The maiden attacking me isn't stupid. Instead of killing itself from the rebound damage from my [Ring of Thorns], it decides to pivot its attention to Duchess.

  Sensing the shift, Duchess casts the spell [Flash], exploding with radiant light like a camera flash.

  The unexpected damage is enough to stun both [Storm Maiden]s for less than a second, but that's better than what I can do. It appears that physical damage, which is essentially the only type of damage I can inflict, is heavily resisted or outright negated.

  Rather than a static value, it feels like my damage is being lowered by a large percentage, since my attack felt like a glancing blow that dealt some, although negligible, damage.

  It's painful enough brunting all the damage, allowing myself to take double damage with [Martyr] doesn't sound like a good idea. There is no situation where I would deactivate the ability and permit one of my tamed creatures to take damage or, gods forbid, perish.

  It felt almost instinctual, the speed at which I ‘de-summon’ Duchess. More accurately, I sent her to the manor using [Beastial Storage]. As she blips away from the world and under my feet, I fall.

  The cloud layer below me falls closer while the wind rips past my ears. What I saw infuriates me beyond words. I can feel my blood pressure elevate as my jaw clenches in rage.

  Both of the maidens had their lances thrust out right where Duchess’s eyes would be.

  Those bitches were aiming for her eyes, those large, deep eyes. If I [Martyr]ed those attacks, and I would've, I could've gone blind. But a temporary maiming isn't what makes me furious. I boasted to my tamed beast, but these creatures treat my 500 levels like it's nothing.

  They would rather try to burst my Duchess’s eyes, fry her brain, and burn her feathers and scales.

  It's a smart move. They'll die before I do if they attack me, but I'll die before Duchess does. So they have to remove her from the equation.

  Fuck math.

  The maidens watch, floating indifferently in the air. I can taste the pompous dignity they try to exude while looking at me falling to my "death.” My resistances are past the point where terminal velocity can hurt me, but I don't even get to that point.

  I activate my boots, allowing me to traverse any surface, and quickly figure out if cloud coverage counts. My back touches the storm layer below as a sink below the angry weather before I rise from the clouds scorned.

  I'm at full health, something the maidens are not. They look down at me… I don't like that. Those degraded bastards should burn away, while the scrap metal that makes their core should be fed to the slimes.

  I taunt them. I spam [Royal Decree] imbued with all the affinities I externalized, so [Madness] and [Pain]. Whether it's the “immunity” to my skill or my underdeveloped attunements, my attempts are annoying at best.

  Which is good.

  They start charging the “island destroyer,” the massive group of crackling lightning I once rudely interrupted moments ago. They are aimed straight down at me.

  I inhale… then exhale. While maintaining unblinking eye contact with the eyeless forms of electricity, I tug on my collar to expose my neck. I don't need to say anything.

  ‘Do it. Let's see who dies first.’

  The beam continues charging, getting brighter and brighter. The blinding light doesn't even sting my retinas as I continue to stare at the attack with open eyes.

  They need to disintegrate me all at once. If they don't, I'll simply heal myself and come at them again and again.

  And even if they do, it's not like my death will simply ignore the fact that my ring would reflect 15% of the damage I took straight back at them. With my bloated health and my [Resistance], over 12,000 damage would be reflected, more so if this attack overkills me.

  And it looks like it might.

  But I inevitably won this game of chicken as the maidens canceled their attack.

  I tried to do a preemptive strike as they descended on me, swinging my sword in their descent path, but they stayed out of my attack range. My reaction speed isn't exactly as fast as lightning at the moment. Stat-wise, I have less agility than the two of them for sure.

  They poke and prod, using their hands and feet rather than their lances. I assume they are trying to see what hurts them and what doesn't. If I were them, I would also be trying to figure out how my damage reflection works.

  The only counter to my ring, if you can call it that, is indirect damage. Hypothetically, if someone punches me, the ring triggers. If someone pushes me off the building, any damage I would take from the push would be reflected, but NOT the damage from landing on the pavement 60 stories below.

  I assume that since that's in the same vein as being thrown and landing really hard, which has never triggered my ring before, and that has happened too many times for me to be comfortable with.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Since my ring is the only thing I personally have that can really threaten them, if they find out indirect damage doesn't reflect, I might be in trouble.

  On an unrelated note, thank the gods, for they did not flee from me. I have no realistic way to keep them around if they decide to flee.

  Is their motive revenge for the elemental slain, or perhaps punishment for the desecration of a holy site? Regardless, I shall see this as a gift from the deceased Maiden of the Storm herself.

  My attacks don't reach them. Even with [Environmental Movement], an elven technique designed for vertical maneuverability, my dashes, jumps, and hops on this uneven cloud top fail to give me the leverage and range for my blade to pierce their bodies.

  This should be infuriating. However, the constant evasion doesn't make me angry. I am not some poor martial artist who uses their body as their only means of attack.

  Since the maidens have some trepidations about fully committing to attacks, I use this opportunity to summon backup. Just because I sent Duchess away doesn't mean I want to fight them solo.

