Kyle barely had any time to look at his surroundings as the Metal Elemental attacked once again.
The Metal Elemental charged right at him, and Kyle had to make a choice.
The longer this fight continued, the better the Metal Elemental got at reacting to his attacks.
Kyle had gotten a couple of strikes in at the beginning, but his opponent quickly learned how to counter that type of attack by turning liquid.
Then, it had learned about the Fire Ether that could blind its vision.
By now, it also knew that turning into spikes could result in it becoming weaker if Kyle managed to hit it.
Kyle couldn't predict how the Metal Elemental would attack.
This meant he had to rely on his instincts, which could become very risky.
BANG!
Kyle used a ton of Ether to accelerate downward…
Right towards the second Metal Elemental he had just found.
The second Metal Elemental looked at Kyle before charging towards him.
The second Metal Elemental was also a Mid Metal Elemental, making it just as dangerous as the first one.
The first one reached Kyle.
At that moment, the fire around Kyle changed color before turning into black smoke.
Kyle stopped.
There was no fire around him.
The distortion around his hammer became more intense as he swung it forward.
Surprisingly, he was hitting the empty space in front of him.
Just when Kyle's hammer reached its target…
BOOOOOOOM!
The surroundings were bathed in an inferno that was over 50 meters wide.
The amount of Fire Ether in the surroundings contained almost 50% of Kyle's entire Ether storage.
A second tiny explosion happened inside the big explosion.
The two Metal Elementals attacked.
CRRRRK!
The ear-grating sounds of metal grinding against metal caused the walls of the cave to vibrate as Kyle charged out of the smoke-filled area.
There was no more fire around Kyle's body.
His Ignition was no longer active.
While Bullet no longer stopped Ignition, allowing Kyle to keep his speed even after striking, the same thing wasn't true for this Method.
The Method Kyle had just used was designed after a Meteor.
Sadly, Kyle didn't know enough about Meteors to completely emulate them, which was why this specific Method still had a couple of weaknesses.
This Method was called Impact, and it transformed all of Kyle's speed, weight, and Ether into pure heat.
As Kyle charged out, he immediately started to reactivate Ignition.
He looked back, and his Ether Sense told him that the two Metal Elementals were currently battling each other.
While Earth Elementals liked to work together, Metal Elementals didn't.
They were bitter enemies.
Right now, both of them were in liquid forms as they wound around each other, trying to consume each other.
Kyle needed some time to reactivate Ignition, and the Metal Elementals kept battling.
A bit later, Kyle turned around and shot towards them, Ignition active again.
By now, the two Metal Elementals had torn huge chunks out of each other,
Both of them tried to consume the chunks while battling the other one.
BANG!
The two Metal Elementals tore through a building, destroying it in the process.
Kyle had already noticed that this was not a normal cave they were in. After all, there were old ruins here.
However, he didn't have the time to look at his surroundings right now.
As he reached the two Metal Elementals, they both attacked him.
A liquid arm and a solid arm stretched towards Kyle.
Kyle stopped moving, and the two arms changed directions to target each other again.
A moment later, Kyle charged towards them again, but this time, he approached from the side of the first Metal Elemental.
Once more, a liquid arm stretched towards him, but this time, Kyle didn't retreat.
Instead, he swung his hammer right at the liquid arm.
The pick hit the liquid arm, flowing through it.
As long as the Metal Elemental was still connected to the metal, it could control it.
This meant that Kyle's attack had essentially done nothing.
It was like shooting at a person who could just create a temporary hole in their torso, making the bullet miss.
However, Kyle hadn't attacked with the intention of injuring the Metal Elemental, as was evident by the fact that his attack hadn't even been very strong.
As soon as his hammer reached the center of the liquid arm, it stopped moving.
The Metal Elemental had solidified around the hammer, grabbing it.
At that moment, Kyle activated the strengthening function of his hammer while simultaneously activating the function that got rid of excess metal.
Metal flowed into the pick, while a different kind of metal flowed out of the hammer's head.
The metal that came out of the hammer had no relation to the Metal Elemental anymore, making it will-less.
The Metal Elemental lost a lot of its body.
If Kyle had used this attack earlier, he would have already died.
After all, the Metal Elemental was more than just a liquid arm.
If he had used that earlier, the Metal Elemental would have simply used the remainder of its body to kill him.
But right now, the Metal Elemental was busy fighting the other Metal Elemental.
It couldn't use more of its body, or the other Metal Elemental would consume it.
At this point, the Metal Elemental was being consumed by Kyle's hammer while also being consumed by the other Metal Elemental.
It had to find a way out.
It summoned a small tendril of metal, which extended towards the metal that came out of Kyle's hammer, making it part of its body again.
An instant later, Kyle noticed that the second Metal Elemental was trying to attack him.
'I'm helping you, and you attack me?!' Kyle thought in rage and panic.
If he didn't do anything, he would be killed by the second Metal Elemental.
Yet, his hammer was tightly held by the first Metal Elemental.
Kyle gritted his teeth.
CRK!
He fled into the distance, hammer still in hand.
Or, more precisely…
The hammer's hilt in hand.
As Kyle retreated, the hammer's head was being consumed by the first Metal Elemental.
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