Merchant Of Yliaster

There was a telepathic silence for a few seconds, the only sound in the cavern being Felix's soft growls. Even the dog seemed to understand that the being before them was dangerous. Maxwell observed the creature.

Reverend Iridescent - Level - 57

It was good news that the creature was not very deep into tier 3, but this somehow didn't put Maxwell more at ease.

After getting over his surprise, Maxwell sent a reply to the creature. "Shergoth?" he said, curious about what or who it was. He was not surprised that a mushroom would not like humans, as they were not known for their environmentally friendly nature.

Something like surprise radiated from the mushroom. "You don't even know Shergoth? The one who comes with the dawn?" It asked.

"You mean the sun?" Maxwell was confused. The heat was surely very high, but he didn't think it was enough to destroy a civilization. Destroying a human civilization was a lot harder than one would think, as even a couple of thousand surviving on a distant land would be able to recreate the race from scratch.

"Oh, you are one of the outsiders, I see. Your power made me take you for a local. I see how you would fail to understand the situation, as you arrived here in winter," the mushroom explained.

"This is winter?" Now it was a different matter. If winter were this hot, he couldn't imagine what summer would be like. With a climate like that, it was no surprise that there were no living organisms on the surface.

"Indeed. But that is an unimportant matter for now. We both know that you are here to fight me, or maybe you are arrogant enough to think you can hunt me like prey. Let us start at once." The mushroom sent Maxwell.

Immediately, Maxwell's eyes widened as an insane amount of mana condensed suddenly on the body of the mushroom. His senses screamed, and he listened to them.

With a mana explosion from his hand, he was immediately launched to the side, and in the next moment, the place he used to stand evaporated as a pillar of fire and light consumed it.

The shockwave pushed Maxwell further away, while Felix, too, was flung away like a ball. The dog punctured a few mushrooms, skidded across the ground, and came to a halt almost 50 meters away. Even though the landing looked rough, the dog seemed to be doing fine. He shook his body, scattering some dust.

Maxwell immediately formed around two dozen small shields around him, as he was not optimistic about the lifespan of individual shields. He formed them with runes inside, but he left them uninfused.

He was pretty sure the previous element was a fused or merged one, as he could see light and fire mana radiating from the explosion. He was pretty sure he could manage to form this element, but definitely not fast enough to use it in battle like this.

His shields formed fast, but the mushroom was even faster to attack. A horizontal blade of wind was shot by the mushroom, and Maxwell immediately infused himself with wind, launching upwards to dodge the attack.

"You have wind affinity. Inconsequential." The Reverend sent and launched a red lightning bolt towards Maxwell.

The speed of the bolt was too much for Maxwell to infuse himself with lightning mana in time, but even if he could, he doubted that the attack was purely made of lightning.

With a sound of thunder and sizzling flesh, Maxwell was launched back as he got on his chest. He struck a wall, causing a deafening sound as he was embedded in the rock. He hissed with pain; his chest was completely burned.

Before Maxwell could move, he was alarmed to see a blue beam of light charging at the mushroom. In the next second, though, Reverend Iridescent was suddenly covered with a growing green mass, as Felix chose this moment to attack.

Felix rapidly surrounded the giant body of the mushroom, but even his body started to run thin in some places due to the incredible amount of matter he was creating.

Maxwell finally managed to pull himself out of the wall he was launched to, and started to float towards the mushroom.

He got closer, his mind working at full speed as his newly created shields started to form different couples. He stacked them on top of each other, trying to counter the fusion that the mushroom was using.

As he was busy with his constructs, a pulse of mana radiated from the mushroom, and Felix was thrown back. Immediately, a scorching heat wave was released from the mushroom, Maxwell barely managing to shield himself with a fire and wind shield in time.

Felix landed on the ground with a splash, and his formless body immediately started to move, forming his usual self again.

"You have a peculiar body and an even more peculiar pet, human." Reverend Iridescent sent, and Maxwell could once again feel a wave of mana condense.

This time, though, the mushroom attacked differently, as numerous beams of different types were launched from the surrounding mushrooms as if they were a part of the creature.

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Maxwell strained his awareness as he tried to block what he could with the shields while he dodged the others by flying. Even then, he was forced to pick an affinity to tank, as there were simply too many beams.

This won't do, he thought, and decided to do something interesting.

Devour

He commanded his dominion, imagining the time he fought with Drakhabgar's vestige. A green field immediately radiated from him, and the few beams that managed to pierce through his shields dissolved in it like they were something harmless.

"Truly peculiar, indeed," the creature mumbled. Maxwell could immediately feel a weight in his soul after using the skill in that way, so he stopped it.

