The projectiles could keep coming as long as Arreta had mana, but she was not reckless or angered enough to just continue the pointless attack – so she raised her hand and commanded in a stern voice.

The rock spears, even the ones already flying at Zoemi ended up merging into carriage-sized boulders – the size alone was enough to prevent them from disintegrating immediately in the vicinity of the fire-based spell the black-haired boy was using.

Still, that would not amount to much if the boulder simply hit Zoemi and got absorbed into the darkness lurking beneath his flame cloak spell…

”Stone explosion!”

*BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM**BOOOOOM**BOOOOOM**BOOOOOM* *BOOOOOM*

”…ghh…!”

If Zoemi was standing firmly on the ground, he could have absorbed not just the mana-filled debris but the shockwaves too, but since he himself chose to keep himself afloat in the air by the dragon breath spells alone, he was flung around like a ragdoll while doing his best to regain balance.

”HA! GOT YOU! Merge! Stone explosion!”

The brown-haired young woman laughed triumphantly before sending another wave of the effective projectiles against the black-haired boy.

For the audience, it really looked as if the boy got himself in a troublesome situation – but then…

”Murder of crows!”

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

While tumbling through the air, Zoemi roared sounding actually furious – and his back literally exploded into hundreds of lively bird-like black shapes that were agile enough to fly around the enclosed space of the water barrier without making contact with it.

*CRACK*

What they did come in contact though, were the boulders approaching their creator – the murky-black spells swarmed and pierced through every single earth sell in their vicinity.

It required between fifteen and twenty crows to break apart a single boulder but the number of the dark spells wasn’t a problem Zoemi kept spawning new ones to replace the ones getting destroyed without any delay.

”Guh…!”

Arreta groaned and bit her lips, feeling her mana dissipating into the air as the spells were broken before completing their purpose hence releasing the mana stored within them.

”I… I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SOMEONE LIKE YOU!”

*RUMBLE*

She roared, throwing caution to the wind, and poured way over half of her remaining mana into the spell, which in turn caused the arena ground to cave in as each piece of soil and stone got lifted up and used to create brand new projectiles – not only their number increased, the size did too, to the point of becoming a serious threat not just for the black-haired boy in the air but for the audience witnessing the deal.

”…?”

Arreta wasn’t going to take the defeat laying down – she was keenly observing her surroundings in case of a sneak attack – after all the crow-like spells circling around were extremely agile and…

…none of them even brushed against her spells…

At the moment, the spells created by the black-haired boy were outnumbering hers not just twenty to one but fifty to one – why was Zoemi not trying to shoot them down before they became a threat…?

|Why isn’t he attacking with the whole swarm… Is he playing with me…!?|

”~!”

”!!!!!”

The brown-haired woman thought to herself, glaring at the boy in the sky – and then their eyes met, and Zoemi’s face twisted into a cruel grin, making Arreta flinch.

”Hunt her down!”

The black-haired boy commanded and all at once, his crows turned towards Arreta, completely ignoring the massive clumps of the ground made afloat.

”!!!!!!”

Every single hair on Arreta’s neck stood straight up as the inexplicable bad feeling assaulted her, setting off her survival instincts and fight or flight response.

She chose the flight option.

”Earth wall times twenty! Stone wall times ten! Stone fortress! STONE EXPLOSION! Earth dive!”

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

She instantly piled up her best defenses and detonated all the projectile to destroy as many murky black crows as possible, using the explosion that shook the entire arena and caused an impact that must have been felt in the entire city to stealthily submerged herself into the earth down below as if it was water.

”Hmph~”

Zoemi snickered as hundreds of bird-shaped spells created a wall protecting him from any harm, all while spawning more and more to replace every single destroyed one.

*BOOM* x859

The next moment, a seemingly neverending stream of crows poured upon the earth and stone walls, turning them into dust in no time and taking less than a minute to break apart the walls of the stone fortress with their sheer number alone.

All the defenses that Arreta put up as a decoy were gone and the impending waterfall of the homing spells began digging into the ground with a vengeance…

…and only a single target…

|I’m going to die…! I have to do something…! HOW MANY CAN HE CONJURE?! I can’t stay like this forever, I need to get out there and get him in one shot before he gets me…!”

Arreta felt genuine fear and was racking her brain to find a way out of the situation she got herself in.

Earth dive was allowing her to swim and breathe in the earth with no trouble and was considered to be harder to master for an earth magician than a teleportation spell was for the light magician – it was truly a proof of reaching a peak of earth magic master – but it did not make the caster invincible.

Because in terms of potentially deadly side effects, earth dive was far closer to the shadow jump than it was to teleportation.

If the earth magician’s mana ran out while they were underground – that was it for them.

They would not get dissolved and melted alive – but suffocating while being buried alive wasn’t a much better outcome…

It wasn’t that she was impatient – she had very little choice.

If only Zoemi landed, Arreta would be able to get him and pull him down or attack – but with the black-haired boy staying in the air she was unable to get to him in her current position.

|Damn foundling, backing me up in a corner like that! I only need a small window to strike back…!|

Arreta gritted her teeth and braced herself, about to launch herself back to the surface anyway, not keen on dying from her own spell like that…