Sorin barely had time to prepare himself before a monstrous aura came bearing down on him. It was an aura filled with a majesty that eclipsed mere mortal beings and urged Sorin to kneel.
Fortunately, Sorin had seen the Ouroboros. Compared to the mighty serpent, Grand Elder Hargrave’s aura was lacking. Sorin quickly roused his spirit and sent his tarnished energies crashing against his grandfather’s divine influence. He expected to lose the clash and to do so bravely, yet to his surprise, Grand Elder Hargrave’s aura retreated and reconsolidated.
This time, the old man’s aura solidified. A formation of poisonous runes appeared before bearing down on Sorin once again. Sorin resisted with all his might a second time but began losing ground at a slow and remarkably steady pace.
“Your aura control is pathetic,” said Grand Elder Hargrave, taking his first step. “It lacks purpose and drive. You’ve cobbled together all the energies inside your body to barely resist my assault. Aren’t you a physician? Aren’t you an apothecary? Where’s your tailored approach? Where’s your thoughtfulness and research? I expected more from you, given your background, but I suppose your excellent parents have skewed my expectations.
A surge of rage bubbled up inside Sorin at the mention of his parents, but he quickly suppressed it. The calculating portion of his personality took over and raced to find a solution with Ophiuchan Simulation.
Opponent displays 90 percent similarity to stored model for Charles Hargrave. Cultivation tier exceeds current predictive modelling abilities. Extrapolating probable solutions. Data insufficient.
Analyzing: Aura properties are consistent with Malicious Nine-Legged Spider Poison, Demigod-Tier, ranked 337 in the Ten Thousand Poison Canon. Potential counter possible by merging Ten Thousand Poison Canon antidote with stored spell forms.
Adapting.
Sorin’s aura grew more compact as his own poisonous runes solidified and threw themselves at the Grand Elder’s own aura. Though he didn’t manage to push the encroaching enemies back, he managed to stall the Grand Elder’s progress and give himself room to breathe.
“Adaptable, methodical, and analytical,” said Grand Elder Hargrave, pulling back his aura and taking a second step. “That is the essence of the Ten Thousand Poison Canon. You did well to adapt, but you were slow. What’s more, you won’t always have a stored model perfectly suited to every situation. You must prepare, anticipate, and most importantly, practice.”
Grand Elder Hargrave took a third step. Six spell forms appeared around Sorin and unleashed powerful acidic mana. They overwhelmed Sorin’s passive resistances and flooded him with so much poison Toxic Metabolism couldn’t keep up.
Poison was clearly not the answer, so Sorin summoned his spear and struck at one of the spell forms, piercing its weak point. He sent a poisonous python out to a second spell form, but it nimbly avoided the runic python and continued its barrage.
Sorin’s skin was melting from the continuous barrage of energies, so he committed additional spiritual energy to increase the python’s speed. It still couldn’t keep up, but something clicked in that moment. The serpent bit forward with uncharacteristic speed and destroyed the core of the formation.
That was Viper Strike, thought Sorin as he pulled back defensively. I had assumed Hand of the Twisted Physician had overwritten the ability, but it turns out the lesser abilities was maintained in the skill’s matrix. And since it’s a serpentine technique, I can use it with the serpentine skill’s matrix.
If Viper Strike was infusible, that meant others might be as well. He quickly infused Adder Rush into Python Coil and was thrilled to see its speed greatly increase, enough so that it was able to destroy a third formation with another well-timed Viper Strike.
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Additional matrices began to appear, and once again, Sorin was overwhelmed. He soon realized that with his spear and a single python, it would be impossible to keep up, so Sorin shrank his original python down and summoned another three as support. Sometimes, bigger wasn’t always better.
Sorin’s adaptation rendered the attack formations useless, so the Grand Elder pulled him back and considered. “If you don’t stop these seven steps, you’ll suffer greatly,” said the Grand Elder, taking another step forward. The entire room was flooded with a corrosive poison. A second step doubled its concentration.
