The Goddess' Champion

Constantine could no longer place his gaze on the mighty Ape, but he sensed the movement spread in the form of a soft wave on the lake.

The Ape raised its head, slightly disoriented; its focus switched time and time again as if regaining itself after a deep slumber, lifting his paw he noticed it wet.

*GROWL*

A soft growl of confusion was released as it lifted up completely to see the entire cave flooded as eternal darkness encroached the place; if not for the bright light emitted from the tree of certainty, it wouldn't be able to see anything, a contradiction as there was usually a brief light coming from the cave's entrance product of reflection.

Each movement shook the environment, monstrous size with an unmistakable white mane; using its four legs it moved forward yet failed to find the entrance of the cave and that was when it noticed something was wrong.

The ape growled yet again before Constantine -still sinking beneath the water- heard it, a voice and not any voice, a female voice.

"SOME RAT IS PLAYING A LITTLE JOKE." The voice was grave yet feminine and filled with mock, 'she' turned around and those eyes shone with wrath and perhaps even some desire.

The desire to play with prey, only a confident predator could hold such a gaze against an unknown foe.

!!!

'It speaks!' That was his first reaction, and it was a serious blow to his scheme.

That's just something he didn't want to know; as soon as the plan began, an unexpected factor didn't fit properly with his plans. The Ape's intelligence... gone was his intention to be furtive;  throttling up as much potency as he could out of his cores, water began filling up this place the same way he had done before against the cult, but this time at least twice as fast due to his breakthrough!

*WHOOSH!!*

From the slight brightness, the Ape noticed a sudden wave crashing with strength against her body, the water went from barely covering her paws to engulfing her entire bottom in mere seconds!

"BASTARD! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!?" The Ape cursed loudly still with that grumpy voice.

'She' readied herself and extended her hand back then shot it forward like an arrow.

A single fist from this monstrous creature was enough to let him know the peril he had placed himself in.

*BOOOOMMMMM!!!---

The wave was blown apart, creating a catastrophic shockwave; it crashed against the cave's walls, destroying and causing debris and dust madly, the wave went through Constantine's body like two metal swords colliding and made him spit blood he didn't know which but one of his organs suffered a great deal of damage, he could only exhale the oxygen that was being produced in his lungs in disbelief.

'It didn't even hit me what kind of monster is this!?' The danger of this endeavour had just increased to ridiculous proportions, but it was too late to abort, if he crawled inside the soil now, her fists would create a greater deal of damage than in the water.

[1st Ether Magic Core (Water): 39%]

[2nd Ether Magic Core (Water): 42%]

[3rd Ether Magic Core (Wind): 20%]

[4th Ether Magic Core (Water): 52%]

It wasn't looking good!

The ape growled once again and looked back and forth up and fro, anywhere; she hunted for the origin of the water which was likely to be the location of the little bastard, her punches wouldn't do anything, the water splashed everywhere but it kept taking the space, the water was being created at such speed that it went from covering her legs to covering her entire lower body in a matter of half a minute.

This whole place would be flooded in less than ten minutes at this pace!

And that was not something she could take lightly.

"LISTEN, LITTLE RAT... SHOW YOURSELF AND I'LL GIVE YOU A PAINLESS DEATH!" Her threatening voice shook the place almost as much as her fists.

The silence was what received her threat producing a dangerous smirk, she still felt confident that the moment she knew where the rat was hiding, everything would be finished.

"VERY WELL, YOU CHOOSE SUFFERING!"

*RUMBLE!!!*

The ape stood in her two feet and had her arms extended only to fiercely clash them the next second!

<INSATIABLE HUNGER!>

A red aura started to leak through the Ape's body, every single pore; like flowing magma. The water slowly but surely began to boil! It was insane, the temperature increased and when her eyes opened they were shining, it was a ridiculous monster.

He didn't even know at this stage if this was merely an Ape belonging to Sandoria or if thanks to his damned karma he just happened to have an encounter with yet another ridiculous 'High-God' in which case, then he was surely fucked since there is no way a 'High-God' would ever die by something as ridiculous as drowning.

That was a good sign since he could tell the Ape was concerned now.

...

The temperature continued to increase as if she wasn't yet showing out her best potential, even then, the volume of water totally dwarfed whatever heat the Ape was producing, if her purpose was to boil down the water, she could try something else.

Alas, that wasn't her intention.

Her eyes moved to a corner and that grown mouth twisted into a deranged grin.

"THERE YOU ARE, LITTLE CAT!~" Her voice contained wickedness albeit surprise, but in any case, as much as she was concerned, this individual was already a corpse, werelion or not.

!!!!

'She found me!?'

The werelion hybrid could believe she was merely bluffing, a cheap tactic used by a desperate beast to make her foe crawl out of its den. But he felt that killing intent! perhaps due to his now switched race of a Lion, he felt it... a bigger predator looking at him with the intent of devouring!

