The ground shook as the Beam Of Destruction swept past me and struck the ground. I looked up at the sky at the platform made of the Infinite Block floating away and grimaced. The partial level 7 Molten Millipede was gathering energy for another long-distance attack once more as debris rained down upon me.

Michelle kept pulling it back as countless lesser monsters got in my path, slowing me down. The battle had gone from one of traps and decoys, to one of attrition. Even though the summoned level 7 monsters was less powerful than the actual version, which was why I called it a partial summon, Michelle was controlling it.

Human level intelligence made it a much greater threat. Despite the actual version shouting out through the energy it exuded into the air, it was still a monster that relentlessly attacked. That made it predictable and simple to defeat.

What Michelle was doing right now, would make anyone but myself weep tears of blood from frustration. Michelle was clearly going all out, with her retreating strategy and having a mobile circle I needed to reach. I was glad it was this difficult, and hard to win.

If I was having this much trouble, then anyone else with a similar strength to mine would have a similar level of trouble. I kicked away some crab like monster as I felt more mental attacks ping off my defenses. I still hadn’t been hit seriously at least. Just light attacks, that had hit my armor, or debris from explosions and that one minor stab wound.

My hands tingled a bit but were fine from having blocked so many low level attacks. Even combination attacks, were enough to punch through the layer of energy I exuded from my hands. Still, it did drain my reserves.

I had about half my energy remaining, despite not using any skills. Once my energy was out, that would be the end of this fight in my mind. I needed to end it before then. I kept moving forward as rapidly as I could. More beam attacks came at me. Mixing up the levels to throw off my danger sense and keep me confused.

Unfortunately, I could see the energy density of the beam attacks, knowing which ones I could block and which ones I needed to dodge. The Molten Millipede reared up and launched another one as well. I quickly dodged around the attack, even as it tried to track me. The monster could only turn so much while using it.

The flowers that used to be part of the terrain were almost all gone. Crushed and destroyed in this battle. I was catching up to the platform. It was time to cross the final gap. I kicked off the ground. Air Burst. Air Burst. I used a rapid zig zag pattern to quickly throw off all the monsters that kept converging on me.

The Molten Millepede spun around and interposed itself between me and the platform. Air Burst. I went around it, as it tried to slash at me with its feet, and crush me with its burning carapace. It was an amusing attempt to get me, but nowhere near enough. Acid Shot x10.

Better to make sure it dusted as I went past. Air Burst. Dodging around a flock of massive birds, I was about to land on the platform, when a monster dressed in clothes jumped at me. A mimic that looked like a human from a distance.

Acid Shot. Air Burst. I felt a surge of energy near me, that I had been waiting for. Air Burst. More swords appeared around me. I had blinked purposely at that one moment, so I knew this attack would come. Acid Shot x20. I touched down on the platform.

“Halt!” Captain Francis called out. Michelle let out a tired sigh, as the platform began to descend. The rest of the monsters were released and turned to dust.

“Neat tricks,” I told her.

“I can’t take all the credit. The decoy location was their idea,” Michelle gestured at the group of summoners and Governor Richard who were staring at me with wide eyes.

“Eh, that was a pretty good trick. What do you think?” I asked Michelle as we touched down on the ground. The Infinite Block compacting itself back up to be stored.

“They were competent, but overall I would rate their performance as a seven out of ten,” she replied.

“Oh, that much?” I asked with a slight smile.

“Good combinations, distractions, and overall teamwork, but a poor understanding of high-level combat. Their choices for monsters to use were sub-par for facing someone like you. The mental attacks pointless, and their ability to control monsters mediocre, to dodge your attacks or produce acceptable feints” I nodded at all of this.

It was a harsh but fair critique. They were good, but they weren’t impressive. But the high-level combat stuff, could be forgiven. They had never fought against someone like me. The fact they had come togeather so much, used a new technique Michelle hadn’t known about, and got a seven out of ten was more than enough to show they had decent skill.

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“Well you got me with your layer technique. Teleporting in monsters togeather?” I asked her.

“It is not simple. But it is possible to allow one monster’s ability to pull on another. But there is a size issue as well. The swords were the best I could do,” she replied.

“I bled a bit. So, count that as a win for yourself. As for the Abyssal Training Academy…” I trailed off as the rest of the people listening in leaned forward. “I will give my endorsement. The fact they had a unique illusion technique, was impressive. That is some outside the box thinking. Not just throwing monsters at a target. Even if that is important as well,” I said.

There was a ragged cheer from the group. Governor Richard came over. “Thank you, Emperor Michael,” he said with a bow.

“I am also impressed but how quickly all this came togeather as well. Also being brave is important. Asking me and facing me like you and your Academy did, is worthy. But you also backed that up with decent skill. A lot of room for improvement. But I can endorse your training academy,” I replied.

