As soon as Liam’s feet touched the platform the water all around him and the platforms started bubbling violently. Liam scanned the waters to see where the Wave Rider Crab would reemerge. He wasn’t sure if it would appear on the platform he was on or on the middle one where it had made its first appearance.
He didn’t have to wait long to receive an answer as the bubbles all died down except for a patch by the platform in the middle of the watery arena. Liam started making his way over to that one as he saw the legs of the Wave Boss monster appear.
As he ran from platform to platform, he stared at the monster’s information that had reappeared above it. he wanted to know how much damage he had done from that strike. He was hoping he had done a lot since he had heard a noise indicating something broke when his hammer struck the underbelly.
[Wave Rider Crab. 1,845/2,050 HP. 1,892/2,000 MP. Level – 15.]
Liam was both happy and disappointed after seeing that. He was happy he was able to do slightly above two hundred damage, but at the same time if he was only able to do that much damage each time then he was going to run into trouble with the outer platforms being destroyed before he could kill the creature. He needed to find another way to damage the Wave Rider Crab so he wouldn’t have to stress about that. He would need to adapt and find the best way to use these different Hand Type Spells.
As he moved from platform to platform he thought about how he could utilize each Hand Type Spells. He came to the conclusion so far that there was a benefit and two negatives during this time. The benefit he believed they had was he didn’t need to focus on having them follow him wherever he went. Due to them having a radius they could move around in, if he ran out of the original area he was standing in then they would move automatically with him.
One of the negatives was that he would need to move each one, one at a time when using them as he fought. This wouldn’t be like the time when he used Shadow Hand. There was only one he had to focus on moving. This time he needed to move the right hand at the right time. However, since he didn’t fully understand the full capabilities of each hand he need to learn on the fly.
Another thing he realized was that even though his Lunar Hand was past level ten and should be able to move on its one with only his intent, he wasn’t able to do that since there were three other Hand Type Spells activated at the same time. He didn’t anticipate that would happen and made the situation feel like it was back at level one all over again.
The second negative he was starting to both see and feel was the mana cost. His mana was slowly ticking down four every five seconds. At full, he would have between fifteen to sixteen minutes before running out of all of his mana. He would need to keep an eye on his Mana Pool just in case he was wrong about that.
By the time the Wave Rider Crab had fully emerged from the water and was standing on the platform, Liam had reached the middle of the back platform next to it. He slid to a halt as he watched the large crab run around the area it was on until it was closer to the platform he was on. It then jumped and landed hard on it, sending a powerful rumble that shook the entire platform.
Liam was prepared for it this time and jumped right before the Wave Rider Crab collided with the ground. His knees still felt a bit wobbly after landing again, but this time he didn’t fall over. It was progress. He then stood there and noticed the monster was starting to foam from the mouth. He peered in closer to make sure if the monster’s mouth was closed. As soon as he got his answer liquid started to drip from the middle of the closed mouth and the sides.
He quickly right to his left this time and dodged the stream of water that was shot at him. After dodging the stream he sprinted straight for the crab. As soon as he got within striking distance, instead of swinging his hammer, Liam focused on his making his Lightning Hand form a fist and threw it at the creature.
The Wave Rider Crab swung its smaller claw at the Lightning Hand and Liam watched as sparks discharge upon impact. He glanced at the creature’s health and noticed it had dropped by twenty. Before he could think on it, the Wave Rider Crab suddenly started to move to its right. Liam, without thinking, reacted.
To his relief, he had stopped the bigger claw from crashing into him by swinging his hammer horizontally from his left side into it and mentally sending his Earth Hand towards it as well. He felt his feet slide a bit upon impact, but he was able to stop himself from being thrown off his feet and towards the water. He quickly thought about his Gravity Hand and had it slap the bigger claw.
He smiled as he felt this was going a bit smoother than he thought it would. However, that smile lasted for a brief moment before he realized a three foot bubble was forming right beside him. With his focus on his accomplishment with stopping the bigger claw from sending him flying by blocking it with both his hammer and Earth Hand and then using his Gravity Hand to cause a heavy debuff, he didn’t realize the Wave Rider Crab had him right in front of its mouth where he can either use a Jetstream or its bubbles.
Liam didn’t have enough time to jump out of the way as a single bubble appeared and popped. The shockwave of air that escaped from the bubble sent him flying away from the crab and towards the middle of the platform. As soon as his body hit the platform, Liam rolled twice before positioning his body enough to roll onto his feet and face the monster. As he fixed his glance on the creature he noticed that he wasn’t the only who was affected by the bubble.
The Wave Rider Crab was on its two back legs, swinging its claws around, trying not to fall back into the sea. As the Wave Rider Crab did this, Liam noticed something in the middle of its underbelly. As quickly as he could, he activated Spot Frailty and saw four light red lines around the area he had struck with his hammer.
Looks like I did more than I thought. Liam thought as the Wave Rider Crab had finally caught its balance and came back down. Its bigger claw came down slightly faster than the last time it had tried to correct its balance. While the rumble from its impact hadn’t changed much, the speed of it falling and the sound of it hitting the ground sounded different. Liam wasn’t sure how or if adding more weight to the bigger claw was a good idea, but he thought that if he could make it so it was harder for the Wave Rider Crab to swing it or even pick it up to defend then he wouldn’t have to worry about it.
As his thoughts ran in his mind, he was brought out of them as he noticed liquid started to slip out of its closed mouth. Liam jumped to his right, dodging a jet stream of water before running back towards the monster. This time he was on the side where the bigger claw was. Like last time he stopped right within distance of the striking. The Wave Rider Crab brought its bigger claw up to defend, however, instead of defending against Liam’s hammer, a combo of Earth Hand and Gravity Hand started pummeling against the shield and blunt weapon of the crab.
At first when Liam mentally focused on using the two Hand Type spells the speed in which they moved was slow. After a few seconds of only focusing on them their speed slowly increase. The increase speed the two Hand Type spells wasn’t much, but it was better than the slow movements they were making earlier.
As Liam focused on moving the two Hand Type Spells, he risked a glance at the information on top of the Wave Rider Crab’s head. Its health was dropping but not by much. He was doing five points of damage every other strike. At the same time he saw that the bigger claw was bobbing up and down. At first he wasn’t sure why that was until he saw the debuff next to its information.
That was when he put two and two together. The reason why the Wave Rider Crab was receiving damage every other strike was because the Earth Hand was the only one of the two doing damage. While it looked like his Gravity Hand could do some damage it really wasn’t. instead it was keeping the Heavy Debuff it caused with every strike it made. That Debuff was making it hard for the Wave Rider Crab to its claw up in the air. However, since it could only be stacked so much, the Debuff was already at its full stacks. The strikes it was continuing to make was only to keep the stacks up at full capacity.
That was okay. If he could keep whittle the creature’s health down while making sure it was hard for it to hit with its claw could be helpful. Learning to wield these new two Hand Types spells would benefit him not only in adding more to his arsenal, but also leveling the Mana Control and Manipulation to make it easier for future use would be great for him.
But was that all he should do? At the beginning of this fight he only used his hammer to get a better understanding of it while using Spot Frailty. Now he had made an Earth Hand and had Gravity Hand, Lightning Hand, and Lunar Hand activated. While it was tough trying to work his focus switching between these two he still had two others that were just hanging around. Not only that he was just standing there.
This was a good opportunity for him to try and attack with his hammer while utilizing all four of his Hand Type Spells. However, there was a chance he could fail and get hurt badly in the process. Could he risk that?
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Liam felt stupid for even thinking that. If he were to grow he would need to take risks like that. That’s how he had grown over these past couple of months. If he tried to take the easy route each fight then he wouldn’t really grow at all. Well, he’d still be able to grow, but the speed in that growth would be really slow. Not only that he wouldn’t see opportunities for new ways to use his abilities and skills.
With a nod he made his decision. However, before he made any move to stop what he was doing he noticed something. As the two Hand Type Spells went back and forth hitting the Wave Rider Crab’s claw Liam thought he saw something strange. For a brief moment as the Earth Hand and Gravity Hand passed by each other they had almost brushed. During that brief moment a brownish dark purple swiftly and suddenly sparked between the two.
That brief moment of distraction almost costed him. The Wave Rider Crab swung its heavy and large claw at Liam. Due to the Debuff the claw was afflicted with, its movement was slower than usual, allowing Liam to dodge it in time. After Liam dodged the attack two three foot bubbles formed out from its mouth. Instinctually, Liam mentally threw his Lightning Hand at the front bubble, causing both to pop.
