Chapter 376 - Taming Trails - 5

เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มี.ค. 2569 07:40

Chapter 376 -376 – Taming Trails – 5 The forest around them seemed to hold its breath, ancient trees bearing witness to another conflict in their endless cycle of growth and death. The abyssal agent hadn’t expected his opponents to launch themselves directly at him. Most enemies would try to flee first, especially when facing someone with a clearly superior mana signature in rank and power. But this suited him… he had already spent considerable energy navigating the forest’s treacherous terrain, and a prolonged chase through the hole-filled ground would have only further exhausted his reserves. Did they know they were slower and had decided that escape was futile? Or was this some type of desperate strategy born of cornered desperation? It didn’t matter. The result would be the same. He stood tall, planting his feet while his transformation began. The chitinous plates of the Abyssal Scorpion emerged first, covering him in black segments that gleamed with purple veins. The organic armor rippled as it formed, creating a living carapace that pulsed with dark energy. But of course, that wasn’t everything, the advantage of not being square-minded like the boring inhabitants of Yano. Over these, his Rock Spirit’s plates manifested, adding layers of metallic gray stone that didn’t just overlap but integrated perfectly with the biological armor. It wasn’t one ability over another; it was an enhanced body that received both advantages. The fusion created something beyond the sum of its parts… a harmonious merger of organic flexibility and mineral durability. And Yino’s classic transformation went beyond simple protection. His body began changing shape, growing in mass and height. His frame expanded from that of an average man to something approaching a living siege engine. His arms extended disproportionately, gaining almost 50% extra reach that would give him significant advantage in close combat. The joints readjusted to accommodate the new configuration, while his hands transformed into enormous hybrid pincers of stone and chitin. By the time the transformation finished, he had gone from being an average man to a war machine two and a half meters tall, with arms that extended as far as his legs. ‘Evolution accelerated and directed toward a single purpose: destruction.’ Ren and Lin separated, attacking from opposite flanks. It was a basic but effective tactic against individual opponents, designed to split attention and create exploitable openings. The agent chose Lin as his primary target. She was clearly the greater threat; he needed to ask the child some questions, and his experience dictated eliminating the most dangerous enemies first whenever possible. The boy’s strange energy signature made him an unknown quantity, but the woman radiated the confidence of a seasoned fighter. Ignoring her was no doubt a bad idea. He lunged forward with surprising speed for someone of his transformed size, his right arm extending toward Lin in a devastating blow with his stone pincer. The reach of his extended arms would allow him to connect long before she could respond—or so he calculated. But Lin had been observing his transformation with a critical eye. At the last second before impact, she dropped into a crouched position, allowing the blow to pass over her head by millimeters. Simultaneously, she switched the manifestation of her panther lizard on her legs to that of her crane, suddenly extending her lower reach just enough to create an unexpected angle of attack. The maneuver was perfect. The agent had calculated his safe distance based on the slightly shorter legs he’d observed when the panther lizard wrapped around them. He didn’t expect them to suddenly extend, much less that she was a double… Her mana signature read as at most a Silver 3. A new double from Yano here… guarding that kid alone… when one or both of her beasts were still Bronze level? Lin’s kick connected directly with his lateral knee, a point that even in his transformed state remained a relatively vulnerable joint. The force of impact, with 240% enhancement and perfect technique, was considerable. But it wasn’t enough to hurt him. The agent’s thick dual armor absorbed the impact as if it were a child’s blow. The defensive multipliers from his dual transformation created protection that bordered on the absolute against this level of attack. Still, the agent staggered from the force of the blow, since he had yet to recover his balance… but he would recover instantly since there was no way they could generate real damage. “Clever,” he growled, his voice distorted by the transformation into something barely recognizable as human, “but insufficient.” At that precise moment, Ren attacked silently from behind the abyssal agent. Isaac’s dagger gleamed in his hand, the weapon that had cost three times the Silver 1 price to elevate it to Silver 3. In theory, it should be sufficient to pierce any armor of its rank and even a bit higher thanks to the huge multiplicative hardness of concentrated mana. