Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Kothar whirled around, and immediately hurled the Storm Field spell he had prepared towards his assailant. The man was dressed in furs from head to toe, and was quite short, his frame hidden by the heavy furs draped all about him.

His eyes wide, Cieba leapt back in surprise and swung at the incoming glowing ball of lightning with the Treasure Frond, missing it completely.

Kothar's mana manipulation abilities had increased by leaps and bounds since his last real battle, and he easily slammed the Storm Field into the ground in front of Cieba.

The branch which Kothar had been resting on was now scorched black by the constantly striking bolts, and while they did no serious damage to Cieba, they did their part in confusing him and giving Kothar more time to assess his opponent.

[His main weapon must be that massive golden palm leaf. It's saturated with a strange mana, but so is he, it's almost as if it's part of his body, except his body has its own mana.] Kothar pointed to Silane.

[Yes, and when he tried to block your Storm Field, it also disrupted the electromagnetic field around you, be careful Kothar.] Silane said seriously. Normally Kothar would have joked back, but the pair of them understood the seriousness of being attacked by someone who was so obviously not from Atla.

Krieg was still hot on Kothar's tail.

As Cieba spun his Treasure Frond around his head, sending golden light running all over his body to shield him from the constant barrage of lightning bolts raining down on him, Kothar sent dark purple balls of energy all around Cieba, opening up miniscule portals all about the area.

The tiny portals were a new strategy that Kothar had come up with, they were small enough that any enemy would have trouble firing attacks back to Kothar through them, and additionally they posed a danger to the opponent. As a portal would shear off anything that approached it at the wrong angle, presumably sending the now missing segment to the endless void.

Now that the battlefield was set up to his advantage, Kothar began to charge up a Bolt Barrage. Any other enemy would have fled from such a disadvantageous battlefield, but Kothar knew that the stocky man was likely pursuing him, and it would take far more than an area spell and a literal spatial minefield to dissuade his pursuer.

Now shrouded in a glowing golden light that flowed over his skin like honey, Cieba swung his frond swiftly through the air, sending glowing golden flashes of the same, liquid, golden energy silently streaking at Kothar.

His physique enhanced by his days on Atla, as well as the Storm Field, Kothar easily dodged the slashes, but the slashes were far more powerful than he had anticipated, and his enemy's goal was not to hit him.

The branch fell away beneath the both of them, Kothar cursed internally, he could literally teleport, but flight was still beyond him. Meanwhile, Cieba was calmly floating down, his ever useful treasure Front acting like a parachute, as he drifted to and fro in the air, his eyes tracking the rapidly plummeting Kothar.

Kothar spread out his arms and legs, and it felt like he was back in the atmosphere of a hostile alien planet, being dropped from sub-space to suppress a rebellion. He steered himself through the air toward one of the sturdier branches below him and braced for impact.

He cast his strongest Lightning Aura spell on himself and aimed for the center of the wide branch.

There was a loud boom, and a massive cloud of pollen and splinters was sent flying into the air. Cieba squinted at the branch, and grinned. There was no way the fugitive had survived that, it looked like his mission would be far easier titan he had expected.

The pollen slowly settled as Cieba drifted closer and closer, but his face fell as he saw his target, curly hair wild in every direction, his already tattered clothing far worse for wear, with his left palm pointing directly at Cieba, who was a sitting duck in mid air. The Treasure Frond could slow his fall, but it was no pair of wings.

Kothar grinned at the shocked face of the floating man, and sent a massive surge of energy to the Plasma Unit, and a massive flash of bright light blinded both Cieba and Kothar, as an insanely bright beam of plasma barreled at Cieba in a split second, leaving him no chance to react.

The plasma easily burst through his golden shield, and burnt a massive hole right through Cieba's midsection. The Freeman coughed up blood as he stared down at the hole in his torso. He had seen many weapons in his time, but that beam of death was absolutely ridiculous.

[That was surprisingly easy.] Silane said wryly.

[Yes, but I'm sure he won't be the last, and we can't be confident that Krieg himself won't show up here. I guess we can be confident he doesn't know exactly where we are, otherwise we'd be dead already.] Kothar looked down at the man who had attacked him, who drifted down, swaying and spinning through the air, a long helicopter seed drifting down from the massive tree.

[I wonder who he was.] Kothar looked at the leaf as it grew smaller and smaller, wondering where Krieg had found such a strange man to come hunting for Kothar.

[I'm sure there'll be some clues on his body.] Silane said matter of factly, to which Kothar's only response was a resigned sigh.

[I'll climb back up for the Hoverbike.] Kothar looked up the endless trunk stretching away from him, and took a deep breath before he started his grueling climb.

Far below Kothar, the stalk of the Treasure Frond that had been clutched so tightly in Cieba's hand was now wrapping itself tightly around the outstretched arm that held it, tiny rootlets digging deep into Cieba's cold flesh.