The explosion sent them flying.

Elena and the Shaman crashed through the air as fire and shadow magic detonated between them, and the shockwave hurled them several blocks away from where Aiden and Callum were fighting. Elena landed hard and rolled across pavement before coming to a stop against a burning car. The Shaman hit a brick wall and cracked the stone on impact before dropping to the ground.

They stood up simultaneously.

Elena was on a different street now with burning buildings on both sides and corpses littering the ground from the invasion. The distant sounds of combat echoed from where they’d been separated, but she couldn’t see the others anymore. The Shaman raised his bone staff and dark energy pulsed outward, then a massive wall of shadow erupted from the pavement cutting off the entire street. The barrier stretched three stories high and blocked both ends of the road.

They were isolated.

"This is better," the Shaman said in translated speech, his guttural voice rendering into English through system brackets. "No interruptions. Just warrior against warrior."

Elena’s flames flickered around her hands as she took a combat stance, her breathing controlled while her eyes stayed cold and focused. She was mid-thirties with dark hair tied back and wearing Crimson Phoenix Guild armor that was already damaged from earlier fighting. The S-rank pressure radiating from her made the air shimmer with heat.

The Shaman grinned widely, showing sharp teeth. "I can feel your power," he said while walking forward slowly. "Your flames are hotter than most mages on the worlds we’ve conquered. I’m looking forward to testing myself against you properly."

Elena realized tactically that she needed to kill this one fast, because as long as he lived the other three generals were buffed and Aiden’s group was fighting at a disadvantage.

She attacked first.

Elena launched forward with fire coating her fists in a technique similar to melee combat, closing the distance in a burst of speed that left flames in her wake. Her first punch aimed directly at the Shaman’s chest with fire blazing orange around her knuckles. The Shaman blocked with a dark barrier that manifested instantly in front of him, and the collision sent a shockwave BOOM across the street while windows shattered. Elena didn’t stop, following up with a spinning kick wreathed in flames aimed at his head. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The Shaman ducked under it and countered with shadow tendrils that shot from the ground trying to grab her legs.

Elena backflipped away, and the tendrils missed by inches before she landed and immediately launched multiple fire projectiles from both hands. Compressed balls of flame streaked through the air leaving orange trails. The Shaman raised his staff and a wall of shadow rose from the pavement blocking the projectiles, then the flames hit the shadow wall and exploded in bursts of heat.

But Elena was already moving.

She used the explosions as cover to circle around to his flank, appearing from the smoke with both fists blazing as she struck at his ribs. The Shaman barely dodged and countered with a necrotic bolt from his staff, a beam of dark energy that drained life force.

Elena rolled to the side, and the bolt hit a car behind her. The metal immediately rusted and corroded with paint peeling and tires deflating, as if decades of decay happened in seconds.

Elena’s eyes narrowed seeing that effect. She couldn’t let those bolts touch her.

The Shaman laughed. "That’s right," he said in translated speech. "One touch and your flesh will rot."

Elena responded by increasing her flames, the orange fire around her hands cycling hotter toward white as she launched a concentrated fire lance at him. A spear of compressed flame moved at incredible speed. The Shaman used shadow step and his body dissolved into darkness before reappearing ten meters to the left, then the fire lance hit a building and punched through the brick wall leaving a molten hole.

They exchanged attacks rapidly after that.

Elena struck with fire-enhanced punches that the Shaman dodged or blocked with dark barriers. He countered with shadow tendrils from multiple angles that Elena burned away with flame bursts. When he tried another necrotic bolt she deflected it with a fire whip. When she tried to close distance he teleported through shadows. The street around them became a warzone with scorch marks, melted pavement, corroded metal, and the air thick with heat and dark energy.

They were evenly matched.

Elena realized the Shaman was too mobile with his shadow stepping and decided to change tactics. She took control of the surrounding mana, spreading her awareness outward in what hunters called Mana Zone, an advanced technique that let her manipulate fire magic throughout the entire area instead of just around her body.

The air temperature spiked immediately.

She drew heat from everything around them, and her flames intensified from white to the edges of blue while fire began manifesting in multiple locations around the Shaman without Elena needing to gesture or move.

The Shaman’s eyes widened slightly as fireballs appeared from his left, right, behind, and above simultaneously. He blocked with multiple shadow barriers but Elena’s barrage was relentless, with fire attacks coming from every direction in continuous streams making it nearly impossible to dodge or defend properly. The Shaman was forced onto pure defense as his staff glowed brighter while he poured more dark magic into maintaining the barriers.

One fireball slipped through his guard and caught his shoulder, burning through his robe and scorching flesh.

He grunted in pain, and Elena pressed harder.

But then the Shaman grinned widely showing sharp teeth. "Yes, YES!" he shouted in translated speech. "This is what I wanted! Show me more power!"

He slammed his staff into the ground, and dark energy exploded outward in a wave. Shadow tendrils erupted from every corpse on the street, from every dark corner, from every shadow cast by the burning buildings. Dozens of them converged on Elena from all sides.

She responded by manifesting a spinning ring of fire around herself that burned through the first wave of tendrils, but more kept coming while the Shaman laughed now, clearly enjoying the challenge.

The fight became a clash of area control.

Elena’s Mana Zone fire attacks versus the Shaman’s shadow manipulation created explosive bursts across the entire street. Elena created walls of flame to block shadow attacks. The Shaman created barriers of shadow to block fire attacks. They were moving constantly, both using advanced techniques while pushing their magic to higher levels.