Chapter 24: Battle (1)
The impact of the sword striking the creature's crystalline skin sent Tom tumbling backward. As he rolled and scrambled to his feet, he realized the precariousness of his situation. There was no easy escape; the creature's rapid crystal projectiles blocked his retreat. Even if he were to employ his Astralum of Time, fleeing was not an option.
Tom knew he had no choice but to face the creature in battle, and his heart sank as he looked at his broken sword, now utterly useless.
With no other option, Tom had to resolve to battle the creature with his bare hands, relying on his skills as a Focuser to defeat it. As the creature once again began to launch crystal projectiles at him, Tom had to evade them, but this time, he couldn't use his Astralum of Time freely.
His Astralum depleted quickly, and if he ran out of Etherium, he knew he would lose the battle. So, he decided to use his Astralum only when his speed alone wouldn't suffice to evade the projectiles – in the most perilous situations.
For a brief moment, the creature paused its assault to observe Tom. During this short respite, Tom took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, his face betrayed an unusual calmness.
It wasn't the calmness of fearlessness, but rather a determination to fight, regardless of the outcome. He fixed his gaze upon the strange crystal creature, which was about to unleash another salvo of projectiles. In his mind, he thought, 'I'll go all out. At least in this case, I won't regret the outcome.'
As soon as he had this thought, the creature attacked again, hurling a new barrage of crystals. Etherium flowed from his core to his lower body as Tom moved and ran to avoid the projectiles.
He began circling around the creature, taking advantage of its slowness, intending to attack from behind before it could turn around. But this plan was thwarted by the nature of the creature's attack.
As the projectiles emerged from its crystalline skin, it could fire them from any angle, even behind itself. The creature decided to shoot projectiles at Tom while turning.
This perplexed Tom. He wondered, 'How can it shoot with such precision from behind when its eyes are in the front?' Tom decided to investigate further. While dodging the projectiles, he focused on the creature's back, hoping to find a clue. However, he found nothing suspicious. Tom couldn't waste any more time on this puzzle, though.
Once the creature had almost turned to face him, Tom ceased running in a circle around it. Instead, he moved from side to side, avoiding the projectiles as before. Some of the projectiles came dangerously close, causing small cuts and scratches.
These were minor injuries, but coming from such sharp projectiles, they stung. Tom kept moving, determined not to stay in one place for more than a second.
"Damn... these projectiles may be small, but they hurt," he muttered under his breath. Despite the pain, Tom persevered, continuously dodging the incoming crystals. The creature, sensing Tom's persistent presence, decided to escalate the situation. It began launching projectiles with greater velocity.
Seeing the creature's reaction, Tom wore a smug grin and thought, "Finally."
Tom himself was in quite a dire state, sporting numerous cuts across his body. Despite the durability of his training attire, it couldn't withstand the creature's razor-sharp projectiles. His training outfit was now adorned with small cuts. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel somewhat content. He had been able to confirm his suspicion.
There were two reasons why Tom had spent all this time engaging in a hide-and-seek game with the creature. The first reason was that he didn't want to find himself face to face with the creature if he ever got close enough to strike it.
He reasoned that the creature's claws, which he was sure would be as sharp if not sharper than its projectiles, were a danger he'd rather avoid. Hence, he preferred to attack the creature from behind, which was why he conditioned it to believe he would always try to position himself there.
This strategy irritated the creature to the point where it refused to turn around, thinking he would just run and position himself behind it again.
The second reason was to observe what would happen to the creature's crystalline skin if it kept launching projectiles continuously. When Tom realized that the creature was using its own skin to create these projectiles, he couldn't help but wonder what would occur if the creature kept firing one crystal after another.
In his mind, it simply made no sense for a creature to be able to launch an endless stream of projectiles without suffering any consequences. Even though nothing seemed to make much sense since his arrival in this world – including the fact that he possessed two Astralums – it would be pushing the limits of believability for creatures to shoot projectiles indefinitely.
Tom was confident that even the elk he had battled earlier would eventually reach a point where it could no longer launch tooth projectiles if their battle had dragged on. So, during their entire battle, Tom never closed in on the creature and instead focused on evading and running, forcing the creature to fire more and more projectiles.
Finally, after several minutes of flirting with death – quite literally – his theory had proven to be correct. It might not have been immediately noticeable, but upon close inspection of the creature's crystalline skin, one could see that it had become thinner!
That would also explain why the crystal creature occasionally took breaks to perfectly pinpoint Tom's position before starting to fire. After all, if it had infinite ammunition, why bother aiming? Tom wasn't 100% certain, but he was quite sure that's why the projectiles launched by the creature were becoming more powerful and faster.
Now that it was losing weight, the creature couldn't afford to prolong the battle. Tom's smirk grew even wider, and he spoke while narrowly avoiding a particularly fast projectile heading toward his head.
"Do you want to finish the fight quickly? Why? I think we're having fun," he wasn't sure if the creature understood what he was saying, but he hoped his voice would be particularly annoying to it.
The crystal creature couldn't comprehend what the irritating pest wanted, but it was annoyed by his mocking tone. So, it launched even faster and more powerful projectiles!
"Crap!"
Tom's smirk vanished when he saw the projectiles coming even faster towards him. Since he didn't anticipate this sudden acceleration of the projectiles, he had to use his astralum of time for a brief moment to dodge the deadly projectile.
"I think I really got under its skin this time," he thought, chuckling.
And so, for several minutes, the creature did nothing but attack with its crystal projectiles while Tom did his best to evade them. At certain moments, he had to resort to his astralum of time to escape truly dangerous situations. It seemed that as time passed, the creature's skin became thinner, and it wanted to end the fight quickly, so it launched increasingly powerful projectiles.
It had even started firing in Tom's direction without bothering to aim, showing how eager it was to finish the battle swiftly. It was precisely this that had caused Tom more injuries despite the help of his astralum. Worse yet, as his injuries increased, he lost more blood, and he began to feel exhausted. At this point, his battle with the crystal creature had turned into a war of attrition.
"Come on, faster"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone