Chapter 715: Looking for a Challenge (2/2)
[Earth Elemental – lvl ????] - [Timeless]
Does that mean it’s unkillable? The shapes remained at the center of the half shambling half floating avalanche.
The Fae had remained with the others, watching at a distance as she started dodging the large chunks of stone, some as large as entire buildings.
Ilea opened her eyes wide when the few hundred tons of rock around her stopped in mid air, unmoving for a second before they exploded into a mist of tiny splinters. All she could do was protect herself with ash, her wings forming a cocoon around herself as the impacts reached her. The onslaught didn’t end, her entire perception full of fast moving splinters. Her defenses were ground away, layer by layer as she healed against it but even with everything she had, Elementals remained beyond her ability to simply shrug off. Especially ones above level two thousand.
Half her body was gone before she formed six gates around herself, healing herself as the stone moved through, impacting with itself for a split second before the entire flow changed, bits and pieces slammed together once more into shapes and forms that looked natural to her. The air around her returned to normal, her space magic gone. She looked towards the being with a smile on her face. Ilea felt the attack come. She let it happen, holding up her hand towards the near instantly forming stone lance as thick as her head. The projectile materialized a few meters in front of her, breaking through the sound barrier in the next split second.
Her attempt to slow it down with her space manipulation failed. The marginal slow down wasn’t enough to prevent the thing from crashing into her chest. Cracks formed on the stone when it came to a stop against her rib cage, slowed by her mantle and space magic beforehand. She started laughing, trying to rip it out with both her strength and space manipulation. Neither could compete with the remaining control the creature had over the lance. White flame snaked up the length of the magical construct until she her ashen limbs could finally cut through the weakened material, the remainder of stone within her chest expelled and the damage healed a moment later.
“What’s the goal here exactly?” Ilea asked, flying past the still shapes and rocks towards the avalanche that now remained entirely unmoving. More thoughts reached her mind. “Look I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. But if you feel like fighting for a while, I’m interested.”
She turned towards the Fae in the distance. “You have any clue what’s going on with this one?”
Concepts
Rational
Thought
Impossible
Communication
…
Difficult
“Even you can’t get through to it? I mean if it will help us train, I don’t mind,” Ilea said.
She used Monster Hunter when nothing moved, again infusing her voice with a challenge, this time to compete with their magic directly.
It seems ridiculous challenging an Elemental like this but I’ve trained with the Meadow, let’s see how far I can go, she thought and shot out towards the largest mass of stone, ashen spears infused with heat shooting out. They were met with spheres of stone, smothered as the prisons ground them down. She detonated the heat, white fiery cracks showed on the stone, most of it withstanding the energy.
Lances formed all around her, fabric tear, space manipulation, and her wings letting her avoid the projectiles that shot at her with ridiculous speeds. She wondered what the Elemental could do to a city, all the talk of reasonable defenses gone out the window when she faced the sheer magical prowess of this being. Another set of lances made her use her gates. This time the spears stopped right at the edges, instantly, the change in momentum sending shock waves out into the open air.
They came back at her when she deactivated the portals, teleporting away to avoid the attacks. Whenever she had enough heat charged in her ash, she would try and attack herself, slowly moving closer to the main mass of shapes much like she would try to get to the tree of the Meadow. She knew it was stupid to treat this encounter the same, not even the Baron truly comprehending what the intent and understanding of the Elemental truly was. And precisely because of that risk, she pressed on.
Soon she fell into a trance of battle, too much going on for her to focus on anything else but her spells and the magic around her. Despite all her abilities, the being manged to catch her several times, only her ability to separate herself from the magical frameworks around her keeping her alive through the endeavor. Several minutes passed, a large chunk of her mana gone to keep the fight going but she had more to show for it than resistance levels. Half of the shapes were on fire. She had managed to destroy some of the chunks entirely with both her Archon Strike and Embered Heart.
Her issue lay with the fact that destroying a bit of stone didn’t seem to have an impact on the being at all. Her healing didn’t help her with grasping its form, nor did it seem more defensive with any of its parts. The continued fires helped immensely with her ability to keep her mana up and herself in the fight, meaning she at least managed to burn away some mana. Her allies didn’t join the fight. A good decision, as neither of them would be able to escape the stone grasp of the Elemental once trapped. Space magic baby, she thought, starting to think that perhaps she could defeat the being if they fought for long enough. The magic she still felt from… well everywhere around her, suggested the battle would take days, maybe weeks, maybe forever if its regeneration was higher than the damage she managed to cause.
Her considerations turned out to be irrelevant when the shapes started moving once more, moving into the mountains below as if using an ability similar to phaseshift. Ilea could perhaps follow with her drill and third tier earth magic resistance but when she reached the ground, every sign of the being was gone. The last wounds on her body closed, her mantle reforming. She flew upwards.
“Did you kill it?” Kyrian asked, eliciting a chuckle from the elf.
“No. Maybe it got bored, or I did manage to hurt it,” Ilea answered with a shrug.
“Couldn’t tell with your healing?” the curse mage said.
She shook her head. “Couldn’t gauge it at all, nor the thoughts it sent my way. Just… strange.”
“Well, you might be the first human to try and communicate with an Earth Elemental, let alone survive a forty minute fight against one,” Feyrair said. “I heard of even Ancients dying against such beings. Makes more sense now that I’ve seen it fight.”
“Ancients?” Kyrian asked.
“Below the Monarchs, usually less powerful,” he said.
“Are you an Ancient?” Kyrian said.
Feyrair hissed in an amused way. “No.”
“What about Isalthar?” Ilea said, turning in the air to find more monsters.
“He might’ve been an Ancient, yes. But it doesn’t matter, not anymore,” Fey said. “Where to now? Back to the gate?”
“No. We wanted to go south, right?” Ilea said and grabbed them again.
The mountain chain soon gave way to more desert, sandstorms visible in the distance. Ilea considered the possibility of them being Sand Elementals, veering towards the phenomenon as she looked through her messages.
‘ding’ ‘Archon Strike [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’
‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Reconstruction [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 12’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth Awakening [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 10’
‘ding’ ‘Transfer [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Arcane Dominion [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’
‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Core [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 11’
‘ding’ ‘Eternal Brawling [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Arcane Circulation [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Mantle of the Titan [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Titan Core [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’
‘ding’ ‘Embered Heart [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Tempered Seal [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 3’
‘ding’ ‘Authority of Ash and Ember [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 6’
‘ding’ ‘Ashen Wings [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Avatar of Ash [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 10’
‘ding’ ‘Embered Form [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 3’
‘ding’ ‘Fires of Creation [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Space Manipulation [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’
Just proof again that real danger and unknown enemies are just the best, she thought with a grin. Now I just need to find a few more high level Elementals in the wild.
Spear of Ash 2nd lvl 1
‘ding’ ‘Telepathy reaches lvl 6’
‘ding’ ‘Earth Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 10’
‘ding’ ‘You have communicated with an Earth Elemental – One Core skill point awarded’
Nearly enough for another enhancement. On we go.