The silver hollow began its slow march towards Noah's figure, its movement was abnormally slow and almost as though it existed in a different time zone that the rest of the world.
It could move its hands up and about, but for some reason, it wouldn't attack him from that distance. There seemed to be a fundamental limit to its abilities, one that even its power couldn't bypass.
However, unlike its level 100 versions all it needed was to get closer to its opponent's figure to be capable of attacking him.
Its movement was silent as usual, but also event-less. The minutes began to pass, and Noah remained unconscious, his soul island struggling to get rid of the effects of the unleashed skill.
The third minute stuck, and Noah grunted, his eyes lids parting to reveal his icy blue eyes. Confusion remained evident on Noah's, and it took him a few seconds to recall the events that had occurred before his unconsciousness.
His memories flowed back, and he abruptly exploded with power before sprinting toward the edge of the field.
Noah arrived at his destination and noticed the transparent barrier that now existed between that place and the rest of the maze.
The hollow had noticed his figure, and if it could experience surprise, it would have gasped in shock.
Rather than that, it raised its head again, and Noah felt a dense sensation hit him like a ton of bricks.
The chilling sensation of fear, almost terror, filled his very being and the density caused his eyes to draw closer and closer until he lost consciousness for the second time.
With its target now at the edge of the field, the hollow had to begin its march towards that distant place to be able to get a hold of Noah.
The third minute after its scream saw Noah's reawakening, but this time he recalled what had happened immediately after he woke up.
He quickly closed his ears with his palms and watched the hollow raise its head again.
The thing was too quick at noticing him.
With hopes that his action would stop the inaudible sound from reaching his ears, Noah sat still, but to his shock, he passed out the next second.
Gasping for breath the third time, Noah jumped up and saw that the hollow was still quite far from his figure, but that didn't manage to make him happy.
He didn't know how to stop its skill and was sitting ducks. He was at the farthest point on the field, he had nowhere else to run.
The hollow raised its head for the fourth time, and Noah felt everything go dark once again.
'This has to stop or I might not get any fighting chance!' Noah thought to himself waking up for the seventh time. By all means, he felt helpless, but he decided it was time to visit his gained knowledge about the hollows on the big guy.
Before the thing could raise its head, Noah launched a barrage of lightning bolts numbering a staggering hundred.
The massive discharge caused the entire field to tremble while his bolts roared forward with threatening speed.
Shockingly, that event didn't stop the hollow from raising its head and utilizing its skill, so Noah had to fall unconscious and reawaken another three minutes after to see what he had achieved.
A small sense of joy appeared on his face when he saw that he had turned a bit of its lower portion yellow, but he remained disappointed at the same time.
The attack could have wiped out whole groups of hollows due to how much energy was available in it, but he had only managed to taint a small portion of its huge figure.
The thing continued its movements, and soon raised its head when it noticed that its target had recovered.
Noah wasn't going to have it this time around. A series of ideas were generated in that instant, and he came to a quick conclusion, one that he had to try out first to be sure that it was right.
Right before the beast raised its head, Noah touched the ground and caused a thick ball of ice to manifest around him, followed by many barriers made of electrical energy expertly woven together by him.
Being unable to see the beast, Noah wasn't sure if it had roared, but the event that happened immediately after his defenses were set up; confirmed it to him.
In mere instants, Noah felt his mind lose connection with seventeen of the twenty barriers of electricity he had created. What he felt before their disconnection was akin to a strong wind capable of blowing them away.
Not only that, after his barriers were magically destroyed, he felt a strange force seep through his remaining three barriers and even bypass his ball of ice to reach him.
But the force revealed itself as a low-frequency sound, one that had enough power to rupture his eardrums and shatter his remaining defenses.
Noah barely recoiled at the pain that reached his mind, but the realization had dawned on him.
Just like how the lvl 100 Hollows had required energy for him to kill, he would his magical elements to serve as a filter of sorts, stopping that skill's effects from reaching his mind.
'It's pretty simple. Why didn't I think of this before,' Noah thought finding himself out in the open again. However, he had lost his worry. Or at least most of it.
Noah activated his speed force armor, and a yellow battle armor appeared on his figure, with even a helmet.
He didn't know if the spell would be enough to stop the giant's skill, so he conjured a series of condensed pads of his different elements, or at least he tried to.
Before he could succeed in his project, the hollow raised its head, and everything went black again. He had been in the middle of a thought process that saw him doing something new, but that event had been cut short.
"That's it!" Noah exclaimed immediately after he recovered from the ninth wave of the skill, but his eyes already shone with understanding and also excitement.
Right before he passed out, he had been close to landing on a good idea, but the idea; now complete revealed itself to be based on something he had used during his time on Earth.
Noah's thought process hit its max, as literally tens of considerations happened in the span of instants, and he eventually came to a rather quick conclusion.
'Rather than use spells, why can I just utilize my energy,' he thought to himself immediately moving to do as he had concluded.
Noah opened his hand and allowed speed essence flow out of his palms, he couldn't exactly force it into doing something outrageous, but he could shape it into anything he wanted, and that shape revealed itself to be a headphone.
Noah placed the semi-solid object on his head, allowing his ears comfortably sit inside the space allowed for them.
'My personal noise-cancellation headphones,' Noah giggled, and his giggle turned into a burst of ecstatic laughter when he saw the hollow raise its head, but nothing happened to him even after it lowered its head.