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". Without hesitating, Ren drove the blade in the thinner plates of the agent’s lower back, seeking the point where the chitinous armor overlapped with the stone plates. The weapon moved with the precision of someone who now understands the corrupted anatomy, targeting the vulnerable seams in the hybrid protection. It penetrated, but not as much as expected. The blade was stopped by multiple layers of reinforced material. ‘The defensive increases put him practically at Gold rank,’ Ren thought with growing concern. He had considered upgrading the dagger to Gold… Isaac had quoted the work at ten times the Silver 1 price, but the blacksmith had been honest about his limitations. He didn’t have the strength, skills, or materials necessary for such a project. So instead, Ren had chosen to give Isaac the thousand-day cultivation method and wait. No one had yet shown unequivocal results with the method, but many had great faith it would work. Isaac’s enthusiasm had been genuine too, his gratitude heartfelt. But that was a long-term investment rather than an immediate solution. He had to solve this differently. The agent roared with a fury difficult to control in abyssal transformation, spinning violently to face his attacker. Ren pushed himself backward just in time, the dagger sliding out of the wound easily thanks to his Strength increases slightly better than Lin’s. “Insolent brat!” bellowed the agent, but his still badly supported right swing failed as his attention divided dangerously between his two opponents. Lin took advantage of the distraction immediately. With her crane still manifested, she leaped upward, using the trunk of a nearby tree as a platform to gain additional height. Her panther lizard manifested again in mid-air, providing her with its new tail against a branch for the additional impulse she needed. The agent, accustomed to being sent only to combat terrestrial opponents, had no time to react to the attack from above. Three-dimensional combat was a bit outside his area of expertise. Lin used her weight, amplified by falling speed and her beast’s increases, the impact behind her hammer kick was considerable. The physics of her attack were perfect, combining mass, velocity, and enhanced strength into a devastating package. The agent was left slightly dazed behind his chitin-rock helmet and tried to catch Lin with his pincers above his head. His movements were powerful but predictable. He was slow. Using the agent’s arms as leverage, Lin catapulted herself forward, spinning in the air while switching again to her crane to extend her wings and reach in the air. Her foot connected directly with the underside of the agent’s jaw, the impact transmitted through his entire skull. The combined impact of her previous blow to his skull and the second precise strike to his already weakened neck was sufficient to make the agent completely lose his balance. His transformed mass, normally an advantage, now worked against him as he staggered forward. “Now, Ren!” shouted Lin as she flapped once backward to avoid the falling agent’s desperate claws, landing lightly on the ground like a feather. Her movements were poetry in motion, each gesture efficient and graceful. The agent’s… Struggling to recover his balance, trying not to fall face-first. In this position, the previous crack in his armor was exposed, a vulnerability that beckoned like an open door. It was exactly the opportunity Ren had been waiting for. He didn’t waste the chance. With the agent struggling to rise from his face-down position, Ren lunged forward, directing the dagger toward the same crack he had opened moments before. The timing was perfect. The agent’s awkward position gave Ren enough time to deliver three quick strikes. The first stab sank deeper than before, the already weakened armor yielding under concentrated pressure. The second widened the fissure, rock and chitin parting like flesh under a scalpel. The third finally completely pierced the first defense, the dagger’s tip finding the armor belonging to the abyssal beast beneath. The agent roared again, but now from frustration, more from the indignity of being on the ground than from real damage. His beasts responded to his fury, channeling their elemental energy toward the earth beneath him. An explosion of earth and rocks erupted from the ground, creating a base that not only propelled him upward to a vertical position but also launched Ren several meters backward. The young man landed rolling, absorbing the impact with the grace of someone accustomed to being thrown in his training by an opponent faster than him. “Now you’ll see!” bellowed the agent, quickly assessing his condition. His armor had a significant crack… by the most conservative calculations, he had lost at least half his defensive protection in that area. But that shouldn’t matter. Even with partially compromised armor, his defensive increases remained enormous. The crack was nothing his abyssal regeneration couldn’t handle relatively soon. So why did it hurt so much? It wasn’t physical pain, he had suffered thousands of injuries in routine training. It was something more, something that radiated from each point where the dagger had penetrated. As if something were eating him from within, corroding not just his flesh but his very connection to abyssal energy. A light laugh interrupted his thoughts.

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