Assimilate All Talents-Chapter 390 - 389: [Infinite Spell Compression]

The four elves didn't relent for even a moment, turning the area into a ruined battlefield of ash, scorched trees, deep craters, and scattered arrows.

Simina and Brandle focused on unleashing large, high impact spells that demanded most of Sol's attention to defend against, while Jendar attempted to make use of the openings they created, throwing precise arrows with his bare hands to pressure him further. Reena was less active than the others, unable to fully match the rhythm born from their years of experience and coordination, but she did her best not to interfere with their flow. Instead, she focused on preventing Sol's escape by disabling his spatial item and locking the surrounding space, making movement far more difficult for him.

It hadn't even been a full minute since the battle began, yet so many attacks had been exchanged that anyone below A-Rank would have struggled just to follow them.

Even in the face of their devastating and relentless onslaught, Sol managed to defend himself every time. Whenever they thought they had him cornered with a perfect combination of attacks, he would reveal a new skill or spell that countered it completely.

Reena stared in disbelief as Simina's [Prismatic Array], a spell that unleashed a barrage of radiant beams, was intercepted midair by hundreds of black flames. Meanwhile, floating hands swatted down Jendar's arrows, and an earth shield defended against a tornado of fire.

"He has dark magic too?! Just how many skills does he have? Is this normal for humans?"

She had never fought a human before, but if this was representative, she couldn't imagine how terrifying a group of A-Rank humans might be.

"Not even close." Simina replied, shaking her head as she struggled to break through the wall of black fire. "I've never seen anything like this."

Jendar fired another volley of arrows and nodded grimly. "I'm starting to doubt he's even human. Even now, he's still suppressing my law technique. If not for that I could have taken a more active role."

Though they suspected Sol was using a temporary enhancement skill, they had no way of knowing how long it would last, and their mana reserves were draining fast. At this rate, they feared they'd burn out before he did, which was ludicrous to even think as it was four A-Rankers against just one.

"Then we just have to hit him with something he can't block." Brandle said, focusing all his energy on casting his next spell.

Mana surged and coalesced into a massive flaming lance before him. It grew to ten meters in length, blazing with intense heat, but instead of launching it, Brandle began to compress it.

As the flaming lance shrank, each meter lost intensified the heat and brilliance it emitted. When it reached just one meter in length, it radiated double the power it had before.

But Brandle wasn't finished.

The lance grew once more and he repeated the process three more times, each cycle increasing its destructive potential. This was his law technique, [Infinite Spell Compression], which allowed him to multiply a spell's power through repeated compression, limited only by the level of his law technique.

As Brandle compressed it for the final time, Sol, who had been purely on the defensive, suddenly threw aside his earth shield and summoned shadow tendrils toward the group.

"It's useless!" Simina shouted, casting, "[Light Well]!" frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

A wave of purifying light exploded forward, vaporizing the shadow tendrils instantly. But Sol didn't look disappointed, he smirked.

"Do your best to protect yourselves!" He shouted, then turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, using raw strength to break through the spatial lock Reena had placed around him.

'Huh?' The same thought crossed all their minds. Sol was clearly on the back foot, why would he toss aside his earth shield and run? It was pointless to do so before with Reena on their side but even more so now that Brandle had prepared his strongest attack.

"He's desperate! Now, Brandle!" Jendar shouted, seeing Sol back wide open.

But as Sol continued to get further away, the lance wasn't launched.

The three others turned in confusion toward Brandle, who was pale, trembling, and gripping his staff with both hands.

"I can't control it!" He yelled. "RUN!"

Their eyes widened in horror.

'His law technique is sealed!'

The realization came just in time for them to hear the flaming lance let out a loud crack.

What followed was a colossal explosion.

Everything within a hundred meter radius was obliterated instantly, trees, stone, even the soil itself. The next hundred meters were scorched, burning to ash under the wave of fire that was propelled outward from the explosion. Another hundred meters beyond that were blackened by residual heat.

Nothing within the blast zone survived. Even a beast barely outside the perimeter suffered fatal burns and collapsed moments later.

...

'That was way more destructive than I expected... I hope they didn't die...'

Sol glanced back at the explosion from a safe distance. He had known the lance held immense power after being compressed multiple times, but he had underestimated the true scale of the detonation when released uncontrollably.

Needless to say, the plan worked better than he expected. He knew running wasn't an option with an A-Rank space mage in play, but while scanning their tethers, he noticed he could take advantage of Brandle's law technique. If he disabled the tether while Brandle was in the middle of compressing his spell, he would be unable to control it and lead to the spell backfiring on him.

He bided his time, defending against the unending attack while waiting for the perfect moment. Once he saw it, he then created a small distraction to mislead the group while he released Jendar's tether and targeted Brandle's.

Now, as he ran, Sol shrank back to his normal size and deactivated [Overpower]. Exhaustion immediately hit him like a wall.

'Gods, I'm wiped... I need to find Amber and Thorwyn and rest...'

He stumbled but stayed upright, forcing himself to keep moving. With [Muffled Movements] and [Invisibility], he concealed his path and disappeared into the woods.