Blood Nemesis-Chapter 99: Worst

Three minutes.

Three minutes was all they got before the gate flickered again, glowing brightly, capturing everyone’s attention.

No, it was not Fist King that was returning. It was something darker and more nefarious. A chilling aura began to radiate out of the gate.

With a bright golden glow covering him, Oliver stepped forward, instead of retreating when he noticed the change.

For the past few minutes, while everyone was resting, he had been slaughtering the stragglers and draining blood, both to heal and generate more mana.

The thousand units of mana flowing through his body were finally becoming somewhat bearable. The continuous cycles of healing and destruction seemed to have reinforced his cells. Now, it did not feel as painful as it used to. His cells were also learning to coexist with mana, slowly increasing his mana sensitivity, therefore potential. Oliver was sure, if he could maintain the golden glow state for a few more minutes, he would be able to subtly manipulate the mana.

While the pain was horrifying, bone-biting, it finally paid off. The benefits it provided were sufficiently good to make him continue.

Slowly but surely, as time went by, Oliver changed. His body went through a qualitative change far greater than the one he went through while he was the prisoner of The Abyss.

After closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Oliver walked forward, stepping on the carcass of a Poison Arrow Frog. He intended to observe the gate closely.

However, the pile of carcasses was making it difficult to walk. The slick and shiny skin of the slain frogs was excreting a thin mucus layer, making it difficult to walk. Now, the entire crater was one slippery hell for everyone, except for the Mech Pilots.

Oliver shook his head and complained:

’Damned frogs.’

Carcasses will surely make the following battle difficult. Maybe everyone would expand the defensive line and retreat out of the crater to fight. This would certainly allow more mana beasts to crawl through the gate. Surely, it was detrimental to their plan of holding down the choke point securely.

’Fuck!’

He kicked one of the carcasses with his foot to clear an area where he stood.

Then he gazed at the gate, trying to identify the creature that was about to come out.

The dark and deathly aura reminded him of many creatures, but what is the one that is usually seen in a Cerulean Cobra’s nursery?

Oliver’s brain spun around, calculating possible answers to the question.

’The nursery is where the babies of the Cerulean Cobras grow up. It was their home and playground. For A-ranked babies, their physical abilities are not their weakness. So, the mother would place creatures that could mentally challenge its offspring inside.’

’Teaching was its goal. Learning and growing was the mission of the snakelets.’

Oliver paused.

’The frogs were used to temper their poison. Something useful like that and something that could pose a slight challenge to them. What might that be?’

The question triggered a sequence of thoughts that led Oliver to an answer.

However, he didn’t really need to think that hard. As soon as his thoughts reached that point, a creature bearing the dark, deathly aura walked out.

Long snout, razor-sharp claws, an elongated body with metallic spine and small scaly protrusions, and finally a jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth. The creature that came out of the gate was an apex predator of the shallow waters, a D rank mana beast, the Skull Snappers.

The Skull Snappers were giant crocodiles known for their immense bite force. The deathly aura they exuded was not normal. Oliver’s eyes squinted, looking at the twenty to twenty-five-foot-long creature crawling out of the gate.

’It must have fought and struggled inside the nursery against its own kind.’

Oliver saw the strange scars all over the bodies of the creature and thought.

’The mother cobra would have captured them and put them in a death pit, along with hundreds of others from the same species. Normally, it would not have mattered. But a little while later, hunger would drive them mad, forcing them to cannibalise. That is one fucking nasty cobra...’

*Sigh*

Oliver ruffled his hair and cleaned the shredded pieces of meat sticking to him. His entire body was covered in a golden glow, but beneath it were lumps of meat and muscles and gore that splashed on him while he killed the frogs. Although the golden mana resisted most of the stuff that splashed onto him, the few that got through stuck to his body and dried, exactly because of the same mana.

The tracksuit he was wearing was covered in dark red soot made up of dried flesh.

’I should have worn armour before coming here.’ Oliver said in disappointment.

He was not really concerned about the sorry condition of his body. His real concern was the crocodilians that were coming out of the gate one by one.

