Chapter 509: Hissing [Bonus]
BANG!
The arrow Sylas just dodged crashed into the ground. Or rather, into the mesh of roots.
The sounds of sizzling and popping only barely managed to reach his ears before Sylas' gaze blazed with fiery intent.
<Psychedelic Punch>.
With every improvement to One Kind For Me, the visualization of the Beast Totem also became stronger and more shocking. However, Sylas wasn't using the Beast Totem as his visualization this time.
He was using the Slow Rune.
Ice crackled and popped around his fist, his hair dancing wildly as he punched out.
His fist seemed to be suppressed by something, almost as though it was trying to move through an icy storm. Veins popped along his forearm, his knuckles becoming covered by an icy sheen as he suddenly broke through that barrier.
BANG!
The spider queen had been completely focused on Sylas' fist, ready to act at any moment, all for his fist Skill to suddenly vanish from his hand and appear before its eyes in a blink.
Aetherflow.
What this spider queen had only learned just now was that the surrounding hundred meters was Sylas' range.
Although his Will wasn't able to exhibit its full strength due to how low his Charisma was, that didn't mean there was no change at all.
For example... there was probably no one on Earth who could forcefully counter his telekinesis now with a mere surge of Aether.
Before Sylas, even your own body wouldn't be fully under your control.
The icy fist aura smashed into an eye of the spider queen.
A shrill screech echoed, but the sight of a bursting eye didn't come, nor was there any surge of blood and gore.
'So strong...'
Sylas' pupils constricted.
As with every stat, Constitution was relative. Not every part of the body would have the same Defense, much like how a kick would carry more Strength, or a finger would exhibit more Dexterity than the body as a whole.
The eyes should be one of the weakest parts of the spider's body. It probably could only exhibit about half of the spider queen's Constitution.
And yet... it had come out unscathed.
SHUUU!
The sound of sharp wind howling twitched Sylas' ears. His visualization sparked with warning signs of danger as a root deep within the web the spider queen was trapped inside shot out.
It appeared before Sylas in a flash. Stuck in a punching posture, it was truly too difficult for Sylas to dodge out of the way now...
However, his reaction was quick.
Telekinesis coated his body, and <Glide> was still active. He pulled on the Gluttony Seed and his body was suddenly ripped into a twisting motion.
His head spun along with his body as he braced his forearms across his chest.
The rogue root scraped into his flesh, just barely shy of tearing across the muscle and bone.
His forearms managed to divert the root just enough that it didn't pierce into his face, but the assault of the poison that coated it came swift and harsh.
Sylas was sent flying, barreling down toward a horde of greedy elite spiders. His arms felt as though a scalding hot iron had been pressed against them. In fact, it felt like it was still searing against his skin, rooting itself down into his muscle and toward his bone.
...
"He's been poisoned. This should end swiftly," Germiane spoke with a glint in his eye. No one else said anything, but it was clear that they were all thinking the same thing. Maybe due to the danger of the situation, Sylas had made a truly foolish decision.
As for Ragnar, who had experienced Sylas' poison immunity before, he still felt the same way. After all, his poison came as an offshoot from a beast that wasn't even worthy of being a lackey to the spider queen. The poison of the spider queen itself was on a whole other level. "The Portal is collapsing soon," one of the Sylphs, Rylen, looked toward the distance. Before, their plan had been to simply allow it to close. Killing Sylas was more important. But now they felt the desire to have their cake and eat it too. If Sylas was finished, shouldn't they return?
"We will stay." Another Sylph, Kalden, cut Rylen off before he could even make the suggestion. "This is something we must see through to the end. No mistakes can be
allowed."
Everyone fell into silence once more as the Portal flickered on its final embers before being forcefully shut.
...
Sylas noticed the change immediately, but it was hard for him to pay much mind to it when he was currently falling to his death.
The amount of Aether it would take to reverse course now wasn't worth it. With his Intelligence halved, forcefully activating <Glide> now so he could rebound into the skies would deplete more than he was willing to give up.
That was because now he not only had to counter his own weight, but that of the force of the spider queen's attack as well.
Even so, he remained deathly focused as several venom-formed arrows shot toward him from below. Some of the elite spiders even curled their abdomens, sending out spurts of poisonous roots right at him.
Sylas opened his mouth and roared, <Arctic Howl Mutant> causing an echo of CLANGS to
reverberate.
The defenses of the Skill were too low to face off against so many attacks, but the slight freeze delay was what Sylas really needed.
Rather than fighting against his downward momentum, he pressed the advantage, pushing his telekinesis to allow him to fall even faster.
He shot by the intersection of attacks and landed on the head of an elite spider.
The sickening sound of shattering carapace and oozing, meaty flesh filled his ears.
'This poison is indeed weaker than my own. It's only formed about 38 or so Foundations. But the Aether backing it is strong, and there's an extra character to it that makes it particularly
stubborn.'
Sylas knew that this "extra character" was the power of Quasi King beasts. When that half- illusory flickering crown appeared above their heads, it was like they had become the ruler of a region and several rules no longer applied to them.
This made this poison particularly stubborn.
Sylas dodged out of the way of an attack, feeling his nerves frying. However, his gaze flashed
as what he had been waiting for finally arrived.
The sound of hissing filled the skies as dozens of Serpentes made their way toward his
location.
Beacon.