The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

The Amnian classed combatants also realized the earth elemental’s tactics—but they couldn’t locate it, nor did they dare spread out, lest they be picked off one by one.

Those artillery specialists watching from afar, however, were like startled birds. They turned and fled, hiding within the soldiers’ formations.

Commander Bahamond watched with twitching eyelids. These people had been so arrogant before, yet now they were cowardly—but he couldn’t control them, so he could only pretend not to see.

For a moment, the battlefield fell into an eerie silence.

One minute. Two minutes… a quarter of an hour passed quickly.

Everyone remained tense, eyes strained dry from staring—but the earth elemental seemed to have vanished, never appearing again.

On the city wall, Iris couldn’t help but smile faintly. ”You’re really bad.”

”It’s not entirely my idea,” Anser chuckled. ”I just gave the earth elemental a hint. The control of the battle is still in its own hands.”

The earth elemental’s Intelligence might be low, but its combat judgment wasn’t bad. As long as it was guided to play to its strengths and avoid weaknesses instead of fighting head-on, its deterrence skyrocketed.

That was also one of the reasons why wild earth elementals were easy to deal with, while those under a spellcaster’s command were far more troublesome.

The Amnian side also realized they had been played—but now they were stuck, caught between a rock and a hard place.

The arcane turrets were gone, several artillery specialists had been killed, and they could neither continue the attack nor retreat easily. Anyone could tell the enemy wouldn’t allow them to withdraw calmly.

Commander Bahamond rubbed his temples, the pulsing veins making him increasingly irritable.

He was now seriously questioning the expansion ambitions of the Council of Five. The instability of the Weave was not a good opportunity for Amn to expand. Chaotic times bred legends—and making enemies everywhere could easily invite major trouble.

Like right now.

Just as he hesitated—

The ground beneath one of the soldier formations suddenly exploded. The massive stone giant burst out from underground, grabbed two soldiers, spun them like a windmill, and flung over a dozen others flying.

Then it hurled the two soldiers like projectiles and charged violently toward a densely packed direction. Wherever it passed, soldiers were kicked away or trampled to death—gruesome yet spectacular.

After smashing through one formation, it didn’t stop. It continued charging into another, kicking up dust, its momentum terrifying.

No one dared face it head-on. The formation collapsed instantly, soldiers scattering in panic. The scene descended into chaos.

The earth elemental kept moving, throwing stones as it ran. Each projectile whistled through the air—graze meant injury, direct hit meant death, sometimes even striking multiple targets.

Commander Bahamond exploded with rage, ordering the classed combatants and officers to intercept. But the earth elemental knew they might have anti-magic arrows—it refused to linger. Whenever it sensed danger, it burrowed underground and repositioned, charging straight into dense groups of soldiers, tearing the enemy formation apart and pushing morale to the brink of collapse.

A single earth elemental chasing one or two thousand people—

The sight made the Amnian officers’ faces burn with shame. If this got out, not only would they be mocked by their peers, they would also be branded incompetent and cowardly.

The classed combatants hardened their resolve. Bracing for heavy injuries, they finally managed to intercept the earth elemental. In one burst of coordinated attacks, they battered it until its size visibly shrank—though they paid with two casualties.

Now the earth elemental was riddled with damage—pitted, pierced with arrows and javelins like a hedgehog, with anti-magic arrows still waiting to be fired.

From the city wall, Anser saw this and decisively dismissed the summon.

The earth elemental’s form blurred and vanished in an instant, returning to the elemental plane.

It wasn’t easy to kill an earth elemental—when critically injured, it would automatically return anyway. But it had already done more than enough. There was no need to push it that far.

The Amnian side, however, felt utterly stifled. Just as they were about to vent their anger on it, the creature simply wiggled away back to its home plane—leaving them so frustrated they nearly coughed up blood.

Only then did many realize—they had spent all that effort fighting nothing more than a summoned creature. The real caster hadn’t even made a move yet.

