With the sudden intervention of Celia, the confidence of the panther was significantly reduced. One Leo was already enough and now she would have to deal with a girl whose fire magic was anything but weak.
She remembered that the girl was the one who escaped at the beginning.
She and the snake didn’t care about her as she didn’t seem to be much of a threat. But now, the girl dared to return and ruin her chance to kill Leo.
Had she known, she would have gone ahead and killed Celia before she could cause any trouble. Unfortunately, it was too late to regret now. She can only deal with things as they are.
'Should I retreat?' The panther thought as she gazed at the couple with some hesitation. The two too were looking at her carefully and the killing intent oozing from Leo was suffocating.
As she saw the look in Leo’s eyes, the panther immediately steeled herself. She understood that if she didn’t kill him tonight, she would be in trouble as he wouldn’t rest until he killed her.
And if she was already having trouble killing him when he was wounded she didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was at his best.
She had to kill him unless she was ready to completely leave this forest. And she wasn’t willing to. It was her home.
'I should have stayed clear of this mess.' She complained as she tried to think of the best way to settle things up.
'Or should I just get out of here?' She thought as he was unable to think of a good way to deal with Leo.
With Leo's sharp senses and his shadow affinity, she knew she would have a harder time sneaking around through the shadow to attack him.
'I should have helped that damn snake, maybe we could have killed him. Now, I can't sneak up on him and I don't think I can deal with him in a normal fight.' The panther felt bitter as she realized how much Leo's abilities restricted hers.
'Look like I would need to escape in the end. There are still those orcs. We can team up and beat him.' While her pride was hurt by this choice, the panther understood that it was the only way for her if she wanted to survive. For her, that much pride was worth nothing compared to her life.
Having made her mind up a second time, she immediately tried to find an opportunity to escape. Even if Leo was more powerful than her, there was no way he could keep her here if she wanted to run away. However, before she could do anything, someone stepped forward.
***
While the panther was rambling inside her mind, Leo, who was able to catch a break, managed to recover a little and was once again ready to fight.
"Let’s tear this guy apart now, shall we?" Leo said as he started exuding a wild and bloodthirsty aura.
From here on, there was no more holding back. All that was on his mind right was to rip the foolish beast in front of him in shreds. Make it regret ever thinking of going against him.
Also, Celia was right as the quicker they could take care of this business the quicker he could tend to his wounds. And god knew what manner of a fisherman was out there waiting for him. It was time to make a statement. As they say, kill the chicken to scare the monkey.
"Hopefully, my level of deterrence would increase after this." He whispered as he was starting to have enough. It was nice of them to come and sacrifice themselves to help build his power but he wasn't particularly enjoying the role of prey.
"Celia, can you tie it down for a while? I want to end this in one hit if possible." Leo said as he looked at Celia with some expectations.
"Uh! What did you say?" Celia's heart skipped a beat. Did she hear wrong right now?
"Well, I asked if you could keep the panther busy for a while. I wanted to use a strong skill but I need some time to get it ready." Leo said as if he hadn’t noticed Celia’s strange reaction.
"Tsk, do you think everyone is a freak that can freely fight above their level? Fight the Panther by myself. Why don’t you ask me to go and kill myself?" Celia thought exasperatedly as she heard Leo’s outrageous request. Still, she knew he wouldn’t have asked something like this if he hadn’t had a certain level of trust in her.
'Well, I guess I can’t disappoint him. And it should be exciting to fight one of the kings, right?
What is wrong with me? It would be a wonder if I could stay alive. How could I even think that it could be exciting? I am crazy.
Or not. What is there to be afraid of? I don’t even have to kill it and I have Leo watching my back. I can certainly do that much.'
Celia sighed as she made up her mind.
"I have one or two tricks that could keep me alive." Celia grinned as her fighting spirit soared, a bluish and hot aura materializing around her. "Still, you have to be quick, I have a lively sister waiting for me at home."
"Don’t worry it will be quick." Leo smiled as he saw the resolute look on Celia’s face.
Without another word, she stepped forward and started gathering her mana as she readied for one of her toughest fights ever.
"You can do this." Celia whispered to cheer herself up.
"Could it be that you want to fight against me by yourself?" The panther asked as she saw Celia step forward alone. Those two couldn’t be underestimating me that much, right? Did they think I can’t beat a little girl? Or could it be that the anomaly is more wounded than I think?
"As you can see." Celia said as she threw a bunch of fireballs in the area around her and set it on fire. As she had a certain understanding of the panther’s abilities, Celia knew that the first thing she had to do was to stop it from getting close and reduce the number of shadows around her as much as she could.
"You are sorely mistaken if you think that your fire can stop me. You better run before it is too late." The panther said as she looked at Celia standing in the middle of a blazing fire like a goddess.
"I thought you were the one trying to run away. Do you think we didn't notice you looking for an opportunity to escape? This little girl can beat a frightened mouse like you." Celia said as she threw a scornful glance at the panther.
"You, do you think I am afraid of you?" The panther roared as Celia successfully triggered her. Without even noticing it, the panther had already given up on her previous plan.
All she wanted now was to teach Celia a lesson.
