Chapter 35 - The End Of Family (3)

Luna usually didn't like leaving lose ends, however she had exhausted most of her remaining life force in order to strengthen the effect of the ice dagger spell and if she used anymore mana she would not be able to cast earth magic to help Raul. "You may be a powerful mage child, but I've been killing since before even your mother was born." said Luna as she placed her palm on the ground and chanted "Earth open your door to me." and a door made of earth appeared in front of her.

As Luna walked through the door Amana fell down to her knees. The frostbite was dangerously close to her heart and she was using all her strength to keep it at bay. "How could I be fooled so easily? Am I really still no where near her?" thought Amana as she went into a praying position and began using her breathing technique 'god's embrace'.

Her body began glowing a white light and the frostbite that wreaked havoc on her body was slowly being eaten away by the divine energies that surrounded her. However the process was slow and would still take some time even with the efficiency of 'god's embrace'.

Meanwhile Raul was in a tricky situation, although he was at an advantage since they were surrounded by earth he was also heavily burdened due to having to protect the kids from a blood thirsty Clara. After out-classing Clara several times using earth magic something in her had snapped and she went into a fury.

Using fire magic underground was dangerous for both the caster's opponent and the caster themselves. Since they would be in a confined space with many small particles explosions could easily occur and that was exactly what was happening. But since Clara's equipment could absorb the brunt of the damage she didn't really care where as Raul had to use earth magic solely to block off any explosion that might occur.

Raul might be able to survive a few explosions due to his earth augmented body, but the same couldn't be said for the children. Raul's task was made even harder as he had to protect the kids from the earth magic attacks Clara would throw at them. Clara knew that she couldn't win in a battle of earth magic against an earth mage, however the little children were easy pickings and were also a distraction to Raul that would help her win the fight.

Both Clara and Raul were constantly using Motherly call to locate each other, as Raul was about to use Motherly call an idea struck him. He held out his palm and the earth above the kids moved to one side creating a passage to the surface, he then touched the ground and a platform of earth was created below the kids rising to take them to the surface. He then created earth sculptures of the children using earth magic to cover up the fact that they were no longer under ground.

Although the children would be at the mercy of the magical beasts on the surface they still had a higher chance of survival. There was a chance they would be able to get back to Luna and Luca could use magic so they had some degree of protection from any threats they might meet, not to mention Ava's sword skills although she currently was without any sword.

Since Raul was no longer burdened with having to protect the kids he went on the offensive. Raul was an earth mage so he didn't need to chant any earth spells where as Clara wasn't so she had to chant, which made her both slow and predictable. Raul used Motherly call simultaneously with other earth magic spells, allowing him to always have Clara's exact location.

He would remove the platform Clara stood on and make the earth on top of her collapse, making her focus on defensive earth spells. While she was chanting he would open up windows between them and use his sword to attack Clara and although her equipment absorbed most of the damage, she could still feel each and every cut that was thrown at her.

Clara tried to put Raul back on the defensive by attacking the kids, however after creating an earth spike to attack one of the kids Raul didn't even stop to nullify her spell, he continued his onslaught. "Those are fakes! You dare to trick m-" Clara's words were interrupted when Raul used earth magic to shoot dirt into her mouth.

Clara was a hot-tempered woman and ever since Damien had assigned her to help Amana she had been on edge. To be out-classed in both magic and swordsmanship and treated like a dog by an outsider she had never heard of made her blood boil so she she began thinking less and attacking more. However her attacks became sloppy and due to her anger most of her chanted earth magic spells didn't activate due to total lack of concentration.

"I wonder how you managed to get into such an elite unit when you are so easily controlled by your emotions." taunted Raul as he opened a window at Clara's left rib striking her with such force that if it wasn't for her equipment she would have broken all her ribs. "I think I should defect to the Church. With my skills I reckon I could be an Arch-Bishop maybe even a Cardinal." said Raul mockingly as he hardened the earth around Clara creating many small pillars to strike her and restrict her movements.

Insulting the Church was the last straw for Clara, she touched the hardened walls and chanted "Motherly scold." and shockwaves began spreading all over the ground looking for faults that could be used to make it collapse. Those shockwaves would be reflected back and their frequency increased until resonance was reached.

Raul could tell what she was trying to do and sent out shockwaves to cancel the ones sent out by Motherly scold. While Raul was focusing on that spell Clara stopped chanting and opened a window directly to Raul. She wasn't planning on collapsing the ground, she simply used the shockwaves to locate Raul and distract him at the same time, two birds with one stone.

Clara may have been furious but she wasn't so dumb as to trap herself underground. As the window between them opened Clara shot out the biggest and most explosive fire spell in her arsenal even infusing large amounts of life force in them to increase its potency "Dragon's wrath", two bolts of fire in the form of raging dragons charged for Raul. Raul reacted by rising a wall between them however Clara was counting on that, she used all her remaining mana and life force to increase the strength of her armour as the dragon's hit the wall causing a massive explosion.

The explosion destroyed the wall, sending both Raul and Clara crashing into the opposite walls like flies being hit with a shoe. Raul broke his spine and fractured several other bones even with the help of earth augmentation to increase his steadiness, while Clara only broke a few ribs due to the protection of her fully boosted armour. Clara stood up clutching her left side as her face twisted in pain. She used the strength she had left to limp her way to where Raul lay and she looked down on him in a condescending way.

Raul was coughing blood and his face was pale. He didn't have the usual smirk he had one and he was mumbling something that she couldn't hear. "May the Supreme being cleanse your soul." said Clara as she brought down her blade cutting Raul's head off in a single strike. "And never talk shit about the church again.." she said as she collapsed to the ground exhausted.