It really hurt. I would not let pain get to me in a normal situation, yet this elemental was able to overcome my resistance. I would not flee either, an Emperor was not a coward. I just gave it what it deserved: a good water hammer in the face. Well, I tried, as it doged. This attack was costing more health the my regeneration, just from the flames. I used the water rune to put it out.

New tactic: Dance like a cat, hit like a giraffe.

Yes. I jumped from asteroid to asteroid like a cat with nine lives: yes, if a cat transcended, the transcendence would give the cat nine lives, like this elemental's Truth. That's where the saying "Cats have nine lives" actually came from. When I left an asteroid, I angled the jump so the asteroid would hit the elemental. Whenever the elemental caught up to me, I'd give it a good whack in the face, while using the asteroid as a distraction. It took a while, but it ensured I wouldn't get hit.

Now, for the hit like a giraffe part: well, whenever I hit the elemental, I hit it as hard as I could.

When the elemental got even hotter, somehow, it was time for a new tactic: Tactic Pluto.

I hit an asteroid, with both me and the general, so hard that it left the galaxy, and we were put in interstellar space. I, as a great emperor, was comfortable here, but a fire elemental needed heat mana to be powerful, and heat mana was extremely scarce here. So, it was less hot, to the point that the fire was turning into a darker shade of white. I smashed the elemental with my hammer using all the power my level 72 body could muster.

It fell. It used the transcendence again. I took that opportunity to smack it in the head even more. When it wet onto it's seventh incarnation, it was woozy for a second, but with pure white fire again. After it recovered, it shot another firebolt at me. It grazed my armor, instantly burning through the leggings it grazed. I snarled. Those were my best leggings. It would bow to me or die.

It refused to yield, so I hit it. My transcendence was off cooldown, so I used it again. It was almost instantly put on its eighth incarnation, which was a monolithic fire humanoid. I decided that this elemental race would be renamed Monoliths of Hell. Singular would become Monolith of Hell. As I was the ruler of the star system where they were discovered, I would have authority over their name. Over everything about them. And as a great Emperor, I intended to use it. I remembered what I had I had in my inventory: Arcane Freezonite. It was a level 65 metal, not that strong in the face on such an enemy. But, it had a property that would allow it to put out any fire.

I grabbed a ton of the metal, and threw it at the Monolith of Hell. It screamed in pain, then grabbed me.

Yes. The elemental had the audacity to grab me, a great emperor. It melted all my armor, and did enough damage to relegate me to 57 health before I managed to escape. Also, it some disabled health regeneration, but I knew it would only last ten minutes.

I couldn't afford to get hit. Sure, I may have had the equivalent of 57000 health, but a nuclear weapon did billions of damage. I had no hope of surviving a hit from the elemental.

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My skin was charred badly. I realized that was an advantage, as I'd blend in with the darkness of space. I remembered something I had figured out a long time ago.

I had been level 7. I had broken my arm, so I couldn't use my double-arm warhammer (I only became strong enough to use single-arm warhammers at level 15). I was holding a hatchet, as I was helping my parents chop wood. They were chopping the wood somewhere a few hundred miles away, though. A level 9 sand-rock skinner charged at me.

I threw the hatchet at it. I missed. I had 4 more hatchets. I missed the next two.

Somehow, I fell into a trance. I threw the next two axes perfectly, killing the monster. For the next few months, all the monsters I killed were by throwing axes.

I had a ton of level 65 axes in my inventory for throwing, as back in Holthar, I had done a competition a few thousand years ago for throwing axes, and I had practiced a ton. I pulled one out of my spatial ring. It had the same water rune as my hammer. I fell into that trance I hadn't felt in hundreds of billions of years.

I threw the axe at the elemental. I hit it square in the chest. I threw eighteen more axes, each one hitting the exact point I intended.

The elemental roared, with fire coming out of its mouth. However, it was a mere elemental, and I was the great Emperor of the great Sasomac Empire.

I dodged. I threw a few axes, the elemental shot a blast at me, and I dodged again. Rinse. Repeat. I would whittle down this elemental, and I would become diamond-section.

After a few hours, under the cover of darkness, I struck.

I was perfectly dark, and I stood in a position, poised to strike. I was in the exact position, perfectly still and silent. When the elemental passed me, I stuck.

I was fast as lightning, and I only summoned my hammer at the last minute. It completely took the elemental by surprise, and it stumbled.

I ran to its face as fast as I could. I smashed my hammer into its face, repeatedly. Its face started to become disfigured. After a few minutes, it swapped into its final incarnation. It was level 90. One hit from it would kill me in one hit. It was a roughly humanoid monolith the size of a small star-and yes, emitting solar flares. I felt an immense gravitational pressure towards it. Its surface wasn't even white anymore, it was a wavelength that a normal commoner, with under a trillion perception, couldn't see. One tap would kill me from immense heat. To me, it was like a commoner looking at the sun.

I knew I didn't stand a chance against the monster. However, I had one last trick up my sleeve.

I had spent almost 25 millenia dealing with essence. I knew that this flame wouldn't be possible with just mundane things, or even the resources. I knew that it was fueled by pure, malleable, essence.

An evil smile crept across my face. I was an emperor, dammit. No one trifled with an emperor and lived to tell the tale.

I started working. I used a ton of mana to create a shield. It was almost all my mana, so I just had to hope it held.

As I had done many times recently, I slipped into my soul. I knew all was in order, so I exited my soul. Outside, I saw a horrendous sight: Hundreds of tons of essence were burning every second to create a raging inferno, which was smashing against a large shield, with not a lot of essence in it, but a lot of mana. It cracked, ever so slightly. I didn't have much time. I ran around the shield, and grabbed all the essence that would fit in my hands. I put it on my soul. I ran back out. Time was running low. Cracks were spread through the shield. I took some essence from the arms, to buy myself time. I kept doing that until only a few tons of essence were left. My core couldn't handle so much essence, and it stopped at level 74. I left my soul. There was no more fire. I hit the Monolith of Hell with my hammer.

It died.