"This is?"
"Just go in and you'll see."
I of course already knew, so for the sake of the demonstration I stood still while the Queen of Nature went through the portal. After she was on the other side, Mio snapped her fingers once again, and a small screen like on those live transmissions appeared in the middle of the room.
"Woah, this is… something for sure."
She was looking around her on the other side, which also confirmed to the others that sound was also transmitted through.
"I'll leave any further explanation to you, Maia. Make sure to satisfy our gluttonous Queen with knowledge."
So you just don't feel like doing the explaining…
"Alright."
I then also went in, where I ended up on a random hill somewhere.
"She said she's going to leave any explanation to you, so would you mind?"
If you were curious whether the sound transmission went both ways, there was your answer. But regardless, her curiosity wasn't weird. After all, we found ourselves in a clear hill out of nowhere, which in itself wasn't weird, except the fact that it should be night time outside, yet the sun was only now rising.
"We're in a dimension that Mio created. From the looks of it at least it seems to be a 1:1 universe replica?"
Mio made plenty of dimensions for different purposes, although mostly training. She could alter the scale and size of it at any time for that matter, but usually she just sticks to making an infinite universe replica, since it's "more spacious" according to her. I can't really disagree with an infinite dimension being spacious either in the end, so I don't really see a problem with it.
Normally, it would be incomprehensible for either one of us to go all out, considering the risk of getting others caught up as well and just how much we'd have to restrict our fighting style. But within this dimension, we had all the space in the world, and there wasn't a single soul around, so we could actually go all out.
I was actually getting excited now in a weirdly twisted way. Was it even my excitement or was the spirit king of fire trying to make me just fight her already? In either case, it didn't matter.
"Hmm. Well, I already know to some extent just how strong Mio is, so it isn't that surprising to hear… should we begin then?"
Glad that you're easy to convince?…
"Yeah, alright. Let's begin-"
But when I turned around, she was nowhere to be seen. I quickly looked around me trying to search for her, and it didn't take too long before I saw her. Around 100 meters from where she was earlier away, standing on air.
Wait, don't tell me…
But it was indeed as I thought. A giant tree then sprouted from the ground, until it grew enough to reach her, with a throne at its end. Sitting on it, and smirking while looking down at me, I could feel my irritation growing.
Was she really intending on fighting me the same way she does with monsters? Did she actually think she could fight me without getting up from her seat the same way she usually does? I was annoyed. She wasn't taking this seriously, or actually maybe she was. So seriously that she felt the need to provoke me intentionally with this facade, trying to see how I'd respond… but unfortunately for her, I don't mind pettiness if it's for a fun fight, you know?
"What's wrong, Maia? Are you not going to-"
"….?!"
But before she could finish her sentence, I had already dashed upwards. Charging some flames in my right hand as I prepared to hit her with it. I was way too annoyed to actually pretend to hit her or anything like that now. It didn't actually take any longer than a second fortunately though, and since she was caught off guard I managed to close in the distance and reach her throne, releasing my flames forward with a punch.
Smoke burst out, I had definitely burnt or at the very least hit something. However, when the smoke dissipated in front of me there was only a charred shield-like vines structure left behind. She was fast enough to actually get away, or at least shield herself, huh? Maybe I had underestimated her ever so slightly, but it was out of irritation.
"My, my. Aren't you a little inpatient, Maia?"
She was around 50 meters away from me now. While I may not have done any damage with it, my head had cooled off from most of the irritation, so I wasn't actually that disappointed. Flicking the charred shield with my fist, it crumbled to pieces as I walked to the top of the tree, standing next to her throne.
"You think so? I'd say my reaction was pretty understandable, since the one challenging me to a fight was trying to go with it standing down…"
I then casually put my hand on the back of her throne, for no real reason… but who would believe me if I said that?
"Did it irritate you that bad? It's a pretty comfortable throne though, you know? Even though it's made out of vines and branches. Why don't you try sitting on it? I'm sure you'll love it."
"Is that so? I'd like to take your word for it, but even the backside alone feels pretty bad on my palm honestly… I think it would be better if I just…"
Pausing my sentence, I then burst out flames from my hand downwards, incinerating not only the throne but the whole tree below me in a single blast. I made sure to increase the intensity of the flames to completely destroy it as whole as fast as possible, without a single hint of an ash left behind.
"…Got rid of it."