“Thank you Emperor Michael. We won’t let you down. Come, let us return and celebrate!” the governor said the last part to everyone. There were cheers. As we walked back, Michelle, Doctor Katz, and Captain Francis walked next to me. My soldiers kept people at a distance.

“So how afraid were they?” I asked.

“Terrified. After you blew through their first round of attacks, I had to intervene,” Michelle said.

“If they had higher level monsters it would have been more impressive,” I said.

“Perhaps, but that is just brute force. They need to work on finesse. That is much more important in a battle like this, even if it doesn’t seem so. Like aiming where you will be, or to the side slightly. Using feints and having monsters break around you like a tidal wave around a rock,” she said.

“To loop back at me?” I asked and she nodded.

“Too much was out of position at the end. You speed was too much to counter,” she said with a sigh.

“That is the point. Why do you think I invested in Body so much?” I asked her and she nodded.

“It makes sense. Just disappointed I couldn’t do more,” she replied.

“I would consider myself a high combat level 6, maybe a low 7. Maybe. All of that, would take anyone out low combat level 6 and below in my opinion,” I said. I needed to face more level 7 monsters before I felt truly comfortable bumping myself up in terms of the level I could fight at.

“That is true. But I was hoping at least to force you back. The Infinite Block is too slow, and the curse damage isn’t enough,” she added.

“Trust me, if there is one thing, I am good at countering, it is curse damage. Dealing with it, is too annoying. The flesh batteries work out?” I asked. I absolutely hated curse damage. It was annoying to deal with, but I was the expert on that kind of injury now. Fixing one’s own energy was just too time consuming, since the fixes had to settle in.

It also wasn’t convenient to do other things while focusing on correcting curse damage. It could be done, and I had done it, but I liked to keep myself at one hundred percent at all times. Curse damage could easily pile up.

If this truly was a game, then curse damage would be lowering my max health, and my health was already quite large it would take a serious attack to do enough damage to threaten my life in a single blow. But curse damage, could keep piling up and up over time, if I wasn’t careful. That was why I took it so seriously.

Also, I didn’t want anything growing inside me ever again. That was incredibly creepy and not an experience I ever wanted to repeat. I still shuddered at what had happened at the top of the first tower I had climbed.

“Yes. That was how I kept the Molten Millipede going for so long and the rest of the monsters. But it is a huge weakness, unless I am on the airship,” she replied.

“A resonance-based attack,” I said and she nodded at that.

“On a mobile platform, not so bad. But that just means I have to protect the entire airship. Which I will do, but if we move on a platform, it can be concerning,” Michelle replied.

“What about you Doctor? Have fun?” I asked.

“I am just glad no one was seriously hurt,” he said. I let out a mock gasp and clutched my chest. “That is just a tickle. You resisted all the curse damage, since you didn’t want a life potion,” he replied.

“Fair. It was a good trick. Layers?” I asked Michelle.

“Not simple. I can’t keep summons there, and the exit points have to be set beforehand. You noticed the surge in energy at the end as well,” she replied.

“Yes I did. You tried to fix that?” I asked.

“A bit. I just didn’t have the monsters aim at you when as they emerged. They emerged, then targeted you. A small but important difference. Danger sense is very overpowered,” she replied.

“It is. But you clearly have gotten better aiming and with feints. I felt the heat from those Beams of Destruction,” I said.

“But I couldn’t track you. Too fast,” she muttered.

“Dodging is superior to blocking. And attacking is superior to dodging,” I replied. It was my combat philosophy. Trying to block too much and get fancy with things was a hassle. Dodging was far superior to blocking. Also it wasn’t a full level 7 monster. If it had been, then I would have been forced to block like the actual thing.

“Any luck on working out why it is a partial level 7 summon?” I asked Michelle.

“No. It is probably something inherent to a level 7 monster. Unless we have a lot of spare crystals, running tests isn’t possible. There are just too many variables. From the summoning sphere, the monster itself, to the environment, there is a whole host of possible issues. Still, I think it is a limitation of ritual summoning,” she replied.

“It isn’t carrying the full endowed name of the monster through either,” Captain Francis added.

“I noticed that as well. You think it could be an issue with the summoner?” I asked Michelle and she frowned at that. It was an impolite question, but one that needed to be asked.

“Perhaps. Like I said, there are too many variables, and we would need to run a lot more tests. Tests we don’t have the resources for right now. Until I can grind level 7 monsters, it is better to just collect data as time goes on,” she added.

That made sense, even if it was annoying. While she had a lot of level 7 Molten Millipede crystals, it was better to save them. Unleashing ten of them at the same time for a single minute, was much better than having one for ten minutes. Keeping a bunch in reserve was important as part of Michelle’s overall combat potential in case something occurred in the future.