As he considered what he could do, a green streak suddenly passed by, startling Maxwell. Blueberry?

The bird slammed right into Felix, and there was a brief moment on the battlefield in which everyone watched to see what would happen.

The next moment, a green light pulsed briefly on the dog's body, and Felix exploded into a mass of tentacles before condensing once more, this time glowing visibly with a crystalline green light.

Maxwell's eyes widened as the mass took shape once more. Now, the iron crocodile he killed weeks ago stood before him.

"A shapeshifter? No, your transformation is too-" the mushroom's thought was cut in half, as the crocodile suddenly pierced through the air like a torpedo, whirling around itself like a drill.

Maxwell smiled as the mushroom took its first damage in the fight, its trunk getting a gash as the crocodile was immediately pushed back by a wave of wind mana.

"No manners, too," Reverend Iridescent said, and mana moved. It turned into individual streams that could be seen by regular eyes before surging into the creature's cap.

The giant cap of the mushroom gave a multicolored light, mirrored by all the mushrooms around it, and Maxwell did only the thing that his instincts told him to do.

His shields flew back to him, fusing so that he would be covered with a spherical shield. He changed his duality to darkness and released it to fill the sphere.

Just when he was done, the reason for his alarm arrived. All the mushrooms around him, along with Reverend Iridescent, fired individual beams, the cavern suddenly getting covered by numerous beams of different colored light.

Maxwell's shields lasted almost a second under the incredible assault, and the darkness welcomed the beams, immediately starting to get disintegrated by the concentration of energy outside.

Devour

Maxwell, commanded once more, but this time, even his soul space modified by etherium quaked as it tried to absorb the immense amount of mana.

Maxwell, though, had something different in his mind. His dominion devoured the elemental mana, but he could see that his pure mana was increasing as Etherium seemed to purify it somehow.

He pushed the new mana into darkness, hoping to last long enough for Blueberry and Felix to do something to stop the ridiculous barrage.

Darkness propagated, and it kept trying to absorb the mana and disintegrate, as two forces fueled by each other fought.

Soon, there was a sound Maxwell couldn't describe; it was like metal grinding on a hard surface, but it was like millions of pieces doing the same thing at the same time.

A second after the noise, the barrage stopped, and a tired Maxwell landed on the ground, glancing at the mushroom to see what was happening.

Iron Crocodile was still in the same spot as it was before, but Maxwell couldn't understand what he was seeing for a moment.

The crocodile's mouth was open, and it was breathing something like sand into the mushroom. No, metal dust? He realized.

The attack seemed to be effective, as the mushroom was covered with a layer of fire, showing that Reverend Iridescent could also create elements. It seemed to enjoy using beams made of mana more, though.

The fire was instantly melting the cloud of iron as molten metal was piling on the ground before the mushroom, but it was apparent from a cavity on the mushroom's cap that this was a delayed protection against the attack.

2-0, Maxwell thought. While he certainly made the creature waste an insane amount of mana, he still didn't manage to hurt it, while Blueberry did it twice.

"You survived? How do you even fit so many affinities in a frame so fragile?" The fire flowed like it was liquid, and after focusing on the spot getting hit by the breath attack, it responded in kind by suddenly turning into a tide.

The breath attack was immediately demolished, and Maxwell pulled the iron crocodile with telekinesis before it was swallowed by the storm of fire.

The tide, though, immediately followed, and Maxwell flew towards the crocodile before creating a shield made out of water mana before them.

There was no water in the air to condense, but the shield still formed out of mana, and Maxwell mentally slapped an amplification rune on it to make it stronger.

While he could use fire mana, he was a bit sick of his shields getting destroyed by fused elements, so he made the shield itself a lot stronger this time.

The fire impacted the shield, and Maxwell was forced to make the shield cover their back as the Reverend attacked from his blind spot with beams, too.

The shield, though, seemed oddly effective, as the attacks dissolved quickly whenever they touched the shield made of water mana. He could even see the mushrooms around them dying off like they were suddenly poisoned.

"You have water affinity? How?" Reverend Iridescent sent, and Maxwell was surprised to feel that the message was tinted with a feeling of fear. He was not sure why having a water affinity was so unbelievable, but that was a thought for another time.

He smiled, finally seeing a way to win this fight. "So, water is your weak point?" he asked the creature as he immediately changed his duality to water mana. The effect was instant. He touched a mushroom, and he could see it wither like it was touched by a horrible poison.

"You.. you don't even understand. Water affinity is prohibited here. Even if you have it, you should be unable to harness it, yet… I don't understand," Reverend Iridescent said, before continuing. "Then let us have another contest of strength, rulebreaker," the mushroom said, and pandemonium followed.