Chapter 601: Becoming a Rank S’s Prey. |
‘Activating [Fire Ice Fusion Core] for extra vitality. I’ve got our mana surrounding our neck, activating our barrier, but… arghk! I-it’s breaking, Hestia! We lost all feeling below our head. We can only move our mana, but our muscles aren’t responding!’
The woman’s scales were shredding into my skin like a chainsaw’s teeth, all while her slim hands crushed my neck like a dainty twig. That crack I heard was no illusion, as even the System told me my neck was completely broken. Her fingers pierced into my throat, taking blood just as much as my own neck bones were digging into my flesh with their shattered shrapnels.
As Hikari said, I had lost all control below my head. I could still feel, but my limbs wouldn’t listen to me as all of them lifelessly slumped down. As I gurgled on the remaining air I had left, I could feel my solar core and mana surging to protect me, either by healing my wounds or keeping my brain from going into shock from all the sudden damage. [Absolute Pain Tolerance] and [Tranquil Mind] were, once again, a godsend as they prevented me from going unconscious.
Yet, if I didn’t do something soon, it would be all for naught. I could regrow my limbs, but there was a limit to how much I could heal myself, even with [Miraculous Grace]. I didn’t need to have experienced that if I were to lose my head, it would be a death sentence, even if my health somehow managed to stay above zero.
Asphyxiation was still a threat to me. People might joke that I was similar to a plant, but my solar core couldn’t actually produce oxygen for me. I could hold my breath for a while, but I would eventually run out of air for my brain to survive. Not to mention, if I were to end up as a head, all the mana from below my body would disappear, not to mention my solar core’s function.
So, the solution to this conundrum?
Transform back into a dragon, now, Hikari!
“Oh, for a whelpling, you are surprisingly durable. Your head should have popped off your body already. I guess I should have given Melloxtressa’s spawn some respec—” However, before my aggressor could finish her sentence, her left arm jerked up to defend herself from an incoming punch that flashed into existence next to us—it was Nong! “Fast. But enough bloodlust to lure even sharks on land. Hunt from below in calmness like dead water.”
The wind around Nong was raging like a raging tornado, slicing everything around him, even me. His green and black hair was set ablaze by green flames, flaring like neon lights as his handsome face was distorted into the face of a wrathful demon. His [Battle Frenzy] released that bloodlust he showed during the Elemental Emperor battle, and like a breeze bringing a dying ember back to life, his emotions caused even the wind around him to turn into a scorching inferno wall.
“SCAMP!” Nong yelled as the scale wall grew in size and number, quashing his flames and pushing him to the side as they mummified him. The green-yellow scales of the leviathan woman would break as he struggled, but more would simply take their place, rendering my brother too occupied to help me any longer.
[Foresight], are you serious? I screamed in my head after activating [Foresight], seeing only one possible future outcome if I were to activate [Humanize] now—the hag would crush my neck immediately before I could transform. She was still playing with me like a killer whale tossing a seal into the air like a play toy. Gotta make an opening. Spells take too long. Just fucking choke on some corrosive gases, bitch!
I pleaded with all my heart as flames burst from my body with [Dreadflare Aura], but similar to Nong’s flames, they were all blocked by the hag’s scales. Sure, unlike his, mine couldn’t be so easily killed and would keep on burning, but unlike his, mine were probably weaker since he was a damn rank higher.
“Futile. A young scale should—Oh!” Once again, thankfully, her attention was drawn away from me as she snapped up, watching an icicle the size of a dagger pierce her scale wall. Although it didn’t actually penetrate them, it stuck to the scales as ice started to form. “True ice? I can’t smell Melloxtressa thou—”
And just like Nong, Vifi flashed into existence with a lightning gauntlet covering her right hand. She punched at the icicle, crushing it before hitting the scale wall with, probably [Voltaic Red: Bunker Breacher]. The frozen-over scales instantly broke, creating a small hole in the leviathan’s defences, but the red lightning wasn’t enough to actually destroy everything Shay’s icicle froze.
“You can hide it well, but you do not have the strength, humanoid. Know your—”
“Really?” Vifi smirked as she stepped to the side as an ice beam was shot through the hole she created, almost grazing the leviathan as she stepped back to avoid the projectile. Her grip finally loosened for me to breathe!
Hikari, take my place. Humanize!
Hardening the [Dreadflare Aura] around my neck into obsidian, I widened the leviathan’s hand away from my throat to allow my drooping body to fall like a broken marionette. Thanks to my heavy tail and wings, the weight pulled me backwards, giving me the space to transform back into a dragon.
The mana cloud burst from my body as bones, muscles, and skin grew, though I could feel that my injuries remained… although, who cared about that now? Even if I couldn’t move my body, I was still a damn large dragon, and that was the whole point of transforming back!
The praying hall’s entrance shattered as my body grew larger than a bus, pushing not only Vifi and the surrounding basilica guards away, but also the leviathan woman. My head crashed unceremoniously on the ground as my neck was still broken in my dragon form, but at least [Danger Perception] finally stopped ringing. I escaped the immediate threat.
Fucking hell, why did that—
Health: 7780/31800