End of the Battle

[Chapter 108: End of the Battle]

...

((("How... How is it that you are still alive?! I pierced your heart!!")))

The Sand Elemental widened her eyes in shock seeing the silhouette of Aspen looking at her with a triumphant smile on his face. Not only was his body completely unscratched even after having his heart pierced, but he was even looking at her confidently as if he was sure of his victory!

"I'm just very good at what I do"

((("That does not even make senseeee!!!"))) The Sand elemental couldn't restrain herself anymore and shot another incredibly rapid spike to pierce Aspen's head this time. However, as if expecting it, Aspen dodged it with his fast reflexes, and before the Sand Element could do anything else, moved his hand and slammed it down violently in direction of the Sand Elemental.

*BOOOOM!!!*

In the blink of an eye, an enormous-sized fist-tree appeared above the Sand Elemental and plummeted her whole body into the ground with extreme force. At that moment, a great part of the body of the Sand Elemental got destroyed as the pressure exerted by the giant-sized fist was too much for her current weakened body to resist.

While all this was happening, Aspen was watching with a slightly nervous expression at the screen that had appeared on the side of his vision.

°°°

°Sand Elemental°

Name: ---

Race: ---

Title: The personification of the desert's wrath.

-Status:

[Low stability: Due to the huge damage accumulated on the body, the desert is losing control of this materialization. Thus, this being will disperse into nothingness as long as its mana, Hp, or time remaining depletes] (Time left the desert loses control of this Elemental: 4 Hours, 48 minutes and...)

[Hp: 5,676/30,000]

°°°

Although he was indeed a bit more assured than before, the nervousness of failing during the last part of the fight was still there. Only 5000 more hp remained and victory could be his. Obviously, he didn't want to screw up in any possible way.

Fortunately, it's not like he has come back empty-handed from his previous trip.

*Shrieeeeeeeeeeek*

From all around, many trees suddenly transformed and took the shape of drills before they started moving at an astonishing speed towards the weakened Sand Elemental before they then started piercing and destroying her body without a stop.

"Y-you are alive?! But how? I saw you die there" Yuuki, who was the first one to see him die, exclaimed in shock looking at him as if she had seen a ghost.

Delbere on the other hand, although not as shocked as Yuuki, he was still looking wide-eyed at the sudden appearance of Aspen even after receiving an attack to the heart. And as for Jeffrey, well, he was shocked too, but seeing that the Sand Elemental was being attacked without stop, he then finally grabbed his broken arm and clenched his teeth trying to calm down the pain.

"It takes a lot more than dying to make me abandon everything I have poured into this life. Anyway, I don't think it's time for you to stand there like idiots, attack her or something while I immobilize her"

"Whatever" Yuuki just looked at him with an annoyed expression and then raised her staff, and started attacking once again the for now unable to move Sand Elemental. While Delbere just nodded and grinned wickedly before he took out several explosives from his backpack.

Soon, an incredibly violent barrage of attacks struck the poor body of the Sand Elemental, who was unable to move due to the drills constantly pinning her down and making her unable to counter-attack.

It was only after a minute later, that she finally noticed a gap in the group's formation, and formed a vortex to take Aspen by surprise.

However, contrary to her expectations, Aspen simply dodged the spike with a rapid movement right after his feet glowed with a red light. Indeed, now that he had enough distance from her, he also had enough reaction speed to evade most of her attacks, be it using his body, the Shield of Cthulhu, or just his explosion magic.

And this time, he didn't have to worry about his mana anymore... Well, he still had to, but a lot less than before...

Thanks to the new blessing that the goddess gave him, he now had endless possibilities for using his nature magic, and maybe even the Astral magic as well...

°°°

[Universe's will] (New!)

-Your body and soul now are directly connected to the will of the universe, thus, now your Mana reserves are thrice as bigger than before, and any Elemental related magic (Fire, Water, Earth, and others...) has its mana costs reduced in a 70%. Also, your connection to the universe is raised significantly higher, and because of that, you can control more easily Astral magic.

°°°

Unfortunately, the more he damaged the Sand Elemental, the more her body could shrink, and thus, the harder it was to actually hit her.

It was after some minutes, that the Sand Elemental was already too tiny to hit her properly. And of course, she made use of this opportunity to slip from Aspen's attacks and directly aim for his head while he was still controlling the trees around.

