It took thirty-nine minutes for a stretch of a six-miles radius area to turn into the wasteland; its branches had absorbed nearly all the energy, and even now, it was squeezing in whatever had left. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 By the time it finishes in a minute or two, this place will have the worst soil in the whole world, worse than even the desert. It is painful to watch a fertile, vibrant place turning into a wasteland, but I watched and itched these images in my heart. So, I will make it remember when I punish this bastard. "Are you ready to die, Zaar?" said Kraf, with the same hollowness it had earlier. It still had the bloodline phantom behind it, and it had become impossibly clear. "You think you can kill me? Even an old snake couldn't me when I had my shields out," I said confidently, looking at my shields. "Your shields are powerful, alright, but they are not powerful enough to stop me," it said back. "Many people have said that, but all of them have failed," I replied. "I will not," it said, and the branches moved. There are no thorns as I expected, but pressure; the branches are getting closer, wanting to squeeze my shields, and the physical force They are projecting through it is shocking, and it is increasing fast. I am scared out of my life seeing that because if it kept increasing this way, then it wouldn't take long for it for the cracks to appear. I wanted to escape and could still do, but now the price would be much greater; those branches were not squeezing my shields tightly but also doing everything else, so I could not escape, including creating a very strong spatial lock. The lock is covering the vast area, the area where branches are spread, meaning I will have to put greater to escape now than I had before, but I am not escaping. If I wanted to, I would have; now, I have invested far too much to escape. Crack Crack Crack It did not take long for the cracks to appear; once they appeared, they began to spread fast; even the energies of all three boosts were not enough to stop them from spreading. "As I have told you, your little shields would not stop me from consuming you," it said, and the pressure of branches had increased further. "You have only cracked my shields, not broken them," I said through gritted teeth and poured every drop of my power into them, but it was not helping at all. It took them less than ten seconds for cracks to spread 50% of the shields, and despite increasing the defenses, they are spreading even faster than before. Soon they reach 75%, and a couple of seconds after that, they have crossed 90% and still spread faster before stopping at 99.99%, just a slight push, and they will break into pieces. "Now, what do you say?" asked Kraf mockingly. "Do you worse; my sword will meet your little branches when they came at me," I said as my sword appeared in my hand; I even covered it with blazing silver fire. BANNNNG! "As you wish," said the Goatman and pushed into my shields; as it did, the shields blasted into the pieces while I stumbled back as the hundreds of sharp pointy branches came at me. I was about to strike them when they suddenly stopped at an inch's distance from the range of my sword. "You seemed quite confident, Zaar?" asked Kraf suddenly, and the fear from my face vanished. "Oh, you caught me," I said simply as a smile bloomed across my face. "I thought my acting was perfect, but it seemed it was not perfect enough," I added with a shake of my head, and the sword in my disappeared. "You are quite confident, despite facing the attack that could kill you," it said while the sharp branches moved an inch forward threateningly. "I am confident," I replied. "While this attack of yours is powerful, it will not do anything against me. It should be you who should be worried; the moment your little branches touch me, you will experience pain as you have never before," I dared. "You are bluffing! I have broken through your shields, and you have turned to bluff; face me like a real man, Zaar," challenged Kraf. "I am facing you like a man; it is you who is hesitating. Come at me, Kraf," I said with a toothy smile on my face; the smile was especially sweeter, seeing the burning rage in the Goatman's eyes with faint hesitation. Sup Sup Sup "Since you want death so badly, I will give it to you, but let me tell you, it will be a painful death." "You will die, bit by bit, as I consume you," it said, and hundreds of sharp branches came at me from all sides; there was not a single place through which I could escape, not I want to. The sharp branches came closer and closer to me till they were inches away from touching me; as they got closer, time slowed down to me, and I was them in detail, like never before. So, I was able to see how these branches had stopped the moment they touched my armor; the touch was so faint, there wasn't even noise. "What? How?" It asked with a voice filled with utter shock. "You know, if you had attacked me with convectional moves you have used against the others, you would have easily saved your life; it would have been me who would have run away," I said softly. "You are powerful enough that I am no match against you; you might have even been able to break my shields with your regular moves, but you, an idiot, lost your mind in greed and ended up making the mistake of using this move, and that surrendered your life to me," I said to it. "You have only stopped my attack but are talking like you are a step away from killing me?" It asked, hearing that a small smile couldn't help but appear on my face. "Am I not?" I asked, "No, you are not," it replied, and I smiled brighter while a shock appeared in its eyes, which turned into horror a moment later as it found out, it could move at all, nor could it use any energy. As I have said, I had no plan to kill it, and nor I could have if it itself hadn't provided me the opportunity. It had made a mistake when it released the branches and began to absorb the energies; when dealing with me, one shouldn't reveal any gap, but it revealed hundreds. I could not target it with rose redemption; its defenses were too powerful, and for the same reason, my strings couldn't wrap around it. It using this method provided me with a better opportunity than both of these methods. What I did is simple, I just released my energy around absorption points, which are none other than strings. It went directly inside it; while there were defenses, I did not have a problem avoiding them, considering it was sucking up a massive amount of energy, and I only mixed tiny of mine, camouflaged under them. Slowly, I was able to put a huge amount of my energy inside it, which then transformed back into the strings, and what happened after that did not need much imagination to guess.