Chapter 296: Queen [2]
In the end, I got what I asked for.
The queen directly came for me. But not in the way that I expected her to. Looking around and seeing the dozens of hands that were emerging from all sides, I pursed my lips and looked around with squinted eyes.
Despite my situation, I was able to remain relatively calm.
In the end, this was something that I had expected to happen. Furthermore, my goal wasn’t to defeat the queen.
No, it was to drink her blood.
Swoosh—!
A hand reached out for me.
Unlike before, I didn’t directly dodge and instead merely pressed my foot against the ground and tapped the approaching hand.
Swup!As expected, the moment I touched the hand, it directly flung down as the gravity surrounding it increased.
‘Good.’
My head throbbed a little due to how precisely I needed to control the area of effect, but the mana expenditure was far less than before.
In fact, it wasn’t my mana that I was worried about. That was fine.
My main problem was the condition my body was in. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be struggling so much. Having almost reached Tier 4, my mana reserve was quite big.
The same was true for my control over my skills.
I could expand my threads far longer and more than before.
But the poison was preventing me from fully utilizing my skills to the maximum.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!
Soon, the hands that were approaching me shot in my direction from all sides. Their speed was extremely fast, but just like before, I pressed my foot against the ground and lightly tapped in the direction of all the hands that were reaching for me.
The reason why I tapped into the hands was because it enabled me to get a better idea of where to focus with my gravity control. It served as a focal point for me to focus on.
What truly mattered was that I took the necessary steps to activate the skill.
Swup!
A familiar scene occurred as the hands limped down.
It was only for a brief moment as they quickly recovered, but it was enough to stop their entire momentum.
Drip! Drip…!
Sweat started to pour down from the side of my face as I continued like this. While it was true that it was working, I was in a stalemate.
At the rate that I was going, I feared that I’d die from exhaustion.
“Kh…!”
To make matters worse the poison that was coursing down my body was starting to grow more and more rampant.
The two minutes I previously had turned into one minute and the sense of desperation within me grew. I could feel myself slowly lose control of my lower body, and my upper body was starting to follow suit. If I didn’t do something within the next few seconds then I was done for.
But what…?
What could I do?
“…..”
In the midst of my desperation, a thought occurred to me as I looked at the hands. More specifically the dark veins that traced their surface, closely resembling the ones that were on the surface of my body.
‘Could it be…?’
A crazy thought occurred to me and my breathing grew heavier. My stomach churned, and my face twitched, but as I was pressed for time and was desperate, I could only clench my teeth in frustration.
Then…
Turning to face an approaching hand, I directly tapped my finger over it and severed it using a thread.
Spurt!
A thick, black liquid oozed from the arm, dripping onto my hand. My stomach churned with hatred, but I forced myself to bring the end of it close to my mouth. With a shudder, I drank its blood, the thick liquid sliding down my throat.
“Uekh…!”
At first, I gagged.
The taste of the blood was hard to describe. It didn’t taste anything like human blood. It was a lot more viscous and had a bitter and acrid taste to it that made me want to puke it over and over again.
And yet, I couldn’t stop myself from drinking it as the moment I took my first gulp, I noticed something change within me.
The numbness that was spreading down my body stopped.
No, it wasn’t just that.
There was more to it. A cold sensation ran down my mana core, slowly accumulating as I drank more blood.
Although I couldn’t quite tell what it was, I understood that it was beneficial for me.
For that reason, I didn’t spare a second and continued to drink the blood. But I could only drink so much.
Swoosh, swoosh!
Not even several gulps in, more hands lunged at me, their movements frantic and desperate. They were faster now, and the black veins covering their skin glowed with an eerie, ominous hue.
I understood then that the queen had been enraged.
“Fuck, let me drink in peace.”
I tossed the arm aside and pressed my finger against the approaching hands. A similar result from before occurred, and I didn’t hesitate to cut the arms around me.
Spurt!
Their blood spilled all over me, but I didn’t mind it and took any spare moment that I had to drink it. At the same time, I also tossed the arms into my ring.
‘These will be useful for alter.’
I had to be careful when entering the ring since I needed to drag my consciousness into it.
Thankfully, I only needed to toss them into the ring which wasn’t a big deal for me.
Like that, I continued this cycle of stopping, cutting, and drinking.
With each sip of the blood, I could vividly see the black veins covering my body shrink. But as they did, I realized something unsettling.
‘It’s not enough.’
The most this blood could do was alleviate some of the effects of the poison. However, when it came to completely getting rid of its influence, it was still missing something.