  Speaking of Duchess, she is also resummoned. She appears in her tiny form, fitting nicely on my shoulders. Magic barriers are cast around her as she didn't waste her time in my manor doing nothing.

  Ironically, her priority over her safety is ultimately safer for me. The less damage she takes, the less damage I have to [Martyr] for.

  She was prepared, as soon as she was summoned, she shot a [Ray] at one of the Maidens without looking. They radiate electricity and an audible crackle, but that doesn't make it less of an impressive feat.

  At the end of the day, Duchess’s origin as a ‘boa constrictor-type beast’ makes her an ambush predator.

  The ray of magical light, imbued with [Holy] and [Radiant] magic, shears off a chunk of the Maiden's body before she has a chance to dodge.

  I never timed her light magic to see if her spells actually traveled at the speed of light, but it's certainly faster than lightning. The only reason they could dodge her spells before was that they could anticipate her magic before it finished casting.

  The blast revealed a small chunk of metal.

  I didn't only summon Duchess. All my tamed beasts were on standby as soon as I left Prime Territory waters. The only one not slotted into my [Beastial Storage] skill is Prometheus, because I figured the skies above an ocean would literally be the worst environment for him to be in.

  My [Spirit] stat dictates the number of tamed beasts I can ‘store’ based on their level. With my spirit stat being 1,200+, four of my tamed beasts are constantly at my beck and call.

  Flash Gordon appeared at the exact same time as Duchess, silently. I used [Royal Decree] to get him to instantly attack as soon as he appeared, floating in between me and one of the Maidens.

  It was luck that allowed the Maidens to be targeted separately because if both of my tamed beasts’ attacks landed on one of them, that creature would've died.

  I made no grand gestures, no raised hand or pointed finger. Still in the throes of combat, do my beasts appear.

  Flash Gordon shattered into multiple shards, each sporting different elemental energies that ripped into the Maiden. As a being of pure elemental energy, the conflicting powers clash and surge against each other.

  Similar to a chemical reaction, the structure of the Maiden implodes and bubbles at the entry and exit wounds. It reels in what I can only describe as nerve-scraping pain.

  Nerves send electricity as information and signals through your nervous system. I am not an expert on lightning elementals, but I imagine their entire body could be described as ‘one big nervous system.’

  Without dropping her lance, the creature grips her side and seizes and spasms. I know that pain. Rampaging energies within your body, each vying for dominance without regard for the body's owner.

  If Flash Gordon stayed inside the creature, it probably would've collapsed and lost its structure like a deck of cards. But my attention was elsewhere.

  As soon as I saw the exposed piece of metal, my attention snapped straight to it. I could almost feel my neurons activating at the sight of this creature's weakness.

  Rather than slash at it with my sword, I instinctively grabbed it with my empty hand. My hand clasped around it before the metal had a chance to disappear deeper into the body or turn to lightning.

  Duchess’s full force [Telekinesis] barely kept it in place long enough for me to act. I figured she was attempting to rip the fragment out like one would rip an organ out of someone undergoing active open-heart surgery.

  Touching the shard of a goddess’s divine weapon with my bare hand was one of the most painful things I've ever encountered.

  It was more painful than tanking a Nature Dragon's breath weapon with open wounds, open wounds that came from shredding my flesh against hundreds of feet of brambles and thorns. It was more painful than my body breaking itself down and painstakingly rebuilding itself in what can only be described as a drug overdose. It was more painful than when the energies representing concepts rampaged through my mind, body, and soul like armies, uncaring of the land they left as a war-torn battlefield.

  Greater than one of Master Wang's training sessions.

  Touching the fragment made me keenly aware of the natural electricity inside of me. It made everything involving nerve endings hyperactive.

  I felt every little sensation touching my skin down to the finest detail. Every stitch on my clothes, every drop of sweat, every follicle of hair on my body, even the slightest displacement of air from movement felt vivid.

  Every slightest sensation of heat caused my body to tell my brain that I was literally melting and burning to ash. Every bit of chill sent a conflicting command that I'm turning to ice, slowly and excruciatingly.

  The atmospheric pressure was suffocating me. It felt as if gravity was going to crush me into my boots.

  Everything hurts.

  There is a pain cap. Not a pain threshold, but the maximum amount of pain before your brain and body decide that it's not worth it, and dying or passing out is infinitely better. In addition, multiple conflicting sensations, or multiple sensations in general, can confuse your body into feeling each one less or distract from the sensation giving 'pain.'

  I had no such pleasure.

  My brain was never ‘overloaded.’ My ‘pain cap’ grew as the amount and potency of the hell surrounding me did. As my nerves were supercharged, so was my brain. My perception of time slowed to a crawl.

  Infinite sensations, forever.

  The actual lightning coursing through my insulative flesh was the only thing actively draining my health, but it was one of many that was causing my torment.

  The Fragment tried to leave my grasp, but my motor functions were also hijacked. Every muscle in my body tensed simultaneously. My skin and flesh battle to see who would burst first, whether my muscles would tear off my bones or explode out of my skin.

  My body is too enduring for either outcome, causing more pain.

  The fragment could not leave my clenched fist, even if I wanted it to.