THUMP THUMP
Echoed as two giant bear/cat paws struck a golden spherical barrier before they raked downward with their huge and sharp claws.
SCREECH SCREECH
Then, when they reached the ground, the two giant bear/cat paws manifested again near the top of the golden barrier, only to repeat the thumping and screeching sounds. However, those were not the only sounds before soft yet deep growling rumbled in the background in displeasure at not getting its vengeance and juicy prey.
Inside the barrier, Adamu clutched Sun Bearer with both hands and allowed its Protective Enchantment to provide additional support to stave off the growing Fear within him. Yet, unlike the first time Adamu had encountered what he assumed was a vengeful bear/cat, he was having a much harder time resisting the Fear.
No doubt it was because the vengeful Monster poured much more power into its Fear Ability.
THUMP THUMP
SCREECH SCREECH
This can't go on!
Recognizing the truth for what it was, Adamu tried his best to ignore the Fear lashing at his mental and physical capabilities.
The first downgraded his thinking centers of everything not to do with the emotion called Fear, while on the physical side, Adamu’s body itched to stand up, leave the barrier, and offer itself as a sacrifice to please this formidable primordial Monster. As such, being struck from both sides, Adamu was having trouble mustering up a defense because if he had not already clamped on his bodily functions with absolute willpower, he would have already become bear/cat snack.
THUMP THUMP
SCREECH SCREECH
Another strike came, and another spike of Fear wiggled through his tightly gripped willpower. Additionally, the Fear began weaving doubts about the barrier and the protection it provided Adamu as if it would break any moment now.
Calm down… Clam down… Calm Down. Adamu chanted in his mind. Trust your skill. The barrier will hold. It… Will… Hold…
Unfortunately, despite the Protection Circle holding up quite well against the thumping and scratching, Adamu knew the truth of the situation. It was but a matter of time before it broke because True Darkness reined supreme outside his Sanctuary.
Meaning there was no constant influx of fresh energy from the sky to offset the expended energy from the physical abuse the barrier was put through.
Luckily, unlike the pitiful Raw Mana reserves inside the Sanctuary Core, the protection circle was fueled and built by higher-ranked energies, hence, it would take tremendous amounts of physical damage to overload the spherical barrier.
Still, Adamu refused the thought of entertaining the Monster on his doorstep the whole Night to figure out the actual depths of the Sanctuary made out of Hard Light Constructs. That being the case, Adamu plotted in between the thumping and scratching, of course, only after resisting the haze brought forth by the powerful Fear of Compulsion.
He plotted to punish this overgrown predator so hard that its animalistic brain would finally realize that Adamu was no longer the easy meal he appeared to be.
Definitely not while inside the Sanctuary.
Finding the right opportunity, Adamu focused on the Ritual Reflection around his Spirit and called on the Raw Mana to do what he needed it to do.
When the strike came, Adamu urged the Raw Mana for the first circle representing the Basic Principles of Magic.
“Oh, Lightning!” Conjuring was first because Lightning was the element if one sought destruction and speed.
After the First Principle got applied, Adamu waited and endured another strike before pushing it for the second circle.
“Gather and Condense!” By Altering said Lighting, the power increased even further.
“Seek and Strike True!” By applying chasing modifiers, only those hit by the said Spell would hate the Spell.
“Thy Adversary in my Name!” On top of everything so far, applying Dominion as the Fourth Principle, the Spell attained a natural bias through Profound Law interaction plus Adamu’s natural Spirit Rank, which was zero, but naturally dense Spirits could substitute for Spirit Rank Integrity.
Then, waiting and enduring one last time, Adamu pushed the Mana into the Enchantment circle.
“To Obliterate its Nightmarish Existence!”
Once the last and Fifth Principle was applied, Adamu counted the seconds before dismissing all thoughts of defending himself in favor of urgently drawing the now Principled Mana through himself and into his hands.
That done, he dropped Sun Bearer to the ground to hurriedly stand upright to clap his hands against one another. Adamu’s left hand became positively charged, while the right hand turned negatively charged. Then, he drew the hands apart to assume an archer's pose, almost ready to let loose his charged projectile, causing sparks to occur and materialize in between the palms before gathering and condensing into the shape of a large blue fluctuating arrow.
The moment it formed, Adamu spoke the Name of the Spell and made a releasing motion.
