"Instead of watching and fanboying over there, sniff out where Crowe is," he tells Benedict.
"That son of a bitch is here somewhere. He has to be."
"We know, and we are," Benedict answers.
"Focus on the monster and we'll let you know as soon as we see something."
FWOOM
Sebastian recharges his blade. His eyebrows furl slightly.
"Shit," he whispers. "Already?"
He notices that his reserves are now already at just around 60%. Already way down from before the fight started which he estimates was still around 80%. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing as 60% is still a lot, but he was slightly annoyed at how much he has used already.
"I'm never doing that shit again," he thought, referring to the thick mass of void barrier that he used to block the monster's beam.
The move used up more than he would liked for virtually nothing as like Benedict said, he could have just teleported away to avoid the attack.
This made him realize just how large the monster's reserve is. Monsters naturally have a large reserve of ancient and presumably, void energy. Much larger than humans. Probably about five times more. But even so, this monster isn't necessarily a "monster" per se. It is one by definition and appearance, but it is presumably, still made from scratch by Crowe.
Either the scientist was able to perfectly engineer a monster down to every single detail of a regular monster's anatomy which would explain its insane capability, or it is embedded with a fragment much larger than what humans are commonly imbued with.
A Transcended's "reserve" is mainly affected by the embedded fragment. Technically speaking, the fragment is THE reserve itself. Their essence tank is really just the embedded fragment which supplies their system with the essence that enables the use of their abilities.
Whenever a Transcended uses their abilities, only then the fragment is being extracted of the essence. And although it would generally take a long amount of time; years or even several decades, the fragment will eventually be completely extracted and would be gone. Only then will the Transcended use up all of their "reserve".
The reserve that Sebastian is always mindful of works very differently, although the same actual logic for reserves still apply for him as he has an embedded fragment as well.
This "reserve" that he is always referring to is an external reserve which he gets from absorbing additional void essence from the Void itself, completely separate from the essence that is organically being pumped in his system.
Another explanation is that this is the separate reserve for the essence that he receives from dosing, which he unknowingly performs every time he goes into the Void.
Dosing is when one is directly imbued with essence and not the essence that is occasionally extracted from a fragment. This is the same process that was consistently performed on Wendy the Deer.
An extremely dangerous process for two reasons: The first one being if someone already has a fragment and has essence flowing in their system, there is a high risk of lethal overdose. The second is that one would constantly have essence flowing in their system. Essence itself is already harmful to most living creatures. Only a handful, like the Transcended, have a high tolerance for it and add the fact that it is only occasionally being pumped into their system, the essence poses very little, if no harm at all. But dosing would mean that one would have a harmful element like the essence perpetually flowing in their system and even though there are cases where some would survive it, it is even rarer than the Transcended.
Sebastian doesn't know it, but he is capable of dosing to the most extreme degree without suffering any repercussions. This is because even when he isn't attempting to actively absorb essence from the void, he is still absorbing little amounts of it when he enters the black realm of nothingness and over the years, have built up a near full immunity to the harmful effect it should have on his system.
This is the reason why Crowe showed deep interest in him upon witnessing his control over the void. Even without using the void energy, he is already extremely dangerous. More monster than most of the monsters that roam the earth. But if he were able to utilize his full potential in harnessing his power, he would be the ultimate weapon.
Seeing the monster expend void energy like it's nothing, it must have a large fragment embedded in it.
"I'll cut you wide open and we'll see," he thought.
He rushes the monster, now fiercer than before. The monster is still able to deflect all of his slashes but with his attacks faster and more ferocious than before, it was keeping up but barely.
Sebastian knew this, and it was exactly what he wanted. Teleport attacks aren't as effective now as it was before. If anything, it was only serving as a counterproductive tactic as although it's quick and only a gives second of delay, it was still a delay and for a monster as capable as this, even that short of a window was enough slip in a counter like it has done a few times already with a counter beam.
He overwhelmed it with such attacks their previous encounter and knowing Crowe's intellect and meticulousness, he probably took this into account. Not only giving the monster an effective defense mechanism but also an option for counter-attacking.
