Sh!t.
Troy pointed at the Lindworm.
"Graviole: times ten!"
But instead of falling like he expected, the monster shrugged off the change in gravity.
Troy's finger was bent backwards in the process.
Huh?
This was the first time something like this had happened. So there were beings capable of being unaffected by his gravity powers?
He snapped out of it as he heard Louisa scream.
Now, there was a full blown earthquake going on. The ground was shaking uncontrollably, and the earth cracked up.
Louisa was stomping the ground like crazy, and her face was red, on the verge of tears.
Troy mended the broken atoms in his finger, and healed it in the process. He then spaces the atoms so wide that he felt lightheaded for a moment. Then he dashed towards Louisa, the wind in his back. He got in front of her and hardened his bodily atoms so hard that blood didn't flow in his body. He formed an X shape block with his arms.
Barely the blink of an eye later, the Lindworm collided with him. But with his now hardened body, balanced center of gravity, and his gravity abilities manipulating the gravitational force around him, he didn't budge.
– Let's see you shrug this.–
Troy gave the creature an uppercut, while activating his ability.
"Graviole: reverse!"
The Lindworm floated to the sky like a piece of tissue haunting a space station.
When it was a dot in the sky, Troy called it back. He would have preferred for it to keep going, but his ability only applied to targets he could see. Once it floated out of his line of sight, it would fall. Now, a creature like that might or might not survive a fall like that. He wasn't willing to take any chances. With supreme strain, he roared:
"Gaviole: times hundred!!"
The Lindworm fell to the earth with the grace and speed of a comet.
It landed with a sickening splat, and became a pile of blood and bones, and scales too.
"Thank you so much, Troy. I would have been dead without you!" Louisa cried. To her, right now, Troy was a knight in shining armor. He had saved her life, and she owed him.
"Hm?" Troy looked at her. He recognized that look in her eyes. It was the look of someone who was smitten. Someone who was developing a crush. But Troy didn't feel good about it at all. She wouldn't treat him with such respect and hold him in such high regard if he wasn't stronger than her. "Don't worry about it. It's my duty to protect the weak." Troy said, grinning.
A vein threatened to burst open on her forehead.
"Who're you calling weak?"
"I didn't—"
"Troy, underground!!" Threya yelled I'm his head.
Without thinking, he grabbed Louisa by the waistband of her trousers.
"Que?!"
"Graviole: inverse!!"
They flew out of harm's way, just in the nick of time. A millisecond later, and they would have been in the jaws of death, literally. A second Lindworm emerged from the ground with the speed of a freight train.
This second Lindworm was a bit bigger and longer than the first one, and its sales were green, not brown like the one they fought.
When she saw the creature, she held on tightly to Troy, pressing her boobs to his face.
Troy was smiling the whole time.
"Maybe you should always be in danger, Miss Louisa, I quite enjoy this." Troy said with his best impression of a Brit.
Louisa was outraged. Almost. How could Troy joke around at a time like this?
Troy landed a few yards away from the Lindworm, who was still partially underground.
Troy stared, the creature stared back.
"Stay behind me, Louisa." Troy said gravely.
His change in attitude surprised her. He moved from pervert to soldier in less than two seconds.
She nodded meekly as she let go of him.
"Why isn't it attacking?" Louisa asked.
Troy didn't know, but he had a theory. The lindworms were protecting something. His spatial awareness skill was still in use, so he could sense a third lindworm moving inside the cave, rounding up some smaller life forms which Troy guessed were eggs. So, in this case, they were the bad guys because they had trespassed on a monster's territory, and had assaulted them. This lindworm didn't want to attack unless he had to. Even after the death of his comrade, the lindworm still behaved honorably. He had earned Troy's respect. But Virus was probably recording everything that was happening right now. He couldn't afford to slip up. Not now, not ever.
"When I give you the signal, make an earthquake. The bigger the better. But limit it only to this clearing."
Louisa nodded.
The ground was already a mess. Fissures were everywhere, and it was as if the ground was turned upside down and inside out
He made his body as light as a feather, and charged towards the lindworm. Troy could've sworn that the creature shook its head in disappointment.
When Troy was close, he hardened his body. Then he punched the lindworm. Sadly, Troy's arm could barely reach the beast's chest. And even more sadly, the lindworm pulled out its tail and used it to block Troy's blow.
Then it swung it to Troy, aiming to decapitate him.
Troy instantly changed his center of gravity. He lay so close to the ground that someone would think he was sleeping. The bladed tail of the lindworm whooshed past his face. He dodged that attack by a hair's breadth!
He jumped to his feet instantly, and hardened his body. His eyes became bloodshot as his atoms were packed so hard that it stopped the blood flow in his body. His brain was also deprived of oxygen. This was a skill he had developed right after he discovered his atom manipulation ability. With this combo, he could temporarily boost his strength to rival even Fury. But the key word is temporary. He had thirty seconds at most before he passed out.
He dashed towards the lindworm. The lindworm raised its tail to block again. That was a fatal mistake. It thought it had estimated Troy's strength, but now Troy was as strong as the strongest Hero in the world, even if it's just for thirty seconds.
The lindworm's tail fractured on impact. Before the monster could even register its surprise, Troy was above it, aiming to punch its head.
If that punch connected, the lindworm's brain would be turned to a pulp, and it knew it. It burrowed into the ground. Just as Troy had planned.
Although his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was frozen in a tight smile due to the lack of blood flow, Troy was still capable of rational thinking.
"Louisa!"
Louisa stomped the ground. The earth rumbled.
Earthquakes weren't just what people saw on the surface. What happened beneath the earth was even more terrifying.
In the space of a few moments, the lindworm had been tossed, crushed and broken down. It was as if the ground was chewing it.
The lindworm jumped out of the ground, looking harassed and wretched.
Troy was waiting for it.
As it bursted out of the ground, Troy's hardened arm pierced through its scales and stabbed its heart. Blood sprouted out of its mouth. It died without making another sound.
Troy returned his body to its normal state. His face was already blue from the lack of oxygen. But he had made progress. Now his limit was thirty two seconds. It might not seem like much, but it could decide life and death.
"Troy! Are you alright?" Louisa asked.
Troy exhaled. He was not alright. His body felt like stone. His nerves hadn't returned yet, so he was in a corpse-like state.
"I'm fine, and you?"
She nodded.
"You look pretty when you're in danger."
Louisa became beet red. Before she could reply:
"Troy! Louisa!! Something is coming through the cave entrance!" Threya screamed in their heads.
The lindworm that emerged was as tall as both of the lindworms they had fought. It also had something like a crown made of scales on its head. Its scales were emerald green, and shiny.
The lindworm looked at the corpses of its mates and had sorrow in its eyes.
"Humans. Why?"