“Lightning Arrow.”
Whoosh
Having timed the release shot perfectly, the Lightning Arrow instantly pierced through the golden barrier as if it did not exist, only to pass through two giant bear/cat paws to arrive and land where a head should be.
However, when it arrived and landed, the Lightning Arrow penetrated not through a head and skull but through thick hide and right into a vulnerable throat before detonating its released energy into a wild frenzy of charged plasma to scorch, paralyze, and hopefully kill.
Roar
CRACK
RUMBLE
Right after the Lightning Arrow fired, Adamu closed his eyes to avoid the sudden flaring of white-bluish light as the Magical Arrow exploded. Still, since the arrow was that fast, he had no time to block his ears, thus causing them to rumble with a high pitch because of his proximity to the target.
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Waiting a few moments, Adamu finally opened his golden eyes to stare into the True Darkness beyond the golden, yet transparent from the inside, barrier around him.
“Tch… Can't tell if it's dead or not since no reward will reach me outside the Illusion.”
“Anyway, experience tells me a single Lightning Arrow will not be enough to kill a Monster that big and tough. Paralysis, on the other hand, is a different case.”
Kneeling and picking up Sun Bearer, Adamu enjoyed its Protective Enchantment for a moment to allow him to settle down the Fear chemical cocktails rampaging his insides.
Only after they were dealt with, for the most part, had Adamu centered his attention on the upper part of Sub bearer’s spear shaft. At once, the small Orb made of Hard Light increased in size and shining capacity before being sent out of the barrier.
However, no matter where the True Light spread its illumination, no monstrous predator was to be seen.
Unfortunately, Adamu could not send the Eternal Light too far away, as True Darkness would cover the gap between it and Adamu, thus swallowing every bit of Light needed to see anything.
“Ha… Alright. Best to assume it's alive and prepare accordingly for another visit.” Nodding to affirm the choice of action even further, Adamu recalled the Eternal Light and had it stick a few meters above him to illuminate everything since no Beam of Light descended from high above the skies.
That done, Adamu examined the Sanctuary Core and its functions because the strange interaction between the barrier and the Monster’s claws had almost sent him down the gallows of the Monster’s jaw.
Already, Adamu could assume that it had to do with the innate principle of Hardened Light… well, hardening when an outside force hit it, thus causing the Monster claws to screech terribly in Adamu’s ears. Even now, after the thunderous exploding sounds of the Magical Lightning Arrow, he could subconsciously feel his mind echo with the terrible sharpness of the claws.
“Tch… ”
Realizing his options, Adamu left everything as it was. But no doubt, the next time something tried to claw at the golden barrier, he would disable all sound from passing through the barrier to avoid another headache.
Shaking his head, Adamu remembered the sudden appearance of the Monster.
In truth, right after Adamu transformed the impure obsidian into true Obsidian and went about growing it bit by bit, Dusk came, and Adamu prayed in gratitude.
After that, Adamu retrieved the recharging Eternal Light. What followed was what he had done most of the day since the Sanctuary was assembled, channeling colored Mana directly from the Realm Grid to fuel the Material Growth Spell cast on the Obsidian pocket knife.
That aside, when True Darkness swallowed every bit of Light, its presence collided with the golden barrier protecting the Sanctuary, causing it to flare up in resistance to the presence of True Darkness.
Having a reflection of the Ritual right around his Spirit allowed Adamu instant recognition of the occurrence happening. Thus, swept by curiosity, Adamu studied the interaction for a bit. However, during that small study session, a certain Monster found the Sanctuary and the juicy prey it held within.
At first, a sudden thump spooked Adamu to the degree that he jumped away from the edge of the golden barrier. Only the subsequent unsuccessful attempts at breaching the barrier had eased his mind. However, that became the trap, as it turned out. The relief masked the Fear spreading through his body. Thus, when his first claws descended and produced that horrible screeching sound, the Fear already infused Adamu’s body exploded swiftly to consume his sanity.
So suddenly, in fact, that had Adamu not already held on Sun Bearer, he would have instantly thrown himself into the jaws of the Monster.
What followed after that was Adamu trying his best to resist throwing himself at the feet of the Monster before eventually having enough of it and casting the very first, in this life, that is, offensive Spell against an enemy.
The damage results were questionable, but no bear/cat Monster stood on his doorstep, thereby tilting the result slightly positive.
