Golden light flashed in her body, but her eyes still stared at the sea monsters assaulting the orb through which she was inside. They could do nothing but push her orb of protection a little. It would hold more time than the time she needed. That thought relieved her, as her eyes were drawn towards Elior who was messing with the sea king.
The sea king was enormous—snake-shaped, and scaled, as she had reminded Elior about its defence. Every fiend that goes past the third order had its strength. Defence augmented to the point that any attack from a mana user lesser than the third grade was futile.
But there were many complications to play.
Elior was not faster than Inari. He could go faster, but it would be troublesome for his human body which is barely taking the tears from as he moves at the speed of sound. The spear lurched, drawing a shallow cut on the sides of the head of the sea king, but he did not follow it up with some piercing, fearing the monster would flee.
And to show that the monster was winning, he also went as far as being flung away by the breath attack of the sea king. The attack was a storming vortex of wind, if his body went through all that, his body would be torn into a thousand pieces, not to mention he would die before that. Fortunately, he faked being flung away.
The sea king followed by another attack. This time it was water. Waves of water surged in the ocean as it surrounded Elior, trying to drown him. Even the smaller counterparts of the sea monster went after him.
Inari was cross-legged, not closed eyes, as her sight was glued to the figure, running around, cutting off the beasts. He had barely dealt with anything to the sea king. She did not know where his confidence came from. Well, so far, he was not in any crisis. That was a good thing.
She would need ten more minutes. The primal energy was surging in throughout her body. Every cell of her very being was beaming with the golden light. It was changing her, keeping her guessing how strong she will be. However, it shouldn't be enough to deal with this sea king. Though it did not have many abilities in mana manipulations, it still held the advantage in the water.
Her gaze was still at Elior, who was currently holding two spears in his arms, deflecting every attack from the monsters while dealing his blow. The sea king was shooting its breath attack again and again while trying to drown him with the surges. Elior was not as fast as her in linear moments, but his body was agiler, flexible as he dodged every attack dealing slow or swift blows, carefully missing nothing.
In the middle of all this, he shoved one of his spears on the belly of the sea king as it squeaked, heaving and terrorising. It was the first time he dealt with something that was useful, though after the initial squeak the sea king ignored it all around, lashing with its tail.
Elior ducked into the water and came out a little afar. He mouthed two potions, bringing out of his storage equipment, as more than half of his mana was already wasted and the sea monster has a lot to say.
Drinking all the context of the potions, he snarled at the monster, attacking it head-on. Inari bit her lips, battling head-on was a seriously bad idea since the monster was so level higher than them, but Elior did have some sense, as just he was before the monster, his lower body lurched, as he shot up above it, twisting and circling to shoot out an invisible sharp arch of blades.
The attack did not just break the defence of the sea king, it also made it squeal. The sea king shot its breath attack without considering anywhere, and on a happenstance, some of its after effect came at her orb too. Fortunately, the barrier was sturdy enough, though she could not say the same if it had to take its attack head-on. The barrier shook for a couple of seconds as her vision disturbed, before turning to normal.
When she could see everything again, she saw Elior was on the top of the sea king, lurching his spear before shoving it directly into the back of its head. The monster squealed as it jerked its head, flinging at Elior in the air. It did give him any extra time, and shoot another of its wind breath attacks.
Vortex of maddening wind swirled towards Elior, who appeared helpless in the air. Inari's mind rang, but she could do nothing from afar.
Elior lurched his lower body as his body twisted, but he would not be able to get away by doing that. If the vortex of wind hit him directly, it will crush his defence like crumpling paper, and tear apart his body, no better than scrap papers. Fortunately, none of that happened. On the brink of the impact, a sharp swirl of shock wave crept from his body, crumbling the vortex to nothingness instead.
Though it all did not go as Elior had wished, Inari had blood on his face as well as the other cut wounds on his body. Elior did not seem to care about any of that, and moreover, he did not fall on the water after he neutralised the breath attack, instead; he stood nonchalant in the air as if there was an invisible floor under his foot, narrowing his eyes at the sea king.
Then he dashed down, walking towards the monster. It shot breaths of wind vertex again and again, but Elior dodged every one of them skilfully, while his other hand brought another spear out of the storage equipment. How many of these spears does he have? She did not know the answer, but she was taught that there were never too many weapons.
Elior did not attack the sea king again, but went after its counterparts, killing one after another skilfully, and it appeared his fighting intensity, power, mana revolution all were rising with it.
Inari checked the quest interface and found about 17 minutes remaining. While Elior prepared to throw his spear again while he was standing in the head of one of the monsters.
The sea king shoots its breath attack, not very caring a bit about its counterpart. This time Elior did not withdraw, took a stance, front leg high in the air, and lurched his spear back, before shooting it with all his strength.
The spear warped in space, ignoring all the wind vortex, digging right into the eye of the sea king. Inari shuddered, looking at the scene. This was just sheer might. Elior actually won in the contest of attack power. Well, in truth, Elior most likely used his spatial ability to his advantage, though she could not deny him of his glory. It was never easy to win in an attack force against a monster that was 100 levels above you.
The monster wailed and squeaked, and as Elior feared it tried to flee seeing that it was at a disadvantage. Inari panicked, it was her job to stop that, but she would need two more minutes to complete her advancement. Moreover, Elior strayed away from the plan as well, he told her he will just mess around with it to give her time, but he went to a direct attack, then again, taking his mental health into consideration, she could guess how much frustration he felt.
But that did not change the fact that the sea king will flee from just under the nose. All his hard work will be for nought.
"You are not going anywhere," Elior snarled at the very moment and shot his other spear again. The seeking was almost underwater when the spear pierced its back. It did not appear it would do anything and Inari sighed in frustration, knowing all Elior's hard work went to water.
Abruptly then, bombardment came from where the sea king went, and not just one, but four similar bombings, one after another, only a couple metres away from one another.
'What happened?' a question appeared in her head and her head came with an answer soon enough as she looked at the sword Elior had given her. "Right, they came with a Destruction key input."
Even in such a state, Elior was working with a plan. Though it wasted a good amount of his fortune, since, he was so serious about hunting this beast, it will probably be worth it.
Inari was waiting for the congratulations message to come, but none came.
Elior shook his head and gave her a look. Gesturing her that he was going after the monster, he vanished into the water as well, bringing out a sleek sword this time around.
Looks like she would have to get herself involved as well, and she was just on the brink of finishing her advancement.