With a massive mana consumption, Jason stood facing the winged two-headed lightning wolf, who towered over him with a height of more than four meters.
It was extremely fast and agile, but so was Jason!
Using all means he had, he sent the combination of his curses and the abyssal effect at the wolf that hit it with full force, weakening it much more than he could have hoped for.
As such, Jason couldn't help but feel glad that his attack worked because he would have been much slower than it otherwise.
The two mana cores within the fused wolf's body were releasing a tremendous amount of mana, creating short bursts of lightning that targeted Jason like small snakes that were lunging after their prey.
Though these attacks weren't as lethal as the wolf hoped for owing to its drastically reduced strength hence, Jason was at least able to evade most attacks that would have injured him.
A protective armor was created around him by Petri's due to which Jason was almost completely unaffected by the lightning that lunged after him.
Thus, he could easily pay more attention to launching attacks instead of acting defensively.
It was more complex than he had initially expected, but while adjusting to his enhanced body, Jason couldn't help but be glad that he had already fought against a few beasts before.
They hadn't been a challenge, but that was not important at the moment.
Rather, the current situation forced Jason to overcome his physical strength that was still not perfect.
This helped him even out everything, easing the entire tension that had been accumulated within Jason's body in the time he had cultivated.
Under normal circumstances, cultivating was not burdensome.
Instead, it was a soothing feeling that helped the practitioner stay relaxed.
Unfortunately, this was not the case for the Mythic Essence technique that caused unbearable pain, the entire time one cultivated it.
As such, Jason was tense for the whole time, and only due to Solaris' soothing flames that were often spread through his body was he yet to encounter issues.
Despite that, fighting against an opponent that allowed Jason to go all out was even better to ease his tension, making him feel as if he had regained his freedom.
Owing to this sensation, Jason didn't even notice that the Celestia aura, which had been transmuted through the fusion with Petri, was enlarging while being swept through with his battle intent.
With a radiant smile on his face that was hidden by the scaled armor that covered his entire body, Jason twisted himself the moment he saw compressed lightning currents that shot towards him.
While he tried evading them, the lightning currents devastated the surroundings, stirring up the soil that flew through the air.
At that moment, Jason got an idea.
Being unable to directly attack the winged two-headed lightning wolf, despite the fact that the race specific weakening curse was up and running, Jason didn't hesitate to test out new things.
Owing to this free spirit of experimenting with all kinds of things, Jason manifested Solaris' wings while being fused with Petri, only to conjure both icicles and fireballs which he threw towards the wolf, who didn't even bother to deflect the attacks.
Instead, it enveloped itself in small lightning bolts that crackled and lunged at everything that entered their range.
This was something Jason had already seen before. Thus, he had already expected this defense technique of his opponent.
Little did the wolf know that this move had been exactly what Jason had wanted to see.
Amongst the icicles and fireballs, there were unique blazing icicles whose tip was extremely sharp and thick.
Ordering the flames inside some of the icicles to explode the moment the lightning hit them, he saw the heavy tip shatter into thousands of shards, distracting the lightning wolf.
This happened to owe to the lightning bolts that were attacking every single ice shard that flew through the air.
Taking advantage of its distraction, Jason appeared in front of the wolf only a moment later, looking up to it before he slashed out at its front legs.
Brandishing the weapon horizontally, he planned to pack a punch with his slash, which was created by using Solaris' flames.
At the same time, Jason enlarged Byakur at the last possible moment, creating an unforeseen situation, which the wolf had to face.
Occupied with deflecting the countless ice shards, the majority of lightning currents were currently shooting out towards the top, leaving the wolf's lower body unguarded.
Despite that, the wolf's reflexes were fast enough to notice Jason, making it flap its wings before it would be too late.
Unfortunately, Jason had already taken this possibility into consideration.
As such, his horizontal slash was altered as he jumped towards the wolf, ignoring the lightning currents that burned through his scaled armor.
Searing through the wolf's chest, Solaris' flames charred its fur, only for a fraction of its essence to enter the wolf's body.
The moment it realised this, blood had already begun to splurt out of the large wound.
Nonetheless, the severe injury it had sustained only enraged the winged two-headed lightning wolf that shot forward with the entire mana that was left in one of the two mana cores.
The mana was more than enough to flood the surrounding three meters with lightning currents that hit every single scale on his body to no avail.
Gritting his teeth, Jason was glad that Petri's scales were much more powerful than he could have expected, which was extremely beneficial for every kind of situation.
They seemed to have an elemental resistance too, which he had never noticed, otherwise, the scales of a Pryr beast at the 9th Lique stage would have never been strong enough to overcome the attack of a Low 1st threshold Prismar stage beast.
Nevertheless, the elemental resistance was not perfect. That would be too advantageous, and fortunate on his side, allowing him to become omnipotent.
Despite not being omnipotent, by fusing both Jason and Petri's capabilities were enhanced which meant that every single body part that Petri manifested had the combined strength of both fused individuals, namely him and his soulbond.
This included the strength of even the smallest capability which was the sole reason for Jason to be alive, as the race specific weakening curse had been enhanced to a much higher degree than usual.
This was the essential difference between a common body part manifestation that was possible with a simple fortified soul conjunction and a true fusion of two beings.
With his scale armor being burned, Jason had to give his utmost efforts to leave the wolf's range, escaping the range of the lightning currents.
Only then was he finally able to take a deep breath before a faint smile emerged on his face.
His scales might have been burned, but that was not an injury worth mentioning.
Instead, the wolf's injury was much worse because it was a severe wound that worsened owing to Solaris' essence flame that was burning the wolf from the inside.
It took some time, but Jason was able to evade the wolf, whose speed was slowing down with time.
As such, once Solaris had devoured the wolf's lifeforce, while burning it from the inside, it succumbed to its injuries, leaving the severely burned Jason behind.
However, just a moment before the wolf died, Jason's charred scales fell to the ground, revealing his unscathed skin.
**
After facing the winged two-headed lightning wolf, Jason had become more careful about the opponents he had to face.
Luckily, he didn't have to face another beast, which allowed him to finish the first trial in merely half the given time.
This was mostly owing to the fact that he had burned the forest, while simultaneously avoiding the strongest beasts inside it.
It hadn't been necessary because the mutated wolf had been the strongest beast of the entire forest. It wasn't fearsome owing to its sole strength, but the extraordinarily strong and unique ability to fuse with its brethren was what made it a powerful opponent.
Because of that, Jason was glad that there hadn't been more beasts with a mutation, even less, a dangerous one like the winged lightning wolf had.
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