Feeling the energye closer and closer by the second, I shot out from where I was and sprinted in the other direction as fast as possible. I didn''t know this per se, but I had a feeling that if I were to be hit by that thing, my life shattering before my eyes would be the least of my worries.


    "Crap! Sh*t! Fu-."


    *BOOM*


    Before I could understand what was happening, an expansive explosion radiated from behind me, kicking up a dust cloud that expanded with the power of a sandstorm.


    Without thinking twice, I quickly used the earth pir below my feet and immediately catapulted myself through the air in another direction. I calcted the angle of my shot correctly to use the momentum as well as possible to get as far as possible from the monster hunting me down.


    Afterunching myself into the air, I quickly turned around and tried to activate my blood eyes, yet to my surprise, I found myself unable to do so.


    Remembering my earlier mistakes of not using my system to its full extent, I swiftly used appraisal, but just like what happened with my blood eyes, it failed to activate.


    I could feel suppressing energy that forced back my skills and abilities... All but one.


    "My earth abilities still work." I muttered while my expression became extremely grim. However, in protest, I quickly tried to activate all my skills again, ranging from blood w to my simple minimap, yet nothing happened.


    I could only watch as the dust cloud separated in the distance while the creature that had been hunting me down for the past 30 seconds bolted in my direction. While I could not tell how fast it wasing due to my perspective, I could still see the dot bingrger, indicating that the creature was faster than me.


    With a swipe of my fingers, I instantly created several earth spikes that protruded from the ground and shot toward the creature. Yet to my dismay, a few seconds passed, and the spikes finally hit the beast, but rather than slowing it down as I had expected, the creature simply shrugged the attacks off and ran through them as if their resistance was no different than the air that pushed against it.


    I could now clearly feel my momentum waning while my speed decreased; however, instead of falling into despair, my eyes were filled with an unwavering resolve as I mmed my feet onto the ground and attempted to stop my momentum.


    My body slid back for a couple of dozen meters, but all I needed my body to do was slow down for a minute.


    "Absolute Defense!" I roared out while the creature paused for a second, surprised by my sudden halt in movement.


    In the next second, the creature watched as earth slowly but surely began to envelop me into a cacoon, yet before it could do anything, it felt somethinge from its right, making it stretch out its hand in that direction.


    A spike shot out of the ground and pierced the air intending to destroy the creature, but instead of doing so, it met its hand and crumbled in its ce no matter how much more earth I tried to conjure to increase the length of the spike.


    As the spike turned into ashes after hitting the creature''s hand, its gaze once again fell onto me. Still, before it could do anything, it felt itself elevate into a highertitude while its vision of me disappeared.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Now that I had gained the earth control skill, I was finally capable of enhancing my previous skills like earth spike and earth pir, allowing me to pump them with mana and make them much stronger or muchrger.


    I had pumped a significant amount of mana within the earth pir that I rose from the ground and used to catapult the creature into the air. Still, my eyes significantly widened after realizing something.


    "This feeling... It feels like I have an infinite amount of mana!" I eximed in shock before finally remembering something.


    "It said it would give me insights on the earth element..." I muttered while continuing to pump the earth pir with mana. "Then this should be a way to increase my insights... To make me fight that monster." A shiver went down my spine, but I knew it had to be done even though I was unwilling.


    Scenes of everything that had happened before my first death made me narrow my eyes while the me of determination grew brighter within my eyes.


    If beating this creature was the path I would need to take to gain the ability to destroy the elven race, I would do it no matter how many times I had to die, get injured, and receive pain. I was certain I would not truly die within this realm, but that certainty wasn''tplete. I had an inkling that the inheritance would not be light on those who couldn''t endure pain, an inkling that forced me to steel my resolve and finally lower my absolute defense.


    Looking up, I met with the eyes of the creature... No. I met with the eyes of the person sitting on top of the pir rxedly. Their eyes seemed to peer into my soul, but I did not waver in front of its gaze and instead jumped a few dozen meters back as if telling it to jump down and confront me.


    A small smile perked up the lips of the man who sat on top of the pir as he immediately jumped down. A loud explosion echoed into the canyon and beyond, but I did not wave in front of his disy of power.


    Without skipping a beat, the man immediately rushed towards me, his steps parting the dust cloud and shattering the earth beneath him, sending out cracks that cobwebbed for several dozen meters.


    I could feel an enormous amount of mana behind his every move, but due to the massive influx, I could not pinpoint precisely where and when he would use his mana.


    ''If I had my blood eyes, I would have easily seen how he controls his mana... But I guess-'' My thoughts paused while my eyes widened.


    I felt the mana around him withdraw into his body before he released it again, yet instead of it being as overwhelming as it had been earlier, this time, I could feel that it was much weaker.


    ''I can drop my cultivation to your stage so we can have an even battle. However, I still exceed you when ites to using this body of mine, while at the same time my knowledge and experience also far exceeds yours.''


    nca''s words from almost a month ago echoed within my mind and made me smile wryly.


    "So this is how it is?" I asked with a smile before continuing- "Then don''t me me for being tough on you old man!" I roared out, my sinister smile not going unnoticed by the man as he also let out a simr smile, even though his one had been much more reserved than mine.