The effect of the [Soul Bolt]’s hit was better than Esperanza expected.
Her opponent, the [Champion], staggered in pain once more, as if he struggled to stay on his foot. The strike he performed towards her with his machete was a clumsy one – at least compared to the previous vicious, well-aimed blows – that was nothing like what he had done so far. Esperanza deftly avoided the blow even as she condensed another pair of [Soul Bolt]s right next to her hands.
Instead of shooting them at her opponent, she directly slammed them into him, which caused him to jerk wildly in pain and agony briefly. That also gave her the chance to grab his wrists with her own hands, the overlong fingers circling around his forearms while the maws bit into them. Then she allowed the tongues within to shoot out into her opponent’s arms.
The tenebrous limbs acted almost like they were oversized parasites as they burrowed their way through the [Champion]’s large arms, the path they took as they circled around his bones and dug into the flesh of his arm bulging outwards rather grotesquely. That move alone should have practically won the battle for Esperanza, but she refused to take it for granted given the sort of opponent she was facing, and lashed her bladed limb into his abdomen as well.
From there, she manipulated the limb to split into many smaller ones that indiscriminately tried to cut or gnaw into whatever was around it – there were too many offshoots for her to control properly – in the hopes of hitting some vital organ or the likes. At around the same time, her “tongues” burst out from the flesh near the [Champion]’s shoulders, having found the shoulder bones as an obstruction on their path.
Those “tongues” were normally kept coiled tightly within her own limbs, taut almost like a spring, which was what gave them the brutal force they had when she “launched” them from their hiding spot inside the maws. At that point, they had pretty much expended the momentum they had from their launch, and could only grind their way forward one bite at a time.
Undeterred, she still manipulated them and had them strike at her opponent’s head, right from the ear canals, where they immediately began to dig their way in. Her opponent convulsed and screamed in agony all that while, but Esperanza hardened her thoughts and just kept going, knowing that it was not her life that was at stake should she fail.
If saving some of the village’s children meant gruesomely murdering a man in horrible ways, then so be it.
She still felt little attachment to herself at times, probably helped by how death was no longer an issue for her, but she noticed that sometimes her new body seemed to have a bit of influence on her thoughts. It sometimes made her ravenous with hunger – usually when she had neglected herself a bit too long and forgot to eat – while at other times, made her fight all the more desperately.
She herself might lack such a will, but her body at the very least still had a very instinctual will to survive, come what may.
The [Champion]’s body was hard. Even the parts that should have been less durable like the insides of his ear canals was as tough as hard leather as her tenebrous limbs tried to chew their way inside, while her “hands” kept her opponent’s weapons held in place, the heavy injury impeding his ability to fight back. Between them and the bladed limb making mincemeat out of her opponent’s innards, Esperanza was relatively certain that her winning was mostly a matter of time, though she was not stupid enough to relax until the notification arrived.
A quick glance from one of her eyes on the side of her body allowed her to take a glimpse of the situation at Dali and Gordy’s side. She still had her aura amplified at full bore, and it had severely impacted three of their four opponents. The already injured one was rolling on the ground like a madman, thick blood spilling out freely from all the orifices on his face. At a glance it looked as if he had gouged his own eyes out.
Neither of her dogs paid attention to that one.
Instead they focused their efforts on the other three. Two of those were impacted by Esperanza’s [Far Down the Deep End] as well, if less severely. It still caused them to momentarily lapse in the fight, though, and that was all the opening her companions needed to take them down. One of the two was down, unable to stand as the backs of his ankles had been torn off by Dali. The other was left as a torso with all his limbs and even his head nowhere to be seen, only bloody stumps left behind.
Her two dogs worked together and made short work of their last opponent. Dali used his speed to keep the enemy’s attention locked to him, which in turn gave Gordy an opening which she took. Her bulky form barreled down her opponent to the ground, and from there, it was a matter of a single bite of her large, toothy maw to the enemy’s throat to end the struggle.
In the meantime Dali finished off the crippled one with one more bite to the back of his throat.
Just at that time, Esperanza’s own efforts finally bore fruit, as the tenebrous tongues finally gnawed their way into her opponent’s skull, where they immediately started to gorge themselves on the [Champion]’s brain. She herself felt a juxtaposition of feeling at the moment. Part of her wanted to throw up on the spot at the whole idea of eating her opponent alive, brain-first, while another, more animalistic part rejoiced at the feasting, at the imminent end to this one tough prey.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
When the notification blissfully arrived at last, Esperanza skimmed through most of it to reach the most important parts further below.
You have defeated [Orphan Lvl20/Soldier lvl 19]
You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of a higher level than yourself!
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Class Skill [Gauze of Oblivion] has leveled to level 6!
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You have leveled to level 9! +2 Free Major stat points gained! +1 Constitution Gained, +3 Wisdom Gained, -2 Sanity Gained!
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Class Skill [Flesh is But A Vessel] has leveled to level 5!
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[Soul Storage] has secured [Soul of Wemromyu]! 420/2000
Your companions have defeated [Guard’s Child Lvl20/Shieldbearer Lvl20/Bulwark of Ner’vhok Lvl7]
You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of a higher tier than yourself!
