Ashley

  I feel very satisfied after finally managing to make some real, irreversible progress in this battle. Specifically, freezing the stupid Unique Monster’s leg in time. Making it completely unusable from now on.

  What’s more is that it can’t even change the position its leg is in. At all.

  Which will, without a doubt, make its movements a lot more awkward from now on.

  I keep a close eye on the tiger as I rapidly back away. Building a lot of distance between the two of us as I repeatedly glance at my wounds to tear off and destroy the frozen parts.

  But that proves to be unnecessary since the Unique Monster seems to be preoccupied with its own crippled leg. As it tries everything it can to free its leg from the amber.

  Of course, nothing it tries works. Hence is the power of the Primordial of Time’s Successor Skill.

  If only the skill was easier to use and didn’t require me to be so close or for me to spend so much time just to encase something in the amber.

  At the end of the day though, it’s fine.

  The tiger can’t move its leg out of that position anymore. And while I did sacrifice a lot of health and energy to deal the wound, it’s worth it.

  After I finish setting all of my wounds to the point that they can finally start healing by removing the ice, I look up to find the tiger suddenly rushing at me. Moving so quickly that I barely manage to pull backwards with my wings held out in front of me as a shield.

  But to my surprise, the tiger stops its bite at the last second. Finally learning its lesson and forcing itself not to bite my wings.

  I frown at that before going ahead and taking advantage of its faltering during its pull-back to rush forwards and slash my claws at it. Leaving some light wounds on its side.

  The tiger takes advantage of my attacking it as well to slash at me with its own claws. Leaving far deeper wounds on my side than the ones I left on its own.

  To my surprise though, my wounds begin to heal a lot faster than the tiger’s wounds.

  In fact, I think the tiger’s wounds are healing a lot slower than before.

  Which makes me realize the reason for that.

  I didn’t just freeze the tiger’s leg.

  I also froze all the energy inside of the tiger’s leg. Making all that energy unusable now.

  Nice!

  A grin spreads across my face at the thought before I rush straight at the tiger again while using numerous destruction and other affinity spells and skills to bombard the tiger from every direction. But the tiger just expels a mist of frost that quickly begins freezing over every one of my attacks.

  The only thing that breaks through the frost is me, and that’s because my Gaze disintegrates the frost in my way. Causing the mist to begin glowing with crimson cracks before vanishing as I pass through it and chomp down on the tiger’s other leg.

  I try to use Chrono Lock again, but the tiger doesn’t let me this time. It stops all of the frost it expelled just a few seconds ago and makes it form a massive shard that is then launched straight at me.

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  All faster than I can react to thanks to my focus on Chrono Lock. Leading to the shard slamming into my side and sending me flying. Canceling the time skill in the process.

  I cough out a mouthful of blood. Blood that I can see crystals spread throughout as I fly backwards with the shard of ice digging into my side.

  Then the tiger lets out a loud roar as it shakes off the failed effects of the Chrono Lock skill.

  The shard continues pushing me through the air while digging further and further into my side. All the way until it pierces through my ribs. At which point it finally stops going in further and I slow down in my flight.

  I grit my teeth through the pain while reaching forwards to rip the shard out of my body. Sending out numerous blasts of energy behind me with different skills just to stop my flight.

  But when I try to pull the shard out, I find it stuck in my body. To the point that no matter how much I try to pull it out with, it doesn’t even budge an inch.

  Even when I slam my fists into the shard, it doesn’t so much as crack.

  Damnit, this is bad.

  And every movement I make with the shard in my body hurts like hell. With the shard digging into more of my insides as I move.

  But despite that, I flap my wings to move in an instant when I see the tiger rushing at me with its jaws wide open.

  As I’m about to move out of the way though, an idea comes to mind, and I stop. Then I angle the shard towards the tiger’s incoming attack.

  The tiger tries to slow down, but he still ends up slamming into the shard.

  Cracking it in the process. Albeit only a little bit since the tiger slowed down a lot before hitting it.

  Of course, the tiger’s impact also sends the shard a bit further into my body. But I think the exchange was worth it.

  Because, while I can destroy it with my Gaze of Destruction, that will take a long time. So if I just let the tiger break it into smaller pieces before finishing the shard off with my Gaze, I should be able to deal with it sooner than I would’ve otherwise been able to.

  The tiger’s eyes narrow before we begin a bit of a limped dance. One where both of us move around trying to attack while I move around to take hits on the shard. With the tiger trying to avoid attacking the shard.

  But no matter how much it avoids the shard, it still hits it a few times.

  And a few times is more than enough to shatter parts of the shard.

  Leading to the shard snapping in half when the tiger ends up ramming into the mid-point of the shard.

  At the same time, I feel it being tugged partially out of my body as cracks spread all throughout the remnants of the shard.

  After that, I let the tiger ram into it one last time before using my Gaze of Destruction to finish it off. Focusing on the cracks to expand them and make it fall apart while avoiding the tiger’s attacks.

  During the process of this though, the tiger ends up expelling frost a few more times before trying to merge it into more shards and throw them at me. But I dodge it every time without hesitation. Using different types of teleportation skills to dodge it. Ones I haven’t used during the battle.

  Mostly because the tiger is frequently put off guard whenever I use a new skill it hasn’t seen yet.

  Which is a major benefit to having too many skills to keep track of.

  After more effort than I care for, I finally get rid of the entire shard. Along with the ice left behind freezing the injuries in my body. Then I try to avoid the Unique Monster as I let the wound finally heal.

  And once it’s healed, I let out a sigh of relief.

  Only for the tiger to send another large shard after me. One that it shatters into hundreds of pieces that it maneuvers in an attempt to surround me.

  I use a skill to dematerialize for five seconds while also using both Ashen Blizzard and Volcanic Surge to fire off so much ash around me that the tiger should be completely blinded. Leaving the shards to fly straight through me as I rush at the tiger and latch my fangs around the tiger’s left foreleg.

  And I activate Chrono Lock again. Beginning to spread the amber around its limb again.

  But this time I activate numerous other skills at the same time. Rapidly draining my energy in the process.

  I send a parasite into the tiger’s body to drain away energy and health from it, use up the blood mana I’ve built up from the damage I’ve taken by converting it to neutral mana and further fueling Chrono Lock, and even activate Nightmare to put the tiger to sleep for a single second. With it waking up almost immediately.

  And since the creature already fired off all those shards mere moments ago, it doesn’t manage to do it again until after I’ve already circled its entire leg with amber from Chrono Lock.

  Sealing away another limb.

  Right before the shards from before that missed me finally arrive, breaking through my defenses and slamming into me from all directions.

  Once again leading to me sacrificing health and injuries to take away a limb.

  I rush backwards through the pain as the tiger roars out its anger.

  But the trade is well worth it in my eyes.

  Now I just have to deal with these new wounds and I should be in a better situation in the battle.

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