Innovative monster-killing techniques

The first one was a Type II Goo-type. Reya spammed it with lightning until it exploded into dust.

The second one was a Type I Giant Spider-type. Eo just kept laughing at it while impaling its eight eyes with eight daggers. Reya thought Eo was weird.

The third one was a Type I Snake-type. Eo saw it first, but Reya insisted on dealing with it herself. Eo called her "unoriginal" when Reya started using more lightning attacks, so Reya instead used magnetism to fling a rod of metal at high-velocity to it, almost impaling Eo in the process.

The fourth through twentieth monsters were all Type Is, but their deaths were so uneventful that Eo didn't bother listing them down mentally.

The twenty-first one was a Type II Giant Goblin-type. Eo stuck rods of metal into its muscles while Reya electrified them, making the poor monster dance to her bidding. It was a great deal of fun until the twenty-second one was also a Type II.

The twenty-second type was a Type II Toad-type, at which Eo impaled to the Goblin-type. Then, Reya made them dance together. Okay, it was still a great deal of fun.

The twenty-third one was also a Type II. Eo started thinking something fishy was up, as that was 3 type IIs in a row. Reya seemed mostly annoyed that the rods weren't long enough to impale a third type II, so she just electrocuted it to death.

The twenty-fourth one was a Type II Mega Worm-type. Eo and Reya finally realized they had to work, as the enemies were getting stronger more frequently. Eo crucified the sewn-together carcass of the 3 Type IIs onto the terrified Mega Worm. Then Reya electrified them to a nice crispy texture.

"By the way, Reya, how many Phase III monsters were there in total?"

"I think about ten or so."

"How many did we defeat?"

"Three? There was the rubber one, the tortoise one, and the big demon-type."

Eo's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, that's where you electrified my daggers and basically insta-KO'ed it!"

"What does that mean?"

"Wait, you don't know? Nevermind. Anyways, we should really work together when we fight the other Phase IIIs. Our elements really do enhance each other."

Reya cringed. "Ew, that sounded cringy."

"Sorry. Looking at you, I could tell it did."

The twenty-fifth to thirty-eighth were all unremarkable Type I or II monsters. At this point, Reya was starting to slow down. She looked at Eo, who was jumping all about as if he could do this forever.

"Eo, you still aren't tired?!"

Eo grinned. "Yup! Maybe I'm just super athletic!"

"Lies. You look like someone who would skip out on his PE classes."

"How did you know?!"

Reya narrowed her eyes. "You definitely have some sort of technique, right? Something you're not telling me."

Eo realized he was circulating essence. At this point it was entirely unconscious; his body was just constantly doing it. It was like breathing now.

Eo wondered if he should tell her. Remembering how many monsters they were going to face later, he decided to.

"Well, sort of. It uses up essence though. You sure?"

"Well duh. We have to fight more annoying monsters later on."

"Okay. Just imagine the essence in you circulating, revitalizing your cells. Uh, yeah, that's what it feels like. I think."

Now that he was thinking about it, Eo was surprised Reya had managed to keep up for so long. She must have had a natural talent for being efficient in her usage or something. Eo didn't really know.

"That's… it? If my intuition is correct, that leads to essence being created by healthy cells, which means this is an unending cycle… this is basically cheating!"

Eo shrugged. "I mean, the real question is, why don't more people use this!"

Reya grit her teeth in annoyance while beheading a couple more monsters.

"Doesn't this mean you get to use essence pretty much infinitely?!"

"Not really… It's more like you get to stretch the amount of essence you have over a longer period of time. When you add it up, it should be only somewhat more though…"

"Still, that's basically unfair."

"Also, it lowers the ceiling for the amount of essence you can simultaneously expend to make a move. In other words, you can't make flashier moves because you're always constantly spending essence from circulating and revitalizing your body."

Reya still looked annoyed, like she should've known about it earlier.

Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait, so why don't more people use it?"