510 Earth Elemental (2)
There was a reason Vaan made the debris field his battleground. It had plenty of obstacles to hide him from the pure earth elemental worm, even if for a brief moment.
Furthermore, it was already sufficiently far from Pangea.
Although it seemed like Vaan planned to lure the pure earth elemental worm all the way into the vastly larger region of space, the asteroid field, it was already established that it was too far for him.
However, the most important factor was the unknown danger in the asteroid field.
Considering the pure earth elemental worm could generate spacequakes, there was no telling whether similar life-destroying existences were lurking in the depths of the asteroid field.
In fact, there was even a good chance that such existences caused a group of rogue asteroids to head toward Pangea.
Vaan couldn't help but suspect other planets once existed in the Pangea system, but they were all destroyed by the pure earth elemental worm and its kind, if it had any. And if it didn't, it would mean it alone reduced the planets to the
current existing asteroid field.
Nevertheless, it was no wonder there was no other life in the dark underground space.
With such a powerful existence like the pure earth elemental worm guarding it, any demon that stumbled inside would have been killed.
Perhaps over such a long period of killing, the denizens of Chaos learned the horrors and kept their distance from the subterranean region.
Or it could be like Vaan previously guessed – the subterranean region was too deep and secluded for the denizens of Chaos to access and discover it.
Regardless of the possibilities, at the very least, Vaan was confident there was no other life in the dark underground space.
As long as he removed the threat posed by the pure earth elemental worm, the dark underground space would become a completely safe zone for cultivation.
He could also make it his secret outpost for when he needed to infiltrate Chaos and gather intel.
After all, as it stood, Pangea knew very little about the Gehenna and the seven Great Devils. The world only knew the seven Great Devils were Rank 6 divine beings, nothing more.
They knew nothing about the demons' numbers and the Great Devils' abilities, let alone the vastness of Gehenna and the divine rank.
Thus, even if Pangea had a divine-rank being, it may not be able to fend off the full force of Gehenna.
...
Boom!
The pure earth elemental worm lunged straight at Vaan again, only to miss. At the same time, several floating pieces of debris in its path were easily shattered into countless smaller fragments and hurled into the depths of space.
Right after the pure earth elemental worm missed its attack, its speed considerably slowed down as it turned its 100 km-long body around for a follow-up attack.
Although the pure earth elemental worm was extremely powerful due to its sheer size, its attacks were also simple and predictable.
From what Vaan could see from its past attack patterns, it was only capable of straightforward attacks.
It couldn't execute more complicated maneuvers such as feints.
Since it couldn't even perform feints, attack breaks, which required it to cancel and change the trajectory of its attack mid-action, were even more impossible for it.
Nevertheless, even simple attacks were difficult to evade if there were enough power and speed behind them. Without spatial shift, which allowed Vaan to leap more than five kilometers at once, it would have been difficult for him to evade such large attacks.
However, there was one glaring weakness to the pure earth elemental worm's attack.
'If I stick close to its long body, it'll never be able to reach me,' Vaan narrowed his eyes as he noticed the flaw.
Rumble...!
The surrounding space trembled with spacequakes as the pure earth elemental worm steered its head toward Vaan. Unlike before, the spacequakes weren't random but controlled; they clashed against each other and created a chaotic region of space.
As such, it became nearly impossible for ordinary spatial users to escape with spatial shift.
However, Vaan was not an ordinary spatial user. With his extraordinary perception and thought-processing speed, he easily found a clear route to spatial shift out of the chaotic region of space.
Alas, he didn't intend to escape this time.
"Trying to stop me from escaping by locking down space? Did it do it intuitively, or is it learning?' Vaan frowned.
It was the first sign of intelligence.
Was the pure earth elemental worm an earth spirit after all? Did it develop intelligence at a much slower rate due to the immensity of the body it was born with? Or did it never get the chance to develop its intelligence due to the
solitude of its environment?
Various thoughts raced through Vaan's mind as he pondered over the new information.
