Sunder the Mountains!

Wolf mobilized his Internal Energy before noticing the trap. Oh, crap. He could either pull back, suffering the backlash from forcibly terminating Sunder the Mountains, or go forward with it and get pelted by four hundred rock-hard apples.

Press on. Wolf decided without thinking. Book blazed with an earthen aura, cleaving through the root soldier.

Then, rather than waiting to store the severed monstrosity into his Ring of Holding, Wolf sprinted towards the Demonic Converter.

Press on! By rushing forward, Wolf would avoid the black barrage. They would fly above him, miss their target. Even if I run into that ring of falling apples, fifty at most would catch me within their radius, and that’s assuming the Demonic Converter perfectly times the blasts.

Wolf sprinted, focusing on the ground ahead and on his feet. The habits he formed with the body Archibald molded influenced his judgment whenever he stopped paying active attention to his movement. So he had to concentrate.

I can take ten to twenty implosions head on without suffering heavy injuries. Then I’ll heal— Healing potion creates a magical effect. Antimagic suppresses it!

Wolf tried to figure out the best outcome, but he had little time and even fewer choices. He avoided the onslaught of black apples flying towards him, but then reached the curtain of destruction.

Wolf timed it. When apples were about to enter the Antimagic zone, he jumped up, engulfing them. As soon as he soared, the Demonic Converter attempted to detonate its bombs.

Wolf clearly saw things unfold. Apples outside the Antimagic zone burst into spreading globes of darkness. The blackness absorbed everything in its vicinity. Several spheres sucked in surrounding apples. The black fruit they failed to absorb slowed, but kept on falling.

Sinister orbs expanded with every apple they drew in. The suction force grew, but ultimately never reached five meters in radius, leaving Wolf unscathed.

The ring of the apples fell, and Wolf stored those nearby into Archibald’s Ring of Holding, all the while pressing forward towards the Demonic Converter’s trunk.

They can’t catch up. Snaps entered Wolf’s ears as roots turned to chase after him, but they stood no chance. It allowed me to break through by trying to encircle me. If it behaved like last time, pooling its defenses in one place, it could’ve stopped me.

Wolf laughed, then choked, his skin crawling with an eerie realization. Silver, is it influencing my thoughts?

No, Master. Everything is fine. Boredom tinged the egg’s tone. Wolf finally remembered to use her, but there was nothing Silver could do to gain recognition. She was even denied her usual Soul Force snack.

Ignoring the veritable rain of apples, Wolf dashed the last stretch and skidded to a halt in front of the Demonic Converter.

Sunder the Mountains! He used the Ninth Order strike, disregarding the Internal Energy deficiency, which he expected to hit like a ton of bricks even before the Demonic Converter toppled over.

Rich brown light flashed, piercing all the way through the giant trunk. Then the majestic tree slid sideways. After smashing into the ground, it fell over. However, Wolf didn’t have the time for pride. He took out the root soldier’s armor he had snatched yesterday. He layered a bunch of other carapaces he had stashed, forming a trash fort around and above him; hoping it would keep the apples and their emanations far enough.

Unexpectedly, other than the patter of rock-hard apples against chitinous and keratin shells, Wolf heard no explosions. The banging ceased, but nothing else happened.

Is it bluffing? Or… Wolf grinned, not daring to imagine his luck was so good. Whichever organ the Demonic Converter uses to transmit Soul Force to detonate its apples was now affected by Antimagic.

I must test it. Wolf quickly stored the assortment of Monster Beast armors into his Ring of Holding, then moved eight meters up the Demonic Converter’s trunk. His legs shook, while waves of lethargy washed over him from executing two Sunder the Mountains. To make matters worse, he was about to use the third. However, he believed he had little choice.

Sunder the Mountains! Wolf severed the Demonic Converter once again, hoping the lower part would rot away. It didn’t. What started rotting was the ninety percent of the trunk, including the tree’s majestic crown.

