2044 First Blood (Part 4)
Yet Faluel hadn't considered the silver lightning that coursed through his body. It countered the acid of her bite and made Ufyl so strong that he tossed her away like a ragdoll.
Faluel opposed no resistance, using her wings to recover her balance in mid-air.
'I need to be careful. In this form, my mass is spread thin to form limbs that I don't usually have, making this body less sturdy than my original.' The Hydra thought while unleashing her counter attack.
She conjured a powerful gravity field that sent Ufyl sprawling against the ground before unleashing six different tier five spells that consumed all of her mana while the seventh head used Lifestream to instantly recover it.
The Seven Headed Dragon was caught by surprise and instinctively followed his training. He poured more silver lightning into his armor to strengthen its barrier but because of Clean Slate, nothing happened.
Griffon Fetters conjured a hexa-elemental bundle of emerald chains that hog-tied Ufyl like a prime roast. As its name implied, it had been devised to restrain Griffons, so even with his empowered physique, he failed to get rid of it fast enough.
Phoenix Smash produced emerald flames that used light, air, and earth to hit with the energy of a speeding train. At the same time, water allowed the spell to seep inside every nook and cranny of its victim, fire caused concussive explosions, and darkness eroded everything inside out.
Manastorm rained small comets from above while Volcano turned the ground below Ufyl into molten lava. At the same time, Lightfall unleashed five beams of light, one for each of her fingers, that pierced through Adamant and flesh.
Ufyl tried to Blink away, but Faluel's last spell was Sealed Space. The Seven Headed Dragon survived solely thanks to Life Maelstrom enhancing his abilities and the constant use of his breathing technique.
By the time the Hydra was done, he had exhausted the silver lightning and even though his body was in perfect condition, the hunger almost blinded him. Invigoration could heal any wound and restore even mental focus, but it couldn't provide nourishment.
Ufyl's body had cannibalized itself to heal and was now several hundreds of kilos lighter, crippling his physical strength. To make matters worse, not even darkness fusion could stop the pain radiating from his stomach demanding its due.
"This is not over. Once my ally gets rid of the pup, I'll eat you!" He said in outrage.
"At least offer me a drink first!" Faluel said with a sneer as she conjured another gravity spell that the Dragon dodged with a Spirit Blink.
He breathed a single burst of Origin Flames, feeling even his life force waning from starvation.
The five helmets on her heads shone in unison, taking control of the world energy. The Origin Flames disappeared just in time for him to see the Hydra lunging with her glaive at the opening in his armor that Lightfall had crated above his heart.
'Damn, I have no time to lose. If we lose Ufyl, no more Dragon Eye-' Iata thought as a mass of fur weighing dozens of tons sent her flying and cut her short.
Crank the Hyperion didn't look like a honey badger in his real form. He resembled a colossal pitch-black bear, 30 meters (100') tall at the withers with a white streak running from his head to the tip of his long, armored tail.
The white streak wasn't made of fur, but of a crystal-like substance that crackled with the power of the elements. Curved tusks came out of the sides of his mouth, making it impossible for the victims of his bites to escape without losing the captured limb.
"You look like shit, kid. That's why you never send scrubs to the battlefield." His voice was now deep and guttural, his words more growled than spoken. "I swear, If I didn't have to protect my investment, I would have let the cat beat you within an inch of your life.
"Saving the Kingdom's golden boy would have raised my reputation and earned me a pretty penny." He said while standing on his hind legs to look at Iata and also to scratch his massive butt with the curved claws of his front paws.
'Why are wasting your time blabbering instead of throwing all the spells you have at the ready at her?' Lith established a mind link to not waste any more time and cursed Crank's ancestors down to the Father of all Hyperions.
'Why waste me precious mana? Didn't you see how she went down too easy? If you live long enough to fight a few finches, you'll learn that Light Masters teach their children to wear more barriers than fur. Between that and that damned silver lightning, they are annoying customers.'
'What do finches have to do with this?' Between the hunger and the nonsensical words, Lith was getting a headache like only a Lich could cause.
'How else do you call Griffons without passing for a brown noser?' Crank replied with a puzzled look on his face.
Once the dust settled down, Lith noticed that Iata was indeed unscathed. A golden and emerald layer had taken the brunt of the impact. Her tail was raised, the stinger ready to strike if either of her enemies attempted to follow up on the first attack.
'What's the best way to deal with them?' Lith asked, eager to learn from someone older and more experienced.
'Easy, you beat the crap out of them.' Crank shrugged at the stupid question. 'Magic is a waste of time. They either dodge or Blink and even if you intercept them, those barriers take the fun out of it.'
'Do you listen to yourself?' Lith said in frustration. 'How do you beat in brute strength someone who can access Life Maelstrom?'
Iata spread her wings charging at the elder Divine Beast who was now the biggest threat to their plan.
'With Leari dead, now we're three against two.' The Sekhmet thought. 'The humans played a nice trick on Ufyl and the Hydra has clearly more experience than the two of us combined.
'I can't let them combine her brains with this guy's brawns.'
She used mind and body casting to prepare several spells while wrapping herself in several layers of magic that would give her the time to Warp away if things went south.
She advanced in a zig-zag pattern, changing her speed so that the enemy couldn't get used to it and read her movements. Yet Crank stood still in front of Lith without casting any spell that Life Vision could detect.
'Why does he keep scratching his butt? Is it some kind of magic I don't know?' Iata closed in a few times just to Blink back to expose the presence of inactive arrays but nothing happened.
To make matters worse, while she worried about possible traps Lith and Crank were eating in her face. The Tiamat needed to recover his strength while the Hyperion just wanted to kill time.
On the verge of a nervous breakdown, the Sekhmet conjured several spells at the same time as a cover while diving into the Hyperion. Her Adamant-coated claws were aimed at the neck while the stinger feinted to the head before moving toward the heart.
