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Chapter 04

Teseu was getting slightly worried. After discovering that circulating Qi through certain veins led to an exponential increase in strength, he had now found that he could imbue objects by simply concentrating Qi in the main veins of his hands. The problem was that, from the beginning, he didn't have that much Qi to spare. His body was constantly absorbing Qi, and he had already taken a good portion of what little he had and placed it in the parrot's beak. Of course, now he had a good weapon against the scorpion, but the creature seemed rather cautious, wanting to turn the fight into a battle of attrition.

Minutes passed, and the battle seemed to reach a stalemate. The scorpion managed to scrape off some blows with its claws at the cost of taking some hits from Teseu, but not once did the scorpion manage to strike him with its stinger.

Of course, Teseu didn't know that the scorpion lacked venom or wasn't interested in finding out. He was paying close attention to the tail's movements, which led to him taking a few more claw strikes than he would have liked. Perhaps more than he could afford because his plan relied on landing a few hits.

The central question was how many hits could he withstand before an opening appeared? His Qi was already reaching extremely low levels.

Not wanting to risk running out of Qi at such a critical moment, Teseu decided to bring the fight closer to the campfire, intending to collect Qi from the scorched beetles, even though it might attract more creatures to the battle. In the worst-case scenario, he could just retreat and leave the scorpion to deal with the problem while he waited from a distance for an opportunity to strike.

The campfire now showed no sign of burning wood, only a pile of scorched chitinous bodies, with several others still alive and smoldering swarming around. Teseu was delighted at the thought of how he would use that Qi to turn the tide against the scorpion, which was right behind him.

Unfortunately for Teseu, it wasn't his lucky day. Before he could reach out to collect the Qi, a huge tongue latched onto the side of his thigh. Before he realized it, he was in the air, being pulled toward an enormous frog's mouth.

With a quick thought, Teseu twisted his body to face the frog and concentrated all the Qi he could muster into his beak-like dagger. Fortunately, the frog couldn't swallow him whole in one go, and Teseu was only left with the lower half of his body trapped in the monstrous mouth.

Feeling his feet submerged in a hot and corrosive liquid, Teseu wasted no time and struck the frog with all his might, tearing into its left eye and being promptly spat out toward the campfire.

Upon landing awkwardly on the ground, Teseu felt like he had broken something, but he quickly got up. Perhaps due to adrenaline, he didn't feel much pain in his body, only his feet were in a precarious situation thanks to the frog's stomach acid, which seemed much more potent than it should have been.

Teseu tried to move closer to the campfire. Keeping an eye on his enemy, he suddenly fell to the side and narrowly avoided another lash of the frog's tongue, only to be surprised as he saw the tongue retracting into the frog's mouth, carrying a scorpion with it. Teseu could almost see the surprise in its many eyes. The bastard had probably been hiding, waiting for an opportunity to attack, a behavior worthy only of the most cowardly of creatures.

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With the path now clear, Teseu reached the campfire and began absorbing the Qi as quickly as he could because, when he looked back at the frog, it didn't seem like the scorpion would last much longer. Only the head and two rear legs of the scorpion remained outside; the rest was inside, relentlessly striking at the frog's face. Still, the monster seemed to have hardened its skin with some ability, and it didn't appear to be suffering much damage. Of course, this time, it kept its eyes tightly shut and protected by its robust eyelids.

Just when the battle seemed lost, with a final desperate blow, the stinger hit one of the frog's nostrils and penetrated deeply. You could even see the curved stinger tip poking out of the middle of the frog's face. Feeling excruciating pain, the frog spat the scorpion out like a cannon, tearing the previously damaged tail by Teseu open completely, leaving the stinger still stuck inside.

"Well, at least part of my plan worked. Now I just have to finish off the scorpion, and I'm sure I'll get enough Qi to give that frog a good beating." With a new plan forming in his mind, Teseu put away his "dagger" and grabbed his spear, which was still firmly tied to his back, only to find that it was now two-thirds of a spear.

"So, that's what I felt breaking at that moment? It'll have to do, I hope." He thought as he quickly circulated the Qi and shot towards the dying scorpion. The poor thing was covered in corrosive liquid and barely holding on.

"Sorry, friend, but it's you or me." Teseu said and thrust the wooden spear between the scorpion's eyes, trying to give it a quick death. The spear penetrated easily into the carapace, softened by the acid. Without hesitation, a green mist began emanating from the corpse, and Teseu promptly absorbed it. The amount genuinely surprised him; it made him feel like he was on the verge of a bottleneck, needing only a tiny drop to burst a dam.

Teseu looked toward the frog and made his decision. He knew that imbuing Qi into wood was difficult and costly, as he had tested it with the wooden club, but he needed a bigger weapon than a parrot's beak to kill such a large creature. The frog was easily a head taller, and the spear he had barely seemed sufficient. He planned to bet everything on a single blow, and if the spear couldn't handle the stress or penetrate deep enough, he would be lost.

Finally, the frog managed to free the stinger and leaped towards Teseu, who snapped out of his reverie and stared at the frog with determination in his eyes. The frog stopped a few meters away, and its throat began to swell.

"Not good!" Teseu immediately started running towards the trees, looking for a place to take cover. It didn't take long for him to hear the sound of an acid ball hitting a tree behind him. A few splatters hit him, but nothing too serious.

"This bastard will be tougher than I thought. I'll need a few more minutes if I want to prepare the spear properly, but at this rate, I'll end up hurting myself too much, which could be debilitating in a fight." Teseu thought. He knew that if he had a more serious injury, the pain from Qi rebuilding his body would be dangerously debilitating in a battle. The frog didn't seem interested in giving his enemy any time, firing again from a different angle, trying to push Teseu toward the river where the trees were scarcer.

Teseu was running out of options now. He could increase the rate at which he imbued Qi into the spear, but he could feel that the

wooden structure couldn't handle it. Everything he could think of doing seemed too risky to succeed. He knew that the frog's skin was very tough, but the stinger had proven that this didn't apply to the inside. His original plan was to hide among the trees, avoiding being hit by the tongue until he had fully charged the spear, then let himself be pulled and impale the frog from the inside out. But now, a tongue came toward him and forced him to make a decision.