Damn that hurts.
Punching the Nemean Lion straight to the face wasn't exactly the most brilliant of ideas, but I had my restrictions and something needed to be done.
I dismissed my previously casted [garden of illusory flowers] for how much I wanted to heal that reckless girl behind me, this fight took priority.
I didn't waste time and sent her a fire message.
"Retreat, get treated and start hunting all the lions with my men. Tell them this is a direct order from me."
I never lost sight of the lion who was still looking around to figure what had happened.
Since I started to train in this magical world, the levels of my stealth had reached new heights, but to go unnoticed for so long I was surprising even myself.
It's still not enough. Father was able to basically feel invisible while holding my hand.
The Golden King, finally finding me let out the most terrifying roar yet in an attempt to paralyse me. I played his game.
Faking shock and distress I simulated a slight tremble in my fingers, just enough to convince the beast his tactics had succeeded.
He approached me in heartbeat and lifted his enormous paw to struck me, that's when I made my move.
Releasing all the Archana I had been accumulating in my index finger I struck the center of his paw and immediately blinked away leaving only petals to welcome the descending strike.
I knew my attack didn't hurt the magical beast at all, but that was never my intention.
Appearing on a branch a few meters away from the lion I yawned loudly.
"Is that all? King my ass. You are barely a jester in this forest hahahaha."
ROAAAAAAR!!!
Yup yup, anger yourself, be distracted.
The Nemean lion then struck hard on the ground. I could see the mana moving and instantly raising earthen spikes trying to pierce me.
Flowery disperse.
Once again I diseappeared only to manifest behind the lion. Making my presence known by releasing a fake bloodlust, I baited the beast to kick with his hind legs.
As my plan was successfully executed, I readied Archana in my index again to struck the center of the paw again. I succeeded, but so did the lion.
Upon contact, the Archana in my hand was injected in the paw of the monster but his kick also launched pebble like bullet my way sending me flying and completely breaking my arm.
Fuck this shit. How the hell am I supposed to kill this beast without weapons or offensive spells.
I didn't waste time trying to heal myself and just let the broken arm stay so. Even with broken bones it could still be used, even if with huge limitations.
While thinking on how to proceed with my plan I noticed the mana moving around me. I was about to be assaulted by his earth spells.
Fuck no, flowery disperse.
I didn't chose anyplace on the ground and just blinked a few meters high in the air right above the lazy fucker. Assuming a standing position I focused all my Archana to support my legs. Lightning coursing through my body accelerated my descent.
The lion, sniffing around to find me, noticed my slam a second to late, I crushed in the center of his spine releasing all the electricity in my enemies hide to then disappear again, this time not revealing my position.
The hit was probably more hurtful to me the to the beast. My legs trembled with pain, but I was having none of that. This pain at least was nothing. I needed to stay hidden, not to recuperate, but to irritate my enemy further. The angrier he was, the most dangerous I became.
With a broken arm and barely holding up legs I willed fire to take shape. I didn't want to use fire to strike and risking to offend Father but I could use it as a distraction.
Little fire birds came to existence and started flying all around him while I was focusing Archana in my left hand. I needed just one more contact.
As the flaming birds continued to fly in front of the Magical beast and irritate him, my Archana was threatening to make my own hand explode. Lightning was crackling loudly. That was my go to signal.
Ordering my bird to shine as brightly as possible before lightly exploding through my stigma, the formidable foe was blinded and my way opened.
Flowery disperse.
______________________
-previously, during Hali's fight-
How the fuck am I supposed to kill that monster if his wives are so strong even Hali is having difficulties.
Despite everything that happened between me and Hali, I knew that if based on pure strength, she was far superior than me. I barely held my ground through trickery and knowledge, but in a real 1vs1 where I didn't have time to strategise over anything, I would be destroyed at least 70% of the times. She had genious level control over her aura and although she didn't know spells yet, that was enough against me, who was having difficulty even trying to control my own Archana.
The battle continued frenetic. The first lioness fell easily, but from that moment on things started to get harder and harder. And I was sure things were barely starting, after all I could feel it.
The Nemean Lion harnessed mana.
At a certain point Hali created an intricate web of water ways.
An idea started to take shape in my head.
The way she moved freely throughout those paths, the speed and the strength she exuded.
It reminded me of an electric circuit.
Can I wire a lion?
The idea itself seemed pure folly, but the more I thought about it the more it took root in my brain.
I wasn't sure of the anatomy of this particular beast, but I assumed like most living being in the world it would be filled with water.
But how can I go about it?
As I was thinking of ways to create an electric circuit inside the lion to kill him with internal injuries, the lioness Hali was fighting started using magic.
Earthen pillars destroyed the flow of water completely making the water ways collapse.
Point of pressure.
I needed to create points that would make the electricity travel through his body easily and rapidly.
I started focusing my Archana to create the smallest possible needle of pure electric Archana to puncture my enemy, but I needed these nails to be able to keep existing.
That was the biggest challenge for me.
While I was focusing on my Archana to create needles of electricity, another change occurred on the battlefield. Hali's rage was resonating with her divinity creating an armor to protect her. That was an eye opener.
She had the ability, what she lacked was the conviction to use her strength.