"Destroying a Queen's throne is a serious offense, I hope you're aware of that?"
"The judgment of a Queen that's about to fall doesn't really concern me."
"That so. Then I have no choice but to teach you what it means… to take nature lightly."
Making a few balls of fire appear behind me, I couldn't even be bothered with trying to calm down my smile.
"Nature this, nature that. You talk a lot for a Queen who can't even use her strongest element, don't you?
Her lips also curled up into a smile, as new large roots sprouted from the ground, stopping in front of her.
"Well, I can't deny the fact that fire is nature's most destructive element… but you're being too close minded if you think a few flames are enough to get rid of the embodiment of life itself."
Forming the balls behind me into arrows, I felt the tension rising.
"I don't think that I'm being close minded. It seems like no one has ever taught you to not play with fire, huh? I'll have to show you what it means to take the embodiment of destruction lightly."
"Fine by me. Just don't take anything that I'll do to heart. I'd fall into a deep depression if my cute boss started hating me after all."
"That goes both ways. Hope your ego won't take too much damage after I'm done with you."
Silence. We both knew that these few moments we spent simply staring at each other was a signal for the end of the talking phase. The wind was sharp, a lot more than usual. The clouds above us were getting darker by the second, most likely her doing. Was this another provocation? Something along the lines of "a few flames can easily be extinguished by a flood" maybe? But it didn't bother me.
It started a little out of the sudden, but I don't intend on losing.
Not just because of my contract which kinda forced me to feel the need to fight a "rival" spirit contractor, but also because this was a golden opportunity. I hadn't had the chance to go all out in a fight against anyone who wasn't Mio in ages. We may be in a dimension made by her, but this is an authentic "universe" per say. The Queen wasn't disadvantaged in any way, since some may say something along the lines of "she can't control nature in this dimension, since it's man made!" But that would be nothing but yapping.
After all, the one who has made these clouds clog up above us and made them begin to gray out, was her. And also, the one who would give the final signal for us to begin the fight, was none other than the lighting that had just struck down in between us!
No rain was pouring down, but that was expected. She wouldn't think that rain could extinguish my flames, and she'd be right. Charging the arrows, I instantly released 2 out of 7 towards her, which she blocked with her vines.
I'm not really sure what her fighting style is, but given the circumstances…
And the fact that she began flying away, while still constantly keeping vines around her, and launching them towards me, she was taking her title a little too literally. The Queen of Nature, she doesn't seem to fight hands first, instead just like a real ruler, she takes nature and uses it to her advantage.
I was following her, but it didn't take a genius to realize that this was most likely a trap. I'm aware of it, but if I don't close the distance between us ever so slightly, I'd get overwhelmed. I could see 3 vines coming towards me at full speed, one straight ahead, and 2 from each side. Slicing off the one in front of me with a disc of flames, I leaped over the one at my left, and using it as support I burned off the one that was coming from my right… However, that wasn't enough.
"Arghh!"
The vine I was supporting myself over, had grown another smaller branch which penetrated my back. I instantly backed away as soon as I could, and burnt it off, but it was dangerously quick to regenerate.
This is bad. I didn't think she'd constantly regenerate them with mana… she isn't even trying to get too far away either.
We hadn't stopped moving around, probably having already gone close to 400 kilometers away from our starting point by now, but she was simply staring at the scene while flying with her face up. You're enjoying this a little too much you damn sadistic queen!
There has to be a way for me to get rid of these branches at least for enough time to give me an opening… but what? She can easily regenerate them supposedly from anywhere. Dodging one coming for my face then, I was forced to look downwards, which gave me an idea.
The vines… she hasn't made any new ones since the fight started?!
They were the same exact ones, and even though we were traveling extremely fast, she was simply making them follow us from underground! That means she probably needed the roots to be relatively close in order to keep using the same ones over and over maybe? There was no time contemplating over it too much.
Keep that smirk up as long as you still can. I'll wipe it off from your mouth in a hot minute!
Enhancing my speed a little more, I was getting ready to act on it. I didn't want her to notice what I was about to do though, so for the moment I kept just constantly cutting off the vines that were coming my way. I still needed to find out where they connected underground after all, and if I only managed to cut one off from the root, she could just make more right away and it would be game over.
If I can manage to burn off all of the roots then she should be shocked enough to stop for even just a second, which is all I need.
