If Liora found a way to avoid or neutralize the attack despite unfavorable circumstances, there'd still be a chance to prolong the conflict. Maybe even turn it around if she could destroy a tower during the opening created by committing all his stakes.
But that was looking increasingly unlikely.
Selphira observed with complete attention, hand unconsciously gripping her seat's arm with tension she rarely showed externally.
Her breathing had stopped entirely, held in expectation of the outco. Even after hundreds of years, after observing countless battles, this one held her captive.
This was exactly the type of confrontation making hundreds of years of existence worthwhile. The young pushing boundaries, showing her things she'd never seen despite her vast experience.
Ren's parents held their breath collectively, unable to look away even for half a second.
Their son... Their strange, brilliant, impossible son. About to prove himself again or finally et his match, they couldn't tell which but could only watch and hope.
Taro observed with pride and concern at the sa ti, recognizing a tactic he himself had helped Ren perfect during countless practice hours now about to eliminate his own team.
Part of him wanted Liora to escape. She was his teammate, his friend.
But another part, the part that had spent those hours refining this exact building technique with Ren, wanted to see it work. Wanted validation that their ti hadn't been wasted, that their innovations actually functioned even in real combat.
He was torn, and the tension was excruciating.
Larissa leaned so far forward she was practically standing, both hands gripping the railing.
Mayo and Min had given up any pretense of calm, openly chewing their thumbnails.
Luna's expression was unreadable, but her eyes never left the descending serpent.
The arena had gone completely silent.
Thousands of spectators, all holding their breath simultaneously, all fixed on the sa point in space where serpent and stake were about to et.
The mont stretched. Ti seed to dilate, in the subjective experience of observers who couldn't look away.
And the stake flew toward the Bashe with inevitability that seed irresistible, a trajectory that would convert all of Ren's preparations into reality in this singular mont.
The Bashe tried to twist, tried to present a smaller target, tried to do sothing, anything, to avoid the impact.
But there wasn't ti or any option that physics would allow.
The stake hit its target with a force that completely eclipsed the impact of the projectiles Ren had launched during the battle's first half.
This ti the attack didn't lose energy climbing dozens of ters before reaching its objective, didn't have to traverse great distance through air at reduced speed while gravity worked against its montum… Instead it ca from an elevated position with gravity assisting its acceleration, descending trajectory amplifying the impact velocity to levels the Bashe's thick scales' passive defense couldn't appropriately absorb.
Height equals potential energy and potential energy converts to kinetic energy during descent. Kinetic energy transfers to the target.
Simple physics.
The math was brutal, and the Bashe was about to learn exactly how brutal.
It suffered an enormous impact on its side that nearly split it in two, force penetrating through hardened scales, skin, and spiritual flesh to the point where the serpent's spine fractured internally.
The sound of the blow echoed across the field like an explosion, impact strong enough that several spectators felt the vibration in the air. Those closest actually felt it through their seats, a terrible bass-note that resonated in their chests.
The stake itself broke under the extre impact of penetrating so deeply, fragnting into pieces that remained mostly embedded in the massive wound they'd created. Splinters of compressed earth and wood core scattered, so pieces lodging in surrounding tissue, others driven so deep they couldn't be seen.
And that fragntation released the root seeds faster than would normally occur, the wood attack's core exposing itself and beginning its parasitic growth imdiately.
No delay, instant activation.
The roots extended through the Bashe's interior with alarming speed, seeking energy to fuel their expansion while simultaneously anchoring the serpent in place. It was a sharp pain that Liora felt through the bond with horrible clarity, even though it was only an echo of her beast's suffering, 10% of the sensation transmitting directly to her consciousness.
Her breath caught, vision blurred montarily, phantom pain lanced through her side, mirror image of the Bashe's agony.
But the attack was barely beginning to develop completely.
The wolverine had already vanished from the tower from which it fired the first stake and had repositioned in another structure, specifically one containing another stake lower in its height, a position providing a different attack angle now that the serpent was falling.
One blink and the beast was gone… Another blink and it had reappeared 40 ters away in a completely different tower.
The shadow network made conventional positioning aningless. Distance was no longer a defensive asset when your opponent could teleport.
From there it fired the second stake without allowing a recovery mont for the Bashe.
No charging period. No warning.
The projectile was launched purely through earth control. No extra elental propulsion this ti, which several observers noted with confusion.
It hit considerably hard despite not having the fire and wind propulsion chanism this ti, though the impact was more controlled than the first devastating blow.
This one struck relatively close to the first wound, hitting barely 5 ters distant from the initial entry point. And the effect wasn't simply adding additional damage but pushing the serpent laterally, forcing it to move in a specific direction.
The impact's montum displaced it several ters, trajectory carrying it directly toward a better position to receive the third tower's impact in sequence.
Each collision precisely calculated to set up the next shot.
The third stake fired from that tower almost imdiately after, timing so precise it left no space for adjustnt.
THUD
It impacted and pushed the Bashe again, continuing a pattern now obvious to anyone watching with appropriate attention.
The serpent was being herded... Controlled through pure kinetic force like a puppet on invisible strings made of montum and physics.
Everything beca clear in that mont.
It wasn't simply random bombardnt with multiple projectiles but a carefully calculated path.
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