Chapter 572
Ajax had barely a moment to process everything he was picking up on now. First and foremost however was the threat the creature represented to him. The answer wasn’t as large as he initially assumed. While clearly a rodent the creature was obviously not speed based. Ajax turned and ran out of the chamber, yes he could tell it was only moving at the same speed he was despite being more than triple his level.
While trying to maintain the distance between the two of them Ajax quickly considered his options. There were two of them and they were ingrained in human DNA, fight or flight. Up until now Ajax had chosen to fight for most of his life and he was happy with how the results ended up but he also realized that it wasn’t really an option this time.
As far as he could tell the massive rodent wasn’t combat orientated despite being a monster, as far as he could tell the creature was never meant to reach as high a level as it had, instead it had simply gotten extremely lucky to find the moss when it did and it outgrew anything it had any hope of reaching.
While it wasn’t combat focused the massive level difference still meant any attack from it could be lethal for Ajax, more than that however its defenses were above anything Ajax had killed so far. Most likely the creature was a defensive specialist with some sort of self-healing thrown in if the Mana he picked up from the moss was anything to go by. This meant that if Ajax was even able to bring it down it would be in a long drawn out fight where he could slowly widdle it down while also draining its Mana with [Mana Syphon] when it tried to heal itself.
Ajax quickly came to the conclusion that even entertaining a fight inside the cramped tunnels would quickly lead to his death so in the end it was flight that won. Knowing what he now knew of the layout Ajax wasted no time leading the rodent into one of the circular loops he passed by on his way in and did his best to collapse the tunnels after himself in hopes of slowing it down
“Argh!.” Ajax groaned as a spike of pain passed through his body. When he tried to mold the earth around himself he hadn’t realized how much Mana that would take. Since this was Mana infused Earth and the tunnels had clearly been built over time by the creature they were much more reinforced and harder to shape than even the earth in high level dungeon floors. This meant that Ajax found himself pushing close to eight hundred Mana all at once to get his spell to work properly.
The rodent clearly wasn’t a fan of Ajax’s blockade, it rammed into its claws first giving Ajax a very clear idea about just how durable it was. The passage wasn’t even blocked all the way, Ajax had barely been able to get it to tighten the passage for a brief moment but all that was left of his blockade was rubble. The entire tunnel shook, it was almost enough to cause Ajax to lose his footing, thankfully [Unnatural Balance] was good enough to let keep running.
Through [Mana Syphon] Ajax could feel the creature had at least cracked a bone of two ramming through a two foot thick wall like it did, but already it was using a Mana type Ajax didn’t recognise to heal itself back up. It was something similar to Life but while it seemed just as effective at healing as his Legendary Mana type it felt weaker, most likely it was an Epic affinity that was more specialized than Life Mana, something like Growth or whatever Mana promoted natural healing.
Rather than try to trap it again with walls Ajax changed strategy and left a long Ice patch behind himself. He had hoped that making the creature split would let him get some distance yet that also proved worthless. The rodent's claws were sharp enough and backed by enough power that they broke through the layer of ice deep enough that they made contact with the earth underneath, meaning the ice didn’t even slow it down. More than that the back legs of the creatures perfectly stepped where the front legs did, showing that while the creature might slow for its level it clearly had perfect coordination being able to perfectly direct its libs while in a full sprint.
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Seeing that nothing was working Ajax decided to change strategies and do something he hadn’t done outside of practice, something that would take perfect advantage of the Mana infused earth and rock that surrounded him. Slowly he started channeling Mana, making sure that he drew it out slowly enough to not hurt himself.
The rodent squeaked in rage behind him as it felt the amount of Mana he was gathering but Ajax paid it no mind, his attention was fully on three things, his surrounds to ensure there wasn’t anything else sneaking up on him, his pathfinder tool to make sure he ran the correct way and finally the spell he was channeling.
Ajax could almost feel the creature’s breath on the back of his neck as he ran, slowly but surely it was catching up, unfortunately for the rodent it simply took too long. Once Ajax had channeled three and half thousand Mana he was ready to unleash his spell, this was the single biggest spell he had cast purely from his own Mana. He had paid a third of the cost in Stamina thanks to his boon from the ettin.
As he let go of the spell Life Mana erupted at his feet and a moment later a satisfying CRACK echoed in the enclosed tunnels as the rodent felt a fist made of Mana infused stone connected with its jaw. The Stone golem Ajax created with Life Mana didn’t even take a step back as the creature's momentum crashed its body against it.
Ajax had practice with Life Mana before, golems especially though they usually used Fluffy as a base instead of the humanoid shape he was using now. The reason for that was simple, with the amount of Life Mana something took to remain active the more offensive form offered by the feline body was more valuable than the balanced humanoid shape. Offence however was not what he needed now, he needed a balanced form, one made from as little stone as possible so that it would last for a while before the Life Mana he used was gone but that still managed to hold its ground against the rodent.
For the first time since the chase began Ajax was finally gaining some distance. The golem didn’t waste its element of surprise and jumped to imobalise the rodent but it was quickly knocked back before a quick swipe of a clawed paw cut crushed its shoulder turning the rock to rubble. Despite the extra durability that came from using Mana infused stone it was still not enough for the level one hundred and eighty creature. It was however enough to but Ajax time to run away.
Quicker than he thought he would, Ajax found himself back in the flooded section of the tunnel. He wasted no time diving right in, he didn’t even bother with the underwater breathing potion, Ajax knew the cooldown hadn’t passed yet, more than that he was sure [Second Breath] was enough to get him through to the other side, especially since he was using his Water Mana to help propel him faster through the water than the regular swimming he did when he came through.
More surprisingly Ajax had managed to gain the [Swimming] Skill at this time, he put the thought out of his mind as quickly as it came and was simply happy for the slight increase in speed.
As soon as he was past the first underwater tight spot Ajax finally started to relax. Being submerged in water would mean the rodent wouldn’t be able to use its momentum to break through the rock and would most likely take more time breaking a way forward or it would simply give up the chase.
After a couple of minutes underwater Ajax could feel his lungs starting to burn [Second Breath] worked to relieve his need for oxygen but it did nothing to soothe the pain he felt from his lungs.
As soon as he got out of the tunnels Ajax took a few moments to take a few lungfuls of air and catch his breath while spread [Sense Mana] to its limits to search for the rodent. Despite not finding it still chasing after him Ajax wasted no time as he ran towards the edge of the high Mana density area. He mentally marked the place as somewhere to return to later after he got stronger but for now he wanted to get outside the rodent’s area of influence. He wasn’t even willing to spend the night above ground, choosing instead to exit the high Mana density area and continue his path towards the ruins.
His last two encounters with high level creatures didn’t make Ajax feel great about his possible encounter with an Ascended race but he could only hope that they would be more peaceful.