfrea was no worse for wear.

Dux Canus always knew this was going to be a hard fight…but he underestimated the Dobhar king. King Uscfrea had not attempted to take them down, but fought defensively and bided his time. It seemed both the King and the Dux knew the terms of this fight, the Legion needed to take him down quickly.

Or they wouldn’t take him down at all.

And unfortunately, their time had just run out.

“MY KING!”

A cry cut through the battlefield. Dobhar shamans had formed a line leading to the city, and were now channeling their magic to form a river of water in the air. Estrith and the other elite Dobhar now swam along that river and shot through the air, right over the heads of the Selkie and Legion forces. Estrith lobbed her harpoon as she did, forcing Miallói to dodge out of the way.

And then King Uscfrea grinned and made his move.

He rushed towards Miallói, his axe held high. The Legion bulwark moved to intervene but the Dobhar spun around and swung his axe, forcing the bulwark to block. As he did he swept his tail underneath Miallói’s feet, knocking her to the ground.

The Legion slayer moved to strike but Estrith landed behind her king, pulling her harpoon back to her hand and then stabbing forward. She caught the slayer by surprise and thrust into her stomach. As a soldier fully specialized in offense, the slayer’s HP provided little defense and the harpoon cut right through her.

Canus sent a fireball hurtling forward and shouted at the bulwark. The Legion moved over their fallen comrade so Canus could rush in and grab her. He frowned as he glanced at her wound, she needed immediate healing to have even a tiny chance of survival. He cast what healing magic he knew and rushed back, holding her in his arms.

King Uscfrea assaulted the bulwark once more, who grunted as he struggled to block. The man wasn’t anywhere near the Dobhar’s level, so even the defensive specialist couldn’t keep tanking blows like this forever. And Estrith was just about to flank around his shield.

But Miallói rolled forward and thrust her spear up at the smaller Dobhar, forcing her back.

“Go!”

She shouted at Canus and took up a position by the bulwark. The Dux frowned…but he nodded at a Legion hornblower.

They sounded the retreat.

They had lost.

They had failed to defeat King Uscfrea alone. They would not defeat him when he had help. And the Dobhar were mounting a full-scale counterattack, led by the elite Dobhar arriving back from the city. The Selkies couldn’t hold for much longer and Canus couldn’t afford to lose them here.

Assuming they could still escape at all.

Canus grimaced as he glanced back at Miallói and the bulwark, still trying to hold back King Uscfrea and his lieutenant.

He hated to leave them there, but he had no choice. No one else could even slow King Uscfrea down. He himself might have the levels, but he was a spellblade commander, and so had a poor matchup with the Dobhar king.

He had to hope that the pair could hold him back.

He didn’t dare hope they could get away themselves.

But just then…a light lit up in the night sky. Like a shooting star flying in the distance…only it was under the rain clouds.

And then the entire sky lit up in a massive magic circle, and all eyes turned up…

NSLICE-00P soared through the sky, arriving over the battlefield. Taog was…indisposed at the moment, so she turned to Ateia. She displayed a holographic screen showing Ateia her own vision.

“Requesting Assistance: Friendly and hostile forces are engaged and intermixed. Please identify Legion and Dobhar assets.”

Ateia blinked at the sight but began to point.

“Um, those otter-looking guys are the Dobhar, everyone else should be us.”

“Acknowledged. Targets designated, engaging wide-area termination.”

And so a massive magic circle formed in the sky as NSLICE-00P engaged her strategic magic.

There were tens of thousands of Dobhar down below her, so even the Aurora Barrage spell would be somewhat inefficient. Targeting individuals with beams was simply impractical.

Rain of Fire was better…but a bit indiscriminate for the current scenario with its slower moving and explosive projectiles. The Dobhar were engaged with the Empire on two fronts, so she would have to avoid targeting the frontlines if she relied on that spell. Not to mention, the Dobhar army was spread out across Castra Turannia and NSLICE-00P wasn’t sure how the Empire felt about collateral property damage. Burning the city down was probably an inefficient means of defending it.The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

So what did NSLICE-00P do?

She split her mana in half and layered both spells on top of each other…and then activated spell fusion.

Fusing Strategic Spells…was something that was not ever done. Strategic spells were normally cast by entire teams of mages working together, so each mage involved would have to personally have access to the Spell Fusion skill and both of the strategic spells in question. Then they would all need to apply that skill perfectly in sync with one another while maintaining two strategic magic circles simultaneously and trying to balance the mana levels between them. And this is with strategic spells, massive, complicated formations with wide area effects, such that ruining the spell is very easy and yet can have catastrophic consequences. Not to mention casting two strategic spells at once will heavily drain a mage’s mana, even if they are fused into one spell later the initial hit to the mage’s reserves will reduce their ability to maintain the spell for any reasonable length of time. Because of this, even the individuals who might be capable of such a feat wouldn’t find it useful in combat.

The skill Spell Fusion has leveled twice and is now level 7!

The spell Aurora Barrage is now level 5!

The skill Light Magic is now level 12! Spell choice available!

The spell Rain of Fire is now level 3!

The skill Fire Magic is now level 9!

Mana control is now 175!