[Soul Storage] has secured [Soul of Hagen’Zvar]! 421/2000
You have defeated [Shaman’s Child Lvl20/Berserker Lvl20/Mindless Carnage Lvl7]
You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of a higher tier than yourself!
[Soul Storage] has secured [Soul of Alivyi]! 422/2000
Your Companions have defeated [Nobleblood Lvl20/WarriorLvl20/Young Chieftain Lvl 10]
You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of a higher tier than yourself!
[Soul Storage] has secured [Soul of Nogk Hadar-Evalur]! 423/2000
Your companions have defeated [Soldier’s Child Lvl20/Spearman Lvl20/Spear of Ner’vhok Lvl9]
You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of a higher tier than yourself!
[Soul Storage] has secured [Soul of Ava-Ilaev]! 424/2000
You have defeated [Champion of Ner’vhok: Sübügätäi Lvl20/Örlög Baghatur Lvl2]
You have gained less experience for defeating an enemy of a lower level than yourself!
You have gained bonus experience for defeating a chosen of the gods!
You have leveled to level 10! +2 Free Major stat points gained! +1 Constitution Gained, +3 Wisdom Gained, -2 Sanity Gained!
[Soul Storage] has failed to secure the soul of your opponent!
ERROR! Conflict with higher grade skill! Soul impossible to secure!
Class Skill [Shepherd of the Lost] has leveled to level 3!
Class Skill [Shifting Guise] has leveled to level 10!
Class Skill [Shifting Guise] Evolved into [A Mask to Don]!
General Skill [Aura Control[ has leveled to level 10!
General Skill [Aura Control] Evolved into [Aura Mastery]!
The barrage of notifications was… informative, to say the least.
For one, it made Esperanza both breathe a sigh in relief as well as feel a chill up her back when she realized that she had not only claimed the souls of just about every single one of the invaders – minus the [Champion] – but also the souls of the over a hundred dead villagers, which her [Soul Storage] did automatically when she passed by the pile of corpses.
Apparently they were considered “fresh” enough for it to still claim their souls.
At least she kept the presence of mind to keep those souls sequestered to one side of the storage, where they would be safe and wouldn’t get used up in a [Soul Bolt] by accident or the likes. She was more ambivalent on how to treat the forty-something souls of the invaders she had acquired, but after some thought also kept them apart from the rest, resolving to only use the monster and animal souls for skills that needed to consume some, as far as she could help it.
Still, a couple was already accidentally used up in her fight against the [Champion], but she was past regretting that anyway.
The first thing she did after the fighting died down was to collect the armor and weapons that the [Champion] had used. His body had dissolved into particles of light shortly after his death, though curiously enough the blood he already spilled on the ground had not disappeared along with it. Nor could Esperanza feel the bits already consumed by her disappearing that way.
Several of her skills had leveled, with a couple even evolving, but Esperanza ignored them for the time being, her focus set on helping her pets gather up the still usable weapons and other valuables that the dead invaders had. It took them a while to gather the items just from those near them, and before they knew it, nearly ten minutes had passed.
Esperanza was instantly alerted when the [Champion] manifested once more on the spot she killed him at. Fortunately, he seemed groggy and uncertain of his bearings when he came to be, and to top it off, he was naked and unarmed. On the other hand, Esperanza and both her dogs were right next to the spot, and together they struck before he could regain his bearings.
While a one-on-one duel against a forewarned and armed [Champion] was a hard fight, it was a different case when it was an ambush of three against one, while the one was naked and unarmed to boot. Esperanza and her dogs made very short work of the [Respawn]ing [Champion], killing him off in moments, at which point his body vanished into particles of light once more.
You have defeated [Champion of Ner’vhok: Sübügätäi Lvl20/Örlög Baghatur Lvl2]
You cannot receive experience twice from a chosen of the gods until they have leveled up!
No experience is received.
The notification she received showed that apparently whoever set the system up had thought of the loophole Esperanza had wondered about. If a [Champion] could only give experience once to the same person until they leveled up, she guessed they wouldn’t be able to just kill each other until they hit the level cap after all. Then again, that sort of idea likely had other detriments as well, on top of being impossible in practice.
Satisfied that the [Champion], even if he were to [Respawn] once more, was no longer a threat, Esperanza finally switched her [Aura Mastery] to once again suppress the effect from [Far Down the Deep End]. The control came far easier to her compared to before, likely an effect of her skill’s evolution. Once she was certain that she no longer posed a threat to the sanity of those who beheld her – and she shifted back to her more familiar humanoid form to boot – she sent Dali off to scout around the village to see if he could find the hideouts.
Dali returned to her within a couple minutes and reported the position of three places that looked to be hideouts, though not ones he could open. Esperanza nodded at his report and went off to those hideouts, while leaving Dali and Gordy to watch over the spot the [Champion] had already died twice on so far. She hoped that he wouldn’t be so stubborn to try [Respawn] again, but better safe than sorry.
The angry barking of the dogs followed by a scream of pain that ended on a crunch of bones breaking shortly as she left proved that he was indeed a stubborn one.