Chapter 417: The Smart Thing to Do

Immediately, Belladonna cycled the mana through her body. Her remaining finger tips instantly sparked and crackled with lighting in response, as their glyphs eagerly took in the gift of mana and carried out their singular purpose.

That made her sigh with relief. At least she was not entirely devoid of magic. That would make this all the more irritating if that was the case.

She tried to transform, but the usual bloodlust inside of her was being pushed deep down inside by this impossible gravity. Even her [Eternal Companion] who was supposed to stay with her no matter what, and who had even transcended worlds to remain by her side, was failing her.

Her shadow was still there, but it refused to be anything more than the simple absence of light. Not allowing her to meld into it or retrieve any items out of it.

Best guess, was that it was her innate skills - those from her race and which she had acquired through source consumption - that was being suppressed for some reason.

That made more sense the more she thought about it. From the moment she had entered this god forsaken jungle, it seemed to hate her and want her gone. From the horrible sweat, to the way it dragged down her body, to the building that literally burned her soul to touch, and now this?!

What in the world did she do to deserve this, and what the hell was this place that it was targeting her so much?

At the very least, in this case it didn’t seem like she was alone in her suffering.

As the Shark passed on its diving run, Figg’s hands glowed with a soft green light as he thrust it forwards in a grasping motion as he channelled the raw, untainted power of nature to do... absolutely nothing.

He looked at this hands in confusion, as if they were broken, before thrusting them out again and again. But no matter what he did, nothing happened and the Shark climbed back into the skies where it started to stalk them in a circle.

"I can’t... Bell, my magic isn’t working! I tried to summon vines and it just wouldn’t do anything!"

"It’s this damned clearing..." She grumbled, glancing at her finger that was still gushing blood, "I think it’s holy ground or something.

My innate skills are locked, and you can’t alter the ground or vegetation. It’s why nothing wants to grow here."

Figg considered it for a second, before thrusting his hand out again, this time pointing it at Belladonna.

Small vines sprouted from around her ruined fingertip, wrapping around it to stop the bleeding and give her a temporary fingertip, as the healing magic immediately started to flow through her.

It wasn’t as instant and revitalising as Saige’s, but it was definitely better than nothing and worked much better for healing damage over time.

"You know," Belladonna muttered, "Between my skills and your magic being nerfed, the smart thing to do would be to leave and come back with a full crew, or even find a better way to beat this thing without fighting handicapped."

"Yeah, Maybe..." Figg agreed with a bob of his head, before a playful smile danced across his lips.

"But when has anyone ever called us the smart ones of the group?"

"Never in your damned life, that’s when. Idiots for life!"

"Idiots for life!" Figg shouted back, as they headbutted each other before breaking out into mindless laughter and turning to face the shark circling in the skies.

"It seems to want me," Belladonna said, "I don’t blame it, I’m irresistible. You can use Stone Bullet, right?"

"Yup. Haven’t used it in a while though, I’m usually more crowd control than damage."

"Well, now you are both." Belladonna smiled, patting him on the shoulder.

"As for me, I’m going for a ride. Try not to hit me." She told him, before breaking into a sprint with a skip.

"What’s that supposed to mean?!" He shouted after her, before clicking his tongue in annoyance. He switched the grip on his staff, holding it by his side like it was a mini-gun, as dozens of stone bullets started to form out of thin air.

The dust pulled itself together, rapidly compressing and hardening, as it formed into a conical shape under Figg’s direction.

Once the cone was formed, it immediately fired. Screaming through the air towards the Shark, which was already starting to make its third advance, as it began to squirm and swim rapidly through the air and dodge the barrage of bullets coming towards it.

Figg really was like a machine gun, rapidly forming and firing the stone bullets one after the other, treating his staff like a real mini-gun. Unfortunately, his American nature was taking over as soon as he had an automatic weapon in his hand.

The moment he started to fire, the concept of aiming or precision went completely out of the window. Instead, he aimed in its general vicinity and brought back the tried and true method, of Spray and Pray.

The moment Belladonna heard the endless hailstorm of bullets whizzing through the air, about a tenth of which actually hit the target, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes and chuckle. Exactly as she expected.

Still, she kept running and stepped onto the air, channelling mana into her feet and activating the Glyph carved into them, which now actually worked through her boots.

The air pulled itself together, forming a stable platform. With another push of mana, she activated a repelling force, that pushed the platform forwards and kept it hovering at the same level.

Step after step, push after push, it was a precise management of mana flow and levels, that came together to allow Belladonna to literally skate across the air.

She skated higher and higher, banking wide to avoid the American Firing Method, before cancelling the spell and allowing her body to plummet.

The increased gravity that was effecting her didn’t actually increase her body mass in any physical way, it just made everything twice as difficult to do. So when she landed on the Shark’s back it had no problem keeping them both aloft.

Golden hands sprouted from her shoulders, latching onto the Sharks Dorsal fin to keep herself from sliding off.

She dragged herself across its glimmering body and immediately dug her fingers into the hole in its neck, clawing at the leech that was squirming and burrowing itself deeper and deeper.

The Shark thrashed violently, letting out a series of screeches and wails as Belladonna dug through its tender flesh in search of her prize.

Every time it wriggled, its gorgeous scales caught the light and flashed it into her eyes. But even blinded, she could do this.

However when the light started to gather on the scales and gradually built up in power, that was when she was suddenly faced with a different problem.