BXBX NOVEL Chapter 70: A Difference In Strength.
"Maybe it is for the best that only she come," She looked in the direction of the others singling out Dina's approach amongst the multitude of mana signatures. "If the other heroes try to fight this thing it will kill them effortlessly."
She took another breath and stepped to the side just as the greatsword the minotaur had been holding on to came crashing down. The sword hit the ground like a hill falling from the skies, causing the surface to quake and become displaced and slowing her down.
"This monster...!" Ikaris floated off the ground diagonally, dodging another swing of the sword midair and creating another sword with her Arkadian mana.
"Had I known [cross-impact] would have been so useless I would have conserved my mana." She grit her teeth and dodged several more rapid swings from the beast as it tried following her into the air.
"I can see them now," Dina came soaring toward Ikaris and the minotaur with a single ball of mana in her grasp, she didn't even give her actions a second thought; as soon as Ikaris was outside of the range of her attack she released the ball toward the monster like a mana bullet.
The minotaur seemed to ignore the attack, but just a moment before impact it spun out of the way and caught it with its bare hand, causing Dina to stop a distance away and stare shocked as her [origin explosion] detonated in the palm of the creature and did nothing to it.
"Idiot, if my [cross-impact] that is equivalent in power to a nuclear explosion from earth did barely anything to it, how do you expect that tiny thing to harm it at all?" Ikaris floated above the sphere of heat that the explosion caused, staring at the minotaur in disdain.
"Is that how you thank me for coming to your aid?" Dina snapped back and Ikaris clicked her tongue and balled her fist.
From his place with the others, Sol was watching with only half resolve; he wanted to help, why was he staying back and letting her fight, what if she got hurt, would she even heal from the attack of a demon when her divine powers didn't work on them?
His head was trying to rationalise his decisions but his heart just wanted to protect her.
"Don't make me regret this-" Sol held on tightly to the reigns of his horse, to the point where veins that had remained hidden started popping up across his forearms. "-Ikaris!" He sat forward and watched without blinking.
"Master Vestic-"
"Not now, Arla," Sol kept his gaze on the fight without even sparing her the luxury of a glance.
"Sol-"
"I said not now!" He snapped, causing Eris who had tried approaching him to reel back in shock. "Don't talk to me, not now." His irises burned with ethereal white and his body constantly exuded a small bit of divine magic casting the air around him into turmoil as he seemed to distort before their very eyes.
"It must not be going well, he looks like he wants to intervene." Han patted Eris's shoulder to help her recover from the shock.
"How is she so fast?" Dina was trying to find an opening to launch an attack, but Ikaris was moving at the same speed as the minotaur, which was faster than she could react so she had been stuck in the air on standby with her breath held while beneath her Ikaris was constantly dodging the creature's attacks and delivering superficial scratches.
If she as much as tried using divine magic against the monster it was immediately negated, she even tried infusing her physical body with divine magic to increase her strength, but upon the moment of impact all the kinetic force gathered by her divinity was repelled, sending her crashing backwards while the minotaur chased after her.
"Shit...!" Ikaris stumbled spreading her wings and trying to right herself, but before she could even stop her chaotic crash the minotaur rushed down and swung it's sword at her, determined to cleave her in half.
[Clockwork!] She extended her hand toward it attempting to buy herself time to recover, but then reeled in shock and pain when the sphere Sol's replicated technique had created was shattered as soon as it appeared causing the sword to slice through her armour and leave a gash in her leg spilling crimson for the first time as she lost her footing and crashed across the ground, coming to an uncharacteristic flop on her stomach as the minotaur roared and landed before her swinging again.
"No!" Dina snapped as soon as the momentum stopped and she was able to properly see them again, but from her distance it was impossible to immediately help.
Sol who was watching squeezed the reigns so hard they melted in his grasp as he held up his hand, ready to whisk her away in a fraction of a second.
[Explosion]
Ikaris in this moment where everyone else panicked extended her hand to the side and created a magical explosion that threw her to the side and prevented her from getting cleaved in half.
[Explosion!]
She activated the technique a second time, repelling herself into the air when the persistent monster swiftly approached and tried cutting her down once more, and from there she tried spreading her wings, only to realise in horror that her right wing had also been cut when her leg was, so instead she used her divinity to continue gaining height, but the minotaur caught up and grabbed her injured leg before she could focus again.
"Come on...!" Sol's fingers closed on each other as he prepared to [snap] and summon her to his side. "Come on!!" He stared as a trickle of sweat rolled off his forehead.
[The goddess of war is watching shocked that the monster can truly hurt divinity]
[The god of destruction is fascinated]
[The bull god has conflicted feelings on this fight]
"Kill the demon!" Renia who was with the encampment in person clenched her fists rooting for Ikaris in this deciding moment.
Ikaris guarded her face with her hands crossed just as the minotaur landed on its hooved feet again, spinning and slamming her into the ground with a roar.
"Gah!" She felt her chest and arms ache as the rock beneath her was shattered when she hit it, and before her eyes could focus again she was being swung a second time. "Why do these unreasonably strong monsters, keep showing up?!"
[Mana manipulation]
Ikaris cast her magic on the ground, and it turned into a soft slimy compound that sucked her in when she slammed into it, helping her escape from the Minotaur's grip as she continued sinking and staring.
"What do I do, if my opponent is so much stronger than I am?" She asked, watching through the transparent goop as the Minotaur raised its blade in a stabbing motion. "I'm still in range!" She watched the blade slowly descend while she utilized her divinity to gain a boost in thought speed. "What do I do here, if I fail in this fight, master probably won't let me fight again, I have to win!"
[Mana: 40\\100k]
"I wasted too much mana on those attacks earlier too!" Her hand slowly raised, burning with intense mana while the blade slowly descended. "The difference in strength is too great, I have to change my approach!"
For Dina it happened in the blink of an eye, Ikaris was cut, slammed and then sucked in by the ground that had suddenly turned to jello, and then white light shone from inside of that jello when the minotaur stabbed into it.
[EXPLODE]!
The white light turned into a brilliant concussive explosion of white flames that sent the large beast airborne as the entire area erupted into magma.
The minotaur roared in shock as its sword was blasted out of its hand, and Dina seeing the projectile soaring into the high skies used this chance and created a pillar of dense mana and began rotating it until the ends sharpened and the form became smooth.
"You, will not best me!" Ikaris emerged from the midst of the explosion with a punch to its chin further throwing the minotaur off-balance before she grabbed it by the horns and flipped over its head.
"I cannot fall or fail to such a mediocre monster!" Ikaris arched her body, and with a roar and a yank she raised the minotaur off its feet, spinning several times and slamming it into the ground chest-first.
"I can't lose here!" She landed before it and spun around placing her hand over her bleeding leg and frowning as the wound steamed and closed, but left an evident scar on her skin. "You'll regret this-" Ikaris summoned her swords in a rage aiming for the monster's eyes.
"I'll obliterate you!"