Medea gazed expectantly at Lucas, wanting to see him crushed under the knowledge that Hecate would not come to their rescue, that they would die under her hands today. Still, when looking at him, there was no despair or dread, just reluctant acceptance and a spark of defiance.
Not seeing what she was looking for disappointed her, but seeing the spark of defiance annoyed her.
"Kill the father," Medea commanded the surrounding monsters with a flick of her wrist, as she stayed focused on Lucas.
Unlike the previous horde, these monsters and rogue demigods were stronger and deadlier; while they didn't support each other, they also didn't sabotage one another. This caused Steven to be stretched to the limit of his abilities, sidestepping the deadlier attacks but suffering minor cuts. While these cuts wouldn't affect him in the short term, he knew they would build up and, sooner or later, he would weaken too much to continue dodging the fatal attacks.
...
Medea, alone with Lucas, advanced, her eyes fixed on him. "Your father will die soon," she said coolly. "And then, so will you."
Lucas tilted his head, a smirk pulling at his lips. "I wonder, are you trying to convince me that I have already lost, or convince yourself of that?"
Medea's eyes narrowed, no longer willing to exchange words with Lucas, knowing she can't get inside his head and rattle him. Her fingers flicked, sending forth a poisonous gale of dark clouds.
Lucas twisted, dodging the poisonous clouds, and refrained from attempting to defend against such insidious magic. His act was justified, for when the clouds struck the ground, the vegetation that had survived thus far slowly lost its vitality and died.
He had once duelled against Medea and knew she was powerful, and in magical attainments, far surpassed him. So, he changed his method, hoping to utilize his fool's pathway abilities to even the playing field.
He reached into his pocket, found a small bead, and, clutching it in his hand, threw it out. When the bead hit the ground before him, a small burst of white smoke was released, quickly veiling Lucas from Medea's sight.
A quick burst of wind magic allowed Medea to remove the smoke and find no one behind it, but this didn't faze her, as she had expected such a move. Silently casting a spell, a ripple of silvery light radiated outward in a 30-foot radius. To her right, there was a reaction. A shimmering blue contour that resembled Lucas, with a quick flick of her hand, an obsidian spike grew out of the ground, striking the figure.
As it dodged back, the invisibility was released, revealing Lucas frowning in annoyance.
"Is this all you've learned since our last duel? Petty tricks and wasted energy?" Medea mocked.
Lucas ignored Medea's mocking and instead reached into his pocket, revealing more beads. Seeing the same beads, Medea grew bored, thinking Lucas was going to repeat the same attempt at disappearing as before, so she readied her magic, preparing to find the invisible Lucas. However, when the beads hit the ground and cloaked Lucas, a small bronze orb was thrown from within the white smoke, landing before Medea, projecting a rapid beeping sound.
Guessing what the orb was, Medea quickly cast a protection spell, wrapping herself in invisible armor, preparing for an explosion, but just when the beeping grew to its peak, the orb fizzled, and a sliver of black smoke came from within. Medea scoffed as the orb fizzled. Pathetic, she thought to herself. She dismissed her armor in contempt, ready to mock him, and raised her foot back to kick the orb towards Lucas, who hadn't moved from his spot, staring at the orb with disappointment. When she suddenly wobbled, her vision grew blurry.
Medea's contempt quickly turned to panic as she attempted to cast some healing magic to cure her blindness, but that was enough of an opportunity for Lucas. The Lucas who looked disappointed dissolved into mist, and the real one revealed himself from behind Medea as he rushed towards her, daggers in hand, smirking at his scheme. Suddenly, the ground erupted, and a cage made of earth grew, trapping him.
Medea stopped her show of fear and panic, returning to her confident demeanor as she approached Lucas, who was struggling against the cage.
"It almost disappoints me how predictable you are," Medea spoke, striding toward Lucas and pouting in false sadness, "Alas-"
Shock ran through Medea as she leaped to her right, dodging a dagger that pierced through the air where she had been standing and quickly raising a barrier around her to stop another attempt.
The Lucas trapped within the cage frowned, turning to mist as another Lucas appeared nearby, frowning that his scheme didn't work.
When he threw the first bead, he had turned invisible alongside a doppelgänger, and fled in the opposite direction, when Medea cast that light to reveal him, he quickly used his newest ability, thread-tugging, making her instinctivly look to her right, where the clone was revelaed, and implanted a false thought through impressioncraft, to remove any doubt that this wasn't the real Lucas.
He had waited for her to lower her guard for a fatal strike, knowing he couldn't contend with Medea, but it seemed he was too careless, and she reacted at the last moment, dodging the dagger.
Having calmed down from nearly being struck by one of the cursed daggers she had worried about, Medea stared at Lucas, fear and anger colliding in her gaze.
Lucas ignored the look, stepping forward to pick up the dagger. When his hand touched the handle, the ground imperceptibly shook beneath Medea. Realization dawned on her face as she canceled her barrier that not only protected her, but forced her to stand with no place to dodge and rolled to her left, crashing to the ground in a fall, as an obsidian pillar grew from where she had been standing. If she hadn't dismissed the barrier and escaped, that spike would have killed her; fortunately, she noticed the slight tremor in the ground and dodged. Although she had escaped the fatal attack, her shoulder was still struck, the bone snapping from where the obsidian spike had grazed her.
Medea stood, ignoring the blood at her lips and her broken arm hanging uselessly at her side. Her good hand rose, violet light boiling in her palm. Fear and fury warred in her gaze.
"Enough tricks!" she screamed, her voice raw, as a storm of magic erupted from her hand. Energy blasts scorched the ground where Lucas stood, every strike an attempt to bury him, not giving him any chance to conjure another scheme or trap.