Overcoming flaws (solo)

The rocky room was just like he remembered it. The stone targets set up everywhere. Remembered how he had struggled to understanding how his crystal worked in this dark cavern. How long had it been since then? Long enough, but his skills had become better. In an instant his mind flashed to his fights he had encountered since leaving. At best he could say he had survived the confrontations, but in truth he hadn't won any of them. A draw meant he couldn't win, but hadn't lost. It wasn't as satisfying as standing over his opponent's corpse. He was lacking something. There was always room for improvement, the trick was finding it. Thinking wasn't his strong point, but he had to try to see beyond his current skills.
"Can I make myself stronger?" Stratus asked himself in the semi-darkened lair. "More power?"
He moved closer to one of the stone targets and punched. His fist shattered the rock with ease. "More speed?" the gray hollow hunched he body over and explosively dashed over to a new target and slashed it with his claws. Before it could fall to the ground, he started to move to the next one. From target to target he moved slashing and punching. When he stopped most of the stones were shattered on the floor if not broken. Stratus was breathing heavily as he looked at his work. His hits were all over the place. Some were broken at the waist, others the head, a few broken in the chest. Moving quickly gave him less time to aim, but at least his power didn't suffer too much.
"Not just speed, I need to be mobile." He hopped on top of one target balancing himself on the small space. To the next target he leapt and then from there to the next. For several moments he leapfrogged from stone to stone without touching the ground. "Still not enough." the gray hollow sighed and dropped to the ground to rest. What was he missing?

"Problems boy?" Moldale voice came from the tunnel before he was visible. "Been going at it for awhile now."
Stratus rolled his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for the short hollow's 'wisdom'. Rather than give him help, he would only give him advice to act on. If he asked questions he would only get more questions from other creature. "Nah, I'm just going over some things." The short hollow shrugged his shoulders and exited the room. "I'm weak, I just need to get stronger." he muttered.

He looked again at the damaged targets. Against his might, they might as well been made out of tissue paper. Yet he wasn't satisfied with just that. More, he wanted more power. Physically he was strong enough, maybe there was a flaw in his ability. Stratus stretched out his hand and fired a blast of slime. The target was covered in the green substance. He walked over and tested and touched it gently. With the light contact he was now attached to the ooze. As he pulled his hand away it stretched and then retracted. Strong enough to shatter stone, but not to pull his hand back physically. There was nothing lacking in the slime's strength. With focus the slime fell away from his hand. The ability to reject the ooze was still effective. Stratus reached out again and touched the slime, this time he funneled his energies into it. On contact the ooze became hard and crystallized. The semi-smooth sludge was now rough and jagged in places. In a swift motion he pulled back his fist and punched the newly formed crystal. Pain shot through his hand and as it hit the gemstone full force. Examining his fist there were small cuts all over his fist from the blow. Already the cuts were starting to heal.
"Nothing wrong with that either." he muttered. He sat back down to think again.

Once more he sat upon a rock contemplating what he needed to do get stronger. As he sat he let a single strand of slime drip from his finger. He watched the string sway as he pondered the situation. With half a though he made the slime crystal and let it hit the ground. Stratus sighed. He was coming up blank. He created another string and let it dangle from his hand. As the new strand crystallized something clicked. He let the new crystal drop and made another string and just looked at it. That was what he was looking for. It was so obvious now. From slime to crystal had a delay. Having to shape the slime into effective shapes and he needed to be in contact with it to make crystal. Release slime, mold it, then add energy. That was the usual order. There wasn't a way to control his ooze, it was like water, it just poured out. But what about making crystal? He could turn part of slime into crystal. He recalled the fight with the shinigami. The happiness of his epiphany soon faded. Stratus sat back down and repeated the cycle of making crystal string.

Hours later

The newest crystal in the pile that was forming at his feet fell to the ground. He was no closer to figuring out what to do. Without thinking he kept his energy going and tried to release his slime. Crystal emerged from his finger. It wasn't long and skinny. The made crystal conformed to the shape the claw of his finger. It looked as if he had short green nail. Stratus looked at the new growth with surprise.
"How the hell?" was all he could think to say. He tried it again with the same result. By exerting his energy first all his slime came out as crystal. The only down side was that he couldn't fire the crystal like he did the slime. While he couldn't shape it completely, was easier for him to create claws and armor on his body.