I couldn't look down too much, so it wasn't that easy. But after around a minute or so of even more cutting and dodging, and from the few glances I got off the ground I found it. A single spot where all the roots seemed to intertwine as we travelled. This whole back and forth has been dragging on for way too long by now, hasn't it? I'm sure you must be bored by now, which is exactly why I didn't waste a single moment after I found what I needed.
After cutting them off for a last time as they were coming towards me, I then instantly changed trajectory and went downwards as fast as I could, which as expected took her by surprise. Rightfully so too, but it didn't matter. She wasn't fast enough to stop me, after all. While going down, I made a bow out of fire, and let out an arrow straight into the ground. Its radius was of about 3 kilometers all around, since I wasn't sure how spread out they were, and around 5 kilometers deep to make sure I'd destroy them completely, with no room for regeneration.
The dust and smoke coming out from the explosion had also covered me up momentarily, and as I enhanced my vision, I could see her panicking ever so slightly as she lost sight of me. Charging up my dash, I jumped up high, catching her off guard as I landed a straight hit into her stomach, sending her flying even higher above the clouds.
"You're not running away anymore!"
The clouds were honestly way too dark for me to see her within or above them, so I quickly fled upwards, since she was most likely not inside, intending on getting out above them… but what had actually happened was me falling straight into her trap.
The clouds, they're… condensing?!
Gah, I can't move!
My vision was getting obstructed as well, and I could feel the now almost liquified clouds making their way into my nose, and then towards my lungs.
"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice you catching glances at the roots?"
Leaving out the portion I was in there, she cleared up the rest of the clouds, and made a pathway for my eyes only to see her from inside. The water getting inside my lungs wasn't a problem, I could regenerate my lungs and heal any damage caused with magic, but the feeling alone was so painfully uncomfortable that I couldn't focus. Not to mention, I could barely move to begin with.
"I told you, Maia. I'll show you what happens when you take nature lightly."
"Fire may be the most destructive element, but in the end it's useless if you're going to drown inside a cloud, isn't it?"
The rays of sunlight were hitting her from above, and as her green aura enveloped her body, and her eyes started glowing, she really did look… like a True Queen. However…
"I'd lie if I said I'm not a little disappointed though. Since all we did was fly around and play tag for a little… but I guess I was expecting too much from a 15 year old? Nonetheless, you've done great until now."
"But it is still a little weird now that I think about it… wait. You shouldn't be drowning or anything since I'm sure you can heal yourself from the water inside your lungs… It must feel a little uncomfortable still, but that should be all. Then why… are you not evaporating the cloud?!"
You've finally realized it, huh? But I'm sorry… It's too late!
Before entering the cloud, I had actually borrowed a little move from Cael. It was pretty obvious that this was some kind of a trap, but I honestly had no idea what was going to happen. So the only way for me to find out, was to intentionally get caught up into it..
The coverage I had from beneath them allowed me to make a small threat of flames, then just as Cael did in our little fight with mana, I had dematerialized it when I got caught up in the cloud. I needed an opening where she was fully standing still, after all I had no guarantee to get a second chance. Fortunately for me though, here it was.
Re materializing the fire rope, I tied it up around her waist, and pulled her inwards towards me. At the same time, I had also let out a bunch of flames from all around my body, and vaporized the cloud. By the time she was in range, I was ready to strike. Hitting her once in the stomach, I sent her flying. Then I immediately followed it by sprinting forward and kicking her in the face, sending her to my left.
I had to play safe at first, because I didn't know how she fought. But now that I understood her fighting style, I could finally get serious. With her clawed right hand, she gripped on hardened air as she slid downwards, managing to stop her momentum, then with a single motion of her hand she created a giant ice wall in between us from all the way down on the ground.
I don't think I can make fun of Cael ever again for being a creep. After all, from the way I felt my lips curl upwards, I think my own smile right now may have been creepier than anything he's shown so far!
I cut her wall with my flames length wise, the upper half crumbling down. She had already managed to hide off somewhere, huh? Her fighting capabilities aside, her speed was annoyingly efficient.
I lost sense of our surroundings a while ago in all honesty, but from the deep forest lying beneath me, though stereotypical this was most likely somewhere above the Elven kingdom. I guess I accidentally brought her home, huh? I didn't really pay attention since I was just throwing her around, but regardless I had clearly lost sight of her. It wasn't really a problem though, since as I expected, a few moments later she subtly made sure to remind me she's still here somewhere.
