"Get ready to fight. The grunars are coming.", Gerald said as he heard the noise.
Everyone then took out their weapons and began to wait for their arrival.
"Gen, let's go further ahead.", said Gerald.
And Gen replied, "Ok, I'm coming."
The two of them moved a little away from the group, and behind them came Karin and the five diamond-ranked from before.
Gerald then asked, "How do you think we should split up now? Without Raja, a red diamond grunar will be free."
And Karin said, "We can team up and handle three of them together."
Gen then said, "No need, I'll take care of the extra too."
Hearing this, Gerald said, "Gen, are you sure? You'll already deal with their leader, taking care of another. Won't it be too much for you?"
"Don't worry, my essence is perfect at buying time. So it's better to leave it to me, and you guys focus on finishing the fight as soon as possible."
"Ok, you got it.".
One of the diamonds then said, "Looks like they have arrived.", and then everyone looked to where he was looking and saw a large number of grunars approaching.
Gen then heard in his head, 'Is this what grunars look like?'
'Yeah, you've never seen one before?'
'Yeah. How strange, they look like a huge boar. They don't seem like the kind of animal that would live in the desert.'
'Now that you mention it, it really is strange. I've seen grunars before, but it was on the way to the desert. It's really strange to see them here.'
Gerald then said, "Let's separate them. Each with what has been assigned to his own."
The group then moved toward the herd of grunars and, upon reaching them, split up as planned.
Gen, Gerald, Karin, and the diamonds advanced toward a group of five Grunars. They were the largest in the herd, each had a different colored coat, and the one in the middle was larger than the others.
Gen then thought, 'That must be their leader.'
They then advanced towards them, and each engaged in combat with one, except Gen, who began to fight with two of them, and then they moved away from each other so as not to get in each other's way.
When he was alone with the grunars, Gen said, "Let's get started."
He then began to use his essence and said, as he looked at the red diamond grunar, "Let's start with you."
He then advanced towards it, and as it saw this, the grunar also began to come towards him, along with the leader.
When Gen saw this, he took Light from his back and said, "Come at me."
The two of them approached him in a rush, but just as they were about to arrive, suddenly, the grunars could no longer go forward. They were still walking towards him, but it was as if the ground was moving, preventing them from reaching their destination.
Gen then smiled and said, "Well, let's get it over with.", and then got into position and started breathing.
After a few seconds, he stopped, jabbed his spear towards the red diamond grunar's head, and then said, "Impale!"
At the same time he said this, the ground underneath the grunar stopped moving, and then it went forward to meet Gen's spear head-on.
Although the grunar seemed to be standing still, it was moving all the time. It just couldn't reach Gen, but as it managed to walk again, all the momentum it had built up was released, which caused it to crash very hard into Gen's spear, which, for this reason, managed to penetrate its skull, killing it.
Seeing one of the grunars dying, Gerald and the rest of the group who were taking care of the red diamond grunars had a smile on their faces.
Gerald then said, "Awakeneds really are different. He didn't even sweat to kill a red diamond monster. It looks like this fight will be easy even without Raja.", but just after he finished speaking, the grunar leader and the three remaining red diamond grunars became highly agitated at the sight of one of their own dying, and began to get extremely aggressive.
The grunar that was with the diamond ranks started to move faster, the one with Karin started to hit heavier, and the one with Gerald got a little darker.
Gerald then said, "Get ready. They are using the incomplete essences. The real fight starts now."
Gerald was using a two-handed sword and moved towards the grunar in front of him. His sword then started to glow very slightly, and he gave a side cut with it. The cut hit the grunar in the neck, but after going in a bit, it stopped.
Seeing this, Gerald pulled his sword back and said, "It seems that your power makes you more resistant, unlucky me."
The grunar who was with Karin made a lunge toward her, but Karin easily dodged it and said, "If you're stronger, I just have to dodge your attacks."
She then dodged another lunge and then said, "Let's get it over with."
She then started to move her feet in small jumps and started to think, 'One, two, three, go!', and then moved towards the grunar. It tried to attack her, but she dodged it and then punched it in the side, but the grunar ignored the punch and kept trying to hit her.
The five diamonds were in a more complicated situation. After the grunar gained speed, none of them were able to hit it, and it was very difficult to defend or dodge its attacks.
When Gen saw this, he thought, 'Looks like I have to end this soon.'
He then turned to the leader of the grunars and saw that it hadn't changed, but he could sense something different in him, and then thought, 'What is his essence?', and soon after that, the leader started to advance toward Gen.
When Gen saw this, he used his essence again, but this time the grunar didn't stop, which made Gen surprised, and then he thought, 'Looks like his essence is canceling out mine. It looks like it will take me some time to end this fight. I hope the diamonds can hold until I finish here.'
The fighting then continued for some time until they all heard, "Ahh!", and as they turned in that direction, they saw that one of the diamond ranks had been hit by the grunar that was with them.
The wound looked serious, and upon seeing this, everyone got a frown on their faces.
Gerald then began to be more aggressive with his blows, and Karin began to attack more frequently.
Gen then thought, 'Looks like I don't have much time, Dehji, give me a hand here.'
'You want to know why the essence isn't working right?'
'Yeah, do you know why?'
'No, but I have an idea of what it might be, but I'm going to need you to do a test.'
'Ok, what's the plan.'
'Go towards it and try to change its direction somehow.'
'Change its direction?'
'yeah, but you have to make it change direction. It can't change on its own.'
'Ok, I'll try.'
Gen then moved towards the grunar, and when he was right in front of it, he used his left foot to push himself slightly to the right. The grunar, seeing this, changed direction to follow him.
Gen then thought, 'Just what I wanted.', and then used his right foot to propel himself forward, quickly approaching the side of the grunar. Gen then held Light with both hands and struck it horizontally from left to right.
The grunar had just started to turn to the right to meet Gen, but just as it turned, it received a blow from Gen on its shoulder.
Seeing the blow connect, Gen then thought, 'There, everything went as expec-', but stopped in mid-thought as the grunar kept turning towards him as if it hadn't felt the blow.
He then quickly rolled to his left side but was still hit by the grunar's left shoulder, which sent him flying a few feet.
Gen then fell rolling on the ground but got up quickly, and then thought, 'What just happened? Why didn't it feel my blow?'
'Well, it's not that it didn't feel your blow.'
'Do you know what happened Dehji?'
'Yes, it used its essence.'
'Did you manage to find out what the essence is?'
'Yes, that's why I asked you to try to change its direction. There aren't that many essences that can bypass mine, even more so if you consider the essences most likely to be learned by a wild animal.'
'What is his essence then?'
'Unstoppable.'
'Unstoppable? You mean there's no way I can stop it?'
'Yes. If your essence were at a much higher level than its essence, it would be possible to stop it, but unfortunately, that's not the case.'
'What do I do then? I need to finish this quickly so I can help the others.'
'I don't know. Good luck finding out.'
'What do you mean good luck, Dehji? Hey, Dehji!', and then Gen said, "Damn, what do I do now?"