Even as I ran along the perimeter of the largely razed courtyard, I dismissed White Tiger. Suddenly bereft of an enemy, the Anaconda God turned to face me, its massive jaws yawning wide open to swallow me whole as it lunged forward.
I didn't bother slashing it with my Gan Jiang and Mo Ye because I knew my two swords probably wouldn't have much of an effect. Instead, I threw out my right hand and yelled out the name of my next Constellation spirit.
"Serpens!"
The gigantic serpent materialized between me and the Anaconda God before snarling and darting forward. The two gargantuan snakes collided in the middle of the garden before crashing down heavily, carving messy trenches in the soil and flattened grass. Several of the trees were essentially knocked down as they wrestled, trying to wrap their coils around each other. Serpens bit deeply into Anaconda God's length, eliciting an enraged hiss. The Amazerian Soul Beast retaliated with a bite of its own, but its fangs failed to penetrate Serpens's armored scales. It didn't matter. Neither Serpens nor the Anaconda God had any venom in their fangs.
That wasn't unusual. Serpens was based off the Aesculapian Snake, a non-venomous snake that inhabited Europe, and was most often associated with the Greek God of medicine and healing, Asclepius. Anacondas, on the other hands, lived in the Amazon Rainforest and were constrictors rather than venomous snakes. In other words, they relied on crushing and strangling their prey instead of killing or incapacitating them with toxins. Therefore, they were both non-venomous snakes. Of course, this meant the Anaconda God had the advantage in terms of size and power. I could see Serpens slowly losing out in the battle between giant serpents.
Unfortunately, I wasn't given much time to worry about my Constellation spirit. While our Soul Beasts continued to wrestle violently, Elem charged at me without any hesitation, his slender sword glowing brightly.
I parried his strike by crossing both Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, but despite his shorter frame, the guy packed immense power behind his blows. I was thrown several meters back before he unleashed another golden blast of tsunami at me.
"Where the fuck is he getting all that mana to spam so much of that spell?!" I demanded as I dove to the side, allowing my Black Tortoise to slide in and conjure a water barrier over me after he recovered from the blow that the Anaconda God dealt to him earlier.
Obviously nobody answered me. The only response was for Elem to instead charge toward me with his glowing sword. As he needed to cooldown before charging up for another attack, he couldn't fire off another one of those massive spells for a while.
So he planned to finish me off in close combat, considering how I was easily nullifying his highly destructive spell with Black Tortoise's water barrier.
However, I was no match for him in close range. Understanding that, I jumped away, evading Elem's strikes and widening the distance between us. While flipping my body in midair, I sheathed both Gan Jiang and Mo Ye before summoning Orion.
"You're not the only one who can fire off ranged attacks. That's my specialty."
"!!!"
Elem leaped back in reflex, doing his best to dodge the volley of azure energy arrows that I fired in his direction. Righting myself up, I landed on the ground and hopped back while releasing another couple of arrows that grazed Elem's cheek and shoulder, tearing open the skin and drawing blood. Ignoring the stinging pain, Elem grinned and charged at me.
"In other words, as long as I get in close, I win!"
Naïve. He already failed to defeat me even though we had exchanged several blows in close combat. I might be at a disadvantage, being weaker and less experienced, but I could hold my own for at least a few minutes.
Even so, I didn't intend to just let Elem gain the upper hand by charging in close and forcing me into a melee, so I continued to retreat.
"Betelgeuse!"
"?!"
A storm of azure arrows streaked forward, momentarily filling up the entire space between us. Elem tried to evade, but my attack was too fast and too fierce. In a few moments, he was engulfed by the intense bombardment, which smashed craters into the ground as well as razed the few trees standing behind him.
"Huff…"
One of my arrows were deflected back at me, but I calmly stood still and allowed it to sail behind me, not caring that it embedded itself deeply into the wall of the majestic Stuart manor before dissipating harmlessly. Well, not harmless to the poor wall. It left a mark, but I doubted the Stuart family would ask me to pay for the damages.
If anything, the Amazerian Empire prince would pay for the entire ravaged garden of the Stuart estate. And since he was the one who forced me to participate in this annoying duel, he would have to pay for my share of damages too.
"Not bad!"
Cackling wildly, Elem blasted away the bombardment of arrows with his aura of glowing golden mana. Holding his sword with both hands, he prepared to swing it and consign me to oblivion, but I coolly took aim and let fly an arrow.
Ping!
Swoosh!
I had judged the timing perfectly. The moment Elem swung his sword down, my arrow struck his right arm and deflected the blast. As Elem staggered backward, his arm thrown back by the immense impact, his "Excalibur" spell went wide and seared toward the heavens, breaking a bunch of unfortunate clouds apart.
"You…!"
I merely smiled and fired off a triple Orion's Belt volley that he impatiently hacked away. Realizing that he was at a complete disadvantage at long range, Elem backed away into whatever sparse cover he could find, weaving through my hail of projectiles. I had to admire his speed and agility. I wasn't going to claim that I had flawless accuracy, but none of my attacks were landing.
However, both Elem and I knew it was only a matter of time before he was forced to slow down and catch his breath. And that would be when my arrows would hit him without fail.
