Chapter 9: The Initial Force

Luna had already made it clear that she had something to give to Erian, but before that, she soaked his bloodstained clothes in a special solution just to make sure the blood didn't leave any stains.

Now the two were inside; Erian was in a black outfit.

"Hmmm."

Luna took a step back as she carefully observed him.

"I think I should start getting you more black clothes." She uttered.

"Huh?"

"I think black suits you more, and besides, it's not as troublesome as white."

Her statement made quite some sense, black outfits seemed to have more rapport with the young Erian's appearance.

"I'm okay with anything." Erian shrugged.

A smile now on her face, Luna walked up to him and parted him on the head.

"Mom," Erian called, raising his gaze to look at her.

"Yes." She responded.

"You said you had something to give me."

"Of course." She nodded. "But it's something I'll have to go fetch somewhere, go outside and wait a moment."

Responding with a nod, Erian made his way outside pondering what his mother was going to give him with an excited smile on his face.

He kept pacing back and forth in front of the house, kicking the little pebbles on the ground.

A few minutes later, she heard the door move and reacting quickly; his gaze shifted to the door.

Luna walked out of the house the next second, holding a long metal pole that had some sort of pendulum dangling on the horizontal extension on the upper part of the pole.

Looking at what she was holding, Erian looked disappointed and a bit confused.

"Is that supposed to be my gift?"

"Silly boy." Luna chuckled as she walked further away from him with the pole. "I said I was going to go fetch it somewhere else which means it's not here at the moment."

Now a good distance away from him, she stabbed the pole into the ground with one effortless downward thrust.

"However, whether you actually receive the gift will depend on your performance."

"Huh?" Erian responded looking even more confused now.

"Let me see all your needles." She demanded as she made her way to him. "The bigger ones." She added just after stopping in front of him.

"Umm…okay."

Opening a portal, Erian pulled out a leather casing which houses ten thick needles about seven to eight inches tall.

Those weren't the kind of needles he would use in any normal circumstance, they were meant to kill.

Not many people would be able to survive a stab to the heart with one of those needles especially considering the fact that they were poisoned.

It was thanks to two of those that he was able to blind the intermediate binding serpent and take it down.

Grabbing one of the needles, Luna carefully inspected it, feeling every part of it.

"Yes, this should do." She nodded.

'The force won't be able to destroy them.'

"Are we doing anything with the needles?"

Luna hasn't explained anything so far, so he looked as confused as ever.

"I'm going to get your gift now, but whether or not you get it will depend on your performance." She said,

Returning the needle she was holding to its leather case; she returned it to Erian.

"My performance?"

"Yes." She nodded before picking up a stick to draw a line in front of him.

"My performance in what?" Erian inquired.

Her lips stretching into a smile, Luna turned to the pendulum which was still swaying sideways.

"Destroying that." She disclosed, pointing at the pendulum.

"Huh? The pole?"

"No, the tiny thing swaying on it." She corrected. "I don't care how you do it, the only rule here is that your legs cross that line."

"I have to destroy it from here?" Erian retorted a halfhearted expression on his face now.

"Yes, and you have to do it before I return with your gift, otherwise…."

Erian didn't say anything and just watched as his mother walked away until she was out of sight.

Letting out a sigh, he turned to the needles which he was still holding.

"Did she ask for the needles so that I could use them?" He muttered before pulling out one of the needles.

'Maybe with enough force, I should be able to destroy it from here.'

Pulling his left book along with his body, he launched the needle forward, aiming straight for the needle.

His accuracy was spot on, but just as the needle got about thirty centimetres close to the pendulum, it was stopped by some sort of mysterious force, pushing it back.

The needle stabbed into the ground just about a meter away from the pole.

Looking at the result of his first attempt, Erian couldn't help but sigh.

'Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy.'

"So, there's some kind of force protecting the ball."

He sent a second needle flying toward the pendulum, and as expected, it was met with the same result as the first one.

"So, no matter how hard I try I might not be able to destroy it from here." He muttered as he crossed his hands.

'Mom said the only rule was that my legs are not supposed to cross this line.'

His mind struck a bell at that moment as he quickly stretched both of his hands with his palms open.

"My legs can't cross the line but she didn't say anything about my hands crossing it." He smiled mischievously.

That smile didn't last for long, though, as his attempt to open portals in front of the pole was met with no result.

To put it simply, it was out of the range of his spatial ability.

Letting out a deep sigh, Erian slowly lowered both of his hands.

"Looks like she planned for everything."

'Absolute view.'

With absolute view, he could see that the pole was placed just over six meters away from him; the range of his spatial ability was just five meters.

He was clearly disappointed that he couldn't get close enough to the target with his ability but he had no intention of giving up just yet.

'There's no way mom would give me something I couldn't handle, so there has to be a way here.'

Absolute view still active, he turned to the pendulum.

Other than being able to see and feel anything around him from every direction, absolute view provided one more benefit to him.

That was the ability to see every form of energy and mana flow around him. It was through this that he was able to see what was protecting the pendulum.

The pendulum wasn't being protected by just one layer of force field.

There were five layers, and the first layer seemed to have a noticeable crack on it.

"Hmmm."

Receiving enlightenment, Erian pulled out another needle and sent it flying toward the target.

This time with absolute view, he watched as the needle hit the first layer of the force field, exactly on the crack.

The force from the needle was enough to shatter the force field, but it wasn't able to continue further as it was pushed back by the second layer of the force field before it could make contact with it.

'Looks like the initial hit from my throws carries enough force to affect the force field but grows weak after that.'

With that thought in mind, he picked up another needle.

"The initial force." He muttered as he spun the needle. "The initial force has."

He feigned throwing the needle building up the same strength as he would if he was actually going to throw it, and that was when he saw it.

This was something he never noticed, but during each throw, a bit of his mana would seep into the needle.

"I see."

His eyes lit up in realization, and a bright smile on his face.

The needle had a faint blue aura around it now as he seemed to have infused it with as much mana as it could hold.

Without hesitation, he sent the needle flying toward the target.

With significantly increased force from his mana, the needle was able to destroy the second, third, and fourth and was only able to crack the fifth before getting knocked back.

Still holding onto the momentum, Erian sent out the next needle immediately.

Effortlessly breaking through the fifth barrier, the needle pierced deep into the pendulum.

Cracks formed in no time and the next second, the thing shattered into numerous pieces.