Chapter 65: Fatality
How can I stay calm at a time like this? Scar argued mentally, his breathing ragged.
[You have to try. Because if you don’t stay calm, your heart rate will continue to increase, and the venom will reach your heart faster. And when it does... you will die] Miley explained. [Take a deep breath. Slow your pulse. I know a way to defeat the venom, but you must manually decelerate its spread first]
After considering her words, Scar immediately forced his eyes shut. He blocked out the agonizing pain and focused entirely on his chest, using his sheer force of will to manually slow his breathing.
In. Out.
His heart rate began to drop. The terrifying spread of the black veins slowed to a crawl, though they didn’t stop entirely.
[Good] Miley said. [Now, compress the brachial artery to further stop the flow of the venom]
Scar acted quickly, moving with mechanical precision. He holstered his pistol, ripped the sleeve off his hoodie with his right hand, tied the tough fabric around his left bicep, and pulled it tight with his teeth. The localized blood flow was instantly restricted.
What next? he demanded.
[Now, I will try to force your Health Regeneration to concentrate 100% of its output solely on purging the venom in your arm] Miley stated. [Which means the healing of your back would be paused momentarily]
Scar approved immediately. Do it. My back is mostly healed anyway.
[Alright] Miley chimed. [However, for this concentrated purge to work effectively, you must remain completely still]
Understood, Scar noted.
Then, a soft chime echoed in his head as the system diverted all power to his left arm. His back stopped healing, and the spread of the venom began to cease.
But across the clearing, the Serpenthis abruptly stopped thrashing, having gotten over its pain. Now, it wanted revenge.
Its remaining eye locked onto Scar’s stationary figure. The beast hissed, a sound of pure, unadulterated rage, and began to slither forward, preparing for a killing strike.
Scar tensed, his grip on his dagger firm as ever. He was about to engage the incoming beast when—
[Don’t!] Miley warned. [If you use your speed, the kinetic acceleration will instantly spike your heart rate and the venom spread would continue. Also, you cannot activate any skills; we have to focus all available energy points solely on healing your arm]
Scar gritted his teeth, his vision swimming with dark spots. The beast was closing the distance rapidly, and he was slowly losing consciousness.
Miley, he called out sharply. Do I need to not move at all, or just avoid moving at high speeds?
[...You can execute basic motor functions, provided they do not exceed the baseline exertion of a normal human] Miley replied.
"That’s good enough," Scar rasped, tightening his grip on his dagger.
Just then, the Serpenthis lunged at Scar, its massive jaws opening to swallow him whole.
Scar stood perfectly still, controlling his breathing. He waited until the beast was mere feet away, the stench of its acidic breath washing over his face. Then, he activated AP.
The world slowed down instantly. His hyper-accelerated mind saw the massive fangs inching toward his skull perfectly clearly, but his muscles felt like they were moving through thick mud.
Fighting the nausea and the sluggish response of his own poisoned body, Scar stepped to the right. He didn’t use his speed this time. Just a single, normal, human step.
The beast’s massive head sailed slowly past his shoulder. And as it did, Scar drove his dagger forward, entirely reliant on the precision of his slowed perception, and buried the blade into the beast’s second, remaining eye. Then, he ripped the blade out and slid under the beast’s body, letting his momentum carry him away from the strike zone as he simultaneously deactivated AP.
The Serpenthis’s jaws snapped shut on empty air. Its momentum carried it forward, but now, completely blinded, it crashed into a tree.
Stripped of its sight, the D-Rank beast began to thrash in pain and panic, destroying everything within a thirty-meter radius in a blind rage.
Scar backed away slowly, carefully, ensuring his heart rate remained steady. He found a quiet spot behind a thick cluster of rocks, well out of the beast’s physical range. He stood there perfectly still, waiting patiently for his body to heal.
Slowly, the intense heat in his arm began to fade. The black veins visibly receded, pulling back down his bicep, vanishing beneath his skin. His vision cleared, the dark spots dissolving as the system successfully purged the last of the hemotoxins from his bloodstream.
After a few tense minutes, a notification chimed softly.
[Alert! All toxins have been purged from Host’s system]
[Hp: 700/700]
[Ep: 55/140]
Scar let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief. He flexed his left hand; the strength had fully returned, the massive puncture wounds completely sealed. His back also finished healing, leaving him at full combat capacity.
However, his EP bar was now very low.
[The concentrated Health Regeneration required more energy to outpace the venom] Miley explained.
"That’s fine," Scar whispered. "What’s left is enough to finish this fight."
Then, he walked calmly back into the clearing.
The moment his boots crunched against the dirt, the Serpenthis stopped thrashing and instantly pinpointed his location. Although blind, its other senses were still very sharp.
Driven by fury, it turned and charged wildly in Scar’s direction. But it was noticeably slower. Now blind and
disoriented, it lacked the terrifying precision of its initial strike.
Scar didn’t even bother activating AP. He simply waited for the beast to close the distance, then sidestepped smoothly. As its massive, scaly body sailed past him, he dragged his dagger deep along its flank, pulling downward to tear a massive, gaping trench through its thick hide.
The Serpenthis screamed, dark blood spraying across the clearing. But it wasn’t done yet. It coiled its body rapidly and launched itself blindly at him once more, mouth wide open in a desperate attempt to consume him.
Scar didn’t dodge this time. Instead, he returned his dagger into his inventory, freeing up his right hand and clenching it into a fist. Then he planted his back foot firmly into the earth, coiling his entire body like a compressed spring and locked his gaze onto the center of the beast’s approaching skull. Then—
Activate Dash, he whispered mentally.
[Skill Activated: Dash]
[-50 Ep]
The kinetic compression engaged, and Scar was launched forward at sonic speed. His body moved like a guided missile, utilizing the 200% velocity multiplier to bridge the final few meters in a fraction of a microsecond. He met the incoming beast head-on, and drove his coiled fist directly into the center of the Serpenthis’s skull with the force of a railgun.
BOOM!
The collision was catastrophic. A deafening sound echoed across the hunting grounds and the opposing momentum of the two massive forces created a localized shockwave that spread across the clearing, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris.
When the dust finally settled, Scar was lying on his back in the dirt, heaving deeply. His right arm was bent at an unnatural angle, the radius and ulna cleanly fractured from the sheer impact of his own attack.
A few feet away lay the Serpenthis.
Its head had been completely obliterated. Nothing remained above the neck; the supersonic punch had literally caused its skull to explode into a mist of blood and bone fragments. The massive, headless body lay dead, twitching slightly in the dirt.
Scar groaned, staring at his broken arm. It was a minor damaging turn, but it was entirely worth it.
A moment later, a screen illuminated the dark canopy above him.
[You have defeated a D-Rank Galactic Beast]
[+350 Exp]
[Exp: 490/2400]
[x1 Beast Crystal has been added to your inventory]