"Aren’t you at least going to reduce the pressure you’re exuding, or are you scared I’ll win?" Gesturing to the lack of people present to witness his imminent defeat, my face became a smug grin
"Lose? I don’t need divine pressure to make you lose", his expression indifferent, but the pressure didn’t let up.
The inconsistency between his words and behaviour elicited a derisive scoff from me.
"To be honest, how did I even get to this point?"
"And now I’m bored again" My eyes searched the room, seeking some distraction from the boredom, until ultimately landing on none, since I also decided against checking up on my followers, leaving them to advance on their own; if they needed me, a word of prayer would be more than enough to get my attention.
’Back into the Conclave it is then; hopefully Valea or someone relevant is there.’ With that thought, I stepped back into the conclave
"Oh, so you’re back?" the irritatingly familiar voice called out
"I assumed you’d have a domain to return to, or do your followers dislike you as much as I do"
"My followers can sort themselves out; they’re not a bunch of primitive cavemen", his reply an insulting bark that didn’t hit home
"Those cavemen know how to put up a fight, unlike a certain someone" The jab was clear, and unlike his insult, this one hit home base
But the retort might have been too clean. The earth beneath my feet began to tremble; one moment, and without so much as a warning, the next moment, the ground beneath my feet was gone, and getting farther with each passing second.
Realising what Solch just did, I found myself sighing as I summoned a parachute of golden energy; yes, I’d been practising (￣︶￣）↗
"Dirty trick, but I guess that’s what you are, god of dirt" I landed on a golden platform, a conjured construct of my barrier being used to avoid direct contact with the ground beneath me.
In a flash, three shadows hurtled toward me. *bang* *bang* *bang* Each explosion a testament to those earth spears crashing not so harmlessly against a barrier set up in the nick of time, each bang a shockwave that tore through the air with each collision.
"Maybe fight me like a man" My yell ripped through the deafening shockwaves as I gathered a sphere of water in my left palm, concentrating as I fired a lance of water at him, the torrent passing through my barrier effortlessly and slamming into him.
"Fine" His voice now suppressed, anger barely contained, as he raised his right leg and brought it down with earth-shaking force.
With startling speed, the ground beneath him began to rise, the fertile soil transforming into a celadon-coloured platform; the platform stretched over half a mile in every direction, overkill if you asked me.
"This platform is made of gravestone ore, one of the heaviest ores in all known universes and is coated with aethersteel; it should be more than enough to pummel that face of yours into"
"Aren’t you at least going to reduce the pressure you’re exuding, or are you scared I’ll win?"
"Lose? I don’t need divine pressure to make you lose", his expression indifferent, but the pressure didn’t let up.
The inconsistency between his words and behaviour elicited a derisive scoff from me.
"We will see" My reply was terse; I sidestepped, avoiding the blindside attack.
"Back to you"
Evoking a barrier to capture the projectile, using its momentum to send it back
"Binding chains"
Golden binds materialised, locking Solch down
He struggled, looking down at them
"Eyes on me"
His eyes shifted up, my shin about to connect with his face, when a disc of earth intercepted it, causing a soft thud to echo, a faint golden glow appearing on my leg where it connected.
Before I could process it, an earth spike protruded from the earth
It missed
By a hair’s breadth
Multiple others followed
"Barrier wall" I managed to block the advancing threat with my barrier successfully, or so I thought
"Gah!!" The cry escaped my mouth as an earth spike surged from the ground behind me, slamming me into the same barrier that was protecting me, sending me sprawling on the ground.
Solched approached me, the smirk clear on his face.
My eyes locked with his, the pain on my face morphing into a smirk of my own
"Garden of a 1000 swords"
The air stilled
Before he had time to respond, I threw myself backwards; golden sword-like constructs began to shoot out of the ground from every direction. Solch managed to dodge some; others succeeded in injuring him.
Squelch
One worked a bit too successfully.
"It appears you have triumphed against me", He said, his voice suppressed now, not with anger, but rather pain, as I watched him pull the golden blade out of his forearm.
"I am so sorry" The golden constructs dissolved as I approached him "Uhm, maybe I can help", I suggested as my palms glowed a faint blue. "I don’t know much; I barely know anything, but I know a bit of water magic."
Gently positioning my palms over the injury, I simultaneously channelled water magic and a bit of my authority, causing the glow to take on a faint luminous verdigris.
Under our gazes, the torn muscle around the exposed bone began to squirm in a visceral movement of blood and exposed body tissue, before knitting itself back together, muscle, subcutaneous tissue, skin and all.
"My bodily defences are said to be almost invulnerable, never pierced, cut or even scratched; the God that only a supreme god has ever managed to hurt." He looked down at the place where the wound had been
"You did it and even impaled me without issue." his eyes returned to my face as he couldn’t help but let out a defeated sigh.
"You’re a formidable one, Astrael. You just can’t see it; your true power would shine in life-or-death battles. Against a God who doesn’t fear being hurt and thinks as fast as you, if I were any other God, I would have been badly injured right from the first attack. You’re the first to ever fight with me and make it look maybe slightly interesting," acknowledging that at least for now we are evenly matched, he offered a slight bow of his head.