CHAPTER 170
As the rock left his hand, Tom empowered his spell to impart both the maximum speed and weight on the object and it cracked into the elemental’s chest. It was like a hammer hitting glass. Cracks spread out from where the granite had lodged itself deep into the stone.
There was the crunching sound that he interpreted as tons of rock grumbling in fury or, possibly on second thought, pain.
Either cause worked for him.
He had its solitary focused attention. In the tutorial, he would have pressed the attack and closed, but here he had allies, so he danced away from the creature and it turned to follow him. Internally, he grinned as its killing focus struck him. His experience letting him interpret the emotions of something as alien as an elemental. It was a monster, and it was furious at the tiny flesh and blood creature that had hurt it.
Out of academic interest, he grabbed another chunk of stone at the ground and launched it. This time he used his precise aim to target one of the deep cracks that his tier three granite had opened up and it had yet to heal.
The rock he threw was nowhere near as fast as the first one that had shattered without hurting the monster, but there was a crack in its outer skin and his Skill enhanced aim had the stone slamming into the open fissure he had targeted.
There was a thump, and then a moment of silence before the massive rock elemental shuddered. It rumbled in a way that Tom was now certain indicated pain.
Tom’s battle instinct kicked in.
Without hesitation, he released four fate points. Two were directed to act as pre-emptive spoilers in case it bent its fate against him. It only had twenty of the stuff, so a modest expenditure this early in the battle should counter its entire pool if used offensively. Spend early and specifically and reap the massive discount that action generated was his philosophy.
The remaining fate was insurance to protect himself directly against bad luck. It would act only to save his life, it would not help prevent an injury or act to allow him to hurt his enemies. In the tutorial, he had used this pattern for thousands of battles, and it had only activated a handful of times.
With fate neutralised, he focused on the physical fight. It was going to go on the offensive in response to those twin blows, so he sprinted away, using lightning feet to speed his retreat.
It swung a single massive appendage at him. It was sort of like a scorpion stinger but had folded out of its central mass in a way that it shouldn’t have. Magic, or more precisely, a racial skill that gave the earth elemental the ability to shape its own body. The tail, whip, stinger extended faster than it should have. Calculations flowed in his brain and he flared Lightning Steps further to increase the gap between him and it and considered whether he needed to use fate more aggressively.
Behind him, there was a crash as the limb slammed into the ground.
There was a resounding boom.
Shrapnel exploded out of the crushed rock. Bits of it slapped into him. His toughened skin weathered the attack unharmed, with the insignificant exception of some slight stinging across his arms and exposed neck. His armoured legs and torso were completely untouched.
Tom smiled as it withdrew its limb. Fate wasn’t necessary. With the group of them fighting, it shouldn’t be required.
He sprinted away and tracked it by listening to it as it followed him.
It stopped.
Battle instinct kicked into place and he leapt sideways. A chunk of the local landscape went whizzing past his nose and he examined the elemental. The damage he had done to its chest had closed, but it was still focused on him.
With a thought, another of the tier three throwing stones appeared in his hand and he mimed a throw just to see how it would react.
The monster swung the arm; it had manifested to toss the boulder, to cover the spot he had hit previously.
Tom smiled to himself.
He definitely had the creature’s attention, and his abilities could hurt it. If he was fighting it alone, it would be a long but a winnable fight even without fate twisting the battle in his favour. But he was not isolated and by himself he had allies. He reminded himself of that.
He had friends or at least acquaintances he corrected thinking of the killers that would bring fate to bear against the enemy.
With his lips turning up slightly, Tom forced it into a standoff. Whenever it went to move forward, he would mime launching the missile in his hand and it would sink back into a defensive stance.
Ten, twenty, thirty seconds. It was enough time for the rest of the team to coordinate and he knew they were strategising their options but Everlyn had sensibly turned off the party chat so he wouldn’t be distracted at a key moment.
The elemental shifted, its internal structure grinding… it sounded like rocks screaming. The creature went to shift its attention to behind it, but Tom immediately raised his arms and it was like he had released a taunt. The monster’s awareness refocused upon him. Tom concentrated exclusively on the deadly enemy in front of him. He knew how fast it could move, how quick its whip like limb could be deployed not to mention the danger of the missiles that it could throw. But while he concentrated on the elemental to ensure there were no unexpected attacks, he noticed movement behind the monster. Thor smacked his hammer into its back and then prudently leapt away before realising it had not retaliated and so he danced forward to repeat the strike.
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Tom relaxed ever so slightly. This was teamwork. He stood there and pretended to be scary while the others whittled away at its health. Tom couldn’t wait to see what Keikain could unleash against a monster like this. Sven, well Tom wasn’t quite sure of his capacity in this sort of fight. Swords and cheap tricks with the earth didn’t seem like the most useful tool kit against an Earth Elemental constructed of tier one or above rock.
Harry, on the other hand had the flexibility to be active.
“Harry?” he whispered.
“I’m creating an energy drain. I need another minute.”
“Agreed.”
Tom passionately supported the choice of that ritual. Against something like this, an energy drain could have a compounding impact. It was amusing in how controversial the ritual choice had been originally, how people had claimed it was too restrictive to be useful. Yet despite those naysayers, it had proven to be worth every contribution point that had been invested into it. Harry had an excellent head on his shoulders. The longer the battle went the more powerful it would become. Something like an elemental was using its internal energy to shift heavy rock. It was not a flesh and blood creature and would not have the energy to spare. Providing Tom could lead it to the right spot. He had no doubt that the ritual would cut the fight time in half and potentially outright cripple the monster.