"Yes and you are particularly noisy too." Celia said as she threw a fireball at the panther.
"Good. If you want to play like this. The panther said as she dodged Celia’s attack with relative ease." However, that was only the start as just as the panther dodged the first fireball, she realized that another one was already upon her.
"Did nobody ever teach you to not let your opponent take the initiative during a fight?" Celia mocked as she sent fireball after fireball at the panther. However, the panther proved to Celia that her title wasn’t for show.
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Despite being thrown in the middle of a fire hail, she was still able to dodge pretty comfortably and never seemed to get flustered.
"When the gap in strength is too big, the one with the initiative doesn't matter. Tell me, how long can your mana keep with your reckless behavior." The panther mocked as she dodged another fireball.
At the same time, as she noticed that Leo seemed to not be intending to take action, she was convinced that she was right about his injuries. He was just putting on a tough front.
'Hehe, just wait, it will be your turn once I'm done with this little cat.'
"Enough to teach you to never underestimate your opponent." Celia grinned as she suddenly stopped throwing fireballs left and right.
The panther immediately felt that something was wrong when she saw the way Celia was looking at her. Looking around her, she found with horror that she was surrounded by countless fire wisp. As she was too focused on dodging Celia’s fireballs, she noticed nothing until now.
She understood that Celia’s goal was never to attack her. All those fireballs she was throwing around were meant to set this up. But what for? Those wisps could do nothing to her.
"You, what are you trying to do?" She roared at Celia. However, Celia didn’t need to answer her before she found the answer.
"Fire wisp… Chain explosion." Celia whispered and immediately after, the countless fire wisp surrounding the panther exploded one after another.
Alone, the explosion of one of those fire wisps could barely make the fur of the panther flutter. However, it was a different story when so many of them moved together.
"How did you find my lesson? Dumbass." Celia said as she looked at the panther who was giving her all to escape the explosion.
While the panther was struggling against her spell, Celia was silently chanting an incantation, readying her next move.
`Oh, mighty mother;
Heed my call;
As I present thee, my soul, on this night;
Let it become the vessel of thy might;
Turn the spark in my heart into a fire that could burn it all;
Show the foolish one that, be it flesh or spirit;
All is doomed in front of thy power;
"I will kill you!!" The panther roared as she finally escaped from Celia's minefield.
"Come and try. This time I will turn you to coal." Celia's smile broadened as she taunted the literally and figuratively fuming panther.
'Awaken Ban of spirit, Vaetr-I-Bale.' Celia said.
As soon as she finished her incantation, her body was sucked dry of all its mana and a ghostly face materialized inside the blaze. Exhausted, but still proud of herself, Celia looked at the panther with a malicious smirk.
At that moment, Celia looked particularly crazy and malevolent as she stood in the middle of a blaze, a giant ghost face behind her and a malicious smirk on her pretty face.
Anyone would be afraid upon seeing her and the panther wasn't an exception. Especially when she knew whose Celia's target was.
"Fuck. " She cursed as the ghost face pounced on her, throwing her into the middle of a fire that was going beyond her flesh and burning her spirit.
'This should be enough.' Celia thought as she watched the panther struggle against her fire. She has done her best.
**
Meanwhile, conscious that he hadn’t much time, Leo started moving his mana.
As he saw that the beast was a shadow user like him, he doubted that any of his shadow skills could deal enough damage to it. He thus decided to make use of another element, namely the sand one.
Urging his mana, Leo activated his basic sand manipulation. That skill allowed him to freely control the sand element he was attuned to in a certain limit.
With the activation of the skill, he could feel the sand elemental energy around him and started to slowly gather it. As the sand gathered around him, he started to create spikes similar to his shadow's.
In a short time, he managed to create dozens of sand spikes. Then, he started strengthening them, pouring as much mana as he could into each of them to make their structure denser and more refined.
'This is different from when I used other skills. It is a marvelous feeling to control the process myself, I could feel every detail and get a better feeling of each spikes ‘power. I have complete control over my power this way.' He said as he looked at the sand spikes floating in the sky.
'I need to train and be able to use each of my skills without the system’s help.' With a thoughtful expression, he continued to slowly strengthen the sand spikes.
He could feel that by the time he reached the limit of mana the skill could take, each of those spikes wouldn’t be any less powerful than the shadow’s one.
In a short time, the spikes went from looking like rough spikes to looking like refined and powerful spears.
As he saw that result, Leo grinned contentedly. That spell was definitely one of the strongest he ever cast. It had to be considering all the mana he was spending.
Meanwhile, the panther who was being restrained by Celia felt an immense threat coming from the motionless Leo. Lifting her head, she saw dozens of sand spears floating above Leo. Each of them exuded a deadly and powerful aura.
'I would be severely wounded if any of those things touched me.' She thought as she looked at the spears with fear.
As the possibility of death dawned upon her, she immediately dived inside a shadow. Fleeing was definitely better than dying. However, it was without counting on Celia who once became the stone in her way.
'You aren’t going anywhere.' She grinned as she sent a sea of fire crashing toward the ground like a furious wave.
Booom.