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Baron Haberro had never expected the attack to come so suddenly, without any warning. He had assumed the whole affair would be nothing more than an unremarkable prelude to the "Grand Feast," a matter of a few minutes to recover his physical condition. Yet Lucian had charged in with such decisive, such terrifying speed!
Did the man not even know the meaning of hesitation or deliberation?
Caught completely off-guard, the silver goblet Baron Haberro had been about to fill was struck squarely by two silver-black Magic Missiles.
Bright crimson liquid splattered in all directions. The shattered silver cup, inscribed with strange symbols, tumbled onto the thick carpet with a muffled thud.
Baron Haberro and Cailin, their minds slowed by the rapid aging, stared blankly at the scene, not yet understanding what had just happened.
Lucian, who had rolled to his feet, had no intention of letting the opportunity slip. The icy-blue glow on the index finger of his left hand flashed, and three crystalline blades of Parmella's Ice Blade shot toward Haberro.
Though Lucian's mental energy was still unstable from spellcasting backlash, activating magic items was still within his power.
Only now did Baron Haberro react. With a furious roar, he drove his right fist into one of Parmella's Ice Blades while pulling his left arm up to shield his head and neck — his vital points. His hands and face flushed with a cold grey glow, as though turned to hard stone.
*Crack* — a crisp shattering sound rang out as one ice blade was smashed to pieces by Haberro's right fist. But a deep gouge had been carved into his stony grey knuckles, and a layer of glittering frost raced rapidly up his arm.
Of the remaining two blades, one slashed across Haberro's left forearm while the other struck his legs. Neither managed to deal a serious blow to his petrified body, but the layer of ice that formed around him temporarily froze him in place.
A guttural, labored incantation sounded, and a black ray reeking of death lanced from Cailin's hands toward Lucian.
She was a Magic Apprentice!
A dazzling, beautifully luminous starlight shield materialized instantly around Lucian. The death ray blackened only a tiny patch of its glow.
The spell model a first-circle mage built within his soul could be cast instantaneously — and Lucian had already recovered from his earlier casting backlash.
The translucent ice encasing Haberro quickly turned grey-white, then cracked apart completely like stone.
Freed from the freeze, he briefly weighed his options and abandoned the idea of turning to grab the longsword from the desk. Instead, he lunged directly at Lucian. He had to close the distance while the mage was still in his casting window — otherwise the next spell might produce something catastrophic.
His right fist, trailing grey-white petrifying mist, slammed into Lucian's starlight shield, initiating the same stone-cracking transformation upon it. At the same time, Haberro, who had experience fighting mages, used the fearsome strength and speed of a Second-level Knight to redirect his assault and continue the attack.
With the starlight shield holding him off, the spell model within Lucian's soul activated. Radiating outward from himself as the center, a tranquil green ripple spread in all directions indiscriminately.
Cailin, who had been about to cast another spell, grew glazed and vacant the instant the green ripple touched her. Her mouth dropped open in a huge yawn, and she crumpled to the floor, snoring soundly.
A first-circle spell — Sleep Spell!
Even Haberro's powerful body, when engulfed by the area-of-effect Sleep Spell, felt a profound wave of exhaustion wash over him — the same frailty that came with old age — and for a brief moment he faltered.
In that instant of hesitation, a blazing fireball the size of a human head blazed to life in Lucian's left hand and flew straight at Haberro.
Haberro shook off the Sleep Spell's influence in an instant, but faced with the incoming Fireball, he could only desperately hurl himself to the side.
A thunderous explosion followed. The massive shockwave sent the three dead adolescents flying. Though Haberro had avoided a direct hit, the right side of his stony body was still blown to pieces. Flames engulfed him and roared fiercely, as if igniting some greasy, flammable substance within.
Drops of foul-smelling liquid — pale yellow mixed with dark red — seeped from his grey stone body. Haberro's face aged visibly before the eye, and he went berserk, wailing in agony while launching a frenzied barrage at Lucian.
Both Lucian's personal spells and magic items were still in their cooldown windows. He raised Vigilance in a guard and blocked Haberro's twin fists.
Traces of grey mist began to coil around Vigilance, as though attempting to petrify the weapon.
And Lucian was not about to be stingy. After blocking the first wave, he activated "Crown of the Sun," and a resplendent, majestic holy light descended from above, striking Haberro squarely.
"Holy Light?!"
In the searing embrace of the holy light, Haberro's grey stone skin fell away to reveal terrifying, hideous wrinkles. His flesh rotted bit by bit, and his expression was one of abject terror mingled with an unmistakable taste of relief — like a prisoner who had waited an eternity finally facing his judgment.