Manticore (Part 2)

The two smaller ones were cunning and very powerful, they were certainly at least level 13. We were divided into two smaller teams, the human archer was with me fighting one and the other four were against the other. The monster seemed to know about strategy, attacking regularly and calmly, trying to break Nicola's defenses with the black stinger on his back. He defended himself against basically three types of attack by the manticore, a jet of fire that she launched through her mouth, the claws that attacked and the stinger on her back.

The archer did his part by deflecting the stinger with an arrow almost every time he he approached Nicola while trying to hit the beast's eyes or mouth, but the arrows were soon burned by the jet of flame.

Nicola used his four arms nimbly with his daggers, leaving deep cuts in the beast that were soon seared by the firepower in her body, preventing them from bleeding too much. The manticore left marks on his body during the fight, using the claws infused with poison but these were soon healed and closed by a trick that Nico developed.

The cloth mask he had used to cover his face was nothing more than a disguise for a magical artifact he had developed. Underneath the disguise he wore a kind of cervical plate in which was attached the magic core of the light he had previously cut, so whenever he suffered an attack the gem would release energy to heal the wound faster.

The manticore seeing that his attacks were not having much result decided to take a more aggressive approach. The bloodshot eyes showed the anger she felt towards her prey. Then he threw himself towards Nicola with all his strength.

Knowing that he would not be able to deflect in time Nicola smiled, everything was within his plans, irritating the manticore enough to give up his defense and go on an unscrupulous attack, just as a monster should be. That's when he showed his first secret weapon.

Silver needles about 20 centimeters long were ejected from two of Nicola's armbands, loaded with lightning magic and they hit the target almost instantly penetrating the animal's flesh. The electric current that passed through the body of the manticore caused the movement-receiving nerves to stop receiving brain stimulus, paralyzing the beast that fell with all its weight on top of Nicola.

Even under the beast he did not stop sending lightning mana to the needles maintaining the condition of the monster as he stepped out from under it. She was his bait to attract the other lurking monster.

All of this happened very quickly, so a battle ax emerged from one of his rings and fell directly on the helpless manticore's neck, beheading her instantly.