Chapter 4: Falling Prey

It didn't even take a day to get a physical skill. It both proved that such was possible and gave him a power full weapon. He should have expected the form it would take, though. 

Skill Name: Voiding

Nullify and void the very foundation of existence. Decreases the strength, quantity, and connection of all mana in the target area. The more active the mana, the more it is affected. Can be used in a spherical area around the caster to decrease the power of all external spells, magical abilities, and magical Skills that pass through or are cast from the zone. The user may also decrease relative momentum of objects and beings in the zone. Can also be used on contact with a being or object to focus the nullifying power on the target. On an object, this has a greater effect on inactive mana and can weaken or destroy enchantments and can instantly eliminate a chunk of momentum. On a being, this increases the power of the effect and allows it to affect internal spells, magical abilities, and magical Skills as well as hinder the ability to gain momentum at all. 

Instead of gaining another Skill, his one Skill had gained a new effect. It was basically what he had been trying to accomplish in his 'training' of ripping up rocks from the ground—with his enhanced strength—and staring at them intently. He was actually trying to stir the power which Voiding stemmed from. And he succeeded. 

The extra ability seemed somewhat underwhelming in the Skill description, however the reality was anything but. When he dropped rocks and used the skill on them, it made their terminal velocity less than half a meter per second. But countering the constant force of gravity was a bad test for it. Throwing a rock upwards with all of his enhanced strength would send it dozens of meters into the air, but using the area version of Voiding on it as the rock left his hand stopped it in less than a quarter second. Dropping things on himself proved that the object effect could be used to cancel impacts if he timed it right. 

Trying to obstruct his own movements made for a ridiculously unbalanced conflict with himself. He couldn't even walk, every time he tried to move it didn't come out as expected. You never realize how much your body is optimized for the normal laws of physics until they go a bit wonky. He could apply pressure fairly easily but moving with any form of speed had it zapped away. Even moving slowly, he had to constantly apply a steady amount of force just to move his arm from side to side. 

Even if the monster had triple his speed, it wasn't going to get him that easily now. 

As he had trained, he had always kept the grotesque beast within sight. He had also killed a couple dozen Morels but hadn't gotten a level. But now with his new power, he could at least test the demon and be able to escape if things went pear-shaped. He would have to watch out for ranged attacks, but the chances that it had a concealed, ranged, and non-magical attack that also could be used accurately while under the physical restriction was basically a calculation error. He would watch for magic that could get through Voiding though. 

Approaching the demon, it only noticed him after he got within around two dozen meters. So, pretty close. The creature would have been even uglier up close, if his Perception hadn't been high enough to see it in graphic detail long before now. The moment it noticed him, its expression changed from 'facially paralyzed sleepwalker' to 'facially paralyzed sleepwalking rabid beast', and it roared at him with a gurgling, raspy voice. It was really quite loud though. 

Instead of charging at him, however, it pointed its arm at him and shot out a sphere of flames. Trent immediately leaped away from its trajectory and blasted Voiding to suppress it. The fireball didn't move that fast, but it was still significantly above what he could dodge had he put his free points in something other than agility. And that was a good thing, because even with the full blast of Voiding and his dodge it still exploded with enough force to throw him away a bit.

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However, his toughness and dexterousness far exceeded his as-of-yet-unchanged weight. The blast didn't hurt him much at all, and he landed on his feet. He snapped a look at the demon only to see another fireball shoot towards him. This time, he focused more on dodging and the other effect of Voiding. Despite being an anti-mana Skill, it was far less effective at slowing the gaseous (plasmeous? plasmatic?) projectile. It was still enough to halt it before it reached him, at which point it just sat there in midair before the mana was nullified and it dissipated it in a few seconds. 

The demon kept sending fireballs at him, even though none managed to connect. Trent was content to wait it out until it exhausted its Capacity stat and he could get in to kill it. He had kept a broken piece of the ground, but he still wasn't looking forward to bashing the monster over and over until it died. Well, it was ridiculous to assume he could escape this place without killing some of this enemy. Just get it over with, he guessed. 

After dozens of fireballs, the dumb creature seemed to finally realize that it wasn't working and decided to charge him instead. Or it ran out of mana, but that was a bit too optimistic. It was definitely far faster than it had been before it saw him, and even far faster than Trent was. But that was what he had trained for. 

With a strong but sustainable output of slowing force, he could keep away from it with a strong power walk. Trent did exactly that, staying out of its reach as he planned out what to do. First, he would figure out a bit more about its behavior. It didn't seem to be adapting to the restrictive effect, so he decided to take some time to think and also to see if it would recover its magic and shoot more fireballs. 

Well. He thought that he hadn't fallen into the protagonist mindset, but he really had. It was reckless to attract the attention of the monster. He had gotten used to dealing with the ghosts that were so weak to Voiding that it warped his idea of power in this place. And even if they were indicative, there was no guarantee this thing wouldn't have been ten times stronger. He was just working off protagonist logic, as if a jump in power like that would have been 'unfair'. 

And he totally misjudged the risks involved! All it would have needed was being a bit faster than him and he would have been screwed. He purposely aggroed an enemy that he knew would chase him down to the end of the earth. A mistake here meant his literal, permanent death! In fact, he almost hoped that he now failed to beat the monster so the lesson would sink in that risks didn't always work out. 

But in the end, he didn't truly regret challenging himself. He just thought the way he went around doing it was dumb. After all, the clearest way to get out of here was getting strong enough to cross dimensions or convince/force something else to do it for him. But were levels going to do that? No! His stat boosts were useful, but the closest thing he had to magic was Voiding. And he had proved that it could be expanded. 

He would have to see if the godly presence would heal him again, but if it happened with any regularity, he could just stay in one place and train like hell. It would be boring, but he could probably keep up motivation with the thought of real powers. Now, back to our regularly scheduled zombie chase. 

He had started moving in circles around a small area to avoid running into Morels. The demon still showed no change behavior and hadn't shot any more fireballs. Possible reasons for that? It could have some intelligence and be waiting for him to get close enough that he couldn't stop the projectiles. It could have very slow, or no mana regen at all. It could have gotten caught up in the chase and forgotten it had a ranged attack. 

One of these could be tested. Trent loosened the restraining force enough for the monster to gain on him. After it got to around ten meters, it raised its hand and shot off another fireball. Trent immediately crushed the momentum of the projectile with the full force of his mind. Shit. He sped up out of its reach again. This demon was smarter than it seemed, and it was going to make killing the thing all the harder. Heck, even with his Endurance he might tire out for real and die. 

With some experimenting, it seemed that the monster would wait until it had a decent opportunity to actually hit him and wouldn't waste its mana if it was proven the attack wouldn't reach him. This was a real problem. How could he get its mana out of the way if it would only attack him if it could deal damage? He had no means of attacking at range, well, he guessed Voiding- 

Oh, he was such an idiot. a quick check of the Skill's description didn't reveal anything that would stop him from doing what he had just thought of. With just a little extra focus, he put his idea into practice.