Petra burst forward!
-
Petra wrapped herself in mental energy and shot across the clearing, charging straight toward Otan.
Otan only sighed. "Young people these days, just so impatient!" His eye suddenly widened, and an explosive wave of elemental energy burst out from his body, flooding the air!
Boom!
Petra immediately halted and shot backwards, purposely increasing the distance between them. She narrowed her eyes and finally took a closer look at the old man.
This old man wasn't a mage, no—
And he wasn't a cultivator either!
She hadn't noticed at first because the energy within his body was unnaturally 'stable', but now it was obvious. His spiritual energy was extremely faint, instead, the majority of his body overflowed with 'elemental energy'. This was the first 'Summoner' Petra had ever encountered!
Her eyes lit up.
Judging from the earth-element elemental energy rolling off him, there was no doubt about it! This old man was an Earth-Element Elemental Summoner.
"Interesting…" she murmured.
"What's wrong, little girl?" Otan said calmly from a distance.
"Are you scared already?"
Petra grinned.
Being bathed in spiritual energy felt like 'someone forcing themselves onto you', but elemental energy was different. If being hit by spiritual energy was like someone pushing you backwards, then elemental energy was like someone punching you in the face, no, not just that, it was like someone punching you in the face with a literal mountain!
Woosh!
Petra shot forward, dashing left and right in wide zigzags!
Otan didn't move...
Instead, the ground beneath Petra's feet suddenly hardened mid-step.
Her sole slid as if stepping on polished stone, and her momentum threw her sideways!
She twisted in midair, barely stabilizing herself before landing on her heel.
"... He's controlling the earth?" she muttered with narrowed eyes.
How…?
Otan smiled faintly.
He gestured with his left hand, performing something reminiscent of flipping his palm…
Owang! The earth rippled beneath Petra's feet like a living wave!
She jumped back, and while in mid air—
A wave of mental energy wrapped around her body as she condensed a large spear in her hand, and with a sharp snap, she hurled it in one smooth motion.
Woosh!!
The green spear tore through the air, ripping up the earth as it barreled towards Otan!
Otan raised a finger.
The ground in front of him exploded upwards, forming a wall. The spear struck it and stopped with a shrieking sound, like metal scraping against metal.
Petra's eyes flickered as she landed.
This 'wall of earth' was different from the 'earth wall' spell mages often used. Mages molded terrain with spiritual energy, but Otan was reinforcing the earth itself with elemental energy, compressing and amplifying its innate properties, then reshaping it through some quirk of elemental energy.
It wasn't dirt anymore….
It was no different from a steel shield!
But, then the question became—
How was he doing it?
She narrowed her eyes. Petra couldn't feel any shift in the spiritual energy, so she couldn't understand how Otan transmitted his command to tell the earth how to change.
No, wait… could it be? Petra clicked her tongue.
"So that's how you cheat," she said to herself.
Otan chuckled. "You catch on fast."
He could tell by her expression that she understood at a glance.
Petra blurred to the side, small shockwaves bursting from her feet as she leapt again and again, closing the distance quickly. Since she couldn't feel any shift in the spiritual energy, that could only mean that the earth-element elemental energy was already 'primed' at the beginning. In other words, this whole clearing was filled with traps, set after his initial wave of elemental energy at the start of the fight!
Otan sighed, then flicked his wrist, not towards Petra, but towards the ground! Ca-ca-crack!
Petra's eyes widened as the ground before him splintered like brittle glass. Jagged fractures tore through the earth, collapsing in a violent cascade that led to seemingly nothing! From the ruptured depths, elemental energy burst forth in surging waves, warping the air and hurling shattered stone in every direction.
Petra shook as her brain worked. A portal? No, that's not right, this was… a gate!
At the same time, small earth elementals began crawling out of the fractured ground. Grass twisted into crude, snake-like forms, earth molded into small bipedal bodies, and bird-sized sand elementals burst out of the gate and rushed towards her through the air. They were only first-level elementals, but they felt dangerous because they carried the weight of compressed earth-element elemental energy.
They were like small boulders!
