Chapter 100: Trials: Suzaku, the Beast of the South Part 1

Suzaku or more commonly known by many people as the Vermillion Bird is a strong beast that I can even compare with the Phoenix as they have a similar ability which is the element of flames. They even mistake the Phoenix and Suzaku as the same creature though no one knows if that was the truth or not. One thing is certain to me right now though, and that is if I didn't defeat Suzaku like how I defeated Byakko, then I won't be able to escape this trouble.

Suzaku flies overhead and embers fall over the sky. I have the magic to counter the element of Suzaku since I managed to learn a water element magic skill, Water Torrent. But that doesn't mean it is enough to defeat something like Suzaku and I bet Suzaku is much more powerful than Byakko if that was the case.

Just as I thought about it, I didn't realize that Suzaku is currently flying towards me with the burning wings and currently on the act of swooping me down.

"F*CK!"

It happened so fast that before I can react, I was sent flying to the wall. The good thing is that I immediately activated a partial Domain of Balmung on my back before I hit the wall or else, my spine would be broken and I am dead. I will have no way of surviving the attack if that was the case.

Still, the impact was too strong that even with my Domain of Balmung active, I didn't think the impact would still cause me injuries. My back and my abdomen hurt a lot. But I don't want to die here. Suzaku is once again flying and this time, above and flapped its wings causing gusts of winds that are also accompanied by embers, causing the normal gust to be a flaming gust that can burn things.

SWOOSH!

The gusts were a little bit hard to dodge, as it somewhat pulls you towards the origin of the gust. The embers are also troublesome because they are plenty in the air, dodging them too is also a pain since even if you managed to do that, some embers managed to stick to my clothes and making some holes on it.

"Damn, my uniform is now in a mess. Now I am mad. Money is important and I have no money to buy an expensive uniform again. So please be so kind and fall here!" I aimed my palms and focused my mana on this attack. I still can't control it much so I have to shout the name of the spell to amplify the activation.

"Water Torrent!"

Because this is the only spell that I can't control, I have no idea how strong will be my attack to Suzaku.

BAM!

A strong current of water gushed out from my palms and became a tornado made of water. I can't call it waterspout since it didn't come from the water but from my hands. The pressure is too strong that I have to stick my feet hard on the ground to make sure the recoil of the pressure is not going to blow me away.

The bad news is that Suzaku managed to fly away and evade my attack. I have to cancel the Water Torrent and dodge. Suzaku is basically a flying meteor shower creature. The attacks were too random. Just now, Suzaku released fireballs to my direction in which I have almost no chance to dodge if not for the Blazing Shoes' ability to enhance my movement speed a bit whenever I activate the Blazing effect, I would be already toasted.

Suzaku is a bit weaker than Byakko in terms of vulnerability. I managed to land a hit on Suzaku using my Water Torrent and part of Suzaku's wings got hit by it. And it actually got extinguished partly. I observed it for a bit and saw that the extinguished part of Suzaku did not recover its flames. However, that lucky attack earlier seems to be some sort of fluke only. I never managed to hit Suzaku again as the Vermilion Bird keeps on flying around and dodging every single magic I throw. I can't easily match the speed of Suzaku and I was like trying to swat a fly that is buzzing around.

What is more annoying with Suzaku is that, if there is a chance, it will attack in close ranges but it rarely does that and will mostly rely on range attacks. I want to curse on Suzaku's pervasiveness. Byakko is a free hit enemy while Suzaku will maintain its distance whenever it has a chance and starts spewing out flames, fireballs, and fire breath that has a similar movement with flamethrowers. You can easily say that Suzaku is your glass cannon.

Getting close to Suzaku is hard because you can't time when will Suzaku does a dive and when Suzaku will do it, you will sometimes have a hard time dodging instead which would stop you from even getting close to Suzaku and deal an attack. If only I have the ability of Byakko to strike down and electrocute my enemy, that would be good.

WAIT...

Electrocute...

Then I remembered that I was granted the blessing of Byakko. But what does that really mean? Did that mean I can cast electricity here now? I don't think that was a viable move. I have yet to learn any of it but there is nothing to hurt me while trying right?

To avoid being incinerated by Suzaku while trying to test it out, I activated 3 layers of Domain of Balmung. It was easy to put the three barriers altogether, allowing me to have a little bit of safety. Of course it was not a viable tactic, I have to exhaust a lot of mana to do that and I have to rely on the dragon's power to increase my mana recovery a little bit. The barriers I erected are just assurance that I can safely practice a little bit while on combat.

When I feel that my mana is almost ready to recover fully, I noticed that Suzaku already released a barrage of fireballs, flames, trying to engulf my surroundings in flames. I keep myself calm and collected and breathe in a mouthful of air and focused. Since I have no idea what magic might be inherited by me from defeating Byakko, I have to instead visualize the way Byakko uses the lightning. I didn't bother the slow destruction of the first layer of the Domain of Balmung and just continue to focus on conjuring the magic.

FOCUS... LET THE CURRENT OF MANA FLOW THROUGH AND CONVERT IT TO ELECTRICITY...

The last barrier started to crack out very fast since the second barrier didn't even manage to hold the attack of Suzaku and the first one fell before I managed to focus but I didn't stop and made sure that the feeling flows through me.

CRACK! BANG!

Suzaku released a ball of fire towards my shield and in just like that, all three of my barrier's collapsed, but I didn't move and just continue to feel it the mana. I am getting close... I can't get it wrong!

"CAWWWWWW!!" (don't mind the sound, I don't know what to write the sound of Suzaku)

A fireball is now heading again to me, even when I closed my eyes, I can still feel the heat of the fireball but I didn't panic. When the fireball is only a few inches left before it hit, I opened my eyes and golden sparks started to get released on my pupils alongside the current of electricity running throughout my body. Without hesitation, I punched the fireball, destroying it without any problem...