Chapter 126: Unquenchable Fire Vs. Undying Beast.

Chapter 126: Unquenchable Fire Vs. Undying Beast.

I descend on Earth with Wings of Death!

A Storm of Fury

Creating Ash and Dust

I am the Incarnation of the Sun

I shine so brightly, I bring your death

My lineage belongs to the God of Dragons!

.

Scales of steel, claws of destruction

The Dragon Fire will scorch the lands

The Idol will never fall

She will bring Absolution!

.

GRAWRRRRRRRRR!

KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Accompanied by a buffet of ear-shattering roars, white flames erupted out of my draconic mouth and engulfed the area in front of me. Having already felt the sting of my [White Flames] in our previous bout, the onnikai beast wasted no time and immediately dodged to the side and launched its counterattack.

Using the shadow cast by my flames, the onnikai beast drove its arms into them, causing large black spikes to erupt from the ground. Instead of avoiding them, I ground my tail on the ground to set it on fire, then turned the crimson fire into holy flames. Seeing as I was about the size of a larger elephant with scales harder than conventional armor covering my whole body, simply brute forcing through attacks and then healing myself would save me from doing unnecessary moves.

I still remember how the guild master would tank a few attacks to create a more advantageous situation for himself. To win battles, I should learn when to dodge and when to tank attacks. A fight is settled not by who took the most damage, but by who is standing at the end of it all.

With my tail covered in white flames, I slashed at the shadowy spikes with it like a sword. Meanwhile, I turned my head towards the onnikai with my breath attack still active, the flames chasing after the beast. The beast, realizing that its large size was becoming disadvantageous, contorted its form into something smaller and more agile. It abandoned the hands it had in the shadow, disabling the spikes attacking me, and deftly moved to avoid my flames. As it was a being of mana like Silva explained, its hand quickly regenerated from the surroundings manaand mine as well.

Even with [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 10], my mana was still being siphoned by the beast right now. As it seemed like the beast is the cause for the siphoning mana, my partys plan was for me to become bait and prevent the beast from protecting its core, the onnikai inside the orb. While I was buying time by fighting this thing, my party would sneak into the ruin and fulfill the Quest.

Silva explained that, as this onnikai beast was a concentration of mana, the orb would lose a ton of its accumulated mana if this thing were to separate from its core. It could probably protect itself with some attacks and control the surrounding onnikais, but the boss onnikai wouldnt be able to create another onnikai beast while the first was away.

Thats why my job was to stall this thing as the one with infinite regeneration under the sun. A sustain tank vs. a sustained tank. With the beasts ability to suck the mana from my fire and from me, wasnt it bad for me if this fight took too long? Well, yeah, but what can you do? I have to trust in Saori and the rest to finish their battle as soon as possible while I keep this thing pre-occupied.

I know I got myself into this but now that I think about it, isnt this guy an infinitely regenerating opponent bent on killing me? Urgh, why me

With my inner turmoil still on-going, my parallel minds immediately went to work and began casting spells distorting the ground with earth spells, distracting the enemy with wind spells, shooting out pain with holy spells and controlling the white flames surrounding me and the area with [Pyrokinesis]. Although they werent a threat to me and I wasnt targeting them, the remaining onnikai zombies were getting decimated through the collateral damage caused by my attacks. Whether the onnikai themselves survived, I didnt think about it.

The onnikai beast, having adapted to the situation, decided its more imposing form was just a hindrance to it and began moving around by contorting its form. Its limbs would grow in numbers and turn into spider legs whenever it needed to move or jump, its torso would transform into a snake-like form to slither through my attacks, and it would conjure up shadowy spikes or hands from shadows to attack me. In a way, this beast was acting extremely similar to a slime, using its special physiology to its advantage.

Kraaaaaaaaahhhh!

My roar resonated with my music and a blast of loud sounds pushed the beast back even as it tried to cut me with hands shaped into mantis-like claws. The push back worked, but the damage part wasnt as effective. For one thing, I dont think it had eardrums. Secondly, the damage caused by the sonic vibrations was quickly healed up as it sucked in mana from the area.

Honestly, seeing it do that made me annoyed. I still remember the evolution option of becoming a mana dragon and gaining a mana body like this beast. I dont know why I was feeling like this right now, but I felt a bit envious. Verdammt, couldnt my tanking ability be like this beasts if I had chosen that option back then? I thought, but I shook it off completely the next moment. I had no time to think about spilled milk.

