The bear-like beast was Gaia's guardian animal, Artio.
This was the help that the high priestess had offered to Emery.
Since Nimue was unable to personally give him a hand, she offered to have Artio help him instead. Back then, Emery created a stone formation inside the shrine, ensuring he would be able to create a spatial gate for an emergency such as this.
The beast rammed the unprepared magus and pinned him to the ground.
ROAAARRRRR!!!
Artio fiercely swung his claws toward the magus. Each swing was without restraint, each of them created a small tremor to the ground, taking not only the magus aback.
BAM!!! BAM!!!
Without much effort, Artio was able to hold the magus down, continuously cornering him with barrages of attacks one after another.
As much as Emery wanted to just follow suit in attacking the magus, with his current condition, he would probably only hinder the guardian beast's movements instead.
Even so, he understood this chance was not something he should waste. Without wasting any time, he sat on a lotus position and prepared himself, quickly using [Nature Grasp] and fully concentrating to fill his emptied spirit core.
On the other hand, Klea, who was observing the situation, stood on guard next to him, observing the fight between the high-level guardian beast and the magus.
At this point, the magus was already bleeding from the beast's violent claws.
Due to the pain and the amount of blood he lost thanks to this beast, the magus was beginning to find it very difficult to simply stand.
In an attempt to find some leeway, the magus cast [Gravitational Push] at the guardian beast, pushing the beast away from him. However, despite how powerful his gravity spell was, it was only able to push the huge Artio a few meters away, allowing the beast to immediately charge at him once again once the short spell duration ended.
With Artio relentlessly charging at him again, Hades was forced to go back to defensively dodge without a chance of counterattacking.
"Damn you!!!" Gritting his teeth, the magus shouted in rage with his eyes still on the guardian beast.
Emery initially did not know how strong Artio, a high-level guardian beast, was compared to a magus. Now from witnessing the guardian beast overpower the magus with such ease, he finally knew.
[Hell Flame]
The magus swiftly cast the tier 5 fire spell and launched it at Artio. The black fire burned the beast's fur upon contact, causing the beast to roar. However, to the surprise of both Hades and Emery, the fire was quickly extinguished and, once again, Artio swung its claws at the disbelieving magus.
"Damn you!! Damn you all!!"
Blood splattered as Artio's heavy claw attack smashed Hades' body, flinging his bloodied body back.
Seeing this, not only did Klea not feel bad for the opponent at all, but she could not hold back her laughter from escaping her mouth.
"To the left! Yes! To the right! Yes, go Artio!"
She even went as far as cheering to enrage the enemy even more.
The magus tried his hardest to run away and keep his distance from the beast, but Artio did not give him any chance. The guardian beast roared as it kept pushing close to the magus.
The gravity spell was not strong enough to hold Artio down and the fire spell was ineffective to the beast's fur, so how could Hades not feel frustrated?
"We might not need to fight again. At this rate, Artio could probably finish him," Klea remarked as she watched the fight.
Hearing her say such a thing, Emery could not help but cast a glance at the fight.
When he looked at the one-sided beating, he was instantly dumbfounded. If he had known Artio was this strong, he would have gotten Artio to deal with this guy from the very beginning!
It was just that Emery was unsure if he could create a portal strong enough for the guardian beast to pass through his gate.
After countless attacks from the guardian beast, Hades was finally able to distance himself. Finally getting his chance, Hades shouted before putting a black pill into his mouth.
"I will not accept such humiliation!"
In that instant, the magus became brimming with power once again. He raised the strange-looking staff in his hand, and following that, a black sphere formed around him, engulfing both him and Artio. Artio tried to go through the sphere to get out, but the guardian beast was abruptly stopped.
[Gravity Prison].
Both the magus and the beast were inside the black sphere, however, this time, Artio was stuck shivering inside. The beast was unable to release itself.
Looking down at the beast with contempt, the magus raised his staff and touched Artio's head with it.
"You shall pay with your life force!"
Emery was taken out of his concentration when he heard Artio roaring in pain.