There was no reason for me to fail in controlling this wild Archana.
Lightning was, at the end of the day, just another form of energy. You can't exactly control energy, but you can guide it. You can show it the right path.
It's not about bending lightning to my will. It's about showing it the correct way.
I tried again to not control my Archana, but show it what I wanted to create.
Lightning started to violently crackled around my body and then slowly started to recede entering deeper and deeper in me.
I could feel the electricity.
It's will.
It was nothing more than nature.
And it was beautiful in itself.
When I started thinking this way I felt it as well, just like Hali was resonating her divinity with her rage, I was resonating my father's blood with my relationship with Nature.
A relationship never based on domination. Nature wasn't meant to be bent to someone's will.
And just like that, the ever rebellious lightning was quelled.
My divine blood knew I wouldn't want to dominate it. What I wanted was to exist together.
____________________
Exploiting the blinding light my fiery birds created, I blinked behind the Golden Lion and grabbed the beat's tail with my Archana coated hand releasing all the lightning that wished for nothing but to run rampant.
BOOOOOOOM!!
A huge explosion occurred. I was thrown away while the Nemean lion was screaming in agony with lightning running wild inside his body.
My hand was as mangled as it could be.
All my limbs broken, but at least I was able to put my plan on action.
With the remaining Archana I casted the [garden of illusory flowers] to heal myself up and just waited for the lion to exhale his final breath.
Time passed but the lion, although convulsing didn't seem to want to let go.
At that point I was healed enough and I decided to approach him. Of course fully executing my stealth techniques, I was not foolish enough to blindly jump in danger.
Just as I was nearing my adversary, I felt a chaotic change in the mana around us but there was nothing I could do at that point and just backtracked.
Crystals emerged from the ground and strarted to build an armor around the lion. The electricity running wild inside its body was expelled with a mighty roar up in the sky.
The Golden king was back on his feet.
Injured, but scarier then ever.
Fuck, I'm dead.
The beast found me easily, sprinted in my direction and with a crystal covered paw struck me in the chest sending me flying.
My ribs instantly broke, I needed to do something or I really would have died on the spot.
Retreat wasn't an option anymore. This enemy would have just followed me and put my men in danger.
Continuously thinking of what to do, I proceeded my dance with the Golden mane, trying to understand his patterns and the power at his disposal. The crystals attached to his fur seemed completely indestructible. I tried to insert my Archana needles again, but even the gaps between gems were just for show.
A magic barrier was protecting him.
Fuck, this is crazy.
At some point, during our dance, I felt the mana swirl again, the lion was preparing a big attack, but just with this information I couldn't do anything.
I covered my entire body with Archana and got ready to meet whatever was coming head on. The crystals on my enemy started to shift position, the detached from his body and started fusing into the shape of a bident.
Is this fucker mocking me? To use a spear against me?
I was kind of offended, but nothing could be done about it.
The lion was controlling the crystal bident with mana and his assault begun. I tried my best to evade the barrage of attacks but the spear was too fast and was easily able to cut through my Archana covered body.
Fuck. Are these crystals some anti-magic bullshit?
Wounds were accumulating on my body, at this rate I wouldn't be able to continue moving let alone fighting or escaping.
I needed healing, but I couldn't restrict my movements to the area of my illusory garden.
The Golden Beast however didn't want to let me think and joined his magical weapon in its attempt to kill me.
At this point, I too was losing my composure.
Think faster.
I needed a solution and just as my mind was clearing, the bident ebbed itself in my shoulder and sent me flying pinning me to the ground.
My vision was getting blurry by the blood loss, I tried moving to remove the spear pinning me to the ground, but it looked like the lion was using his magic to keep it in place.
He was snickering, I could feel the beast making fun of me for daring to hurt it.
He was ready to devour me seeing how I was powerlessly laying still, the golden beast started approaching me and when he was just about to bite on my neck I acted.
It's now or never. Flowery disperse.
As I blinked by his side and left only petals for the lion to chew on, I took possession of the spear and tried to put it in my internal space.
If I can't use weapons neither should you. Cheating bastard.
[jade bident successfully stored.]
As the spear disappeared inside me I blinked away once again and immediately casted the [garden of illusory flowers] to patch my messed up body at full power.
The lion feeling the disappearance of his weapons roared mightily and started to look for me in a frenzy. I needed more time to heal.
Willing fire birdies in existence again I tried to create a distraction to buy some time, but this round didn't go as I really expected.
The magical beast struck the ground and pebble bullets flew in all directions destroying all my birds.
Fuck at this rate I'll really die. I need this garden to heal me faster or not limit my movement when healing me.
As I was thinking of possible solutions, the golden king found me and rushed to hit me.
I started frenetically evading my enemy while trying to infuse electric needles in him, but the monster had learned his lesson. Every time I was about to struck he retreated avoiding my touch like the plague.
This is going nowhere. I need more freedom of movement to hit the bastard.
That was when Merlin's words came back to me.
<
That was it. This was magic.
Common sense didn't need to be applied to it.
Who says I need a surface for my spell to take place, fuck it even says it in the name. Illusory flowers. Fuck, I'm so stupid.