Shuzen held his breath as the Chucadori clamped down on his leg with a gargantuan force, refusing to let go.
If not for his quick thinking he would've been chomped in half at that instant. Howeverheat the last moment he had adopted the trait of an ourobic serpent in his legs, turning them into a single snake's tail that fitted within the gaps of the beast's fangs.
'You bastard!' Shuzen thought as he tried to free himself from the beast's bite. Finding squirming to be unsuccessful, he turned to more brutal methods.
Having adopted the trait of a Chico, Shuzen's gorilla arm began beating down on the beast's face. Bashing his face against the beast's already indented nose, Shuzen screamed, "Drop me, you imbecile!"
The Chucadori didn't even flinch. Despite the great strength of a Chico, it was even stronger.
Unable to free himself from the beast, they continued flying through the jungle with incredible speed. Shuzen tried to ignore the branches they sped past, scratching his face into tiny ribbons.
However, eventually, he had to stop his assault to tend to his injuries, as he was losing even his ability to see due to the blood loss.
Activating his SSS rank skill, Shuzen grimaced at the upcoming struggle. This was because his main method of healing also inflicted an unimaginable pain upon himself.
His body was naturally resistant to all poisons and thus promptly healed him when inflicted. Because of this, Shuzen's SSS rank skill doubled as a healing ability. However, it was still mind numbingly painful as Shuzen had to suffer through the poison.
Still, he pushed through. Gritting his teeth as he felt the acid seep into his skin, Shuzen tried to distract himself by focusing on killing the Chucadori.
The beast had a monkey face and a bird's body. A bird is far weaker than a monkey, but more agile. Maybe if he could get to its body... though, the face is currently stopping any movement. He would need to find something to fight through that strength first.
Shuzen cursed as he stared into the beast's dark beady eyes, devoid of anything besides a primal killing instinct.
The beast's eyes became a blurred grey and then moments later the entire world became blurred. His poison was breaking through, dizzying his mind. That meant the healing was almost complete.
'And then I have to kill this thing... it's imperative that I do so quickly.' Shuzen thought, thinking of more nimble ways to dispatch the beast.
Since it was far stronger than him physically, just beating its head in with the Chico wouldn't work. Additionally, the natural constricting force of the Ourobic serpent would fail as well. Anything that revolved around pure strength would surely fall him.
He was facing an opponent stronger than him for the first time in a while. However, he still knew that stronger opponents could be defeated with skill and finesse.
His vision returning to him, Shuzen began searching for a fine tuned attack of finesse.
Simultaneously, the beast grew bored from the lack of Shuzen's death. Hoping to have found the meal, instead the beast found a nuisance. It knew that the human had somehow stopped its bite from devouring him. Viciously shaking its head, the beast attempted to tear Shuzen apart.
If it wasn't for the naturally flexible nature of his serpent, every bone in his lower body would've been broken as all his joints dislocated.
Forcing his eyes to stay still as his body flailed back and forth in mid air, Shuzen studied the beast. Its big, round, beady eyes that lacked any human emotion. If he could find a way to attack them... no. Shuzen already knew it would be a stupid decision even if it worked. He'd still be stuck here, and the beast's violent spasms of fear would certainly kill him.
Moving on from that failed idea, Shuzen bypassed the wrinkled gray skin of the beast and settled on its indented nose. 3 large gaps formed on its nostril, as the beast had a hard time breathing. It was also relatively weak to poison, though no airborne poison known to man was able to kill the beast.
Still, it should make the beast groggy enough to drop Shuzen.
His resolve unfettered as his last hope formulated in his mind, Shuzen knew the plan would work. His own poison was purely physical and the beast was too far away, as well as far too filled with hiking intent, for his poison to work.
Thankfully, that wasn't the only poison in his arsenal.
Adopting the trait of the Araki monkey he had killed earlier, Shuzen winced as the saliva burnt his own skin. Ignoring the sizzling, he forced himself to sit up so that he was as close to the nostril as possible. Smiling at the beast, Shuzen could already see the discomfort forming on its face.
The beast grew agitated, but before it could fling itself around again the poison had put the beast in shock.
An Araki's poison was very potent, burning through organic and inorganic substances like it was nothing. More than that, however, it was also pungent. Its smell was far too rich for the Chucadori's sensitive nose.
Gagging, the beast opened its jaw with a low whine.
Finally free, Shuzen let out a vocal cheer of victory. Then, he found himself falling from hundreds of yards in the air, straight to his death.
...
Kai cursed his Komodo's Eyes as he struggled to take note of the many beasts that had been circling them. He had tried to deactivate the trait, but for some reason it seemed this one refused to go. Kai surmised that this was solely because of the negative trait.
If he could just cancel his eyes at any point, then there wouldn't be much of a downside.
Able to at least see the few still beasts in the distance, as well as the few that were circling around him, Kai knew he was right. These were parasitic beasts found on larger beasts.
Each was a small 3 foot creature that looked a little like a more humanoid bat. It had short, hunched legs but a very elongated forearm reaching the ground that caused its shoulders to rise into the air. 6 spikes jutted out of its back at various angles.
Saliva dripped from their salivating mouth as they took in their prey. Dark, red eyes followed Kai's every movement from the shadows of the jungle.
Knowing they would pounce at any moment, Kai prepared for battle. Even if he couldn't see the beasts that were nearly still, he could slightly hear them.
Also, when they did attack they would be moving and thus Kai would see and counteract them.
The bigger issue was that in combination with the downside to his eyes, there were far too many of these beasts to rely on such a tactic. If there were one or two of these beasts, it would be fine.
However, since there were over 20 of them, if Kai played a purely reactive game, he would surely be overrun.
So he had to lead the offensive into the unknown, into a jungle he could barely see.
After he was done, he would corrupt–'wait.' Kai thought, an idea forming in his mind.