As if due to reflex from hearing Artio's roar, Klea quickly threw [Gungnir] flying toward the magus. With her throw, the lightning spear charged like a fierce thunderbolt.
BAMM!!!
It was such a powerful attack from a tier 3 weapon, and yet, it only managed to enter the sphere halfway.
Seeing Klea's spear failing to enter his sphere, Hades loudly laughed.
"Hahahahah! This is my ultimate defense! Your pitiful weapon won't be able to pierce through!"
The magus continued to push his staff toward Artio's forehead, causing the beast to roar in pain once again.
Noticing how hard the beast's body was trembling, Emery felt something wrong.
If this is one of those life-sucking skills, then...
Artio was in danger.
"Emery, we need to help him quickly!" Klea said in panic, when she heard Artio's horrific roar, her voice slightly louder and trembling.
Emery furrowed his brows. He was not ready. He needed a little more time to accumulate enough for his shaman transformation.
"I need a little more time."
But Klea was impatient. Unable to stay still any longer, she quickly flew toward the lightning bird that was still hovering in the air.
Klea cast her powerful [Storm Haze] and was able to use her spirit animal power to recharge and enhance her thunderbolt attack. Multiple continuous thunderbolts rapidly slammed to where the dark sphere was.
BAM!!! BAM!!!
The violent sound was proof of how powerful the thunder strikes were, yet they could only cause the sphere to tremble and not break it down.
The guardian beast's body started to shiver, as its face distorted from the excruciating pain. But this time, Artio did not roar in pain any longer. The guardian beast was dying.
Seeing this, even Emery could not hold himself back any longer. Without delaying another moment, he stood up and began his transformation.
With his transformation into his shaman form, his facial features started to change and the tattoo once again gleamed all over his body.
From what he could tell from seeing Klea's tier 3 artifact being ineffective against the sphere, Emery knew that his moon dagger would most likely face the same problem.
Emery opened both of his palms, and right after, shadow energy began to swivel on them.
He cast his strongest offensive spell, [Dark Matter], with his enhanced spell power from the shaman transformation into two powerful balls of dark matter.
He dashed toward the sphere while channeling the spell on his two palms into its maximum force.
"Arrrggghhh!!"
Emery pushed the balls of [Dark Matter] into Hades' sphere with all his strength.
KABOOM!!!
Those two were the strongest from a spell he had ever made. And yet, it only managed to create a small crack on the sphere's surface.
Unwilling to give up just like that, Emery took out the moon dagger and pierced it at the crack, hoping it would break open.
Clank!! Clank!! Clank!!
With his grip on the moon dagger tightened, Emery repeatedly swung the dagger. However, in the middle of swinging the dagger, he realized as the moon was already gone, the dagger had also lost its power. It was only able to create a few almost unnoticeable scratches on the sphere. At the same time, he could hear the beast even starting to very weakly whimper, its voice getting weaker and weaker.
He kept slashing over and over again, but still to no avail.
"No!! No!! LET HIM GO!!!"
Although Emery's incessant attacks could not break the sphere, they still irritated Hades.
"You annoying brat!!" Hades shouted as he used his other hand to push Emery with his gravity spell.
Emery was quickly thrown back a few meters and to the ground. He could even feel the taste of blood in his throat due to the impact.
Emery stood up again, desperate. He had no way of breaking Hades' defense.
Even so, he could not stop! Emery once again prepared himself to attack when he heard someone shout his name from behind.
As he turned toward the direction of the voice, he saw a knight on a horse dashing with the morning sun rising behind him. When the two made eye contact, the knight immediately threw an object toward him.
It was a gleaming sword, shining in brilliance. A sword he had seen before even in his vision. The moment he caught the sword, he heard a voice speak into his mind.
"Wield me."
Firmly gripping the sword hilt, Emery used all the strength he had left into one heavy swing. He could feel the sword itself brimming with power, and...
Swish—
The wind rang as the sword swung.. The dark sphere was easily cut open like butter.