Suddenly, Rhya, who was using three magic at once, quivered and glowed as multiple swords of light shot everywhere.
"OH-AAA!!!"
"Close your mouth!" Yami said hurriedly as he grabbed Asta by the collar, who made an unintelligible sound and started to weave his sword coated in Dark Magic, which was the surefire way to neutralize Light Magic, but Yami was not the real target of Rhya.
It was Wilhelm instead.
He had shot swords made of light in all directions to finally attack Wilhelm, who could be hiding anywhere, and for the first time since the fight began, Rhya hit the mark.
*CRACK*
With a crack in space, Wilhelm appeared, with his kite shield in front of him and turtle shield as well.
'Damn it, that Light Magic was completely Light Magic, it was carrying parts of Fire Magic as well. Otherwise, it could not have broken through the glass from Glass Magic.'
Wilhelm thought as he tried to shake off the aftereffects of the grogginess that came due to sudden exposure to blinding light. It was then that he felt his hair rise up and his body quickly turned around, held up his Zweihander coated with Spatial Magic, and then…
*TING*
…came the sound of metal clashing, spreading numbness through Wilhelm's arm. But he chose to look at the person in front of him. Rhya, who was looking at Wilhelm with a bored look, despite all 3 of his eyes focused on him.
"Ho…And here I thought that you were only good with tricks and sneak attacks. Good job parrying my attack, but now…PARRY THIS!!" He shouted the last part as the nerves on his face bulged, and then he disappeared.
'BEHIND!!' Wilhelm's mind screamed to him, and just like before, his body moved without any instruction from him and met the attack on him with his shield, now covered with diamond, along with a turtle shield on it to defend against another one of a quick yet deadly swipe of Rhya with his dark magic.
*THUNG*
But this time, Rhya did not say anything, nor did he appear, even for a brief moment. All that was telling of his presence were the sounds of clashes of the sword with Wilhelm's shield.
'WAIST SWIPE FROM LEFT'
His body forced him to do a jump, and while he was in mid-air, 'VERTICAL SLASH FROM ABOVE', he twisted his body and curled himself, coating his entire body with Rhinoceros Armor and Turtle Shield, decreasing the amount of body exposed and thus thickening the magical protection.
*THWACK*
This response did prevent him from being chopped in half, but it did not prevent him from being flung like a baseball hit by a bat.
All balled up, Wilhelm moved toward the cave wall and was about to collide when…
*ZOOM*
…he disappeared through a portal, and in that same instant, a large streak of Dark Magic struck that place.
*BOOM*
*RUMBLE*
The wall collapsed on contact with the attack, further decreasing the structural integrity of the cave, which cave voiced by the brief rumble, that quietened down when Gifso supplied it with his magic.
'Where did he disappear off t-' Rhya thought as he, after that small but intense clash, materialized when he felt his senses flare up. Feeling more danger this time. Much more danger.
"Did you forget about me? Don't do that. It hurts the pride of little old me." Yami said, but it was visible to anyone that he did not mean those words at all.
"Not sure about the little part!" Rhya quipped, though his focus was on the sword that was covered in darkness right in front of his eyes. But this attack was different from all of the others. It was much stronger than the one he had shown before.
'He got this much stronger in such a short time?! How?!' Rhya screamed internally, and he had every right to be this surprised. Rhya's magic, Imitation Magic, copied not only the magic of a person but also every spell and the strength of the spell that the original user had.
So if Rhya himself, who had copied his Dark Magic just now, was not able to match the degree of power that Yami had shown just now, it signaled bad news for Rhya.
'Damn it! One is the user of Licht's Grimoire and has Anti-Magic with ridiculous physical strength, the other has that pesky Illusion Magic, Electric Lion, and Nature knows how many other magics, and finally, their Captain, who seems to have no limit to his strength and is always growing stronger.
Fighting one of them is somewhat manageable, but all of them at the same time is so frustrating.' Rhya cried internally in frustration, finally breaking his character.
That was all he could think before he was slashed into two, starting from the forehead to his waist diagonally.
*SPRRT*
His blood sprayed all over the wall behind him, but…this was not the end.
*FUUSSSH*
Immediately, fire coursed through him, and his wounds healed, as if they were never there in the first place.
*THUD*
With heavy steps, Yami landed, finally tired for the first time since the fight started. Was it because of fighting itself, or facing an enemy that was like a cockroach, nobody knows.
"What the hell!! Why does he not die? Is there something wrong with him? And what is with those flames? They heal everything." He grumbled when a light but familiar shimmer took his view, signaling that he was covered by an illusion by Wilhelm who stayed behind him, along with Vanessa, Charmy(now awake), Finral, Magna, Luck, Noelle, and Kahono, some of whom had arrived not long before, and other who would have been dead weight in the fight against Rhya.
"Captain! What do we do?!" Finral asked, looking morbidly at Rhya, who had fully regenerated and was fighting for air, signaling Wilhelm's use of illusion.
'Using Illusion Magic, along with Healing Magic, Mineral Magic, and fighting with weapons. How is he not tired? Did Asta's disease spread to him? Is it contagious?' Finral, thought giving Wilhelm a side glance, who was moving his eyes at such speed that made him think they would pop out any second.
"Well…I guess we hit him harder." Yami replied casually.
"Hahaha! I like that plan." Luck voiced his agreement, which did not amount to much because he was a dunce in anything but fighting.
