It crossed Ren's mind to utilize darkness imdiately. The elental weakness of light creatures was well known. A black beam of shadows would penetrate the fairy's defenses much more effectively than pure light.
But Ren hesitated.
Did this really justify revealing that card?
Showing that the hydra could use darkness could be a major trump card. Would demonstrate control over opposing elents that very few tars, much less single beasts, could manifest.
Ren decided to test other elents first before committing to that reveal.
"Fire," he ordered through their bond.
The hydra's first head opened its mouth again.
But this ti, instead of brilliant white light concentrating in its throat...
Orange-red flas began gathering with a different quality of heat.
The fairy had defended well against light.
Ti to see how it handled a different elent.
Larissa saw the shift and her eyes widened slightly.
'Of course the beam it's also not limited to light,' she thought with resignation. 'Why would it be?'
The firebreath launched across the field.
Not as fast as the light beam but still difficult to track.
It wasn't literal flas but rather light infused with extre heat characteristics.
Ren thought the fairy would jump, but…
The fairy received the attack directly.
And dispersed it almost as effectively as before.
The additional heat was definitely a problem. The fairy glowed more intensely than it had from pure light. Larissa felt growing discomfort through their bond as the temperature accumulated.
But she was confident, since the fairy wasn't particularly flammable by nature. Its mineral body resisted combustion well through its inherent properties.
The attack caused sowhat more damage than pure light had. But not sufficient to fundantally change the outco of this exchange.
Ren thought about using the next elents in his arsenal.
The fairy's attributes were earth and light. Ren knew this…
Which ant certain elents would be particularly effective against it. And others not so much.
Earth against earth would partially cancel out through elental neutrality. Light against light was already demonstrating itself insufficient for a decisive victory.
The most useful "normal" elent would be wood. Earth was weak to wood in the elental cycle that governed combat advantages.
But wood functioned best from the ground. Roots and vines growing, trapping, restricting movent through physical constraint.
And the fairy could fly.
Not because it possessed a wind elent affinity. But because its wings of light generated propulsion directly through so other chanism. Could elevate itself without needing control over wind elent or air currents.
Which made applying wood elent to it effectively quite difficult.
A beam from the hydra with wood elent infused...
Ren considered the idea carefully. It wasn't impossible. Technically he might imbue wood into the beam just as he'd done with fire properties.
But it was way more difficult to execute properly.
The chanics of imbuing wood into a projectile that traveled at light speed were strange and contradictory. Wood was an elent of slow growth, gradual developnt. Light was pure speed, instantaneous impact.
Combining them required control that Ren hadn't practiced during his training.
And the frustrating part was that nobody could help him learn this kind of specific problem faster.
Hardly anyone with the ability to use both elents had life experience living through sothing like this or had left data. There weren't many who tried creating light attacks infused with wood elent. It was too unusual a combination for common practice.
Most tars didn't even have access to both elents in a single beast. And those who possessed multiple beasts with different elents rarely had those two specific ones together.
Ren was alone in this. And having to solve the chanics in real ti during an active battle…
He attempted several shots but couldn't integrate the wood mana properly and the fairy might dodge the beams easily.
Ren noticed sothing frustrating about the attempt.
When he used wood elent, the beam wasn't as fast as pure light.
Imbuing elents added taphorical weight to the attack. Made it slower. Gave the fairy additional fractions of a second to react.
And the fairy used those fractions perfectly.
Dodging with grace that seed almost choreographed. Fluid movents that carried its small body out of trajectory just in ti.
After the sixth failed shot, Ren realized this approach wasn't going to work.
He needed real elental advantage… But a practiced one.
He needed darkness.
DARKNESS REVELATION
Ren finally made the decision.
It was an important exam after all… the final one before becoming an adult in front of his parents and friends. It was ti to demonstrate a bit more of his capabilities. Yes, he'd be revealing so cards but... there was no real reason to hold this back when he had more cards and everyone would eventually learn everything anyway.
Or perhaps he was just looking for excuses to show off a little more in front of the public? Who knows…
"Darkness," he ordered simply through their bond.
The hydra's first head responded to the command.
But this ti the light in its throat changed dramatically. Golden brilliance being consud by blackness that seed to absorb light instead of emitting it.
Darkness concentrating. Manifesting as a tangible presence that made the air around it feel noticeably colder.
And it fired.
A black beam crossing the field. Not with the speed of pure light, darkness was also slightly slower. But fast enough that dodging normally, like it did with wood, would be impossible.
The fairy began moving laterally. Attempting to evade through speed.
It wouldn't be sufficient... The beam would catch it and darkness attacks were the fundantal weakness of light creatures. It would penetrate the defenses that had resisted pure light and would cause devastating damage.
But then the fairy disappeared.
Not invisibility. Not movent too fast to track visually.
Literal disappearance from existence in one location.
In one place one mont. In a completely different place the next instant.
The black beam passed harmlessly through empty space. Continuing its trajectory until impacting the field wall in the distance. Dispersing without effect.
The fairy reappeared five ters away. Unhard.
Spatial jump. Short-range teleportation.
The sa ability that Larissa used so skillfully herself.
'Of course,' Ren thought with renewed appreciation. 'I thought it was strange not seeing it before, but... Larissa wouldn't use such a costly ability without reason. She must have avoided using it during the heat beam because of the high mana cost.'
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