Predictably, the mountain elemental hit quite hard. It swatted Zeke out of the air with barely a thought, and he went flying across the valley for more than a mile before hitting a vertical cliff. He shattered its surface, digging a crater almost ten yards deep before finally coming to a rest.
“Ouch,” he muttered to himself.
“That’s what you get,” Eveline said.
“Not helpful,” Zeke growled, climbing out of the crater and tumbling to the ground thirty feet down. The blow hadn’t truly hurt, and it had done much less damage than might be expected. Even that had been healed by a quick pulse of [Hand of Divinity]. Yet, the sheer disdain with which it had dealt with him was more than a little insulting.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“What? I don’t –”
“I can read your mind. Don’t do what I know you’re thinking of doing,” Eveline persisted. “You’re not thinking of the repercussions. That’s normal for you, but in this case, I think you should try something different and think of the consequences before they smack you in the face. Don’t use [Wrath of Annihilation].”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You definitely were,” she said.
Zeke gritted his teeth, largely because she was right. He’d already begun to funnel mana into the corresponding rune, the flow of which he cut the moment Eveline had spoken. However, in his defense, it made perfect sense. The mountain elementals were incredibly strong, even in the context of being at the peak of the realm. It was only proper that he should hit them with his best shot.
Yet, he knew the dangers of using [Wrath of Annihilation] as well as she did, and the last thing he wanted was to spend weeks in recovery just because he’d picked the wrong fight.
“You’re giving up?”
“What? God, no. I’m just attacking from a different angle.”
Eveline gave a mental shake of her head. “What are you going to do?”
“You remember the cyclops?” he asked.
“How could I forget?”
“Well, elementals don’t have brains, right? But they do have cores. And destroying those cores will kill the monsters. So, the way I see it is that I need to dig my way into their chests, then use something like [Unleash Momentum] or [Titan’s Smash] to break it,” he reasoned. “Simple, right?”
“That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Are you even sure their cores are in their chests?” she asked. “And unless you forgot, those things are the size of literal mountains. Getting to the cores is going to be…”
“Difficult?”
“Impossible.”
“Well, I’m still going to give it a try,” Zeke said, already trotting forward. “And don’t look at me like that.”
“I am an ephemeral mind spirit. I don’t have expressions.”
“That’s not true. The second part, I mean,” Zeke said, leaping as high as possible. This time, he didn’t announce his impending arrival with a shout, which meant that he hit the creature’s chest without having to worry about taking a backhand for his trouble. Then, after latching onto the craggy surface, he brought his hammer to bear, slamming it into the creature’s chest. On his backswing, he said, “You’re doing it again. Thinking at me angrily. C’mon. This’ll be fun. You’ll see.”
“Fun, he says,” she mentally mumbled.
Zeke once again swung his hammer, and the resulting web of cracks was more than a little disappointing. He swung again, and this time, a few pieces came free. Yet, he knew it would be the work of hours to dig a path through the dense stone that comprised the mountain elemental. Oddly, the creature completely ignored his efforts, almost as if Zeke was beneath its notice.
Or like it couldn’t feel the blows.
Both explanations sent a thread of rage wrapping around Zeke’s mind. He’d already become one of the most powerful people in the Eternal Realm, and he would not be ignored. So, he used [Titan’s Smash], which acted as a force multiplier for his attacks. The skill hit with an enormous crash. This time, his efforts carved a deep crevice in the monster’s torso, and even though it was barely more than a scratch, considering the thing’s size, Zeke was more than happy with the results.
So, he did it again.
And again after that. Over and over, he poured mana into the skill. Fortunately, [Titan’s Smash] was a repeatable attack, and though the mana requirement was high, Zeke’s attributes were inflated enough that he could easily deal with the burden. As a result, he quickly dug a deep crater in the creature’s rocky body that it simply could not ignore.
The response was not what Zeke expected, though.
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Even as he stood in the center of the crater he’d dug, spears of rock erupted all around him. One hit him hard enough to send him spinning around, while another impaled him on the sharp point. Still another hit him in the shoulder, and finally, one clipped his head.
He pulsed [Hand of Divinity], healing himself as he continued his assault. Because if there was one thing Zeke knew about himself, it was that he could endure all sorts of agonizing attacks. He’d done so since the very beginning of his journey through his second life, and he didn’t think that would change anytime soon.
Besides, he had tools to deal with it. Not only was he equipped with the pain resistance of a demon, but he could also easily and quickly repair any damage done to him. He wasn’t indestructible – far from it, in fact – but he could endure far more than most, which he’d proven on so many occasions that he’d lost count.
So, Zeke bent his willpower to the task, and gradually, he ripped through the mountain elemental’s rocky body. With instincts born of his newly discovered Battle Intent, he knew precisely where to hit in order to wreak the most havoc. Over and over, he slammed his hammer into the rocky flesh of the mountain elemental. At first, it was slow going, but with every swing of his hammer, Zeke picked up speed until he was going through it like a jackhammer through concrete.