This is good! Wolf realized that while failing to disprove his inconvenient theory, he inadvertently saved himself a lot of chopping. The only problem was that the Internal Energy deficiency kicked like a mule, fogging his mind.

I can’t use potions to recover Internal Energy while suppressed by Antimagic, and wasting an Eleventh Order Monster Core to replenish Internal Energy for one Sunder the Mountains borders on hubris. Wolf yawned. His eyes drooped, and he slumped his shoulders, feeling like a regular person on their second day without sleep.

Even in his awakened state, Wolf’s thoughts grew sluggish after the third Sunder the Mountains. I have three more hours of Antimagic. During that time, I must extract the Demonic Converter’s Monster Core, or escape, preferably while cleaning up a path I can use to return.

I can whittle it down with two more Sunder the Mountains. Then I’ll have a two meter wide wheel that’s ten meters in diameter. I could roll it far away from here, then dismiss Antimagic and drink twenty potions to recover my Internal Energy.

Silver listened to Wolf’s absurd idea in silence. She shook her head twice, but said nothing.

Wolf moved like lightning and split what remained of the trunk into half. Sweat ran down his forehead. He ignored it, instead waiting several moments, watching for signs of rot. When he saw the edges of the rightmost half crumble, he moved once more and executed the fifth Sunder the Mountains.

Wolf’s breathing turned ragged, his head sagged forward, but he had the wheel he desired. Silver blinked at his stupid act, but still said nothing.

She quietly watched as her dog tired master rolled the oversized wheel across the clearing. Initially, Wolf went slowly, picking up black apples along the way. However, he built up momentum the closer he got to the forest border.

With a crash, Wolf’s giant roller struck the forest’s edge, trampling shrubs and snapping branches. These obstacles slowed it down, while the tree it smashed into after five meters stopped Wolf’s toy.

The impact shook Wolf’s arms. His oversized wheel bounced back towards him, while the unsuspecting tree, which Wolf tried to mow down, cracked. A moment later, it toppled over, producing a sad groaning noise.

While the assaulted tree fell, Wolf’s listless mind struggled to catch up with the situation. Luckily, he came up with a solution. He slapped the huge disk’s side, spinning it several times like a coin, before it tipped over and fell. Halfway down, the Demonic Converter’s remains struck another tree and got stuck in a slanted position.

I’m alive! Wolf huffed, watching his handiwork. One fifth of the Demonic Converter had left its glade, while eighty percent remained in the clearing.

Still, no black apples exploded. Wolf also realized this after a moment. He quickly climbed up to the stump’s center, turning his head left and right. Tens of thousands of apples littered the glade.

If these explode and start a chain reaction… Wolf caught the commotion Demonic Beasts raised in the distance, but they were so far away even cheetah Chimeras would need ten minutes to reach him.

I should retreat. Wolf realized after considering his situation for a moment. He had destroyed the Demonic Converter, which was way more than he hoped for while planning this assault. Staying behind and fighting a tidal wave of Demonic Beasts made little sense. Wolf wanted these apples to run some experiments, but they weren’t valuable enough for him to risk his life.

Wolf jogged away, dismissing Antimagic. His body elongated, his ears shortened, and his dangly thing didn’t change one bit. Even in this exhausted state, that realization made Wolf twist his lip in displeasure.

Father’s magic will expire soon. Then I can remodel my body after his. Wolf recalled his father’s heroic figure. The big man’s wide shoulders, powerful chest and towering stature. What Wolf forgot was that old man’s frailty. The weakness and lethargy which haunted him. His self-loathing at being useless. His obsession with death.

Thinking about his father and the way he would look in a few short months helped keep Wolf’s mind off the fact that he was tottering and that he really, really wanted to sleep. Finally, he opened enough distance from the glade and created a folded space.

He entered it, closed his eyes and found himself inside his Mind Palace. While his body needed to rest, Wolf’s mind still worked. This battle had a bunch of events and oddities worth contemplating.