Giant vines and tree branches curdling up together as they formed multiple individual giant golems. Not only that, but a few more golems had arisen, getting to a total of 10. They seemed to be anywhere between 100-150 meters tall each, but only around 4 were made out of her signature "element" if you can even call wood and vines that. 2 were made out of rock, 3 out of water and 1 of ice… you could say she brought out her knights I guess.
Doesn't matter though, since I wasn't planning on entertaining this hide and seek round any further. Crossing my arms as I stared down at the golems, I formed fire spheres above me, aiming each one towards an individual golem.
Honestly, I could just burn down the whole kingdom, but there would be no fun in that, would there? So for starters, I'll begin with taking down your knights, you scary cat of a Queen.
Releasing them, I decided to take a little more of a petty route this time, and intensified the blast strength a little more than necessary. Each golem was instantly vaporized with little to no effort, but the good part was the explosions that followed up at the end of each blast where they had hit the ground.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Sylara's Pov)
Well, that much was expected.
The golems were merely a distraction after all. I had miscalculated Maia's strength, or maybe I just ignored the thought that she'd actually be capable of doing damage to me? I doubt both of those. The most problematic thing out of them all was the fact that my dear long lost friend who recently reclaimed her contract with me is flowing her emotions into me. She must really be passionate about her rivalry with the fire spirit king.
It may not be the real one, but seeing my forest getting destroyed like that was anything but pleasant. Nonetheless, I had no choice but to get serious as well now that I knew Maia wasn't all talk and no bark.
She was still standing in the air with her arms crossed, her golden eyes glowing, making her look fairly cool but also kinda intimidating due to that smirk on her face. But regardless, I had bought myself enough time with the golems, and I knew what to do next.
The clouds and weather are nothing but a way for me to express my emotions in this world where I have no restrictions. And right now, I was not only happy, or excited about this magnificent opponent I had in front of me. I was also irritated. Irritated at myself for allowing such rookie mistakes to be made, and getting hit so much already. Which is why…
Hide and seek is over, you brave warrior who accepted a Queen's challenge.
I'm not almost 2000 years old for nothing after all. I know this whole planet like the palm of my hand. The we're close to the north west coast of the continent, which means the sea was near. It was now time for the Queen to rise at the top once again in this fight.
There was only one single minor disadvantage I had in this matchup, which is the fact that I can freely manipulate all of nature around me, with none of my mana being taken away from it, but on the contrary, it takes a lot more mana than the average person for me to create anything out of scratch. Although the vines and trees are exceptions to that.
Gathering up as many clouds as I possibly could from all over the planet, I drew them near us. I needed a storm, but also a tornado-no. A hurricane. The heavy rain had started to pour first, and while it had also been a little inconvenient for me, it was merely a small price to pay. Next up, I riled up as much thunder as I could within this storm, before I finally completed it with as much wind as I possibly could gather, giving birth to a storm and hurricane at the same time, the strongest and largest this planet had ever seen.
The whole kingdom had gotten engulfed. It hurt my soul a little to do this, but in the end it was only an imitation, so I had to put my feelings away and take the chance I had just created for myself. The chaos was the opening I needed to get away from here, as fast as possible.
"Is this another trap? Is she trying to buy time again for something?" I'm sure you must be thinking something like that, Maia. But unfortunately or not, it was the furthest thing from the truth.
Maia is a dangerously clever girl. It wouldn't take too long for her to actually notice that I'm gone, which is why in a single second I had already fled off to the dragon continent. 5 minutes? Maybe even less, is how much time I had before she would most likely just destroy the whole storm and hurricane as a whole and realize I'm no longer there. A minute? 2? It wouldn't take too long for her to circle the whole planet as many times as needed until she'd eventually find me, but it didn't matter. I had more than enough time all throughout.
This should suffice…
Around 6 minutes had passed. I had finally finished my preparations, and now it was just a matter of time. Surprise would be the last thing crossing my mind if she was furious right about now. Her immense experience aside, she does not know this world that well yet. Basic geography has its limits after all, so I'm sure that by now our continent has probably already been completely burnt down, and so has most of the other land on the planet.
