The halberd struck home, and Pan Long's faintly furrowed brow relaxed.
He could clearly feel that the thrust had pierced something relatively soft.
"I get it!" he shouted. "The secret to why you don't fear sunlight is that you've wrapped yourself in a shell!"
The Calamities of this world were peculiar. Powerful as they were, they were often subject to all manner of restrictions. The most important was their fear of sunlight.
Apart from a rare few that had mutated beyond recognition, most Calamities feared sunlight intensely. Some merely grew weak beneath it, or loathed it so much that they refused to go out during the day. Others died the moment sunlight touched them, even crumbling to ash.
Take the kinds of Calamities he had seen, for example:
Leaping Corpses were desiccated offshoots of Calamities. They did not fear sunlight, but generally hid in dark places beyond its reach during the day.
Tentacle Monsters were common Calamities transformed from humans. Sunlight weakened them and could even kill them outright.
Vine Monsters were plant Calamities that always buried themselves underground to avoid sunlight, leaving only a few thin vines aboveground. They would never emerge unless they had no other choice.
Tentacle Beasts were Calamities transformed from animals. Like Tentacle Monsters, they had a similar fear of sunlight.
Mining Lizards were a specially developed type of Calamity. They feared sunlight so intensely that it killed them quickly.
The high-speed mutant had been a researcher who injected himself with a serum and turned into a five-legged Calamity that ran like the wind. After he was captured and left in the sun, he crumbled to ash within a dozen or so seconds of sunrise.
The clawed mutant was much the same, though it was quite formidable in combat. Its claws could punch through stone