All of them were huge and tough. They had a battle-hardened glint in their eyes.

With armour, he had the chance to walk off the bite of a Skull Snapper. But without it, the chances were slim.

It was indeed a difficult enemy to slay.

’Anyway, if I wore armour, it would have slowed me down. I wouldn’t have reached here as quickly as I did. So, I wouldn’t have been able to provide the information about the Cerulean Cobras or help in battle. Life is not as black and white as we want it to be. Every choice comes with its own risks and rewards.’

Oliver shook his arms and legs to relax a little and pressed his earpiece.

"Play liked music along with the Hero Union Radio." He said.

The voice assistant did exactly what he said. Within a second, his music playlist began to play.

It was soft, mellow music, one that would relax a person’s mind and help them sleep. However, Oliver nodded in satisfaction when he heard it and glared at the crocodilians coming through the gate.

’It’s time to get serious.’ He said and flashed forward.

His movements became the trigger that forced everyone else to move.

Like the Poison Arrow Frogs, Hundreds of Skull Snappers were flowing out of the gate.

Some of them were fighting each other while the others growled and ran out, consuming the carcasses littered around the gate.

The Mechs retreated a little to make space for their battle.

Despite the metallic bodies, Skull Snappers were a little dangerous to even the most powerful mechs. It was not a mana beast; they could just ignore it like the frogs.

Meanwhile, Oliver strengthened his sword with the overflowing mana and leapt forward, towards the Skull Snapper closest to him.

Skull Snappers were mana beasts that were recorded in the Mana Beast Encyclopedia. Their abilities and weaknesses were clearly described in it.

Oliver remembered them and slashed his sword towards the snout of the beast, to the spot where its nose was.

*Slisss*

The sword made an odd sound and effortlessly passed through. The maddened creature was trying to feast on the carcass of a Poison Arrow Frog when he did that.

*Growls*

The creature let out a low humming growl when it felt pain from its nose. Anger burning in its eyes, the creature’s eyes moved to focus on Oliver’s glowing figure.

He was like a beacon in the darkness of night, easy to see and target. The furious Skull Snapper tried to open its mouth in anger and bite Oliver.

But...

...The mouth of it remained sealed.

Why?

The creature panicked.

"You won’t be able to, dumbass," Oliver growled back at the creature.

The moment his sword slipped in through the hole in the bones supporting its snout, above the nostril, a thin layer of blood had seeped into it.

This blood twisted and turned into two ropes, binding the mouth of the beast, closing it shut.

Despite it being known for an extremely powerful bite, the beast found it difficult to open its mouth.

Oliver smiled seeing it and pulled out his sword, leaving only a thin line of blood connecting the blood rope with him.

"Weakness #1. The Skull Snappers are great at closing their mouth, but not that great when it needs to open them."

Oliver smirked.

"In the next life, train to open your mouth too."

He advised and dropped the sword directly at the head, just near the spine of the stunned beast.

The golden mana made the knife sturdy enough to drill through the thick scaly exterior and hard bone. Strenuously pushing on it, he finally drove it to the brain of the creature, killing it instantly.

However, before Oliver could relax, he was surrounded by more Skull Snappers. Their eyes were glowing with hunger and madness.

The dead body of their fellow brethren was food for them. Oliver was a fresh food. They didn’t care about anything else.

’These damned...’

Before he could complete his words, he heard something and turned his head around, looking directly at the gate.

His quick reaction allowed him to see something silvery flash by.

Then he noticed a drop of blood sliding down his cheeks.

Whatever that moved past him, flashed something silvery and cut into his cheeks, leaving a flesh wound.

A cold chill went down his spine, remembering how he failed to notice the creature until it attacked.

’What?’

Oliver immediately snapped his head back, trying to catch a glimpse of the creature.

Along with the crocodilians, something airborne also seemed to have infiltrated Earth. It was too quick and stealthy for even Oliver to see.

Immediately, he knew his worst fear had come through.

The damned fist king did something that broke lose everything inside from their prison.

’Fuck you Fist King.’ He screamed in his heart.