A beam of straight energy pierced through my barriers, reaching my body instantly. Even I wasn't strong enough as the beam pierced through me, destroying much of my body on its way out.
Thankfully, the beam only hit me on my left, not leaving a scratch on my mana core. The rest of my body was recoverable, but in a fight, a destroyed mana core meant certain death. The pain of feeling my body burn up and atomize was still terrible.
Thankfully, I had limiters in place for the amount of pain I could feel, so I was still clear-headed. I could see the man already walking away, sure of his victory.
"That's your best?" I yelled out. I fully stood up this time, sliding Grey into the forest, away from the fight. I communicated to the rest to get him out of there as well.
The man turned around, surprised. "Huh, you are pretty robust aren't you?" I stayed on edge, looking for any signal of an attack.
I couldn't dodge, but by his mana and muscle movement, I could predict the direction of the beam. I wasn't sure what other magics he had, so I also guarded against those. The only thing of significant importance was that he didn't hit my core.
"Maybe, but I think you're just weak." I replied. My body was healing from the attack, so I didn't look as persuasive, but that should've been his trump card. He was a rank-seven warrior; to even have a chance against me, he needed to be rank nine.
He relied on some artifact or outside source. This guy would be a cakewalk if I could remove that from the equation.
"Relying on some outside power to have even a chance of victory. You're not a real man." I provoked him. An emotional opponent was an easy one.
Seemingly unbothered, he shrugged it off. "You mortals wouldn't understand," he smiled. "This is a gift! From my god to me. It's not an outside power, it's the reward of my efforts!" His smile widened.
Then I remembered this was a cult, not just a petty street gang.
'Well, fuck.'
A crazy maniac was the worst type of opponent to go ahead. It wasn't like I had any experience, but just from reading books and common sense, you could figure out why mentally deranged people with power were the worst.
"Too bad, I'm agnostic." I replied. Having slid in the final word, I started my assault. First, a spike pit opened below him.
Then, I conjured multiple lightning and fire javelins. Pure lightning bolts, freezing air, and multiplying gravity came next. I also conjured wind blades and pulled a full vacuum around the cultist leader.
The magic barrage was fast and powerful, but he was unscathed when the smoke cleared. He had made a barrier around him, protecting and keeping him alive. The barrier resisted the magic, gravity, and vacuum, keeping the inside safe as if nothing had happened.
To say the barrier was strong was an understatement. It was unnatural, almost creepy. Such a thing defied the natural order. I doubted if even the Legendary Heroes could make a barrier like this.
"That all you got, puny mortal?" The cultist laughed out. "You can't win against a creation of god. Just give up." He was mocking me. He held out a finger once again.
A beam shot out almost instantly. I barely predicted the angle and dodged. Not wanting to waste my breath, I conjured more magic barrages, setting up automatic attacks. I moved around, camouflaging and confusing the enemy.
This also allowed me time to get into the zone and set up other needed formations. An invaluable thing I learned in the dungeon was to set up defensive arrays. Without noticing, the arrays would defend and buy time for me to respond.
This cat-and-mouse chase of the cultist spamming the beam and me dodging went on for another minute before the man broke the pattern. I was so used to him only relying on whatever artifact he had I completely forgot he could do other magic.
It would have been a fatal mistake when a sudden barrage hit me, but I set up my defensive arrays in time. Without them, I would have died to a measly seventh rank, not even the artifact.
This minute also gave me time to analyze my opponent. He wasn't powerful, but he had that artifact, and I couldn't kill him while he held it. I could escape but didn't want to do that for now. I monitored his mana's flow to see if I could figure out where the artifact was.
If I could remove the artifact, this fight would be over quickly. The problem was how. The cultist had that barrier spell, and I didn't know what to target.
While I jumped around the forest's trees, I constantly observed his mana. I could also see the man getting visibly more annoyed every second this fight went on.
"Stop jumping around, you little monkey! Get down here and face your death like a man!" He shouted out.
Feeling lucky, I obliged. I'd currently gotten momentarily out of his sight. I jumped on him from behind. Before I could reach him, my barriers hit another barrier. Just as I got close, the barriers activated on their own.
I could tell the cultist wasn't the one controlling this by the shock on his face when he turned around. Then, I saw it. A little sparkle of white mana came from his left breast pocket. I decisively jumped back, disappearing into the forest.
"You little sneaky bitch! You caught me off guard. But I won't let it happen again." The man warned menacingly. Or he tried to, but his stature had the opposite effect.
I let out a little reverberating giggle to both confuse and aggravate him. If he made just one stupid decision, I could exploit it to get that artifact.
He still had the barrier up, so even an undetectable magic wouldn't get through now. I racked my brain for an idea to make him put his guard down, and a memory came to me. It was part of a story I had long since forgotten, but it might be helpful.
A great monster equal to the heavens, unkillable but brought down by trickery. Trapped and blasted to pieces so small, he would never reform again. I felt like I had merged two memories to create this fake one, but it was still a good idea.
I continued to taunt the cultist, both with giggles and ridicule. I was trying to enrage him but also leading him somewhere. In his fury, he wouldn't be able to see through my plan.
"You say this is your god's gift to you, but what good is it if you can't even defeat someone like me? I thought you said your god was powerful." I ridiculed. The fastest way to infuriate a religious person was to defame their god.
'It always works.'
I hadn't done this before, but I was surprisingly good and infuriating the cultist.
"If your god is so powerful, why doesn't everyone believe in him? Why doesn't he solve all your problems? Hell, he can't even deal with me!" I continued to poke the cultist, fishing for a reaction.
When we got close to my trap, he finally had enough.