I'm not saying it because I think Maia is an irrational person who'd incinerate everything until she'd find me either though. It is simply the logical thing to do. From what Mio had told us about her, she's a sweet girl, extremely kind, that thinks about others before herself. However, she's also someone who loves fighting. If given the chance to show off, or rather let out as much fire as she can… if such an opportunity arose she'd take that opportunity without a second thought. After all, it's in her blood. All the Ashfords are twisted in some way, and it just so happens that she's a fighting freak that has a contract with the spirit that embodies destruction itself.
But there is also a slightly less relevant correlation as to why I think that's most likely the case. It's the fact that she's Mio's best friend. Among all the sentinels excluding her, I'm the only one who has seen Mio "fight" once, If you can even call it a fight. Such a young and beautiful girl, effortlessly and brutally murdering the previous commander and human captain. She was simply in a different league. It is by no means an exaggeration to assume that her best friend would be fairly twisted herself in some way.
That aside though, I still had a severe gut feeling that my plan wouldn't exactly go as I'm hoping… I've never actually done it before but I do know how to use both of them. The Spirit King of Nature has 2 special abilities, which its host can use freely. Using the second one would probably be the safest option, but not the optimal one. I don't know what Maia's own special ability or abilities are after all, and if she has a way to counter my second one right away, it would force me to either spam it in hope of success but fail miserably, or would result in my immediate loss. Moral of the story, never reveal your strongest card too early.
But the strategic planning time was over. I was at the top of a rocky hill, waiting for her who thankfully didn't make me wait too long. What a kind girl, huh? I could see flames in the distance around us, and she stood in the air looking down at me with some pretty intimidatingly cold eyes… Perhaps she was indeed angry?
"Took you only around 7 minutes to find me, aren't you quite the efficient person?"
She was only around 20 meters above ground level, probably thinking that if she was too far away from me again, I'd manage to run off. Little did she know that it was exactly what I needed.
"Efficient, huh? I wouldn't say that. It took me burning 3 continents down before I eventually found you. I didn't think you'd go hide in the dragon continent like that. So? You must have a plan, no? I doubt you just felt like playing hide and seek again."
"And what makes you think you haven't already fallen into my trap?"
"I hope I have."
Her straightforward reply took me aback a little. This girl wasn't just a twisted fight lover, she clearly seemed to lack a sense of fear when it came to battle.
I had used most of my mana for this, since I couldn't exactly do it naturally. If this failed then it wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but it would be the primary reason for why I'd actually use the first ability instead of the second for backup.
At that moment though, I then was forced to get distracted for a second as I noticed the flames from distance coming towards us slowly but steadily. Was she trying to tell me that if I didn't hurry up she'd just grill me up?
"Aren't you abusing your fire a little now? Are you sure your parents aren't dragons or something?"
"Not from what I'm aware at least. But I'd take that as a compliment personally, you know? Dragons are usually known to be masters at fire after all. Although I am above them when it comes to that. Isn't it about time you begin though? I'm getting sick of waiting."
With a wry smile, I then began to put my plan into motion, since it seems like she was welcoming it instead of trying to avoid it. Opening the ground right beneath her, I let out all of the volcanic gas that I had grouped from the entire continent into this single spot. Afterwards, dragging water from the nearest sea, I formed a shell around the confined gas which I was making sure wouldn't escape manually, but left the shell's interior hollow so the gasses would have space.
The poison itself was most likely already taking effect, but I wasn't too worried about her dying because of it or anything, since she should be able to detoxify her body. Poisoning her wasn't my full plan either.
"Volcanic gas, and it's mostly flammable ones, huh? I doubt you were hoping the poisonous ones would off me, so I assume this is your attempt at caging me?"
Her brows were slightly frowned, which meant she probably understood what this was all about.
"Most of your mana should be steadily going into constantly detoxifying your system. I'm manually making sure you wouldn't be able to escape, and if you tried to light up a single flame, we'd potentially have an explosion strong enough to vaporize this entire continent. Your choices are pretty limited."
"I don't really see the point of threatening me with the destruction of a copy of a continent though?"
"Is that really what you think I meant? I don't care if this whole continent blows up either, the only reason I have the water shell on is to block some of the impact and give me enough time to fly away in case you do take that route. What I'm saying is that I don't know if your body itself could withstand standing at the core of that explosion."
"So the only way for me to "safely" get out of here is to give up and admit defeat, huh?"
