[NR] Ripping It Out - Chapter 426 (Patreon)

Jason pulled his Energy out of the area around the wound and wrenched his arm away from the earth elemental, not bothering with trying to pull the spike out. Without the reinforcement of his Energy, the flesh parts with deceptive ease and globs of ooze-like blood flies as Jason tanks the pain while jumping away.

What is left behind on Jason’s arm is a gaping wound, except the System didn’t have as much control over things as normal. Instead of flesh, it looks like a mix of the void of space and the inside of one of those stretch armstrong toys. The void is full of his red and amber blood that splatters out.

As Jason escapes from the elementals, that hole in his arm begins to fill in with blood, solidifying and building upon itself. Though the longer his insides are exposed, the more the System takes over with the edges of the round taking on the properties of muscle and blood begins to flow out more smoothly instead of oozing. Still, Jason can feel that the area hidden beneath the solidified blood is free from the Systems tampering.

Though being free from the one earth elemental wasn’t the end of his climb. Especially with a weakened arm. The rock fall might not be something that needs to be like the side of a cliff, but not having full use of both his hands does make it more difficult and cuts off a couple safer routes.

Because there were definitely more earth elementals even if he was only two-thirds of the way up. Plus, all the elementals behind him were still charging at him. If it was one or two elementals, he might have considered brawling it out. There are at least five of the things, likely more, chasing right now and that wasn’t a good situation to be in.

The only thing going his way is the fact these elementals are very much individuals. Even with the monsters behind him roaring their anger at his escape, the monsters still in front of him haven’t woken up. Of course, there is a downside to this. Since they aren’t waking up, it is kind of hard to point them out compared to any other rock on the ground.

Not that Jason could slow down to try and figure out which are which. The earth elementals behind him aren’t exactly the fastest, but they aren’t being held back by having to go uphill. A combination of some sort of Earth based anchoring and their high strength made even the steepest climb on the rocks as if it was flat ground.

Jason laughs as he vaults over a potential earth elemental and with a flip lands on a section of smaller rocks. While going around it was an option, it would have slowed him down. Of course, as the boulder rears up to try and catch him a moment too late, the danger ramps up. It is only because of his movement skill allowing him to speed up in the air that saved him from being spiked.

Another jump takes him out of range of the follow up attack. Not that this takes him too far, the terrain is just too rough. Still, by jumping around and shifting his direction and momentum while in the air, Jason is able to confuse the nearby earth elementals. If they could see in some manner, this would have worked so well, but so being so low ranked, they only have tremor sense.

On top of that, their tremor sense should be more magical in source than physical. Otherwise, they would at least be able to guess where he was in the air. After all, the air pressure from Jason moving through the air would be hitting the ground as well. That would likely not be enough to pinpoint him, but it would narrow his location down some and point out when he does odd things in the air.

Instead, the elementals appear to be completely clueless when it comes to anything not actually touching the ground. Such limits tend to be the result of depending too much on a power. It also provided Jason a chance to escape. Right now the earth elementals are following him quite easily, even with him jumping around. That is entirely because the ground is made of rock.

So, with a way out, Jason cycles more energy into his legs. Ten, 20, and then finally he settles on 25. The remaining five are barely enough to keep his movement skill going. There isn’t even enough to keep up with the wound on his arm, which without support begins to worsen.

It was worth it, though. With all that power sunk into his lower body, Jason is able to jump half again as far as normal. While this might not seem all that important, it meant he was able to jump over more obstacles. This effectively allowed him to climb at twice the speed, leaving the earth elementals behind.

As Jason reaches the top of the cliff, he takes one final upward leap and while in the air he redistributes his Energy. If he had been trying to move it somewhere else in his body, it would have taken more time than he had in the air. Instead, he was reinvesting it into his feet. Except instead of strengthening them, he puts it all into his movement skill.

Not to go faster, but rather to create a light-foot effect. With the Energy in his feet, Jason spread out the force of his landing. So much so that he is able to take a step before his foot can crush the grass. This makes his steps silent, though more important in this moment is the fact that he doesn’t actually touch the ground.

Sure, the plants are growing in the earth and so the elementals will feel something; it is more like a large circle of cardboard landing instead of a footstep. The earth elementals manage to follow for a short distance. Though the moment Jason reaches a small stand of trees, he loses them by swinging from tree to tree.