[Seeker Dark Serpent | Abyss Spawn 42]
Kal’s heart sped up as he read the result of his Identify and began to carefully move backward, constantly watching the mana around him. He was in trouble. This dark serpent was easily the strongest thing he had fought until now and it clearly had the terrain advantage. Kal once again narrowly avoided another strike as he noticed another fluctuation in time to act.
The dark serpent was incredibly strong, but it was slow. Without his sight, however, Kal struggled to avoid each of its crushing blows. Moving through the darkness while remaining alert for the subtle changes before each attack was draining and several times he found himself forced to dodge, The first threw him into a wall that he didn’t have the chance to discern from the mana. The serpent hissed almost mockingly each time Kal was forced to reorient himself after a glancing blow sent him to the ground. The damned thing was playing with him, and right now there wasn’t much that Kal could do about it but try and come up with a plan.
Each tiny change in the mana did not actually tell Kal anything about the type or direction of the coming attack. Honestly, Kal wasn’t even sure what he was sensing, but something was definitely there. Kal concentrated on the change, using every point of perception he had to try and grasp what he was looking at. Noticing the fluctuation was getting easier, allowing him more time to dodge each attack but the serpent simply began to attack faster. Kal couldn’t tell which attack was coming until it landed. Sometimes the serpent would lash out with its tail before striking with its fangs. None of the bites had landed yet but Kal could hear the terrible penetrating power of each strike as they tore themselves from the stone after each strike.
Health:
1002/1880
Stamina:
2543/3080
Wrath:
0
Kal’s health was still stable but any missed step would change that faster than he would have liked. Having some wrath would have been great right now. The serpent was strong, but Kal felt if he could use Wrath Incarnate things would have been much more even. If nothing else it would have allowed him to more easily penetrate its incredibly tough scales, but unless a whole heap of weak minions turned up ripe for the slaughter that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Sick of running and dodging, Kal began to strike out when he could. Often his strike met empty air, or simply bounced off the serpent's scales but with each attempt at injuring the demon Kal began to notice something. The fluctuation began to grow more obvious, at times when Kal’s blade managed to hack off a scale the fluctuation was actually hard to miss. Kal continued his attempts at injuring the serpent, trying to get the same response but then a lucky stab with his sword struck home and the mana surrounding him flared to life with the gray outline of the serpent and something else. Deep within the gray of the serpent’s mana, Kal saw a different color that immediately resonated with a darker side of himself. Blood red. It wasn’t mana, Kal knew that immediately, no this was more abstract than even that. It was the demon’s urge to kill him, made visible with Kal’s mana sight somehow. Kal had seen his enemies marked in a similar way to this before but it was always a subconscious thing and it wasn’t quite the same.
When he saw red like this before it had always been when his birthright had marked them for death as his enemies. Thoughts from those moments flooded into his mind as the understanding of what he was seeing fell into place, He was the slayer, they were not worthy. It was his birthright. The thoughts and imagery passed without the normal savage rage that normally accompanied them, leaving Kal with a feeling of stability that he hadn’t felt since the start of this fight. Locked within his improved core Kal could feel his birthright resonating with something that he felt like he should have sensed long ago. The killing intent of his enemies.
He leaped backward to give himself some space as his perception began to shift with his new understanding of his past experiences. The tiny smear of blood red grew to completely fill the once again concealed outline of the serpent’s form. With the serpent now completely visible Kal’s heartbeat steadied as he took stock of his foe. The serpent noticed his change in demeanor immediately as they locked eyes. They stared each other down for a few moments, all the while Kal could feel his raging birthright wanting to break free and crush the pathetic killing intent within his foe, the blood-red light growing brighter. Exactly how this new perception was working wasn’t clear to Kal. Whether it was the serpent’s killing intent rising, or his birthright showing him his target, he wasn't sure. Either way, it didn’t matter. It was all he was going to need.
Kal moved charging forward, towards the dark serpent confident in his steps now that he could easily see his enemy and not waste energy looking for the fluctuations. The serpent’s head drew back as it prepared to strike but uncoiled its tail from its body into a brutal strike. Being able to actually see the attack coming Kal easily leaped over the serpent’s tail as it came towards him and rolled under the follow-up fang strike. Kal speared his sword upwards into the serpent’s thinner scales of its underbelly and this time he felt the sword bite deeper than before, causing the snake to rear back letting out another deep reverberating hiss. It countered immediately with another tail swing fast enough that Kal had to partially block the blow with his free arm, sending him several feet away but with minimal harm. Kal checked his status and spat out another glob of blood, the rhythm of battle beginning to call to him once more.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Health:
911/1880
Stamina:
2103/3080
Wrath:
0
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Vorayx glared at the conduit leading to the event. The pathetic kuroxet scurrying back and forth through the conduit had not been able to even locate the mortal let alone secure it. The garghounds were no better. The Bestial Lord had begged for his support like the beast it was before Vorayx agreed to ally with them in trial. He would have joined anyway just so he could use the only garghound variant worth mentioning, the sky hunters. He had ordered the Bestial Lord to supply them as mounts for his kuroxets to travel to the mortal's last known location but apparently, the event's terrain had changed making his efforts fruitless.
