Being a self-taught true mage with very little knowledge outside of tier three, had always been a problem for Lith. He had to make up from scratch most of his spells, and not having much free time, if not none at all, his toolkit was quite limited.

For such reason, most of his spells were derived from imitation. Phloria’s Full Guard, the Ry’s slipstream effect or the Wither dark aura were all tricks that he had picked up along the way.

His fight with the plant Abomination had allowed him to further understand darkness magic, and how to overcome its obnoxious limitations.

Darkness was an element capable of inflicting an enormous amount of damage overtime, and to add insult to injury, it was extremely hard to defend from it. On the other hand, though, darkness based spells were so slow that outside niche situations they were nigh useless.

Vampiric Touch required physical contact, hence it was a last resort. The Wither’s dark aura had good range, but required a huge mana expenditure compared to the damage dealt.

That was why Lith had thought long and hard about it, trying to figure out a way to use darkness magic to cover for his weak points. No matter how much he planned in advance, he was still an amateur fighter, lacking any professional training.

Despite being much slower than Lith, two members of the Talons were enough to force him to go all out just to not be turned into mincemeat in a few seconds. Thanks to their rich battle experience, they were able to anticipate his movements and adjust their attacks accordingly.