The continuous shadow spike attacks repeated once again, but this time, I controlled the flames surrounding me from [Symphonie des Feuergottes] and used them as a shield against the spikes. Coating my tail and using it to get rid of this attack was viable, but I felt I would be wasting time.

Deciding Farrons tips during our spars werent working for me right now, I forwent with a proper magicians battle style of keeping a distance and temporarily returned to my normal battle style. I was a dragon right now, not a mage.

Using the flames of the Symphonie as armor, I rushed into close combat with the beast. With my tail still covered in white flames, I twisted my body and slammed my blade-like tail down in an arc. [Hellblade Edge] was fully online. The onnikai sidestepped the attack, but it seemed it forgot about my scale-dust. Once my tail touched the ground, a scale-dust explosion ignited, spreading some of the white flames around with it. The beast staggered from the damage.

A chance! Exactly how he did it!The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

Imitating Farrons [Storm Devastation], I swiped my tail back and twisted my body and jumped, turning my body around to slam my tail onto the onnikai once again in a quick motion. This time, my aim was true and sliced a few of its spider-like limbs off. Without wasting another second, the third slash of my imitated [Storm Devastation] continued with another twist and jump. I somersaulted and slammed my tail for the third hit like a hammer onto the ground, carving not only a large chunk of the onnikais body but also the ground.

Split apart due to my experience with my past opponents, it should be my win but the onnikai beast wasnt exactly restricted to the concept of dying when your Health reaches zero. As long as it had mana, it would always come back, just like it did when I destroyed it in our previous fight. That was the advantage of being a mana-based creature.

The beasts split body enlarged into an opened giant mouth with long tusks and fangs just large enough to swallow me whole. It attempted to crunch me like an oreo, but by using [Wind Blast] on my wings, I made a quick escape from its attack.

Once I gained some distance, spells began flying toward the onnikai. It shapeshifted back into a more maneuverable form and avoided them, but I didnt let it get away from me. Like a jaguar, I pounced at the beast and used my tail once again to cut away some of its regenerated spider legs; however, I additionally used this chance to grind my teeth, setting off another scale-dust explosion.

Mangled, the onnikai beast reappeared out of the shade from a nearby tree, having probably escaped through a shadow.

Kuruuuoooooh!

Its mouth transformed back into that weird cone-shaped face it had when it shot that lilac exploding shot. That very same dark aura began accumulating around its body, signaling it was about to shoot out that attack once again. However, I was prepared for it this time.

Instead of letting it shoot the attack, I used [Rumbling Might], causing the very earth to shake violently like an earthquake. To add to the disruption, [Bedrock Blades] erupted from the ground. The combined power of these two spells stopped the shots build up and created an opening that I very gladly took advantage of.

I blasted the beast with more spells to weaken it, then used [Earthen Shackles] to wrapped it up in vines of rock, restricting it from moving despite having regenerated its limbs from my spell barrage. Then, with [Pyrokinesis], the white flames forming my armor separated from me and surrounded the beast in them, continuously dealing damage and forcing it to regenerate. Meanwhile, [Dragon Fire] was still playing and creating new flames to erupt from the ground, supporting me by dealing even more damage to the onnikai beast.

For this reason, the onnikai beast couldnt escape. No matter what it tried, the flames rejected the beast and floating heads, keeping them inside. It was similar to those irritating invisible walls that game developers put inside games to annoy players.

[I descend on Earth with Wings of Death!

A Storm of Fury

Creating Ash and Dust

I am the Incarnation of the Sun

I shine so brightly, I bring your death

My lineage belongs to the God of Dragons!

Scales of steel, claws of destruction

The Dragon Fire will scorch the lands

The Idol will never fall

She will bring Absolution! ]

I sang while transmitting it telepathically to the onnikai beast, literally taunting it.

[Sorry, sorry, but you arent going anywhere. My party will finish your core. You will lose this fight,] I told the onnikai. [Until then, lets continue dancing together, alright, partner~]

Kraaaaaaaahhhhhh! Freeeeeee meeeeeeeeee!

Unfortunately, I refuse.

Saori, Tasianna, Silva, you guys can do it! I believe in you guys! Until we meet up again, I will do my part.

With the music booming in the background, our fight continued.

