Chapter 684 (Patreon)

With no reason to delay any further Ajax and Aurexion flew above the elemental where Ajax tossed the flask into the air and smashed it letting the mixture splash down on the magma elemental below.

“It’s working.” Ajax called out as a large amount of steam was forcefully expelled from the elemental body as the outer layer of magma was being rapidly cooled. 

One thing Ajax hadn;t accounted for however was how much steam would be released or how hot that steam would be. Even with his high resistance to heat there was no reason to risk burning himself by diving straight through the steam cloud. 

“What the…” As they dove from the sky to approach the elemental from the side Ajax was surprised by what he found. 

“Should have seen this coming.” Aurexion muttered feeling disappointed in both himself and Ajax for not having even considered this outcome. “It did start out as a swamp elemental after all. 

The large crust of cooled rock that formed on the outside of the elemental was being pulled inside to the center of the elemental where the heat from the core and the rest of the body would slowly melt it down once more. This wasn’t the usual behaviour of a magma elemental but was typical for a swamp elemental when it started to absorb more water. 

Elementals might not have been sentient but that didn’t mean they were stupid, especially once their levels passed one hundred. The reason magma elementals almost never pulled in the cooled parts of their body was because of the high viscosity of the magma, during combat pulling in large solid pieces was a slow process and could cause issues when trying to move their core.

“Too bad I don’t have Ice Mana.” Aurexion grumbled as he flew towards the elemental ready to engage. 

Ajax couldn’t help but agree with his bond. If Aurexion had Ice Mana, his [Dragon’s Breath] would have been enough to let them destroy at least half of the elemental’s body, depending on where the core was when they attacked it could have let the dragon one shot the elemental despite its increased strength. 

Just because their original plan hadn’t worked out the way they had wanted didn’t mean that Aurexion and Ajax didn’t have a plan however. They were prepared to fight the elemental even if the potion wasn’t effective at all so it cooling down a decent portion of the elemental’s body was already a small advantage. 

As Aurexion flew towards the elemental Ajax pulled out his bow and arrow and started infusing an Ice arrow. Three hundred Mana used to be a fair amount for Ajax to infuse in a single use on short notice but since [Absolute Body Enhancement] had been moving a lot of Mana through his body in short and longer bursts he didn’t feel any issues as he released his arrow. 

As soon as he fired his arrow Ajax also jumped off his bond’s neck as they were within a hundred feet of the elemental. Without Ajax on his neck any more Aurexion had the freedom to twist his body mid air putting all of his momentum into a tail swipe aimed directly at the point the arrow struck. 

The massive release of ice Mana solidified a portion a horse sized chunk of the element’s body, since it did so through the use of Ice Mana no steam was released and Aurexion tail made clean contact smashing the rock to bits while also throwing it away from the elemental’s body. 

With the first blow struck Ajax was already able to see the differences between this elemental and the ifrit while also making note of the influences the ifrit’s core had made. The influence was clearly seen in the odd shape the elemental took choosing to copy the scorpion like body, once some of its mass had been removed it actually started to shrink in while refilling the missing area. 

The difference however was that while the elemental had a natural inclination to maintain that shape it was not essential to its existence as it had been for the ifrit. Instead of using its tain as a stinger the elemental used it as a whip as it copied Aurexion’s attack and struck the dragon in the side. 

Having been airborne Aurexion had nothing to use for stability following his tail swipe so the return attack from the elemental sent him crashing into the ground where he took out more than a few trees.

“I’ll take out its tail, get ready to move it away from here.” Ajax called out after a brief moment where he made sure the blow didn’t do any serious damage to his bond.

From such a close range Ajax was already using [Mana Syphon] to slowly drain the elemental of Mana while also boosting his own physical prowess, he didn’t activate [Last Stand] just yet since he knew that if he was forced to also activate [Absolute Body Enhancement] afterwards it would override the Skill but he would be left dealing with the backlash from the activation after his Pseudo-Mythic Skill ended depending on how long [Last Stand] had been active for.

Using his shorter spear as a javelin Ajax poured out another three hundred Mana using both [Mana Augmentation] as well as [Spell Direction] to launch a second Ice Mana infused projectile at the boss. 

Much like his arrow had done before the spear quickly cooled down the base of the tail for the scorpion leaving Ajax with a clear target for his Vibration Mana infused hammer strike. The blow being powerful enough to shatter the connection cutting off more off the elemental’s mass. 

Aurexion was quick to follow up on Ajax’s attack, launching himself into the body of the elemental and pushing it away from its severed tail. Unlike the ifrit the elemental’s tail didn’t explode but that also meant the elemental could simply reclaim the lost magma if it got in contact with it once more. 

Throwing himself into a magma elemental was an odd feeling for Aurexion. He had previously fought both mud and rock elementals so it wasn't unusual for him to use his body against solid elementals but because of the increased density of magma compared to mud the sensation was different. There had been some initial give Aurexion’s body quickly lost momentum after sinking a few inches into the magma before both the elemental and Aurexion were off the ground and moving away from the severed tail. 

The magma elemental wasn’t simply taking this lying down, it took advantage of Aurxion’s vulnerability to bring both its pincers crashing down on the dragon’s head and neck while using its legs to strike at the dragon’s belly. 

The heat of the elemental’s body wasn’t as hot as the ifrit’s which had burned Aurexion in seconds but the dragon could already feel his scales heating up while the mass of the magma made the impacts actually hurt as the elemental knocked the dragon away from itself.

“Let it reshape itself.” Ajax called out as he fired a jet of water at the elemental to stop it from continuing its assault on Aurexion. 

Ajax could already see the elemental’s size slowly shrink as it started to regrow its tail. The water jet had also been somewhat effective as the elemental clearly reacted to the water exploding into steam as it made contact with its body despite it not being enough to really cool down the magma to the point it solidified.

As the fight continued Ajax was awed by the way the elemental set and released its shape. Its pincers were solid enough to actually break through Aurexion’s scale leaving a cut but it could also absorb the impact of the dragon’s claw swipe by letting it sink into the magma. While the ifrit was clearly stronger than the elemental Ajax had a better change to see the way the elemental used its Mana to solidify its body shape and release it. 

Slowly but surely while Aurexion was taking hits and being burned here and there the elemental was consistently losing more and more of its mass as the fight drew longer. After the first few exchanges the elemental had realized Ajax was the bigger threat to it of the two but by that point it had lost too much mass to be able to focus on the human and ignore the dragon that was bigger than it was. 

Ajax’s analysis of the elemental’s use of Mana had also not gone to waste as he had been able to predict when it would go for another snip with its pincer and was able to use his Metal infused axe to cut off the entire limb while the elemental was focused on maintaining its shape. 

The fight last ten minutes and Aurexion was feeling the blow he had taken but by that point the elemental was only twice Ajax’s size and with a core the size of a basket ball inside it Aurexion’s last swipe couldn’t miss as it hit the entirety of the elemental’s body. Despite its density the reduced size meant its mass wasn’t enough to absorb the claw’s momentum and the body of the elemental was splattered on the jungle floor while the core was smashed.

Ajax didn’t even bother going glancing at the elemental’s remains once he saw the core break and instead he went straight to healing his bond. While the fight had gone according to their plan, for the first time since entering humanoid lands Aurexion had actually taken some serious damage even if none of the hits were individually dangerous.