Shaking away the thoughts of the very recent past, Adamu wondered what to do now.
The original plan was for him to test out the adaptability of the Sanctuary made of Light because if it could turn half-physical and half-ethereal to hide the majority of its signs of existence, then it should also be able to adapt to different environments as well.
Setting aside the dubious nature of the Stealth function, since it had already drawn one Monster of the Night, Adamu wondered if he should delay his experiment since there was a momentary timeframe where the barrier would not work while adjusting to said new environment.
“Wait… I should try it because one had just been driven off.” Nodding and being bold, Adamu focused on the Sanctuary Core through the remote around his Spirit.
Almost instantly, Adamu saw the golden barrier stretch and contract, though not in size, but in the density of its color.
Recognizing the signs, Adamu began correcting the density of the golden color inside the barrier. Obviously, the stronger the golden color, the stronger the barrier. But the same was not exactly the case in the opposite because there was a limit to the dimness of the golden color.
That limit was the permeability between fully physicality and half-physical and half-ethereal.
Still, no matter how much Adamu adjusted the setting, it refused to allow him to pierce through the True Darkness to arrive in that illusionary fairytale-like world.
Disheartened that the easy path was not there, Adamu focused on his memories. From them, he uncovered something he desperately tried to dislodge from his mind, only it kept coming Night after Night to remind him of its… truth.
Once he found what he needed, he called on the Raw Mana inside the Core.
“Oh, Darkness!”
“Be Merciful with Thy Presence!”
“Reveal which hadith Hidden!”
“Tolerate this Mortal’s Passage!”
“To the Lands of the Dreamscape!”
Then, with the last Principle applied, Adamu pushed the Mana into the Ritual Protection Circle generating the golden barrier.
“Dispel Illusion!”
Right after the Name of the Spell echoed from Adamu’s mouth, the Principled Mana resonated with the golden barrier to produce more golden illumination to apply a triple debuff to the immediate True Darkness around it.
The result was instantaneous when Silver Light pierced the True Darkness and landed directly on the golden barrier.
Not one to not take advantage when he made it in the first place, Adamu instantly adjusted the Stealth function of the Core to acquire and attune the golden barrier to the Silver Light. However, while the Core attained and adjusted itself, it also became vulnerable. Thus, it was no surprise when Silver Light started infiltrating the golden barrier and the whole Sanctuary.
Although the Silver Light appeared to not be malicious in of itself, Adamu knew what it desired to accomplish, and what it desired ran counterclockwise to what Adamu wanted.
Therefore, the moment the golden barrier finished adjusting itself to the environment of the Dreamscape, Adamu cranked up the intangibility setting to the highest possible stage. Meaning the entire weight of the physical spectrum of existence represented by Ina, The Light of the World, put its foot right into the front door of the Dreamscape, thus manifesting a metaphysical bridge as long as the Sanctuary existed.
Once accomplished, all Adamu had to do was wait for the Silver Light already present inside the Sanctuary to be extinguished by the quantitative disadvantage it possessed inside the Sanctuary.
Nevertheless, as that went on in the background, Adamu observed the giant/ancient fairytale-like forest around him. As was obvious and expected, the very first thing Adamu's eyes found was the giant version of the stone Idol dedicated to Ina. As such, Adamu knew he had succeeded at one of the most important objectives on his goal list, sidestepping the summoning call of the Illusion.
Although, the inherent danger of a second mind/personality remained. “Sigh… One step at a time.” Adamu voiced out after releasing a sigh of relief.
“One step at a time, and I will fix that too.”
Done examining Ina’s Idol, Adamu’s gaze rested on the rest of his surroundings. However, it only took two head turns for his eyes to focus on something big with dark, gray, and silver stripes running down its hide from the spine to its belly.
“I knew it!” Adamu murmured with both glee at being right and disappointment at not having killed it with just one Spell. “Hmph… If nothing else, then at least, this proves that general Magical Resistance still applies to the hybrids.”
Nodding, Adamu shifted his thoughts away from the bear/cat Monster’s innate toughness to prepare another Lightning Arrow. Yet, just as Adamu began to draw on the Raw Mana, all his plans ceased on the first step.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes as much as he could without Mana to help, not that it could, at this point, and stared at the unmoving Monster in question some distance away.