Chapter 42: Two in the bag
'shit... What do I do?' Tom asked himself, seeing the horde of wind blades coming toward him.
He didn't think he would be in such a situation when he lunged at the creature. His current situation was quite alarming since the wind blades were coming even faster than when the creature shot them. He had, at best, a couple of seconds to get the hell out of there.
It could be said that his opponent had him good, but not only that, Tom had also underestimated him. Hearing that the monkey was only one level above Mooglie, Tom thought it would be easy to defeat. Unfortunately, his opponent not only had experience in combat but also had a great mastery of his astralum coupled with excellent control of his etherium. This allowed him to put Tom in this dire situation, where, if he didn't act, he risked losing his life in a gruesome manner.
During the few seconds he had before the blades reached him, Tom desperately racked his brain to find the best solution to escape this dire situation. However, the only solution he kept coming back to was using his astralum of time.
The problem was that he wasn't sure if his astralum of time would allow him to stop these attacks. Unlike the stones he had been training with, this time, what he needed to stop was wind. How was he supposed to stop the wind?
'No, it should be possible. The first time I stopped time in the café, there were also elemental attacks in the mix that I managed to halt.'
His only regret at this moment was that he wished he didn't have to resort to his astralum of time during this fight. He had wanted to train to fight using only his Etherium to improve his control over this energy. But the current situation was far from a game, and he couldn't risk losing his life just because he wanted to train to control his etherium better.
So, Tom concentrated and prepared to use his time astralum the moment the horde of wind blades got within the range of activity of his Astralum.
However, he also knew that he had a short window of opportunity if he wanted to escape. Like with the crystal projectiles from the other creature he fought, he could only slow the wind blades. If he wasn't fast enough, using his astralum would be useless, and he would get shredded.
When the wind blades entered the range of his time astralum, Tom slowed them down. But since they were coming at great speed to begin with, they were going to cover the seven meters between them and Tom in a matter of a second.
Tom knew this. That's why, before even activating his astralum, he directed his Etherium toward his legs and jumped with all his might the moment he activated his astralum.
Crack
He used so much power that the ground beneath his feet creaked.
Fortunately, he managed to get out of the encirclement of wind blades just in time. In the air, Tom looked down to see the wind blades colliding with each other and canceling each other out.
However, when he saw the location where he had been standing just moments before, his blood ran cold. On the ground, exactly his last location, there were marks of countless clean cuts spanning at least ten meters in all directions.
'That's good that I decided to jump instead of remaining on the ground. Even when using Etherium, I doubt I could survive such an attack,' thought Tom as he started to descend.
'Where is it?' Tom asked himself when he couldn't see the creature anymore.
'Where did it go-' Just as he asked himself where it was, he spotted the monkey-like creature running at top speed toward the mountain peak.
Unbeknownst to Tom the moment the monkey-like saw that its attack failed to kill him, it already knew that it couldn't beat him, at least not in its current state. Since it had used all its Etherium to make that last attempt to kill Tom, its reserves were depleted. So, it knew that facing Tom was literally a death sentence.
It didn't know how this strange creature managed to escape its ultimate move, but it knew it wasn't due to luck. So, there was no way it was going to stick around anymore. It was best to retreat to the tribe and inform the higher-ups of what it had witnessed.
'Oh no, you aren't going anywhere. I can't let you spoil my plans,' thought Tom, realizing the creature's intention.
Tom's entire plan was to defeat the members of the special unit sent one by one. However, if this one managed to return to its tribe, there might be several members of the unit sent next time, and that was the worst scenario he could imagine since he wasn't yet strong enough to face multiple opponents.
Tom used his Etherium to protect himself from the landing. The next moment, he started chasing after the creature at full speed.
'If only Mooglie could intercept it,' thought Tom. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Since the creature had taken a different route from when descending from the mountain peak, Mooglie was far from it. In fact, Tom was even closer to the creature than Mooglie, so it was up to him to catch it.
The creature, running with all its might, succeeded in approaching the mountain peak. It was just hundreds of meters from the peak, but unfortunately for it, since it didn't use Etherium to boost its speed, Tom easily caught up to it and even managed to get ahead of it.
"In a hurry? Why don't you stay a little longer so we can get to know each other?" said Tom mockingly to the monkey.
Seeing that it was finally caught up and that it didn't have any choice but to fight, the monkey-like creature brandished its spear and charged at him with all its strength, striking with its spear.
Unfortunately for it, in its current state, its strength wasn't substantial, so there was no way that its attack would land on Tom.
Tom swiftly evaded the spear, concentrated a great deal of his Etherium in his right arm, but when he was about to punch a counter-attack, he retracted his arm and distanced himself from the creature.
The creature looked confused, not understanding why Tom didn't punch and decided himself, was it that this strange creature without fur was going to spare it?
Unfortunately for the monkey, the reason Tom retracted his arm was that he judged that, since the creature wasn't protecting itself with Etherium, it might sustain heavy wounds if he punched with that much strength. He wanted a valid subordinate, not an incapacitated one after all, so it was best not to Injure it severely.
He adjusted his strength and lunged at the monkey with full speed, and before it knew what was happening, Tom delivered a serious punch to its abdomen, making the monkey faint on the spot.
'Well, that's two in the bag,' thought Tom, looking at the monkey out cold on the ground.
A few minutes later, Mooglie finally caught up and found that the fight was over.
He approached Tom, but when he saw the grin on Tom's face, he knew that Tom was scheming something he wouldn't be happy about.
"Oh...you are here, good. Since you came after everything is over, it's your duty to carry this one back."
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