Chapter 1014: If It Works, It's Not Stupid! |
An abomination of tails ending in spiky maces rushed towards Kyle at incredible speeds. The Mid Crusher Demon spun, turning its tails into a wall of destructive attacks.
Kyle's wings beat rapidly, increasing his speed to his maximum.
The two opponents reached each other in an instant.
Kyle swung his hammer forward, all of his forward momentum stopping as it was injected into the swing. His body stopped slightly to the side of the Demon.
Even though the Demon had a more powerful body, the way it attacked didn't take advantage of its forward momentum. If Kyle were on its other side, he would also have to contend with the force of its forward momentum. However, he was on the side where the tails moved away from him.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Kyle's hammer broke through three tails, injecting a bit of Elemental Energy into every small wound.
BANG!
The fourth tail survived, and Kyle's hammer was stopped in its tracks.
BANG!
The fifth tail broke Kyle's scaly armor and bones as it blasted the upper quarter of his body into the distance. The hammer and the arms carrying it were blasted into the distance.
Kyle's many wings stretched upward, into the path of the sixth tail.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
His wings were severed and broken, chunks of meat flying into the distance.
Kyle moved upward, into the path of the seventh tail.
BANG!
His bones broke, but the spinning momentum of the Demon had weakened so much that Kyle didn't die. Kyle's arms had already regrown, and they wrapped around the tail, refusing to let go.
At the same time, the bottom of Kyle's body parted, and the eight remaining arms on the underside of his body pulled out a second hammer.
All the muscles on Kyle's body bulged as he swung his second hammer. The muscles employed were the same, and they also contracted in the same way. In order to understand how that was possible, one only needed to imagine a human trying to push a wall.
The human's calves contracted to keep the foot stable. Their quadriceps contracted to keep the lower leg stable. Their triceps contracted to create a pushing motion. With the addition of a couple more muscles, a pushing force was created. The force generated started with the feet and ended with the hands.
Yet, the start and end points could be swapped, and the muscles that contracted wouldn't change. One simply had to flip the image of the pushing human by ninety degrees. Instead of pushing a wall with their hands while pushing off the ground with their legs, the human could also push the wall with their feet while pushing off the ground with their arms.
The start point of Kyle's swing was not the end of his body but the point where the other eight arms came from.
He swung his hammer into the Demon's natural armor.
CRK!
The hammer broke through the natural armor, but it didn't manage to get far.
Fortunately, that was more than enough as Kyle dumped a ton of Elemental Energy into the enemy's body.
The Demon's body was thrown into the distance as its Beast Core collapsed.
Kyle went to the corpse and pulled out its Beast Core before storing it.
'At the moment, Mid Crusher Demons are my limit,' Kyle thought. 'Even with perfect planning, I simply don't have enough power to break through a Late Crusher Demon's defenses.'
'I need to increase the power of my strikes even more, and I need to do it without using unnatural amounts of Energy or human abilities.'
'Demons generally create bodies with no weaknesses. They are all fast, strong, and durable. I can break through an Initial Crusher Demon's body by using a weapon. If I want to damage an Early Crusher Demon, I need powerful forward momentum as well. To damage a Mid Crusher Demon, I have to forego defense and adaptability in favor of strengthening the power of just a single attack. My entire body is built around launching just a single powerful strike. It's the only weapon I have, even though I can launch that strike from two positions.'
'But that's not enough. At the very least, I need the power to kill a Late Crusher Demon, and the only way to achieve that...'
'Is to sacrifice even more.'
'I need to get rid of everything else. I need to sacrifice all of my powers and add them all to a single attack.'
'I also need deterrence since I will be among Late Crusher Demons a lot. I need to show that attacking me will only end in their deaths.'
Kyle furrowed his brows. 'However, if I sacrifice even more, I will become more vulnerable to other things. I've already gotten rid of my defenses. I've also gotten rid of versatility. I can only launch these two attacks. Any other attacks will be harmless to my opponents. If I also get rid of my speed, any ranged attacker can easily kill me.'
