3 Long Seconds (Part-2)

Alongside flames, thick logs of wood began to emerge from the ground, forming ten large barrel-like structures in front of Felarial, each pointing towards the rushing monster. 

The top half of the five-meter long span over their axis at incredulous speeds. Whips of flames extended out of Felarial's fingers as each of them trailed into the holes at the bottom of those ten cannon-like structures.

Just as the target already entered the 500-meter range, the cannons shot highly compressed blocks of wood at speeds that weren't visible to the naked eye.

Plasma Predator couldn't help but slow down after taking a few direct hits from the cannons. They left a sizeable hopeless in its body but nowhere enough to kill it.

The 10 wooden cannons didn't stop after just one round but went on to spew out bursts of compressed wooden blocks as if they were barrels of inexhaustible machine guns.

Felarial brought out his dual elemental innate talents, Fire and Wood, to deploy the strongest skill he could use with his limited Spirit Pool.

That hindered the charging monster and forced it to dodge head-on collisions with the wooden projectiles, but failed to stop it from pressing onwards while keeping the damage to the minimum.

The damage received was further healed under the effect of Fiendish Regeneration. With every chance it got, the gigantic monster shot a beam of Plasma Energy, targeting Jay, who was in the midst of deploying his ultimate skill.

While still operating the Wooden Cannons, Felarial cast a defensive skill around Jay.

A wooden dome as tall as a three storey building rose from the ground with Jay as the centre and shielded him. 

The three-meter thick wall of the dome chipped away at the repeated attacks of the monster, but none of the beams of Plasma Energy managed to pierce through the dome and reach Jay.

While dodging most of the attacks from the wooden cannons, the Plasma Predator advanced slowly but surely.

400 meters…

300 meters…

200 meters…

100 meters…

After what felt like a lifetime, there was still a second left before Jay could manifest his final attack.

Felarial did his best to maintain both his attack and defence at the same time. 

Pouring out so much Spirit Energy in just a span of a few seconds took an irredeemable toll on his already damaged Spirit Pool.

He knew there was no turning back, and it wouldn't be long before his Life Energy declined even further.

The after-effects would be so severe that even being knocked down to Tier-1 would be the best-case scenario once he over-exhausts himself.

Seeing the monster almost closing upon him, Felarial withdrew into the wooden dome through an opening and enclosed it in the nick of time.

The next moment, claws coated with Plasma Energy clashed with the dome wall, right at the spot Felarial entered the dome.

Although it didn't pierce through completely, it chipped away a considerable portion of the wall.

The Plasma Predator went on and madly swung its claws at the damaged spot.

Felarial repaired the dome wall as much as he could but wasn't able to hold on more than a dozen consecutive strikes from the monster.

The gigantic monster made its way in through the hole it made, aiming for Felarial, who stood directly in front of Jay.

At the approaching claws, Felarial deployed another skill as the last straw and depleted all of his left Spirit Energy reserves in one go.

Sharp wooden thorns wrapped in flames had emerged from within the dome walls and filled the entire space within the dome, except for the spot where Felarial and Jay were at.

The damage output of the oversized thorns was so strong that the monster's defence crumbled and pierced its body all over, leaving sizable holes.

Although Felarial managed to land a fatal blow, none of those thorns struck the Fiend essence crystal.

The Plasma Predator pressed on, ignoring the self-harm caused by moving with numerous thorns piercing its body, and the flames they emitted were harming it from the inside.

With a glint of madness in its eyes, the monster swung its claws at Felarial, and unfortunately for him, with the thorns all around him, there wasn't much space around to dodge.

Blood spilt and flesh scattered as the monster's attack sliced apart a huge chunk of his body, leaving a gaping hole in the place of his right chest and arm.

With a completely exhausted Spirit Pool and one-third of his upper body missing, Felarial was dealt a fatal blow and fell to the ground.

The memory of mental vision from his Unique Innate Talent skill resurfaced in his mind once again as his condition perfectly replicated what he had envisioned.

With a weak sigh, he thought, 'Is this how I fall?'

There was still one-fourth second left for Jay to launch his attack.

For those with twenty times the time perception, that one-fourth of a second was as long as five seconds.

At such close range, an immobile opponent could die five times.

As he almost lost faith in Jay turning around the tables, and then, something unexpected happened.

Dante appeared out of thin air just beside him and shot a series of arrows at the thorn-riddled monster in succession.

The result was so outrageous that even Felarial, who was on his deathbed, widened his eyes in disbelief as the Plasma Predator let out a deafening roar with pain clearly evident on its face.

The monster was maddened to the point it momentarily forgot about Jay and was hell-bent on killing Dante before anything.

Felarial wondered just how much damage Dante had dealt for it to let out a painful roar, something that he or even Jay failed to accomplish.

Little did Felarial know that every single arrow that Dante had shot hit the monster's essence core and brought it to the brink of shattering.

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