‘I need something more concentrated.’]
But what…? What exactly?
Swoosh, swoosh!
I ducked down and stumbled forward.
“Haa.. Haa…”
I was starting to have a hard time. My stamina was depleting, and each hand that I took down appeared to regenerate as if it had never been severed, to begin with.
‘As expected of a Terror ranked monster…’
None of them were easy to deal with, but at the same time, I recalled Owl-Mighty. As opposed to this Queen, Owl-Mighty had been a lot more difficult and tough to deal with. In fact, it was a stretch to say that I had been able to deal with Owl-Mighty.
….From the very start, I had fought a battle that couldn’t have been won.
I only managed to get out of the situation through mutual interests.
But still…
‘I don’t feel the same sense of despair that I felt with Owl-Mighty.’
Defeating the Wraith Queen was impossible, but I didn’t think I couldn’t get away from it.
So long as I managed to get what I wanted… But where?
Where exactly could I get a more concentrated version of her blood?
Squelch.
A squelching sound suddenly filled the air, and I hastily raised my head. Once again, the eye appeared, and my entire body froze in terror.
The eye seemed intent on piercing through my mind, invading every corner and disintegrating it, but…
“Hooo!”
I didn’t let it.
With a low shout, I shattered whatever the eye was trying to do and just barely managed to duck down to avoid the incoming hands.
“Haa… Haa…”
This was really… tough.
But at the same time, I finally felt a trace of hope.
‘….I think I’ve found a breakthrough.’
Once more, I looked up at the eye staring down at me from above. Its gaze was cold and indifferent, yet within that chilling stare, I thought I detected hints of confusion.
The thought made me want to laugh.
In the end, it probably was surprised by the fact that I could withstand its gaze. Indeed… while it did distract my thoughts and mind for a brief moment, that was it.
It didn’t particularly affect me, and the reason for this was obvious.
‘My mental strength is higher.’
And not only by a little bit.
If there was one thing that I was confident in, then it was my mental abilities.
The sudden realization sent my mind into overdrive, flooding it with a torrent of ideas. Unfortunately, I couldn’t dwell on them for long. The Queen gave me no time to think, relentlessly attacking me with both the eye and the hands.
To make matters more difficult, each time the eye blinked, it’d disappear for a few seconds before reappearing in a different direction, locking its gaze on me and trying its mental attack once more.
It certainly didn’t make my life easy.
But I persisted.
While continuing to dodge the hands, I kept track of the eye. I needed to do so in order to not be ambushed by its sudden mental attack.
It was true that my mental abilities were superior, but that didn’t mean that I was immune to its mental attacks.
Especially not when I had to focus all my attention on blocking the hands and preventing them from reaching me.
Like a hawk ready to swallow its prey, the eye shifted all around the place.
“Ukh…!”
My situation grew worse as time passed.
Not only was my stamina running out, but so was my mana. Breathing became more difficult, and my mind felt as though it was being split in two.
Squelch.
Hearing the familiar sound, I weakly turned my head in the direction of where the eye was, meeting its gaze directly before taking a step forward and blocking another hand.
“Cough…!
I started to throw up blood before I knew it.
Trickling down the side of my chin, I stumbled back a little and weakly picked up an arm that I severed, drinking the blood that was leaking out of it.
“Haa… Haa…”
Bang!
I stumbled yet again, barely blocking an incoming attack.
No longer could I use steps of suppression and dodging started to become impossible.
“Ukh!”
A piercing pain hit my back, forcing me to stumble forward several more steps.
“Haa.. Haa…”
With blurred vision, I looked around, and when I saw an approaching hand, I didn’t hesitate to jump away to dodge the hand, rolling on the ground in the process.
It wasn’t pretty, but I still managed to avoid the attack. But there was only one problem.
‘I can’t get up.’
My body…
It was starting to fail me.
“Ukh!”
I put on a struggle, propping myself up with anything that I could find, but my body simply refused to get up.
“Akhh!”
I roared, but my body refused to listen.
Squelch.
That was when I heard a familiar sound. It echoed from right next to my ear as the eye appeared a few inches from where I was. It had noticed my struggle and was now here to finish the job.
“Haha.”
I laughed then.
Not out of despair, but at its stupidity.
“….Who would’ve thought acting would become so useful?”
I stared back at the eye and met its gaze. Then, before it had the chance to blink, my lips parted open as my voice layered.
“Do you think you can cry?”
That’s when the eye froze.
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