'Speed is an absolute necessity. I can't possibly get rid of it.'
'I can't use Domains since I'm not a Domain Lord Demon. I can't use Momentum since that would tell everyone I'm a human. What I could do is use Elemental Laws. I'm already using a hammer, which tells everyone around me that I'm an intelligent Demon. It wouldn't be strange if I also used Laws.'
'However, that would only make a minor difference. I'm already somewhat using Laws internally by converting parts of my body into pure Elemental Energy, which I use to increase my power and speed.'
'It still wouldn't be enough to properly injure a Late Crusher Demon.'
'There's no other way. I have to make myself vulnerable to some kind of attack. I have to sacrifice even more versatility.'
After a while, an idea entered Kyle's mind, but he wasn't sure what to think about it.
He thought about it for a long time, analyzing it again and again. It was almost like he was trying to find a way to argue that this idea wouldn't work.
Yet...
'This is absolutely retarded,' Kyle thought.
Kyle's mind went through the pros and cons.
'But it works.'
He looked to the side for a while.
'Am I actually going to do this?'
'Fine! What other choice do I have?!'
'Oh my fucking God, this is so fucking stupid!'
Eventually, Kyle accepted his fate and started to change his body.
It took a long time to change his body since it looked very different from his current body. Technically, he could change it in just a couple of seconds, but if anyone watched, they would realize that something wasn't right. Because of that, he had to slowly change it, one fight at a time.
Years passed until Kyle was done changing his body. Afterward, he resumed his journey to the east. Sadly, his speed had dropped quite a bit, which meant the journey took longer.
As Kyle kept traveling east, several of the Demons watched him in confusion. Only the Demons that were sent to the frontlines were mindless killing machines. The normal Demons living in the Abyss were still normal Divine Beasts, which meant they had their own desires and quirks.
While the Demons focused on growing stronger, they also sometimes looked around in boredom, and when they saw Kyle, they became curious and confused.
He wasn't fast.
He was only a Peak Primal Demon.
He was not supposed to be here.
Yet, he kept traveling to the east, passing by Demons that were much stronger than he was.
Sometimes, some Mid Crusher Demons approached him just out of curiosity.
Kyle ignored them and continued.
However, if one of the Demons got too curious...
Well, let's just say that the other Demons wouldn't look at Kyle with curiosity anymore but with shock and terror.
Years passed...
A group of Late and Peak Crusher Demons focused on the Elemental Display of Gravity Lightning in front of them when their attention was drawn to the west.
A foreign Demon was openly approaching their Law Well. Demons generally avoided fighting right beside Law Wells unless they were launching an all-out assault on one. However, every additional Demon on a Law Well represented a loss in latent Elemental Energy. Because of that, only Demons with enough power were allowed near Law Wells.
When the Demons noticed the newcomer, they became confused.
A Peak Primal Demon.
What was such a weak Demon doing here?
Demons were used to all manner of strange appearances. After all, Demons were Divine Beasts, and Divine Beasts rarely looked like regular animals.
Yet, when they saw the newcomer's body, they were still surprised.
None of them had seen such a strange Demon before.
They saw a moving pillar. The pillar was bent over like a palm tree. Its base was upright, but the further up one went on the pillar, the more it bent over. The base was wide, but the pillar became thinner as it progressed. The other end of the pillar was bent so much that it lightly touched the ground behind it again. On the tip of the pillar was the head of a hammer.
The pillar had many long and thin insect legs coming out of it. When the pillar moved, it couldn't be described with the word "walking" but with the word "scurrying".
The head of the hammer left a small crevice behind as the pillar slowly scurried to the Law Well.
The Demons couldn't make sense of this strange Demon.
Yet, if a human were here, they would realize something.
This bent pillar...
Didn't it look a bit like a bent arm, holding a hammer?
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