The trial started, cracks forming on the statue as Medusa's body emerged from the stone. Its eyes lit up a bright red that was barely visible even through the fog, which made William's task of locating the creature much easier.
He activated the series of Arrays while controlling six improved Array Puppets to attack it head-on. William controlled the remaining four Array Puppets to form a line in front of him, linking their arms together as a Perfect Barrier Array was erected, acting as a shield for William.
This Barrier Array was one of William's additions to the improved Array Puppets that resulted from his years of experience in the Array simulation during his upgrade. The biggest bonus was that this Array was able to move with the Puppets, allowing William to remain both mobile and safe during a fight.
He stored the Mana Gathering Staff and Sword of Shifting Sands in his Space Ring, bringing out the Starmetal Bow and nocking a poison-tipped arrow.
His Life Sense was active the entire fight, allowing him to clearly see Medusa as it spat corrosive fluid, narrowly missing an Array Puppet. He aimed in the snake's general direction, his fingers releasing their grip on the arrow as it flew through the air at great speed and pierced Medusa's thick hide.
Medusa hissed in pain, turning its head to face William just as another arrow embedded itself in the snake's nose.
William was in the process of nocking a third arrow when he accidentally made eye contact with Medusa. He quickly averted his eyes, but his fingers and toes had already turned numb.
His Regeneration Talent was completely useless in this scenario, since he hadn't actually taken any damage. Instead, it was the Earth Element that helped him resist the effects of the petrification, the Earth Mana clashing with a special type of Earth Mana that Medusa had released from its eyes.
He kept his distance from Medusa as he reversed the petrification process, then fired off two more arrows in quick succession the moment his fingers were no longer restricted.
The snake looked at the arrows as they flew toward it, turning the arrowheads into a blunt stone that bounced off Medusa's scales. It tried to do the same to a third arrow that was shot in its direction, but it was interrupted by an Array Puppet that stabbed into its side with the Epic Glaive.
While the Glaive Puppet waited for an Array to heal its injuries, the Starmetal Bow Puppet released four arrows in succession at Medusa, aiming for the eyes while it avoided looking toward the snake.
Even though the Puppet wasn't living and it didn't have eyes, if the information shared by the Puppet reached William while it was looking at Medusa, he would still be affected.
He continued feeding Mana into the spell, the branches extending throughout the entire floor as it slowly reduced Medusa's freedom of movement. By the time the spell was completed, the floor was covered with hundreds of wood-covered earth pillars, trapping Medusa in a space of less than a hundred square meters while it still fought with the Array Puppets.
-Developed a complex new Spell: +5 PP
-New Spell: Nature's Exile
That cost me over two hundred Mana, but the effects are well worth it. William evaluated the effects thoroughly. Against a slightly weaker opponent that was large in size, William could probably trap them for hours in this manner.
Even when outside of a building, William could make use of this spell to surround a large Magical Beast to prevent it from running away.
Medusa hissed in anger at William's cowardly move, slamming its tail against the Nature's Exile with little impact. Since its movements were restricted, the amount of power it could put into swinging its tail was greatly reduced. This meant that it would take the snake four or five hits just to break a single pillar, and there were hundreds of them in close proximity.
As long as William continued feeding Mana into the spell, the snake would have no chance of escaping.
It tried to slither through a hole that was large enough to fit its head, but William had been planning this the entire time. The moment that Medusa entered the gap, William sealed off the exit with two pillars and the path in front of the snake with just a single pillar, perfectly trapping the snake.