By aiming his attacks at the constructs' focus points, Lith quickly got rid of the unknown tier five spell without spending much mana. Ruin's World Mirror enchantment sustained itself with the mana it leeched, lessening the burden upon its master.
"Where the heck did you get that blade?" The creature stepped out of the wall, revealing to be a two-legged humanoid, about 2.5 meters (8'2") tall with his body covered by large hardened overlapping plate-like scales.
Only his belly, the inner side of the paws, and its snout were covered by soft grey fur. His head resembled that of an anteater and a long tail came out of his back. If Lith had ever seen one, he would have recognized it as a humanoid pangolin.
'Why does everyone ask me that and what the heck is that thing?' Lith thought. None of the books inside Soluspedia described the creature, but the oddest thing was that he seemed to have a bone to pick with Lith.
Lith conjured a volley of lightning bolts mixed with ice lances to put the creature's endurance to the test.
The thing stomped his feet while clasping his claws, making the rocks from the ground, the ceiling, and the walls spiral in front of himself. The spell created a barrier that absorbed the incoming attacks without a scratch.
'Okay, he definitely uses true magic like an Emperor Beast. Is he Awakened?' Lith asked.
'I don't think so.' Solus replied. 'Having two cores would make Awakening difficult and he didn't use Invigoration to recover while you were busy with his constructs.'
The creature clearly had a high affinity with the earth element and they were surrounded by rocks so Lith had no choice but to switch to close-quarters combat. Otherwise the enemy would be able to neutralize most of his best spells by conjuring stone walls or diving back into the ground.
Ruin struck at the barrier's focus point, making it crumble as if it was made of sand. The creature had no idea why his spells kept failing him, yet he had come too close to his revenge to give up.
His body emitted a white glow and a set of giant white hands tried to grab Lith, who used spirit magic to struck at the creature, sending him crashing against a wall. The hands stopped moving for a split second, becoming sitting ducks for Ruin's World Mirror.
"Are you happy now? Was it worth killing my whole tribe to become this strong?" The creature roared while shedding red tears of rage.
'Did you really kill his whole tribe yet you don't recognize him?' Solus was flabbergasted.
'First, if I did, you would have been with me. Second, he needs to be more specific. I've done a lot of killing.' Lith replied.
The creature infused himself with the air element and dashed forward with the speed of a bullet. Having two cores granted him double the mana pool of a normal creature and twice the effects of fusion magic.
Lith switched to a two-handed grip and moved forward while keeping Ruin steady in front of him.
'Double the speed also means double the strain. With both of us moving so fast, the slightest mistake will cause him to self-impale.' Lith infused his armor with mana, to boost its defensive properties in preparation for the impact.
'Oh shit!' The creature thought, realizing that any attempt to change his course at such speed would break his kneecaps while doing nothing would result in a gruesome death.
His only hope was to curl up like a ball and hope that his scales would withstand the hit. The impact sent both of them flying at the opposite sides of the tunnel. A gaping wound was now open on the creature's back, running from the right shoulder to the tail.
The injury started to heal the moment it was opened, but the creature was now running on fumes.
As for Lith, his hands were still numb from the collision but he was otherwise okay. The Skinwalker armor coupled with earth fusion had absorbed the brunt of the attack, yet Lith had lost his grip on Ruin that was now stuck into a wall.
"Okay, pal. Time to finish this." A spark of spirit magic and a flick of his wrist brought Ruin back into Lith's hand. Solus assumed her arm protector form, adding her fusion magic to Lith's.
The creature's beast form had poor eyesight, but his enhanced hearing and smell compensated for that.
'Wait. The stench is that of the Ranger and I can feel the presence of the cursed object, but the voice is wrong.' The creature sniffed the air, studying Solus's scent. His weakened state had also relieved the hybrid from the rage that had clouded his mind.
'Dammit, I got the wrong person! What are the odds of meeting two humans fused with a cursed object?' The creature cursed his own stupidity. He had been so thrilled by the hunt that he had failed to notice that the smell was similar yet different.
While Lith dashed forward to deliver the death blow, the creature kicked the ground with the last remnants of his energy and let the wall swallow him. Ruin pierced through the rock until the hilt struck it with enough strength to form a small crater.
'I hate that trick! It's the second time already that I lose my target this way.' Lith could see with Life Vision the unknown hybrid getting further away, yet he couldn't do anything to stop him.
Using an earth spell to hit at such distance while being deep underground was too dangerous. With dimensional magic sealed, a cave-in would have killed Lith for sure.
'I can't risk losing my prize, let alone my life.' Lith thought while looking at his watch. He still had one hour left to explore the tunnels. He followed the air bubbles in the walls, determined to find out the reason why the road signs had been deleted.
***
Meanwhile, in a distant cave, Ranger Acala wasn't faring much better. He was surrounded by over thirty individuals, half of which were vampires while the other half were thralls.
Each one of them had a white prism similar to that used in the machine room grafted on their bodies. They were arranged in three circles, forming a complex multi-layered array that left him no way out.
"I can't believe how unlucky I am!" He said while slashing with fury at the nearest undead, aiming at her exposed weak point. A prism protruded from her chest and its glass-like substance was getting duller with each strike she took.
The light within the prism seemed to be on the verge of extinguishing.
"You promised me that everything would be fine! You promised me that you would turn my life around for good! Yet nothing ever goes the way I want. I did everything you asked from me and this is how you repay me? With failure?
"All your insignificant spawns had to do was to kick Verhen's ass, maybe even kill him, to make me look good and turn me into the new hero of the Griffon Kingdom. Instead, you made me look like a fool, running away with my tail between my legs.
"You are a piece of…"
The three-layered array activated and Ranger Acala was at its center. A diamond-shaped crystal emerged from his uniform, collecting the light coming from the smaller and imperfect gems.
