Kyle and Sven fell through the floor.
As the two of them fell down, they saw the walls moving around like they were muscles.
The next moment, the walls suddenly moved towards them.
BANG!
Kyle moved his hammer sideways, and the walls collided with it.
The walls tried to compress even more, but the hammer was strong enough to resist them.
"What is going on?!" Kyle shouted.
"Earth Elemental!" Sven and Theodor shouted at the same time.
"What the fuck is an Earth Elemental?!" Kyle asked as he tried to push the walls apart.
Sven and Theodor started to explain at the same time, but they were each saying something different.
Kyle focused on Theodor's explanation since he was the one who probably knew more.
"Sentient Ether!" Theodor said. "They are like elemental Ore Fiends, just like the fire Ore Fiend you found in my trial! This one is an Earth Elemental. It can move through the ground and manipulate it like its body. In certain cases, it even is its body."
"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Kyle asked, pushing against the walls with his legs.
"Pray that you're lucky and it's not that strong," Theodor said.
"We have to kill it!" Sven said at the same time.
"The usual, then," Kyle answered.
The next moment, the walls widened again, and the two of them resumed falling.
"Elementals have powerful Souls," Theodor said. "They fight by using their Ether to manipulate their surroundings. I can tell that this one is not a Monster."
"How?" Kyle asked.
Sven thought Kyle was asking him how to kill it.
"We have to destroy its body or Spirit," Sven said.
At the same time, Theodor gave his answer. "You would already be dead otherwise. The more matter the Elemental controls, the more Ether it needs."
BANG!
That was when Kyle and Sven hit the ground.
When they landed, a burst of broken bones flew through the surroundings.
"Found the miners," Kyle commented, seeing the bones hitting the walls before falling down again.
Kyle and Sven rapidly looked through their new surroundings.
They were in a big cave with no exit. The hole they had fallen through had already vanished.
The cave was over 50 meters wide and about ten meters high.
Sven had already pulled out his bow and warily looked around the cave, while Kyle was also looking around.
Naturally, Kyle had already summoned his True Body.
Sven had also summoned his True Body, which was a small version.
For just a moment, everything fell silent.
Then, Kyle's instincts screamed at him, and he jumped to the side.
At the same time, he grabbed the tiny Sven with his huge hand.
Sven was taken off guard.
BANG!
At that moment, a huge number of powerful spikes shot out of the ground where the two of them had just been.
Yet, the spikes didn't just stop.
They curved a moment later and chased after them.
In a fluid motion, Kyle threw Sven at one of the walls while he turned around to face the approaching spikes.
BOOOM!
An explosion came out of Kyle's boots, and he was thrown upward.
Boost.
The spikes passed by below him but curved once more to chase him.
"Use Soul Cancel!" Theodor shouted. "Their minds are weak!"
Kyle pointed his left hand at the spikes and released a pulse of Ether.
The spikes stopped growing, and Kyle kicked himself to safety.
Soul Cancel was a common power used between battles of beings that mainly used their Souls.
Souls could manipulate distant things with Ether, which worked by implanting the user's will on the object.
Naturally, the Earth Elemental wasn't directly touching the spikes. It was sending its will through the ground to control them.
It was similar to how Lily controlled her golems.
Kyle had simply put his will onto the spikes as well.
Like this, two wills fought each other for control.
The Earth Elemental was obviously stronger than Kyle, but that didn't matter.
Canceling a will was way easier than establishing it.
Kyle didn't need to control the spikes. He just needed to make them uncontrollable.
BANG!
A moment later, an arrow destroyed all of the spikes, and Sven jumped to the side.
That was when more spikes shot out of the ground, but this time, they targeted Sven.
Sven was faster than Kyle, and he kept avoiding the spikes, shooting arrows at them.
Yet, with the will still on the spikes, they simply regrew.
Destroying them was useless.
"Use Soul Cancel!" Kyle shouted.
Sven's eyes widened as he looked at Kyle.
He seemed to be thinking about something.
"Our lives are more important! If we don't give it our all, we will die!" Kyle shouted with urgency.
At that moment, Sven gritted his teeth and pointed at the spikes with a finger.
The spikes immediately stopped growing.
That was when Kyle put his hand to the ground and closed his eyes.
He used his instincts to search for the threat.
An instant later, he felt some kind of force moving through the ground.
As Kyle felt the Ether density, he had to take a deep breath.
"It's a Peak Ferocious Beast!" he shouted.
'Fucking great!' he thought at the same time.
Sven narrowed his eyes.
He didn't seem shocked.
It was almost like he already knew.
The next moment, Sven shot towards Kyle and landed beside him.
"Where did you feel the heart?" he asked.
BANG!
The two of them jumped to the side as more spikes appeared.
"Too far away!" Kyle shouted as he canceled the Soul on the spikes. "Spun too much while falling."
Sven took a deep breath.
"Rough location!" he shouted.
"I dunno. There!" Kyle answered, pointing at the place where he thought the stone heart was.
At that moment, Kyle's instincts warned him again, but this time, it was something else.
The ambush predator from earlier seemed to rapidly come closer.
Yet, it didn't move towards Kyle.
Instead, it moved towards the place where he had pointed.
'Wait a second,' Kyle thought as he realized something.
'Aristocrat's Body. Lots of information. A weird beast. Forthing.'
'No way, right?'
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