Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 436: Victory by Inches

Holding Skyfall in scythe form, Ezra lands his swing.

*BOOM!*

Out came an ice energy wave slash almost two meters in length.

Infused with most of his energy, the resulting clash saw the attack cleave deep into the minotaur’s body, resulting in an intense explosion as a byproduct of opposite elements clashing in colossal amounts.

*SHRIEK!*

In the same instant, the minotaur lets out a piercing scream, portraying enormous pain.

Blown away by the explosion and exhausted after releasing most of his energy, Ezra helplessly makes a hard landing once again, creating a small crater this time.

"UGH!"

Getting his wits about him, Ezra groans, before vomiting a lot blood.

That attack had taken a lot out of him.

Standing had never been so grueling.

Looking left and right, Ezra spots Skyfall meters away.

On the verge of retrieving his weapon, Ezra hears a rumble and his hair stands on edge.

"...."

Ezra didn’t even need to turn to identity the cause of that rumble.

He instead picks up Skyfall with haste before turning around.

And Voila! Things lay exactly as he expected.

That cursed minotaur had begun to rise back on its feet.

Much to Ezra’s dismay.

’Why won’t you just die?’

Even with the majority of his energy poured into the attack, Ezra was unable to end the minotaur’s life.

BUT. Ezra then observes that it definitely had an effect because the minotaur staggered while trying to stand. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

’So I can kill you after all. Wonderful’

With newly gained confidence, Ezra makes a run towards the minotaur, ignoring his aching body.

Ezra had to make sure not to give it time to recover, else he would undoubtedly be the one to lose this battle.

Reaching the minotaur, Ezra musters the last of his strength to finish it off.

Acknowledging the minotaur’s insane physicality, Ezra stays away from arm’s reach and goes for the minotaur’s legs instead.

Seeking to enlarge the wound he had made at the start of their fight, Ezra increases his speed and put emphasis on targeting only one leg.

Ezra begins running literal circles around the minotaur, he avoids chunks of rocks thrown his way.

Well, with the minotaur blindly, its aim had gotten clumsy, allowing Ezra much breathing space in building momentum.

Taking his time, Ezra observes, waiting for an opening, and makes his move the moment the minotaur staggered.

Using that brief instant to attack the leg that hadn’t staggered, Ezra successfully lands the attack, deepening the shallow attack from earlier and in turn restricting the minotaur’s movement.

Crying out in pain, the minotaur is belatedly reminded that its nemesis still lurked, awaiting any chance to sever its lifeforce.

But the minotaur did not intend for Ezra to do as he wished.

Reading his energy, the minotaur pinpoints the path Ezra is running across.

Then, the minotaur slams both arms into the ground, causing a large tremor.

Spread in every direction, Ezra is hit by the aftereffects and thrown off balance.

Falling to the ground, he rolls forward a few times before coming to a stop.

Rubbing his aching head, Ezra shakes off the dirt on his body. His gaze focused on the minotaur who suddenly turns his head in Ezra’s direction, returning the gaze even though its blind.

Tense, Ezra doesn’t move. Making sure to not call its attention by something a sound.

Yet instead of looking away, the beast suddenly roars at him before leaping towards him on fours.

’Not good!’

Clearly marked, Ezra wastes no time taking to his legs, with the minotaur on his tail in no time, letting out fumes from its nose as it chased Ezra.

’But how!?’ Ezra wonders, inwardly panicking.

With its anklet severed, how is the minotaur still chasing him with such speed?

Ezra steals a glance behind him. ’Could it be because of its still in its elemental form?’

He wipes the thought away, recognizing that its answer would hardly help him in this situation and instead puts his brain to work.

Thinking had always been the core part of human’s survival kit after all.

His energy reserve had reached critical levels, therefore concealment would leave him no energy after a few seconds of usage, so no.

Yet, pressure was mounting as the minotaur relentlessly chases after him, so Ezra didn’t have much leeway.

Testing something, he layers the surface of his running path with ice.

Sure enough, while the minotaur should’ve just melted it without any problems, it didn’t and instead stepped straight into it.

And while its fire body melted the ice easily, it still caused the minotaur to tilt slightly, delaying it and in turn, widening the gap between Ezra, even only by a little.

Making a few guesses based on this, Ezra adjusts his movements.

But right as he did, the minotaur, as though waiting for this moment, opens its mouth to shoot a beam of fire.

Smaller in range but much fast, it fortunately or unfortunately, hit Ezra dead on, literally sweeping him off his feet.

Hit with such a fast and powerful beam while running, saw Ezra lifted off the ground, though only by little and thrown afar.

Falling to the ground, he rolls and tumbles much more than last time.

Trying to shake off his dizziness, Ezra attention is pulled by the rumbling ground.