Constantine didn't stop to think whether it was merely a trap or not, as fast as possible he switched the position of his hands that were still producing water madly, and impulses himself outwards!

*WHOOOSH!!*

And thanks to the goddess Aurelianne that he did!

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!--------

Another fist was thrown, another shockwave barraging his body, and the place he had been at was blasted apart, leaving a massive hole in the cave!

"LITTLE WEAZEL, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN SURVIVE FOR LONG!?" The ape said that still a little awed that her first fist had been evaded, but the water was already reaching her neck, what had been previously confidence had swiftly turned into cautiousness.

There wasn't the worst place for her to fight than this cave, encased, filled with water and without a single wisp of light, the tree of certainty had already sunk inside the water, this was the worst place for her to fight a foe, let alone this 'ant' wasn't just any ant, it was a disgustingly annoying ant!

'THIS BASTARD SET ME UP GOOD!' She couldn't believe to have fallen into this dire situation while asleep, this is clearly a magus, a strong one in fact to create this much volume, a crafty bastard, his intentions unknown; for now, he wanted her death, that much she could tell.

This scheme also portrayed his weakness, if he needed to drown her in order to defeat her, then his strength was apparent.

Constantine took advantage, he kept moving like a rocket across the cave, underwater; using the impulse to keep himself away from her fists believing that her vision wouldn't be as effective, sadly... that killing intent never left his body, thankfully he could create his own air for his lung's usage, otherwise, that would have been enough to leave him breathless!

'Dammit!'

He knew his cores wouldn't last longer than with this output of water magic, filling it up to this extent was already a feat of marginal proportions, but it wasn't quite enough, there was still twenty per cent left of the cave of fill!

The problem wasn't really his cores, the problem was whether he could stay alive until then while being directly locked by this Ape!

No doubt a fist of that creature would kill him if the mere shockwaves were already causing so much damage.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!----------

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!----------

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!----------

One after the other, she kept throwing punches, accurate toward him as if she knew where he was going to be, but the water did a great job in erasing most of the strength that the fist possessed and also, speed if this was the surface, not even his corpse would remain by now.

But Constantine saw light when the agitated ape finally sank completely into the water, there was no longer room for her to breathe!

She didn't bother growling and wasting her oxygen, instead, frantically punched the walls, again and again, hoping to create a hole from where air would come from and that's precisely what he wanted to see!

For several seconds those shockwaves caused him heavy damage but who cares? the plate is served!

When she saw that there was no possibility of that, however... her eyes went mad!

'I CAN'T BELIEVE A LITTLE RAT IS GOING TO END MY LIFE... LIKE THIS... ONE OF THE SAGES! BUT YOU'RE COMING WITH ME!! I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO LIVE, LITTLE BASTARD!'

Everything lost, the Ape went with everything against Constantine, he could only hope that her oxygen would finish in the next few minutes, by now his mere will kept him moving, he was sure something was wrong with his body, those shockwaves had popped off something and he felt awkward and hurt, but that didn't matter, this was the last line and the bet had paid off!

'I can get the tree and this ape's corpse!' The berserk desire to get a nice bite out of that Ape's neck kept coming with endless temptation, a single bloody bite with enough flesh to boast a conquer!

*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!----------

Her fists were like an earthquake, if this cave wasn't so deep inside that rock from earlier, so down inside the earth, no doubt her fists would have already destroyed this place, creating a huge crater, but the pressure from the soil above was too much even for her strength, she knew she was doomed.

'NOOOOO!!!'

When she felt her last string of oxygen, the ape started to shiver while Constantine smiled wickedly, finally... his cores were depleted, a mere 10% capacity, that was literally nothing, hopefully, it would be enough to crawl his way out of this cave through the soil using flora magic, but with the depths of this pit, even that was within question.

The Ape shook pitifully, asphyxiating and giving a conclusion to his plans, regarding this man with wrath and reluctance.

Constantine bit his lips harshly, she looked pitiful indeed but such is the law of the forest, you kill or get killed and he needed this tree.

*GROWWLLLLL!!!!*

It was then that he saw the Ape's body start to shine in berserk red colours, bubbles of boiling water surged, increasing the temperature of this place immensely.

He didn't know what was happening but it didn't look good, usually, Zebellia would give some input by now, but she was apparently still asleep.

When he saw this place get so hot, his instincts screamed at him for something.

'RUN!'

But where could he run?! this was a prison, no more and no less!

Using his earth magic he began creating a cocoon of sorts, he didn't know what she was doing, but whatever it was, he needed to protect himself!

Before the cocoon was created, however, all of the strength of this Ape was let loose.

<SACRIFICIAL SOUL!>

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!--------------

Like an exploding volcano, this fight reached a conclusion.