The tal prison began to close around Elio.
Five creatures coordinating their powers to trap him. A single error, a mont of doubt, and he would be finished.
The Roseline-shark answered his desperate call. The impulse took him eighteen ters away from the creatures, the tal barely closing as he escaped the deadly trap.
Elio Mana: 6
But the beasts were already moving again, the tal flowing between them like liquid.
The battle wasn't over.
Elio found himself pressed into another imperative decision.
He could feel the four mana points almost ready, but the options before him were all equally deadly.
Staying still ant being trapped again.
Retreating would leave him even further out of range...
The four-point explosion would barely cover a few ters, and he was already more than twenty ters away after the impulse. Despite this, the creatures were still in range to capture him.
Quick Charge: 4
Despite obtaining the small charge ready, Elio felt he needed to secure a charge of 5.
Still, using 5 points would require more charging ti, leaving him vulnerable, even then, the explosion wouldn't reach the creatures from this distance.
The tal trap was closing and ti was running out.
'I have an extra point,' he calculated while watching the tal flow like living liquid around him.
The neon could move him further away, saving him from the tal prison again, but then he'd have no way to reach them with the explosion.
Even if it was a 5-point one.
And repositioning afterward... the creatures wouldn't give him that opportunity.
The riskiest option shone in his mind: use that last extra impulse to enter directly into the formation instead of fleeing.
But if he failed to charge the attack in ti...
The Artromus's words resonated in his mind: "indecisive". The rage that mory ignited was enough to crystallize his decision in an instant.
The neon catapulted him directly toward the formation's center.
Elio Mana: 5
The tal tried to trap him, bright blades dancing centiters from his flesh, but Elio slid between them like water between rocks.
The four mana points pulsed inside him, ready to unleash hell.
BUT
one of the creatures had moved, protecting itself behind another.
'I can't miss,' Elio thought, ti slowing down as he made his final decision.
If he released his last mana points in this position, he would be at the rcy of the last creature with only one mana point... Also a 4 point explosion against their armor may not be enough.
He had to make sure.
Quick Charge: 4.5
But if he didn't generate the explosion at this precise mont, he would also be finished.
He couldn't be indecisive; the first priority was securing what could be secured.
His hands.
Everything depended on his hands now.
The tal flowed around him like a silver tide; if he couldn't position his hands before they trapped him, he wouldn't be able to manipulate the mana.
Everything would be lost.
Elio twisted his body, ignoring the tal beginning to cover his legs, focused solely on placing his arms in the correct position.
The creatures were just beginning to readjust their formation, unconsciously moving toward the perfect position where they would all be hit by the attack.
'Not now,' he told himself as the tal climbed up his torso. 'Not until having the fifth point.'
Quick Charge: 4.7
His fingers trembled with contained energy while the tal continued advancing, each mont an eternity of agonizing wait.
'Move!' he scread in his mind at the creatures. 'Just a little more to the left, just...'
The first stab ca like a lightning bolt of pain when a spike pierced his thigh.
Elio clenched his teeth, refusing to scream, refusing to waste the accumulated mana on an imperfect attack. The tal now covered more than half his body, slowly transforming him into a living statue.
He could feel the fifth point forming, like a drop about to fall.
The creatures were almost in position, their synchronized movents taking them exactly where he needed them. Pain exploded in his side when another spike found its mark, but Elio maintained his concentration with iron determination.
Quick Charge: 4.9
'Almost there!' The mana point was there, almost tangible. The creatures, finally, perfectly aligned. The tal reached his chest, spikes erging from within like hungry fingers seeking his heart.
The pain beca unbearable.
Each new spike was fresh agony, each one stole more of his resistance. The tal reached his shoulders, threatening to immobilize his arms in their current position.
Quick Charge: 5
'NOW!' The fifth point finally erged, but the tal was faster.
The prison closed like a trap, turning Elio into a silver statue frozen in the attack's final mont. His arms, perfectly positioned in what should have been the instant of victory, were now part of the tallic sculpture of his own death.
Inside his prison, the spikes continued their relentless work, each one finding its way through his flesh.
One instant.
He had been one instant away from achieving it.
♢♢♢♢
(Second is over)
NO! The scream resonated in Elio's mind like thunder.
The Artromus was still out there, and this wouldn't be his tomb.
Desperation transford into burning determination as his hands, trapped but perfectly positioned, began to glow inside the tallic prison.
'I don't need to move!' The realization exploded in his fading consciousness. 'I'M ALREADY IN POSITION!'
Between his immobile hands, pointing upward and facing each other with fingers placed in the exact position, a sphere of energy began to form. The glow intensified second by second, power accumulating in that small space between his palms.
He couldn't control the impact's direction, not in this position.
The explosion would reach him too, but that didn't matter. Pain had never been his enemy; it was just another tool.
Elio Mana: 0
The detonation was blinding.
The contained energy burst from above, reaching all creatures despite their reinforced armor. The five mana points, released in a perfectly positioned explosion, were barely enough to disintegrate them.
The sensation was instant, level 10 conquered.
Mana began flowing again in his body, but there was sothing more. A new control, an instinctive understanding of the power that had imprisoned him now ran through his veins.
With his newly increased strength and hands finally freed by corrosion, Elio concentrated his energy. The parts of his body that the explosion had burned began to heal, but first he needed to free himself.
With a roar that contained all his accumulated fury, he made the tallic prison burst from within.
The spikes that had been drinking his blood detached when the structure collapsed. The system imdiately began its healing work, sealing wounds, regenerating tissue, restoring his body to its optimal state.
Elio stood among the twisted tal remains, his body emanating level 10 power.
The true challenge was just beginning; the Artromus waited outside.
But now... now he was ready.
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