"That is not a plan!!" Finral cried over his voice.
"Well then, genius, you got a bright one in you?" Yami asked back as he decided this time to recuperate the mana that he had spent due to the attack that he had done.
At this statement, Finral looked at Wilhelm, along with everyone bar Kahono, because at this point he was the default 'Man with a Plan'.
Without looking back and feeling eyes on him, Wilhelm said with a roll of his eyes, "Well, I have an idea. It is a bit far-fetched, and depends heavily on how lucky we are."
"Good as any at this point." Vanessa replied, throwing light on their dire situation. If they were not here, there was a good chance that Yami could have handled him on his own, but since all of them were here, they were bound to hold him back, especially since Rhya had a beef with Wilhelm.
"Okay, so here it goes. Noelle, create as much Water as possible. Magna, evaporate this water as it comes. Kahono, support them in the process. Finral, use your portals to move this mist around the cave. Charmy, create as much food as possible and supply Noelle and Magna constantly, along with any combatant when they are not fighting. Asta and Captain, keep him busy with me. Mix in real attacks with fake ones. Vanessa, use the portals Finral creates to lay threads all over the place like a spider's thread to impede his movement.
And Luck, wait until my signal and use only electrical discharge to attack."
"What is this going to do? What good is Luck's electrical discharge going to do?" Finral asked Wilhelm, clearly confused about where they were going with this.
"By itself, nothing but we are going to use the mist to conduct electricity through the air and try to stun him for a while. I have also been using poison bullets that spread poison through the air, and my sword is coated with poison, too. Though he must have healed from its effects by Fire Magic." Wilhelm grumbled the last point to himself before shaking his head and continuing his explanation to all.
"When we stun him, we will try to hit him with Asta's Anti-Magic to neutralize his mana and bind him to the spot with Vanessa's threads, and my Mineral Magic. If we bind him to the place for a while, I will use Regulus Aurum to hit him.
Since it killed the girl with Fire Recovery Magic, it will kill him as well."
Wilhelm said the last part, waving his hand, and Rhya, who was about to shoot light spells all around just like before, was suddenly surrounded by a layer of mineral magic, with a single reflective surface which threw his attack back at Rhya.
"Well, it sounds like it could work." Noelle said as she held out her hand and filled the place in front of him with water.
"Fine…!! I wanted to join in the fight, though." Magna complained, at which Luck joined in.
"Good thing. You were only going to hold us back anyway."
"What did you say?!"
"Stop your yapping and get to it!! YOU WASTE OF SPACES!!" Wilhelm barked back, veins bulging on his forehead.
"What did yo-" Magna was about to say something, not liking the tone, but a slight flare of mana from Wilhelm, along with his eyes that resembled a serpent, invoked a primal fear within him.
And just then, two people entered this part of the cavern, who first put Black Bulls at guard, and then relaxed seeing Wilhelm and Guache, though the confusion still returned.
"Two Wilhelm?" Noelle, Vanessa, Asta, and Finral said the same, while Wilhelm, who was with them, looked at the other one with a look of relaxation.
"Finally, you arrived." Wilhelm said without satisfying others' curiosity.
"What the hell happened?" Other Wilhelm asked as Gauche floated to join the others, equally confused by Wilhelm…s.
"Not the time. Join together with me now." Wilhelm 1 replied hurriedly.
"Fine…" Wilhelm 2 said, understanding the direness of the nature.
Both of them walked forward and touched hands with each other. As they did so, the familiar orange hue covered their body. First, their body went from the distinct shape of Wilhelm to barely humanoid, to malleable, and started to push into each other. That kept on going on until two blobs became a singular blob, which soon started to gain a humanoid shape. This humanoid shape became more defined until a singular Wilhelm stood in place.
But that was not the only difference.
This Wilhelm had gained his original mana storage, along with a huge chunk of mana with it. His body felt as good as it was supposed to be and did not feel the constant drain of magic that he felt due to actively sustaining the clone.
"AAhhh…much better." Wilhelm muttered, moving his tense muscles.
"What…how…what-" Finral kept on saying unintelligibly.
"Later. Now go!" Wilhelm said, and the scene for Rhya shifted.
'Damn it! Where is he? All of them are nothing but illusions. And I cannot even shoot light everywhere like before. He found a counter to this ridiculously fast. He is too damn smart for a human.
And that is why he is too dangerous to let live.' Rhya made a resolution in his heart to kill Wilhelm, not because he had killed his friends, but right now, he had seen the true thing that made him dangerous.
Julius is an overwhelming prodigy and the only one whom no one in Eye of Midnight Sun was confident of defeating in a fair one-on-one confrontation.
Yami is strong and with great battle sense. He could evolve in a battle like no other, and his magic made a problem for anyone other than Rhya.
Asta is a wildcard. He had Licht's old grimoire and was the user of Anti-Magic. His only weakness was the limited range of his abilities with a sword, but if he could become even half as good at sword as Yami is, only people counted on one hand could be his enemies.
Lastly, Wilhelm. He seems to have it all. 4-leaf grimoire, the ability to perform multiple magics, but his true strength is his mind. He cannot adapt to situations like Yami and grow strong, but he could use what he has in hand, and coupled with anyone, become someone who may not be able to kill you, but you won't be able to kill either. Illusion Magic and he are just like a demon and his club. A perfect fit.
Only if he knew how correct that analogy was.
***
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