The lava metapede reached him, his instincts kicked in and he felt death lurking over him like a dark cloud.
He twisted his body and the lava metapede passed next to him like a flaming spear. He spun like a wheel, all of his strength gathered on his tail.
He slashed the tail on the laval metapede with all the strength and speed he could muster. The spikes on his tail grinded against the hard metalic armour of the lava metapede.
Spark flew and a shockwave blasted both of them in different directions. When he stabilized himself he turned his attention back to it but what he saw made him dispair.
Disregarding his supercharged lightning bolt, that was his most powerful attack to date.
It condensed all of his strength on his tail but all it managed to do was leave a white mark on it hard shell.
That meant he was incapable of breaking through it defence. Realising his chances of winning were slimmer than he had initially thought,he ran.
His body zipped through the ocean like a black shadow, leaving a long trail behind. However he was not faster than the lava metapede.
Flames flew out of the holes on it shell and it turned into a streak of burning fire. It caught up to him in a blink of an eye.
Kilometres of the sea boiled around him before it even reached him. When it did he shot thousands of strings at it to bind it but they all burnt away in an instant.
He took a sharp turn and dodged it charge again but he was hit by a jet of flames. His blood felt like it was boiling, he roared in pain and the oceans churned.
Then he heard the vessel spirit's voice whisper in his ears. " Interesting, flames of that level should not be able to burn you as much as they did, yet here you are screaming like a rat.
I noticed this peculiarity with the lobster as well, that first attack of it should not have dealt as much damage as it did considering the durability of your scales yet it seemed to have more effect on you."
It spoke as if it was studying him, Ved was so angry he felt his blood boil, or maybe it was really boiling because he was in literal boiling water.
It continued ranting about it discovery like a scientist. " I see, it could be world essence. Not only do you not have world essence it appears to be your weakness.
If I am right then you are going to have a lot trouble in your future little beast. Your every enemy will have the right poison for you." It laughed.
" That is very funny, I wish I could pity you but I can not, oh dodge." He got distracted by the vessel spirit and almost got hit by the lava metapede's stinger.
He twisted his body and the stinger passed right above him. He grabbed it which caught the lava metapede off guard.
Before it could react he swung it around and rammed it body on the ocean floor. The floor exploded and a giant shockwave ripped the ground apart and created a giant crater.
In mere moment the ocean floor itself started melting into pools of lava around the lava metapede then it absorbed the lava.
The red lines running across it body glowed and the temperature rose even higher. He knew running was a waste of time since it was much faster than him.
His only option was to fight but winning this fight seemed harder than anything he had ever had to do.
Not to mention when he thought about it, the vessel spirit might be right. At first he believed his scales were weak to elements but more resistant to force.
However that doesn't seem to be the case, the lobsters wind cannon were more of a physical attack type unlike heat and electricity which seemed to partially ignore his defence.
Yet it was still able to damage his internals as if directly transmitting the force inside him. But what if the vessel spirit is right, if it is true then he was in serious trouble.
The lava metapede had more world essence than the lobster and it world essence was more pure as well.
And since essence worked like poison to him, the higher it quantity and quality the more effective it will be.
That thought just made him depressed but thinking about it was no use. He prepared himself for the lava metapede's next attack.
It opened it mandibles and fired a jet of flames at him. He dodged to the side and responded with a bolt of lightning.
It easily dodged the bolt and lunged it him. When it reached him he dodged and delivered a palm strike to it side, the collision blasted a huge shockwave.
This didn't cause any damage to it but it did push it back a few metres. It twisted it huge 40 metres long body and lunged at him with it mandibles.
He spun and slapped it face with his tail, then his body stood upright underwater and he delivered a spinning kick to it side just where the head meet the body.
Before it could react he did a front flip and rammed his tail on top of it head. He was moving like a kung fu master from the movies.
Ved was outclassed by this thing entirely. It was faster, stronger, larger and more durable but his recent martial arts training gave him better combat awareness which seemed to breach the gap.
He was not a master by any means but fighting against a mindless beast that only knows to use it abilities instinctively was not impossible.
His body blurred to the side and a jet of fire passed where he was. Before he could react it was already infront of him. It speed was insane and the vessel spirit said it was weaker underwater.
He couldn't imagine how powerful it actually was when on land. It was only a few centimetres away from him now.
He did a backflip and it passed above him, it legs ran across his stomach delivering a burning sensation to his organs and kicked him to the ocean floor.
He almost coughed a mouthful of blood and he was certain now. The essence energy was making it attacks more effective against him.
Then it twisted it slithering body and it eyes glared at him with rage and murderous intent then the sea evaporated around it creating underwater mist that covered dozens of kilometres.
Through the mist he saw it giant red eyes and flames were burning through them like a red haze.
' Ah shit, soul force again? Does everybody have it now'
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Dear readers, Haki will henceforth be called Soul Force
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