194 Resolve (1/2)

Extremely quickly, too, drawing up the lake's waters and recreating the hand it had lost within mere seconds. An impressive feat considering the hand alone was the size of a large building.

So, then, Li's theory was correct. The lake itself was a spawning pit, a mass of organic material with which Dark beasts could be easily created, or, in this case, used to regenerate this boss level creature.

The entity spurring this regeneration was basically part of the lake itself, so there also was no ”core” to target as there traditionally would be in Elden World bosses that had annoying abilities like high speed regeneration that made them far harder to kill than normal.

And even if there was a single target he could hit, it was fused deep within the heart of the forest, and he could not damage the heart anymore than it had already been.

Li had somewhat considered a battle of attrition now that the adventurers had exceeded his expectations and managed to escape, but he would run out of mana before he could completely eviscerate the creature enough times over.

This was bad news, certainly, but it did not change anything. Li had scoped the creature out enough and now fully determined that there were no alternatives to destroying it in a single instant. He would stick to the plan of destroying the creature in one fell swoop, and by sending the adventurers away, he had also stalled enough time to make sure they were high enough in the air such that it was difficult for them to perceive anything on the ground.

Li knelt down, his hand nearing his heart again.

Bright, golden energy began to surround his palm as his skin melted around him, revealing the divine form of his bark. Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, his sizable Elder Leshen form crawled out from the limited shell of his mortal disguise, and he did not waste any time in channeling his Ultima-class spell.

The golden energy surrounding his hand gathered in waves and waves of spheres that looked like miniature suns all coalescing into a single point. The light radiating outwards from that single point was overwhelmingly bright, as if the sun itself had touched into this swamp of utter, miserable darkness.

The Dark beast amalgamation screamed as it sensed the immense amounts of power gathering nearby, and it completely forgot about the adventurers. Its palm directed its multi eyed gaze down to Li, the bulbous, slimy yellow eyes squinting as they beheld light – horrid light that it was unused to, light that it loathed.

The ground shook and the lake waters surged as the Dark beast amalgamation began to move, the hand splaying its five giant fingers out as it cocked backwards, and then sailed forwards, aiming to swat down Li.

Not to mention that Li was not actually too ”squishy” a character, despite being a mage. He lacked the raw firepower of dedicated burst type mages, which spoke volumes about the massive devastation they could wreak upon this world were they to have been reincarnated here instead of Li, but in return, he had surprisingly high health and a repertoire of spells such as shapeshifting to help him survive.

The soft, unstable ground of the swamp-like forest began to rumble like shaken putty as the hand reached down to Li. Powerful gusts of wind squalled out from its arcing trajectory, completely uprooting and flattening the trees nearby Li, as if a raging typhoon were passing through, but he himself knelt there completely unmoved.

He focused entirely on the spell, on the warmth that began to grow in his hand, that warmth spreading to his heart. He focused on what he did best – growing life. For he was not only casting a spell but planting a seed.

The seed of the sun which gave life and light to all plants. The [Fusion Seed].

============

Launcelot squinted his eyes and coughed. Faye was holding him up by his arms, and he knew he was high up in the air, but he had no idea how far up. His sense of direction was totally lost, completely enveloped and obfuscated by the thick layers of black smoke that spread out all around him, making it hard to see, hard to even breathe.

From the moment that titanic hand monstrosity emerged from the primordial pool, the black smoke released from the area had grown exponentially, and when the hand began to move, the smoke gushed into the air in giant clouds.

And yet, he could hear the sounds of the raging battle below. He could hear the titan scream, its horrible ringing echoes reaching all the way up here. The rumble of the forests was also audible, and never before had he felt so useless in his life.