We spend several hours in a back and forth as we can't attack we the barrier is up leaving us with a very small window to actually launch a counteroffensive. We have been doing enough to keeps its health below 12,000 but we are struggling to get it below 8,000. Currently, we have the Liger at 10,878 HP, but we've started up a new plan.
Although it was a bit of a gamble, Aurelia lowered the strength of the barrier to save some extra energy. We've managed so far with me compensating with several layers of walls, even if they get destroyed quickly they are still enough to reduce the damage from the Liger's lightning to the point the barrier can fend off the attack. And for what purpose, to fire that beam again.
"I can shoot again, but I probably can't keep fighting afterwards, so if we can't finish it with this then we're done for."
"Alright, wait for my signal. I've been keeping an eye on its stamina for a while now and it's starting to run low. It will probably have to land again for a moment, once it does all do what I can to hold it down."
Something I had noticed after the Liger had enraged was that its stamina was going down far faster than before and that periodically it would stop flying to land on the ground. Of course, it didn't stop throwing lightning at us, but that had previously been are chance to launch an attack. For the sake of conserving Aurelia's energy, we hadn't attacked the last couple of landings, but now that Aurelia has enough energy we can strike strong once more.
The violent winds begin to calm as the Liger makes his descent. Just as he makes contact with the ground I use the roots hidden in the ground to tie up his legs, immediately freezing them and the area around him while creating steel chains to bind the Liger further.
"Now!" I yell as I lunge forward towards the Liger.
Seeing me make my move, Aurelia drops the barrier and fires her Aurelia Beam, but unfortunately with the Liger no longer under her suppression he breaks free from my restraints and takes to this sky once again, with the attack only hitting its foot. But even so, it was a better hit than last lime, completely vaporising one of the Ligers back legs and dealing 8,500 damage in a single hit, leaving the Liger with only 2,378 HP.
The Liger begins to Stumble in the air but still has enough of its barrings to remain in flight, but this is enough for me as I jump up and wrap myself around the Liger and coil tightly around its body while digging my fangs into its neck. With it wings tied up if falls to the ground and its health begins to fall to my toxic body as it lacks any resistance to it. Lacing its body in lightning I begin to take damage myself but I fire my shards of metal once again to finally bring the Liger down.
[You have slain a Level 14 Juvenile Celestial Winged Liger. You have gained 12,974 EXP. Because it was greater than 5 levels higher than you, you have gained an additional 50% EXP (4,474). For achieving your first kill on a Tier 10 Monster, you have gained an additional 150% EXP (19,461), future kills will only reward 50% when below Tier 10. You have gained a total of 36,909 EXP.]
Skipping right past 9, I just barely made it to level 10. And just as I go to consume the Liger's soul, Aurelia stops me and take the soul for herself. Eating the Liger's soul, Aurelia's condition improves greatly and lightning begins to gather around her.
"Not bad," Aurelia says as she spreads her arms wide and claps them together, causing a strong gust of wind to blow everything around her away, "not bad at all. Not only did I gain the Liger's Lightning Coat and Wind Burst, but I also got his Lightning and Air Absorptions."
"Has anyone ever told you how unfair your race is?"
"No, not many people know I'm not fully human after all."
Since I didn't get the soul, Aurelia had no problems with me hoarding the body all to myself, of which I promptly consume all of it. We decide to set up camp around the Liger's lair and after a while I notice that I've gained 40,000kg of biomatter from the Liger, giving me a total of 57,678kg. Now that I think about it, I haven't undergone a mutation in a long time, let's take a look and see what is available.
Hmm... not much has changed from before, the standout ones are still, Gargantuan Size, Size Modification, and Growth. With the massive amounts of biomatter, I recently obtained I can take all three and still have some leftover.
[Selecting these Mutations will result in the reduction of 22,000kg of your current biomatter and 3/5 of your currently available Mutation slots. Are you sure?]
Confirming my choice, my body feels the familiar heat of undergoing mutations, but having immunity to it makes the heat rather pleasant than the burning pain I felt in the past when undergoing large size increases. Under the pleasant feeling of the heat, the exhaustion from the fight has caught up as I fall asleep.
--
"What happened to you! Why are you suddenly so much bigger!"
Waking up to Aurelia's shouting, I remember that I had initiated the mutation process before sleeping and begin to look over my body. Previously my total length had been 315 metres but now I'm 500 metres long. The bonuses from Gargantuan Size and Growth gave me nearly 200 metres in length. And with Size Modification, I can change my size freely as long as it's below my full length. That one is more of a novelty than anything but I guess I can slither through small places now. Oh, I've got an idea.
Shifting to my humanoid form, I follow it up with my size modification. Ignoring Aurelia's slightly unsettling gaze, creating an ice mirror and ignoring my ripped and burned clothes, I find that I look very similar to how I looked when I was in Junior High. Changing my size further, I look as I did when I was a child. But before I can experiment further, Aurelia interrupts me.
With slightly staggered and heavy breathing, Aurelia says, "you need to return to your normal size and get new clothes quick. I'm not sure how long I can hold myself back..."
Danger! I sense danger!
Shifting back into my true form, Aurelia calms down and brings out some clothes from her ring and I get a familiar feeling from them. They look like the kind of clothes I wore back on Earth. Black pants with a plain white button shirt and light black jacket. Shifting back to my humanoid form, I take the bundle of clothes from her and I set up an iron wall around me. She even prepared some fancy black panties to go with it, just where did she get these? Putting on my new clothes I find that for some reason, they are a perfect fit for me, but there is one problem, she didn't prepare a bra.
Having dressed myself, I consume the old clothes I had been wearing and put them into my storage and take down the iron wall.
Looking me over, Aurelia says, "nice, looks good."
"So why do they fit so well, I never remember giving you my sizes and where did you even get these? No, wait, more importantly, why isn't there a bra?"
"Huh, what are you talking about? Why do you need a bra when you have nothing to hold up?"
"..."
"What, got something to say?"
"... no, I'll be corner. Come get me once you find some stuff to kill," I say walking off into the Liger's lair.
"Wait, by myself! Come back, I was just joking!"
After some 'persuading' Aurelia gets me to come with her as we continue on our levelling trip.