Chapter 40: Weakness
A lot could go wrong!
Whether one likes it or not.
Whether one has a lot of experience or not.
Whether one was the number one Hero on Earth or not.
Things could still go wrong.
Kayn knew of that. But so that his morale won't dampen, he has to constantly encourage himself.
"If only I was still the number one Hero on Earth, then I wouldn't be put into this kind of helpless scenario!" He could vividly see now the clear reality of his current state. Being a mere Superhuman is definitely still not enough to reach his goals, even the smallest of them. He needs to become stronger to achieve them.
However, right now, he needs to focus on running away and surviving the Flame Gorilla and the other monsters chasing after him. Otherwise, he has to forget about even the smallest goal, because he'd no doubt be dying here.
"I'll just have to make do with whatever is presented in front of me," Kayn thought to himself. Since he has to fend off his pursuers alone and without Natas' help anymore, he'd have to think of ways to deal with them himself.
"Let's start off with the small trees," Kayn quickly decided on a plan. His sword wasn't any ordinary kind. It might be the most common of its type, but because of the fact that it's made using materials from the 'Tower', as a result, ordinary trees couldn't hope to stand against it.
With a simple swing of his sword, the tree to his side was instantly cut off.
The tree made a loud noise as it slowly fell toward the direction of where Kayn had made the initial cut, instantly blocking the path of the Flame Gorilla and the other monsters.
Kayn might have described the tree he decided to cut as a 'Small tress', but in truth, the smallest tree in the Eclipse Forest was actually as tall as 15-20 meters. And because there are a lot of them, just cutting one of them would immediately block a path.
Regardless though, it barely delayed the Flame Gorilla and the other monsters.
Because the body of the Flame Gorilla was covered with white flame, which is an element to counter nature, thus it just simply smashes its body toward the blocking tree and it had immediately reduced the tree to mere dust.
As for the other monsters, they had their own ways or Gifts that allows them to ignore or avoid the hindrance in their way. Albeit some of them were helplessly left with no other choice but to pause for a bit behind the other monsters as they would have to wait until the white flame is extinguished. Otherwise, they might accidentally burn themselves. This was especially the case for those monsters whose weakness is fire.
"At least I delayed some of them," Kayn didn't feel discouraged that his strategy didn't work on all of the monsters. As a matter of fact, it was the complete opposite, as he had realized something really important — weaknesses.
Each monster has its own element. Take for example the Flame Gorilla. From the name itself, it is clearly a monster from the fire element, which means to say its number one weakness is water and can be neutralized by the earth element.
Right this moment, there are eleven monsters plus the Flame Gorilla chasing after him, excluding the three that are left behind, which are all nature element.
There is the Flame Gorilla and three other smaller and weaker Flame Gorillas, evidently the champion's boys. Two Dark Boars, three Light Deers, two Rock Ants, and the last monster an Earth Worm.
He doesn't have to worry about the Dark Boars as they are only strong when it's nighttime and becomes weaker when it is daytime. On the other hand, he needs to be wary of the three Light Deers as they have a natural ability that allows them to speed up really nicely whenever they gather enough mana from the ray of light coming from the sun. And since it is still far from being night, they don't have any weaknesses he can exploit, albeit he can use the shadows to at the very least delay their natural abilities, or best, cancel them.
Normally, a Rock Ant is dangerous as they always live in a colony made up of tens of thousands of its species. But since there are only two of them, he can easily handle it. As it is an earth element, its weakness is nature and can be neutralized by water.
Similar to the Rock Ant, the Earth Worm is not a big problem as well. They also move very slowly, so it is dead last on his current pursuers. As a matter of fact, the three other monsters who have stopped for the moment could easily catch up to it once they break out from the fire caused by the Flame Gorilla.
However, just like what he said before, each monster has different Gifts and he shouldn't assume that the same species of monster would have similar Gifts.
Since he still doesn't have a clue of whatever the fourteen other monsters' Gifts are, he has to stay on guard.
Regardless, this doesn't necessarily mean that he can't exploit their weaknesses.
"Water, Light, Shadow, and Nature. I can use these four elements to hinder my pursuers," Kayn murmured. "My only problem is, where the heck would I look for them?"
The direction that he is running was the same path that he used previously, so he naturally knows that there is no body of water to be found. Though there are definitely plenty of spots that have rays of light from the sun. Unfortunately, because of that, there are barely any shadows to use. Lastly, although he is surrounded by nature, he still has to think of a method to use them in a way that can harm the Rock Ants and the Earth Worm.
"The Light Deer is going to be a huge problem and there's still no way for me to eliminate them. I'll have to focus on the Dark Boar, Rock Ants, and Earth Worm," They were the only monsters he could easily take down as of now.
"If I remembered correctly, there is a Nature's Trap just a few meters to my front," Kayn quickly recalled from his memories.
Nature's Trap is a newly discovered naturally occurring phenomenon found in every forest around the world. It started to appear after a year the 'Tower' existed on Earth.
When the 'Tower' first arrived, Mana was soon slowly being introduced to the world. Because of this, some plants, animals, and many other living or non-living beings started mutating, just like how Humans awakened Gifts and became Superhumans and Heroes that are known today.
In that process, some new phenomenon was also created and discovered by mankind, like for example, a phenomenon called Acid Rain where the sky would rain with droplets of water that can harm anyone who touches it and burn their skin.
One of those newly discovered phenomena was Nature's Trap.
A Nature's Trap is a phenomenon that is created with the combination of an existing quicksand and the dense nature mana found in almost every forest biome.
As one already knows, a quicksand would sink anything that touches it, especially objects with mass, and this includes mana just floating everywhere. But because the dense mana in a forest is mainly consisting of nature mana, thus the quicksand would most of the time sink nature mana. Over time, the nature mana gathered together would slowly get absorbed by the quicksand itself, hence creating the phenomenon now called Nature's Trap.
Unlike the ordinary quicksand where if one would fall they'd still be safe and sound as long as they are pulled out on time or didn't run out of air when they completely sunk, in the case of the Nature's Trap anyone who falls on it would instantaneously find themselves being in a similar situation as being put into a meat grinder because the nature mana would turn into something akin to countless extremely sharp blades that would constantly cut their bodies. It is like the form of torture known as 'Death by a Thousand Cuts', but even worse.
Honestly, it's an extremely gruesome and painful sight to watch someone fall into a Nature's Trap since the very instant they fall into it they would already lose a part of their body. Even if one could get them out of it in a matter of a few seconds, a portion from their body would already be long lost and digested by Nature's Trap, and sadly it can't any longer be reattached or regrown unless one has a specific item that can help them achieve such effect. And such an item is not easy, especially considering that a specific type of mana was used to cut that portion from the body.
"I am not quite sure if it is big enough to fit in the two Rock Ants and Earth Worm, but as long as I use it effectively, I might be able to eliminate at least two of them," Kayn smiled evilly while thinking of taking advantage of the Nature's Trap.
As he was already very familiar with the Eclipse Forest, he didn't hesitate to slightly change his direction. After all, it's impossible for him to get lost here unless he does so intentionally. Moreover, he doesn't have to worry about Natas, Selina, and Leah finding him since he is making a very conspicuous scene right now. Only a blind and a deaf person would not notice where he is.
"I hope this works well," Kayn silently prayed in his mind. If this doesn't work, then he'd have no choice but to think of another method, which he isn't even confident he could find as quickly as he did now.