NOVEL SIMPLE 58: A Lion’s Pride
Solomon had... weak powers. By his standards at least. Among the frontline combatants within the Primordial Deities, he was the weakest, and that meant a lot!
Sylvia, Clay, and Estelle were all specialists in area of effect attacks while Joanna was more of a half-support, half attacker. Thus, among the four left who fell into his category, the ranking was as follows: Valencia, Rainier, Sigmund, then him.
His powers, unlike the rest, didn’t raise his capabilities as much. His abilities consisted of revealing, highlighting, and further weakening where the weak points were on his enemies. Any attack he made to these spots would then do far more damage than it would normally.
This, however, came with the price of doing less damage to non-weakened areas when his abilities were active.
With a price making the rest of his attacks weaker, Solomon practically couldn’t use his powers against his peers who had perfected their fighting styles to have little to no weaknesses. Thus, even if his skills were up to par with the rest, he was fundamentally capped behind them.
Shaking his head, Solomon couldn’t help but cuss himself out under his breath. Something about his younger form changed the way his mind drifted at times...
Or perhaps it was the situations in which he needed to use this accursed younger form.
Calling his spear back to himself, Solomon flicked it to the side to clean off the blood and... eye debris stuck onto it. Pumping more divine energy into his eyes, Solomon called out to Joanna while pointing at the crab. “I punctured the left eye on Cancer. It’s slowed down for a moment to regenerate its eye, but Taurus and Leo are still pushing forward through the ocean.”
“Do we need to issue a storm surge warning?” Joanna asked while beginning to gather her own divine energy. “If all three of them are moving towards the city, the chance of a storm surge is... considerable.”
“It should be fine once Rainier comes,” Solomon calculated after a moment’s pause. “He can control the storms and ocean to move outward instead of inward. Let’s move further out though, I’ll focus on occupying the Taurus and you do the same with the Leo. We’ll need Rainier to mount an actual offensive.”
With rings of blue rotating around his eyes, Solomon turned away from Joanna before throwing his spear forward once more. “And that’s the second eye of Cancer. We won’t need to worry about it for a bit now. I calculate that after this throw the Cancer will have nailed my divine signature though so I won’t be able to hold it off again.”
Joanna, on the other hand, just shrugged as Solomon flew off on his own.
He... really liked to talk.
Having contributed to about a fifth of the conversation’s talking, Joanna flew off in a different direction towards Leo's location. Feeling it stalk its way through the ocean, Joanna closed the distance before throwing her scales into the air.
Pumping divinity into them, Joanna watched as the scales ballooned in size. Watching it crash into the ocean below, Joanna reached out with her shackled arm to establish a connection with Leo.
A couple seconds later, Joanna felt her divinity clash against Leo's own. With the lion realizing its stalking wasn’t going to work, Joanna backed off as it began to reveal itself. Undoing its cloaking, the beast revealed why it deserved the name “Exalted Golden Leo.”
Going from a crouched form hidden under the surface of the water, the lion pushed itself upright, revealing its hulking form above the water. Leo roared and Joanna felt herself being blasted backward as huge bolts of lightning began raining down.
There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky...
Hardening her features, Joanna rushed back forward while pumping more divinity into her scales and shackle. Closing her eyes, Joanna took a deep breath. “Judgment.”
With chains flying out of her shackle, Joanna connected herself to Leo's mane. The scales, at this time, began glowing while floating up and out of the water. High in the sky, they then began weighing themselves. Keeping a moderate distance from the monster, Joanna weaved and bobbed to avoid the lightning strikes.
Having charged up her scales with a decent amount of divine energy, Joanna froze for a second before shouting. “I, goddess of Justice, proclaim you as guilty!”
At her call, one side of the scales plummeted downward and crashed onto the lion’s head. Unlike most attacks though, the damage inflicted by the strike didn’t even leave a visible mark. Yet, for Joanna, what she was after were the aftereffects.
Seeing a large muzzle of energy manifest itself around the lion’s nose, Joanna shook her head and lamented her sparing use of divine energy. “Only the sense of smell...”
If she had used more, Joanna was sure she would have removed the sense of sight. Albeit temporarily, but the sense of sight was crucial nonetheless. Of course, the risk was higher too, because if the attack didn’t connect, she’d be down that much more divine energy.
Sparking an enraged frenzy, Joanna dodged the lion’s claws while diving into the waves of water for some shelter. Watching entire columns of water become mist from each strike of lightning, Joanna made a business decision to back off.
The water was cold too! It was the northernmost ocean in the world after all...
With her phone buzzing, Joanna didn’t even pick up the phone before calling her scales back to her. Rushing back towards Solomon’s original meeting spot, Joanna let out a slight sigh of relief as Rainier came into view.
Rainier, with his two signature katanas sheathed at his side, came flying into view. Unruffled, Rainier, looking impeccable as always, nodded towards Joanna before snapping his fingers.
An instant later, clouds began forming as a torrential downpour started once more. With the storm growing to a size only a hair smaller than Morgana’s, Rainier just flew off without another word once Solomon arrived. “I’ll take Taurus and Cancer.”
Shrugging and following along behind Rainier, Joanna waved to Solomon who could also only shrug and fly off.
With Solomon taking over lion hunting duty, Joanna chuckled to herself. It was great not having to fight on the frontlines. Fabulous even.
Once caught up with Rainier, Joanna pulled out her scales once more. Sending them into the air, Joanna grew them to a size much larger than before. Pumping as much divine energy as she could into them over the course of a couple seconds, Joanna, once again, shouted “Judgment!”
Waiting for Rainier to get in position, Joanna reached out her shackled hand to strengthen the connection between her and him. “I proclaim you to be... INNOCENT!”
With the scale rising, it brought Rainier up while blessing him with the divine energy Joanna used. Giving Rainier a simple, but useful, strength boost, Joanna sat back to enjoy the show for a few moments.
Rainier, taut like a rubber band, blasted forward. Blending into the rain, Rainier disappeared from view as Cancer and Taurus both froze in their tracks. Appearing far above in the sky, Rainier raised the first of his two katanas. Slicing down as if he was moving his blade through water, Rainier looked down at the two monsters with a cold glance. “Freeze.”
Mirroring its namesake, the glacier katana summoned forth a sea of ice that climbed the two monsters.
Sheathing his sword and drawing the other, Rainier burst forward faster than before.
Seconds later the battle truly commenced as lines of electricity climbed the monsters. Screaming in pain, the two monsters powered forward as they began their own offensive.
