He used the entire five minutes to heal over his wounds, and only briefly glanced at the completion message, which told him that he had gained a rating of A for this section of the arena. It was what he had expected, given the amount of damage that he had taken. His wounds started to close over however, and by the time that the final wave began,. He was mostly unhurt and he readied himself, and gritted his teeth, unsure of the challenges to come.
The next wave started off with a bang, quite literally in fact. The ground in the center of the arena exploded outwards, revealing a large mammalian creature that almost looked like a mole. However, it was about twenty feet long, and had what looked to be swords attached to its hands instead of claws. Well, they were that length at least.
The monster set its beady eyes on Jonathan, and dove into the ground, heading straight for him, Jonathan slammed his mana down into his hands, and focused on the vibrations of the earth, plotting the path of the monster. It moved like the lava worms from earlier, but its movements were much more linear in appearance, as it could not move its body as much. However, it was far faster, and by the time that Jonthan had pinpointed its location, it was almost upon him.
The monster erupted out of the ground live a furry black meteor, and clipped Jonathan with its nose, flipping him high up into the air. The creature vomited out a stream of compressed earth at him midair, slamming into his chest. A few of his ribs broke, and he was sent spiraling up even further, impacting the ceiling.
Jonathan grabbed onto a nearby lip of rock, and hung there for a moment, looking down at the monster. It growled at him loudly, audible clearly even up here. Jonathan held out his right fist, and sent his Divinity rushing into his gauntlet, causing it to glow with a bright red light. He then added his purple mana on top of it, creating a ball of the substance in front of his fist. With the preparations done, he let go, flipping upside down, and pushed off the ceiling.
Jonathan shot down like a rocket, easily going at a few hundred miles per hour. His fist led the way, and he smashed it into the middle of the mole’s back. Its flesh exploded outwards and revealed the bone underneath, which shattered beneath the force. Jonathan’s right arm shattered too, but the pain and inconvenience was negligible. He pushed back off the mole’s back, finding that it was still very much alive. It growled low in its throat, and began to glow with a yellow light, drawing power up from the earth around it. Rocks skittered up its side, filling in the gaping hole on its back, and rendering it able to move again.
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“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jonathan said in disbelief. He had taken quite some damage, and the mole was basically as fresh as when it had started. True, it had not actually healed itself, only rendered itself able to attack him, but it made little difference in his predicament.
Jonathan shook his head, and charged, pressing his advantage as much as he could. The mole stomped the ground around it, and cracks spread outwards, merging with the ones that the elephant had left. Soon the ground around it was like a piece of broken pottery, and Jonathan’s grip became far less sure.
He leaped up at the edge of the fractured zone, and arced through the air, heading straight for his enemy’s face. For a moment, he was wreathed in a faint glow from the spotlights, and he looked like some figure of heroism as he traveled. Then reality hit, and the mole spat a boulder into his chest, knocking him off course.
Jonathan grunted as he landed, and rolled away as the mole snapped towards where he had been lying. The creature was quite annoying to deal with, and Jonathan was starting to become frustrated. It was basically just a gigantic mole, but it had so many cheat-like abilities that it almost seemed constructed to give fighters a hard time. However, he refused to lose to a creature like this.
Jonathan groaned as he got to his feet, and he surged forwards, keeping to the ground this time. The mole glared down at him as he approached, and barked loudly, before sending out another stream of boulders. Jonathan weaved around it, moving quickly enough to avoid the rocks completely. He reached the side of the mole, and launched himself upwards, landing on its back.
The creature started to roll over to toss him off, but Jonathan quickly made his way towards the plug of rock that was keeping the monster mobile, and began to batter it with his fists. The creature froze for the briefest of moments, and that was all the time that he needed. The rock came apart almost instantly, unable to stand up to his strength and power. Revealing the monster’s spine allowed him to get some good hits in on it, completely disconnecting the vertebrae. The creature writhed beneath him, but it was unable to move, and he battered away any encroaching rocks that sought to repair the damage.
He reached deep into the monster, and grabbed both ends of its vertebrae. With a mighty heave, he ripped it out on both sides, pulling the mole’s skull with it. What happened next, rather than a simple and clean execution, was an explosion of gore that painted him red with a shower of blood. It was by far one of the goriest kills he had ever experienced, and he was regretting it slightly.
The mole sank into the ground, never to return to plague the living again. Jonathan felt his injuries heal over with one final level up as the creature died, and he readied himself, knowing that the next fight would be the hardest yet.