Even after she cut off her spell, the area was awash in a sea of white flame. She let out a long breath as she waited for the flames to burn themselves out. These two had been far more dangerous than the other assassins sent after her. She assumed they were the leaders, since they had been given what were likely priceless pieces of magical equipment. That brought up many questions about who could be backing them.

The thing that had her most worried, however, was this mention of the “Demon’s Legacy”. Balrus had apparently been right. She would need to talk to the others about this as soon as Aldric got back.

The white fire was suddenly and violently funneled to a single point, like water circling a drain. At the center of it all was the assassin with the shield. The shield sucked in all the flames, leaving the courtyard empty within moments. It glowed white hot for several moments before fading back to normal again. The runes etched into it seemed to glow brighter than before.

Despite her alarm, Zasia had a sudden realization. Of course these weapons were familiar. She’d known their creator for most of her life. She’d even been there when they were crafted nearly fifteen years ago.

Where in the world did these people get a hold of Aldric’s old experiments?

The remaining assassin dashed over to the now charred corpse of his less lucky comrade. Scooping up the mace with his free hand, he swung it towards and then through the earth pillar Zasia was still balanced on. The mace passed through as if the pillar was made of sand. She barely had time to use wind magic to help her land safely on the ground before she was already gliding backwards, dodging the assassin as he came in with his mace again.

He swung at her without technique or grace, but it would only take being grazed by the weapon for Zasia to be seriously injured. If she remembered correctly, this mace did something to mana that made it dangerous to mages, but she didn’t have time to dig through her memories.

That shield was going to be the actual issue. It absorbed spells and converted them back into raw mana, then dispersed it into the air. It had a fatal flaw, and Zasia was kicking herself for not remembering what that was. If Aldric didn’t go on long-winded tangents in his explanations, then maybe she would—

The mace whistling mere inches from her nose brought her back to the fight. She conjured an earth wall to gain space, but the assassin simply bashed through these just like they had the pillar, and trying to conjure the earth around the attacker didn’t seem to work. She tried buffeting them with wind, but that damned shield kept absorbing all of it. Setting fire to the ground resulted in the same thing, and creating a sheet of ice on the ground was only bashed to pieces by the mace.