"TOO LATE TO ESCAPE!" Elio roared as the shock wave sent the Artromus flying toward the barrier.
The Artromus, for the first time, felt something that dangerously resembled fear.
It was approaching God's barrier with no way to stop.
Mana flowed frantically through the Artromus's body, every point channeled into a desperate impulse to move away from the barrier. Its 1000 mana points, an ocean of power that had always been its pride, now seemed useless.
What good was so much power if it couldn't use it all at once when needed?
Everything around it became extremely slow. Despite exceeding the perception limit like Elio, it couldn't find an escape.
What could it do?
For the first time in its existence, the Artromus felt true terror.
Was this how it would end?
Would a moment of carelessness be its downfall? It wouldn't even have time to activate metamorphosis, its last resort...
Time slowed to become torture. It could feel every microsecond, every instant its body made contact with the divine barrier.
The disintegration began at its fingertips, a tingling that quickly became agony as its cells decomposed.
Its arms and legs extended instinctively, seeking a grip that didn't exist in the empty air.
'A parasite?' The thought burned in its mind as its extremities disappeared. 'Will I be defeated by a simple paras... a simple human?'
But there was nothing simple about this opponent. It had underestimated him, had underestimated God and now... No. Just the human. This power, this strategy, had all been the work of one alone.
The Artromus retracted its head as much as it could, an instinctive reflex as it watched in horror how... The plates of its chest, its proud natural armor, began to disappear.
The barrier approaching its thoracic cores ever closer.
Its resistance vanished like water between its claws:
5,000 points.
Its wings flapped frantically, but Elio's impulse was too powerful.
4,000 points.
Pain pierced every fiber of its being as more of its body disintegrated.
3,000 points.
Was this what dying felt like?
♢♢♢♢
It seemed the monster had been disintegrated by the barrier.
But...
Elio's superhuman perception, pushed beyond its limits, allowed him to see what others couldn't: the Artromus hadn't disintegrated in the barrier.
The movement had been almost imperceptible, but there it was: a flash of movement at 80 points of speed, barely half a torso and a battered head.
'You won't escape!'
His body reacted before his mind. The winged salamander responded to his will, propelling him to the right of the carbon bridge, but his instant mana reserves were depleted after betting all his 10 points on the previous attack.
His summon's 60-point impulse was powerful, but not enough to reach that monstrous speed of 80.
'MORE!'
It was time to show the monster what a "simple human" could do.
The crimson glow in his eyes intensified until becoming a burning inferno. Blood flowed like scarlet rivers down his face as his body launched toward the carbon bridge.
The impact of his feet against the structure resonated like thunder.
In that instant, Elio shattered every limit his body knew.
His muscles exploded with a force that defied all logic: 50 points, 5 times beyond what was humanly possible. The pain was immediate and devastating. Every fiber in his legs screamed in agony, tendons creaking under a tension that threatened to make them burst.
But Elio endured it... And with that insane strength, jumped toward the Artromus.
The carbon beneath his feet didn't resist; the entire bridge section disintegrated in an explosion of black fragments.
But Elio was no longer there.
The winged salamander roared, its power magnified by the temporary emblem to unexplored limits. Wind and fire merged into a storm of pure energy, adding 60 more points of impulse to his already impossible speed, 110 points.
The air itself seemed to split before his passage. The distance between him and the Artromus vanished in an instant.
Lucien and Selene could barely distinguish the blur Elio had become. The shock wave of his passage made what remained of the bridge tremble.
'I warned you!' The thought roared in his mind as his fingers extended toward one of the monster's 4 wings. 'You won't escape from me!'
The crack when his fingers found their target was brutal. Elio's grip closed like a steel trap on the Artromus's shattered wing, and this time, nothing in heaven or earth would make him let go.
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The time to pay had come.