3004 Ears of Menadion (Part 4)
Lith and Solus telepathically nodded and stayed behind, waiting for the Eyes to collect enough information to grasp the Ears' weakness.
Azhom and Rhuta, instead, conjured their best tier five Spirit Spells, respectively Manastorm and Griffon Fetters. The former generated a hail of emerald bullets, each one with the power of an Adamant cannonball.
Griffon Fetters conjured a set of emerald chains strong enough to restrict a Griffon, the mightiest among the Divine Beasts.
'If I manage to block this guy's movements, it's over. Someone like the Final Smile needs one good punch to win.' He thought.
The problem was that aside from Manastorm, no one and nothing could keep up with Maergron's speed. He stabbed with the Nails at the Fetters' critical points and Zoreth's armor.
Killer Wasp's claws also worked as feelers. Even when they failed to deal damage, they allowed the master of the Ears to study his opponent. The following blows struck the areas of Zoreth's body where her Eldritch and Troll sides were still at odds.
He injected them respectively with darkness and light magic, making her wince in pain. The damage by itself was insignificant but it was destabilizing her hybrid life force.
"You are a cunning bastard, but I bet that there's a limit to your abilities." Zoreth unleashed a pulse of elemental energy from Sky Piercer and conjured several spells at once from the Maw.
The sudden imbalance in the world energy jammed the Ears' readings, hitting the Redcap and those behind him like a tidal wave. It inflicted little damage to Maergron and the others, its purpose to move the Hand of Fate out of Zoreth's way.
Her tier five Chaos Spells, Howling Storm, conjured a volley of black spears as thick as small trees and faster than bullets. Even with Flash Steps and the help of the Ears, Maergron took several hits in full.
Gaping holes opened in his armor and one of his legs was severed. Green tendrils sprouted from the wounds, closing the holes and collecting the scattered pieces of Adamant to hasten the armor's repairs.
'Damn Fae and their regenerative abilities. If only I could attack his head.' Zoreth clicked her tongue.
Even when split from the main body, Maergron's limbs kept their mobility. Manastorm was hounding the Redcap but it failed to hit him. He circled around the Awakened so that Azhom had to make the trajectory of her bullets curve to avoid her allies.
'He is healing too fast and his armor is whole again.' Solus pointed out while filtering the Eyes' useless readings. 'This can't be the Ears' doing. It must be the throne.'
She had noticed that Maergron kept himself within a 15 meters (50') range from the stone throne, even if it meant not chasing a wounded opponent. Before Lith could say anything, Bytra cut the Redcap's path and he stepped back while using Ryka as a human shield against the unavoidable Manastorm.
Azhom cursed, steering the spell away from the Titania and hitting Xenagrosh in the process.
'I said to be careful, you idiot! He can read our movements!' She was right.
Maergron knew that in the chaos of battle, the Lich would focus too much on her enemy and friends to worry about for someone as powerful as the Eldritches.
"Poor little things." He laughed at them. "Many against one and you cannot land one solid blow."
Unanna was already frustrated by his sense of helplessness and fell for the provocation. He attacked Maergron in a blind fury that made him easy prey for another dose of poisonous mana.
The Redcap would have finished the Naga off if not for the timely assault of the Eldritches.
He shot half of his claws at Zoreth who slapped them away with Sky Piercer and the other half at Bytra who dodged them. The claws were too fast to hit them all in time and she suspected that the attack was a bait.
'I get that the Ears are a powerful tool, but how can we deal with so many of us at the same time.' She thought as the Adamant projectiles curved in mid-air, stabbing Zoreth and chasing after the Raiju.
The answer was that Maergron was Pharek's true heir and his master had passed on to him the secret power of the Ears just like Menadion had done for him centuries ago.
The Fae wasn't limited to the basic functions of the artifact like the enemies that Lith and Solus had faced in the past.
As long as the Ears had a suitable energy source, they could exceed the limits of hearing by triggering synaesthesia. Small cables linked the artifact to the sensory areas of Maergron's brain, triggering them all.
He could see the flow of mana with his eyes, feel it on his skin like a wind that announced an incoming blow, and even taste it on his tongue. The more intense the flavor, the stronger the enemy was.
By splitting the information among the various senses, the Ears provided its master with several cues and safeguarded him from sensory overload. Back when she was still alive, Menadion knew that sound was the primal way animals and humans perceived danger.
"If you see a flash of light, your first reaction is to shield your eyes. If you hear a loud sound, you turn around." She had explained Pharek after gifting him the Ears. "For this reason, the Ears are the most combat-oriented among my creations.
"Yet that's not their purpose. I made them to help you Forgemaster masterpieces like they do for me. Use them wisely and remember that they have limits."
Pharek had heeded her words and built his lab in the Garden for that precise purpose. The accumulated world energy was more abundant than any mana geyser and the throne made up for his lack of a tower or the Hands.
It provided him with a constant flow of energy that fueled the Ears and the rest of his equipment while also blinding Life Vision. The Garden served as a means of offense by fueling the Ears and of defense by hiding the artifact's weak point under the guise of a tacky piece of furniture.
The problem was that Pharek had built his lab assuming to face a single opponent like a white core or an Eldritch, not a group. Also, in none of his plans had he considered a scenario where his array system would have been taken down.
"At that point, I would be as good as?dead." He had shrugged, dismissing the possibility as outlandish.
Maergron had further improved his master's plans by adding more defensive layers that exploited his unique powers as a Fae. By collecting the blood of an intruder, he could mimic their powers and learn their strategies before meeting them.
In fact, if not for the abilities he had stolen from the members of the Hand of Fate, the Ears would have been useless. There was no point in reading attacks he was too slow to react to or too weak to defend against.
He was a Forgemaster, not a fighter. If not for Strider's speed, Ryka's strength, and Unanna's dexterity, all the Ears of Menadion could do was distinguish which blow would kill him first.
