Lev ramped up the output, now taking more mana out of his pool to convert. The ambient mana was strengthened even more with the addition, which he made quick use of by creating several lances of fire while flying away, leaving a trail of lightning in his wake.

  He could feel Stargazer exert even more pressure on the connected cores, further increasing their regeneration. Combined, Lev was able to fill the lances with enough mana to destroy the pillar halfway through, just as the snake turned incorporeal.

  The illusory monster vanished, though he could feel the massive displacement of air as the real serpent dropped to the ground, unable to negate all of the environmental reactions.

  A large crater formed where it landed, along with a long gouge as the rest of its invisible body touched the ground. Lev didn't let it make the first move this time. Dozens of arrows formed above him, and after mixing both lightning and fire, he bombarded the whole area.

  Most of them hit nothing, but a few revealed the quickly moving serpent's body for small instants. The scales on its body were unharmed, and only the distortions in its illusion caused by the destructive mana let him see its location.

  Stone boulders, compressed yet shapeless, flew at him. Each packed enough power that he hastily deployed Shieldwalls, wincing as the projectiles smashed through them at the cost of losing momentum.

  More arrows continued to form above him. The region lit up in a myriad of explosions, both lightning and fire empowering each other to attract many more creatures towards the battle.

  Lev remained on the move, putting more distance between himself and his friends. The battle was just barely getting started. He didn't want them to be in the vicinity of his explosions, especially the finishers.

  Abruptly, he dove to the left, just barely avoiding a lightning bolt. An eel-like monster floated above, zipping through the air with raw lightning. Lev blocked its next few attacks, his brows rising when he felt the power inside them. Many of his constructs shattered under the sudden barrage, something the serpent also made good use of.

  Then he opened the floodgates, letting both his own and Stargazer's mana be converted freely. Lightning roared into his armor, increasing his speed, whereas several blue fireballs flew at the serpent somewhere below him.

  Distracting that monster was easy, but Lev refrained from attacking the eel. It was keeping its distance, only pestering him with strong ranged attacks. He knew how to deal with it.

  Keeping his eyes peeled, he formed a dozen lances at the first sign of the serpent. It was trying to form a stone pillar again, only for lances to smash it apart. His Perception skills were pulling their weight, letting him observe the smallest wisps of stone mana.

  Annoyingly, he still couldn't detect light mana, primarily because he had no idea what he was looking for. The exotic mana type was something he had never encountered before, and identifying it in the middle of a battle was clearly something beyond his skills and talents.

  Still, he tried. The best he could notice was the small tremors caused by the massive monster's passage, but it dodged each of his projectiles without ever revealing itself.

  Are we just going to keep playing the game of cat and mouse?

  Regardless of how much mana Lev had, he was very certain that the monster had even more. A battle of attrition was not going to favor him, even with the cores being drained, as soul strain from mana overuse would set in quickly.

  When he had enough lightning mana stored inside Stargazer and his armor, a barrier glaive flew out of his bubble. It was already enchanted and treated, though that was just barely enough to fire a Fracturing Wave through its blade. The slash covered the distance in a blink, landing less than a dozen meters away from the serpent.

  Despite missing, the explosion elicited a deafening hiss out of the monster. Even better, as the blast rushed towards him, Lev raised his left arm towards the eel. A blue fireball collided with its hastily formed lightning bolt, obscuring its vision while bathing it in flames.

  The vicinity wasn't nearly enough to put it down. It did, however, let his invisible bubble part the flames, smashing into the eel. A small hole formed in the construct's wall, and the condensed Fracturing Wave inside Stargazer immediately shot forward. Normally, Lev would need a slashing motion to execute the skill, but the tiny amount of mana he used allowed for some flexibility.

  He had also accounted for the eel's strength. It wasn't a third-threshold monster, meaning its resilience was undoubtedly lacking, and the bisection proved his hunch.

  [

  You have slain [Electric Weaver - Level 433]

  ]

  All of that had happened in a few instants. Below him, the snake's aura became noticeable for the first time, both pissed off and slightly wary. Lev knew that he no longer had the luxury of staying on the move anymore.

  A barrage of stone spikes came first. Shields and walls shattered by the dozens, repaired and cracked in an intense cycle. He didn't let up until every last projectile was blocked or deflected, and the counterattack began before even that.

  Hundreds of arrows formed in blinks. Willpower protested at the rough use, only to be ignored. There was no more room for consideration, only action when he fired the arrows. The serpent had decided to evade them by coiling on itself, and its invisibility flickered for a brief instant from all the explosions around it.

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  Alarm pierced through his focus. A panicked, uncontrolled burst of lightning was imbued with a mighty yank upwards, saving him from being devoured. So fast was the serpent's lunge that it sent him spinning, robbing him of any chance to counterattack.

  Before he could try to do at least something during the opening, the monster's scales shimmered. Suddenly, they were covered in a stone coating, which quickly coalesced into stone spikes.

  Eyes widening, he failed to create distance in time. Several spikes shot towards him, and different scales immediately replaced them as the serpent's body continued passing beneath him.

  He frantically weaved between the barrage, letting some of them hit his armor to prevent being impaled. Each spike packed enough strength to immediately fill up the reserves of his absorption enchantments, and that saved any of the platings from shattering outright. They were still cracked and dented, and he swiftly repaired them while converting mana.

