Pain.

That was the only thing Nox could feel right now. He slowly steadied himself before looking back at the spot where he previously lay.

A second before Flint's hammer made contact with him, he gained enough clarity just in time to teleport away.

Flint hammer shook the earth and kicked up a dust cloud, giving him just enough cover to move to get to safety.

For some reason, using his SE felt a lot harder right now but he just assumed it was the worm's fault.

"I can't fight them," he muttered, reappearing on a tree just outside the Eclipsed's barrier.

His SE was working overtime to fix his body, though it was a lot slower than what it usually was supposed, but Nox didn't have time to notice.

Grans, now in its Eclipsed form, watched the dust cloud clear up and its puppet stood up straight.

There was no Nox in sight, but that much was to be expected.

It slowly scanned the area and the more it walked forward, the more it's barrier extended.

Inside that barrier, it was basically omnipotent.

It was aware of every single being that stepped within and right now, it knew that Nox had escaped it, yet again.

The chase wouldn't have been worth it if the prey wasn't one of 'theirs'. Normally, their kind would've been a problem, but this one seems to be an infant which meant this was its chance to ascend.

If it could get the prey's heart, then it would evolve beyond what it currently was.

Though, the fact that it was an infant didn't mean that the Eclipsed would let its guard down.

Extreme situations usually caused them to awaken, hence the reason it had the worm etch that engraving on the little one's source.

The Wendigo slowly continue forward, when one of its puppets suddenly stepped before it and the next second,

Bang!

Something cleanly went through its head, causing it to explode like some kind of balloon.

The Eclipsed looked at the the object which just attacked its puppet and noticed that it was a....rock?

The rock had painted on eyes and a smile which seemed to mock the the creature.

The Wendigo turned towards the direction of the attack, only to realize there was no one there.

Nox had teleported away, the moment the marvelous rock entered the creature's barrier.

"I was aiming for its lamp," He muttered as he reappeared far from the barrier.

According to Skye, the lamp seemed to be what the creature was using to control those things.

Even the extraordinary rock managed to take down one of them, it would be useless as long as that lamp was burning.

Something that was soon proven as the when the puppet soon regenerated its entire head.

But the extraordinary rock's job wasn't done yet, only step one had been completed, infiltrating the enemy's zone.

You see, the past month Ethan had learnt a couple of neat things about his SE.

One of them had to do with the barrier that he woke up in, which was still held up, even now.

Unlike before, when his SE was within something, he could still maintain connection with the object, until he chose to cut it off.

With that connection, he could even pump more SE into said object if he chose to, so he had run a couple more experiments.

If he still maintained connection through his SE, what if he tried moving his SE within the object or even control the object.

Bang!

Nox developed a crude variant of telekinesis, after multiple trail and error... thanks to the marvelous rock.

The Eclipsed froze, its head snapping toward its hand as cracks spread across the lamp it was holding.

Its grip tightened instinctively, but it was already too late.

The lamp soon shattered and the moment it's shards touched the ground, all its puppets seemed to fall apart.

From the blue flames, what seemed to be human forms detached themselves, letting out a wail as the disappeared into the darkness blanketing them.

The way Nox's telekinesis worked was simple, he just had to tug at the connection he felt between himself and the object he felt his SE within.

Though the farther away he was from said object, the harder it was to control.

He silently watched the humanoid forms float into the air, and it might've just been his imagination, but he could've sworn he saw one of them turning towards him and giving him a small smile.

"Now then," Nox muttered turning back to the Eclipsed, "it's just you and me."

Though he said that, he still wasn't confident enough to show himself, after all, if the creature was capable of taking down radiant knights, he would be light work for it.

Besides, he was straining himself already, as shown by the beads of sweat on his forehead.

The Eclipsed, still stood there looking at the crumbled pieces of its lamp before an even darker aura started rising from its form.

Before Nox had the chance to react, the aura exploded outwards in all directions, and with it, its barrier.

The barrier swallowed everything, leaving him nowhere to escape to and that's when the creature lifted its head and looked directly at him.

"Damn i— huh?" He didn't get the chance to complete his words when he felt himself launched in the opposite direction.

Before he could crash into a tree, the creature was behind him again, and its claws grabbed the back of his head before driving it into the forest floor.

Another dust cloud was raised as Nox felt his face come in contact with the ground.

His vision went white for a couple of seconds and all he could hear was the ringing in his ears.

But the Eclipsed wasn't done yet.

It lifted him again and tossed him headfirst into a tree.

Using, whatever bit of sane thoughts remaining, Nox teleported just before crashing into a tree.

Unfortunately, the Eclipsed was waiting for him where he reappeared and its hooves slammed into his stomach.

To say it was angry would be an understatement. It seemed set on making sure Nox felt every bit of pain for destroying its lamp.

It suddenly raised a hand just in time to catch the rock heading towards it. With a squeeze, the rock shattered to smaller shards which dropped to the floor.

The Wendigo then turned to Nox who was slowly standing back up, but the strange part was, there was a smile on his face.

"Please work," he muttered and with his words, multiple smaller glows appeared beneath the creature's hooves.

It looked down and noticed the shards of rocks were glowing and soon after.

Boom!

The exploded in a blinding flash of light. Nox supported himself with the tree by his side as he looked directly into the light without blinking.

He was hoping, no, praying that the attack worked since if it didn't, he truly was screwed.

Nox let out a hollow laugh as the light cleared up, "I guess I was asking for too much."

The Eclipsed was still standing where the rocks detonated and although it was completely unscathed, it might as well be.

The shadows gathered around it, reforming its missing arm.

Nox's back slid down the tree until he was sitting on the forest floor, looking at the Eclipsed that was slowly approaching him.

"There isn't any chance we'd call this even and you let me go is there?" he asked with a chuckle and the lack of answer was all the answer the Eclipsed gave.

"I figured," Nox stood back up before continuing, "well, there is one more trick up my sleeve, but even I don't understand how it works or how it's even possible in the first place."

Tired with his yap, the creature launched itself towards him, aiming to shut him up for good, but just before its claw could reach him, it stopped.

"That was close," he muttered as he looked at the golden layer between him and the Eclipsed.

A barrier.

One he had made without a solar tech, instead he was using his own SE. As he said, he didn't understand how it worked, but he realized that if there was enough SE in the air, he could shape it into whatever he wanted.

Normally, especially within a rift, that ability would basically be useless since SE quickly disperses and there was little to none in the air.

But what if he created his own?

Hence, the reason for the marvelous rock's sacrifice.

The rock was holding enough SE and that explosion released all of it into the air which he could mold as much as he wanted.

Though, he suspected that there was a way to use the SE within his body, he hadn't had any progress with that yet.

For now, he would make do with what he had.

"Now then," he muttered as spikes formed on the surface of the barrier, forcing the Eclipsed to jump back.

"Let's hurry this up, since I'm sure it won't last for much longer."

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