Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell dodged a green beam of light, and he was not sure of the affinity, as he tried to find an opening to attack. Blueberry and Felix, now sharing a body, were pushed back, as they simply couldn't pierce through the cave filled with mana beams.

All mushrooms around them were constantly firing beams, and the worst part was that other mushrooms were actually absorbing the missing ones to fire them once more. It was like they were stuck in a death trap.

Maxwell sent Bluberry a mental image of Felix's body covering his in the pandemonium. This way, he wouldn't need to think about their safety in the following fight. There was a moment as the crocodile stopped breathing iron dust around, stared at him, and it proceeded to move towards him, losing its stable shape.

Felix's body soon reached Maxwell as he shielded it with water shields from the bombardment. Maxwell wasn't very happy about the situation, as he could definitely see that Reverend Iridescent was channeling a stronger attack. He could see tens of thousands of mana move towards its cap. The amount of mana the mushroom could command was truly ridiculous.

The only reason Maxwell could fight back was his increased efficiency and absorption ability. He shuddered as Felix's body surrounded his, giving him a feeling of submerging inside something like mud, but it was still necessary.

He was lucky that he could make his mana ignore him, though, as he doubted that Felix would appreciate getting blasted whenever he unleashed an attack.

When their makeshift fusion was completed, Maxwell unleashed his duality, releasing a spherical wave of water mana, crushing the attacks around him. He was not sure why the mushroom's attacks were also weak against water, but he would question that later.

With the small window he bought himself, he created numerous projectiles around him. He made them in simple bullet shapes, albeit them being a lot bigger than usual bullets. Complex shapes would only limit his efficiency at the moment.

Around him, thousands of mana formed numerous constructs, and Maxwell added some decay mana too into the mix. He knew from before that the mana type was pretty effective against the mushrooms, so it couldn't hurt to use it now.

Constructs took a sickly blue color, and Maxwell started to move them, feeling a definite strain in his mind as he moved almost a hundred constructs on different trajectories. He ignored the strain and focused on making the constructs pierce through the mushrooms around him.

It was not hard to see that these were the source of the incredible mana the Reverend had, and he would first destroy them. Just in a second, with the help of Maxwell's dominion, almost three hundred mushrooms were pierced by the fast projectiles, but Maxwell was not untouched by what happened.

Drops of blood were falling down from his nose, his brain getting strained beyond understanding as he divided his mind into a hundred separate parts. Around him, the bullets of water mana moved in a symphony of violence, looking like they were fired by an army instead of a single person.

As he destroyed the mushroom, he could feel the mana channeling speed of the Reverend drop visibly, and this was all the motivation he needed to continue. Numerous beams struck his body, but his domain was still devouring them despite the incredible strain that was also putting on his soul. Felix and Blueberry were also blocking attacks, glowing green tentacles jumping from Maxwell's body.

Soon, his soul was starting to get too strained, and he was forced to stop his domain from devouring the energy around him. Still, the water duality and Felix's body allowed him to survive the barrage with progressively decreasing intensity. The water mana had been truly a game changer.

"You destroy the works of years, monkey." The Reverend said, a wave of violent mental energy radiating from the creature. It was apparent that it was intended as an attack, but Maxwell couldn't even register it with how busy he was.

The next moment, though his attention was immediately stolen by the Reverend, as whatever it was charging seemed to be ready. The barrage around the cave stopped, and Maxwell stared at the creature with morbid expectation.

Will it fire a bigger beam now? He thought sarcastically. While the power level of the mushroom was insane, its creativity was surely lacking. Though he supposed a mushroom being intelligent enough to communicate was impressive enough.

The next second, something completely out of his expectations happened. The mushrooms around the walls and on the ground vibrated as if they were being pulled out of the walls. Immediately after, they were launched toward the Reverend, and Maxwell watched in fascination as the crystalline bodies of the remaining mushrooms fused into it, flowing slowly, losing their shape.

"While I'm far from your pet in this aspect, let's even this battle a bit." A mental wave arrived, and with a deafening sound, the Reverend Iridescent lifted itself up from where it had stood for years. Maxwell watched as the creature got up, pushing itself up with newly made crystalline hands, on its new legs with the same nature.

Formerly being only 30 meters, now the real body of the mushroom was completely indiscernible, and now it stood at almost 60 meters, its height reaching the roof of the cave. The figure grabbed a section of the wall, and with a surge of earth and fire mana, the rock piece was suddenly aflame before it chucked it towards Maxwell.

Maxwell formed a blade of water before him, fusing some of the bullets from before. He sliced the makeshift meteor with the blade, its two sections flying by him. It seemed that water was a surprisingly good element for cutting.

Just after he sliced through the attack, he was assaulted with a fist the size of his body coming directly behind the rock. Feeling a bit brave, he punched against the fist with his own, releasing a wave of water mana with the attack.

The impact was surprisingly evenly matched, the fist getting pushed back almost a meter, but due to the sheer size difference, Maxwell was pushed back almost a hundred meters. He could stop himself only by sliding on the ground for some meters. This, though, was hardly a bad thing, as he could play the Reverend's game, too.

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The new area he was pushed to still had some fresh mushrooms, so he commanded.

Gather

A mental wave exploded from him, the mana in the environment around him obeying. The mana inside his dominion obeyed, mushrooms withering around him as they lost their mana due to the command. Soon, a multicolored mana ball floated before him.

