Arthur rolled, feeling the spear of rock barrel past his head as he dodged underneath it. A moment later, left foot under him, he shoved off as hard as he could as he threw himself into another sideways roll, finishing up with a one-handed kip up, throwing himself into the air and dodging another pair of attacks at points where he had been. For a moment, he was airborne, spinning through the air to reorient himself and see the elemental.
Staring at the creature, he released the Refined Exploding Energy Dart at the creature's groin. Once more, he was adapting to the battle, to the changes in his battle plan as new information had arrived. He'd started out launching his Energy Dart's at the creature's left leg, trying to topple it.
However, as he landed on the ground and batted aside a hurling ball of stone with his spear, Arthur watched his Refined Exploding Energy Dart impact, explode and send shards of stone skimming backwards and forwards and all around. Moments later, stone flowed from surrounding regions, covering the wound.
Thus his change of targets and intent.
Chip the creature away, because one advantage he had was that the blasted rock elemental was not replacing its body with earth drawn from the ground. Not for the wounds he made, not for the projectiles it was hurtling at him. The once massive creature had already shrunk by a good foot and a half, and it kept diminishing.
Problem was, it was also managing to score hits.
Hand's still throbbing from the deflection, Arthur managed to dodge another fast moving spear before he was caught in the backblast of an explosive cannon ball hitting just to the side of him. Shattered chunks of debris slammed into hip and arm, pelting him and leaving numerous bruises on open skin. Even through his armour, it hurt a little.
Didn't stop him from running closer though. If he had the time, he might have tried to stay at a distance, but he just couldn't afford to wait it out. Nor did he know what other tricks the monster might have.
A second wind skill to heal itself? A massive barrage or the ability to control earth at a distance if he stayed away?
Behind, frighteningly, the wolves had grown silent. Rather than howling and alerting him of how close they were, they ran for him, closing the gap. He couldn't even tell how close they were, not without risking a look back. And doing that was a good way of getting a spear to the face.
"Rock, spear, net." Arthur growled under his breath, ducking another attack as he worked on forming another Refined Exploding Energy Dart. "Like a lousy version of rock, paper, scissors."
Then, finally, he was there.
Leaf covered ground the colour of bright orange, fighting on a slight slope, paifang in the back and monster looming over him. Ten feet was huge, especially when said creature was almost twice his size. But now that he was this close, he switched out Cloud Step for Yin Aura, watching as the energy flow outwards.
Something in the ground...
He dodged sideways, moments before it erupted. Spikes of rock spinning upwards, barely a finger width in size. So sharp that it tore through the side of his armor into his leg, catching as he jerked sideway and broke the entire thing apart. He shattered more of the spikes as he moved, a two foot radius of deadly ground half-broken.
He knew the ground was weird.
No time to pay attention to the aching leg, as he threw his spear at the descending hand. He slid across the leaf covered ground as he battered the arm aside, his body and lack of footing betraying him. It helped him move out of the way though, so he took that as a win.
Shot his spear forwards, sliding it along the 'head' of the creature. Chipped a bit of clay-like earth off, before his spear was flung away. He let it spin, using the momentum to turn himself around, feet turning around and around so he could slam the shaft of the weapon into the middle of the monster.
Striking it as hard as he could, trying to see if he could crack or break the monster by sheer strength.
Rebound, spin away, jump into the air moments before the earth, trembling and twitching erupted into more rocks. Take the bowling ball of a rock in his chest while releasing his own attack, tumble back down the hill as he flew backwards. Listen to the rumble and explosion of his Energy Dart, moments before he hit the ground, chest still struggling to work again, breathing intrrupted and worsened by the impact as he skipped backwards on slippery ground.
Roll sideways as he forced body to work just in time to get out of the way of another spear that impacted not too far from him. He ended up off the trail, slamming into a tree and then into a series of spiky bushes. Pain, as he drove thorns into his body between gaps in his own armor.
At least the scream that it pulled from him got his lungs working.
Stagger back up, hide behind a tree as it got struck by a rock.
Glance backwards to see how close the wolves were and realise that the lead elements were much too close. Only a minute or two maybe, the pair of slavering monsters looking like they were about to fall over from the exertion but refusing to stop.
Push himself up, Refined Exploding Energy Dart still forming as he started running back in.
Note that the creature had shrunk by another foot.
An easy fight, if he wasn't pushing it. His body patching the pain and bruises up, his feet not working properly because of the spike still embedded in it, but damn it. He wasn't, couldn't, stop now.
Inside, dodge sideways as it let loose the earth spikes once again. Yin Aura all around him, so that even when he dodged the limbs, because he was standing on the body, it was being affected.
Keep moving, always moving.
His spear struck out whenever he could as he began to notice the effects of the Yin Aura. The slowing poison was affecting the creature differently, making it more brittle rather than slowing it down directly. Each movement as it rotated, as it formed a spear or ball of stone saw bits and pieces fall off. Spears that were shattered never collapsed back down and rejoined the body, even the ones left untouched took forever to sink back into the earth.
Even the amount of injuries he took was slowing down. He was too fast, too skilled to get hit outright too often, and the few times he missed a dodge or had to suffer an attack, armor and enhanced strength and skill at collapsing inwards into himself helped defray the damage. Enough at least for his regeneration to keep him in the game.
Arthur was winning, without a doubt.
Which was, of course, when the pair of charging wolves entered the fray.
A couple of seconds of warning was all he got, before the first leapt at him. Arthur jumped backwards, watched as the erupting stone spears from the ground skewered his attacker.
"Gotcha!"
The words were more a slur, breathed out for his own sake than any attempt at getting another to hear it. No point, of course. It still cost him.
The other wolf, a few steps behind had skirted around and threw itself at him. A spear, twisting through the air was meant to catch and bat it aside. He didn't see - or perhaps didn't anticipate, hard to say - the ball of stone slamming into the shaft, sending the spear nearly out of his hands. Instinctive attempt to try to keep his weapon in control left him out of position for when the wolf struck him.
Bowled over, he struck the back of the elemental's leg. Wolf claws scrabbled at armour, gaping maw lunging at his face. He got out of the way, letting it strike the elemental's leg to a surprised whimper. Twisted and shoved, just enough to drop the wolf to the ground and get a foot properly under him.
Too slow though.
More worried about getting booted, Arthur was surprised when the arm grabbed him from above, crushed down on his body and yanked him upwards. Holding him aloft even as a pair of stone spears grew out of the body, aimed at him at point blank range.
No dodging, not anymore.