Chương 173: Master of Distraction

"What special skill?" Liora asked, hopping closer to Caspian, who was still inside the oasis. He didn't answer, instead reaching out one hand towards Liora and closing his eyes in concentration. A faint glow came from his palm, which spread into the air around Liora and settled on her feathers like a protective, shimmering film.

"Uuu! I like the look of this. Look, Renir! I am shiny now. Look at my super pretty feathers," Liora boasted, extending her wings and moving her tail feathers left and right to admire the beauty.

"This spell will protect you from any status ailments for 30 minutes," Caspian explained.

"Wow! So I don't have to worry about their stingers. Why aren't we using this spell all the time? You should cast it on Cee, too," Liora said.

"It requires a lot of mana. If I use it on everyone, then I'll have no mana left to heal you. Since you're acting as a… distraction, I figured it would be more important for you to have this spell."

"Distraction. You mean bait. Well, I appreciate it in either case," Liora said and took off. With Caspian's spell protecting her, Liora felt much safer facing the scorpion horde. Of course, it didn't mean that she felt completely safe. It was still a strong monster. Liora would have to be careful not to get accidentally caught by it or any of the other scorpions. Looking back, she saw that Renir was drawing something in the sand while Cee was trying to replicate it with her thread.

Liora would have to push the scorpions in the other direction so they wouldn't notice Cee's webs. Otherwise, these guys would undoubtedly avoid her trap, unless they were complete idiots. But judging by the fact that they retreated when they saw themselves at a clear disadvantage, they weren't stupid at all. This made Liora even more nervous. But she had a plan. Kinda.

"Hey, there, scorpion faces! Have you come to get back your oasis? Fat chance. It is ours now!" Liora yelled at the scorpion from afar, using Resonance Mimicry to amplify her voice. Perhaps, her booming voice would make the scorpion pause. But the scorpion man thing hissed angrily, raising the claws of his upper torso. The gateclaw scorpions hissed after him, banging their shield-like claws together. They were trying to intimidate Liora. It was working. Just a little.

Mostly because she knew that she had no advantage over these creatures beyond her ability to fly, but flight alone was a major advantage, and she wasn't going to waste it. Liora activated Decoy Fade. Her decoy continued her trajectory forward, towards the scorpions, while Liora flew high, rapidly gaining altitude. Her powerful wings let her get high very quickly. When her decoy collided with the first scorpion and disappeared into nothing, leaving the monsters looking around in confusion, Liora was ready.

She dropped, letting the gravity pull her down as she prepared Meteor Impact. The scorpion man noticed her first and tried to raise his shield claws to protect himself. But he was a little bit too slow. Liora struck the edge of the shield, which lowered the power of her strike, and collided with one of the scorpion man's upper claws right at the joint. It was severed in a spray of blood while a few of the closest gateclaw scorpions were knocked back by the Meteor Impact.

Liora flapped her wings to fly backwards, but found that the damned scorpion had managed to snatch her wing with its other claw, while emitting that horrible screeching sound that the scorpions had previously used in the oasis to confuse her. Perhaps if the confusion had worked, the damned monster would have managed to snap Liora's wing off. But Caspian's spell protected her. She activated Featherflash, blinding the scorpions and safely flying away as a mote of light before any real harm could be done to her.

A few seconds later, she materialized above their heads, but she wasn't about to let up on her assault. These scorpions would know she meant business, so Liora didn't hold back. She activated Wind Blast, letting mana flow into her wings as she flapped them, producing powerful gales. Sand flew at everyone, creating a large cloud and blinding the scorpions who raised their shields to protect themselves. Sure, she wasn't going to do much damage to them, but it was keeping them distracted if only for a short while.

It was enough time for her Decoy Fade to recharge, so she activated it. This time, her decoy flew up, out of reach of the scorpion. They beat their shield claws together and chattered angrily. Meanwhile, the real Liora flew around the group, attacking one of the gateclaw scorpions from behind. She used Raptor Lunge to rip its tail off, making blood spray into the sand. The two nearby scorpions noticed her almost instantly and struck her with their stingers. Damn, these guys have good reflexes!

If it wasn't for Caspian's protective spell, Liora would be poisoned. The stings still hurt, but she was able to retreat quickly. [Status] Health: Scraped Mana: Steady Buff: Affliction Nullification (20 minutes and 9 seconds remaining) Liora intended to use every last second of the buff Caspian gave her. She needed to buy Cee more time. If she could successfully create that sigil, then they could deal with all of these scorpions at once. Until then, she would keep chipping away at their health.

She flew out of their reach, occasionally attempting to strike them with Meteor Impact. But the scorpions were on their guard, keeping their shielded claws together and ready to defend. In fact, they formed a defensive circle with the gateclaw guardian in the middle. By pressing their shields together, they could defend even against Liora's powerful Meteor Impact. Whenever she got close to them, they would strike at her with their stringers in an attempt to poison her.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. While she was protected from the poison, her health was steadily going down with each of their strikes. The stringers were sharp. So she changed tactics, striking them from afar with Air Slash. This wasn't ideal, because she couldn't keep using Air Slash indefinitely. Each hit required mana, and her Prismfeather Mantle couldn't recover it quickly enough. [Your trait <Prismfeather Mantle> has reached [Adept] level.] [Prismfeather Mantle – The user's feathers act as conduits for ambient mana, refracting and redistributing it across the body. Hostile mana constructs lose cohesion on contact, while the user gains minor mana recovery during sustained flight.] Nice! That helps a little. But even with slightly improved mana regeneration, she wasn't recovering mana quickly enough. Liora even equipped her Necklace of Sunpeak to increase the mana regeneration rate, but it just didn't provide enough mana when compared to her level.

