Focusing on close combat and casting spells with his vortexes meant to waste the mana he had used to conjure Void Spear since Lith didn’t have enough focus to control it as well, but he didn’t care.
The tier three spell had served his purpose, luring Qisal into a trap. The right cross hit Qisal spine and released shockwaves that made his bones tremble, making it hard for the Wyvern to control his movements even though darkness fusion kept him from feeling pain.
The fist failed to break Qisal’s bones but it cracked several scales and dealt another blow to his ego. It was the first real damage that Lith inflicted him despite the enormous gap in their physical abilities.
The Wyvern darted up thanks to Second Wind, but Lith kicked the air again, using his footwork to keep up and stay glued to the enemy’s back.
‘Nice trick, but there are two huge flaws in your plan.’ Qisal thought. ‘The first is that without a proper flying technique, you can follow me only for a short distance. The second is fighting me as you would a human.’
Unfortunately for Lith, the Wyvern was right. No matter how quick he was, there was a small pause between his kicks to establish his foothold with magic again whereas Qisal moved non-stop.
It allowed him to dodge the tier one Spirit Spell, Frozen Void, that Lith had conjured from his vortexes. Qisal just turned his body 90 degrees, making the left palm strike aimed at his spine that manifested the ice, air, and darkness aspects of magic miss its target.
The Wyvern used Second Wind to spin on himself like a revolving door and turn around to face Lith again. At the same time, he used his one-meter (3’3″) long neck to bite Lith’s head off from above while his tail struck at him from below.
There was a reason why Wyverns, just like Dragons, had such long tails and necks. They worked as extra limbs in battle and, in the case of Wyverns, it made up for their lack of arms.
Qisal’s maw struck something very hard and sharp that made his head snap back, opening a deep cut in his neck. At the same time, something pointy whipped his tail away from the sides, foiling his two-pronged attack from Lith’s blind spots.
“Surprise, lizzie.” Lith said to the flabbergasted Wyvern as his double palm strike hit Qisal dead on his chest, unleashing the effects of both Hammer Time and Frozen Void.
The former spread vibrations through the ribcage to the rest of the body, hindering its coordination, while the latter used air and ice to spread a cold wave that stiffened the muscles, slowing down Qisal’s reflexes.
‘What the fuck?’ The Wyvern was so surprised that even Lith using a slur escaped his attention.
Just like everyone else in the arena, Qisal was focused on the changes the Wyrmling’s body had undergone in the last few seconds and didn’t care for either his words or the blue aura of the Spirit-infused Full Guard surrounding him.
Ever since Kamila first and Quylla later had helped Lith to understand the secret of the violet core, Lith had constantly practiced it except that during Faluel’s lesson or during his sleep.
By combining the body spellcasting with the circulation of fusion magic, his vortexes stabilized much faster than before. Also, the closer they got to an auxiliary core, the greater the changes in Lith’s hybrid body.
He was now over three meters (9’10”) tall, with long curved horns coming out of his forehead that had stopped the bite and a long, jagged tail that had deflected the Wyvern’s.
The vortexes didn’t just avidly suck the world energy, making the violet bursts flood Lith’s aura, but they also absorbed matter from the outside, increasing his mass. Even the second set of wings didn’t look atrophied anymore.
“Rise!” Salaark stood up, joining the other Phoenixes in their chant. “The skies are ours. Make them yours and show me your true appearance.”
She could feel Lith’s mass increasing by the second as his life forces merged more with every spell he weaved. Salaark crossed her fingers and hoped that the Wyvern would be the spark to light the flame from which her lost son would be reborn.
The coming of age of every Phoenix would reveal to her once and for all the scope of Mogar’s plans.
Lith unleashed a flurry of fists at Qisal while casting cantrips non-stop to keep increasing his size. He didn’t use that method right off the bat because, unlike the Wyvern, he wasn’t used to his extra limbs nor to the extra mass.
They made his movements clumsier than usual so he could only use them after setting up the field to cover for their shortcomings. Hammer Time and Frozen Void served that purpose, bringing the Wyvern’s prowess down to his level.
Lith was now four meters (13′) tall, with a mass on par with that of Qisal. He clenched both his right hand and the upper right wing that now closely resembled a thumb-down fist.
They struck respectively at the Wyvern’s chest and head, throwing Qisal off balance.
“What the fuck are you?” He said while hurling a jet stream of Origin Flames.
He didn’t care if they hit or if Lith countered them with his own. All that mattered was to get some distance, get rid of the spells that disrupted his body, and find a moment to use Invigoration.
A battle-hardened veteran like Qisal had needed but a glance to notice the many openings that the sudden growth had created in the fighting style of the Wyrmling. The problem was that his body couldn’t keep up with his eyes, making such knowledge pointless.
‘One breath. I need only one breath of Invigoration to restore my body and regain enough mana to kick Lith’s ass into oblivion.’ He thought.
Lith hurled a jet stream of Origin Flame as well to protect himself, just like Qisal had predicted. What he had failed to take into account, however, was that Lith’s upper wings would wrap themselves around the Wyvern’s, keeping him from getting away.
When the explosion caused by the conflicting Flames took place, Lith tightened the grip of his wings on Qisal’s and stretched them out to their limit. Then, he struck at the shoulder blades of the Wyvern with a double knife-hand, cutting them off.
“Dammit!” Salaark roared, slamming her fist on her throne with so much strength that the armrest shattered. “Couldn’t that moron last a bit longer?”
“Who’s the pet now?” Lith said while slamming Qisal’s head against the ground before starting to run at his full speed.
No word could bring Lark back, but Kamila was still by his side and Lith hated the Wyvern the most for the things he had said about her.
The powerful attrition first cracked the scales covering the snout of the Wyvern and then it ripped them off. Lith never stopped running and soon the soft skin underneath the scales become exposed.
Lith made a full round of the arena, flaying Qisal until his skull became visible. Then, he held the neck of the Wyvern with one hand right below the head and the other right above the body, keeping the neck stretched.
Lith opened his maw, revealing a row of fangs lit by the flames that still burned down his throat.
