*BOOM!
A loud noise resounded in the surroundings, product of the Aqugas snake having knocked down another tree to get faster to where its prey, Kesar, was.
After the latter arrived on the scene, preventing the Aqugas snake from finishing Jay off, almost as if it had seen its destined enemy, the snake went into a frenzy, ignoring Jay completely and launching itself at the young mage.
This was to the point that even its reasoning was affected, no longer caring about slowing down as it destroyed tree after tree in a forced attempt to catch up faster.
The reason for this was because the snake remembered perfectly well that of the two escaped prey, the one that actually managed to harm it was not Jay, but Kesar.
Unfortunately for the snake, it would not have it so easy as to chase Jay.
*Crack crack crack*
No matter where the snake passed, several ice thorns would immediately appear, although they failed to slow it down, they were quite annoying for it.
However, the most important change without a doubt was that little by little, the more ice appeared thanks to the spells that Kesar cast, the more the surroundings froze, from the trees, the bushes, even reaching the ground.
It was as if now every spell had a weaker effect from the Frost Needle. But ignoring this, the snake simply continued to head towards Kesar.
Unlike Jay, who's only option was to flee since he had no way to confront the Aqugas snake, Kesar simply stood still surrounded by four pillars of pristine ice and standing on top of a magic circle, casting spell after spell to interrupt the snake's path, which was getting closer and closer.
This small magic post had also been part of the reason he had taken so long, as he did not want to face the snake unprepared.
The spells took effect instantly, turning into chunks of ice that the snake broke without much effort, quickly reaching where Kesar was.
Finally, when it was only a few meters away, the snake jumped, ignoring the ice pillar in front of Kesar and heading straight for him.
*BAM!*
Unfortunately for it, by making a simple flick of his wand, Kesar caused the ice pillar to suddenly increase in size, causing the snake to crash hard.
The Aqugas snake quickly recomposed itself from the shock and again lashed out at the ice wall.
*BAM!*
To its surprise, the ice pillar not only didn't break, but even managed to do some damage to its slimy body due to the force the snake had used to try to destroy it.
This surprised the snake quite a bit due to the fact that it had previously easily broken a larger ice wall than this one, however, despite being smaller, this ice pillar was incomparably stronger.
What the snake did not know was that in reality this ice pillar was not like the other spells Kesar had used so far, but was on the level of "Frost Needle", that is, it was a spell that he could only use when his elemental zone was fully formed.
Like many mages of the elemental branch, while Kesar could defend himself decently as long as he had his wand, the power he could show would rise to a whole different level being in his elemental zone as it gave him access to a large number of spells which were qualified as trump cards, the only restriction being the large amount of mana they required.
The Aqugas snake quickly realized that it could not penetrate this ice pillar in a short time so it decided to simply climb over it.
"That was a bad decision!" Kesar said, again waving his wand, this time causing the magic circle he was in to light up.
At the same time, the four pillars of ice surrounding him trembled briefly before beginning to make shattering sounds.
A second later, just as the snake was on top of the largest pillar, several ice spikes suddenly erupted from each of the pillars, rapidly closing and piercing the Aqugas snake's body.
The snake then began to move frantically, wanting to escape as quickly as possible from that position.
Although this really wasn't a serious injury for the snake, what really worried it was the freezing effect that each of the tips of these spikes had, which inevitably dug into a part of its body that contained its water reserve.
*CRACK!*
In the face of the snake's enormous strength, the spikes did not take long to break, although they had already achieved their task, freezing a part of the water inside the Aqugas snake, who had no choice but to spit out the ice inside before launching itself towards Kesar once again.
Although the spikes were also part of the ice pillars, since this was not their main use, they did not have the same resistance as if they had simply remained as part of the pillars.
This time the attack had indeed succeeded in hurting it, but now that it had paid the price for approaching so recklessly, it was now ready to reap the benefits, finally finishing off its prey!
"Frost..."
At that moment, Kesar's eyes began to give off the characteristic glow that indicated he was using everything he had, gathering all the icy mana in the vicinity in the tip of his wand, which was pointing at the snake.
The Aqugas snake immediately recognized what he was about to do, so fearfully, its body quickly turned around to escape, even causing several smaller snakes to break away from its body so that they could try to buy time.
*SWOOSH!*
Unexpectedly, instead of the Frost Needle, what Kesar summoned was nothing less than a stream of icy wind, which froze the small snakes instantly.
Since the snakes were not connected to the main body of the Aqugas snake like the tentacles, their resistance against frost magic was considerably lower, making it relatively easy to freeze them.