He focused and started to create his biggest construct. He divided the mass into two, and they flowed onto his body to form gloves. The amount of mana was almost ten times his own pool, and the effort he was putting into the task was immense. But at this point, his mind was simply numb to the strain it was feeling.

"So you have some mana now? You won't beat me with those affinities, though," the Reverend said, and it turned one of its palms up, a ball of multicolored mana forming above it. Maxwell watched as a core of rock slowly formed in the center of the mana mass, before it was covered with lightning and fire, turning the rock into lava immediately.

"You are an interesting human, but your mana lacks physicality," the Reverend said, and the newly created attack was launched at him like a small sun. Maxwell smiled, hearing the creature. He supposed he couldn't explain that the system was not helping him create that "physicality" like others when it came to him.

He took a deep breath and pictured small needles piercing through his hand on the gloves he was wearing. Yes, he still couldn't create matter with his skills, but this didn't mean that he wouldn't find ways around.

He infused himself with life mana, a new mana type working many times better than the blood mana from before, and his blood rushed through the small needles he injected himself with through the gauntlets. He controlled the blood with his telekinesis, roughly forming the shape of a blade before trying something.

He created an overlapping construct out of water mana; after all, blood itself was mostly made of water. The skill worked without problems, and the water mana connected with the blood smoothly. Soon, a shining blade of blood floated in the air, Maxwell not even needing his telekinesis to control the blade.

The blade moved with an amazing speed, piercing through the Reverend's attack without even losing any energy before continuing on its way towards it. The life mana duality replenished Maxwell's blood with an astounding speed as he pulled more and more out of his body.

The Reverend shattered the blade of blood with a punch covered by a rocky layer, but its fist gained a visible gash in the process. Maxwell smiled seeing this. Using his domain, he absorbed some of the mana in the gauntlet, turning it back to pure mana. With the new mana, he created even more water constructs around him, his blood eerily flowing from him to the constructs.

Soon, ten identical blades of mana floated around him. Maxwell reinforced the connection of the blood by injecting a bit of blood mana into the blades and launched them from different trajectories towards the Reverend Iridescent.

The tables have turned for a moment as the reverend glanced at the ten different projectiles, trying to devise a way to block them. In the end, two blades were destroyed by the remaining mushrooms firing beams, and 3 of them were destroyed as the Reverend itself attacked them with light beams, but the remaining five reached the creature without interruptions.

To its credit, the Reverend Iridescent was much more agile than its size would suggest. For a few seconds, it looked like it would manage to dodge the projectiles, but unfortunately for the creature, these constructs were controlled by Maxwell. Immediately after missing, they turned unnaturally, attacking the creature once more.

Reverend responded by punching the first two constructs, its right hand turning into a mangled mess immediately. Its other arm, on the other hand, was cut off by two blades striking it one after another.

With the last one, Maxwell targeted the "neck" of the creature, but it moved at the last moment, making it connect with its trunk. The figure stumbled back, two of its limbs missing. There was nothing fluid in the form, no blood, and no organic fluids dripping. When it came to water, the lifeforms in this world were completely sterile from what Maxwell could see. Even the liquid forms of other types of matter were nonexistent.

The Reverend, seeing that it managed to survive the blades, rushed to Maxwell. It was apparent that it didn't want to be surrounded by attacks once more. As it moved, the remaining mushrooms around them flew to its form, slowly regenerating the figure's arm. The creature stopped speaking, as it was now completely serious, truly fighting for its life.

The creature reached Maxwell soon, but he smiled. Before him, a weird-looking construct extended from his gauntlet, shaped like a barrel. The front part of it was filled with blood construct. The Reverend stood only a few meters away from Maxwell now, but he seemed oddly carefree.

"Check-mate," he said, and gave command to the inner part of his gloves. He had changed the configuration of mana a bit, and the insides were now completely filled with lightning and fire mana, forming something like a makeshift rifle.

Explode

The command was received with eagerness by the gauntlet. Maxwell enhanced the outer parts of the gloves with metal mana, and a dull sound of a contained explosion echoed through the cave.

The blood construct was immediately shattered into small parts by the explosion, but Maxwell kept the smaller parts whole, forcefully. They were ejected with a speed much faster than anything he had created before, and even his senses lost them immediately.

The trunk of the Reverend Iridescent exploded in a shower of mushroom gore. The makeshift shotgun shells pierced through the Reverend like it was made of butter. Despite its size, the creature was launched back due to the force, landing on its back a short distance away.

Maxwell, meanwhile, was experiencing something similar, as he learned not to attach a weapon like that to his body again. There were no intact bones in his right arm, and he was still flying with a dizzying speed toward the wall.

The inevitable impact came, Maxwell infusing his body with even more life. His body cleanly pierced through the wall of the cavern, and after moving through the sand almost a hundred meters, he managed to stop himself.

If all of his mental functions still depended on his brain, he was pretty sure he would be dead now. He checked his status to see his health standing at an amazing 20. It immediately started climbing up due to the amount of life mana and his soul attribute, but it was still a scary moment.

Almost all of his bones were ground into dust, and most of his organs looked like mush to his senses. He grabbed his body with telekinesis and duality, moving it back toward the cave. Felix's body was luckily more resilient than he was, so it was wriggling back into shape without problems. At this point, Maxwell was unsure what could even harm the dog considerably.

He entered the cave and found the Iridescent Mushroom trying to get up. It was apparent that the creature was on its last legs, as it was not doing a very good job, but it was still respectable for it to survive such an attack.

"You can't be a human. Creature, just who are you?" A tired voice flowed into Maxwell's mind.