He was going to kill the Bestial Lord to see if it would end the event early but after the lockout period, it was now being held in some separate event zone, untouchable from outside of the trial. It was still able to order its forces around to the event's area but it was safe from him for now.
"Where in the burning pits of the 47th is this mortal? I WILL FLAY HIS SOUL!", Vorayx growled as he backhanded a passing kuroxet, rendering it into a bloody mist.
[ Kuroxet Slaughterer | Abyss Spawn 47] No experience awarded.
His rage still not sated Vorayx went to kill the next closest weakling but froze with his fist less than an inch from the pathetic thing's head as the barest hint of a whisper reached his ears.
“Your master was always so wasteful as well. Tell me, did you also inherit his idiocy?”
Vorayx turned towards the voice, his guard up for the first time since coming to this level in search of the mortal. Seeing nothing, he cycled through several of the mana variants that he knew of in search of discrepancies. When he got to shadow mana he immediately spotted a distortion in the air only a few feet in front of him.
“Ah, perhaps there is some hope for one such as you yet.”
The air warped and from the distortion a figure cloaked in a black shroud appeared in front of him, not making a single sound or distorting the flow of foul-smelling air. Vorayx knew this creature immediately for what it was, a seeker shadow. Vorayx didn’t bother Identifying the shadow, he knew it wouldn’t work. The shadows were very skilled assassins amongst those of the abyss, the ability to mask their type and level was just one of their many skills.
Vorayx sneered, taking a seat before speaking to the demon, "What do you want shadow? Are you not supposed to be inside the trial hunting for the mortal?” Vorayx would have destroyed the shadow but his master had warned him of angering the Seeker Daaxuret.
The cloaked figure seemed to snicker but its voice rasped like all the moisture had been pulled from its flesh, “Oh but I have already located the mortal,”
Vorayx leaped to his feet in outrage but before he could speak the shadow continued, “I am here to bargain.”
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Kal roared as he once again buried his blade deep into the serpent’s belly as it tried to swat him aside with its tail. The serpent had covered him in blood several times over by now but Kal could tell he was some way off from killing the damned thing. Its endurance was definitely its highest attribute, closely followed by strength, but it had clearly invested a lot of points into vitality since the damned thing just wouldn’t die. He was aware that for the most part, he had been attacking the creature's belly but finding the lethal targets on a serpent was harder than he had thought, and attacking its head was all but impossible unless he was willing to take a pretty major hit in the process.
Health:
659/1880
Stamina:
1534/3080
Wrath:
0
Kal hadn’t taken any major hints since he had figured out how to sense the demon's location but even the glancing blows added up. It was about time he drank a potion to bring himself back up to speed. He leaped backward giving himself enough time to draw one of the vials, pop the cork, and down it before the serpent got in range to attack again. Kal still couldn’t see anything besides the snake and the surrounding mana, so he just chose a potion at random.
Warning you are attempting to consume a system-generated potion that you are no longer qualified to use.
Please remove all traces of the system-generated [Minor Healing Potion] [Common] [System Forged] from your system.
Do not attempt to use [Minor Potion of Health] [Common] [System Forged] again. Consequences may include grievous bodily injury or death.
Suddenly Kal was bent over spewing the contents of his stomach all over the ground he couldn’t see, “What the fuck?” He wiped his mouth just as the serpent struck out again with its fangs. Kal blocked but his sword was torn from his grip, and he heard it clatter to the ground somewhere off in the distance.
Kal leaped in the direction of his lost sword and flung open his logs to find the description for his potions.
Minor Potion of Health [Common] [System Forged]
This is a system-forged healing item. Upon consumption, the user will recover 50% of their total Health. Restrictions: Can only be used by Kalum Lesta, Can only be used while below Tier 1
“Fuck, I had forgotten about that,” Both the health and stamina potions had two restrictions. One they could only be used by him and two, they had to be used before tier 1 which he now was since his class evolution. He sighed, the potions had barely been any use to him besides the first horde of wave one. It wouldn’t surprise him to find out that the system had given the item the restriction for that very reason. He sighed again, it didn’t matter, he would just need to kill this snake faster than it could kill him, simple. “Now where the fuck is my sword?”