There was more grinding of rock as its attention wavered from Tom. He took three quick steps forward to provoke it. There was a flicker of movement and he was springing backwards.
The same scorpion slam attempt as earlier was unleashed, and the rock splintered behind him.
It jerked toward him and then transitioned into a charge. Apparently, it was over the stalemate and wanted to eliminate him as soon as possible.
Tom ran.
“Duck.”
He instantly threw himself to the ground in response to Everlyn’s order. There was a whoosh, and he felt a gust of wind as an object shot through where his chest had been.
Shit, he thought to himself. How had it done that? How had it transitioned from charging him to throwing.
With a curse at himself for failing to watch the monster, he leapt to his feet. He saw another rock coming, but a sidestep took him to safety. More cautiously than previously, Tom retreated. He jumped backwards from spot to spot to allow him to monitor his enemy the whole time.
That was too close. He cursed. Internally, his heart thumped.
Everlyn’s warning… sweat ran down his face. She had not saved his life because he had his emergency teleport from his class available and two fate that would have been enough to cause him to slip to avoid that stone… but… The intervention definitely gave her bragging rights and reminded him how out of sorts he was at the moment.
The stones it threw were a problem and now that he had more data he could see it was sucking them up from underneath it as it ran. It was the only ability that threatened him when there was no need to close with it.
Tom baited each throw.
It was ridiculously easy. He would wait till it had a rock and an even stretch of ground in front of him. Then he would turn his back and use his dagger’s surface as a mirror. For a few strides, he would pretend to run blind till it threw, and then he would dodge the missile. It also helped that each time it threw it had to slow down slightly. Those mini pauses meant it was easy for Tom to gain distance in what would otherwise be a tighter calculation. It was difficult to travel fast over uneven ground when you were going backwards.
“Bring it around Tom.” Harry ordered.
Because he had the space and it had no rocks in its arms Tom snuck a peek away from his enemy and found Harry waving at him.
“On my way,” he promised.
It was easy enough for him to lead it over the right spot and then, by turning to face it and threatening to throw one of his special tier three granite constructions he forced it into a halt with a spray of pebbles as it decelerated abruptly. It was right on top of the ritual.
The fight was easy now that he understood its strengths and weaknesses.
He mimed another throw, then a threatening step. Each action got a response from the monster, but at all points he stayed far enough away not to provoke it into movement. It was futile. After about thirty seconds, it jerked forward to charge him down.
Tom ran. A knife held up to his eyes. Step to the side. Wait till the rock hurtled past him. Keep running, then duck and sprint forward once again.
It was all very mundane.
His route was a circle that returned it to the same spot each time and another artificial standoff. It was a boring fight. He stood miming throws at it and counting the seconds down.
Twenty-four, Twenty-five… it rushed at him.
Too early, Tom thought to himself. He needed to punish that. This time he didn’t mime the throw and his rock landed with devastating impact.
Then he repeated their strange almost choreographed dance.
When it was on the draining ritual, no one attacked, but even with those tricks the longest he could hold it there was about forty seconds.
The elemental for all of its initial risk was just another monster, so once he had its counter attack patterns memorised he could force it to have its energy drained for the full forty seconds every time. Most importantly, it moved noticeably slower after each drainage cycle.
Tom kept threatening to throw the rock, and it continued to shift its arms to block it. The forty seconds were well and truly up and it hadn’t launched itself at him.
“I think you can start attacking.” Tom yelled out. From what he had observed, it was no longer moving because it was out of energy, not because of strategical genius or ploys on its part. He was pretty sure such reasonings were beyond the monster.
His companions descended upon it. There was the crunch of Thor’s hammer. The crack of Keikain’s stone spike attack, the distinctive whistling of an air missile and the crack of Everlyn’s bow.
The elemental rumbled dangerously. It was a sign that the deluge of strikes had caused it pain. Rather than springing away like it had previously or spinning to face the people attacking its vulnerable back, it did nothing. The strikes continued.
Its attention noticeably wavered, and it began to turn.
Throw rock.
With a satisfying crunch, the stone embedded deep within it. A massive crack spread out in all directions.
The entire elemental rumbled furiously.
It faced him, but not to fight. That much was clear from its layout. It had a single large arm with a defensive disc of rock fused to the end that was ready to intercept anything he launched rather than holding a rock that could be used offensively.
He could hear the repetitive crunches of Thor’s blows as he attacked it from the back. An occasional groan of rock as Keikain’s magic landed.
Yet the creature did not turn to face that threat. It was too worried about Tom. And he happily kept pretending to throw his rock, making it flinch and move its shield each time.
While it was still ridiculously durable. It was not a danger to the group of them, really it had never been a genuine threat. Its perception only went in one direction and it was ponderously slow and, because of its low rank had been unable to multitask when attacked by several attackers at once. Those detrimental aspects ended up making it a surprisingly simple fight, Tom’s earlier lapse of concentration aside.
There was a rush of experience.
Thor yelled in triumph. “Foolish monster. Don’t challenge Thor, because you’ll be found wanting.”
Everyone laughed, and Thor spun the heavy hammer around his head theatrically.
The elemental crumbled into chunks of rocks and a loot portal appeared. Tom wasn’t excited about the portal. With such a weak enemy, it was only going to give trash.
“Everyone, collect your trinket and let’s keep going.” Keikain yelled.