Chapter 257: Chapter 257 - Fighting!
This main problem was as follows. He had just learned that his foe was fully capable of entirely covering all possible teleport locations in attacks.
Then, how was he to survive?
Seeing the incoming water pulse, Lumi gripped his wand tighter and cast the only viable spell. He immediately reappeared high in the air-
BOOM!
Yellow lightning slammed across the earth, shattering ground and electrifying the wave. Though he had managed to entirely dodge the attack, there was one issue.
There was still a giant electric wave below him that he would swiftly fall back into and take considerable damage. "Lance of light!" Of course, there was no reason for him to stop attacking. Any mage unable to multitask would be filtered out sooner or later. He needed to stay a threat while dodging or else the black tortoise would simply move past him and attack his party members.
"Come on... come on..." Lumi focused intently, waiting for the absolute correct moment as he fell. And then...
"Dark drop!" The old, forgotten first rank spell made a reappearance, generating several pieces of dark shards in the air. His body crashed into the fragments of his own spell, gending a sharp pain through his body, but it was otherwise merely a bruise, not a real injury.
More importantly, it instantly stopped his momentum midair. The spell then violently crashed down to the ground, causing a shockwave which cushioned his fall.
"Lance of Light!" Because the real question is why would he ever stop attacking, and why would he ever choose a different spell. All he needed to do was charge up convergence.
He noted the telltale shine of muscles coiling, and Lumi dodged to the side as a scale went flying past his face.
With a wave of his wand, he attacked with yet another spell before he teleported south at the last possible second, watching the pulse crash into the space he’d vacated, the water tearing up a long furrow of grass and dirt in its wake.
"Hm." Lumi noticed the key point. He had been prepared for an explosion, and yet one didn’t come. It was just a water pulse. Could that mean, perhaps, that the big lightning attack he had been fearing has a fairly long cooldown?
"Lance of Light!" The lances caught the serpent across its midsection as it repositioned, and it let out a furious hiss, coiling back protectively toward its host.
"Hiss~" The serpent sent another hiss his way, causing Lumi to start running to the side. He wouldn’t teleport. Wasting a teleport here would mean the tortoise would instantly hit him with an attack whilst he couldn’t teleport again.
The tortoise advanced another step, becoming faster and faster, and swung its head in a wide arc that Lumi belatedly realized wasn’t aimed at him directly. It was clearing space, herding him toward a corner of his available range where the serpent would have an easier angle.
Lumi frowned.
The black tortoise was being extremely tactical. It was, physically, faster than him. Therefore it sought to physically force him into a teleport, which would have it immediately exploit the opening to harm him.
Smart.
"Lance of Light!" He kept the pressure on while backpedaling, refusing to let the beast have its way so easily. Even if it could force a teleport, he would make it work for it.
"Lance of light!" "Lance of light!" And as he kept casting spells while backpetaling, the serpent hissed slyly, and turned around.
SNAP
A flying scale went directly towards Lumi, which moved faster than he could reasonably dodge consistently.
It cut a small line of red into his cheek as he narrowly moved out of the way, but the serpent wasn’t finished yet.
SNAP
With every sharp launch of a scale, the serpent forced Lumi to try dodging more and more, which only slowed his retreat, causing the tortoise to get closer, faster.
Lumi considered his options.
A strange thought came to mind... What would Lena do? Knowing that crazy girl, she’d probably teleport directly into the beast and blow it up.
How could he do that? He neither had explosives or-
Lumi grinned.
He continued the act until the tortoise was uncomfortably close, and then, forcing a grim look on his face, finally teleported.
The tortoise immediately unleashed a large-scale wave attack, and its eyes shone as lightning filled up in them...
And then it saw Lumi directly in front of its face.
Its eyes widened. Why was Lumi here? Without wasting any time, it opened its jaws wide and snapped at Lumi.
Lumi thrust his arm out towards the tortoise’s jaw, gripping a bag filled with an unknown substance.
The tortoise froze on the spot. No, no no! What scam was this!? Was the human really prepared to lose a hand to- no, the question wasn’t "was he", he clearly was!
He wanted to make it ingest something that would almost certainly kill it! What kind of lethal toxin must be in that back!?
SNAP
Like a recoiling rubber band, the tortoise immediately withdrew its head as fast as it could. Lumi vanished in an instant, teleporting away.
The shock of what had just occurred delayed the reaction time of the black tortoise for a moment, but it soon recalibrated and shot another water pulse at Lumi’s new location.
"Interesting." Lumi avoided it with a well timed combination, only taking slight force damage from the water. More importantly, there was no lightning. He had confirmed that it had a decently long cooldown.
The serpent lunged again, faster, and this time he didn’t have the room to dodge cleanly. He teleported north, the only direction available, and the strike caught the very edge of his cloak, close enough that he felt the air displacement against his side.
"Lance of Light!" The meter ticked higher with each connecting hit. Not only was it visually displayed, but now that he had gotten more used to it, he could physically feel the dark meter building as he cast more and more spells.
The tortoise unleashed another water pulse, and this one he couldn’t fully avoid. He teleported east, clipping the edge again, more damage bleeding through his mana guard than he wanted.
He took a deep breath and concentrated hard. With his eyes, he tracked the projectiles being thrown his way, and used his body to dodge. With his mind and right arm, he pointed his wand to the enemy and cast. And with his left, he took out a health potion and drank.
And yet the relentless attack his way was overwhelming as even while he could dodge, his health potion shattered before he even drank half of it.
A water pulse came his way, and Lumi focused. He wondered if he could...
"Lance of Light!" He purposely aimed it into the water. Light had penetrative qualities, so he was betting on the spell getting through the other side, catching his enemy unexpectedly.
Lightning began to gather in the sky. He would have to dodge in a predictable way. He would be countered unless...
He teleported straight up again.
BOOM!
The earth exploded in thunder, and he once again stopped his fall early with a dark drop. When he could finally see his enemy, they had not prepared for his action and pre-emptively attacked him like they reasonably should have.
The reason for that was clear. The serpent recoiled back, for he had caught it mid-strike with a direct hit to the head, the lances driving it back hard enough that it slammed its head against the tortoise’s own shell.
And finally... the meter was filled.
The meter filled.
He felt it fill up naturally, like thirst being cleansed. A small need in the back of the mind you never noticed was there, but now that it’s no longer there, the relief was evident.
He let out a small breath.
"Convergence."
Light and dark folded into each other, and he felt himself filled with overwhelming power.
He raised his head, staring at the Black Tortoise with overwhelmingly bright eyes of twilight. The Black Tortoise gave a pause. What was this? It didn’t want to make a mistake against a foe that had clearly changed.
Lumi waved his wand. "Torment."
As soon as the spell was cast, an overwhelming fear took hold of the black tortoise. It felt death materializing on its current location. It immediately shoved its own body to the side, hoping to dodge, but Torment had finished casting too quickly.
An orb of equilibrium materialized directly inside the tortoise itself.
This was the exact reason that Lumi had chosen the Black Tortoise as his opponent. It was the slowest beast. It may be incredibly bulky and defensive, but those were weaknesses when he was working with some of the most armor-piercing magics he had seen in his entire life.
For the orb could materialize anywhere. It didn’t care about any physical barrier blocking it. It was where he willed it to be.
