Novel Full Chapter 825 - Taming the Fifth Year - Spirit of the Torch
Chapter 825 – Taming the Fifth Year – Spirit of the Torch
As soon as the Will-o’-Wisp’s manifestation completed, Liora ordered an attack without preamble or threatening posture that would telegraph any intention…
The spirit simply disappeared from its initial position and reappeared directly above the mantis, an enormous mass of purple fire descending like an incandescent avalanche.
It was the signature danger of the Will-o’-Wisp that made it particularly terrifying to face. Practically instantaneous teleportation that converted any distance on the battlefield into something irrelevant.
The spirit could be on one side of the field one moment and literally on top of an opponent the next with almost no visible transition between states.
The mantis reacted with speed that came from instincts honed by countless battles. It covered itself with healing water, a protective layer that Ren had ordered manifested in the milliseconds available before impact. Simultaneously it fired itself with wind element, propulsion that launched it laterally out of the direct trajectory of the “bite” that the spiritual fire had formed, that macabre opening that had materialized specifically to engulf the mantis.
Ren’s beast exited the initial attack by scant centimeters, healing water hissing where the fire had grazed but fulfilling its purpose of preventing direct damage to the mantis’s exoskeleton.
And then the terrible battle truly began, an exchange that would demonstrate exactly why Liora’s Will-o’-Wisp was considered one of the most difficult threats to handle among all the beasts fifth-year students possessed.
Because the worst thing about the Will-o’-Wisp, what converted it from simply dangerous to a tactical nightmare, was that it was the largest beast that could teleport most frequently of all.
Its “mass” was really very little despite its impressive size visually, being composed of spiritual energy instead of physical matter. And that meant it demanded nearly no mana expenditure on jumps compared to what it would cost to teleport a physical beast of similar size.
It was a true expert in harassment and speed, capable of appearing, attacking, and disappearing before any counterattack could be executed appropriately. And then appearing again from a completely different angle half a second later, continuous pressure that didn’t allow a moment for recovery or any ‘extended’ planning.
The mantis had barely landed from its initial dodge when it realized the fire was already jumping on it again, purple mass materializing directly in its landing trajectory as if Liora had predicted exactly where it would be. And even with the healing water layer that Ren maintained, actively consuming mana constantly, damage was beginning to seep into the shield bit by bit.
The fire wasn’t just hot… it was corrosive in a spiritual sense, eating away at the water’s protective healing properties through its partially tainted nature. The hybrid state between pure and demonic that made it more difficult to defend against with only natural elemental counters.
Ren ordered another evasion, the mantis launching itself backward with wind propulsion while simultaneously creating distance. But the Will-o’-Wisp was already there again, having teleported to intercept the retreat before the mantis could establish safe range.
It was like fighting a ghost that could be everywhere at once.
No, worse than a ghost… a being with massive size and the ability to engulf its target completely if given the opportunity.
The mantis twisted mid-air, blade-like limbs slashing at the purple fire as it passed through the space where the spirit had just appeared. The attacks connected, cutting through the spiritual mass and dispersing portions of it momentarily.
But the Will-o’-Wisp simply reformed, pulling its essence back together in less than a second. The damage was superficial, barely slowing it down.
Liora watched from her position with focused concentration, directing her beast faster than normal reaction times could track. Ren recognized a problem immediately. The mantis couldn’t win through attrition. Every exchange favored the Will-o’-Wisp because it could attack, retreat, and reset with lower cost or even without meaningful cost at all. Meanwhile the mantis was burning through stamina and mana maintaining the defensive water layers and executing constant speedy but linear evasions.
The math was simple and brutal: this was a losing battle if it continued at this pace.
He needed to change the dynamics.
Maybe needed to create a situation where the Will-o’-Wisp couldn’t just teleport freely.
Or needed to force a decisive exchange instead of allowing this barrage to continue wearing down the mantis until exhaustion made defense impossible. Slow but inevitable accumulation that would eventually penetrate completely if the mantis didn’t find a way to escape the harassment pattern.
Since no matter what rapid maneuvers it executed, no matter how it tried to hide using invisibility that normally made it almost impossible to track…
The Will-o’-Wisp simply appeared in its trajectory in the next instant, covering it with heat that exceeded any defense healing water could provide consistently.
The invisibility didn’t affect the spirit at all because it could see the mana of other beasts directly, perception that transcended normal physical senses. The mantis could be invisible to ordinary eyes but shone like a beacon to a creature that perceived the world purely in terms of energy.
Ren observed the exchange with growing recognition that this would be significantly more difficult than he’d anticipated. And in the stands, tension increased as everyone realized the same thing.
But Ren had been considering it since his battle against Taro. The Will-o’-Wisp could see energy directly, which meant hiding wasn’t a viable option no matter how much invisibility the mantis manifested, so it had run out of options. But there was another approach that could work if he was willing to pay the price of revelation that would come with it.
Deciding in that moment that if he’d already used light and darkness with the hydra publicly, then the mantis could use them too. Because surely he’d have to use the wolverine the same way when the moment came to manifest his third beast.
It was a big commitment he’d been avoiding until now but that present circumstances made necessary.
Because his friends were already very strong… that had been clearly demonstrated by Taro and now Liora.