Kyle kept fighting the Metal Elementals.
To make it easier, he also made himself as small as possible. Sadly, he couldn't reach such a small size.
The best he could do was become an actual dwarf from the standard fantasy movies and reach a height of about one meter.
Sadly, it was still strange to fight something this dangerous that was this small.
In relation, this was like an adult fighting against a chihuahua.
Except that this chihuahua stood on two legs, was armed to the teeth, and had the strength of a chimp.
It was the weirdest feeling.
In a way, Kyle got reminded of the time he had accidentally stepped on the entrance of a wasp nest that was in a hole in the ground of a park.
Well, back then he just ran away, but this time, he actually had to fight the two wasps.
Getting used to this kind of fighting wasn't easy and took a while.
From time to time, Kyle had to use his superior speed to retreat from the fight for a moment.
If he hadn't retreated, he would have been overwhelmed.
The worst part was that these Metal Elementals were so fucking dense now that almost every attack destroyed his hammer or armor.
At some point, Kyle just directly got rid of his armor to gain more speed.
Several hours after the new dynamic had been established, Kyle could finally keep up with the Metal Elementals without needing to retreat.
That was also when he resummoned his armor.
He didn't do that to protect himself but to watch how his armor was destroyed.
There were differences in the way the Metal Elementals used their metals and how Kyle used his metals.
Whenever Kyle saw his armor damaged, he repaired it and tweaked a couple of things to see what would change.
'Oh? That seemed to work better,' Kyle thought as he saw the Sword Metal Elemental's attack losing more speed while cutting through his armor.
The difference wasn't big. It was like the difference between cutting through air and a block of smooth butter with a sharpened chef's knife.
The battle kept going, and fighting became easier again.
'Let's assume something,' Kyle thought. 'The extremely complex way Ether acts during an advancement doesn't seem completely… what's the word… evolutionary? Like, it doesn't look like it has grown via trial and error.'
Kyle remembered that video he had seen of someone dying because they moved their neck weirdly and broke one of the arteries in their neck. There was this stupid artery in the neck that literally went through a little hole at the side of one of the vertebrae.
One unlucky movement during an unlucky moment, and the vertebra could literally cut the artery.
Imagine bleeding out because you looked to the left.
The way the body worked was extremely complex and efficient, but it still had these stupid parts.
'The way the Ether moves doesn't seem to have these stupid parts. In fact, not even one bit of my Ether seemed to have been wasted.'
'It's like everything has a specific and designated place.'
'It's less like growing a lifeform and more like building a machine.'
'So, assuming that the way our bodies work is not natural but artificial, wouldn't it make sense to make enough Fragments for every single Element to generate four specks?'
'If we assume this is correct, every Element should have four Fragments or more.'
'Now, we could also assume that the Elements are balanced like a PVP game, but I'm honestly not sure about that.'
'If it is balanced, every Element probably has the same number of Fragments. If it's not, the numbers are different, but there are four for each Element at a minimum.'
'Of course, I already know seven Metal Fragments, but the individual Metal Material Fragments can be summarized into one, the Fragment of Composition.'
'Assuming the Elements are balanced, this is, by far, the most complex and powerful Fragment of the Metal Element.'
'Sebastian said that the Fragment of Lightning Energy was also, by far, harder than all the other ones. He said the amount of stuff you have to know to understand that is about the same as the remaining three Fragments combined.'
'He also said that he could technically create his Law of Lightning after understanding just that.'
'If we extend that to all the other Elements, we can claim that every Element has one Fragment that is far more powerful than the other ones.'
'So, if all of these statements are true, it means that I have comprehended two of four Metal Fragments, and I have already comprehended the hardest one.'
'Two remain.'
Kyle remembered how the two Metal Elementals had fought each other.
'They weren't able to injure each other near the end.'
Kyle avoided an attack from the Sword Metal Elemental at that moment.
BANG!
Then, Kyle blocked an attack from the Mace Metal Elemental.
'The mace-one isn't as dangerous as the sword-one at this size. Surprisingly, it has only become a tiny bit stronger after shrinking, while the sword-one has become much stronger.'
BANG!
At that moment, the Sword Metal Elemental launched a small attack at the other one.
However, the Mace Metal Elemental wasn't injured.
'Yet, it is still incredibly hard. But since it didn't get a lot stronger after shrinking, its power has to be somewhere else.'
'Frankly speaking, I think this thing is just harder.'
'Hardness is metal's primary attribute, I would say. Energy is lightning's primary attribute. Heat is fire's primary attribute.'
'The other three Fragments seem to be similar between lightning and metal. The last one seems to be the only one that's significantly different, but it's also not really different since it involves the Element's primary attribute.'
'It would make sense that the mace-one understands the Fragment of Hardness. Maces have to be super hard. I've never heard of a sword or a spear breaking a hammer or mace's head, but I've heard plenty of stories about maces breaking swords and spears.'
'So, all in all, I think I have access to the perfect display for the last two Fragments of Metal.'
Kyle smirked.
'Law of Metal, here I come!'
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