Chương 52: Battle (3)

Tom's body made an audible 'whoosh' as a powerful blow struck his ribs. The impact was so forceful that it sent him hurtling through the air, his form arcing gracefully before he crashed on a tree trunk, again.

However, contrary to the first time he crashed against a tree, this time it was more forcefully and brutal.

'Arg... I think that some of my ribs broke' thought Tom, sliding off from the tree trunk and landing on his feet's, he staggered a little but soon stabilized himself.

Feeling a bead of blood tracing a path down his chin, he wiped it away, contemplating, 'I suppose Mooglie was correct; he is indeed dangerous.'

Tom then looked toward his opponent that seemed to be a little surprised that he still looked somewhat fine even after taking the full brunt of his blow.

"I guess I'm a more tough than you thought huh ?" provoked Tom with a grin, making it seem like he was fine.

However, beneath his tough front he was actually a little distressed, and why wouldn't he be ?, he had a few broken ribs while their fight lasted no more than one minute, even more unnerving was the fact that he just took two blows and didn't even know how he was hit.

'The fact that he is disappearing right before my eyes imply that his astralum either allows him to teleport or move extremely fast' reasoned Tom while observing his opponent that was once again charging towards him.

As the wisemonkey approached him, Tom calmed himself and extended his senses outward, trying to see through the etherium around him, as he did so, his opponent came upon him and threw another blow directed at his head.

Tom used his etherium to enhance his arms, and without hesitation, he formed an X-shaped barrier with his forearms to protect his face.

However, just before the fist of the wisemonkey landed he disappeared from sight, but this time Tom was prepared, he couldn't see what happened with his eyes, but who said that he needed his eyes in the first place ?

Although everything happened so fast, Tom still managed to see everything that happened because he was looking through the etherium around him.

What he saw was the wisemonkey retracting his hand just when it was about to land on Tom, then circled around him and got behind the latter while delivering another punch directed at his back, all of this happened in barely two seconds, making Tom immediately understand that his opponent astralum allowed him to boost his speed.

He could clearly see all of this happening, however, it was not because he could see the blow coming at him that he would be able to stop it, no, the wisemonkey was still coming with such speed that the only thing he could do was use his etherium to protect his back.

When the blow landed on him, Tom was sent flying toward another tree again, but fortunately, since he was prepared for the collision and protected his back with his etherium he managed to stop himself and didn't crash against the tree this time around.

Although he managed to stop himself and equally managed to minimize the damage he received, Tom still felt a searing pain coming from his back, making him understand that if he were to get strike a few more times on his back, his spin might be damaged and that was the worst case for him as it would cripple him.

'That can't continue, I need to figure a way to stop him' thought Tom, finally recognizing the grim situation he was in, the worst was that he couldn't even run away as his opponent was faster than him and would definitely catch him, well, not that he had plans to ditch the fight as he knew that this would condemn his subordinates.

***

As Tom was struggling with his opponent, another battle was happening, this one was between tom subordinates and those of his opponent.

At first, when the two armies crashed one against another, it was Tom's subordinates that were on the losing end as their opponent's number was quite overwhelming even for such an elite unit, they had to fight one against two and sometimes that was three against, the situation looked quite dire and one might think that mooglie and the others would lose the battle.

However, as time passed, it was actually the opposite of the expected outcome that happened.

Due to their experience and strength, Tom's subordinates managed to gain the upper hand in their battles and started pushing back their opponents.

Quickly the number of the wisemonkies that came from the mountain summit started to wane as they were defeated, however there was something strange happening, and that thing was that despite the furious and brutal way the two sides fought, there was not a single death on neither side of the battle.

That strange phenomenon resulted in the fact that the wisemonkies were a united bunch, even when they were on two completely different sides, they never killed one of their kin, that was actually something that Tom appreciated about the wisemonkies as he didn't want to ever see his subordinates killing each other.

***

As Tom's subordinates were winning the fight on their side of the battlefield, it was opposite that was happening on Tom's side as he stood with blood covering his training clothes that actually looked more like a rag doll as it was littered with small cuts.

Tom had dark bruises all over his arms, torso, back and even on his legs, all those bruises were caused by non-other than his opponent who looked completely fine, which was a normal thing since Tom never managed to land a blow on him.

Tom was actually taking the beating of life, when he tried to attack he always failed as his opponent simply moved out of the way with a speed that Tom couldn't quite match, and when it was the wisemonkey turn to attack his blows always landed, even though Tom could see the blow coming by using the etherium around him as his eyes, he just wasn't fast enough to either counter or avoid them, resulting in his current state.

Cough Cough

Tom coughed blood as he took another punch right on his gut, resulting in him getting thrown back several meters behind.

The absolute worst of his current situation was that, due to the fact that he was taking such a beating, his speed of reaction and movements dropped significantly, making it harder to avoid or even block his opponent bunch.

'I will actually die if this goes on' thought Tom as he felt his whole body ache from top to bottom.

The only solution Tom could think of was actually using his Time astralum to stop or at least slow down his opponent, thus giving him an edge in this harrowing battle.

However, there was an obvious flaw in Tom's plan, and that was that he still couldn't use his astralum on a living being.

'I guess I don't have a choice, it's either I succeed or I die' thought Tom as he activated his astralum and the temporal flow came upon his view.