It was 8 out of 10 in the end. Not the perfect execution Ren had calculated, but still more than enough.
The 3 new stakes that did connect revitalized the 5 already embedded deeply.
The roots from 8 contact points interwove into a network expanding exponentially, accelerated growth feeding on shared energy from multiple sources. And that network coiled around the Bashe almost completely, constriction as effective as any constrictor serpent but manifested as living wood instead of muscle.
The math had changed from 10-point perfection to 8-point adequacy, but adequacy was still sufficient for victory.
The root network didn't need to be perfect. Just good enough to bring the Bashe to the ground.
The Bashe tried fighting the restriction, body convulsing in an attempt to break the roots or at least create space to breathe appropriately.
But each movent only caused roots to tighten more, automatic response from the parasitic structure interpreting resistance as a signal to increase pressure.
The more she struggled, the worse it got. Classic trap design where effort becos disadvantageous.
The serpent's breathing beca labored. Purple scales that had been glossy now appeared dull. The spiritual glow in its eyes dimd noticeably.
Dying. Slowly but surely dying.
The wolverine jumped from the shadows of one of the 4 still-standing pillars, erging in an elevated position above the coiled serpent.
And without ceremony or pause for dramatic effect, it fired a blessed water sphere directly toward the Bashe's center of mass where roots were densest.
This was it… The finishing blow.
It didn't matter that all 10 shots hadn't hit the exact target Ren had originally calculated. They were overkill anyway considering the serpent's current state.
Because just a bit of blessed water wouldn't only finish the miasma providing the Bashe's last active defense, it would also dramatically increase the power of the roots holding it trapped.
Water combined with purifying light would feed wood growth while simultaneously eroding corrupt spiritual energy the Bashe used to resist.
It was the final blow converting serious restriction into completely inescapable sealing that wouldn't permit release without external intervention.
The blessed water sphere flew toward the Bashe.
Everyone watched to see if it would connect and end the battle definitively, or if Liora would find a way to avoid or neutralize the attack despite circumstances that seed to allow no realistic hope of success.
"It's over," soone whispered in the stands.
"She fought well, but…"
It seed everything had ended as the tower crumbled beside the enormous serpent, debris falling around both combatants in rain of fragnted earth and wood.
But Liora didn't surrender.
Not now when she'd co so far, not after training herself and her beast beyond limits that would have stopped less determined tars, not after Selphira had invested everything to make this possible and not after Ren had trusted her with this rare beast.
She owed them more than surrender… She owed them her absolute best.
The Bashe responded to the desperate command by firing the other half of the wind mana it had been saving since absorbing Ren's initial attack, energy carefully conserved through the entire battle waiting for the mont it would be most critical.
This was that mont.
The wind exploded upward in a gust intercepting the blessed water sphere.
BOOM
It was a final cancellation, costing the last stored wind elental resource the Bashe had available.
Defense successful. Resources exhausted.
But Liora wasn't done.
With a final effort from a body nearly touching ground already, constricted by roots and gravity and accumulated damage, the Bashe repositioned itself with an adjustnt carrying it directly under the trajectory of a falling big tower section, massive mass of earth and wood descending with gravitational inevitability.
Ren's eyes widened with sudden recognition of what was about to occur.
"No one else would…"
But she would, she absolutely would.
Liora had made the enormous serpent intentionally position itself so the collapsing tower would fall directly onto it, full force striking its wound. It wasn't an error in judgnt or blind desperation but a calculated move requiring extraordinary willingness to accept massive damage for creating an opportunity.
The kind of move that separated most good tars from Ashenway ones… The willingness to hurt yourself to try and win.
The tower impacted the Bashe's body.
CRUNCH
The sound was sickening.
And under that trendous pressure, the serpent split itself in two. The crowd gasped collectively.
Selphira smiled aggressively upon witnessing the maneuver, an expression communicating fierce pride instead of horror other spectators showed.
She thought with intense satisfaction that this was definitely her granddaughter, a creature of her own raising who'd internalized lessons about never surrendering regardless of how desperate the situation seed.
It didn't matter that Liora was adopted instead of a biological descendant. She'd absorbed the indomitable spirit of the Ashenway family as completely as any blood heir could.
That refusal to accept defeat... That willingness to sacrifice everything for victory and that creativity under pressure.
All Ashenway traits.
Selphira leaned back in her seat, smile widening. "Show him, girl. Show him what being Ashenway ans."
Liora knew this was the decisive mont for Ren.
He had to capture the Bashe now. Had to seal it completely before she could execute the counter-strategy she'd been saving.
Every passing second without the wolverine sealing victory was a second where Liora could execute her plan.
Because Liora had saved not only wind mana she'd just spent but also considerable earth and wood power from the stakes the Bashe had absorbed initially during the battle's first phase.
Those early stakes that had seed to accomplish nothing? That had been absorbed and grown the serpent larger?
That power had been carefully hoarded for exactly this mont.
Now Liora deployed that enormous power absorbed up to this point, releasing it in a massive effort to combat the wolverine's control over elents composing its ground trap.
Earth and wood responded to the Bashe's will in ways counteracting commands Ren was sending, a conflict of elental dominion creating visible friction on the battlefield.
The ground rippled. Roots twitched, receiving contradictory orders. So sections of the network actually reversed their growth direction, responding to the Bashe's stolen authority over the wood elent.
The Bashe used that energy specifically to make a space between the roots and earth trying to trap it completely.
It was a small opening… But sufficient for what the serpent needed to accomplish in the next crucial movent.
Because the serpent wanted sothing very specific now that it had deliberately split itself.
It wanted to eat its own tail.
To execute a spiritual technique few modern tars had read about and fewer still had witnessed in actual practice.
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