What he had just done had been a feint, which fortunately worked against the Aqugas snake. Although it could be said that the snake was quite intelligent for a monster, that sometimes worked against it, just as it had just happened.
Now that the snake was somewhat far, Kesar again cast one ice spell after another, as for the ice pillars around him, they returned to their original size and position automatically.
Seeing that the spell it feared never came, the snake stopped escaping and again turned to Kesar, realizing what had just happened.
*RUMBLE*
In a matter of seconds, its anger peaked, its body creating several smaller snakes at the same time that a large number of tentacles emerged from all parts of its body.
"Haa, here we go then...!" Said Kesar observing that the snake had finally decided to get serious.
Although he wasn't sure he would be able to win this battle, victory was already in sight, so the only thing he could do at this point was to go ahead and give it his best.
***
After a few minutes, the effects of the confrontation between a rank (C-) mage and the Aqugas snake began to show in the surroundings, mainly manifesting in destroyed trees, large chunks of broken ice scattered everywhere and a large number of small frozen snakes.
It was certainly a chaotic scene.
As for those responsible for this destruction, Kesar was still standing on top of his magic circle. However, unlike before where his energy seemed enough to fight for hours, it was noticeable that he was quite tired.
This was normal, after all, he had been using one high level spell after another, although he had a good reserve of icy mana that he had managed to gather from the surroundings, it all had to pass through his body before becoming a spell, so the cooling of his body was slowly building up.
The parts of his body most affected were his arms, especially his right arm, which was the one he used his wand with and was currently of a worrying bluish color accompanied by a numb feeling.
As for the pillars around him, of the four that had originally been protecting him, only two remained, although these had several visible cracks and it looked as if they would break at any moment
Although they had served as an ironclad protection that allowed him to face the Aqugas snake without fear, in the face of the latter's enormous strength and constant attacks, even these extremely hard pillars ended up reaching their limit.
Of course, his opponent had not been left unscathed either.
Unlike the initial appearance it had, which was that of a dangerously large snake seeking to simply wipe out whatever got in its way, with tentacles on every part of its body and a small battalion of miniature snakes, now none of that could be seen.
First of all, its size had been greatly reduced, now only measuring 10 meters long, a product of separating its body into several small snakes time and time again, which was worse, almost all of them ended up being turned into ice, unable to become part of the main body again.
On the other hand, its tentacles were in better shape, with most of them still intact and only some of them being shorter because they also received freezing spells.
However, what was most striking was that the inside of the snake, which was once transparent and showed a large amount of water that served as its reservoir, had now shrunk enormously.
Of course, this was no coincidence as Kesar had focused the vast majority of his spells towards that part of the Aqugas snake, managing to slowly freeze the water inside and forcing the Aqugas snake to expel the ice chunks from its body.
Just considering the state of both, it might seem that the Aqugas snake was the one that lost the most, however, the fact that Kesar could attack indiscriminately without worrying about his safety was entirely due to the pillars of ice.
Pillars which were now practically unusable.
*Crack!*
With that sound, the remaining ice pillars cracked and their pieces scattered on the ground.
"...Heh, looks like this is the most I can do at my level huh..." Said Kesar, who had just lost his only defense, "However, I won't fall without at least freezing half of your body!"
Although he was now defenseless against the Aqugas snake's attacks, his expression didn't have a hint of concern, something very different from what he had shown when he saw said monster for the second time.
This was because when Kesar saw that his spells did have the desired effect, his confidence slowly increased, to the point where he was no longer really afraid of this particular monster.
Of course, what he didn't know was that this hadn't actually been caused by his own doing, but was an effect of the 15 parasites currently inside him, all of them boosting his confidence and reinforcing all the spells he had used so far.
This was a measure that Jay had employed when he slapped Kesar in order to enhance his power and prevent him from becoming nervous again, although the contact they had had been brief, it had been more than enough for him to manage to infect him with all the parasites he had except for about 10 that were necessary in case he had to use Overload.
Immediately, the snake lunged towards Kesar, who responded with a defiant grin as he prepared a particularly strong spell.
However, just as they were about to collide, the snake suddenly did something unexpected.
Its body suddenly split in two, forming two large snakes of 5 meters in size each which sped towards Kesar.
"Sh*t!" Shouted Kesar, hastily directing his spell towards the snake closest to him, successfully impacting it and freezing a large part of it.
*CHAK*
"Argh!"
Unfortunately, the other snake wasted no time and stabbed Kesar in the stomach with the tip of its tail.
Not wanting to lose the initial momentum, it quickly coiled around Kesar's body, squeezing his arms with its enormous strength, even getting to the point where the young mage almost felt like his arms were not going to be able to resist anymore.
