Chapter 2896.4: Full Power (Part 4)
2896 Full Power (Part 4)
It was Tyris' bloodline ability, Light Raider.
It converted her aura into runes that took the form of arrays, Light Mastery spells, and more. Thanks to Light Raider, the Guardian could freely manipulate the light element that comprised the world energy, and by mixing it with her life force, turn it into anything she wanted.
The runes of light now shrouded the space behind the Griffon, forming healing spells to help the wounded, hard-light knights that swarmed from the castle to intercept the Black Tide, and tier five spells belonging to every specialization.
Neither the Black Tide nor the ripples from the fight between the Guardian and the Eternal Fortress could reach Tyris' children, leaving her free to devote her full focus to the fight with the lost city.
["Let me guess. She also does something like this."] A crack of thunder accompanied the bolt of Life Maelstrom that enveloped Tyris' body.
She shrugged her shoulders and unfurled her wings, shattering the Griffon Fetters and extinguishing the emerald flames of Phoenix Smash.
A horizontal wave of her hand opened a deep chasm in the ground between the Black Tide and Light Raider, adding a moat to her castle of light. A second vertical motion shot down the Wormlings and all the other monsters approaching the Wayfinder by flight.
["Yes, she does."] Thaymos' eyes/windows narrowed in annoyance.
"But I do that off the bat. Why do you think Tyris didn't go all out from the start?" Zagran asked.
"My guess is for a couple of reasons. First, she wasn't expecting Thaymos to be so powerful and didn't think that she would need to use Life Maelstrom, just like I did." Salaark turned to the Garuda with a questioning look.
"I admit that maybe I should have warned you guys, but he isn't, or rather, wasn't that strong. What makes him really annoying is his recovery speed."
"Which would have been nice to know in advance as well." The Overlord sighed. "As for the second reason, Tyris needed to get used to her diminished strength. Due to Fenagar's interference, her powers are at an all-time low."
"Lizard bastard." Zagran grunted, obtaining a glare in return.
"Had Tyris used Life Maelstrom at the start of the fight, she would have had to waste time to adapt her combat style to her amplified state and then do it again once the Life Maelstrom ran out.
"If that happened in the middle of the fight, it would have screwed up her chances of dealing a finishing blow. This way, she has tested the capabilities of her weakened body and can plan ahead with and without consuming Life Maelstrom.
"Also, she was focusing on getting the kids to safety." Salaark pointed at the members of the group who had been healed and transported inside the castle conjured by Light Raider, Bodya included.
The Nidhogg in particular was flabbergasted since he had been forced back into his human form and Blinked out of the ground against his will.
"Always a mother hen." Zagran chuckled.
Orpal looked at the Light Raider with Life Vision and cursed every single life form on Mogar.
'Before I couldn't attack without the risk of those blue flames burning me to cinders and now I have no way to get past that damned barrier!'
Thaymos went on the attack again but this time Tyris deflected every blow and countered every spell with one of her own. Every opening that the failed attacks created was punished with a powerful fist.
Tyris was slow compared to Zagran. The Garuda moved on every battlefield with a mix of footwork and flight thanks to her multiple wings and lithe body.
That coupled with Life Maelstrom allowed her to unleash an unrelenting barrage of strikes from every direction without giving the opponent the chance to even take a good look at her.
Tyris's stocky build was unsuited for such a fighting style. She preferred to stand her ground and beat the opponent thanks to her superior strength. She didn't know flashy moves but every one of her attacks was honed to perfection.
There were no wasted moments, no tells that the enemy could use to anticipate what she was about to do. The only thing that the Eternal Fortress knew was that the Griffon's limbs seemed to disappear and by the time he could see them again they had already pierced through his body.
'I was wrong! Zagran is faster than this woman, but she's still faster than me. Even worse, she's much stronger than Zagran!' Thaymos started to panic as the Griffon stopped playing defensively and moved on to the offense.
The first blow intercepted his spiked fist and then shattered its way through the shoulder, leaving an empty space where the lost city's right arm had been until a heartbeat ago.
The second blow was a kick that cut off his retreat and crushed his remaining arm to smithereens when he attempted to block. He had conjured his best defensive spells and the arrays imbued in his pseudo cores but to no avail.
Tyris' attacks were infused with magic as well and they were a Guardian Tier spells at that. Blazing Trail disrupted matter on an atomic level by countering its magnetic fields with air and earth magic.
It also altered the vibrational frequencies of the particles bonded together by making one atom vibrate faster with fire magic and its neighbours slower with water magic. Darkness magic struck next, opening the now-weakened bonds long enough for light magic to rearrange them into a stable yet brittle formation.
Blazing Trail would turn even diamonds into graphite in the split-
second before Tyris' blows connected, making even the hardest of materials crumble like cardboard.
Without his arms, Thaymos was open to a headbutt, the third blow, that smashed through his chest and allowed the Griffon to hurl her Guardian Tier spell, Molten Core, inside the Eternal Fortress.
Tendrils of emerald light invaded the empty spaces connecting the buildings that comprised the lost city's body, forming an endoskeleton that opposed his every movement.
Once the spell had invaded its victim, it burned, froze, calcified, and cut at the magical runes that animated the lost city. Light magic formed countless blood vessels through which darkness magic flowed, sapping both life and mana out of the Eternal Fortress.
Thaymos screamed in agony as his colossal form imploded, leaving behind only pieces of rubble no bigger than an adult man. The location of his pseudo cores was finally revealed. It was a piece of white stone no different from the others except that it resisted gravity's pull and floated in mid-air.
"And there it is." Zagran sighed. "Tyris should rush to grab the pseudo core and bring it as far as she can."
"Kami?" Lith had just regained his senses thanks to the tower's rejuvenating flow and Tyris' care. "What's- Fuck me sideways!"
He was relieved witnessing the Eternal Fortress fall and shocked seeing it rebuild itself almost as quickly as Tyris' magic had destroyed it.
["Not bad, but not it's not enough."] Thaymos laughed at the Guardian, mocking her with her same words as he stood up again, leaving the Great Mother was even more shocked than Lith.