14-66. Water

A geyser erupted beneath Elijah’s feet, and with enough force to tear the skin away from his flesh. He leaped aside, kicking hard off a Cloud Step to gain a little extra momentum.

And he almost made it.

The geyser clipped his trailing foot, throwing him into an uncontrolled tumble. He righted himself with another hasty use of Cloud Step. This time, he rocketed across the arena, his feet never touching the ground before he reached Imal.

She threw her hand out, conjuring a flurry of liquid razors. They descended upon Elijah in an eviscerating cloud of sharpness. Nature’s Shell stopped a few, but it wasn’t long before the shield shattered. A mist of blood erupted from the resulting wounds, but Elijah gritted his teeth, ignoring the minor injuries.

He’d been through much, much worse, after all.

Thorn ripped through the air in a perfectly executed thrust aimed at Imal’s throat. She flinched backward, slapping it aside with a burst of water born from the palm of her hand. Elijah turned that deflection against her, using the momentum to sweep her legs out from her under her.

Even as she fell, Elijah let the sweeping strike turn into a spin. His leg lashed out in a round kick that smashed into her jaw with an audible crunch of broken bones.

Imal went flying.

Elijah landed, then rushed to follow, only to feel something grip him from inside. He stumbled, his muscles refusing to move.

Imal picked herself up, holding her hand out. Her jaw hung grotesquely from her face, obviously broken. But even as the seconds wore on, it repositioned itself.

Unlike Okar, she didn’t bother speaking. Instead, she stepped forward and closed her hand into a fist.

Elijah exploded, his body deflating like a spent balloon. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t even twitch.

But he could still cast.

Ethera erupted from him in a tidal wave as three spells activated, all at once. Nature’s Bloom was the first, then Wild Resurgence, and finally Blessing of the Grove. With that influx of vitality, Elijah’s blood supply rebuilt itself.

But Imal wasn’t finished.

First, she countered Blessing of the Grove by taking hold of the rain. She sent it into a swirl, preventing it from ever touching him. That didn’t completely negate the effect, but it definitely cut its efficacy down by a significant margin.

Elijah just chained Nature’s Bloom.

Imal’s shouted, pouring more ethera into her spell. The flow of blood from his body redoubled.

But he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

His healing spells had never been particularly powerful. Not in context. He made up for it with the strength of his core, but he was no true Healer. And he knew he would run dry of ethera long before Imal did.

Something needed to change.

And he knew precisely what to do. He’d already revealed Shape of Spores, so he didn’t need to keep it hidden anymore. With that in mind, he initiated the shift. When the transformation completed, it came with two major benefits. The first was the increased regeneration and constitution, but Elijah was surprised to find that the second was far more impactful.

The Shape of Spores was partially made of fungi. He still had blood, and his body still contained plenty of water. But because of how that liquid was arrayed, it was much more difficult to manipulate.

Like wringing water from a sponge versus turning on a garden hose.

Elijah activated Mycelial Regrowth, sending a surge of vitality coursing through his fungal body. He stepped forward, only to get hit by another geyser. This time, he wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid the repercussions, and he soon found himself flipping through the air.

A second later, another barrage of water blades hit him, pinging him back and forth across the arena as his fungal body was torn to shreds.

But Elijah’s flesh rebuilt itself as quickly as it could be destroyed. After all, the ability was powerful enough to reform him from a single cell. He could take getting a few chunks torn away from him.

That didn’t mean he remained passive, though. Instead, he bounded off another Cloud Step, rapidly changing directions. He fell from the sky like a fungal missile. Imal tried to throw him off with a hastily summoned column of water, but she couldn’t muster enough force to push him off course.

He hit like a bomb.

Wet sand flew in every direction as Elijah cratered the arena floor.

Imal didn’t take the hit lying down, though. Just before impact, she’d summoned a disc of water – a shield that reacted differently than any barrier he’d ever encountered. Water splashed away, only for her spell to replace the displaced liquid.

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At the same time, she peppered him with water bullets that tore into his fungal flesh, exploding once they’d dug deep. That distraction gave her an opportunity to slip out from beneath him, riding a localized wave that bore her across the arena at hundreds of miles an hour.

Elijah whipped around, bounding from the crater only to see that she was cradling a broken arm. This time, she didn’t repair the damage straightaway. Was that because the spell was on cooldown? Or was it a strategic choice meant to retain ethera?

Elijah used Bestial Charge, enhancing his speed and layering a new shield onto his body. Three levels of defense. Shell, which came with the form. Nature’s Shell, from his Chausses of the Wild Revenant. And the comparatively weak shield from Bestial Charge.

The result was a brief respite from Imal’s water bullets.

Her eyes widened in fear. Screaming in pain, she threw her hands forward. And Elijah shuddered to a stop. Tiny streams of water – like a spider’s web – extended in every direction, holding him a dozen feet off the ground.

He roared, fighting against the pull. The sound of roiling water drowned his growl as the streams of water yanked his limbs out wide. He could feel his body fighting against her authority over the water within, resulting in a stalemate.

The tug-of-war still persisted for a few agonizing seconds before Elijah’s defenses broke. With a wet tearing sound, his arms and legs broke free. Then, his torso burst.