However, the imminent threat didn't give him the luxury of time.
Swoosh!
Enormous flames discharged from the soles of Vaan's feet as he kicked at the empty space and achieved an instantaneous burst of speed. As the fire appeared at zero distance with his feet, they achieved minimal impact damage and maximum thrusting power.
When coupled with his Kinetic Energy Manipulation, which increased the kinetic movement of his pyrokinetic thrust in a near-vacuum space, Vaan's instantaneous speed accelerated to exponential heights.
In a short instant, Vaan flew out of the pure earth elemental worm's attack path and clung to the side of its rapidly-moving body.
Rumble...!
The surrounding space trembled with even more spacequakes as the pure earth elemental worm tried to shake Vaan off its body but to no avail.
It flew in spirals and curled up like a coiled serpent to reach Vaan.
Unfortunately, its body was so massive that it took several breaths before it finally steered its head toward Vaan's location.
'Oh?' Vaan smiled.
Just moments before the pure earth elemental worm struck, Vaan immediately fled with a spatial shift.
As a result, the pure earth elemental worm slammed into its own body; its pointed stalactite teeth directly penetrated its hard rocky scales and almost through to the other side.
Rumble...! Rumble...!
Constant spacequakes rippled through the debris field as the pure earth elemental worm writhed violently to free its head from its penetrated body.
At first, it seemed like the pure earth elemental worm was writhing in pain.
However, it did not have any pain receptors; it was purely inorganic and felt no pain whatsoever.
Its violent writhing was only an attempt to free itself.
Nevertheless, Vaan repeated the same tactics and clung to its body several times. Each time, the pure earth elemental worm would blindly drill into its own body with its tough stalactite teeth. Vaan was like an itchy spot that could not be scratched.
That said, the pure earth elemental worm didn't seem to take any substantial damage or feel any anger from its repeated failures to kill him.
Vaan had tried to feel it out for more signs of intelligence, but his attempts remained fruitless.
'Was it just my imagination?' Vaan frowned.
He had never come across an existence like the pure earth elemental worm. It was peculiar and unique. Thus, despite the danger, he couldn't help but study it. He wanted to learn more about its type of existence.
Boom!
Vaan finally retaliated with a fiery fist packed with the full destructive power of his Fire Law. The impact immediately shattered several hundreds of hard rocky scales.
However, the damage was still insignificant to the pure earth elemental worm's self-destructive attacks. Compared to its millions of earthen scales, losing a few tens of thousands was nothing, let alone several hundred.
Even so, Vaan wasn't finished; his attacks were fast and rapid.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Vaan barraged the pure earth elemental worm's 100 km-long body with countless fiery fist attacks, shattering hundreds of scales after hundreds of scales. Hundreds turned into thousands, and thousands turned into tens of thousands.
In a short time, Vaan shattered more than a hundred-thousand earthen scales like he was descaling a celestial fish.
Fragments of rocks and earth scattered across the debris field.
Individually, Vaan's Peak Demigod-rank attacks did little-to-no damage. But when stacked countlessly, even the damage would accumulate into something substantial.
Rumble...!
The region of space quivered once again from the pure earth elemental worm's silent cry before it had a change in its behavior.
It did not stubbornly chase after Vaan.
Instead, the pure earth elemental worm slithered through the debris field like a snake and devoured its shattered parts.
Even the minor asteroids in the debris field weren't spared.
Once it devoured sufficient earthly materials, the pure earth elemental worm grew out new scales and fully recovered its form.
The accumulated devastation to its body disappeared without a trace.
Everything went back to spare one.
However, Vaan didn't find the situation surprising. The pure earth elemental worm was comparable to a divine-rank being. Naturally, it wouldn't be easy to kill, not to mention he had no intention of killing it.
After all, it could produce at least 100,000-year Stalactite Milk.
It was simply priceless.
'Now, how should I deal with this thing? I can't keep consuming my mental energy here in the middle of nowhere,' Vaan mused thoughtfully.
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