The hybrid of the Manticore and Dreadclaw Demon towered over the battlefield, its every step causing the ground to tremble beneath its weight.
The massive beast roared, sending a shockwave that knocked several creatures back, their senses jarred by the sheer force of the hybrid’s roar.
Technically, Ravi’s side was now fighting at a 5 against 4 numerical advantage. But many of his contracts were low on energy and injured, meanwhile the hybrid seemed to have had all of its energy restored and was now far more powerful than just a 1 + 1 increase.
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However, Ravi wasn’t going to just wait around for the powerful hybrid to defeat his contracts one by one.
Despite its immense size, the hybrid wasn’t slow and clumsy. In fact, its powerful muscles ensured that it was faster than either the manticore or demon were previously.
Limiting its movement was of paramount importance.
The Dawn Butterfly focused on creating intense flashes of light to disorient it. One con of heightened senses and abilities, is that the flashes were even more impactful.
Unable to see, the hybrid began to thrash and swing its tail around sporadically to ward off any approaching threats. While simultaneously it sent out blasts of heat— a casual brush with these blasts ended up incinerating a portion of the Dawn butterfly’s wing. Flapping frantically it was barely staying afloat, but it was only a matter of time before it’d be forced to withdraw.
The mantis attacked the manticore, but its flesh was tough to make a significant injury. They needed to find is weak spot —or make a weak spot themselves.
The Stone Scarab shifted the floor beneath its feet to further limit its movements.
With its movements restricted, the dark-attribute Spider got to work. The tatters of its webbed covering were now scattered all over the arena floor. Taking advantage of the ready made material, it quickly packaged its webs and reused them to quickly entwine them around key joints.
It began to spin with greater urgency, until a dense mass of cords was created at key joints of the hybrid. The hybrid, struggling against the webs, growled in frustration as the silken threads tightened around its massive limbs.
The Spider’s eyes gleamed with focus as it manipulated the threads to constrict more around the creature’s key joints, limiting its range of motion.
Meanwhile the Zephyrstrike Mantis and Vermis focused on warding off the other enemies.
The Vermix, its body crackling with stored lightning energy, darted into position above the hybrid’s head. The electric dragonfly zipped around its enormous form with blinding speed, charging its body with the raw power of an impending lightning strike. However, it was merely a feint.
When the Phoenix, circling overhead, released a series of scorching fireballs aimed directly at the Vermix to force it to halt its attack, it dodged and the fireballs happened to head straight for the hybrid’s back—which it was unable to see within all of the flashes of light surrounding it created by the Dawn butterfly.
The hybrid was forced it to shield its body as it sensed the approaching heat. And the flames from the Phoenix helped push the hybrid forward, momentarily unbalancing and distracting it further and making the spider’s job easier.
Simultaneously, the Demonwing Harpy dived toward the weakened Dawn Butterfly that was playing a pivotal role on the field, her sharp talons gleaming in the dim light.
She was fast and vicious, her screech tearing through the air as she rushed to catch the butterfly. But the Butterfly was ready. In a desperate bid for survival, it sent out a burst of dazzling light directly into its path disorienting and blinding the Harpy and forcing her to veer off course and collide with the hybrid.
Stunned, while on its ally’s back, the harpy soon found itself covered in a heap of threads the spider was reusing.
The Gargoyle, seeing the Harpy’s predicament, swooped in to try and tear the threads, its massive stone wings casting a shadow over the arena.
With a low, rumbling growl, it raised its stony fists, which glowed with molten energy, ready to strike. Vermix, still crackling with stored lightning energy, zipped through the air, launching bolts of electric energy at the Gargoyle. The creature swung one massive claw, deflecting the strikes with ease, but Vermix’s agility was more than enough to keep it from easily approaching its tied-up allies.
The Zephyrstrike Mantis, still positioned strategically, saw an opening. The Harpy, tangled in the Spider’s web and struggling to free herself, was completely vulnerable.
With blinding speed, the Mantis darted forward and, using its razor-sharp limbs, sliced at the parts of the Harpy’s exposed from the webbing. The Harpy screeched in pain as one of legs was cut almost to the bone.
Now, with the Gargoyle distracted by Vermix and the Harpy temporarily neutralized, the hybrid and phoenix were the last real threat on the field.
Despite its great strength, the hybrid was pinned down by the combined efforts of the Spider and Stone Scarab, disoriented by the Dawn Butterfly, and partially burned by its ally Phoenix’s flames.
The Dawn Butterfly, now at the edge of exhaustion but determined, released one final blinding pulse of light, flooding the battlefield with brilliance. The hybrid, unable to shield itself from the intense brightness, was blinded, its senses overwhelmed.
The Stone Scarab, using its last reserves of strength, caused the ground beneath the hybrid to collapse into a pit, the stone splitting open beneath its weight. With its movements severely restricted and its vision gone, the hybrid fell into the jagged pit, struggling and unable to rise as it was further entangled by the webbing.
With the hybrid now trapped in the pit, struggling against the webbing and disoriented by the overwhelming light, Ravi’s contracts had one final opportunity to strike. But they had little time. The Phoenix, sensing that its ally was on the verge of defeat, swooped down with a burst of flame. It screeched in fury, its wings leaving a trail of heat in the air as it spiralled toward the pit, intent on burning away all of the annoying threads.
The Gargoyle was still locked in combat with Vermix, its stone claws clashing with lightning bolts as the dragonfly darted in and out of reach. But the Gargoyle had grown frustrated, its stone muscles straining with the effort to corner the nimble creature. It swung its massive arm with the intention of crushing Vermix, but the electric dragonfly zipped out of the way, trailing arcs of lightning that caused the Gargoyle to stagger back in confusion. Vermix wasn’t concerned with the Gargoyle anymore—its focus was on the Phoenix.
The Phoenix, wings blazing, was bearing down on the pit where the hybrid was trapped. The Vermix dove toward the Phoenix, sending a surge of electricity onto the diving bird’s defenceless back.
The Phoenix screeched in pain, its fire momentarily sputtering as the lightning coursed through its body and paralyzed its movements. The Phoenix faltered, its wings flapping erratically as it tried to regain control, but the electrical charge pulsed through its feathers and caused it to hurtle to the ground like a comet—right on the head of its ally.
Knocked unconscious from its crash landing, the phoenix was recalled by Isolde.
The hybrid was also quite stunned from the collision and a blood wound appeared on its head with burnt edges. The Zephyrstrike Mantis took the opportunity to strike at the now bruised and tender spot on its head created by the phoenix.
Now only the gargoyle was left, while Ravi had 4 contracts still on the field—the Dawn butterfly having collapsed from exhaustion.
However, the Vermix’s lightning strikes were ineffective against its stone exterior, while its other allies were incapable of flight making it challenging for them to target the flying gargoyle.
Thankfully, at some point during its distracted chase with the Vermix, a single thread had managed to make its way around one of its wings. And at the other end of the thread was a sinister-looking spider that now sent the gargoyle careening to the ground against its will.
Although, it wasn’t yet injured, surrounded while being stared down at by 4 enemies, it already knew…it was over.