CHAPTER 167: A TERRIBLE SITUATION

The electricity traveled through every drop of water on the arena floor, and since they were all soaking wet and standing in puddles, they all took the full force of the shock.

Jax’s vision went white as the current ripped through his body. His muscles seized up, his threads fell from his fingers, and he hit the ground hard. Around him, he could hear the others crying out in pain.

For the first time since the trial started, they were all down at once.

The group remained on the ground for a few seconds, struggling to get up. They were nearly paralyzed.

"Get up! Everyone get up!" Lucille’s voice cut through the ringing in Jax’s ears.

He forced his eyes open, his body still twitching from the electrical shock. Around him, the others were struggling to their feet, not a single one of them looking good at all.

Lucille’s octopus was already moving, its body moving toward the Lightning elemental. Its tentacles shot out, throwing jets of water at the elemental. However, before it could reach it, the Water elemental stepped in, taking the brunt of the damage.

The octopus tried to fight the Water elemental, but it was very clear soon enough that there was nothing the octopus could do to the Water elemental that could hurt it. Even as Lucille realized it, the octopus was already taking far too much damage from the boss.

Lucille tried to call it back, but it ended up dying instead.

"Damn it," Lucille shouted in annoyance. It would take her some time before she could call it again. As far as she understood, it wouldn’t appear again for the entirety of this round.

"Lucille, what do we do?" Roman asked, a clear panic in his voice. "Have you finished analyzing?"

"I got the analysis on the lightning one," she quickly said. "The two bosses are sibling elementals. The Lightning one is somewhat weak to Earth element and very vulnerable to Water element."

She had sent the octopus to the Lightning elemental for the same reason, but the Water elemental had destroyed it instead.

"Don’t attack the Lightning one directly. It can hurt it, but it can also shock you back," she said. "And it says it’s highly resistant to Metal attacks and completely invulnerable to Lightning attacks. Shit! It has two actual spells. One is a normal spell that shoots out lightning bolts. The other is a healing spell that absorbs any lightning attacks to heal itself."

Everyone listened, and the more they did, the more despair they felt. What exactly were they supposed to do here?

"How the hell are we supposed to fight something that shocks us when we touch it?" Melayne asked, still shaking off the effects of the last attack.

"Arrows," Ning shouted. "Use arrows. Don’t attack directly."

Ning ran toward the Water elemental boss. Since he couldn’t help with the Lightning one, he could at least try something with the Water one. The spots on its body were ever-changing, so he stabbed the spots rapidly, hoping one of these times he could get lucky.

The chances of that happening were very low, but not impossible.

"Physical damage doesn’t work with that," Lucille said, frustration clear in her voice. "You all have to try something else. Melayne, take on the Water elemental."

Melayne nodded, rushing toward the boss. With her flaming sword, the Water elemental was no doubt going to take some damage.

Jax tried a different approach. He created Water threads at first, wrapping around the Lightning boss, hoping that weakness of its would help him.

However, while the threads were of Water element, it by itself did no damage at all. Instead, Jax had to use it to attack. Water threads flowed from his fingers next, the blue string soon to work as a whip.

He struck the Lightning elemental with a satisfying crack, but at the same time, he found streaks of lightning flowing back to him, striking him.

Jax screamed, then immediately let go of the threads. His muscles quivered from the shock, and he got angry as he realized he couldn’t use Water thread to attack, even if the boss was quite vulnerable to it.

The Water elemental attacked again, sending another massive spray across the arena. Jax’s eyes went wide as he saw the Lightning elemental raising its arm for another attack.

He turned to the side and grabbed Roman right before the attack and leaped into the air where the lightning couldn’t strike them.

The lightning hit the ground and spread through every drop of water again. Lucille and Ning managed to jump in time. Melayne tried to get clear as well, but she wasn’t fast enough. The shock threw her backward, her body convulsing as she hit the arena wall.

"Melayne!" Roman scrambled toward her the moment they landed, his hands already glowing with healing magic.

Jax switched to Earth threads, the brown strands flowing from his fingers as he lashed out at the Lightning elemental. The threads hit the boss, damaging it. The Earth threads weren’t as strong as the Water would be, but they did the job. It hurt the Lightning boss.

He pulled the threads back and struck out once again, but the Water elemental moved to block it, positioning itself between Jax and its sibling like a living shield.

His Earth threads struck the Water creature and did absolutely nothing. They just splashed harmlessly against its form, the bludgeoning force failing to do a single tick of damage to the water.

"This is impossible," Jax said, backing away from both elementals. "I can’t hit the Water one, and it keeps stopping me from hitting the Lightning one as well."

"We’re completely useless," Ning said bitterly, running toward Roman and Melayne. If nothing else, he at least wanted to go help Roman and Melayne, maybe protect them.

Roman’s Heal spell couldn’t help Melayne as quickly, so he brought out his final potion and began feeding her. That did the work, but she was still barely conscious. Two lightning attacks in a row had nearly incapacitated her.