Chapter 253 - Pursuit (1/2)
Li could not help but smile. In the months that they had bonded together, she had taken in his power directly from their soulbound link, and it showed. He could see himself through her. In the flowers and vines entwined around her wings. In her deer-like antlers. In the shadows flickering between her darker scales.
It made her all the more aware that she was indeed his daughter. Perhaps not by blood, but the one he chose and the one he decided to bear the responsibility of raising nonetheless. Seeing how his care had quite literally manifested on her, he could not help but feel proud, proud that she had grown so healthy, strong, and happy.
And also surprisingly, he did not realize how strong she had become. Now that her power lay fully b.a.r.e before him, he could tell she had accelerated in strength far beyond his expectations. He estimated she was nearly level 70 where the Oculon was 60, if that, but even then, this fight could not be decided so easily.
He crossed his arms and looked as Tia fired off a blast of nature infused dragonfire from her mouth and antlers. The stream of verdant green energy did not so much flicker chaotically like a fire as it did shimmer, undulating in waves laced with green energy shaped into leaves.
This wave of breath crashed right into the Oculon, but it had the presence of mind to immediately erect its barrier. Its eyes all shone for a single instant of yellow before a purple dome surrounded its serpentine, floating form, and the green flame crashed against it, roaring all around it and engulfing it in a brilliant nova of light and flame.
”Keep at it, Tia!” said Li as he saw the green fire die down, unable to penetrate the barrier. And yet, the barrier was noticeably more transparent than before, leeched of its strength. ”You have yet to fight a mage type, but they will always have barriers, and once that's down, they are powerless before a frontline fighter like you.”
Tia nodded her draconic head before charging forwards again, her great emerald wings flapping and sending out surges of wind that blew back even the huge chunks of boulder near her with all the ease of a squall beating back garbage cans.
Strangely, Li noticed that the Oculon did not move backwards. That was entirely unlike the A.I. of the enemy in Elden World which recognized it was a mage type monster and sought to keep distance, raining down hell with its various eyes and rays. It seemed…hesitant, its eyes tracing Tia with its tracking lasers but still stealing a glance backwards, as if considering retreat but deciding against it.
Tia left caution to the wind and kept forwards, her head forward and legs tucked to her body as her wings shot her forwards like a living bullet. She had already resolved herself to trade blows with the Oculon, understanding inherently that trying evasive maneuvers would only keep her circling around the thing, unable to close distance.
The Oculon growled as its many eyes flashed again, this time with a myriad of colors. Blue, red, black, yellow – all different types of rays. They shot forwards in a deadly lightshow, and right as they landed, Tia braked midair, her tail fl.i.c.k.i.n.g to stop her momentum as she curled her body in a compact, defensive ball as she tucked her head in and cloaked herself with her wings.
[Disintegration Ray]. [Destruction Ray]. [Freeze Ray]. [Shock Ray]. [Force Ray]. All of these exploded on contact with Tia in a multi-colored explosion.
Li raised a brow as he saw through the glimmering smoke of the blast. Roots had grown all across her wings, forming into two thick shields, though the rays had reduced them to scorched, frozen, crumbling and warped pieces. Nevertheless, the root shields had largely prevented the rays from damaging Tia herself, and she unfurled her wings, casting off the broken shields and setting herself back in flight.
This time, the Oculon did not have time to charge up another set of rays before Tia slammed into its barrier, her sizable weight amplified by momentum turning her into a living battering ram. At this range, however, the Oculon hesitated to fire off its full arsenal of rays for fear of including itself in the explosion, and instead its eyes flashed a light cerulean as they tried to channel a [Force Push] to telekinetically detach Tia.
But Tia was too quick. Her tail straightened out, the cross pattern of sharpened bone at its tip stiffening in the same way a knight's sword would tense before he struck. Green light so bright it was almost white wrapped tightly around the edges of the bone, forming into a rapidly accelerating edge of concentrated life energy.
She lashed her tail straight into the barrier, and it punched a hole right into it. Shards of purple psionic energy scattered to the ground as a widening hole cracked into the barrier, and the Oculon widened its many eyes in palpable surprise.