[LOG FILE 044: DARK TORVUS BOG, DARK AETHER]

I entered what appeared to be a circular arena to confront the foe before me. Immediately seeing the Warrior Ing I activated my scan visor, confirming my suspicions. This was a Boost Guardian, which had taken and absorbed the power of my Boost Ball. The scan mentioned that it could only be damaged in its solid form, which meant I would need to plan my attacks carefully.

I opted to fight using my Light Beam's charge attack, given the Ing's general weakness to light. Two fully charged hits seemed to deal decent damage to the Boost Guardian, but then it turned into its own Morph Ball form. I knew it would start using the boost and hid behind one of the four pillars in the small arena, thinking it would simply boost straight towards me.

The Boost Guardian seemed to have other plans, and instead it ricocheted off the rounded wall slamming into me and knocking me back. The impact didn't drain too much energy from my Dark Suit, but it was at that point that I realized a major problem: there were no light zones in the tiny area. This meant that my suit's energy would continue to drain, even if only slowly, over the course of this battle. I had to try and end this quickly.

As if the atmosphere of Dark Aether wasn't enough, Inglets started to appear in the arena as well. It was all I could do to dodge both the Inglets' attacks and the Boost Guardian, but thankfully the Inglets were dropping energy modules upon death. I had a way to stay in the fight after all, but I still couldn't afford to take my time dealing with my primary foe.

Eventually the Boost Guardian stopped zooming around and turned into a lighter color puddle compared to the Ing's normal color. This led me to believe that it was no longer in solid form, but I recalled from the scan that my Morph Ball Bombs might be of use. Trying to stay ahead of the Guardian blob as it approached I dropped bombs behind me. While the bombs didn't deal any damage to the beast, they did eventually cause the enhanced Warrior Ing to revert back to its solid state.

The battle took a bit of time, a few rinse and repeat cycles, and a few close calls; eventually I emerged victorious. The Boost Guardian was finally slain, and in the place where its corpse had fallen was my missing Boost Ball. I wasted no time in collecting my missing equipment, and with nothing left to fight in the arena I headed to the tunnel I had entered from.

Back in the main chamber I used my re-acquired Boost Ball to scale the half-pipe formation, taking the opportunity to grab the Dark Temple key while I was there. I looked at my HUD and noticed my energy reserves were fairly low; must have taken more hits than I realized. Luckily for me the base of the half-pipe had a light zone, so I decided to take a breather while waiting for my energy tanks to slowly refill. Once I was topped off I made my way back in the direction I had originally come from, heading all the way back to the portal generator and returning to Aether…

[END LOG FILE_