The Mantis began suffering damage almost imdiately after the temperature descended beyond a critical point.
The cold started penetrating its natural defenses faster than its body could compensate. Not instant damage but progressive deterioration that accumulated with each passing second.
The cold penetrated from all directions simultaneously in a manner that made defending effectively against the practically environntal assault impossible.
Externally, the frigid air attacked its exoskeleton, which could resist physical impacts and ordinary elental attacks but didn't have perfect protection against extre temperatures. Chitin was excellent armor against cutting and crushing forces. Less excellent against thermal stress. The material beca brittle at low temperatures, with microscopic fractures forming as the molecular structure lost flexibility.
And worse still, the roots that had been feeding the Mantis with stolen mana from the Amphibian had now converted into channels that transmitted cold directly toward the creature's internal system.
The freezing plants acted as thermal conductors that drained body heat faster than the Mantis's tabolism could compensate for, an effect that accumulated with each second that passed. What had been an advantage, direct connection to an energy source, beca a liability when that connection turned into a highway for heat loss.
Heat flowed from warm to cold through any available pathway. The frozen plants provided excellent pathways. And the Mantis, being much warr than its surroundings, was bleeding thermal energy at a rate that was unsustainable.
Being the smallest beast among the three that Ren had available and the least defensive by nature, the damage it accumulated was considerably greater than what the Hydra or Wolverine would have suffered under the sa conditions.
Surface-to-volu ratio was higher, aning rapid heat exchange with the environnt.
The compact structure that was normally an advantage in terms of mobility converted into disadvantage. Small bodies lost heat faster than large ones, basic thermodynamics that applied to beasts as much as to physics.
And the resources the Mantis had available to respond were critically low.
It had cycled aggressively during the exchange with the plant invasion, spending and recovering mana in volu exceeding its base capacity multiple tis.
But now with almost all the plants dead, the incoming flow of stolen energy had cooled and reduced abruptly, leaving it operating only with what remained in its own reserves. And those reserves were about to be completely exhausted.
It would have between 10 and 15 percent remaining.
With the cold intensifying and mana nearly depleted, it would be extrely difficult to reactivate the plant zone that had been so effective monts earlier.
Min had almost perfectly tid, if by luck, the mont when the Mantis's energy investnt had been at its maximum possible commitnt. The digestion boost had co right when the plant network was most extensive.
Then the cold had prevented regeneration. Then the Mantis found itself at critical reserves without the recovery chanism that had been sustaining it.
Perfect timing... Perfect trap.
Seeds required so warmth, or at least less cold, to germinate appropriately, a process that sub-zero temperature inhibited almost completely. Germination required tabolic activity. tabolic activity required enzys. Enzys stopped functioning below certain temperatures.
And any attempt to force growth through massive elental energy investnt would simply drain the Mantis's last reserves without achieving anything significant.
Worse still, the Mantis was in a position where any direct hit from the Amphibian would be literally the last it could receive.
No margin for exchange. Physical structure had been compromised by cold making the exoskeleton brittle and the energy reserves were at a level making manifestation of healing or elental defenses to last slightly longer extrely risky.
One solid hit would shatter the weakened exoskeleton. Ga over.
The complete focus of Ren's strategy had been wearing down the Amphibian's mana through parasitic drainage, eventually reducing resources to the point where victory would beco inevitable and the Mantis would recover a decent quantity of mana in the final absorption.
The dense field preparation that would finish the Amphibian would also affect his serpent of the sa elent when it entered later. Create an environntal advantage that would persist into subsequent exchanges.
It was a plan that would have worked perfectly if Min hadn't revealed a ridiculous capability like using cold to negate the wood elent's advantage almost completely.
And unfortunately, the Amphibian would almost certainly resist any strike the Mantis could launch now with the limited resources remaining, because it actually hadn't received much direct damage during the entire exchange.
Massive bulk and natural defense provided durability that any lower-rank strike simply couldn't penetrate. Maybe 50 tons of mass. Maybe 25-50 centiters of mucus-covered hide acting as armor. Attacks weakened by exhaustion and cold couldn't begin to damage it effectively now. A huge Gold rank Defense backing durability that already exceeded what Silver 3 attacks could compromise.
No path to victory… Not with these resources.
It was a situation Ren recognized as mandatory loss, a mont where continuation would only result in receiving bond damage without realistic possibility of reversing montum.
But Ren wasn't a person who surrendered without at least attempting sothing that could create advantage for subsequent battle phases even if imdiate victory was unattainable.
He liked efficiency like that…
So he decided on an approach that seed strange considering the circumstances but had logic when objectives beyond simple elimination of the current opponent were considered.
The Mantis wasn't particularly good at launching ranged magic, with its specialization being more in close-range combat where speed and elental versatility could be exploited in rapid exchanges. But it wasn't weak in the broad sense when forced to operate in that mode.
Compared to various common Silver-rank beasts specialized in a single elent, its capacity to project elental attacks was respectable.
Especially when you consider that most Silver 3 beasts had maybe 60-70% efficiency with their primary elent when compared to the Bronze 2 beast. The Mantis, even exhausted and operating in adverse conditions, still had residual advantages from the buffs and Ren's bond structure he'd cultivated.
So the fireballs it launched with the little mana remaining weren't weak according to common creature standards, especially considering it was exhausted and operating in adverse conditions.
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