After Scrael and Asilean led the two buffalo leaders away from each other, Nil swapped with Scrael and took the buffalo's attention.
Since the buffalo was enraged, it didn't care about what cat was in front of it. It only cared about stomping on the pesky flies that annoyed it. So, even when Scrael disappeared and when Nil showed himself, the buffalo didn't stop or hesitate for a moment and just continued charging, its eyes blazing with determination.
Nil didn't stand still to admire the view. Since the bull was charging at him, he would face it wholeheartedly.
He began by throwing out a volley of Sharp Rain. Even if he preferred other ways to use magic, he couldn't deny the spell's effectiveness. However, the spell that had always served him well and never failed to penetrate its targets didn't do much more than whittle away some demonic energy and inflict a few cuts on the buffalo's skin.
Nil was a little disappointed, but he could also feel his inspiration take off. If Sharp Rain barely did anything, he would have to come up with other, more creative ways to defeat the buffalo leader.
After overcoming his surprise, Nil began conjuring magic like never before. Sharp Rain was his most powerful singular attack, but since it didn't work, he would have to make up for the lacking quality with quantity.
He began by paving the way in front of the buffalo with spikes and traps.
Nil expected it, but he couldn't help but realize once again that the buffalo was a lot stronger than him when it pushed the spikes into the ground and burst through the traps without even a single hint of slowing down. Fortunately, Nil conjured the spikes and traps to wear away at the buffalo's demonic energy.
Every step it took on a spike and every trap it burst through required the buffalo to expend some demonic energy to reinforce its body and protect and strengthen itself. The amount of demonic energy consumed was barely a fraction. And no matter how many spikes and traps Nil used, they would never be enough to take down the buffalo. But only if he didn't use anything else.
Before the buffalo could recover the minimal amount of demonic energy it lost while protecting itself, Nil prepared a slightly stronger attack.
Due to the lacking time to prepare and the buffalo's speed, Nil didn't have much to show off, but he still managed to create a spring-loaded pole trap. After stepping on a metal plate, a sharpened metal pole, the thickness of an arm, shot out of the ground with an upwards diagonal angle toward the buffalo's chest.
Nil could feel the buffalo's demonic energy surge and protect it even from where he was. But the pole still managed to reach the buffalo's skin and draw blood before it stopped.
The trap had also managed to halt the buffalo's movements. Since the pole exited the ground in the opposite direction of the buffalo, it would have pierced the beast if it had continued charging.
After using demonic energy to recover and reinforce its body with more defensive might, the buffalo snorted before stepping forward, despite the metal pole poking into its ribcage.
However, without the trap's and the buffalo's momentum, the pole was nothing more than a pointy and shiny stick that bent and crumbled in front of the buffalo's strength.
The pole ended up mostly useless, but it served its purpose in delaying the buffalo. And it let Nil continue casting magic, both to attack the demonic bull and prepare his finisher.
The buffalo was about to start charging toward Nil again. But before it could, it stepped on another metal plate. However, this time, the pole didn't come from in front of the buffalo. It came from beneath it.
The buffalo had increased its demonic energy's defensive reinforcement all over its body after the first pole. But it had concentrated the demonic energy in its chest since it was wary about another pole coming out of the ground.
The increased reinforcement and the buffalo's lacking momentum stopped the pole from doing any damage. But it did force the buffalo to consume even more demonic energy to raise its defenses even further. Unlike the members of its herd, it was capable of learning and understanding things. Simply concentrating its defenses toward its chest wouldn't protect it from harm. But increasing its defenses would lower its speed, so it would take longer for the buffalo to catch up with Nil.
The buffalo glared up at Nil with increasing anger and began moving once again after trampling the pole into the ground with an angry kick and stomp.
Nil was happy that his traps were so effective in reducing the buffalo's momentum, but he didn't let down his guard. He still hadn't dealt any real damage. And if things progressed as they were, he would end up flat as a pancake under the buffalo's hooves or shamefully admitting defeat and calling for aid. Both were outcomes he didn't want. Fortunately, he had devised a plan that might work against the buffalo during the moments it stopped moving.
Nil began by creating a situation that would be as favorable and advantageous to him as possible.
Since the buffalo was smart enough to figure out how Nil's traps worked to some degree, it would also be cautious of whatever he did in the future. At least until it figured out that Nil's traps weren't dealing any damage to it.
At that point, it would once again charge forward recklessly, not caring about inconsequential traps that didn't even tickle its skin.
Thankfully, the first pole drawing blood seemed to have made the buffalo cautious enough to keep a moderate and calculated pace toward Nil, even with anger threatening to make its blood boil over.
After determining the buffalo's speed, Nil adapted and made the traps in its path of appropriate strength as he continued preparing what he was going to use to defeat the buffalo.