Even so, the creature was the size of a small mountain, meaning that regardless of his pace, he had a long road ahead of him. Zeke sank deep into a workmanlike trance, every ounce of focus on the task before him. At some point, the rocky spears redoubled their efforts, but he hardly noticed it. He didn’t even respond to the attacks, largely because he knew they couldn’t truly injure him.
Knowing that, he refused to be denied.
Long minutes stretched into more than an hour, and he was reminded of his efforts digging through the cyclops’ skull. However, in this instance, the dungeon wasn’t working against him to artificially lengthen the process, so instead of digging for weeks, he only had to keep going for a few hours before he finally arrived at his destination.
The core pulsed with dense mana that was so powerful that it felt like it could strip Zeke’s flesh from his bones.
“That’s exactly what it’s doing,” Eveline pointed out. “You’re just too focused to recognize how much you’re using [Hand of Divinity] to heal yourself.”
Zeke blinked, then looked down at his hand. Every passing second saw a little of his metallic flesh melting away. Unconsciously, he used [Hand of Divinity] to repair the damage before the whole thing repeated.
“Damn,” he said inwardly. “How much energy does this contain?”
“It’s the core of a peak elemental,” she said. “You do the math.”
“Math was never –”
“A lot, Ezekiel. An awful lot.”
For a few more moments, he watched his hand melting, then rebuilding, before he finally decided to do what he’d come to do. So, without further hesitation, he said, “This is definitely going to hurt.”
Then, he reared back and swung his hammer. It hit the core with enough force to level a small hill, and yet, the pulsing yellow core remained completely unblemished. So, he hit it again, but this time, he used [Titan’s Smash]. However, even that had no more of an effect, aside from clearing a little of the surrounding rock away.
He frowned, then switched gears. Channeling a wisp of his Will into [Titan’s Smash], he swung again. And it exploded.
One moment, Zeke was swinging his hammer, and the next, he was flying across the valley as thousands of shards of rock buried themselves in his body. He hit the ground, then tumbled along for a few hundred yards before his momentum was spent. However, when he looked up, he saw something quite troubling.
Hovering over the battlefield was a roiling yellow mass of pure earth-attuned mana. He’d freed the energy from its confinement within the core, but that increasingly looked like it had been quite a bad idea.
“If only someone would have warned you…”
“Shut up,” he said.
“I’m just saying. If –”
“Point taken, Eveline. Now what am I looking at?” he asked, staring at the storm of earth-attuned mana. Before the mind spirit could answer, it exploded, and Zeke was buffeted by a powerful shockwave. He maintained his footing, though, so he had a perfect view of what followed.
Yellow light streaked across the valley, slamming into the boulders strewn across the area. Then, the rocks – big and small alike – started moving. A second later, they were rolling into clumps, and before Zeke could react, a thousand earth elementals were born.
And [Inspect] told him that each one was at the pinnacle of the realm.
Earth Elemental – Level 100
“What the…”
Zeke didn’t have time to finish his exclamation, because a huge, rocky fist slammed into him a second later. He staggered beneath the blow, his body dented and cracked. Then, another hit him. And another after that. Over and over, he was battered with enough force that he had difficulty getting his bearings. Then, finally, he’d had enough.
There wasn’t enough room to swing his hammer, so he lashed out with his fist, imbuing it with [Titan’s Smash]. It hit with characteristic strength, sending one of the earth elementals flying. The thing was the size of a suburban house and made entirely of rock, which meant that it weighed hundreds of tons. So, when it hit the ground a few seconds later, it did so with the force of a fallen meteor.
After that, Zeke laid into the other earth elementals surrounding him. There were dozens of them, and that was nothing compared to what he saw across the valley. To him, what had happened was clear. Upon shattering the mountain elemental’s core, that energy had been unleashed into the surrounding area, infusing all of the rocks with enough energy to become animate.
In short, he had traded one enormous enemy for countless smaller ones. And that wasn’t even considering that he still had two other mountain elementals to deal with.
“You might have been right,” he said to Eveline once he’d gotten a little space. “This time. Don’t let it go to your head, though.”
“Never,” she said, giving the impression of a slight smirk. “What are you going to do?”
“What do you think? I’m going to smash all of these things to bits, then repeat the process until everything is dead.”
“Such an eloquent, well-considered plan,” Eveline said.
“You have a better idea?”
“My better idea was to not fight them in the first place,” she pointed out. “This isn’t going to be worth the trouble. The amount of kill energy you stand to gain is miniscule compared to if you fought hordes of lower-leveled enemies.”
Zeke knew she was right. While he enjoyed getting huge chunks of kill energy from defeating higher-level foes, it wasn’t nearly as efficient as fighting many weaker enemies. However, engaging with more powerful opponents was far more satisfying.
Without further consideration, Zeke put his plan – simple though it was – into action and began carving his way across the valley. Though they were the same level as the mountain elementals, the smaller earth elementals were much weaker and far less durable. Still, because of their attunement, they were still tough nuts to crack. So, Zeke knew the battle would not be short-lived.
“Oh, it’s worse than that, Ezekiel. You’re probably going to have to repeat the process with both of the other mountain elementals,” Eveline said. “Good luck.”