The small cavern underneath the temple thundered and shook from Percy's fight with Ramona.

The sickly girl had the advantage in such a closed space, and her sand magic was immensely dangerous.

But Percy's adaptability had always carried him this far. When problems presented themselves, solutions wandered into Percy's mind.

That was what he was thinking as he dodged Ramona's attacks. She could form giant hands of sand like Sebas, albeit not as big. Each time the hands came down, he could feel the weight of sand compressing the air.

The ground didn't cave in from her force, though; it was special like the one at the top of the temple, where Thalos and the others were fighting now. Percy let out three disabling shots to see how she resisted them.

The blue spheres slammed into her giant palms as they shielded her body, spreading over the sand like a blue film of light. Ramona sensed that something was wrong and just detached that portion of her arms.

Percy stopped, eyes wide open. It was morbid to see her handless and watch the pile of sand on the ground writhe against the blue mana.

"That's very unsettling. It doesn't hurt to just take off your arms like that?"

"I'm free of pain. Mother Gaia has saved me," she replied, eyes foggy and unfocused.

"So you never feel any pain? Not even occasionally?"

Ramona's eyes shuddered at first, but then she just glared back at Percy.

"I'm fine. And I'll be even better when you let me save my brother."

"How?" Percy asked with a smile. "Wait, lemme guess, Sebas told you that the ritual or Python would be able to bring back your brother? And in exchange, Python would use you as an incubator?"

Ramona bit her lips, feeling his condescension drip like poison into the cracks in her soul. She wanted to hurt him even more—pain, delusion, and hunger mixing with rage in her chest.

"Enough!" she hissed, thrusting the stubs of her arms forward, two columns of sand erupting from them like fire hose.

Percy jumped over the first, kicking off the wall behind him to avoid the second sand pillar that followed him. While cruising through the air, he shot at the arms.

He needed to disable her more, and quickly.

But Ramona wasn't letting the blue spheres hit her. Her sand and body curled and shifted like water around a stone, avoiding every shot.

All while attacking him, so he had to constantly move, jumping all over the place.

He found that short bursts of instant movement worked better than running, something he copied from Thalos, of course. But it was also a good way to conserve energy in the battle of attrition between him and the girl he was trying to save.

Because Ramona didn't look like she was slowing down any time soon. Her attacks slammed against walls and the ground with enough force to crack his bones.

And these weren't even bones that were in good condition. He had a map of bruises on his body from his journey into the earth to get here, and a nasty burn that Sebas left on his shoulder.

He had the healing magic tool he prepared for this mission, but those relied on the user's spirit energy, and the material degraded quickly. He could use it three times, but each use would drain his mana supply more and more.

But he didn't think he would need to heal.

Because he could feel something changing in his body. The way he used fighting spirit had been evolving during this entire journey.

When you enhance something, you have to enhance it with intention.

You don't enhance a sword to protect it; you sharpen the edge of the blade with your spirit to cut through any defense.

And he was starting to find the places in his legs that yielded the best rewards with enhancement.

He bounced between Ramona's great palms and dodged as spikes appeared between her long arms. He even started jumping against those spikes as he made his way towards her.

Ramona seemed to realize she couldn't stop him and fell apart into a swirling cloud of sand.

Percy raised his Spellbolt, aiming at the center of the yellow storm and firing. He followed the shot immediately after.

That was because Ramona's sand form parted like the ocean to avoid the disabling shot, giving him a path to escape. Now that he wasn't surrounded by her hands and body, he got back to shooting.

The sand cloud flowed through the cavern, dodging each shot with eerie fluidity before returning to her human form and sending another massive palm of sand at him.

"Why'd you change back?" he asked as he dodged. "Did it hurt to fully become sand?"

Ramona grimaced, doing her best to hide her pain. She brought down a fist that missed him, but the shockwaves pushed him back. Seeing that he was off balance, she immediately attacked.

Another pillar of sand that made the air wail as it shot forward like a bullet train.

But Percy was in a whole different realm of perception right now.

His ability to move the enhancement of his fighting spirit around had grown as he fought.

One moment he was enhancing his legs with 100% of his fighting spirit, the next moment he was enhancing his eyes fully.

It was similar to what he felt when he fought the Ashfang lizards, like his body was a sloshing bottle of fire. If he moved his leg, the fire responded to his will and fully enhanced that leg.

His left leg touched the ground first, and it was practically bursting with power, allowing him to jump aside in an instant. Ramona's eyes widened as his speed jumped up dramatically.

But he wasn't done.

His right leg tapped the ground and he was moving forward, suddenly face to face with her, a drunken smile on his face as he stared into her eyes.

Before she could even raise a sandy finger, he shot her in the chest before sliding to a stop behind her.

The feeling of intoxication was overwhelming. He was so obsessed with himself right now.

He turned back to watch Ramona's face crumple as she struggled to keep her body together. That dulled his excitement a little, but there was no choice.

He turned to the circular stone altar at the center of the room, walking up to it as his eyes studied every line of the circles drawn into it. He had never seen anything like this before today.

But he would need to completely hijack it for his own purposes.

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