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Absolute defeat... That was the outcome of Gabriel's first battle with the Goddess of Nature. In fact, he couldn't even last for more than a few seconds, even after using everything he had learned from Cylix and Novius.
Even though the Goddess of Nature didn't look like this, her strength was absolutely something that Gabriel couldn't resist. She was truly a powerful god.
Even though he already knew about that woman's strength thanks to the memories of Karyk where he forgot her in the past, that didn't help him since Karyk had used his element of death to fight her, and even then it took quite some time for him to end the battle.
Even though the first battle showed him the immense gap in their current strengths, it also helped Gabriel learn more about himself. He realized that his body's defense was quite high. It was as if there was an Armor around him that reduced the damages of all the attacks that were targeted towards him.
After his defeat, he once again challenged the Goddess of Nature after just a short break, not intending to give up.
One after another, he kept having continuous battles with the Goddess of Nature. In each battle, he felt that he was becoming stronger and learning more about himself. Even though he was fast in learning, defeating the Goddess of Nature was still hard.
After two days, he was able to last an hour in a battle against the Goddess of Nature, but in the end, it was still his defeat. However, he felt that he learned even more in the last few days.
His new body had nice self healing abilities, that made him a little surprised. It was as if a healing spell was constantly being cast on him, without him having to do anything.
Another thing worth noting was that his physical strength was much higher, as a single attack of his without any use of magic was able to break walls.
Unfortunately, that strength hadn't come handy so far, since the Goddess of Nature didn't even allow him to get close.
Along the way, even Karyk occasionally opened his eyes, observing the battles once or twice. He understood the True God whose blood he had used. However, even he didn't know the mystery behind that skeleton, whose bones were covered in strange mysterious characters.
He had always felt that those characters had some scary strength hidden inside them. As for what that was, even he didn't know.
After observing the battle for a little, he closed his eyes again, realizing that Gabriel was going to be defeated again. He focused on his recovery. He knew that his intervention would not change much. Gabriel had to learn how to use his skills properly and how to win battles.
It was his own battles and his training. Karyk didn't think it was right for him to intervene. However, he didn't completely stay out of it.
Gabriel was sitting on the ground, covered in sweat. His breathing was unhurried, but it was clear that he was extremely tired as he had just gone through a battle.
While he was trying to go through what he could improve on for his next battle, he heard Karyk's voice.
Even though Karyk didn't open his eyes, his words fell in Gabriel's ears. Even the Goddess of Nature and Jia heard him, as if he had no intention to fight.
"Stop focusing on her weakness. Focus on your strength instead." Karyk said before returning to silence. His words were vague, but it contained the essence of his experience.
Ever since he saw the battles, Karyk already understood what Gabriel was doing wrong. Gabriel was trying to fight the Goddess of Nature while thinking about taking advantage of her weakness.
Since the Goddess of Nature was weak in close combat, Gabriel had been trying to get close to her in this battle, thinking that was the way to defeat her. Unfortunately, that was the worst method to defeat her.
If he couldn't even break her spells, then getting closer to her was impossible. And if he could break her spells, then why was there a need to get close to her to defeat her?
According to Karyk, Gabriel had to increase his own strength. Instead of focusing on getting closer, he had to focus on his own strength. He had to make sure that his spells were strong enough to break through the defense of the Goddess of Nature, or rather, break through everything that stood in its path!
Cylixy and Novius were the best mages of Light and Darkness on earth in their generation. However, that was limited to their generation. They had never faced a god. Their strength was not capable of facing a god. It could also be said that their spells were very weak.
Just because they could defeat the Holy Lords of Elements didn't mean they could defeat gods themselves, since the Holy Lords were only granted a small fragment of a god's power, maybe not even one percent of their total strength.
If Gabriel relied on the old spells all his time, then it was going to get troublesome. He was depending on the wrong weapon, and Karyk was sure that even Gabriel would've been able to see that, if he wasn't so focused on somehow getting closer to the Goddess of Nature.
Gabriel glanced back after hearing Karyk's advice, only to find him lost in meditation to calm his spirit. He didn't pay any more attention to him.
"He's not wrong. That's been your flaw this whole time." Contrary to Gabriel's expectations, the Goddess of Nature also agreed. "I was wondering how long it'll take you to realize that. I thought you were very close to that realization yourself. I didn't expect Karyk to give you the answer right away."
She stepped closer to Gabriel, patting his head lightly. "As soon as you heard that you had to win against me, you jumped straight into battle, instead of considering all possibilities. As he said, focus on your strength... Only then shall you stand a chance against me."