There was no need to calculate the consequences of doubling. At most, six steps was Sorin’s limit. Still, he noticed a lull between the first and the second step. This ability relies on momentum, and the poison from a previous step will rapidly decline unless another step is taken, analyzed Sorin. I need to stop him, even if it’s for a single second.
His mind raced to find a solution and concluded that simple poisons wouldn’t work. The Grand Elder’s own poisons were too powerful. What would work, however, was a spiritual attack. Sorin’s wasn’t sure if his soul was strong enough, but maybe it could create an opening?
No, that won’t work. But it might if I combine poisons, corruption, and a spiritual attack. He had the tools, after all. It was just a matter of whether he could make them work together.
Corruption and poison poured into a skill he seldom used anymore: Cobra’s Glare. It was a low-grade skill compared to his other abilities and was normally only used with spiritual energy.
The infusion of non-standard energies caused the skill to destabilize, but Sorin used a combination of Strife to connect the ability with Python Coil and Hand of the Twisted Physician. Tens of serpents emerged around Sorin to deliver a massive infusion of corrupted neurotoxins laced with spiritual energy.
“Medusa’s Gaze.” Sorin’s words caused the skill matrix in his body to collapse and snap back together in a shape that better reflected his will. The three energies fused together to form a hybrid corrupted spiritual poison that shot out from Sorin’s eyes and the eyes of the tens of serpents he’d summoned.
The poisons shot into the Grand Elder’s tough flesh just as a fourth step came down. When he moved to take a fifth step, his feet froze. The energy in the room dissipated, prematurely disrupting the mounting payload of poison.
The attack had taken a lot out of Sorin. Sensing the severed connection to Grand Elder Hargrave, Sorin took in a deep breath and rank in the dissipating poison. His vitality and mana reserves began to recover at an accelerated pace, giving him confidence in resisting at least another attack.
But another attack never came. Grand Elder Hargrave instead retreated to his chair, where he coughed violently. Black blood could be seen on his white, spider-embroidered handkerchief, and Sorin instinctively diagnosed the man’s condition.
“Your vitality….” Started Sorin.
“Is exhausted,” finished Grand Elder Hargrave tiredly. “You’re a quick learner, Sorin, I’m glad you were able to expand your capabilities so much in a single encounter.
“Be warned that this was only possible because of your accumulated potential. Further breakthroughs, will not come so easily.”
Sorin frowned. “We can talk about that later, Grandfather. What happened to you? Why is your spirit body riddled in wounds?” He could barely make out the man’s condition due to their disparity in realms, but what he saw wasn’t encouraging.
“There’s nothing to be done,” said Grand Elder Hargrave. “I’ve accumulated too many wounds after a breakthrough that should never have succeeded. I don’t have much time left. That’s why I can’t help you more. All of my efforts are concentrated on Charles and a few candidates that might reach the demigod level before I kick the bucket.”
“But—”
“Enough,” said Grand Elder Hargrave, cutting him off. “You should know that your mother had your father inspect my condition. Even he couldn’t do anything to extend my lifespan more than a few decades. In truth, it was one of the reasons they pushed so hard in the Infinite Dungeon.” A pain expression appeared on his face. “They shouldn’t have gone there given how many enemies they’d created.”
Sorin’s expression flickered when he heard this. “I visited the site of my parents’ demise.”
Grand Elder Hargrave gave him a slight smile. “So you do have a little spite in you. That’s good. Hatred and vengeance are great motivators.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, neither myself or Grand Elder Kepler were able to discover anything when we jointly examined the location.”
Sorin frowned. “That’s very interesting, because my friend Astley invoked a Time Shadow Ritual. It cost us three divine crystals, but we managed to uncover evidence of dungeon sabotage via beast bags. A member of the Arma Clan seeded the dungeon prior to their exploration of it.”
Grand Elder Hargrave’s expression froze, and a chilling presence filled the room. “What did you just say?”