Scorpions were well defended, and it was clear that they wouldn't stand for Liora's harassment any longer. They were beginning to move closer to the oasis, while still keeping their shield claws up for protection. Dammit, it doesn't look like Cee is ready yet. I need to do something else. Liora threw another Air Slash at the gateclaw guardian, which was promptly blocked. But it did lead to a new notification. [Your skill <Air Slash> has reached its maximum potential. Would you like to upgrade it for 100 glimmerstones?] Yes, quickly! Liora hoped that perhaps one of the upgrades would give her something that would work against these damned scorpions. At least as a distraction. [Air Slash (Rank 2) variants available] [Air Volley – At [Basic] level, splits each air blade into three smaller crescents shortly after release. Individual blades deal less damage, but multiple hits can strike the same target or different enemies within a narrow cone. Range: 20 meters] No, this isn't going to help me with these scorpions at all. Give me something better, system! [Cyclone Edge – At [Basic] level, the blade releases a swirling burst of wind upon impact, knocking enemies off balance and disrupting spellcasting or flight for a brief moment. Range: 18 meters] Damn, this is actually a good one, but not good for this situation. What else we got? [Seeking Gale – At [Basic] level, grants limited guidance to the air blade. The projectile subtly curves toward moving targets, making evasive maneuvers less effective. Range: 18 meters] Wow, this is really good. Could I make this attack avoid the shield and strike something else on the scorpion bodies instead? It is likely possible at higher levels, but right away? [Extra variant available, thanks to your unique trait <Prismfeather Mantle>.] [Prism Air Slash – At [Basic] level, infuses the air blade with an element of your choosing. Range: 20 meters. Elemental infusions available at [Basic] level: fire, water, wind, earth, ice.] Liora didn't even know this could happen. Renir likely could explain this in more detail later. But for now, the right upgrade was clear as day. [Would you like to upgrade your skill <Air Slash> to Rank 2 skill <Prism Air Slash> for 100 glimmerstones?] Yes! [Your skill has been upgraded.] Without hesitation, Liora used her new skill.

She wasn't exactly sure how to do this elemental infusion thing properly, so she thought hard about using ice, imagining Cee's ice webs and blizzard she had created with Renir's help, and hoped that the system would do the rest for her. It did exactly that. As Liora formed the air blades in front of her wings, she could feel the frosty chill coming from them. She launched it at the scorpion man. It still used its shield for protection, but this time the scorpion staggered back and shuddered from the blow.

It had actually done some damage. Not a lot of damage, but enough to make the scorpion focus on her again.

"Chak-chak-chak! What's wrong? Don't like a bit of cold?" Liora laughed and unleashed another ice-infused Prism Air Slash, striking one of the smaller scorpions this time. The thing screeched horribly, and Liora could see a visible mark left on the shield claw. This attack was extremely effective. The problem was that Liora was basically out of mana at this point, and her affliction nullification buff had also run out.

The gateclaw scorpion that got hit by her strike looked like it wanted to run away, but the man scorpion struck its shield claws together several times. At first, she thought it was a way of communication, but then she saw a slight red shimmer cover all of the scorpion. It was a buff of some sort. Perhaps something that would protect them better against ice attacks. Liora flew up higher, just to remain safe.

The scorpion continued their way to the oasis after a short while when they saw that she wouldn't strike them again. But as soon as she regained enough mana, Liora launched an ice-infused Prism Air Slash. Thankfully, this attack didn't require too much mana, even if it was more than before. This way, Liora was able to severely slow their advance to the oasis. By the time the scorpions reached it, the oasis looked empty. Everyone must have hid. Liora flew up, searching for her companions.

She could see the lingering figure of Caspian deeper into the oasis water. Renir was hidden in one of the palm trees, but Cee and Smokey were nowhere to be seen. Neither could she find Na'ikiri. Where were they? The scorpions moved closer and closer to the oasis, their shields raised and the red shimmering still engulfing their bodies. Did Liora not buy enough time? Had Cee not prepared any traps? BOOOM! A massive explosion suddenly threw the scorpions flying in every which direction while a hurricane spun.

It dragged everything towards itself, creating a giant cloud of sand and… was that ice? Liora could feel the cold in the air. All of a sudden, Smokey emerged from beneath the sand and grabbed the closest of the gateclaw scorpions in his jaws, tossing the thing left and right until the tail was ripped off. Caspian emerged from the water and sang his song just as some of the scorpions managed to gather themselves.

They tried to confuse Smokey with their screeching attack, but thanks to Caspian's song, they were ineffective. The large scorpion man looked enraged, lunging towards the wyvern with his stringer. But Cee suddenly emerged from the sand and jumped on its back. She was there for less than a second; even the scorpion didn't have enough time to react before she was gone. But she had left a thread of ice behind her, which she began to wrap around the scorpion man by jumping around him, too quickly for him to follow.

The scorpion man raged, trying to run back and retreat from the icy prison Cee was creating. Yet it couldn't. It took a moment for Liora to realize that it was Bedrock Mandala. Cee must have found a spot with sturdy rock underneath the sand and created the gravity field there. With it, the scorpions would be severely slowed down. Any smaller monsters that tried to aid their leader would quickly collapse as soon as they entered the Bedrock Mandala's range.

Their legs just weren't strong enough to endure the extra weight. It was perfect. Liora could swoop down from above and take them out easily. After all, Cee's spell didn't affect flying creatures. This fight was in the bag. Or so Liora had believed until the gateclaw guardian suddenly tore off the large shield claws. Liora didn't even get to blink when the scorpion man was next to Cee, his remaining upper claw poised to strike Cee while the limb Liora had previously torn off was growing back.