After having a couple of breakthroughs, Zhenin felt something on his body that he never felt before.
It was as if he finally learned how to walk after crawling as an infant, well, this time it's the opposite of that.
For Zhenin, something like slithering is considered a trick, like jumping. It's only done when it is necessary or a form of exercise. But now, he could feel like his body slithered in the most natural way possible.
If before, Zhenin looked like a man suffering from epilepsies on the floor as he shifted forward from side to side. Now, if one were to see him slither towards the cabinets, it felt like a primordial snake slithering in the forest, waiting for its prey.
As of now, Zhenin lacks the close combat abilities that Ninzhe has. Still, with his extremely flexible body. He felt like just wrapping around his enemy's body and constricting them is enough.
*THUD*
As the footstep hit the hollow countertop, the step sound of the step changed that zapped Zhenin awake. All of his body is roaring to have a go at it.
The main goal of the first stage to becoming an advanced being was to make the versatile humanoid body to become even more versatile. For humans, joints are obviously flexible, but it has its own limitations.
For the average human, the elbow can only be bent at the limit of 80 degrees. If it weren't for the shoulders, the movement of the arms would be minimal.
This also applies to Zhenin, who's a part snake. The reason that his arms could coil up was because of the numerous minor joints teaming up together. But since he became a humanoid, he also adopted their physique. Unlike a pure snake that can actually constrict their prey, Zhenin wasn't flexible enough to that prior to the breakthrough.
Now, he could roll his arms and even his fingers like it was a gum tape.
The half-mantis, who was eager to eat a slice of young snake meat, immediately took his second step. From the countertop to the ground, he just needed to land. But before his foot could land, he immediately felt something rapidly coiling up his legs.
Then, with a strong pull, the half-mantis had a contorted expression as he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
As quickly as he pulled, Zhenin punched the mantis' groin stunning him. Without a way to fight back, Zhenin immediately wrapped his right leg to the mantis' right leg, his left leg to the to his left shoulder, his right arms to his right shoulder, and his left arms to his neck.
Everyone who was left on the dying planet comprises all regular people and the lowest of the low that is beside Mengsk due to his particular circumstances. Facing Zhenin, who's currently acting like a humanoid parasite, the half-mantis felt a surreal fear in his heart.
Living in peaceful times, various people of various races mingled in one whole community. No matter how terrifying one might look, their attitudes are usually much better. However, there was a race of intelligent parasites that clung onto their prey. They suck every single vitality deep within one's cell.
For someone like him who's been left out by the law to feed themselves by begging on the streets, they are the easiest target of these parasites. Even after fighting for sixteen years, the worse experience he had was watching those he deemed as friends succumb to these parasites.
Now, what Zhenin is doing to him reminded him of all the things he saw before. It was post-traumatic stress disorder that no struggling in the apocalypse could solve.
Because of this, he felt his entire body go limp as he let Zhenin constrict every point of movement he has.
At this point, Zhenin began exerting strength far beyond what he had before.
Bones cracking, muscle, and skin tearing up. Such sounds echoed in the small and empty kitchen room.
Remembering his goal to paralyze his target, Zhenin stopped tightening.
The mantis, who has already lost consciousness due to the combination of pain and trauma, remained unmoving even after Zhenin released him from his grasps.
Unexpected, the mantis' face didn't change color. Most likely that the nose the mantis has was just an aesthetic organ.
Not wanting to give everything to chance, Zhenin bit the eyes of the mantis to paralyze him even more.
"Huh, that was easier than expected…"
The moment that Zhenin relaxed, his body lost its control and fell to the ground like a rope.
"I…, I'm sorry," Zhenin whispered as he lost consciousness.
…
In another house, over the window. A pair of eyes and a black sniper rifle were floating.
Watching a comrade got pulled from the window down, the floating eyeballs moved back. From the eyes, a face appeared. It was the face of a man with green scales. Other than that, every other body part was human. A half-human, half-chameleon walked back as he grabbed a cloak on a chair that he passed through.
"Idiot," He mumbled.
…
The White Space.
When Jack decided to let Zhenin go, he also took the opportunity to understand what would happen if a part of a soul was dispersed while the vessel was still alive.
Unlike Ninzhe, who had his soul decay from the weird blood, Zhenin's soul was forcibly reduced. If Ninzhe was akin to a paper burning, Zhenin is similar to a paper getting cut by scissors.
So, he kept a small speck of himself stuck in the necklace that Zhenin wore.
After seeing the immediate effects of destroying a part of a soul, he was dumbfounded.
The part of the soul that entered with the blood bind was random. Neither Jack nor Zhenin controlled which part of personality entered the stone.
"No wonder... that part of his soul contains his hopelessness and ego. Now that those things are removed, he immediately changed."
As he spoke, a paper formed at his right side, words began to fill up the paper. When the paper was full, another one formed, and the cycle continued. Once Jack was done writing, the bundle of papers bounded itself and became a book.
"This was supposed to be Hjuutza's job. Well… He's busy right now, I guess," Jack mumbled as he watched Hjuutza writing down the actions of the Magnafelans.
Then he turned his head back to the screen of the passed out Zhenin and snapped his fingers.
A golden light shot out of the stone and enveloped the half-mantis. Suddenly, a drop of blood seeped out of the mantis' antenna and flew towards the small speck of stone left in the necklace.
The mantis disappeared, leaving a small glass bottle with a yellow liquid inside. To it's left is a note: "Drink this, payment for the mantis' body - Jack."
When all the golden light disappeared, Zhenin was jolted awake.
Still a bit dizzy, Zhenin forced himself to look around.
When he realized that the mantis is missing, he became alert. As he did so, his entire body ached as it was overexerted for the burst of strength to beat the half-mantis in one sweep.
As he did so, he turned his head towards the glass bottle.
The yellow liquid was glowing a little bit, making it look golden to Zhenin's eyes. The weak glow made the small note on the side legible.
After seeing the note, Zhenin relaxed again. This time he did not pass out.
If it was before, Zhenin would only look at the glass bottle with weary eyes. But now, lacking his ego, he immediately grabbed and downed the entire bottle with a single chug.
The golden liquid flowed throughout Zhenin's body, healing all of his overexerted cells. Even his mental fatigue disappeared.
In just five minutes, he felt like he had rested in a hospital bed for two days straight and is now completely fine.
Then, he looked at the time. Besides the five minutes of recovery, the entire thing happened in less than ten minutes. It was absolutely incredible.
With enough strength, Zhenin tried to stand up. Using his right leg to push himself up when he was finally upright, he shifted his balance to his left leg.
*BAM*
He fell. Zhenin only remembered now that he lost his leg to the charged laser sniper.
Aware that he still has one enemy left to take down, he slithered from the ground to the countertop. Taking a peek at the window towards the window from where the shot came from, his sharp eyes saw nothing.
Instead of climbing out the window, Zhenin decided to go out through another exit.
"It's been a long day, and it's still going," he mumbled