"That's a Queen's way of fighting. A Queen doesn't get her own hands dirty unless it's necessary, and will try to use anything at her disposal to get rid of the threat before launching herself into battle."
"That's one cowardly way of fighting."
"Cowardly? Perhaps that's how it looks to an average individual. But don't forget that the presence of the Queen and her ruling is what gives hope to all of her people, and guides them towards a brighter future. Is it really cowardly of a Queen to fight safely and avoid exposing her people to such a loss?"
"Said the scary cat of a Queen that knows she wouldn't die regardless of her loss in here, since we have a certain someone that would interfere if either one of us is in danger."
"Better to be safe than sorry, no?"
"I see. Then it can't be helped. I won't judge your painfully annoying fighting style any longer. And I'll even be nice and tell you this. It would be better if you started running away, since the explosion will happen."
My eyes widened for a second at the sheer guts that this psychopath was putting up, but I didn't waste a second in taking her advice. Because if she was confident enough in saying it, she was definitely confident enough to actually do it. The next second, I sped up to get far away from any land, reaching the "dead" side of the planet.
Its name came from the fact that besides aquatic life, there was no intelligent life on this side of the planet. Why? Because there were only a few islands here and there, but no land mass large enough to sustain any kind of humans or other races. Below me there was mostly water, which at this point was my last hope I had.
The explosion's sound had reached me shortly after, which meant there wouldn't be long left until she would also catch up. I wanted to try and prepare another kind of trap, preferably an underwater one to avoid her flames as much as possible, but it seems like I wasn't the only one being cautious.
…so you found out, didn't you?
Almost instantly, all the water started evaporating. I shielded myself with a magic barrier from the steam, but had to add a second layer mainly for the drastic heat increase that had happened in a matter of an instant, on the entire planet. As the Queen of all nature I could feel it right away. The core of the planet had been heated up way beyond its habitable standards, and the whole thing was becoming a wasteland. It took no longer than a minute before the entire water in the world had evaporated.
"I was wondering ever since you ran off."
She said while slowly walking towards me on air.
"Why does she keep exclusively using "nature" to her disposal, a little too literally?"
"Is it a preference? Or maybe just a choice with no real motive behind? Habit?"
"But it was neither. I realized it when you actually took my advice and ran off. Your mana strength should be on par with my current one, so there was no way a barrier of yours wouldn't be able to withstand that explosion, or even just strengthening your body's defense could've been enough. But you ran away."
"Sure, it may be just a coincidence, or I guess you were following the "better safe than sorry" logic of yours, but why go all the way here on the "dead" side of the planet, instead of just restoring or extinguishing any other land?"
Her expression then changed into a grin as she stopped walking, around 5 meters away from me.
"The answer is simple. You may just be a painfully big coward, or… you had to run away towards the last standing piece of nature you could use to your disposal."
"Why is that? Again, it's pretty simple to deduce. The Spirit King of nature's contract grants its host absolute control over all of nature, and modifying an already existing one most likely doesn't even require mana from you."
What a terrifyingly smart girl.
"Though you could probably have restored the whole continent if you wanted, there must've been a reason as to why you didn't, since it should only be an advantage no? Granting yourself back the nature you love to use. But there's again a simple reason why you didn't."
"Restoring already destroyed nature would cost you mana, since it goes beyond simply manipulating and using it to your liking. If there's nothing left, you just have to create a new one, which I know you can do… but you cannot afford to."
"… what makes you think that?"
"Because you're here. Now that I've given you my thought process which your silence has ultimately confirmed to be accurate, I guess it's time I go straight to the point."
"…"
"You can use magic to restore all of it, but to you who can manipulate all of nature without using any mana, creating new one requires more than it would to the average person. Double? Maybe even triple? Putting it in simpler words, if an average person tried to fill up a pool with water that they created with magic, it would only consume about 10/1000th of their mana? But for you that number may be close to 20-30/1000ths which doesn't seem like a lot at first glance, but you'd be completely dry of mana within 50 usages at that rate."
"Has anyone ever told you how freakishly smart you are?"
"When my best friend is Mio? Even if she didn't already know about your abilities, if her role and mine were reversed, she would have figured it out by your clouds move alone, before the fight even began."
I sighed, since I honestly could definitely see that happening. I almost felt bad for Maia, since she was clearly gifted as well, but it is a little difficult to gain praise when you're that close to the absolute best. But afterwards, my expression curled up into a smile once again. The plan has failed, and it seems like my gut was right. Which means, I have no reason to waste any more time and just move on with plan B.