With one look, Ezra sees the minotaur coming towards him with as much fury its flaming face could muster.

At this sight, Ezra fully accepts that he had lost and seeks to run to sovereign universe to hide.

Right then...

*Uuuuu!*

The minotaur lets out a loud moan of pain as a conflagration of blue energy flared from its chest, causing it to falter and tumble because of momentum.

Watching this unfold with curiosity and wonder, Ezra is quick is to leap out of the way as it became clear that the minotaur’s tumbling body was heading straight towards him.

The minotaur stops tumbling three meters away from Ezra.

Quick to rise, the minotaur turns itself back on its stomach, giving Ezra a death stare.

Ezra on the other hand, was now utterly exhausted and only waited to satify his curiosity as to what exactly was occurring, while ready to run into the sovereign universe at any moment.

But as the minotaur sought to claw its way towards him, the same spark of blue energy erupted from its chest once again, forcing it to halt.

Bellowing a sorry sound, the minotaur turns itself to lay on its back, allowing Ezra to get a better look at its body.

Here, he sees something that invigorates him.

Across the chest of this beast, lay a large crack.

But the main reason it attracted Ezra’s gaze is because the crack is laced with blue energy and this energy occasionally lets out hot air.

’My ice attack!’ Ezra realizes. ’So it did do something!’

Though ecstatic, Ezra didn’t want to assume things, so he calls on his personal advisor.

[It’s on the verge of death] Zydrax declares. [That attack of yours must have reached its core]

"So if I just leave it alone, it’ll die?"

[No. It can recover. Even right now, its recovering, trying to fight off the ice energy embedded in its core]

"So what should I do?"

[Force it to stop recovery. Make it focus its attention on you]

"And if it doesn’t?"

[It probably will. Most creatures would have immediately sought recovery in a pool of lava if their core was affected, but this one did not]

"I understand. Thank you"

With victory at hand, Ezra proceeds most carefully.

Rather run up to it like before. He sends down a beam of energy upon it, directly smashing into its face.

"I should’ve done this before" says Ezra, laughing as ice grew and melted on the minotaur’s face, greatly annoying it.

Enraged, the minotaur turns, landing on its four limbs and roaring loudly towards the nuisance attacking it with ice energy.

Though in precarious situation, the minotaur reasons with its two brain cells, soon concluding that the pesky intruder must be on the verge of death as well.

Therefore, making it a wise choice for it to hunt it down since the minotaur had recovered some of its strength and suppressed the chaotic essence in its core.

As such it bolts towards Ezra, resuming the chase.

On the other hand, Ezra smirks seeing this.

Expending little energy, Ezra maintains the beam of ice energy, keeping at a very low level of potency, just enough to annoy the minotaur while he himself retreats.

With the minotaur’s persistence, the gap between the two steadily shrinks, till the minotaur reaches within its arm length of Ezra.

At this point, Ezra stops the ice beams, as the minotaur is unlikely to stop chasing after prey within its grasps.

From here, Ezra plays tag with the minotaur, avoiding its arms which are lethargically slow compared to its actual speed.

Time passed like this, with the ice in the minotaur’s core flaring up multiple times, but it refused to yield and back away from its prey until it reached a critical stage.

To which it then looks around for a lava deposit, only to find itself isolated from them, having gradually moved away from them while chasing Ezra.

Realizing that couldn’t make it back to a lava pool before dying and also that it had been tricked, its anger swells up and manifests in form of a large and encompassing fire breath.

One which Ezra had to block with an ice wall having recovered a bit during the chase.

This would be its final attack as the minotaur’s body gave out right after.

Falling on its face, ice began growing in its veins and then on its fur until it grew over the entire body.

Phew..."

Letting out a fatigued breath, Ezra slumps to the ground, the exhaustion throughout the ordeal hitting him all at once.

"It’s done" Ezra remarks.

The battle had finally reached a conclusion and he had won.

A truth to be proud about, before Ezra found himself bubbling with anger and annoyance remembering the ordeal he had just gone through.

Thinking about it, Ezra grits his teeth.

’Tenacious Bastard!’

Honestly, if it had been able to access more of its brain cells, Ezra would’ve never won against it.

In first place, the tables only shifted in Ezra’s favour because his biggest attack went through and his energy invaded his core, gradually chipping away at it.

Despite that, it had still tried to kill Ezra with as much energy as it could muster.

If it took advantage of its regenerative abilities, Ezra was certain that not even the approaching group blue dragons would be able to avoid casualties.

’Right’

That brought him back to reality.

’I could finish things here before they arrive’

Touching the minotaur’s corpse, it disassembles into essence.

But unlike what he expected...

’Where are the rewards?!’

There was nothing littering the ground where its corpse had faded from.