He didn't know if the fallen saw an opening or was just tired of waiting, but it pounced while he was becoming accustomed to the feeling of being in harmonic trinity. Its speed had already reached a new level, but Shui was able to shift his stance and met its head with the hilt of his blade. While the fallen flew back, Shui returned Sui to his body. Though he wanted to practice his blade arts more, blunt attacks would be more effective against the fallen, so he went with his trusty fists.
The fallen used its tentacles to stop its flight, but Shui caught up to it and slammed it into the ground. He then repeatedly pounded the fallen to ensure that it couldn't get up or even move. It tried to use its tentacles and snake tails against him, but he would simply force them to the ground with mental control and continue punching. Shui held nothing back, so though it didn't have the same range, his punches caused the earth to shake just like when the seal was struggling to contain the fallen. Eventually, his persistent barrage turned the fallen into a pool of flesh, but he still didn't relax, at least not of his own volition.
He was distracted for a moment after noticing the drips of blood falling from his nose, but for the fallen, that gap was all it needed. Like a hammer, it hit his chest and knocked him away. Shui suffered little damage, but he was still upset at himself for giving it time to regenerate. By the time he steadied himself, the fallen had regained its solid form and attacked him from all angles with its tentacles. Instead of evading, Shui smashed through the tentacles with his fists as he took firm steps towards the fallen. Despite how unfair its regenerative ability was, the fallen had low intelligence and would always prioritize regeneration over strengthening so he could keep it from gaining more power by continuously injuring it.
"!"
At first, Shui was making progress as intended, but when he reached three steps away from it, the fallen shrieked and he felt the pulling force on his vitality become more powerful. While in the harmonic trinity state, he was better able to resist the absorption, but that didn't stop the fallen from absorbing vitality from other entities. As the already barren earth started losing its colour, Shui had a bad feeling, so he tried to get through the tentacles faster, but the fallen switched from offense to defense. It made each tentacle sturdy enough to survive two punches and over time, the durability of the tentacles increased.
Desperate to stop the fallen, Shui grabbed its tentacles and tried to light the fallen aflame, but as soon as the tips of its tentacles were lit, the fallen detached them and retreated. Shui took a step forward to go after it, but the fallen sent a punch with one of its horn hands. The punch was heavy enough to push him back a couple of steps and force blood up his throat, but Shui didn't let it discourage him. He created two giant hands made of his heart flame and tried to grab the fallen with them, but it vanished before reappearing right in front of him.
With a headbutt, it flung him into the sky and then opened its mouth. Shui didn't see the black energy gathering in its mouth, but his instincts warned him of impending peril, so he controlled the wind to evade the black beam that the fallen fired from its mouth. Unfortunately, by creating multiple heads, the fallen was able to charge many more black beams and all of them were aimed at him. He manipulated the earth to block the first few beams while he fell to the ground to escape the rest, but just as his feet reached land, a black maw opened in front of his head. By the time he could look up, all he could was the roof of its mouth.
'Move!'
Shui knew he had to escape, but the momentum of his fall made it difficult to suddenly change directions. Still, he kept trying. With his soul, he tried to forcibly move his limbs, with his energy, he tried to cast a spell that would push his body out of the way, and with his strength, he tried to break whatever shackles kept him from moving. And when even that wasn't enough, his subconscious reached for the power he kept sealed next to his heart.
Suddenly, the world slowed as the bindings around his limbs loosened. Shui leapt away from the black maw and burnt it with his heart flame. He noticed the bright yellow aura that cloaked his body, but he ignored it as he went back on the offense. While dodging black beams by the finest margins, Shui dashed towards the fallen with his heart flame coating his hands. The first hit was an uppercut that forced it to aim at the sky. The next few hits were right and left hooks that had its head spinning. He then grabbed one of its horn hands and used it to fling the fallen to the ground before grabbing the other horn hand and ripping them both out of its head.
The fallen spurted black slug-like liquid from where its appendages had been removed, but Shui ignored it as he reached for its head. The fallen reduced its size to escape his grasp, however, it couldn't escape a kick from Shui. While flying away, it rapidly increased its size, yet that became a wasted effort when Shui threw a giant fireball at it.
Faster than ever before, Shui toyed with the fallen without pause, once again putting him in an advantageous position. Shui hoped to keep this up until Alia was ready, but his dominance didn't last long.
As he took a step forward to cut off the fallen's head, his body suddenly stiffened before blood spurted from his limbs. There was no need to check; he could tell that was the result of using speed essence without being able to control it. And to make matters worse, harmonic trinity had also come undone because of his inability to control his body.
He had managed to force his body past its limits thanks to speed essence, but he wouldn't be able to do the same while suffering these side-effects. Furthermore, no matter how much he wounded the fallen, it never stopped absorbing his vitality. Even with no injuries, his limbs had been feeling heavy, so it wasn't strange that he found it nearly impossible to move. He was still standing, but if he relaxed even slightly, he might find his face meeting the ground.
The fallen didn't take long to notice that something was wrong with his state, and it wasn't a merciful predator. It sent its tentacles after him and while Shui could still deflect them with mental control, its relentless attacks were sure to get through eventually. Shui racked his brains for a way he could keep fighting, but thankfully, he wasn't in this fight alone.
[Alright, I'm ready. Can you move?]
[Well, I could use mental control, but I won't be very fast.]
[Okay. You can take a seat and watch the rest of the show from there.]
Shui wasn't sure of what kind of array Alia would reveal, but knowing that she had his back took the tension from his barely stable body. He fell back first, but he didn't want to miss what would happen next, so he created a small hump of earth with a spell and leaned his back on it. The fallen's tentacles spared him no chance to rest, but through his connection with Alia, he knew he didn't have to worry.