Li started off by discarding his human form. He had to do it. This fight was going to be serious, and though he was not willing to go entirely all out just yet, taking off his human form would let him at the least access the full breadth of his stats without worry.

Because Lira, as a High Dragon, would have boss tier stats on top of a special ability that could potentially be equivalent to an Ultima-class spell.

She also wielded a divine-class item, making her far more a threat than any he had faced before on this world. Even more so perhaps than the Darkbeast Hand.

Fitting, Li thought, for someone whose name was known for being the greatest adventurer.

As his human visage crumbled away in a shower of disintegrating particles, Lira leered at him. "You cast away now your disguise. Your true nature shows through. In the dread of your true form, through the skull within whose sockets I see nothing but darkness.

"You would do better to talk less and focus more," said Li as he pointed his branched finger down. He cast first [Torrentlily Triggerseed] and then boosted it immediately with [Wild Growth] and [Cluster Growth].

The torrentlilies would plant in the ground and when an enemy stepped near them, would flower their azure lilies and shoot out geysers of pressurized, explosive water. Wild growth boosted their power, and cluster growth raised the amount of triggerseeds from one to three.

Li did not take more than one single motion to cast all three spells, but Lira was perceptive enough to notice.

"Mines? You think too little of me, monster." Lira aimed the Prometheas torch at Li. An orb of blazing flame billowed out large enough to engulf an entire building before condensing, packing down into a marble sized mass. "This distance you have set between us will be your undoing."

Li immediately recognized this spell, and he raised his arm in front of him. He had wanted to start off by shapeshifting, and indeed, the torrentlily was part of a strategy involving it, but he needed first to ward off this attack.

A thin beam of crimson red light beamed out from Lira's torch, acting like a laser of immensely concentrated heat.

This was an A-ranked spell called [Meltpoint Hellbeam] that dealt massive burning damage shearing off a percentage of max health per tick of damage.

Perfect for melting through tanks, and it seemed that Lira could already tell that Li had a massive amount of strength and health.

Li had an innate weakness to fire damage from being an Elder Leshen and taking his hit head on would make a decent dent in his health pool.

He cast [Ashwood Barrier], a B-ranked spell that turned his arm into a rectangular shield of white wood that notably had no weakness to heat, though it still took normal damage.

An A-ranked [Meltpoint Hellbeam] empowered by the Prometheas, a divine class item that boosted all fire spells channeled through it, would easily overpower the [Ashwood Barrier], but Li was testing out a new power of his.

Li remembered Iona, getting a clear image of her in his head, and then used her authority over forest fires, channeling it into his own being.

He imbued the [Ashwood Barrier] with it, causing red lines to crease over it, and the [Meltpoint Hellbeam] laser struck with a high pitched, boring impact.

It sounded like a high-powered screwdriver tearing away, and the laser did manage to melt and gouge into the barrier, but not quickly enough.

Li knew the hellbeam was a channeled spell, meaning Lira could do nothing else other than cast it. He took this moment of reprieve to cast [Shapeshift: Howling Ursine], his tankiest frontline form that could also pack a solid punch.

The ashwood barrier broke apart, but the hellbeam did not strike Li's wooden flesh, but rather thick, black fur resistant to elemental damage. He stuck his massive paw out, easily dealing with the the comparatively tiny beam now that he was nearly the size of an entire building.

Li moved forwards, against the hellbeam, and Lira stopped channeling. He took the chance to start charging towards her on all fours, his sword-length claws digging out marks in the cracked earth and his fiery purple wings beating, propelling him forwards.

Lira smiled as she slammed down her torch, fire sputtering from her mouth as she shouted, "A frontal fight, is it? Then come!"

Li roared as he stood over Lira, his two massive, bulky ursine arms over her, ready to slam down on her and flatten her into nothingness.

Lira disappeared in a bright flash, zipping around him at extreme speeds like a bright orange comet, appearing once by his leg, once by his arm, once by his neck, and so on until she touched every major part of his body all within the timespan of an instant.

Lira materialized behind Li, and a hundred searing cuts emerged around him. This was [Sleight of Flame], a B+ ranked spell normally reserved for fire elementals that let them perform several nigh instantaneous fire enchanted attacks.

Li knew the spell, so he knew precisely where in relation to him that Lira would materialize.. He was ready, ignoring his wounds and unleashing a heavy swipe at her. Lira had to take the perfectly timed hit as she could not dodge it, managing to block some of the impact with the Prometheas as a buffer.

However, the swipe still sent her barreling straight into the air, rapidly becoming a fading dot in the distance, perhaps capable of sending her above the clouds, until she righted herself.

Four little jetstreams of fire blazed from her back through vents in the back of her armor, acting like aircraft thrusters.

Li noted with some interest at how her armor changed its form to accommodate the fire like a jetpack, looking like a quaint yet oddly fitting fusion of futuristic body armor and medieval armor.

A few cracks lined her armor, but the damage was not too severe.

Li himself did not take much damage either. The Howling Ursine form saw to that with its massive resistances and immense health pool. But Lira had access to fire abilities that she should not have as a non-elemental.

That meant she was an Ascendant, someone who had classed in an element related subclass, probably a pyromancer in her case, and reached the height of the field, binding a high-ranking elemental within their own being.

Strange, though, thought Li as he pressed the attack, wanting her to reveal more of her abilities. Ascendants started off at level 90, as did high dragons.

Yet, Lira did not seem to be as physically gifted as her level and racial trait should have indicated.

He buffed up his speed and strength as much as he could with Heart of the Forest, one of very few buffs he could carry over with him through his transformations and swiped down at Lira again.

Lira narrowly dodged with another jump as his swipe crashed into the earth, creating a massive semi-circular crater that could have easily fit a squadron of men in it.

In the air, she pointed the Prometheas down to Li, materializing what must have been a hundred flaming spears above her.

They cascaded downwards, all of them slamming down on Li in a rain of piercing, solidified flame. He did not care, though, and he leaped up, letting all the spears pierce into his body.

He opened his jaws and snapped at Lira, and this time, she did not dodge, instead deftly positioning the Prometheas so that it prevented his jaws from closing around her.

"Guiding flame, O let your order be known," chanted Lira, fully activating the Prometheas. The torchlight atop the Prometheas flickered.

Li braced for damage.

The seemingly normal fire burning on the Prometheas shrank for an instant. Then it expanded into an explosion large enough to engulf the entire clearing twofold.

The fire was so bright that it looked entirely white, and the explosion must have been visible even above the layer of fog, no, far above it.

Li fell from the sky and landed on his four paws. He felt his weight sink into the ground for a second. He could only see darkness before his eyes regenerated, but as they did, he could see that much of the earth had turned liquid molten in a yawning crater.

The blow had melted off most of his face and upper body, leaving a clean white skeleton patched with dangling, charred flesh.

Lira landed a distance away from Li, glaring at the fact that he was still alive. The flame atop the Prometheas was gone now and would take time to recharge.

Such was the weakness of the Prometheas.

It empowered the wielder's fire-based spells and stored a portion of their power in the form of a massive A+ ranked explosion called the [Guided Purge], but loosing the explosion would leave the torch inactive, its passive empowering ability gone until enough fire spells were cast again to re-ignite it.

And Li's own passive ability was kicking in. [Undying Heart of the Howling Ursine] activated when he was below half health, hugely accelerating his natural health regeneration. Another reason why the Howling Ursine was so sturdy.

"None before have survived this blow," said Lira. "Especially not one of your kind."

"And I am telling you again that I am not like my kind," growled Li, his voice deep and bestial. "But now I see through you. This fight was interesting, but it is over now."