With his body getting weakened slowly, Ben knows he needs to finish this battle fast before his body gets paralyzed completely. He also can't replenish his MP here without any sunlight or fire.
"Hmm? Wait! Can I eat gravity?" ponders Ben when he realizes that he has a gravity element.
He never thought of this before because he never find the need to do it. He always has the access to sunlight and his MP capacity is quite big. So he doesn't need to replenish it that often in battles.
"There's only one way to find out," says Ben.
Ben opens his mouth and bites the air like when he eat sunlight. He set his intention to eat the gravity power that is available everywhere. However, nothing happens after he takes a bite.
"Eh? It's not working. What's wrong with-"
*BOOM*
A big dark energy bomb suddenly explodes in front of Ben. He was too distracted by his thought and didn't realize the incoming attack. Ben gets fling back, but he is fine and can stabilize himself.
"Shit, there's no time for that. I can think of a way to replenish my MP later. They need to be defeated first," says Ben while sliding backward.
Ben still has 1/2 of his full MP now, but he needs to finish this fast. Plasma Mode takes a lot of his MP and it will keep taking more of his MP. The remaining 3 enemies won't be easy to defeat, so half of his MP capacity is not much.
The Metepedes move toward him, so Ben thinks of a simple strategy. He set his priority to kill the 2 S-Class before targetting Grossalia. She is the most troublesome, so he needs to make sure that she won't have any help.
Ben rushes to the 2 S-Class Metepedes while keeping tabs on Grossalia. She might use a surprise attack again like before. Her attacks so far were very powerful and her poison is the most dangerous of all her attacks.
The 2 S-Class Metepedes crawl at fast speed toward Ben. But when they meet with Ben, they move in different directions. One of them moves up, while the other get underground.
Ben can't chase the one who digs the ground, so he jumps to the one who moves up. He grabbed the body of that Metepede using his sharp left claws. Ben's claws can pierce the carapace, but it is very thick that his fingers can't touch the flesh.
It's not a problem though because he just needs to grab it. Ben then clenches his right hand into a fist and an orange magic circle appears on his fist.
"Sun Dragon's Plasma Fist!"
Ben punches the Metepede's carapace with all his strength. But his punch is just strong enough to crack the carapace. He wants to punch again, but the other Metepede comes out from the ground and moves toward him with its fangs covered with dark magic.
Ben ignore it and punch again to break the carapace. He breaks it right before the other Metepede reaches his position. The Metepede that gets its carapace broken wriggle in pain and make the other Metepede's attack miss.
It's a good chance, so Ben shapes his hand like a spear and stabs the Metepede's body. Then he raises his hand's temperature and releases the plasma energy. The energy release creates a big impact and the heat burn the Metepede's flesh.
"SCREECH!" screams the Metepede's in pain.
The other Metepede and Grossalia move to attack Ben while he's burning the Metepede's flesh. Grossalia makes a big dark energy blade from the front, while the other Metepede attack from the other side.
The other Metepede bites the Metepede that gets attacked by Ben to stop it from wriggling. They want to sacrifice this Metepede to kill Ben using Grossalia's dark energy blade.
The dark energy blade moves at fast speed toward Ben. But before it hit Ben, he jumps down very fast. The dark energy blade doesn't stop and hit the Metepede that gets its carapace broken.
*SWISH*
Without its carapace, the Metepede can't defend the blade at all. Its body gets cut easily by the blade and the blade even passes through to cut the other Metepede that holds its sibling in place.
Grossalia's dark energy blade is very strong that it cut the 2 S-Class Metepedes at once. It even goes as far as making a big cut on the ceiling. She killed her own children but failed to kill Ben.
"Well, thanks for your help, I guess," says Ben with a mocking tone.
Grossalia fumes in anger as she failed to kill Ben, but she killed her own children instead. Those 2 Metepedes are her strongest children. Now she is alone and doesn't have another troop left.
"ARGH, HATEFUL HUMAN! YOU MAKE ALL MY CHILDREN DIE," screams Grossalia in anger.
"Huh? You're the one who killed those 2, not me. I just killed the other guys," says Ben in protest.
"SHUT UP! IF YOU DIDN'T MOVE, THEN THEY WON'T DIE," says Grossalia.
"Don't be unreasonable! As if I'll let myself get hit by that blade. I still want to live," says Ben.
"ARGH! I'LL KILL YOU, DEFINITELY KILL YOU NOW," screams Grossalia.
Grossalia suddenly releases a massive MP and it makes Ben flinches. She is stronger than what he sensed before and has more MP. She hides her full power quite well and now she releases it all.
"Damn, she is a top-tier S-Class creature. She must be the strongest magical creature that I have ever faced. This is bad, with my remaining MP, this battle will be hard. I need to go to the surface to get sunlight," says Ben with a shocked expression.
Grossalia is stronger than Ben predicted. She is still a high-leveled S-Class creature, but her MP almost reaches the limit of S-Class and almost reaches SS-Class. MP doesn't represent battle power, but it's still a big factor in battle.
Ben has categorized the ranks above S-Class. He makes the SS-Class & SSS-Class make things easier. S-Class has MP from 100,000 to 200,000. SS-Class has MP from 200,000 to 300,000. SSS-Class has MP from 300,000 to 500,000.
The SSS-Class has a bigger range because Ben put them as the strongest. He can't find the limit for it, so he put it at 500,000. Besides, he never meets any creature above his S-Class category. So he can't divide the ranks perfectly.
It might be too high or too low, but it's a good standard for him to use when he faces an enemy. At least he will be able to judge his winning chance by categorizing them with these ranks.
[Name: Ben Cooper
Age: 15
Status: Alive
MP: 149,651/149,651
STR: 206
AGI: 201
STA: 219
INT: 232]
Ben has around 150,000 MP, so he is a mid-level S-Class based on his own categories. He doesn't know about Dragons, but he predicted that they are above SSS-Class. Not to mention Gods who are said to be stronger than Dragons.
He can't even imagine how many MP points that the dragons have. But Ben knows he needs to reach that level one day. His target is Acnologia, so unless he reaches that level, he will never win.
Ben focuses on Grossalia again and decides to go to the surface. He moves while Grossalia is still in her rage. Ben looks at the hole where he came from and immediately jumps there.
"As if I'll face that monster down here," says Ben as he jumps to the hole.
______________________________________________________________
You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 113 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 124 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)