My body flashed from my place and reappeared behind the nearest harpy. Not giving her any time to react, my claw slashed with a woosh decapitating her head. Blood spattered about, dyeing my scales red.
Seeing another one of their own dead. The harpies were enraged. Before I make another move, they all simultaneously released an ear-piercing scream. The air reverberated with waves of mana, as an invisible attack rippled towards me.
With my spirit vision limited, I was fully reliant on my instincts. Sensing the waves of mana rushing in my direction. I instantly coated my body in a layer of protective water mana, all the while giving extra attention to my weak spots such as my ears and eyes.
With water mana protecting me, my entire body gave off a faintly bluish tint. The harpies' attack met with my shield mid-air followed by the sound of glass shattering. Their mana was forcefully pushed backward and dispersed in the surroundings.
Surprisingly, my shield didn't fare any better. It held on for a few seconds before collapsing as well. Both attacks nullified. My eyes widened in surprise at their mana output. Quickly regaining my bearings, I launched myself towards a harpy that was isolated at the edge a distance from her companions.
Her eyes widened as she quickly brought her talons forward in an attempt to block my assault. Unfortunately for her, my attack came from an unexpected direction. I somersaulted mid-air and used my tail to smash her head.
The sheer force behind my attack was enough to break the poor harpy's neck and flatten her head. The flock of harpies was further enraged. This time they all attacked me together, with no apparent regard to their lives.
This surprised me for a second as moments ago, they had been intimidated. Yet here they were, rushing towards me with bloodshot eyes, oozing an ominously thick killing intent. My eyes scanned the area for all possible variants, finding none. I then coated my scales with water mana, as an armor of sorts appeared hovering before me.
The harpies used a combination of wind mana alongside their sharp talons to try and break my armor. This made the mana I used to sustain it, decrease at an alarming pace. Individually, the harpies were no threat out in the open. It's their sneak attack that's terrifying.
This time, however, I had an entire flock aiming at my eyes, nose, and ears. They would occasionally attempt a strike at my stomach should I accidentally show it. Or under my limbs. The bastards even went as far as to target my family jewels.
The worst part of the entire ordeal was their terrifying accuracy. Hence why the mental drain on my mind was immense as I tried to keep my movements sharp and now reveal too many flows. All of this had to be done while I actively drew and manipulated the mana from my soul space. Which turned out to be more taxing than I expected.
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Usually, I never really paid any heed to be delicate while controlling mana. This was especially so when considering that it always seemed to understand my intentions. And so I was merely tasked with ordering it. The problem is, this was only possible when I was connected to the mana stream.
When I used the mana from my soul space, I had to 'manually' move it. Covering every inch of my body, all the while using it to launch counterattacks, keeping the harpies at bay. I wasn't in immediate danger. But things weren't looking all tha well either.
Another harpy shot towards the sky above my head, and then made a sudden nosedive aiming at the back of my neck. A chill ran down my spine as I recalled a scene almost forgotten of my very first fight in this world against my Ynos and Sidus. That was when I found out that the back of the neck is also a weak spot.
Perhaps sensing my sudden alarm, the other harpies immediately launched themselves at me in a frenzy, hoping to buy time for the attacker to land her hit. With their constant attacks keeping my claws tied, an annoying feeling welled up in my chest.
I fully focused all of my mana on blocking the flock's attacks and raised my head to face the incoming harpy who was almost upon me. Opening my mouth, an attack I haven't used for a while appeared as a spinning orb materialized before me.
The harpy didn't manage to let out a single cry as my dragon breath blasted her head-on. Her body instantly vaporized as my dragon breath continued undisturbed towards the sky, appearing as a pillar of light.
With the harpy dead, I swiftly moved my head down and aimed at the flock still swarming me, redirecting the dragon breath at them. A few saw it coming and managed to barely dodge. Most, however, didn't. Their bodies simply disappeared as if they never existed before.
With most of them dead, I finally stopped my dragon breath attack. It was good having more than one magical element at hand. At that moment, I had focused all my water mana to defend, since that required meticulous control, and my affinity with it is the highest.
Simultaneously, I used whatever earth mana I had available to aid in launching that dragon breath. And seeing at how the group of harpies now only had a couple left, it was worth it.
"Bloody hell, I should have done that at the start," I mumbled.
Just as I was about to finish off the last two survivors. An unexpected visitor crashed our battle. An enormous scarlet fish monster with horse hooves instead of fins jumped out of the water and into the sky, swallowing the harpies whole.
I watched dumbfounded as the abnormal creature fell back to the water without making any splash whatsoever. It was completely silent, especially considering its enormous size.
"What the fuck was that?!" I cried out in disbelief.
The monster made no ripple as it came out of the water and then went back in. It was as if the water parted making way for it to move silently. Hell, I didn't even sense it coming, and that made a shiver run down my spine the more I thought about it.
Just how dangerous was this astral plane? I was barely here for a while and I was already tired. "I'll be damned, this is exactly why I didn't want to try teleportation. I shouldn't have gotten cocky!"