Chapter 7

With that blow I hoped to finish him off, but the fire elemental turned out to be tougher than I thought, so with no other choice I gave him one more blow and he died.

I was a bit amused to be able to feel the incredulity of his gaze... In fact, it makes me laugh a lot, hahaha. If I'm honest I didn't expect that reaction from one of the most aggressive elementals, it's almost poetic. I say that because, to end violence you have to do it with MORE VIOLENCE, hahaha.

Well, that's what I'm saying right now, but I'm sure if I were still human I'd think a little differently. No matter, the point is that I bask in my victory and the feeling of accomplishment is great. I know I shouldn't allow myself to be proud for just achieving a victory, but it is inevitable that these feelings of happiness and accomplishment arise in me.

*SIGH*

I tried to momentarily enter a state of "mana meditation" to calm down a bit and recover some mana. I can do another 4 equal walls, but I don't want to trust myself and want to finish off an elemental without needing to corner it.

I have some other strategies planned to deal with that, but first I must collect my loot and feast on the remains. I'm not hungry, but all the elementals on the battlefield "eat" the energies of the elemental "Cores" before returning to battle. It must be for a reason.

I ate quickly and left the core, now useless in a place where I can collect it and that was simply by digging a little under the wall I made, and burying with the "Core" the essences.

Now, it's time to get back to the fight. This time I will fight without using my elemental magic. It will be a brutal battle because of what I plan to do. But this is war.

...

I found my second victim *cough* opponent by finding 3 fire elementals harassing 1 poor earth elemental. I felt a little sorry for him, but he was still hanging in there and returned the damage as best he could.

I plotted my plan and again grabbed a stone a little bigger than my hand, and walked towards one of the 3 fire elementals.

I got the attention of 2 of the fire elementals and they decided that they could take me on together. I didn't expect this outcome if I'm honest, but I will still carry out my plan. It's not time for me to chicken out.

As soon as I was close enough to the first fire elemental I threw the rock as hard as I could and just like the previous one, it hit him right in the chest. It's kind of hard to miss or avoid an attack so close. The fire elemental went out a little bit and was surprised by the attack. In fact, the 2 elementals were surprised, I know because they were momentarily still.

They resumed their march against me faster than before, and the second fire elemental stayed a little behind preparing to throw fireballs at me.

I'll have to hold on and win quickly against the elemental who wants to fight me with blows.

When the fire elemental got close enough I started to feel the same violent feelings. The feeling was strong but I could still keep my rational thinking above it.

The first blow came from the fire elemental hitting me in the chest. After its blow, a fireball hit my left shoulder. This fight wouldn't be easy and I have no experience fighting 2v1, but it doesn't matter. I'm sure I can withstand enough to defeat both of them.

After the blow I prepared my first attack. I hit right on his right shoulder, his dominant hand I guessed. So far, all the elementalists I've seen throw fireballs use that hand first. He moved slightly to the side, avoiding being able to attack me again.

My next blow came from above. I had raised my hand to bring his head as low as I could. The second and third fireball came at that moment. Since I couldn't block because I was already preparing my chain of blows, and I can't allow distractions, I let them hit me. Both hit me in the chest.

Even so, I continued with my attack and thanks to my superior size and the strength of the attack I managed to lower his gaze enough so that when he raised his head again he received my third attack, this time in his chest.

When I completed this hit, I saw the launch of the fourth fireball coming towards me. I was annoyed by it, they were a nuisance and they hurt every time they hit me. The areas where the fireballs landed turned black at the edges and red in the center, they burned me.

Annoyed I let my emotions overwhelm me and grabbed the fire elemental by the shoulders and forcibly moved it to receive the attack. I also moved trying to put the fire elemental directly into the, ironically enough, enemy's line of fire.

The fourth fireball hit the fire elemental's back. I thought it was funny, it was the pure irony of "allied fire". Recovering from my thoughts, I hit the elemental's chest again. This time it also attacked me, again hitting me in the chest.

The other elemental, seeing that I had caused ally damage, approached me to fight me with his bare fist. Since I couldn't go on like that, and knowing that I will receive much more damage if both attack me at the same time, I decided the most logical thing to do.

I raised both arms and allowed the elemental to attack me, but when he realized what I was planning to do he stopped attacking me and tried to retreat. Too bad that while he was attacking me I got too close to him, which gave me enough distance to hit him and cause him damage.

Upon receiving the blow, the poor elemental was in the right moment to perform a "FATALITY", I decided to have fun and just hit him lightly, once again this caused his demise and allowed me to face the biggest annoyance I had in this fight.

