Chapter 331 – Alfar
The creature Mage Adair and the others were fighting was quite unlike any goblin he had seen and looked nothing like an Iblis. Which meant the creature was either a strangely humanoid looking Demonic Beast or an Alfar.
In many ways it looked like the opposite of an Iblis. Iblis were basically dark armored giants. This creature looked to be no taller than Mage Guptill and had long white hair that seemed to float behind it no matter how it moved and oddly pale skin, which made its face look like a porcelain. The creature did not wear any armor, but had a green multilayered robe on that Damion could see was an S Rank artifact.
Damion had yet to receive confirmation from anyone, but through the movement of combat, True Sight showed him the creature was an A Rank mage. No affinity, just like the Iblis he had encountered. Just like him.
“That’s an Alfar,” Mage Guptill exclaimed as she rushed towards the battle, casting healing spells on her teammates as she moved.
Mage Forlani and Mage Flores both had injuries to their sides. Damion did not see any flowing blood, but they were both favoring a side, clutching their rips as if they had been kicked in the chest. Mage Levine and Mage Adair were both casting spells as fast as Damion had ever seen someone cast.
Fireballs and Lightning Bolts flashed through the area causing havoc on everything they landed on, which unfortunately did not include the Alfar. Mage Guptill’s spells brought The Stone mage and the Water mage back into the fight, but it did not seem to matter to the Alfar, it, or perhaps Damion should say she, as he could now make out distinctly female features, danced between the blasts of magic. If he was not present, seeing and feeling he intensity of the battle, Damion would think it was a choreographed show.
Damion stayed on the edge of the battle, as a B Rank he was not qualified to participate in a battle between A Ranks. What truly surprised him though, was that the dungeon itself was not being torn apart from all the magic flying around. If opening a simple Portal could destabilize a Breach, why was it that all these spells flying around and destroying everything they touched did not?
The question would have to be answered another time he supposed as Damion had to duck as Mage Adair was hit with a strange blast of light and went flying over him. The Alfar tried to rush in and finish the Fire mage off, but a Stone Wall popped up in front of her, cutting her path off.
The Alfar turned towards Mage Forlani, opening her mouth, which Damion could now see where filled with pointed teeth, and let out a piercing scream. The Sound attack caused Damion to double over. His head feeling like it was going to explode. A blast of lightning from Mage Levine interrupted the attack when it struck the Alfar in the side, cartwheeling the creature into a nearby tree.
As the Alfar got to its feet and turned her head towards Mage Levine, apparently somewhat annoyed at being hit by the Lightning magic, her eyes met with Damion’s. In that brief moment eye contact the Alfar seemed both enchanting and terrifying.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The Alfar’s eyes went wide and rushed at Damion. Knowing he had no chance if the Alfar could hit him directly with an attack, he cast Exile in front of him, hoping his foe would crash into it.
Instead of crashing into Damion’s attack, the Alfar stopped short of the black tear in space and removed from her inside her robes an object. Damion and the rest of the team instantly realized what the object was, it was the dungeons true core. Not the fake core that they needed to break to clear the dungeon. The true core that anchored the Realm Breach to their world. Without it, the dungeon would collapse, just like clearing an Unstable Breach.
The Alfar tossed the true core into Damion’s Spatial attack with a gleeful smile. Damion tried to end his spell, but as the rift was closing the core crossed into it and as soon as the core crossed the boundary of Exile it was ripped to shreds. Without the core to anchor the dungeon it collapsed.
Damion and the rest of his team were transported back to Nerotath. Appearing in quite the disheveled manner around where the entrance to the Realm Breach had been. When they appeared and the portal to the dungeon vanished, Julia Levine knew something had gone terribly wrong.
“What happened?” The S Rank mage asked.
Mage Levine could not imagine a party with five A Rank mages having trouble in an A Rank dungeon. The first possibility that jumped to her mind was that they were somehow mistaken, that these Realm Breaches were not Stable Breaches, but Unstable. However, when she looked at the state of the A Ranks, burnt clothing and damaged armor, she knew something else had happened and perhaps they had chosen to destroy the true core.
“An Alfar,” Mage Adair said as he stood up and straightened his armor.
“Just one?” Julia Levine questioned. Alfar were powerful to be sure, but it was still a five on one fight, six on one if you counted the B Rank Spatial mage that had gone along.
“Yes. Probably close to the peak of A Rank. If not for Mage Picard, we would all be dead.”
The S Rank mage raised an eyebrow at the comment. The B Rank mage had saved the party? Had he somehow outsmarted the Alfar who were known to be quite vicious.
“Explain.”
“The Alfar was, well kicking our asses. Tossing us around like ragdolls and was likely just having fun with us. I was almost completely out of mana when the Alfar spotted Mage Picard. I think because he was the weakest of us, she immediately…”
“She?” Julia interrupted.
“Yes the Alfar was a female, or at least appeared to be,” Mage Adair answered, and the rest of the group nodded their agreement.
“Go on.”
“I think she wanted to kill James, break our morale. But I guess she didn’t anticipate him being a Spatial mage. When she charged at him, he cast Exile right in her path. To escape she tossed the dungeon’s true core into the rift.”
“So, the Alfar destroyed the dungeon, instead of fighting a B Rank Spatial mage?”
“No, I think she was going to get caught in the spell, so she destroyed the dungeon to be sent out, just like we were,” clarified Mage Adair.
“Is that how you saw it Mage Picard?”
“I’m not sure. The Alfar for sure destroyed the dungeon on purpose. I saw her pull the true core out and toss it into my Exile spell. But I don’t think it was because she couldn’t avoid it.”
“Oh? Why do you think it was then?”
“I think she was getting just as tired as we were. Mage Levine had already landed a strong attack on her and while she could avoid my spell, she would be vulnerable when she stopped moving. So, I think she chose to escape either because we weren’t worth the effort of killing or because she did not want to risk losing.”
“An interesting analysis but based solely on observations there is no way to know whose theory is correct. I am curious about one thing though, Mage Picard, you are strangely calm given the gravity of what you have encountered today, have you encountered an Alfar before?”