Since Liam was farther away from the two exploding bubbles, a breeze blew over him. The force wasn’t enough to knock him backwards, but it was enough to destroy the Lightning Hand and knock the Wave Rider Crab onto its back legs.
Seeing that his Mana Pool was starting to get to the point where it would be dangerously low, Liam decided to knock the monster into the sea. He raced forward and swung both his hammer and his Earth Hand into the underbelly of the creature. His Earth Hand punched the spot he had struck last time while the blunt end of his hammer hit a spot slightly below it. As the creature fell backwards into the sea, Liam saw a few chunks of its shell explode outwards to his feet.
After the monster disappeared into the sea, Liam quickly grabbed the pieces and placed them into his inventory before running straight for the same platform he had when the Wave Rider Crab used its wave attack. Since he knew it was going to come, he was able to make it to the rocky lane before the final wave was formed.
After making it to the rocky lane, Liam pulled out a Health, Mana, and Stamina Potion and drank each one while watching the massive wave making its way towards the platforms. As he watched he noticed something different happen this time. Instead of the Wave Rider Crab aiming for the last platform Liam was on like last time; it instead fell down on a random one. The platform it had crashed down on was the back platform on the other side of the watery arena.
“That’s strange,” Liam muttered as he stared at the platform that was just used as a landing pad for the wave. “Did it attack that one since I made it onto this strip of land before it made its way towards me?”
As the wave calmed down, Liam recreated his Lightning Hand. Before he jumped back onto the platform he thought about that strange thing he had seen. The brownish dark purple spark that flashed as the two Hand Type spells didn’t happen by sheer coincidence. There had to be a reason as to why that happened.
He looked at the two Hand Type Spells and decided he would test something out. With a mental command he slowly made the two get closer to each other. He watched as the few inches between them closed in. Before they got close enough to touch he saw the same spark happen again. Instead of one spark though, several of them discharged before repelling both Hand Type spells.
You’re not ready for that yet. Eri suddenly said in his mind.
Surprised, Liam asked, Not ready for what? What just happened there?
You’re not ready to try and merge Hand Type Spells together. That’s why the Earth Hand and the Gravity Hand sparked and repelled each other. That is something you can and will be able to do after getting better Mana Control and Manipulation on the Mana Types. Eri explained. For now just focus on trying to move all four together while fighting with your weapon.
Liam was shocked at what he heard her say. He knew there had to be a reason for the sparks to fly, but to find out that there was more to the Hand Type spells than he originally thought, that was a good discovery in itself. He grinned before replying back, Fine. I guess I won’t push my luck…for now.
He heard Eri’s laughter in his mind before jumping back into the watery arena. While he had to put testing that out for now until he reached the appropriate level, he had a goal he wanted to meet before finishing the fight.
He scanned the area, waiting for the Wave Rider Crab to appear once more. It appeared on the platform near the rocky lane on the other side of the watery arena closest to the sea. Liam made his way over to it. He glanced at its information as he made his way over.
[Wave Rider Crab. 1,123/2,050 HP. 1,640/2,000 MP. Level – 15.]
Liam was actually surprised at seeing how much the Wave Rider Crab’s health had dropped. He also noticed that the debuff it had was no longer there. Time must have ran out while it was under water. As for the damage side of things, he knew he was doing damage with the Earth Hand, he didn’t think he had caused enough to drop that far with that second strike against its underbelly. Liam thought about that once more as the image of broken shell pieces falling away from the crab’s body came to mind. The increase in damage could have happened because he cause the shell that protected the underbelly to shatter.
I can test out my Lightning Hand along with my Earth Hand next time I need to attack…Liam thought as he hopped from the platform he was on to the next. His thought was cut short after he noticed two very abnormal things.
The first was the fact that the sea was starting to bubble all around the platform he was on. He had made it to the middle platform of the watery arena when he noticed the bubbles. The other thing was the Wave Rider Crab was waving both claws into the air while screeching.
Liam’s brows furrowed as he stared at the Wave Boss. He didn’t know what it was doing or what it had planned, but the way it was waving that larger claw around. He was about to create some theories, but stopped as he saw the monster slam his claw down as hard as it could. A loud crack echoed in the air making Liam’s blood run cold.
