Free Web NovelChapter 162: Chapter 161 - In The Heart of Eden(Part 8)
Point-of-View: Aurora Pretorius
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"Hey, you okay, Mike?" I inquired, as he stood up with a groan.
"Yeah, I’ll live, thanks to you," He replied with a wry smile, right as a loud crash echoed out in front of us as the massive Eden Category 0 who’d attacked us jumped down and landed on the ground, his feet slamming onto the concrete.
After his last attack collapsed the ground of the floor above, we fell down into what looks like a somewhat crudely-built arena, with a couple of viewing platforms up on the walls.
I’m getting the scent of dry blood from this place, I guess they must have held stuff like sparring matches in here...but more importantly, it’s a nice, wide space. I was getting a bit tired of the cramped, narrow corridors we’d been fighting in till now, so this works out nicely.
"Hm, so you survived that, did you? In that case, I’ll just have to tear you apart with my hands," Remarked the Category 0...I think Mike said his name was John something?
Doesn’t matter, he’s about to be killed, after all.
"Hey, what Skills does this guy have?" I asked Mike, as I stepped forward and activated my full Shadow Cat shroud.
"Physical and Pyro, that’s all. However, from all the reports we’ve received from our members who’ve faced him and survived, he doesn’t really use his Pyro Skill. He prefers to use nothing but his own strength," He explained in response.
"Is that so? In that case, this should be easy," I replied, as I shot towards John, closing in on him rapidly.
He began to respond by raising his axe, but he was too slow. As I drove my claws towards his throat, they struck his skin and pierced in...before abruptly halting. What the-...his skin is incredibly dense.
No, not his skin, his muscles...I can’t pierce through!
I quickly sprang back as he swung the axe down, which struck the ground with a loud crash and kicked up a cloud of dust, as deep cracks burst out from the point of impact.
He’s really strong...even I might be in trouble if I take one of those attacks head on. Still, he’s slow and his moves are easy to read. I just need to make sure that I don’t let him grab me, and I can slowly wear him down.
Even a shallow scratch bleeds, and if I keep scratching him up, the eventual blood loss should incapacitate h-...huh? His neck...it isn’t bleeding.
It’s all tensed up...is he tightening the muscles around that scratch to block the bleeding? That changes things...okay, he might be a bit more troublesome to take down than I initially expected.
But it’s fine...even if he can stop himself from bleeding out, let’s see if he can keep his cool while continously getting all scratched up. And on top of that, I’ll use use my Dark Skill’s Negative attacks to deal further damage.
I then raced across and fired out a Negative Slash at him, to which he responded by stomping on the corner of a broken chunk of the ground, kicking it up in front of himself and letting it take the hit.
But while he managed to block it, as a result, he lost sight of me. I ducked into a cloud of dust and sent a sharp, rapid shadowy whip zipping towards his heels, aiming to slash at them.
The extention of my Shadow Cat struck his heels and sent him stumbling forward, but again, they only left behind shallow cuts, not nearly deep enough to bring him to his knees.
He’s definitely bolstering his body further using his Physical Skill, otherwise there’s no way he’d be this durable...even Lucifer and Dracula weren’t anywhere near this tough to cut through, and that’s really saying something.
I then took aim and fired out a barrage of small but rapid Negative Blasts, as he shot towards me and swung his axe across, batting away most of the blasts and deflecting the rest, a couple of them managing to graze his right shoulder and hip.
I sprang up and slashed at his head as he closed in and swung his axe horizontally across at me, evading it before leaving a deep scratch across the bridge of his nose, and a couple of shallower ones across his forehead.
As he reached up with his left hand to try and grab me, I fired out a streak of my Shadow Cat, pierced it into the ground like a grappling hook and pulled myself away and out of his reach, sharpening my tail and whipping it at his neck, leaving a second cut on it.
He’s not completely impenetrable...you can’t exactly work out the muscles in your nose, which was made evident by the fact that a much deeper scratch was left there than any of the other spots I’ve struck so far.
The bleeding isn’t stopping either. His ears are probably worth targeting too...not to mention his eyes. Alright...I now know how to defeat him, I just need to wait for the right opening. And to do that...I’ll need to piss him off.
"What’s the matter, is swinging that axe around wildly like a dumb meathead the only thing you can do? How’d a one-trick pony like you make it to Category 0?" I scoffed, as I shot towards him and fired out a horizontal Negative Slash at his knees.
He jumped up to evade it as a hint of anger appeared in his eyes, before I leapt up at him rapidly by increasing the elasticity of my Shadow Cat legs, and as I drove my claws straight at his face, and he began to raise his axe defensively, I sent out two bladed shadowy whips from either side of my wrist.
As my claws struck the handle of his axe, denting the metal, he let out a hiss of pain as I sliced off both his ears, before slamming my foot onto his midsection and kicking off, backflipping off his torso and landing back down, gaining some distance as his feet slammed onto the ground, blood pouring out of either side of his head profusely.
"Tch, that really hurt, damn it...," He growled, as rage filled his eyes.
"Yup, that was the intent," I responded with a smirk, before forming a drill-shaped Negative Blast and firing it at him with a rapid spin.
He began to spring away to his left in alarm, my attack leaving a deep gash across his right forearm as he narrowly evaded taking it on the full.
Still, it struck him quite emphatically, but couldn’t do any more damage than that...man, this guy’s durable as hell.
I leapt away as he then flung his axe at me, which went whizzing past the left side of my head and slamming onto the ground, the blade getting embedded in the concrete.
As I raced across while he shot towards the axe, I formed two more Negative Drills and fired them at him, which tore across either side of his waist, eliciting a cry of pain from him.
These attacks aren’t fatal, but...they’re deep enough that he can’t stop them from bleeding. But that doesn’t matter anymore...it looks like I’m about to get my opening...
"Damn you...you little insect, I’ll tear you apart limb from li-...mfph!" He began, finally opening his mouth wide enough, as I rapidly extended out a streak of my Shadow Cat and plunged it into his mouth, before sending it snaking down his throat.
"If you’re too tough to cut apart from the inside, then...I’ll just have to tear apart your insides!" I exclaimed, as I extended out several shadowy spikes inside his body, puncturing and ripping apart his organs severely, before I violently yanked it back out.
Blood poured out of his mouth as he stumbled back in agony, unable to speak with his throat and lungs torn to ribbons, helpless as his blood gushed out and splattered the ground in crimson, before he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
I perked up my ears to make sure...yeah, no doubt about it, he’s definitely dying, he’ll die in a few more seconds. Even if I hadn’t destroyed several of his vital organs just now, the fact that he can’t breathe at the moment would’ve been enough to kill him.
"Hey, nicely done. Wish I could’ve contributed, but I probably would’ve just gotten in your way," Grinned Mike sheepishly, as he walked over.
"Yeah, probably."
"Wha-...hey, that’s the part where you refute me!" He exclaimed indignantly.
"Hm? Even though I completely agreed with what you said?" I responded with a raised eyebrow.
"...you’re making it worse. Well, whatever...what do you say we head out and finish up on this mission? I can’t imagine that there are too many more enemies left alive," He suggested, as he fired out a water blast at a nearby door, breaking it down.
"Yeah, sounds good to me, let’s go," I nodded in agreement, before adding wryly, "That seemed a bit unnecessary though...the door probably wasn’t even locked."
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