Elem wasn't stupid, however. He wasn't blindly dodging. Diving straight into a relatively intact area of the garden where several trees stood proudly, he lashed out with his sword and cut them down. Spinning around, he kicked the tree trunks at me, one at a time.
Even though my arrows could obliterate the trees, they would end up showering me in splinters and wooden debris, as well as obscure my sight of him. Knowing that Elem would seize the chance to close in on me, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it, I decided to just discard my long-ranged advantage that I wouldn't be able to preserve anyway, and draw both Gan Jiang and Mo Ye.
"Green Dragon," I whispered, nodding as the chibi Celestial Guardian materialized over my shoulder. Without glancing at him, I immediately took off, charging at the approaching tree logs.
Instead of cutting them down like any normal swordsman would do (which would have the same effect as me shooting them down with my Orion bow, so why bother?), I leaped onto the first approaching log. Stumbling on top of the closest tree trunk, I kicked off and launched myself at the second before I could fall off, and managed to just barely land on my feet. Bouncing from log to flying log, I closed in on the gap between myself and Elem while using the tree trunk projectiles as platforms instead.
"Oh…?"
In the protected veranda, Roland Rothwell raised an eyebrow, impressed.
"Now that's something I've never seen before."
"Richard never fails to surprise me," Cecilia agreed quietly. Beside her, Adrian threw both his hands up and cheered.
"Go, Brother Richard!"
"Oh, but that doesn't mean he'll win," Roland told him confidently.
No one said that, dude…not that I cared.
A maelstrom of flowers gathered around both of my swords as I kicked off from the final tree trunk and descended upon the waiting Elem, who smirked. He responded with that usual Excalibur spell of his and completely obliterated my swarm of flower petals, which disintegrated the moment they came into contact with the volatile energies.
But not before they detonated across the entire space between the both of us, sending even more of the tinier but sharp petals scattering across the courtyard. Elem staggered back as he struggled to defend himself, but his clothes and skin was a tattered mess of strips and blood.
"Kuh! What is this…?!"
Green Dragon's ability, but I wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, while he was still disorientated and stumbling about, I seized the opportunity to strike. Elem, credit to him, didn't falter. Instead, he twisted around and cleaved apart a garden villa nearby, lifting the entire concrete structure with one hand and hurling it at me.
"Whoa!"
Faltering in midair, I spun my body about and just narrowly avoided being crunched by the massive structure. Instead, I rotated myself about and slammed my feet onto the smooth surface of the marble wall before running along the length of it. Elem charged forward and slashed with his sword, cutting the entire mass apart.
"That's quite expensive, you know?" I reminded him as I passed by him, parrying his vicious riposte with both my swords and getting myself flung back. "Destroying so much of the Stuart family's property…how are you going to compensate for that?"
Elem shrugged. "That's not my problem. His excellency will handle that."
True. This was why I preferred the simple life of a warrior instead of trying to be a ruler. All that responsibility and nonsense were just too much for me to handle. Returning my focus to the battle at hand, I flipped myself about so that my feet faced the ground, and I reversed the grip on both my swords so that both their tips were pointing toward the soil.
Then I landed behind Elem and plunged my swords into the ground, casting another of Green Dragon's spells.
"?!"
Tree vines emerged from the ground, curling outward and ensnaring Elem's whole body. They wrapped around his body and coiled around his limbs, incapacitating and immobilizing him. Elem struggled futilely, but found himself unable to break free of his restraints.
"What is this?!" he snarled.
I turned around, getting ready to drain his mana dry, but the Anaconda God chose that moment to lunge forward at us. Behind it, the broken mess of Serpens lay, my Constellation spirit finally subdued after a fierce struggle.
"Hah! I don't know what you're planning, but whatever it is, it's too late. You didn't expect my Anaconda God to be this strong, did you?"
"Actually, I did," I replied as I rose to face the charging behemoth. "And even when taking its strength into account, I told you I don't need to use my nuke spell to destroy it."
Behind me, Vermillion Phoenix burst into being, spreading his fiery wings as he brightened the still dim and gloomy morning with his brilliant rays of flames. Elem's jaw dropped and he shook his head in resignation.
"Fuck! Just how many different Soul Beasts do you have?!"
"A lot," I responded simply before mentally directing Vermillion Phoenix to incinerate the now intimidated Anaconda God. The gargantuan serpent had abruptly crawled to a stop and began retreating in reflex, as if instinctively understanding that the fiery being hovering in front of it was its natural predator. And I smirked. "And we haven't even counted my nuke spell yet."
The entire area vanished as Vermillion Phoenix bathed the courtyard in flames, incinerating the pitiful Anaconda God into ash. At the side, the hundreds of flowers bloomed to life, expanding gleefully atop the vines and branches that had entrapped Elem, ravenously sucking his mana dry in order to feed their blossoming.
"…fuck…"
That was the last thing Elem could manage before he collapsed, leaning against the vines that held him immobilized.
Ignoring him, I sheathed my swords and impatiently turned toward Roland.
"Now can we go for lunch? I'm starving."