The creature lifted its claw upwards and slammed it down two more times before slightly moving to its left. More loud cracks echoed in the air with each strike. It didn’t take long for Liam to understand what it was doing as he saw cracks on the smooth floor of the platform start to form.
That fucker is trying to destroy the platform! Liam thought as he started to run towards the edge of the platform he was on. He had almost reached the edge, but remembering the bubbles that were popping all around platform he was on. Before he could get within range of jumping, three forms swiftly ejected from the sea and blocked his route.
These new forms looked like they were smaller versions of the Wave Rider Crab. They had smooth cerulean, blue shells and stood up to Liam’s waist. They weren’t as wide as the Wave boss and instead of having two different sized claws, they had two small thin like claws that looked like they could skewer anything they decided to poke at. Liam assessed these creatures to get a better idea of what he was fighting.
[Wave Sword Crab. 975/975 HP. 700/700 MP. Level – 12.]
[Wave Sword Crab. 984/984 HP. 710/710 MP. Level – 13.]
[Wave Sword Crab. 975/975 HP. 700/700 MP. Level – 12.]
Liam stared at these new monsters. He let out an irritated groan as he glanced at Mercer’s direction for a brief moment. He distinctively remembered the Tiefling saying there wasn’t going to be any other monsters in this fight. Before he could internally curse Mercer some more, loud cracks reverberated through the air reminding him he needed to focus on killing these creatures as fast as possible.
Liam gripped his hammer and struck down as hard as he could at the closest Wave Sword Crab. His hammer struck true as it slammed down hard on the shell. However, he had to jump backwards as quickly as he could as the creature he attacked lunged its right long claw at his stomach.
He was surprised by its reach as he watched it get closer to puncturing him. With a swift mental command, Liam sent his Earth Hand flying in to knock the claw’s trajectory off to the right, making the claw missed in the nick of time. His relief didn’t last long as the other two crabs lunged forward as well.
Liam focused as hard as he could on throwing his Earth Hand to block another strike while having his Lightning Hand hit the other. Sparks of lightning ran over the Wave Sword Crab’s body, causing it to momentarily freeze in place. The other crab’s claw was knocked off to the side as Liam slammed his hammer down on its shell as well.
The third crab, the one that tried to skewer Liam first, lunged forward once more. Liam sent his Lunar Hand to slam down on the shell right in front of its eye stalks. As it slammed down, a bright pulse of light flashed causing the creature to let out a shriek of pain and stagger backwards a couple of steps. Liam capitalized on this at struck the creature with his hammer.
At the same time, Liam tried to focus on having his Lightning Hand fly over to the crab his Earth Hand had blocked and strike it while his Earth Hand flew other to the other and punched the creature in the eye stalk. The fleshy part exploded upon impact causing Liam to wince for a brief moment. He recomposed himself quickly as the crab in front of him swung both claws wilding trying to land a strike on Liam while blinded.
The crab with the missing eye stalk backed away shrieking allowing Liam to focus on the other two. He stepped back and focused his mind on having his Lightning Hand and Earth Hand to attack the blinded crab as his Lunar Hand went and blinded the last crab. After landing both attacks on the crab, Liam lifted his hammer up over his head and struck down as hard a she could on the crab. Its shell suddenly exploded as blood flew out. the crab’s legs shook a couple of times before finally giving out.
Liam swiftly focused his attention on the crab on his right. This time as he struck he tried to focus on having his Lightning Hand, Lunar Hand, and Earth Hand attack this creature. Before having his Lunar Hand strike down he made sure his trajectory was good and slammed his weapon and all three Hand Type Spells down before closing his eyes.
He heard a painful gurgled shriek before he opened his eyes again to see he had killed this crab. Feeling confident that he was getting used to attacking with three Hand Type Spells while swinging his weapon, Liam tried to move even quicker when attacking the last Wace Sword Crab.
Liam was grinning as the final small crab died. He felt like he was getting better the more he fought. He was starting to believe he was on to something and could utilizing this fighting style more with this new addition. His happiness was quickly replaced with worry as the sound of something big being destroyed filled the air.
Liam quickly turned his attention on to the creature he had momentarily forgotten about and saw the platform the Wave Rider Crab was on fall apart and disappear into the sea. Liam’s skin filled with goosebumps as he quietly muttered, “Fucking hell.”