"If you want so bad to apologize to her, let me send you to the other side!"
Despite all his provocations, Irtu remained calm and collected, always keeping a safe distance from the waters.
"He is too confident, I have a bad feeling about this. Why does he keeps advancing despite what happened to the other Byk?" Lith fought back the temptation of using all the extra mana from the world energy in one go, limiting to a single Plague Arrow.
Instead of dodging it, Irtu stood up on its legs, laughing cruelly.
When the Plague Arrow hit the Byk's heart, Lith could see thanks to Life Vision that instead of attacking its vital organs, the dark energy was being assimilated by Irtu's core.
"Hurr, hurr, hurr. Did you really think to be the only one that have mastered dark magic, maggot? Now die!"
Irtu jumped forward, and before Lith could take advantage of its inability to dodge in mid-air, four rock formations abruptly erupted from the ground, right were Irtu's paws were going to be.
That way the Byk was able to jump forward once more, his speed further increased by the four rock's borrowed momentum.
In less than a second Lith was robbed of his opportunity to counter attack, while Irtu had turned into a one-ton bullet.
To evade the attack Lith had not only use air fusion, but also to roll forward. The Byk was too fast for a real dodge, his only option was to pass under it.
After that point, things got worse. When Irtu landed, instead of creating a crater, the ground stretched under its legs like a trampoline, allowing it to resume the chase without a second of delay.
"What the f*ck?! You can do that with earth magic?" Lith bit his lower lip hard, cursing his own ignorance. He was a self-taught after all, the only knowledge he had about true magic was what he discovered experimenting by himself.
Clearly the Byk was a natural at magic, and had refined its mastery over earth through the years, aptly adapting it to best suit its hunting techniques.
Making a split-second decision, Lith kicked the ground with his left leg while using all the mana he could to infuse himself with earth magic, boosting his defence.
Thanks to the clean cut in his previous trajectory, Lith got only grazed on the chest from Irtu's claw. Yet it was enough to rip off his chest protector and graze the underneath skin.
Lith instinctively used light fusion to stop the bleeding and gain a healing factor.
The mid-air strike had messed up the Byk's tempo, so after the second jump it was forced to stop.
Lith used that moment of pause to activate Soaring Hawk and take flight. The opponent was clearly superior, he had almost run out of options.
"No escape!" Irtu roared, shooting a rain of rock debris against him.
Lith mimicked Gerda, using air instead of earth to generate a fast spinning barrier that deflected the sudden attacks. Yet his flight was interrupted, and he started to fall down.
Irtu grinned, getting up on its back legs, ready to catch him. He could already feel in its mouth the crunchy taste of the prey's limbs.
Lith was almost out of options. Almost.
From that angle, Irtu could not notice that Lith's right hand was now holding something, removing the stopper with a snap of the thumb.
At the last second, Lith stopped in mid-air with Float, while the substance in the flask kept falling and hit Irtu right on the head.
Suddenly the Byk was blind, his eyes burning like fire. A strong smell inundated his nose, making him sneeze and rendering it unable to sense Lith presence anymore.
"When I bought this horrible perfume, my idea was to use it to make a Byk lose my traces in case the worst happened. I never expected being forced to resort to such a gamble. Luckily Irtu does not know about Solus, nor her pocket dimension."
The flask materializing out of thin air was something unconceivable for the magical beast, taking it by surprise.
Irtu was still roaring in pain, the paws rubbing his eyes, when he got stabbed from all sides.
Thanks to the river, Lith's Ice Spear spell needed just a split second to strike.
Lith waved his hands non-stop, sending a barrage of spears until Irtu's corpse was so riddled with holes that he could see through it. And even after that, he sent another one piercing its head, right between the eyes.
"I always hated how in horror movies no one ever makes sure that the frigging monster is really dead, only to get backstabbed during the credits."
"You took a huge risk there, pretending to have lost control of the flight spell and going into free fall." Solus had objected to that last-minute contingency plan from the second Lith devised it, deeming it too reckless.
"What if the Byk impaled you with a rock spear? What if instead of waiting for you to come down, it had jumped to finish you off?"
"That would have been merciful. Irtu was too cruel to do such thing."
Lith replied without hesitation.
"It wanted me to feel despair and helplessness, to be conscious while it ripped me apart. In some ways we were quite similar, both hell-bent on revenge and inflicting pain to our enemies.
The only difference between us, is that I would never allow my bloodlust to drive me crazy. Gerda and Irtu were a threat to my family. That's the only reason I came here.
I prefer giving my enemies a painless death, even making Irtu's pelt worthless, rather than taking the smallest risk that they could harm one hair of my beloved ones."
Lith had just collected the two magical beasts' carcasses inside the pocket dimension, when his body started trembling in pain. A familiar hot sensation rising from his mana core.