2045 Crank it Up (Part 1)
'The Hyperion will raise his guard, hoping to block both my attacks. Once he realizes it's a trap, even if somehow he manages to deflect my tail, I'll still hit him on the chest.
'No matter if my acid burns his lungs or just an arm. Once I get the upper hand, the fight will be over.' Iata thought.
The Sekhmet's claws and stinger struck without encountering any resistance.
Crank just stared at her with his big, round eyes as if it was none of his business. The former dug deep into the black fur while the latter reached the Hyperion's chest, releasing a massive dose of acid that emitted a sizzling sound.
The problem was that the claws failed to reach the skin. Crank's thick fur was imbued with darkness and earth, his natural elements. Together they amplified the natural ability of the evolved honey badger to disperse the kinetic energy of any blow.
Even a bigger and stronger creature had a hard time hurting a Hyperion. In Iata's case, she was smaller and weaker. If not for the Life Maelstrom coursing through her body, Crank would have barely felt the blows.
Now instead, he had to rely on the natural defensive properties of his fur and on the full Adamant armor that he wore under it. When Iata's claws had reached it, they had so little momentum left that they had knocked on it rather than slashed.
'You see, if you wear your armor over your scales it gets damaged easily, and usually repairing it takes time and mana. Fixing my fur is a piece of cake, instead. Worst case scenario, I can always grow a new one.' Crank said to Lith via the mind link while he trapped Iata in a literal bear hug.
Full Guard warned her and she was much faster than the goofy Hyperion, yet when she flapped her wings to back off, she discovered that all of her limbs were trapped. Even the tail.
'Why isn't the acid working? I can still hear the sizzle-' Her brain slammed against her skull when her body met the ground.
After grabbing her, Crank had simply let himself fall forward while using gravity fusion and magic. The Divine Beast had gone from weighing dozens of tons to hundreds in an instant, and they all pressed against the Sekhmet who found herself between a rock and a tough beast.
Her mystical protections still held, but they were now full of cracks that kept getting bigger as the Hyperion hammered at them non-stop. His arms alone were massive blunt weapons that sent shockwaves through the barriers with each hit.
Now that Iata was trapped, the kinetic energy of the blows struck her once when they landed and another when her back bounced against the ground. Even though Crank's blows failed to reach her, they managed to deal her damage.
'If I Blink while this fatass is still stuck to me, I'd just bring him along. Plan or not, I cannot afford to hold back anymore.' She conjured all the spells that she had at the ready, striking the Hyperion from point-blank range.
"That hurt my feelings. We are just starting to know each other." He said with a laugh without stopping the beating.
Lith wanted to step in, but there was nothing he could do that wouldn't risk messing up with Crank's strategy and creating an opening for Iata to escape. Also, he had conjured the Eyes of Menadion and was using them to clear the mystery of the Hyperion's apparent invulnerability.
Life Vision was of no help. All it showed to both him and Iata was that Crank's body shone with blinding light. Whatever bloodline ability he was using, it emitted much more power than a regular bright violet core.
It was the reason they had failed to notice the presence of the power core of his armor. It wasn't cloaked, just overshadowed.
The Eyes, instead, singled out the different energy signatures covering the Hyperion, identifying the Mana Body bloodline ability, fusion magic, a spell, and one of the oddest armor designs that Lith had ever seen.
The surface of the Adamant consisted of long barbed hooks that normally matched each other, creating the illusion of a flat surface. When the armor was hit, the hooks would spring out and stab at the aggressor, trapping them.
The hooks had been coated with a short-range but powerful gravity spell that worked akin to a universal glue. Even if the enemy used a blade, claws, or anything that the hooks couldn't pierce, they would get stuck anyway.
A strong tug was enough to get free from the hooks, but the surprise effect was all Crank needed to capture his prey. He knew that his speed was nothing much compared to other Divine Beasts but also that his raw strength was the real deal.
One second was more than enough for him to pin the opponent to the ground and once the fight moved to close-quarters combat, he was confident in defeating anyone. Mana Body increased his physical prowess further and made him nigh-immune to magic to the point that not even Life Maelstrom bothered him much.
'At least that mace-like tail he got is useless in this situation whereas mine is still a deadly weapon.' Iata thought, whipping her stinger over and over.
Her acid was of physical nature so there was only so much she could use before running out. On the other hand, its non-magical nature allowed it to work under any circumstance, no matter what elements had been sealed.
She planted it firmly against the Hyperion's chest, keeping it there while she pumped out her acid to burn his fur and flesh alike. Yet it was her feeling the sting of pain. She yelped in surprise, discovering that her tail was blackened.
To make matters worse, she could hear the acid sizzling but there was no visible effect on Crank. Iata couldn't understand how it was possible, but Lith could. The Eyes revealed the presence of a second bloodline ability that coated the fur just like Mana body covered Crank's body.
The darkness element from the world energy and his life force mixed together to generate a thick aura called Cleansing Mist that eroded everything it came in contact with at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Iata's Adamant-coated claws were resisting its effects thanks to Life Maelstrom, but the silver light faded more with each second it remained stuck under the black fur. Anything within the area of effect of the black aura would be subjected to its entropic effects.
Part of the kinetic energy from blows would be turned into heat while the mana of spells would be forced out of sync with the world energy, weakening them. As for the acid, Cleansing Mist broke it down into its components before burning it.
The sizzling didn't come from the acid corroding Crank, but from the black aura corroding the acid. The combination of Mana Body and Cleansing Mist made Hyperions' defensive abilities one of the best among Divine Beasts.
"Sorry, love. My species is specialized in getting rid of pests that use acid, poison, or whatever weapon you cowards used." The Hyperion locked his front paws together, hammering at the Sekhmet while also boosting gravity fusion at the moment of impact.
