Fighting against four Blues, Elaine was at an even greater numerical disadvantage than the last time she’d faced others of her grade. Granted, her second core helped a little, bridging the gap to an extent.

Her domain, on the other hand?

Not so much.

In terms of raw power, it was certainly stronger than those of her opponents. Sadly, domains were versatile tools that required a lot of skill to wield properly. If only she’d had a couple more years with hers, this might have not been as big of a problem. Yet, here she was, barely seven months after her advancement. Meanwhile, her enemies had all had theirs for several times longer.

‘How am I even meant to hit them like this?!’

The four domains collided against hers, pushing it back from every direction, not allowing it to expand properly. It was suffocating, feeling their wills suppress hers. More importantly, it had a very tangible impact on the battle.

Inside her domain, her spells were fiercer – more potent. Her Kraken’s Gambit had evolved into the Kraken’s Lair a long time ago. Elaine could now manifest countless constructs at once and manipulate each of them freely. She could turn them long and thick like a monster’s tentacles, putting a lot of crushing power behind each strike.

Or, she could create the same sharp whips she had used in the past, focusing on speed and precision over brute strength. Imbuing each construct with whatever properties she wanted, she could craft the perfect spell to breach through her opponents’ defences at a moment’s notice.

In theory, at least.

The reality was that her tentacles lost much of their power the moment they crossed into the other domains. Even worse, one of them – the Holy Child – possessed a steam affinity, partially sharing her element. Femel was clearly an expert in raising the temperature inside his domain, causing her water spells to evaporate rapidly.

Elaine had to spend a lot more mana to maintain them, which put a massive drain on her reserves. If that wasn’t enough, the four Blues clearly knew how to fight together, allowing their domains to freely overlap instead of interfering with one another. That way, the Green-born was able to share the boiling effect with the two domains neighbouring his own.

If she wanted to conserve her mana, her only option was to attack the fourth person standing opposite Femel. Her enemies had clearly considered that too, however, delegating the spot to the air affinity user, who had the easiest time dodging her attacks to begin with. Left with no other choice, Elaine was forced to pause her offensive for the time being, focusing on defence. At least until she thought of a way out of this mess.

That wasn’t going well either, however.

Harassed from four directions, she had to deal with violent arcs of lightning trying to zap her down, each powerful enough to reduce a large tree to charcoal in an instant. There was also an endless rain of tiny cyan projectiles pelting the whole place. They weren’t that strong individually, but they were impossible to dodge, putting a lot of pressure on her.

The Green-born fought using an army of cloud-like wolves. They were made of steam, hot enough to scorch the earth beneath their paws with every step, leaving a series of blackened patches in their passing. Finally, there were several tall cyclones tearing through the battlefield. They wandered in seemingly random directions, lowering both her visibility and her mobility. Every now and then, one of them flew at her, trying to hit her when she least expected it.

Thankfully, her Jet Step spell allowed her to shoot streams of pressurized water from her soles, letting her manoeuvre freely in three dimensions. It helped a lot, but she couldn’t possibly dodge everything coming at her. Beyond that, her domain weakened her opponents’ spells too, to an extent. Her Bubble Coat soaked whatever made it through, the dense bubbles around her body popping by the dozens each time she got hit, more forming to replace them.

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‘Their domains are a problem. My mana consumption is too… But that’s not everything.’

Most curiously, the four mages seemed to coordinate perfectly, timing their attacks to the last millisecond to cut off her escape routes. And they achieved all of this without even speaking a word. This was arguably her biggest issue. If not for this, Elaine would have probably found an opening to take one of them down by now, turning the battle around.

The only question was… how did they do it?

Obviously, Blues had sharp senses and quick reflexes. They were all experienced mages, so it wasn’t that strange that they could adapt to each other’s moves in real time. But this clearly went a step beyond that. Often, they seemed to act simultaneously, as if they could read each other’s minds.

‘Are they somehow communicating through their domains?’ she wondered.

She’d never heard of such a trick. Not that she knew everything there was to know about domains – she was still very much new at this – but she was disinclined to think this was the reason. After all, even the pairs that stood opposite to one another seemed to have no problem coordinating, despite their domains not touching. Maybe the others helped them relay their messages, but she doubted they would be reacting this quickly if they had to go through so many hoops.

‘It’s not due to their domains. None of their affinities should allow this either. And they don’t look like they have any blessings…’

This only left two possibilities. The first, was simply experience – good teamwork, honed after fighting together for years. But three of them were Acton’s guards, and they hadn’t been with Femel for that long. This shouldn’t be it.

So, it had to be a bloodline.

According to Micky, the guards shouldn’t have one, which meant it belonged to the Holy Child. It appeared somewhat similar to Percy’s ethereal cords, allowing Femel to communicate telepathically with the others. Reaching this conclusion, Elaine couldn’t help but click her tongue.

‘How troublesome.’

The guy with the most annoying affinity also happened to directly counter her magic. On top of that, he was the most experienced in the group, and he even held the key to their supernatural coordination. If that wasn’t enough, he was also the very person the others were duty-bound to protect at all costs. Unfortunately, unless she found a way to take him out, she wouldn’t be able to deal with the rest.

Shooting a blast of azure from her feet, Elaine leapt to the side, barely avoiding the purple arc smashing into the ground. The lightning caused the earth to split and the stone to shatter, the smell of ozone in the air intensifying.

But she didn’t have the time to even think about that, two white-hot wolves attacking her from her sides, a third doing so from behind. At the same time, a cyclone was on course to collide with her head on, the rain of pure constructs not halting for even a moment.

Sighing, she pulled another chunk of mana from her cores, manifesting three tentacles. She knew her coat of bubbles wouldn’t survive the attacks, so she had no choice but to exert herself some more to deal with the relentless onslaught.

The colossal tendrils spun around her, shattering the enemy spells with ease, giving her a chance to catch her breath. This only lasted for the briefest of instants though, her opponents not wasting any time before unleashing another round of attacks.

‘I can’t keep this up. I need to take the Green-born out, somehow… And I need to do it fast.’

It was easier said than done. Her tentacles were a medium-ranged attack. Very telegraphed, and not fast enough to reach her target before his domain ripped them to shreds. The only spell in her arsenal that could bridge the gap in an instant was her Demersal Sniping. But even asleep, the Blues had proven capable of reacting to the attack. They would notice the moment it entered their domain, giving them a chance to avoid it.

‘I need to somehow hide it from their senses until the very last second.’

But how would she do that?

Domains were even better than Mana Sense, as they could wrap around an object from every direction rather than just the one facing the user. Elaine knew from her own experience that her opponents would be hard pressed to sneak up on her, and the opposite was likely true.

Defending herself from a couple more attacks, she scanned her surroundings, looking for anything she could use to conceal her spell.

There was nothing.

It was just a barren land. No way it could hide a Blue’s magic. Other than everyone’s spells, the only things that contained even more mana were their bodies.

Thinking of something, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

‘My body…’