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You have bought [Mind Protection Lv. 1] [Mental Corruption Resistance Lv. 1] [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 3200

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Mind Protection Lv. 5] [Mental Corruption Resistance Lv. 5] [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 10] gained Your current SP is 250

[Lifetaker (41 Kills)][Sanctified Blaze][Shadow Armament (Full Body)] [Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

All buffs are up, but we lost Hestias buffs aside of [Sanctified Blaze]. Maybe something like thirty minutes has passed? I am not sure, I told Tasianna and Silva as we finally reached the last floor of the ruins.

Sister Tasianna, you should take most of the mana potions to keep yourself safe and at full power. Miss Saori and I should take one mana potion each and divide the rest of the Health potion amongst us, Silva stated. My offensive power is the weakest, so I will take care of healing and support. Once a path to the core is made, I will begin the rite. Igniculus will support in my stead, but I cannot support with wind magic once I begin. Please, protect me.

Tasianna nodded and attached all the mana potions to her belt. You may count on us, Sister Silva. Ice magic is a defensive element. As Lady Hestias retainer and maid, I swear I will protect you. We will free the onnikai and aid Goddess Zephira in her task!

I had no idea how long it took us to reach the last floor. Hestia did a fantastic job by clearing and luring the zombies up to the surface, which made our way down easy. There were a few zombies that we had to fight our way through, but otherwise, we did our best to rush down the ruins as fast as we could. This was a time-based battle, after all.

I didnt know how long it had been; was Hestia still luring the onnikai beast to a spot she deemed suitable, or was she fighting against it right now? I had no idea about the timing of everything. All I knew is that our part of the fight will begin soon.

And we had to hurry. Hestia was strong, but we had to finish this before the sun set.

Once we made sure our preparations were done, we entered the room. Unlike the previous time we visited it, the room had four imposing giant zombie wolves guarding the pedestal where our goal laid.

H-Hooowwwww?! Whyyyyy arreeee youuuu. Heeerreeee?! Fiiiight?! Whyyyyyyy?!

The onnikai boss seemed distressed when it saw us. Concurrently, the zombie garms assumed a combat stance and began growling, their eyes glared at me with ferocity. At that moment, strange thoughts began to enter my mind, sounding something like HIieeeerhaaaaaZZuddaasNNNddas or something gibberish. I felt not only some slight pain but also anger and sadness from those thoughts, but unlike last time they did it to me, I endured.

It was the right choice to buy [Mental Corruption Resistance] and [Mind Protection] like Hestia recommended in addition to leveling them up a bit through SP. I also bought and fully leveled [Mana Leak Resistance] for safetys sake. My Mana reached zero last time due to not having this skill back then, and I really wanted to be sure that nothing would cause that again. Even if the onnikai beast was the primary cause for the mana drain, I wanted to be sure and cover all my weaknesses.

Unfortunately for me, despite having those two new mental protection skills, I still felt this desperate desire to prove myself before these four garms. I dont know why I was feeling it and I didnt want to feel it. It was like a terrible itch that I needed to scratch. I hated to admit it, but maybe Tasianna and Silva were right. Maybe my instincts as a wolf or as [Belzacs Successor] were the cause for this.

In any case, we had to fight anyway. Unlike Hestia, who has embraced her draconic life with pleasure, I didnt like being a pawn to my instincts. I hated being covered in fur, so I barely showed any skin with my outfit. I hated being bloodthirsty and a battle junkie, so I tried to be more aloof than how I was on Earth.

Its funny how my students sometimes called me scary when I was strict with them. How would they react to how I act now? Well, I guess they would comment about the fact that I looked younger than when I was their homeroom teacher, but, well, whatever.

Concentrate, Saori. We need to fight.

With [Multi-Cast], I invoked both [Shadow Clones] and [Shadow Pack]. With a shadow clone of my cadejo form and a shadowy giant wolf, this battle party was now a six-man, including Silvas Igniculus.

[Humanized (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

With my two shadow wolves flanking my sides, I pulled out my two daggers and transformed into my werewolf-like form. I was thinking of assuming my cadejo form, but I wanted to test the waters first with my two daggers. Could good equipment cover the difference in stats or will my additional stats and size from my true form be more useful?

Let us put this hypothesis to the test.

For what you four did to me in our last meeting, let me reward you by giving you a personal lecture!