The fire elemental calmly watched as the other elemental disappeared, and didn't back down. In fact, the first strike was made by him, but since I wasn't in the mood to just hit him, I decided that I would return his ranged attacks.

As it was close to me it was not difficult and I quickly made a stalagmite hit it. The fire elemental when it was pierced through stopped for a moment and faded a bit. Also, it took a while to move away from the stalagmite.

It caused him damage and stopped him, interesting. A very good attack for control, so I concentrated on hitting him as fast as I could while continually moving towards him, causing him to have to retreat. I planned to use the stalagmite as a wall and try to corner him. It worked briefly but then he moved to the side. Anyway, I didn't care and continued to pound him to death.

When I finished them both off, I really felt and observed how much damage I had taken. My fight against 3 fire elementals had taken its toll on me and my hands were burning. My chest had several red spots burning in black spots. One of my shoulders was also burning, but everything else was fine. I could still fight more, one last battle.

I devoured the energy of both "Cores" and set out to walk towards the same earth elemental that had been fighting the 3 earlier. It's a pity that when I was getting close the rock elemental died. Apparently it had already taken a lot of damage before when the 3 cornered it, but I don't care much either, it's just another "Core" and I needed the essences to recover a bit.

When the fire elemental went to pick up its loot, a stalagmite suddenly appeared through it. This attack caused it to stop and not pick up the "Core". Moving away from the stalagmite took long enough for me to catch up with the fire elemental and use the strongest strike I have.

Upon receiving the blow from both of my hands combined, the elemental died. I think he was the elemental that took the most damage in his fight against the earth elemental. It may have been the 1vs1 until the other two came over to "help" it. I wonder what elementals of the same type will do when they kill an elemental in a group... Either fight or just continue on with some other, I don't imagine what else.

I devoured the energy of both "Cores" and started using the 15 earth essences left by the elemental. I needed to heal my chest, so I spent 13 of the earth essences "repairing" my wounds, and the other 2 I used on my shoulder.

When I finished applying "first aid" with the remains of a member of my elemental species, I began to retreat. I collected the essences of the fire elementals and gathered them in a "box" I made out of a rock. I also collected the ones I hid behind my wall and left for my "home" as fast as I could.

...

I arrived safely home. I left the box with essences and "Cores" without energy near the shelf to count my loot later. For now, I just want to think a bit about my fight and reflect.

The fight was hard, and not because I made it look easy it was. I had to concentrate so much on how to hit, where to hit and how hard to hit, that mentally I'm tired. I had to partly resist the violent emotions that filled me in combat and also the annoyance of the ranged attacks from that fire elemental. Every one of those fireballs does damage, but what's truly annoying is the burning sensation they leave behind. The elemental's attacks are imbued with damage from its element and nature's damage which seems to boost the damage dealt. This booster surely increases the damage of the burns that linger on the body. I can say that fire elementals have a "damage per second (DPS)" of "damage over time (DOT)" and their fire armor burns on contact.

When fire elementals evolve I'm pretty sure their fireballs will increase in size and explosiveness, so there will be more surface area in contact with fire, plus their fire armor will obviously be bigger. Luckily for me, earth elementals have extra armor. This strange balance between higher damage and higher defense is distressing... And let's not mention the other 2 types of elements, like air and water....

I'd better focus on the point of this reflection. My battles went well, as I am still "alive" if I can be called that. Perhaps it would be better to say that I am "present" in the physical world. Anyway, the point is that my strategies work. The first of those strategies was to corner them with my earth wall spell, a very well thought out strategy if I do say so myself. As for the damage of my stone stalagmite it's okay, but it's not as much as I assumed. Maybe it's the lack of "corporeality" or "density" of fire elementals that causes such an effect, but at least I know it does hurt them. But without a doubt the best discovery is that it stuns and slows them down for a moment. The control skills are really useful in a battle, too bad their damage isn't higher.

Another thing I learned, is that the damage from the rocks I throw causes damage but not as much as a stalagmite would, nor does it have any control effect. I'm sure they stopped out of "amazement" to see me do such a thing and not because it actually had that kind of effect. I must study further because my stalagmite affects them more than throwing a stone, apart from the fact that it goes right through them.

With such a battle today, I am mentally tired and bodily I still hurt from the burns. I will use my stored earth essences and end this soon.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter. I have a proposal, I will release another chapter if "5" people comment, it's not much, is it? So I invite you to comment, because every comment is a motivation for me. I wish you a great day ^^