"Yeah," Eo replied. "I don't think you'd want to be in here, snuggled with me."
Eo's mind raced. What could he do? He had essentially turned this into a stalemate… He couldn't attack, and if he let down his guard, he'd get eviscerated. He still didn't want to use his tangiform, so his offense was still rudimentary compared to Nestaris'.
Right when Eo's mind was on the verge of screaming "give up" to him, Eo suddenly remembered something.
Runes. The pattern of the rune formation.
Eo immediately started scratching some patterns out on the floor within the safety of his metal shell. He was going to copy the binding technique from before, combined with a magnification rune.
"If you're going to admit your loss, you should leave your little metal bubble first." Nestaris edged on. "I can't take forever waiting for you to surrender."
Eo pressed his hand into the small carving he made on the floor. Extensions of the rune shot out from under the metal shell, with the formation tripling in radius. Eo let his essence flow into the center.
From the cracks in the rune, an eerie blue light shot out. Nestaris stumbled, confused. Suddenly, tendrils of essence crawled out of the cracks and bound themselves to his feet. Eo lifted the shell of metal and fired several thick chains of metal towards Nestaris.
Nestaris was too busy looking at his essence-bound ankles when the thick cluster of metal slammed into his chest. Nestaris stumbled backwards, butt hitting the floor. As soon as that happened, several more tendrils leapt up, wrapping themselves around Nestaris' chest and arms. Nestaris struggled to move. His shadowform seemed to be disappearing.
Eo walked over and pointed his dagger at him.
"Game over Nestaris. I win this time!"
Nestaris glared at Eo.
"I should've gone hardcore from the start." He grumbled.
Eo rolled his eyes and synthesized a cage around him.
Nestaris attempted to shadowblink away, but the darkness covering his own body was completely gone at this point, and nothing happened.
Eo happily waited for ten seconds.
☆
After the victory Eo decided to check his own strength. He went to the central hub and walked over to the essence meter. It read 2930E. Still not high enough. Kyros probably had over 3000E had this point. Plus, he was going to get buffed by all of the items everyone threw at him. Eo didn't want to get left behind in terms of power, thought it was probably only him who still thought that way.
Eo then remembered he had acquired his fiftieth win. That meant he would be allowed to explore aboveground. It didn't mean he was allowed to skip out of matches, though. The metal band still wouldn't come off.
Eo managed to find an exit leading back aboveground. After verifying his wins with his band, he went to the surface.
☆
The first thing Eo did was try to find the laboratory again. The surface looked so weird, given that he was underground for at least 2 months. Because of the sheer amount of training he had done, he was able to fight more competently now. His daily torture of essence injection in the muscles allowed him to move around and jump faster, further, and for longer.
Eo checked his tattered map and confirmed the location of the laboratory. After doing so, he set off for it, ready to experiment.
On the way, he met a couple of monsters, who he got rid of extremely quickly. There were still no people here, which was unusual. The destroyed city would usually get somewhat repopulated after an incursion. First it would be the thieves and the burglars, then the displaced and distraught. Even after all this time no one had decided to come back. This either meant two things: either the controlling authorities had quarantined this sector, or the monsters from the incursion were so strong that they just steamrolled over anything that tried coming close. Given the amount of resistance he had to put up with the more recently killed monsters, Eo was inclined to believe in the former theory.
Eo looked up at the looming gate which read Essence Experimentation and Research Facilities. Ah, the sweet memory of the home he had only been able to sleep in once.