Petra glided backwards, boots carving trenches in the soil. "Tch, you brought friends, lonely old man!"
"Summoners don't fight alone," Otan replied. "That's the point, duh?"
Petra rapidly analyzed the situation while jumping back and forth. These elementals were unlike the ones summoned during the First Calamity. Back then, they had felt 'incomplete', unstable, and lifeless, but these guys didn't…! These earth elementals were more 'complete'.
From their appearance alone, she couldn't tell the exact difference, but she suspected it had something to do with the constant, uninterrupted flow of elemental energy 'feeding' them. The Ice Elementals from the First Calamity didn't have that. In fact, the whole 'Cursed Winter' lacked a lot of ice-element elemental energy.
This was something that Soryn, an Ice elemental cultivator, had told her.
Perhaps, elemental energy, it functioned as some kind of soul…?
That was possible…
Petra shook her head and focused. Her mental energy flooded outward as hundreds of green hexagonal butterflies formed in the air around her. They intercepted the small Earth elementals one by one, exploding into flashes of black light that expanded in circular nets before contracting to single points, slicing everything they touched to pieces. The clearing quickly filled with rocks and debris.
Otan raised an eyebrow.
He was caught off guard by how easily she dealt with the elementals.
"Is she playing with me? Tsk, seriously…? Am I that old? If I don't focus, those old guys will laugh at me!" He shook his head and stomped forward, landing on his front foot with a heavy pressure.
Boom! The earth beneath Petra suddenly buckled inwards! She jumped, narrowly avoiding the snapping ground as stone jaws clamped shut where she had just stood.
She landed lightly, breathing steadily, and looked forward.
That time, she felt it, the spiritual energy that arced through the earth!
"Alright," Petra called out. "Then let's try this!"
Swoosh!
For a single instant, darkness flickered out from her body.
Otan's eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously. "A darkness-element cultivator!"
Troublesome…
He, like many others, knew the extreme danger they represented. It seemed as if he had failed to discover this secret during his investigation…
He grumbled, reminding himself not to be touched.
Shadows split from the ground, tearing upward as dozens of shadowy tendrils impaled the nearby elementals in a flash of black light. Boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom!!
Petra followed up by condensing a massive hammer of mental energy and slamming it down, blasting a crater into the clearing. The shockwaves rippled outward, flattening grass and sending fragments of stone flying everywhere!
"That's not the force of a third order," Otan muttered, then frowned. He was beginning to realize that something was wrong.
Then—
He smiled.
"Let me show you what makes summoners different from mages!"
Hoooooong—! WOOOSH!! His entire body erupted with an orange-brown light! The clearing shook, and the air vibrated as a wave of oppressive power rolled outward, forming an unstoppable pressure.
Petra frowned immediately.
She could feel something 'building'.
A moment later, BOOM!
An even heavier force exploded from the old man's body, flooding the entire space.
Petra was struck by the shockwave, her hair whipping back.
It was a devastating eruption of power!
Petra could feel her bones creaking!
But that wasn't all!
The space itself seemed to shudder as the spiritual energy was violently stripped away, forcibly pushed back and overwritten by pure, oppressive elemental energy. The air grew heavy, dense, and hostile, filled with an unyielding gravity, feeling almost as if the world itself had begun to flatten!
Petra's eyes widened in shock.
She had felt something similar before, but instead of earth, it had been an immense concentration of light-element elemental energy!
"This is… anti-magic? No, it's a mage-killing technique? Is this the secret of 'anti-magic!?'"
Petra's conclusion was right.
The spiritual energy around her had become extremely sparse!
It wasn't gone entirely, but it was thin and scattered. Controlling any metaphysical phenomenon now felt sluggish and resistant, like trying to swim through hardening mud. It almost felt like returning to a mortal state, like it was back on Earth!
That alone was shocking enough, but—
What surprised her even more was what she felt next!
The earth-element elemental energy was seeping into her body. It wasn't attacking, no, it was pressing inwards, pushing against her internal systems, trying to dilute and replace her own power.
'Is he trying to cripple me…?'
'What the hell!?'