The officers suddenly missed those much-maligned Cowled Wizards. They could insult them all they wanted—but without them, things really didn’t seem to work.

Anser didn’t care what the enemy was thinking. He only knew this was the perfect opportunity to break the Amnian forces. After dismissing the earth elemental, he focused his magic again.

”તત્વજાદુ”

Metamagic: Quickened, Extended + Conjure Elemental (Air Elemental)!

Dozens of meters above, the gentle summer breeze suddenly turned violent. Wind howled, rapidly gathering into a vortex.

Seconds later, a massive white cloud mass over four meters across appeared within it—its vapor swirling, constantly shifting shape, occasionally forming an abstract face.

This was an air elemental—pure air form. It could pass through tiny gaps, command wind and thunder, had 20 Dexterity, and possessed resistance to bludgeoning, lightning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Most importantly—

Its flying speed surpassed even that of ancient dragons.

”Go!” Anser pointed forward. The air elemental vanished in a gust of wind, rushing toward the scattered Amnian army at astonishing speed.

Two whip-like cloud arms extended from its sides, each three to four meters long. As it skimmed low over the ground, it lashed out at the soldiers.

Boom—boom—

Deafening thunderclaps exploded one after another. Soldiers were sent flying, their bodies twisted, skin turning bluish-purple.

[Target eliminated. Gained 15 experience points]

”Thunder Slam” was the air elemental’s standard attack, dealing 2d8+5 (7–21) thunder damage. Even low-level classed combatants couldn’t withstand more than a couple of hits—let alone ordinary soldiers.

”Retreat! Derrick, cover the artificers!” Commander Bahamond no longer hesitated.

So what if it was humiliating? Losing some ordinary soldiers was acceptable—as long as those engineers were preserved, it wouldn’t count as a ”defeat.”

The soldiers were overjoyed at the order, running faster than rabbits, scattering across the hills.

The classed combatants felt stifled. They still wanted to kill the air elemental—but quickly realized it was the complete opposite of the earth elemental.

One couldn’t be hit.

The other couldn’t be brought down.

Not only could they not hit it—they couldn’t even catch it. They could only watch helplessly as the air elemental lashed the soldiers like herding sheep.

The earth elemental could at least be surrounded—this one couldn’t even be boxed in.

It could fly. And it flew ridiculously fast.

Being strong was useless—it simply refused to fight you. The moment a combatant drew a bow, it was already gone.

Following Anser’s instructions, while hunting soldiers, the air elemental quietly targeted the classed combatants as well. Aside from a few high-level ones, anyone who got isolated was killed—no mercy.

This was war.

Killing had nothing to do with right or wrong.

Watching the chaotic, almost farcical chase unfold in the distance, Iris felt a sense of absurdity and asked in astonishment, ”That’s it? What kind of spell is this?”

”Conjure Elemental,” Anser replied. Even he was surprised. He had originally valued dragon-summoning spells more—but hadn’t expected this one to be so powerful.

”I’ve only heard of elemental summoning spells and summoning elementals—but their effects are completely different from yours,” Iris said quietly.

The 4th-level elemental summoning spell could only summon a medium elemental spirit—its combat power was mediocre.

The 5th-level summon elemental spell created a large illusory spirit. Unlike the four true elements, it resembled a projection—unable to move, but capable of restraining enemies for ten minutes.

Moreover, those who mastered such spells were typically Wizards, occasionally Druids or Rangers—she had never heard of a Sorcerer awakening such a spell.

”Mine is a bit different,” Anser said, offering no further explanation.

When the four elemental beings were forcibly summoned through Conjure Elemental, if they went out of control, they would immediately turn on the caster. After all, elemental creatures were inherently free—making this extremely dangerous for most spellcasters, especially since losing concentration was so common.

But Anser’s Oath of the Noble Genies made him naturally aligned with elemental creatures. Even encountering them in the wild wouldn’t immediately provoke hostility.

He suspected that the standard ”summon elemental” spell was actually a modified, safer version of this one—

But at the cost of significantly reduced power.

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