I was the first to engage, cutting off my bindings with prepared wind blades, and shooting out all the other magic I had prepared. Most of my magics were dodged, but some weaker ones caught the nymph by surprise and landed.
"Two Tier two spells at your age? Quite impressive, but you are a fool if you think those can defeat me. You would need at least a hundred to land even a scratch on me."
Funnily enough, I did have enough mana to cast a Tier Two spell one hundred times, so I did as she suggested and used up 1 million to cast 20 Tier Two spells, Lightning and Fire Spear, at 50,000 mana each.
There was no way she would be able to dodge all 20 of them coming from all different angles. The nymph could dodge 10 of them almost, but only a few hit vital spots, I think. I wasn't too knowledgeable about nymph biology.
Lightning struck her through her stomach and torso, while Fire burned off one of her arms and struck her head. The other spells either grazed or hit her extremities. With this barrage, you would think she would have died, but it looks like she had some cards up her sleeves as well.
"I will admit human, that was impressive. But do you not know? Nymphs are part of divinity and cannot be killed by mortals. Do not think you will come out of this victorious and unharmed."
That is exactly what I was thinking, but back to the topic on hand. How do I manage this nymph? The easiest way would be just to kill her, but that would be pretty difficult considering what she just told me. Not to mention that I would be killing an intelligent, self-aware life.
However, there was also no other way to deal with her. I had already committed to a fight, and running would just attract her back to the estate, and that might put other people in danger.
Looks like I had to fight after all, but the problem was how I would do that. The Nymph was already recovering as if she had never been hurt at all and was waiting for me to make a move.
It was times like this when I wished I had the (Thought Acceleration) skill, but seeing my mana already recovering was also pretty good. But, going back to the topic at hand, I had to find a way to incapacitate or kill this nymph.
From what I know, both of this world and Earth, Nymphs are actual minor deities that overlook a certain part of nature. Naturally, they should also be able to die, or at least be banished.
However, as small of a divinity as they are, they are very hard to kill and are in a sense, immortal. They still had to have a weak point though, so I needed to find that. If what mythology says about nymphs being tied to nature is true, my best bet would be to try and find that tie and sever it.
The first step in doing that was finding the link. I couldn't see anything with my mana eyes, so I had to try something different. That was when it struck me.
A wind bullet quickly cast by the nymph; judging by its mana usage and velocity, it was a tier 1 spell, but nonetheless, quite deadly without defenses. I spotted in time though, and strengthened my ready-prepared defenses while dodging.
I couldn't move out of the way completely, and it still hit my sides, dealing some damage I easily healed. Buying some time, I acted as if it had actually done damage and dropped to one knee, clutching the area the wind bullet had hit.
"Done so soon, little boy? I thought you would have more in you after that display, but it looks like I overestimated you. I'll finish this quickly."
Well looks like the time that I bought was about to be up. I had to stall her longer to carry out my plan.
"Do you really think you'll be able to? You may have caught me by surprise but this is nothing." I stood up to reveal my already healed wound, causing the nymph to step back in surprise.
"I have yet to even show you a fraction of my true power, yet you think you can defeat me? Train for another 1000 years, then perhaps you might." I bluffed. I just needed a little more time before I was done.
"Oh, a fraction was it?" The nymph now with a sneer took a step towards my direction. "Well then, let us see how you hold up against a hundred of the spells that injured you."
With that, a wave of the nymph's magic spread out as a hundred magic circles formed. It looked like she really wasn't kidding about the number. Seeing this, I started walking towards her.
"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me? That just makes it easier for me then."
"I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer," I replied. Any second now and my plan would be put into motion.
It was at that moment that both our magic finished. A hundred wind bullets all came speeding at me, but it was also at that moment I managed (Soul Sight). The link that would connect the nymph to its divinity was its soul, so if I managed to see the soul, I could attack it.
The first step of getting soul sight was to grasp souls. I had to be able to feel souls before seeing them. I started with my connection to the system. Every time Avery spoke, it felt like a direct connection to my head, so I started there and reverse-engineered that link to feel what a soul was like.
That had taken the most amount of time, and after that, I just needed to move mana the right way through my channels to get it attuned to the soul "element" so to speak. That took considerably less time, but I wasn't finished yet.
After using the soul sight to trace the nymph back to its origin, I found a core deep within the cacophony of plants. I should have expected it; I mean, where else would a core be hidden except underneath the giant plant monster?
I still had no way to get to it, however, and neither of my magic would reach that far. If I tried to do a barrage, I didn't know if the nymph could move or protect it, so my best bet would be to do it in one shot.
I had no individual magic powerful enough to take it out in one shot, but fire and lightning were pretty similar, weren't they? Besides, I had seen people layer magic before, albeit in light novels and comics, but the theory was the same.
I carefully layered the two magic circles and connected them, while making sure the nymph didn't find out and try to interfere. It was right when the wind bullets were launched I finished connecting it, but I still had to transfer the mana, which would take a little bit.
As the wind bullets came speeding towards me, I made the strongest barriers I could to defend myself, and using the cover of the magics, I sent out all the mana required for my combination spell.
My first barrier was quickly broken through, being made of air itself, but the amount of magic reduced to 50 with my second line of defense, a tough granite and limestone wall. My mana arrived at magic circles as my last barrier broke and 10 wind bullets hit me.
The bullets did a lot of damage, but they didn't manage to pierce any skin or flesh, and I would be able to easily recover. The nymph had started preparing another magic, but it was too late.
She hadn't realized my combination spell was there before it was too late. The fiery lightning rod struck true and dug through the thick foliage and earth easily. Most of the vines were set on fire and burn holes cauterized.
The nymph's core was hit and vaporized, and the magic she was creating shattered, with the lifeless body hitting the ground. I also laid down, not sensing any innament danger. I had used well over half my whole mana pool, almost 4 million mana.
I needed to recover in case I came across another being like the nymph. That reminded me, what about the mana cores? They had increased the nymph's cultivation, and cultivation was basically meditating and recovering, so could they help with fatigue?
There were still some cores left over from the massacre of animals, so I tried using one of the small ones first. Insert mana, break the seal containing all the juicy stuff, and absorb.
That was when I remembered when the nymph had first used a mana core, it had only given her mana, not improving her mana core. I didn't want to waste these orbs on just getting back my mana, and fully restoring my core to full strength would take a while.
I decided to just take these cores back with me and store them for later use. I also couldn't forget my latest kill, so I dug around the nymph's body and grasped her mana core, a clean and bloodless job, considering she was made out of plants.
The core I had destroyed was what I am guessing held her soul and divinity, with the mana core being entirely different.
Another thing I learned was that after you extracted the mana core, it would actually be two levels lower than what the organism was when it died. The nymph had been (Bright-Gold) when I killed it, but the core was only at the (Dark-Gold) rank.
I'm guessing the mana dissipated throughout the body after death, reducing the size of the core. I had more things to research now added to my list.
A small forest fire had erupted because of my magic, so I quickly doused the flames before returning. It was well over midnight, and I was tuckered out from the fight so immediately after getting ready for bed and hiding the mana cores, I went into a deep sleep, to be awakened early the next morning.