If this continued, she wouldn't just lose control over her abilities. Her spirit route and meridians could be damaged as well! It was an incredibly vicious tactic!
Petra frowned.
Was this something all summoners could do?
That was annoying…
If that was the case, then they were a bit like the one class you never wanted to face in a video game...
Thinking about it, if the element was fire or lightning, would simply standing near a high-level summoner be enough to burn someone alive from the inside out… or tear them apart?
What a frightening thought!
In a sense, summoners really were walking anti-magic enemies.
Of course—
That didn't mean Petra cared!
The spiritual energy inside Petra's body was forcibly dispersed, and her dark element was pushed back into the dantian as the earth-element elemental energy flooded the environment and saturated her body. It would recover, but not immediately…
Even her mental energy was suppressed, pushed inwards and compressed beneath the overwhelming elemental dominance, making her head feel bloated.
Outside, spiritual energy barely existed anymore…
The clearing had become an earth-dominated domain, completely saturated by Otan's element!
For a brief moment, Petra stood still…
Then she exhaled.
"…Mm, guess I only have one option left!" A faint emerald light flickered beneath her skin, and Petra's entire body began to glow green. A violent storm of mental energy wrapped around Petra's body, spiraling outwards in a chaotic current of emerald light!
The moment it stopped—
She vanished!
The ground erupted beneath her feet as she blasted forward in an explosive charge, tearing through the earth elementals as if they were nothing more than brittle statues.
Her speed was absurd, far surpassing a golden core cultivator, she showed no hesitation as she crossed the distance in a blink.
The gravity was already stacking, but she shrugged it off.
Layer upon layer of crushing pressure pressed down on her small frame, attempting to pin her to the earth, grind her bones, and slow her movements—
But Petra ignored all of it!
Otan frowned.
For the first time since the 'battle' began, his expression shifted from a calm confidence to an open irritation. He could already feel the shadow of danger looming over his back—
It was ridiculous!
He extended one hand to the side. Dense earth-element elemental energy surged, compressing violently around his arm, shaping itself into a massive mace and gauntlet. The weapon formed in an instant, its surface layered with spikes and reinforced until it looked less like stone and more like black metal.
Then, with a swing that split the air, Otan brought the mace crashing down towards the little green-haired imp.
Boom!
The crash was apocalyptic, gravity amplifying the attack many times over!
Petra met it head-on with her small fist.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Her mental energy screamed as it reinforced her body, the collision exploding outwards in a violent shockwave that shook the clearing like a battlefield under siege. Trees bent, roots tore free, and loose stones were pulverized into dust, all blasting backwards!
The entire clearing was expanded by a few meters!
The violent wind from the impact shot both combatants backwards!
Otan ripped across the earth, boots carving deep scars into the soil as he struggled to regain his footing.
Petra slammed into the ground, rolled once, then sprang back up almost immediately, her boots landing as lightly as a feather.
Otan frowned, as his eyes—
Ka!
—Otan's eyes snapped to his weapon! The mace was crumbling!
What!
Small cracks stretched across its surface, spreading faster and faster as chunks of earth broke apart and fell away. The weapon trembled in his armored hand, struggling to maintain its form.
Cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
That strike should have been able to defend against a fifth-level cultivator's attack! That was the benefit of the earth element! He was slow, but his durability and destructiveness was unimaginable!
She met it with her fist!
Her small, childlike fist!
How was this possible!?
His gaze flickered back to Petra.
She was still standing there, seemingly in an even better state than he was!
Not only that, but she looked… excited!
What was going on!
In that instant, Otan finally understood just how badly he had underestimated this little girl!
No wonder he felt like she was playing with him!
His glare hardened.
He understood that this fight was no mere hunt, no, not anymore!
The casual arrogance drained from his face, replaced by something sharp and dangerous, no, something heavy and oppressive!
The old man straightened his back.
Dense earth-element elemental energy surged violently around him, condensing layer by layer into an incredibly thick suit of armor. Plates formed over his limbs and torso, locking together until even his silhouette had changed.
Dong!
His elderly appearance vanished beneath a reinforced shell of elemental armor!