Dashing backwards and putting some distance between us, I crossed my arms while looking at her.
"I see. But that doesn't discredit you one bit either way. As the Queen of Nature, I acknowledge your great abilities, Maia. Which is exactly why I'll step on the battlefield offensively with my abilities from now on."
"It was about damn time, you know? For a second I was starting to really think this was all you could do."
Flames appeared into her right hand, as she was clearly getting ready to dash towards me. That's great, it's making my job easier after all.
"You have my deepest apologies in that case. I promise… that I won't have you bore down anymore."
Her smirk reappeared on her face as she sprinted towards me, and so did mine. However, this time things would play out differently.
"Come forth."
The first ability of the Great Spirit King of Nature. The Embodiment of life, and the Mother of Creation.
From the evaporated sea floor, vines sprouted up and instantly bursted upwards, twirling around Maia's both feet, making her unable to move any further.
"Seriously? Vines, again? Didn't you see earlier that I can just cut them o-…?!"
Her shock was understandable. After all, I'm sure she must have felt it already. Those vines weren't just for show, or to immobilize her. Next, petals arose from the ground around the vines linking her down. It was a flower. One incredibly large, yet thorny flower. Dragging her down in its center which didn't have any pollen, there she was. On her bottom, sitting and looking up at me with a look of pure shock written all over her face.
The center of the flower started slowly filling up with golden and black mixed "pollen".
"The Great White Rose of Creation. It's the first mode of the first Great Spirit King of Nature's ability. This one is purely used for alive enemies."
"The rose needs nutrients, you know? The poor thing was created in such a rush that she doesn't even have pollen. But isn't it just perfect? That we have a great source of food for her?"
"It's second mode would bring forth a plant with a mouth that pretty much just eats up anything in its way, and absorbs it's mana which then goes back to me, and I was debating using that one instead, but honestly it wouldn't be practical since you could probably just burn it off before it swallow you."
The Rose did the same exact thing on one side, but with a more cruel and bitter aftertaste. She needs nutrients. In order to then release her pollen which would then simply get absorbed into my body, restoring my mana. However, the draining process was not only slower, but also just the first part of its feast.
"Besides draining your mana and using it to furnish her pollen however, the Rose is a little bit more greedy than that. She also sucks up your very will to live, your essence of life. After all, it doesn't want to feed on a living being which may resist and potentially damage her. Which is why she starts eating away not only your mana, but your emotions as well, completely numbing you of any will to fight back."
"I'm honestly not sure if you'll be able to burn this one off. So just in case, I'll prepare to take my leave. Don't worry, I made sure to instruct it to keep you alive and not fully eat you up, so you won't die. But from the way things are, it seems like this fight…"
I then turned around, starting to fly away for a little while to search for maybe some solid land that still has some usable nature in case she does make it out.
"…Is over."
However, the moment I had finished my sentence, I could feel, and hear it. From behind me, scorching? No? Blazing hot flames burst out, with such intensity that even I who was already around 100 meters up in the sky and more than 50 meters away from the rose could feel it burning on my back almost.
When I turned around again, the rose's petals were burning. Not only that, but even as the flames had stopped raging outwards, there was still something even brighter coming from the center. Covering the whole rose's area and even going past it, black and golden mixed aura was leaking.
"I'm sorry to tell you, Your Highness. But compared to Mio's domain, this emotion draining plant or whatever… Was almost comforting!"
She then came out of it, stopping just above the burning rose.
"It's of no use, I've already burned off all the land on this planet while searching for you earlier, and the explosion finished off the dragon continent."
"I see…"
"I think that a battlefield change is necessary at this rate, don't you think so?"
She isn't wrong. I could definitely use a chance of place, but what does she have in mind?I have no idea.
"I can't say I disagree-"
Then I felt as if time had stopped for an instant. My eyes could barely even register what had happened and what was about to happen. The only thing any of my senses could register from the short instant in which she had closed the distance between us so fast I couldn't even react, were her words.
"…Then, if you'll excuse me. I'll get you to our new battlefield."
Before I could reply, or even move a single muscle of my body, she punched me straight into my stomach, but unlike last time, this one was so powerful that I found myself flying off not only into space, but my back was forced on the moon's surface in a matter of a second from her punch's force.