Chapter 2041 First Blood (Part 1) A golden tail as thick as a leg and almost twice as long came out from the small of Solus' back, whipping the air in pain. The creature's face was also covered in scales, her only visible features were two golden eyes and a lipless mouth filled with pristine fangs that gave her an even more savage appearance. Leari made Royal Blood shrink faster while also taking a deep breath to use Origin Flames to free herself in the case the mysterious pillar protected Solus from harm. She was so focused on the world tribulation to have forgotten about Valia, Locrias, and Trion. The three Demons hurled a burst of Void Flames each, burning her flesh and interrupting the flow of darkness that had shielded the Thunderborne from pain. The sudden agony made Leari scream, losing her focus. Royal Blood faded and no flames came out, only death throes. Solus opened her arms, making part of the earth element that comprised the hammer and the anvil turn into air. The Thunderborne was still trapped between the constructs and couldn't avoid the stream of bolts of lightning that moved from one to the other in an endless cycle. The electrical current sent her into a seizure, paralyzing her even when Solus lifted the hammer. She clasped her hands, giving the constructs opposite charges as she dealt the second blow. The hit bent the armor and crushed the bones that it was supposed to protect. Leari was already dead but Solus kept attacking until the Thunderborne's body started to disappear. Only then did Solus raise the staff and the Fury in triumph, using the last bit of energy she had to cast a spotlight on the corpse, making known to everyone that the Kingdom had shed the first real blood of that battle. Thrud's army stopped their advance in disbelief as the Divine Beasts in the sky had to rearrange their formation to send reinforcements to the front. Varegrave and all the people on Belius' walls rejoiced, embracing the person closest to them. Lith, Ufyl, and Iata stared at the scene in amazement, almost forgetting about their own situation. 'Fuck me sideways! Why a tribulation now of all moments?' Lith thought. 'What happens if Solus fails it? Can she die?' Her life force was bound to his which either meant that Solus's tribulation was safe or that to kill her Mogar would also kill him in the process. "Leari, you idiot!" Iata's voice was filled with rage. She didn't care for her fallen comrade, knowing that the Thunderborne would just reform in a few days inside the Golden Griffon. The only thing she worried about was the plan to conquer Belius. With one Divine Beast less it would have been much more difficult to pass through the Council's defenses. Lith charged at her, to finish off the most wounded opponent before the Seven Headed Dragon could recover. War was still stuck in her construct which crippled its defensive abilities but also made Double Edge much less dangerous. Without the angry blade, Lith could still use it as a weapon or to bluff, but nothing else. Plague Storm's bolts of darkness followed him and each one of his scales emitted more by the second to compensate with quantity their lack of speed. Much to his surprise, Iata charged forward as well. Lith aimed his lunge to the point where War was hidden to shatter the barrier and recover his weapon. Iata reacted by making her construct explode, sending everywhere shards of light that blinded his vision. 'I can't see something as small as that damn blade even with Life Vision due to the energy of my own spell. If I can't rely on a construct, I might as well get rid of it.' She thought. The blade swing met no resistance, throwing Lith off balance. Iata exploited the opportunity to strike at him from multiple sides. She intercepted Double Edge with her maw, locking it into place while she struck with all of her four legs and her tail. Unlike many of her fellow Divine Beasts, she had refused to take human form because she considered it to actually be a disadvantage, especially during aerial combat. Creatures like the Tiamat needed one if not both hands to swing their weapons and their stances made the rest of their libs useless. The Sekhmet, instead, had a shorter range of attack but once she closed in to the enemy, she could perform six attacks at the same time. Lith could predict the trajectory of all of them, but unless he let go of Double Edge, he had no way to dodge. Yet if he did, nothing would have stopped Iata from storing it inside her dimensional device. The Tiamat snarled, twisting the blade to free it while releasing the full might of Plague Storm. 'There's no way I let this fucker steal the fruits of years of hard work. Let's see who comes out worse from this exchange.' He thought while also breathing a burst of Origin Flames. The Sekhmet's Adamant-coated teeth screeched but didn't let go of Double Edge, allowing her attacks to hit their mark. Her claws opened deep wounds on Lith's thighs and arms while her tail aimed at his exposed heart. On the other hand, the swarm of Plague Arrows ignored her defenses and seeped inside her body, draining her strength. At the same time, the Origin Flames burned through her armor and ate at both her body and mana. Lith took the claws, waiting for Iata to become too weak to keep holding Double Edge and decapitate her, but he couldn't afford to ignore the tail. He remembered well how powerful the acid of a Scorpicore was and there was no telling how much stronger it might have become after the evolution into a Sekhmet. The Tiamat used his own tail to slap Iata's away and coiled around it to prevent any further attack. The sting suddenly turned at what was supposed to be an impossible angle and struck Lith's tail. The acid spread like wildfire, dissolving muscles and tendons. The Tiamat couldn't feel pain thanks to darkness fusion, but without nerves, he couldn't control the tail that kept taking more acid until it fell off. Lith stared in horror as the sting sprung forward for a second time. He used gravity fusion to become heavier and put all of his strength in a downward slash. Between the Flames, the unrelenting onslaught of Plague Arrows, and the sudden pull, Iata's maw broke open. Even without War, Double Edge was still made of purified Dragon bones coated in Adamant. The blade dislocated the jaw, almost ripping it off, and cut through the weakened armor like a knife through butter. It cut deep from Iata's sternum down to her soft underbelly while her tail missed its target and hit Lith's left shoulder instead of his heart. As Iata fell down to the ground, Lith followed her to the best of his abilities to finish her off. His left arm hung limp and the missing tail gave him a hard time finding the proper balance to fly in a straight line. He was about to strike when Full Guard alerted him of a new threat. Several emerald bolts of energy filled the air between him and Ufyl.