Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Uhtred desperately cycled his own cosmic essence, forcing his Formless Core to imitate the exact cosmic essence disturbances he was feeling in that moment.

With his perception pushed to the absolute limit, he could feel the precise way the Neanderthal was filtering out and pulling those specific earth aspects from the abundant, unattuned cosmic essence floating around them to materialize the great spell he was weaving. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Before the Neanderthal’s widening eyes, Uhtred began to replicate the effect. It was a very, very rudimentary attempt, but it was a true and genuine replication regardless.

A crude wall of earth was morphing into being at Uhtred’s front, solidifying much slower and into a less dense material.

Uhtred’s eyes trembled in concentration. Noticing his slow speed, he made his own subtle changes to the spell immediately.

Unlike the Neanderthal warrior, he focused entirely on defense. His spell control was weaker anyway, and it was much harder to manifest hundreds of hovering, intricately shaped spikes than simply condensing his earth magic into a thick, solid barrier.

While Uhtred was focused on his imminent task of not getting skewered alive, he didn’t know just how much what he was doing had shaken the Neanderthal warrior.

The sheer absurdity of a modern human copying his ancestral magic on the first try caused his focus to violently hitch. The spell in his hands wavered, nearly shattering into a backfiring cloud of dust, but the ancient warrior gritted his teeth and persevered.

With a final, roaring surge of energy, his spell solidified. Hundreds of stone spikes now hovered in the air, spread out around him like a dense, oppressive cloud.

The mere sight of the many hovering spikes sent cold shivers down the spines of the pioneers watching from the safe zone. Looking at the sheer volume of the projectiles, there was simply no way Uhtred could defend against it all.

At this point, the Neanderthal was visibly shaking. His muscles trembled under the extreme exertion and focus required to hold the hundreds of earth quartz earth spikes in the air continuously.

A trace of blood spurted out of the corner of his eyes as his veins popped across his muscled neck and flat forehead from the strain.

This was clearly not a spell his current level was built for. Rather, it seemed like a high-tier secret technique he had resorted to at a severe cost.

And yet, the spell was still incomplete.

The Neanderthal warrior let out a strained grunt as he urged what remained of his cosmic essence, trying to give the hovering projectiles the last effect required to reach the full might of the spell...

However, the entire floating mass of sharpened projectiles began to tremble and shake, threatening to scatter into useless pebbles if he dared continue.

With a pained grunt filled with unwillingness and concession, the Neanderthal had no choice but to release the spell early.

The attack shot forward with blistering speed, tearing through the air straight toward Uhtred.

Uhtred roared, urging his cosmic essence from his core. He poured every single drop into the earth magic construct he was replicating, desperately trying to compact the earth particles as much as possible in that final microsecond.

In a jarring instant, a deafening sound like repeated thunder resounded as the first of the spikes slammed into his makeshift earth shield, followed quickly by the others like a barrage of continuous cannon fire.

It was as if Uhtred was being pounded by a rain of heavy fire power. One that pelted not only his earth shield, but also his immediate surroundings ruthlessly.

Craters formed around him, and within seconds the entire area looked like a war zone.

And yet the rain of attacks kept on coming.

Against all odds, Uhtred’s defensive wall actually held firm for the first volley. But as the hundreds of relentless stone spikes continued to hammer the wall, it reached its absolute limit.

Cracks began to form across its surface, and Uhtred forced more energy into the collapsing wall, gritting his teeth so hard they nearly cracked...

But it still wasn’t enough.

Perhaps if he had been given more time to construct the spell properly, or perhaps if he possessed a true, deep understanding of what the earth spell entailed rather than just a hasty imitation based on raw feeling, the shield would have lasted.

But in this moment, the fatal deficiencies of his copied magic were laid bare.

He successfully tanked more than a half of the brutal barrage, but eventually, his shield was the first to shatter. It burst outward into a useless cloud of dust despite the amount of cosmic essence he kept forcing into it.

The remaining half of the stone bullet barrage tore through the dust cloud, shooting directly at his body and hitting vital areas.

The custom black attire he had purchased from the multiversal store tried to absorb the kinetic force, serving as the next shield.

It held up well against the barrage, allowing Uhtred to focus on protecting his head with his raised, attire-covered arms and the flat side of his star-metal battle-axe.

In that moment, he had never been so grateful for making such splurging purchases in his life.

Without the toughness of the star metal that his battle-axe was made of and the unique material his black attire was also made from, he would have become riddled with holes like a sponge.

But while he was thankful that he could protect his head, his bare hands and the areas of his body that were open to the attacks were not as lucky.

Not only that, his entire body was still being rocked with the kinetic force of the projectiles themself, even though they couldn’t pierce through the fabric.

The blunt force had clearly shattered so many bones, but Uhtred could only grit his teeth and weather it out, not even letting out the slightest grunt.

As the barrage pelted his body, his mind was working at maximum speed. His senses were spread out, trying to latch onto the blisteringly fast projectiles with the trace of earth magic he had learned to sense in the heat of the fight.

If he continued to let the stone bullets pelt him, it was only a matter of time before even the fabric he had spent so much money on would not be able to hold up any longer.

I need to do something now!