  Another uncontrolled wave of lightning finally put an end to the spikes. Reality flickered, and the serpent vanished again. That gave him a few precious seconds to convert more lightning mana, and when the next attack came, he was already expecting it.

  Six barrier plates flew out of his bubble and immediately surrounded him from every direction. The enchantments were already powered, erecting a potent sound ward around him. It was just barely enough, as the roar still cracked the plates. His quick repairs prevented them from being destroyed, and that gave him even more time.

  By now, his armor was shining with raw power. It was mostly a show. Most of the converted mana was stored inside orbs resting in his bubble. The serpent fell for the bait, lunging for the obvious target.

  The illusion couldn't quite handle that much movement. It flickered, revealing the attack ahead of time. Lev didn't move, still channeling lightning into his right arm while maintaining eye contact.

  A few dozen meters away from him, he also shot towards the monster. It opened its maw wide, only for it to snap shut when a heavy and invisible bubble smacked the top of its head. Stargazer flew in his hands in the same instant, and there was no dodging the point-blank Fracturing Wave, holding mana comparable to a third of his pool from the cores.

  Befitting its level, the serpent still made adequate preparations, covering itself in dense layers of brown stone. The slash landed on the surface like a loud thunderbolt, flinging him away from the impact. Stone and lightning clashed for a few seconds, and the former was slowly drilled through.

  Halfway to the monster's body, the slash finally lost cohesion and detonated.

  Heat and light replaced Lev's world. His armor felt like it was melting, and he dumped healing mana into his body to heal third-degree burns despite the Epic suit. For several seconds, he could feel himself fly away from the explosion, and once he was out of its radius, he took a moment to observe the result.

  The fight had taken them both to the base of a mountain, and it was in ruins. Charred dirt and stone were the only things visible for hundreds of meters, and the serpent thrashing within was still very much alive.

  Stargazer was slotted back into his bubble, once again dragging mana out of the slotted cores. He could feel that the slash was considerably weaker than usual, but that was a worthy trade-off. That much mana was hard to channel normally, and the fight was still far from over.

  Lances were infused and fired immediately after he found the serpent. Despite the lightning still coursing through its body, the serpent pushed past the paralysis and dove into the ground, avoiding the barrage.

  Such a massive monster couldn't hide the mana usage as it swam underneath. Lev could acutely feel its general location as it swam up the mountain. A hole was left where it burrowed, and even after a few seconds, the invisible body continued to rush into it.

  He prepared another Fracturing Wave, noting that Stargazer's pool had dipped below half. His own was still significantly fuller. The glaive trembled from all the power inside the bubble, and before it could explode, he brought it to his hands and swung.

  Or, he wanted to, until time decided to slow down.

  Lev's instincts screamed at him, the loudest they had ever been. All of the lightning was immediately teleported back into his armor, almost causing tears to form in his soul from the strain, and imbued as much of it as possible. Then all of his manipulation power and willpower came together to drag him up and to the left.

  All he managed was a little bit of displacement, and that saved his life. A radiant beam of light passed through his armor and body, shaving off a large portion of his thigh.

  If he didn't have the Perception skill, the beam would've passed through his head.

  Pain wracked his being. Lev gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, reasonably certain that the monster couldn't follow up immediately. Healing mana reached the wound and faltered, unable to push past the lingering influence of the complex element. Light mana was twisted to not only disintegrate, but also to leave severe burns on the rest of his leg. Restoration mana just barely pushed it back, requiring several times more mana and time than normal.

  Beyond the pain, excitement and anger surged in equal measure. That was far too close for his comfort, yet it also let him get a feel for the light mana. The sheer amount in that attack left a residue in the air, and his Mana Perception was adapting to detect it, too.

  Regardless, peering past the invisibility was still too much. He couldn't dally and risk another such attack, and due to the downtime, his body, except the affected limb, was in decent enough shape to go all out. His armor, too, was swiftly repaired.

  Stargazer's pool plummeted as it returned to the bubble, and the weaker second-threshold cores in his bubble also crumbled to dust. The draw was too much, and Lev could also feel how their destruction had been accelerated. Cores weren't meant to be used as a replacement for mana pools, as evidenced by their degradation.

  Pushing that matter to the back of his mind, Lev brought out nearly three dozen lances from his bubble. All of the converted mana was imbued, giving birth to a barrage that completely decimated the slope he could feel the serpent's body under.

  A giant landslide formed as a result. The monster roared out of it, black spots visible on its scales as it discarded invisibility entirely. More lances flew at it, yet it barreled through them, twisting and weaving to let them land on its scales instead of its face.

  Stargazer left the pedestal in his bubble. Lev's fingers closed around its haft as he flew higher to create distance, preparing for the final assault. Seven of the twelve cores in his bubble had already crumbled, and despite the gap in quality, the two third-threshold cores weren't far off from a similar fate. They had done their job, though.

  Arrows formed by the dozens, each enchanted and infused with enough mana to be a nuisance. Like blue stars, they descended on the nearing serpent, all of them aimed at its face. The explosions added up, with the remnants of the last empowering the next.

  Combined, there was enough power in the barrage to slow down the monster, yet it displayed unnatural intelligence again. Using the blasts as cover, Lev's mana perception skills were fooled as an orb of light mana flew out of the flames.

  Too late to realize what it was, he saw the orb unfurl and utterly blind all his senses.