Activate Skill: Water Piercer
A sudden ray of blue light appeared in front of Malvorrak, causing Duan to abruptly jerk and tilt his head.
What was that?
he thought in his mind.
But before he could complete or even rationalize what was going through his mind, the stream of highly condensed water flew rapidly, aiming for his heart.
He couldn't think, but years of battle and experience had built a powerful sense of danger, and his reflexes were very fast.
With a quick toss, he was able to send his butcher knife into his left hand, which he then used to block the stream of water.
—Qing—
It connected and pushed Duan back by a few steps before he was able to stabilize himself, while still blocking the stream with all his strength.
"What the hell?!" Duan cursed, barely holding back the stream of water. Terragors didn't have such a skill in their evolutionary tree, nor did they have this kind of earthian armor. It was a mixture of completely opposite concepts; it didn't make sense.
Duan, for the first time in this fight, had to really think. Something strange was up with this monster; it wasn't normal at all. If not for his high-grade butcher knife, this attack might have killed him just now.
A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
(Maybe the right course of action should be to kill this beast.)
Duan, however unconventional, was rational. For something to come so close to killing him, was taming even possible? His mind was still undecided, though, until—
—shling—
The stream of water trailed down the hilt of Duan's knife, and in a swift arc, sliced his arm clean off.
—bam—
There was no scream, no reaction—only a cold, eerie calm as Duan stared at his severed arm. His face remained expressionless, but in his eyes, something dark and unmistakable stirred.
Killing intent.
Instantly, Duan blasted through the air and appeared before Malvorrak with his knife raised.
—slash—
—slash—
—slash—
He attacked maniacally, striking at Malvorrak's weak points, with a blank look on his face, a clear indication that Duan the butcher was now actually trying to kill Malvorrak.
"Hmph!" Malvorrak, of course, didn't mind this; he always had it in mind to kill Duan.
"Die." Malvorrak used his tail and angerily whipped it at Duans chest, sending him flying through the air.
His anger meant nothing to Malvorrak; he was but a cripple now, that meant that half the battle was his.
Unfortunately for Malvorrak, though, he would soon come to understand a form of stubbornness he had never seen before.
*—Woom—*
Because even with his one arm, Duan didn't stop coming. He was thrown into the ground, into the various rocks around the mountain, and even into the river not too far away.
But he kept on coming back.
Bloody gashes, cracked bones, and a punctured liver—his wounds kept worsening till he looked like a bloody mess.
But still, he kept coming back.
"What's wrong with this guy?" Malvorrak squinted as he witnessed the blood-drenched Duan weakly standing with his butcher knife in hand.
—gop—
—gop—
He had dealt so much damage to him.
—gop—
—gop—
But he still kept coming.
This was extremely annoying; he had made up his mind to straight-up kill him on his next attack.
But Malvorrak was in for a rude awakening, though, as a few seconds later—
"Roarrrrrr!"
A sudden change occurred.
A monstrous, earth-shaking roar erupted in the air, shaking the entire mountain…
However, this roar did not come from a beast…
Instead, it came from a human.
[Ding]
Divine entity residual energy detected. Host is advised to exercise extreme caution, or better yet, run.]
The system resounded in Malvorrak's head, alerting him of a change.
But of course, he didn't quite need such a notice since he had eyes and could see the changes happening right before his eyes.
Duan, who stood about a hundred meters away from him, had been completely consumed by a glistening blood-red color with black-striped lines running through his body.
Horns, claws, and a completely regrown arm—he had completely changed; he no longer looked human.
"Run!" Cious, still occupied with his fight with Vincent, turned to Malvorrak and screamed at the top of his voice.
He felt that energy too, and it reminded him of something familiar, something scary from his past life. That was a lot, because Cious was a god in his past life.
But Malvorrak didn't even have the time to react before he felt his body become weightless and he was thrown into the air by a sudden rush of force.
—bang—
The air around him burst like a balloon, his giant body lifted into the sky. Never in his entire life had he been thrown into the air; it was a strange and terrifying experience.
—woosh—
But nothing could beat the next feeling, as he soon felt a force push against his back, sending him plummeting back down like a meteor.
"This is bad. This is really bad," Malvorrak panicked, coiling himself into a ball shape and using his outer armor as a sort of shield while falling.
—bang—
But even from within his shell, while still falling, he was still being attacked as a flurry of punches came raining down on him, forcing him to fall faster and faster until finally—
—boom—
His body fell into the river before his mountain, creating a massive crater.
—bang—
—bang—
The impact caused the shell on his back to crack, and his spinal cord broke into four pieces. But even then, he was still being attacked.
Duan broke his armor quite easily, exposing his flesh. But even then, he didn't stop. First, it was his flesh, then his teeth, and soon after, the bones in his skull.
This thing that had taken over Duan wanted to destroy Malvorrak—body and soul. It wanted to erase every trace of him.
And from the looks of things, it was going to succeed.
*(Is this how I'm going to die? At the hands of a human? What a disgrace.)*
Malvorrak had lived his life first admiring humans for their abundance and wealth, then despising them for their greed and evil. Somehow, along the line, he began to truly hate them.
Was he really going to die at the hands of one of them?
[Ding
Host is on the verge of death… Requesting permission to activate Ultimate Skill: Devour.]
"Ah… right," Malvorrak had a faint thought while his head was still being bashed in.
He had skills.
*[Jade Scales, Greed Eyes, Water Piercer]*
But there was one more skill that had just always been there, and he couldn't use it.
At first, he thought the skill was his ability to eat monsters and evolve, but what he didn't know was that he had always had the ability to evolve.
The system had streamlined it and made it more pronounced, but he had always had this ability—
No, this devour was something else.
"Activate Skill: Devour," Malvorrak forced out with the little strength he had left.
And in the next second, a black sheet of energy rose from under him and enclosed both Malvorrak and Duan within it.mm