There are a number of things that could be done in 30 seconds.
But rarely are they life-changing.
Aeon's steps were even despite all his panic. He was moving so fast that the tapping noises of his footsteps almost sounded like the pitter-patter of heavy rain.
Adrenaline coursed through Aeon's body. The scant energy he had before stepping into the beast's lair was being burned rapidly, and he was well aware of it. Moreover, he knew that just running in a straight line wouldn't help him escape. He silently hoped that he could still invoke his lightning when he would be needing it.
Fortunately, the humongous creature behind him was still shaking its head as it stumbled forward. It couldn't get a decent footing and it was flailing its head all over the place. It was only after five seconds did it finally lock onto Aeon again. It jumped up with immense force then started flapping its wings, creating a fierce gale. The wind almost threw Aeon off balance, but he soon stabilized himself.
Twenty-three seconds.
Since the ceiling was extremely high, the beast had no problems navigating through the air and it was quickly catching up.
Aeon briefly activated his Tenro to check on the beast's speed. Then he determined that, at that rate, it would catch up in less than six seconds.
So, at the five-second mark, he needed to activate his lightning.
With two deep breaths, he calmed himself down. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Even before the moment that he had to activate his lightning, Aeon was starting to channel his energy. He focused extremely hard to keep it from bursting out of his body so that the beast wouldn't be too cautious.
Aeon cringed as he listened to the eerie sounds that the wings of the beast made. He could only imagine how strong it was to be able to flap those colossal wings rapidly. Though he was happy that it gave away its position.
Huu.
The fifth second of Aeon's imaginary clock finally ticked.
Aeon's foot landed on the ground and he turned his body. His other foot landed behind him to support him from falling backward due to inertia. Then, he tilted his head diagonally towards the ceiling.
Bzzt!
Once more, Aeon came face to face with the colossal beast. This time, however, the beast was high up above him and it was diving down to catch him with its claws.
Aeon's body started to light up.
Nothing personal, mister oversized lizard, Aeon thought to himself.
Victory would be decided at that point.
Aeon smiled smugly.
But the beast was no ordinary creature. It had a certain level of intelligence. The moment that it noticed that the human in front of it was generating bright light from out of nowhere once more, it retracted its wings and placed them in front of its face.
Aeon's eyes shot wide open.
The monster was covering its eyes!
For a moment, Aeon was at a loss. But immediately after, laughter and mirth could be seen in his eyes. His feelings were translated into a cheeky grin.
Booom!
Having retracted its wings, the beast naturally crashed hard on the ground. It rolled a couple of times on the ground, its wings enveloping its body. Then, the moment it slowed down, its wings burst wide open once more and its claws buried themselves on the ground, stabilizing itself.
It had saved itself from being blinded!
Triumphant, it started growling at the dust cloud in front of it.
But, at that point, after wasting a few seconds, it suddenly realized something.
The human was gone.
"PUHAHAHAHA!"
Aeon's laughter reverberated through the near-empty cave. He was already hundreds of meters ahead of the beast.
Earlier, when Aeon had realized that the beast had no vision on him because it was covering its eyes, he also retracted his lightning into his body. He twisted and faced forward once more, completing a quick 360-degree turn. The moment that the beast crashed, he executed a Shooting Star.
Verdure and Zephyr had not been sheathed the entire time. How could he? He was carrying the large strawberry using one of his swords and it didn't feel right to only carry one of them.
Five seconds had passed since then. The beast was too late to notice.
But, just in case, Aeon still condensed a ball of light and threw it behind him.
Now, he was only a few seconds away from salvation. He didn't even need to turn around to check where the beast was. There was absolutely no way for the beast to catch up to him. He opened his mouth wide and pulled his sword, Verdure, closer to his face. He examined the luscious fruit with greedy eyes then took a big bite out of it as he ran. Its sticky juice painted Aeon's mouth and chin but he didn't mind.
It turns out, victory had really been decided then.
….
The underground cave regained its previous calm. The beast had stopped roaring in anger a couple of minutes ago.
After eating a third of the strawberry, Aeon couldn't go on anymore. The fruit was actually so compact that a third of it could easily make a full-grown man like him who had been starving for a few days full. No wonder the colossal beast lived off of it. Aeon had no complaints.
Looking around, Aeon confirmed that there weren't any pests around. He couldn't even see a single ant. So, he stored the fruit at the corner of the eastern room with no worries.
Then, Aeon started stretching.
There was really not much to do. Being enveloped in darkness with nothing to entertain him, Aeon could only continue his training. It was also the best course of action because his lightning was his greatest weapon at the moment. If he could get better at wielding it, he could go in and out of the beast's lair without having to face it head-on. He just needed to light the place up to render the beast powerless!
Aeon did his usual workout routine before proceeding with his magic training. The first thing he did was control training, a training that not many would even focus on.
For all other elements, control came naturally after awakening. Lightning was the only exception because it was chaotic. Keeping it at bay was already hard, so casting a bigger spell is naturally more difficult.
Again and again, Aeon formed balls of condensed lightning while squinting his eyes. His primary goal was to not let out any sparks from it. It should just look like a lightbulb in the dark.
Of course, Aeon failed; many times. But that didn't stop him from really trying. He spent seven hours on the same activity before finally stopping. He still had some energy left, but his mind was already too tired to function.
So, he went to sleep.
….
Aeon couldn't even determine how long he had slept.
The first thing he did after he opened his eyes was to check on the fruit. He wanted to know if it would easily go bad because the amount of time that the fruit could last is equal to the time he had to train. The worst thing he could imagine happening is him fighting the monster whilst having diarrhea. He only one pair of pants. He couldn't fuck it up.
Aeon activated his Tenro to examine the fruit and determined that it barely changed. He saw no signs of rotting.
Since he wasn't so starved anymore, Aeon only consumed a small portion. If he kept it at that rate, the fruit would probably last for four more days; assuming that it would not go bad by then.
Continue training!
….
Aeon repeated the same routine he did yesterday.
Then, the day after that, he did the same too.
The next three days were spent by Aeon mechanically.
Eat, train, sleep.
He repeated the same process without tiring. He was religiously devoted to his magic training. For the sake of survival, he temporarily set aside his worries for the people in the outside world.
Lightning danced on Aeon's palms, and he looked extremely comfortable with it. The balls of light that he made released no sparks anymore. In the dark, they looked like miniature suns, all three of them. Yes. At the same time, he could conjure three.
While on the first day, he could only last for seven hours, on the third day, he lasted for ten.
Aeon was improving rapidly, and he knew it himself. Compared to other lightning mages who had just awakened, Aeon was above average.
One more thing he did was create an incantation of his own. Since he learned from Faust that incantations were merely words related to a specific magic one could perform, Aeon decided to give his lightning balls a one-word incantation.
Illuminate.
He ended the fourth day by successfully enchanting his twin swords. Though he had yet to give it an incantation. He thought that it would be better to perfect it before he would give it one so he could cast them much easier.
For now, he had one more priority at the top of his list.
….
Aeon ate the last of the fruit. Though there was dirt on the bottom part, he didn't really care much. At least it added a different flavor.
"Aiyaya. It's finally time to get some more food," Aeon said as he stood up. Then, he moved.
Aeon stood at the center of the crossing as he stared at the northern room. There, the beast lurked. But now, it wasn't as threatening as before.
Because it had a weakness.
A weakness that Aeon could exploit.
….