Imal sagged to the ground as wet flesh fell to the ground.

If Elijah hadn’t already cast Mycelial Regrowth, he might’ve been in trouble. But it wasn’t his first time being torn to pieces.

His spirit remained attached as those wet chunks of flesh stirred. In some cases, they just merged with one another. In others, new flesh regrew. And Imal’s eyes widened in horror as she saw his body reform.

He rumbled forward, ready to end the fight. But once again, Elijah felt his body shudder to a stop.

Blood flowed freely from Imal’s nose. From her eyes. She trembled with effort, but her jaw remained set. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. And then, the ripping began again.

Preferring to stay in one piece, Elijah decided to go on the offensive. He activated Throne of Spores. Imal screamed in shock as hundreds of fungal tendrils erupted from the ground. She surrounded herself with a whirlwind of water blades that hacked through them like she’d become some high-level Gardener.

But there were always more.

In a display of incredible concentration, she kept him locked in place while defending herself against the creeping tendrils.

However, it soon became clear that she couldn’t maintain that defense for much longer. With another shout, she spread her arms out wide. An explosion of water swept through the arena, throwing the tendrils aside. At the same time, a globe of water manifested all around Elijah. It stretched all the way to Imal, enveloping her as well.

When the recovered tendrils reached into that floating sphere, they were shredded.

At the same time, Imal’s injuries began to heal at a rapid pace.

She locked her eyes on Elijah’s and gave him a smirk.

She thought she’d won. Perhaps he’d pushed her harder than anyone else ever had, but Imal still believed she’d defeated him. Not immediately, but surrounded by her element, she clearly thought she had the upper hand. And not by a small margin, either.

Elijah could feel the pressure, both in a metaphorical and literal sense. The former, because he’d met a tough match. The latter, from the water around him, which made him feel like he’d descended into the deepest depths of the ocean. Those places where even the idea of light had never reached.

And Mycelial Regrowth was ticking down.

For a little while longer, he struggled against the forces trying to simultaneously crush and rip him apart. Then, he let out a bubbling sigh before he finally committed to revealing another one of his cards.

Ethera swirled.

And the pressure increased, both from within and without.

Elijah let out a subtle growl as the spell took hold, and his body expanded. Oddly, the globe of water grew with him. Judging by her trembling body, that put a significant amount of pressure on her store of ethera. But she still maintained her grip on multiple spells.

Even when Elijah took on the Shape of the Primordial Deep.

Two hundred and fifty feet of determined turtle swept forward, displacing nearly two million cubic feet of water along the way. Moving that much liquid strained Imal’s grip even further until the water inside Elijah’s body broke free of her control.

He dove in, nearly catching her in his beak-like jaws. But she barely managed to dodge, riding a current of water that pushed her to truly ridiculous speeds.

Elijah turned, his quickness belying his massive bulk, and gave chase.

She always stayed a little ahead of him, but his pursuit remained dogged. The globe of water had grown to encompass the entire arena, so they had plenty of room to maneuver. And Imal seemed dedicated to using every last foot.

Then, in a sudden turn, she gripped the water around him and squeezed.

Using his massively inflated strength, he managed to break free. But the force continued to mount, pressing in on him a little more forcefully with each passing moment. He used his temporary buffs, but even with Savage Strength and Heart of the Tempest, he found his pace greatly reduced.

That was when Imal hit him with everything she had.

Geysers, water blades, liquid bullets, and massive, conflicting currents pummeled him. His massive body flipped back and forth, his flippers twisting in all the wrong directions.

And somehow, her voice cut through it all.

“You think to fight me as a creature of the sea?! This is my domain!” she shouted, her voice clear as a bell despite the surrounding water.

Elijah’s Mantle of Authority erupted from his body, slicing through her control. He barely managed to right himself before she slammed her own power into his. His mantle degraded her control, but not enough to save him.

For that, Elijah dug deep into the lessons he’d learned from Tura. Then, he cast Whirlpool.

For the briefest of instants, she fought him to a standstill. But Elijah had already established that he had an advantage in attributes and cultivation. Her grip on water was nearly absolute.

But not complete.

Elijah broke through her spells, battering them into submission as he instilled his own dominion over the surrounding water. It whirled under his touch, becoming the vortex for which the ability had been named. It caught her in its grip, breaking the water sphere and turning it into a massive, free-floating waterspout.

Elijah refused to stop.

She tried to relinquish the spell, but Elijah’s grip was so firm that he simply wouldn’t allow it. Imal screamed.

Elijah roared back.

And then, finally, she forced the spell to cancel.

The water disappeared, and with it, Elijah’s inflated attributes vanished as well. He fell, his flippers paddling against water that was no longer there.

But just before he hit, he used The World is an Ocean.

The earth splashed as he slipped through it, and his attributes returned. Imal hit a moment later, breaking bones upon impact.

That was nothing compared to the damage Elijah did when he burst free of the ground and clamped his jaws around her. The salty taste of water and blood filled his mouth as she burst under the force of his bite.

He landed a second later, splashing sand and bedrock throughout the arena. When he landed, he let out a roar of victory that echoed through the crowd.

They joined him with cheers of their own.