The Bashe opened its mouth enormously, jaws separating to an angle and size that seed impossible to sustain.
The permanent smile becoming a grotesque hole that could swallow buildings.
And it began consuming the towers as they reached it, not simply consuming the mana composing them but literally devouring the physical mass of compressed earth and braided roots.
The entire structures, 200 ters of carefully engineered construction, simply disappeared into that void.
Spiritual consumption transforming matter directly to energy through impossible spiritual alchemy.
The serpent's size comnced growing insanely as it processed the massive volu of material.
It was no longer the smaller creature the curse had created but a monstrosity expanding exponentially, its body inflating to proportions exceeding anything shown during the previous part of the battle. Growth that surpassed even Selphira's White Serpent's size twice over, accumulated mass converting the Bashe into a titan completely dominating the visual field.
The coils filled the arena floor and purple scales now covered an area visible from anywhere in the stands.
Bigger than any serpent should be. Held together more by spiritual energy than conventional biology.
The crowd was screaming now, half in terror, half in awe. Nobody had seen anything like this outside of historical records about legendary beasts from centuries past.
Liora knew exactly what Ren was attempting to accomplish with this apparently counterproductive movent.
He wanted to make the Bashe explode.
Force absorption of more energy than a Gold 1 serpent could appropriately process. It was the reason Liora hadn't entered too large into the battle as Mayo had asked days back.
Because maintaining such massive size for prolonged ti was difficult at the Bashe's current level, making it easier to reach an amount of mana that would eventually collapse the serpent from within.
Ren was betting he could force that collapse now by amplifying the Bashe more than it could safely digest.
Overload the system. Trigger catastrophic failure. Win through excess rather than deprivation.
But Liora had a counter-strategy for exactly that scenario.
She knew she could release the massive wood and earth mana now filling the Bashe's inflated body in an enormous nature frenzy that would trap the wolverine Ren kept hidden underground.
It was the only way to convert the apparent disadvantage of excessive mana into an advantage that could change the battle's outco.
All that absorbed energy released simultaneously underground where the wolverine was anchored.
Enough to kill a Silver 3 wolverine instantly if positioned correctly.
But the timing had to be perfect.
Too early and the towers would still be falling, additional mass striking the Bashe's enormous body and causing trauma that would interrupt the control necessary for the directed explosion.
Too late and Ren would attack first, surely using blessed water to destabilize the internal wood mana before Liora could execute the release.
She had to do it precisely when towers no longer represented danger to the now-massive body and before Ren launched the attack she knew would co.
Because Ren wouldn't simply observe the Bashe without doing anything to interrupt.
The window was narrow.
Her mind was focused, ready to command through the bond. Waiting for the precise mont. Almost.
And Ren waited for exactly that mont to destabilize the wood mana in the Bashe's body with a blessed water shot.
He'd positioned the wolverine to wait for the exact point of the expansion that would tear the Bashe apart completely without allowing it to consu itself again to heal and would sever the bond with Liora.
Ready.
Waiting for the sa precise mont Liora was waiting for.
Whoever commanded first after the critical mont would win.
Whoever hesitated would lose.
♢♢♢♢
Selphira received another ssage at that critical mont, delivered by a bird considerably larger and faster than the previous one.
It was now evident this was important communication requiring imdiate attention. Probably an update about Victor's situation or so developnt that couldn't wait.
The bird was not the kind of thing sent for routine updates.
But she really didn't want to miss the end of this battle.
Her fingers took the ssage tied to the bird's leg without opening it yet, her gaze fixed on the field where massive energies were about to collide. Surely that fool Victor who'd been lost for over a day could wait 30 more seconds. This couldn't.
♢♢♢♢
Back on the field, while the Bashe continued absorbing the massive towers and its body inflated to grotesque proportions, Ren realized with sudden clarity the exact mont Liora would release the accumulated energy.
It would be as soon as she finished completely absorbing the towers to avoid being crushed by them.
The idea was simple. Complete absorption ant no more falling debris. No more falling debris ant safe timing for controlled detonation. Therefore, she'd wait until the last tower fragnt disappeared, then imdiately trigger the explosion.
Logical... Inevitable.
And Ren decided he didn't need to wait until that end to execute his own attack.
Which ant he'd win without doubt if he moved first with that timing advantage. He could make the wolverine jump to the shadows of the falling towers shortly before they were completely consud, use those structures as the transition point to reposition optimally for launching a water shot that would destabilize the Bashe's internal balance.
And that would be very soon.
Ren calculated the chain reaction of wood mana growing uncontrollably inside the Bashe would be sufficient without needing to wait for the complete absorption to end either. The roots would feed not only on elental water he'd add but also on the earth composing the towers, multiplying the effect.
I'm sorry Liora, he thought while preparing his command for the shadow jump, but I always had the timing advantage in this battle.
Or so he believed until Liora released an enormous amount of power just before Ren could execute the shadow jump he'd planned.
Not accidental release or loss of control but deliberate execution coming much earlier than the mont Ren had predicted as inevitable.
His eyes widened and his breath caught.
She didn't wait. She just…
Yes, Liora had intentionally let her serpent be crushed by a remaining still quite large portion of the towers, sacrificing part of the Bashe's body's integrity to massive physical trauma to release the power "ahead of schedule" according to calculations anyone would have made observing the situation.
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