Chapter 804: Chapter 804 - Taming the Fifth Year - Light Being The hydra had eliminated 4 consecutive opponents without showing the slightest weakness in its overwhelming offense. Without revealing any exploitable opening in its pattern. Simply firing light beams that penetrated their defenses as if those barriers didn’t exist at all. How did you fight against that kind of absolute dominance? How did you find any strategy against an opponent who resolved each battle with a single attack before you could even develop any appropriate response? Larissa didn’t have a clear answer to those questions. But she had to choose a beast anyway for this confrontation. And so a thought occurred to her: ’If this is about at least resisting the light element beam...’ ’It benefits me more to deploy my light fairy first right?’ It wasn’t a perfect solution to the problem. It wasn’t a brilliant plan that guaranteed victory or even survival. She was just using the same element to try surviving longer without really thinking about how to actually win this... But it was reasonable logic at least. If the hydra attacked with light element, then a beast that possessed big affinity with light might have a better chance of resisting or countering those devastating attacks. Maybe. With luck. It was a thin hope to cling to. But better than nothing when facing overwhelming power. Larissa raised her hand while concentrating on the specific bond connection. "Forward," she murmured. And manifested the light fairy onto the field. The creature appeared in an explosion of golden brilliance. Extremely small compared to the massive hydra, barely a meter in height. With wings that seemed made of solid light itself. A face that was almost human but not completely, retaining something ethereal and otherworldly. It was a beautiful beast... Ethereal. The type that made spectators sigh with admiration when they saw it materialize. And with an appearance completely inadequate for the type of brutal combat that this exam now required from its participants. Except that against the hydra... Against an opponent whose primary attack was an elemental light beam... Maybe, just maybe... the fairy would have an advantage that other beasts hadn’t possessed. Larissa observed Ren standing calmly across the field. Ren looked back at her. And smiled slightly with something like approval. "Interesting choice," Ren commented in voice that only Larissa could hear clearly. "Let’s see what it can do." Master Zhao raised his hand for the ceremonial gesture. "Begin." And the final battle of the day started. Larissa breathed deeply to center herself. ’Here we go,’ she thought. ’Time to see exactly how far I’ve really come...’ ’...And how much farther I still need to go.’ The hydra’s first head rose smoothly on its serpentine neck. Light concentrating in its throat. Glowing with intensity that made the air around it vibrate with accumulated heat. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 And it fired without hesitation. The beam crossed the field in a fraction of a second. The fairy didn’t attempt dodging. Instead, it raised its small hands while maintaining position directly in the attack’s trajectory. Several spectators inhaled sharply, anticipating its immediate destruction like the previous four victims. The beam impacted with full force. And the fairy... Absorbed most of the damage through some unexpected mechanism. Not completely without effect, Larissa felt pain through their bond, her beast was definitely suffering. But not the type of devastating pain that indicated critical damage. Not the kind that preceded a shattered link. It was manageable pain, tolerable. Because the mineral fairy was, in certain ways, similar to the hydra itself. Or at least similar to its transparent diamond scales. The fairy was also relatively transparent. Its body wasn’t exactly crystal but shared similar properties... Structures that refracted light instead of simply absorbing it. That could split concentrated beams into multiple components and redirect them in different directions. When the hydra’s beam impacted, the fairy’s body acted like a living prism. The light entered, concentrated and exited dispersed into dozens of lesser rays that spread in various directions like sunlight through a jewel. There was still damage from the exchange. The pure quantity of energy in the attack generated excessive heat that the fairy couldn’t disperse completely. Its body glowed almost painfully, absorbing the temperature it would have to release gradually. But it wasn’t the instant destruction everyone had witnessed four times already. It was genuine resistance. The hydra’s second head fired immediately after without giving time for recovery. The two-shot combo, the tactic that had eliminated any resisting opponents without much effort, descended on the fairy with force that should have ended the battle decisively. The fairy created geometric forms in front of itself. Not solid barriers. But constructions of pure light. Immaterial mirrors that reflected and refracted. That took energy from the beams and bent it at angles that reduced direct impact. The first beam struck and dispersed partially. Part of the energy deflecting backward... Another part finding defenses already weakened from the first strike. Part penetrating more deeply through compromised protection. The reflected beam impacted half a second later. The hydra didn’t even flinch from receiving part of its own attack. The fairy on the other hand was launched backward three meters. Its wings flickering with instability. Its body glowing with accumulated heat it needed to release. But it remained manifested, remained conscious. Remained in the battle... Larissa exhaled slowly, relieved but not relaxed. ’It took the combo better than expected,’ she thought. ’But it can’t keep enduring that indefinitely. I need...’ She needed to counterattack. Needed to change the dynamic of the battle from simply surviving to actually threatening the hydra. ♢♢♢♢ SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION Ren observed the fairy recovering its position. Wings extending fully again. The body is still glowing and stabilizing. And he frowned slightly at the unexpected resilience. He’d anticipated that the fairy would have high resistance to light. It was logical. Light beast being resistant to light attacks made sense. But the level of resistance was greater than he’d calculated since his beams were no joke. The attacks that had eliminated previous opponents with single strikes... were being partially negated through some mechanism. He needed a different approach.