The Sand Elemental now had a normal size of a human, but even then, her speed and strength had barely diminished from before. Not to mention that she also had the ability to create any weapon she wished with her sand, and she was also able to shoot many different types of projectiles with her sand. In a way, with this now much smaller body, she was also much deadlier for Aspen and the others.

Attacks that could have certainly hit her before because of the gigantic body, now we're a lot harder to aim because of her small and agile body.

The Sand Elemental soon appeared in front of Aspen, and moved rapidly her scythe-shaped hand, and tried to cut his head in one swop. However, she was soon blown away by a rapid fist-tree that Aspen controlled when he saw her coming.

*Bam!!*

A small screen appeared by the side of his vision as soon as the Elemental got sent flying. But Aspen chose to ignore it and lunged towards her while controlling all the nearby trees in his surroundings.

((("Damn you...!!")))

The Sand Elemental tried to counter-attack by shaping her hand into an extensible spear and tried to pierce through Aspen now that he was in front of her, but Aspen simply used a mana explosion and moved slightly to the side, dodging like that the attack with ease.

It wasn't long before the Sand Elemental started getting barraged once again with unending attacks from Aspen.

Be it giant tree-fists, tree-drills, or even tree-chainsaws, there was no time for the Sand Elemental to counter-attack while being attacked continuously by these attacks without mercy. And soon, the Hp of the Sand Elemental finally started reaching its limit.

°°°

°Sand Elemental°

Name: ---

Race: ---

Title: The personification of the desert's wrath.

-Status:

[Low stability: Due to the huge damage accumulated on the body, the desert is losing control of this materialization. Thus, this being will disperse into nothingness as long as its mana, Hp, or time remaining depletes] (Time left the desert loses control of this Elemental: 4 Hours, 48 minutes and...)

[Hp: 989/30,000]

°°°

With Aspen on one side, and Delbere together with Yuuki on the other, there was no more apparent way for the Sand Elemental to escape anymore. And this became even more certain, when suddenly from behind Aspen a titanic Drill appeared and started moving rapidly towards her.

*SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!*

The Drill was so big, that Delbere, Yuuki, and Aspen had to move away in order to not be affected by the attack as well. However, to prevent the Sand Elemental from escaping, Aspen moved a few trees in the surroundings and used them to tie the Sand Elemental directly to the ground.

Unable to do anything else to avoid her demise, the Sand Elemental screamed in rage and fury, making the whole battlefield tremble around her.

((("Curse you human!!! When the time comes, I will come back as another aspect of nature, and I swear that I will erase you from this planet for once and for all!!!")))

The screams of the Elemental made the heart of Aspen unease. After all, this meant that the Sand Elemental was not a killable being, but rather a being that could transform itself into many shapes and forms depending on the situation. However, fortunately, it seemed that these corporeal forms actually had a time limit.

Soon, the screams of the Sand Elemental started being overlapped by the monstrous sound of the Drill destroying everything on its path. Including, of course, the furious Elemental.

Many translucent screens appeared on Aspen's vision, showing the damage output of his attack, but Aspen simply ignored them and admired his so desired end of the battle.

Soon, a few minutes after that, the giant Tree-drill finally dispersed and reverted back to its normal shape, leaving an enormous crater where its attack had struck and destroyed everything. Only a few grains of sand were left after the attack, but they were no longer part of the Elemental.

And as expected, the rewards after his victory soon came into view after the Elemental finally died.

°°°

Alert: The fragment of a soul from a transcendent being has been detected.

Owner: Aspect of Nature

...

-Beginning the process of extraction and materialization

[...3%]

[...9%]

[...25%]

[...52%]

[...75%]

[...96%]

[...100%]

[You have obtained: Sand Nucleus]

The fragment of the soul has been divided into three: [Forbidden Fragment]

°°°

*Sigh*

After an exhausted sigh on his part, Aspen decided to ignore the rewards he has been given and then started walking back towards the city completely ignoring the gazes of everyone around him.

He was far too tired to give a shit about anything else.

"What a shitty day..."

--------------------------

A/N:

Damn that took a while. I was kinda out of ideas on how to make this chapter. But in the end, I decided that the fight had prolonged long enough, so I ended it here... for now, that is...

Anyway, now Aspen will begin the construction of his ship and will have to wait until it's done. Until then, let's hope he doesn't meet any new problems (ʘ‿ʘ)

Anyway, that's all for today.

Bye bye