A slug fight like the one he is currently forcing the monster into would be the better option. And evidently so as it couldn't even slip in a beam. Its complete attention is set on deflecting the barrage of slashes.
"Holy shit," utters one of the Ice Sheet personnel.
Everyone was in utter disbelief at the sight they were witnessing. An agent of the organization that they are working for; a human, the same as them, is overwhelming the monster that they released all their forces on just to exterminate. And even then, they were still frightened and anxious to take it on, seeing how it effortlessly demolished the line of defense starting from the 80-meter perimeter mark.
"W-what is that guy…"
"I knew that the Circle had freaks like this, but this is just unbelievable."
They admired not only his skill, but his bravery and determination to take on such a monster. Anyone can be an excellent soldier and combatant, but not everyone has the guts to go out on the battlefield. On the front line.
Their initial skepticism has now faded away completely. What replaced it is faith. Trust in this lone agent.
Sebastian's hail of slashes were not ceasing. If anything, they got faster and faster. He engulfs his blade with stronger flames, strong enough to cut the monster's right blade. This caught the monster off-guard, only for a split second. He notices this brief shock and decides to capitalize on it.
SHHOOM
He warps behind it again, but only to bait out the beam. The cavity beam appears again.
"Gotcha."
SHHOOM
He appears in front of it, trying to bait out the beam again.
"You can shift your aim freely, but can you shoot two at the same time?"
He waits for the cavity to finish lighting up.
SHHOOM
He's behind it again, winding up a massive void slash and unleashing it at the same time the monster released the beam.
It was unable to either shift the cavity in the middle of release or create another cavity while one is actively shooting out a beam.
Its counterattack is out of the picture. Only its automated barrier stands in the way but he was confident that he could shatter it.
The void-powered slash with his left swords collides with the barrier, but the barrier was too small and was overpowered by the slash, shattering it and landing some of the shockwave.
That slash happened to be just the first of many. Perpetually overloading his blade with void energy, he unleashes a frenzy on the monster. Every swing shatters the barrier and every subsequent barrier was weaker than the previous. The monster's automatic defense system is completely overwhelmed in less than two seconds, to the point where it could no longer sustain it leaving no other option but to jump away.
SHHOOM
He effortlessly follows the monster fleeing to safety, warping right in front of it. Still mid-jump, the monster removes the void energy on its hands. Its face hole start emanating mist, but not the same as when it's about to shoot a beam. Its cavity glows when it's charging up a beam. But this time, it's just emanating black mist. He also notices some black, vein-like patterns appearing all over its body.
Sebastian immediately thought that the monster's sudden behavior is weird. But even so, he still proceeded winding up a void-empowered cross slash.
In the air and mid-jump, the monster suddenly plants its feet on the ice, seemingly halting its escape maneuver.
This was an unexpected move. He clearly has the advantage and yet, the monster, just right in front of him and just a second away from being slashed, stops. He was stunned for a brief second, completely befuddled at what the monster is thinking.
The one second of shock has passed and he was about to unleash his attack when the monster disappears from sight, leaving behind just a cracked piece of ice where it stood just a second ago.
The monster appears behind him, baring its sharp claws right at his nape. He couldn't see it, it was too quick and he simply didn't have the time to turn around. But he felt it, the immense bloodlust the creature was giving off.
Its claw is only two inches away from the back of his neck. So close he could already feel it.
Even without his teleportation ability, Sebastian possesses incredible speed and instinct. He was number one in the Circle on this aspect, Cade not far behind, followed by Ghost.
The lapse might be due to the sudden and brief shock caused to him by the monster's behavior, but still a lapse, nonetheless. He couldn't keep up with the monster's burst of speed and is only a split second away from losing his head.
This was the first in many years that he felt outclassed at something. It was just for a fleeting instant, but the monster was faster than him in all aspects; physical, reaction, and instinct.
SHHOOM
He may not have been able to keep up with its surprise speed burst, but his reaction speed was still fast enough to escape harm's way.
The monster impales nothing but the chilly, South Pole air.
Standing a few meters away from the monster's side is Sebastian, staring at the creature that caught him by surprise, smiling.
"You're just full of surprises, aren't ya?"