As things are going well, a little too well perhaps, Maribelle's sudden cry heralds a coming change.
"Peter, dodge!"
"You will not defeat me, Karatastromoint, with such petty and underhanded tactics! Die, you cowardly vermin! Hiding in the dark won't save you!"
The true branti's enraged roar almost coincides with Maribelle's warning as it brings it frontmost legs together and starts releasing blasts of pure mana in all directions. The blasts have a rather short range and therefore can't do much damage to you unless you are in close proximity. Unfortunately, Peter, thinking his camouflage would keep him save, was just there.
As much as I would like to help him, I'm way too far away. The best I can do is to bring down the remaining nest blocks while the true branti's mana is weakened and its mind is otherwise occupied.
However, that turns out to be much harder than expected. Or to be precise, the true branti's period of distraction is much shorter than I anticipated.
After firing eight mana blasts to clear it's immediate surroundings, it covers its head in some of its gauze armor and returns to focus on its magic.
I helplessly watch as its focus shift from levitating and moving the blocks solely to bringing them into the air. The tug of war I'm engaged in feels like a toddler trying to compete with a trained athlete!
The main problem I'm facing is that I don't have the necessary mana. I have already burnt through two thirds of my mana pool and every actual bit of progress forces me to start hemorrhaging mana.
I need to up the efficiency!
I somewhat relent from the tug of war, watching the blocks rise much faster as I examine the pattern I am currently using to generate a downward pull. Since the pattern changes based on what I want it to do I vaguely know what parts of it correspond with what effects.
Navi said all this is bogus and made up by my mind and playing into it is probably not the best idea but hey, if it works I'll be happy.
So I start to trim down the pattern to make it as sleek and thereby hopefully as efficient as possible.
Only by concentrating can I roughly make out the use of a part within the pattern and as soon as I find something that does not expressly fit the objective of pull down, I remove it.
And I can already feel the effects of it. With every part of the pattern that is removed, the pull I generate gets stronger while my mana expenditure remains the same.
However, the blocks are still rising so I have to keep trimming. Wait, did I just trim the part that corresponds to earth?
Contrary to my fear that my spell will completely collapse, I feel th pattern undergo a qualitative change before my disbelieving inner eyes. The mana exuded by it has turned into something new and unknown to me. It's probably still attributed mana but-
"Damn you! Kill that green skinned mage!"
Awoken from my surprised state by the true branti's orders to kill me, I find that I am suddenly winning the tug of war and my mana expenditure still remains fixed.
I did think you would say that but hey, it worked. Now for the challenging part. Before, the true branti must have not seen my attempt to interfere as much of a threat so it sent no ordinary branti my way. I was in the back line and with no one paying attention, quite safe.
That changed with me using gravity magic.
Now, a few dozen ordinary branti are charging at me with murder in their eyes. I would love to block them with a wall or break their charge on a ground fence but here the problem of being unable to switch between different mana types reveals itself rather clearly.
If I take the time to switch, I'll give the true branti ample time to raise those structures back. Not to mention that I'm not confident I'll be able to switch back while under attack.
Melee fighting it is!
I keep the gravity magic at just the level required to counteract the true branti's earth magic, which is noticeably less than when I was trying to pull them down and focus on the approaching enemy. The ordinary branti are coming in fast but they have yet to spread out to try and surround me.
Which means that I have to seize this blunder of theirs and cut their numbers while they are all in front of me.
Waiting until they are about ten steps away from me, I slash at them with both my daggers and send out a total of eight energy daggers that cut into them. Their chitin armor will mitigate too much damage so I aim for their heads that are far less protected.
Despite attacking while they are in the middle of a charge, they still manage to react to my sudden attack. The three frontrunners launch themselves at my energy daggers beak first trying to peck their way straight through.
Thankfully, three beaks aren't enough to neutralize eight energy daggers that are all slightly spaced apart. Each ordinary branti's peck manages to clash with one energy danger. One even manages to take out two by quickly twisting its head.
That still leaves four energy daggers that aren't dealt with. Those four cut into the heads of those ordinary branti and together with the fact that they lunged forward effectively ends their charge. Though not lethally hit, the three monsters barely manage a shaky landing before tumbling all over themselves as the ones behind them crash into their backs.