"Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss-"
When humanity's most intense, purest, surging blood vitality collided with the Abyss Black Water that represented death and nothingness, it unleashed a reaction even more violent than corrosion by strong acid.
Vast quantities of white steam rose from where the axe blade met it.
Seizing the instant in which his blood vitality resisted the Abyss's erosion, Blood Axe abruptly raised his right leg and drove it into the Infiltrator's chest like a battering ram.
"Bam!"
The Infiltrator's enormous, three-meter-tall body was actually sent flying by that kick, plowing a deep furrow dozens of meters long through the ground before crashing into a row of abandoned hibernation pods.
"Huff... huff..."
Blood Axe gasped for breath. Rain washed the blood from his body, gathering into a red puddle beneath his feet.
He lowered his head to glance at the battle-axe in his hand.
This old companion, which had followed him for decades, now had more than half its blade corroded away. Black pits covered its handle, too, like rotten wood hollowed out by termites, ready to snap at any moment.
Worse still were his hands.
Although he had forcibly driven back the Abyss's erosion with his blood vitality, two black marks deep enough to expose bone remained on his palms. The flesh there did not bleed. Instead, it had turned a lifeless, ashen gray, and had even lost all sensation of pain.
"Physical attacks work, but the price is too high."
Blood Axe spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. He was only a mortal, and his blood vitality was finite, while the Abyss's negative entropy energy was infinite as long as it remained in this despair-filled refugee camp.
"Still not dead... so hungry..."
Amid the distant ruins, the Infiltrator staggered back to its feet.
The shoulder Blood