70 Baited and Outsmarted (1/2)

Juan was still lazing around as his Elemental struggled to fight against Luna's group. Wood elementals were meant for group fights, but that was as a support. They could extend multiple branches and ensnare people. They could use their branches to impale people, but that was mostly for opponents much weaker than them. They would usually be very tanky as well, but against the Anito of Fire, he could only buy time.

But due to his owner's laziness, buying time was pointless. He could only allow himself to get pummeled and burned. Eventually, his energy couldn't keep up with the damage being done to him, and he faded away. He didn't necessarily die, he just needed to go back to his world and recuperate. Juan would not be able to summon him for at least another 30 days. If he was stronger, it would take longer, unless Juan used an item to help him recover faster. Unfortunately, such items were incredibly rare.

Luna looked towards the direction Juan was at, ”Juan, your elemental has been defeated. You can either fight us, or I slowly cook you in there.”

Despite speaking as if he was giving him a chance, Luna had actually started to surround him with flames. Nobody in Luna's crew could quite understand why Juan started hiding. Of course, if they knew that this guy was just extremely lazy, nobody would take him seriously. But to everyone, this guy was much higher leveled than them.

There was only one thing they needed to do, and that was to kill him.

”Please! I'm harmless! Let me go and I won't hurt you! I'm really too lazy to fight, I won't kill you if you leave now, okay?” He begged. He was truly too lazy to fight. But that didn't mean he wouldn't kill. Luna knew this fact and knew that if they gave this guy a single inch, he would take a mile. There was no mercy to be had in this situation, as somebody as high level as Juan could kill them all if they held back.

”Sure,” Luna replied.

”Smart man! Let me know when you guys leave, and I'll leave the other way afterward,” he said. He was hoping that his genuineness about his laziness was enough to convince the others that he was just too lazy to fight.

Even as they were talking he was already sending branches underground. Unfortunately for him, Luna was surrounding him with fire, Maxene would counteract his wood element since they both had the same mastery, and Elder Aran was charging up a lightning cloud above his canopy. The lightning was converging into a singular point, this made it so it would deal destructive damage to a single opponent.

”Sure, just let us rest for a bit. Fighting with someone who is such a high level like yourself was pretty tiring for us,” Luna said.

”Sure, sure. I'll be right here, all caged up and harmless.” Juan was celebrating inside. The longer they stayed, the more time he would have to prepare. He made sure to have all the branches thin and stay low enough underground so nobody would sense it. Unfortunately for him, Maxene was more than ready for him.

Truth be told, at his level, it would have worked out better for him if he was more towards a physical attack-type of fighter. Unfortunately, Engkantos were spellcasters. Very potent spellcasters, historically. But that was because they focused solely on that. Juan was too lazy to comprehend the Anito of any element.

On the plus side, his physical body was definitely strong, but not stronger than Luna's. If he fought Armies of lower level players, he would be able to slaughter them all single-handedly, due to his naturally vast mana pool. He was careless because prior to the new world, nobody was a threat to him.

Sometimes life worked like that. The son of a rich businessman would sometimes fail in life despite the headstart they have. Whereas the son or daughter of an immigrant who started from nothing would grow up and become a billionaire. Perspective would always play a part in how much a person can achieve. Juan had everything handed to him and had always felt as if he didn't need to work for anything in life.

He was still inside his canopy of really sturdy wood. He had sealed it so tight that even the smoke from outside couldn't seep in. It would have been the absolute defense if it weren't for the fact that his mastery with Wood was Rank 3, and Luna's mastery of Fire was Rank 3. Wood element would lose out to fire even if fire was one rank lower. Unless the Wood Anito user was in the next Tier. Like if Juan would have been Rank 4 while Luna was at Rank 3. This was not counting for the fact that Luna's flames were stronger than the ones in the same rank, solely because it was Bathala himself who created the Anito with special materials.

Not even 3 minutes later, Juan finally started feeling the heat.

”W-w-what are you doing?!” He started panicking.

”We're just resting,” Luna replied nonchalantly.

”Don't mess with me! You don't think I can't feel that?!”

”Feel what?” He continued to feign ignorance.

”You're trying to burn me alive!”

”You're imagining things,” Luna replied.

Curious, Juan opened up a tiny slit to see what was happening outside. The moment he did, smoke started to go through.

”I knew it! You fucking liar! You're really trying to test my patience! I am still much stronger than you!” Seeing that his empty threats weren't working, he had to come up with a plan. He couldn't just charge out, as an ambush might be waiting for him on all sides.

”I'll dig my way out!” Juan thought. He dug through the ground, only to find out that after a certain depth, he was caged in by the same wood element he used. This was obviously Maxene's doing.

”Father, I just felt him dig down. He should be in my cage now, no? Unfortunately, I can't seal him in. He has control of the wood on the top side.” Maxene explained.

”It's okay, Max. We got him where we want him. Open it up a little bit for me, and make sure to add more layers in case he wants to punch his way out.” Luna smiled. Manipulating his flames, he made them go inside Max's cage.

Seeing this, Juan was hysterical. ”Damn you! Damn you! I'm going to kill you all!”

More empty threats.

Seeing that he couldn't get out from either side and if he stayed below, he'd be cooked alive, his only option was to go up.

”I can only charge out from the top. I can create a platform to boost me up faster, then I can dig my way upwards out of this damned cave! If they all get buried in it, that would the best case scenario.” He thought. After running this plan inside his head, he thought he would surround himself with wooden pillars as he charged upwards, so it could deflect some incoming attacks, giving him time to escape.

”Here goes nothing!” Juan charged up according to plan, he opened the top part of the wooden dome of the canopy he created and launched himself upwards. Even Luna and the rest were startled by how fast he was.