GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?



The phantom shrunk all of a sudden and turned into purple spikes on the armored rhino's back. With its size reduced, it got free of the hold of the Cyclops on it and fell to the ground. Then it began to escape.

The change thrilled Soverick. He took a while to balance the Cyclops before he began to reach for the escaping rhino. The rhino took advantage of its newfound freedom and decided to run away with its back turned to him. One of his arms has been destroyed by the phantom so he can only use the other arm that was previously holding the monster down to try and grab the rhino. That arm hadn't gone far when the spikes on the monster detached explosively from its back. The purple spikes shot at the Cyclops while the monster continued its escape.

It happened so fast. About 20 spikes suddenly shot at him. He was lowered to the ground to grab the armored rhino so the head of the Cyclops is in the path of the spikes. Soverick's one active eye saw everything happen and analyzed the possible scenarios based on the trajectory of the spikes. He realized that things are certainly bad for him. Those spikes are terribly dangerous and he has 20 of them to contend with. There's no way for him to get out of this situation completely unharmed.

There's a way to minimize his loss but he will gain nothing from it. There's another way to maximize his profits but he will lose everything. None of these options is the best course of action for him. There's a third option that can balance risk and reward but is very difficult to succeed in and it has a terrible consequence of failing.

He decided to go with the best course of action even though he might lose his life. He used the right hand of the cyclops that is trying to grab the rhino to continue its quest while he raised the skeletal left hand that he was using to stand and swung it around his face to block as many spikes as possible.

The good news is that he managed to grab and crush the armored rhino with his right hand. The bad news is that he couldn't block all the spikes. His skeletal arm is too thin and lacks enough surface area to block everything. The spikes are also unblockable. They are like the sharp edges of blades and they cut through everything they come into contact with. 

The purple spikes penetrated the skeletal arm and even the head of the Cyclops. The ones that passed through his skeletal arm didn't damage the skull too much. They lost momentum to be of any threat to him. The dangerous ones are the few that bypassed his skeletal arm and struck the skull directly. Two of them managed to penetrate the single eye of the Cyclops and hit him. That's how the fight ended.

The Cyclops began to dissemble after that it. It was an involuntary dissembling. Soverick had to let go of his control of the world power because of his injury so it is leaving the Cyclops and returning to the world. The Cyclops slammed face down to the ground as it broke apart. He was finally revealed on the ground after the Cyclops' total disintegration. 

He is not looking good. He is missing more than half of his body. His left chest and left arm are gone with a large chunk of his lower torso. Both of his legs are gone. There's no blood or bleeding. Normal soul bodies don't bleed. He might not be bleeding but he is in immense pain.

Still, he managed to chuckle and make light of the situation. "At least, it went according to my expectations."

He expected this outcome when he made the decision to pursue the best course of action. The option to minimize his losses would have left him mildly injured. He would have had to back off from the armored rhino and focus on stopping the spikes to achieve that. Both of his hands will try to block as many spikes as possible which is basically sacrificing the arm to protect his head but even then, he wouldn't be able to block all of them. 

One spike would've hit him even by his best estimate. He wouldn't be so damaged but he would still be injured and worst of all, that armored rhino will still be alive. The injury caused by the purple spikes would have made him lose some control of the Cyclops. That means the fight will continue with him being terribly injured and weakened while his opponent is still kicking. He decided not to do that.

The second option to maximize his profit is to focus on the armored rhino and make sure to kill it while disregarding the threat of the spikes. It is obviously a bad idea to disregard the spikes since he would have surely died after being bombarded by them but it is a viable plan that will ensure success in killing his enemy. The fight would have ended though and he would have earned his reward too if he managed to kill the rhino. He would get hit by the spikes either way so the second option will give him something to show for it.

A normal person would have had to choose between those two options, being alive or victory over the enemy. He is not a normal person though. His eyes make what is very difficult and improbable for normal people highly achievable for him.

The best outcome of coming out alive, ending the fight, and getting the reward for the fight is eating your cake and having it. It would have been next to impossible to track the position of the spikes, navigate their paths and interfere with these paths with just one thin skeletal arm all the while continuing to move forward to grab the armored rhino with the other arm.