Mature Form (34)

The strange figure moved without a sound. Wind-aspected Origin Matter ensured that as long as it did not move beyond a certain speed, it caused barely any disturbance in the air.

It swiped with one claw. Though the motion looked gentle, it carried enough force to crush the scales and bones of an ordinary creature. It was a true killing blow.

But this time, the silent claw that had once slain so much prey could only grasp a layer of incomparably solid phantom Origin Matter.

Ian opened his eyes, and silver-cyan streams of light instantly swept over the figure's alarmed and furious body.

Buzz!

Origin Matter suddenly coursed through his entire body, activating one organ after another. Even the longsword in his hand lit up with a faint golden gleam.

The Deep Abyss Iron Sword slashed out with all its might like a black gale, instantly striking the figure's body.

But the moment the sword hit the figure, Ian suddenly felt his hand go empty. His blade had not struck solid flesh, but a tangled mass of rotten leather—the figure drifted backward lightly as a feather, yielding with the force of his slash.

It dispersed the force. And at a very high level, too!

Without a moment's hesitation, Ian sensed the dense moisture in the air and switched to water-aspected Origin Matter. A Water Blade appeared from nowhere along the edge of his sword, which had already missed, slicing through the air in a second, double-layered follow-up slash.

Splurt!

This time, there was no way to disperse the force—the figure was immediately struck and let out an incomparably shrill scream. A large mass of shattered hair and bone fragments burst from its chest.

Yet there was no blood.

The figure was extraordinarily nimble. Borrowing the force of Ian's Water Blade, it drifted backward, then flipped through the air onto a stone pillar and hid within the shadows.

But to Ian, every shadow was as bright as day. The crimson glow of hostility hanging high above it was like a cheat in a shooting game, directly marking out the enemy's location.

So he exhaled and bent down, reaching toward the ground.

Crack!

The youth's long fingers looked pale and slender, yet when they touched the white stone floor, they seemed forged from white jade and diamond. He tore out a huge rock as easily as if grabbing pudding.

"Locked on."

Silver streams of light flickered in his eyes. Ian gathered his strength, Origin Matter racing through him and accelerating his blood as he locked onto the figure hiding in the shadows, convinced it was safe. Then he hurled the rock with all his might.

Boom!

The rock, thrown at full force and coated in Origin Matter, even took on a faint golden sheen, revealing a slight metallic texture.

The speeding stone tore through the air, whipping up a fierce gust as it smashed mercilessly into the figure's head.

The figure immediately let out another scream, its voice like the piercing cry of some kind of ape, and blood sprayed out. Yet it had not died. The blow left it swaying, unable to remain airborne, and instead stirred up its savagery. Using the height of the pillar, it pounced down, determined to fight Ian to the death.

But Ian did not feel any sense of danger at all. With his experience, he could tell without guessing that this was merely a feint, meant to trick Ian into defending before turning to flee.

So he pulled out the High-Pressure Water Gun.

"Fire."

Buzz!

The jet of water streaked through the air and struck the figure just as it stopped charging forward and turned to glide backward, trying to escape into the karst cave. The scarlet stream of water that pierced through its body stripped away the last of its strength to flee.

"Eek... eek?!"

After falling from midair and rolling about in agony, the figure noticed Ian approaching. It immediately fell to its knees and howled, seemingly begging for mercy—but Ian ignored it completely and brought his sword down with full force.

Clang!

Sure enough, the figure was an intelligent creature, and its plea for mercy had been an act. The moment Ian's sword came down, it raised its hands and roared as it lunged forward, intending to perish with him.

The figure's arms were covered in jagged calcium structures and wrapped in thick, iron-like hair. In theory, even taking the attack of an alchemical firearm head-on might not have fully broken through its defenses.

But this was the Deep Abyss Iron Sword wielded by Ian.

The heavy sword smashed down with devastating force. Amid the sound of shattering bones, the figure's arm bones broke inch by inch. Its crossed arms twisted and snapped inward, and even its spine gave off a faint sound of breaking.

Its entire body was smashed an inch shorter by Ian's Edgeless Sword Arts heavy sword.

The figure finally rolled across the ground, utterly powerless.

This time, it was no act—Ian stepped forward and shattered its chest with one slash, pinning down the "true body" that was truly emitting blue mist within his Precognitive Vision.

A gigantic tapeworm coiled between its chest and spine, still wriggling continuously as it tried to escape.

"Interesting. So this is a mature parasitic organism?"

Using his sword to pin down the reddish-brown parasite, whose length he could not determine but which ran through the figure's entire body, Ian leaned down with great interest and carefully examined it.

Under the Silver Chip's scan, this massive reddish-brown tapeworm was indeed the mature form of the pale-blue parasite he had seen before. Their descriptions were exactly the same. Aside from their size and Origin Matter content, one was a "larval form" while the other was a "complete form."

It sounded like some kind of Digital X-Beast evolution form, but it was actually different.

Ian believed that this parasite changed itself according to its host... The parasite inside the Azure-Armored Lizard had not yet had time to undergo deeper fusion and evolution with its host—or rather, "metamorphosis"—so it had retained its original pale-blue appearance.

This fully mature parasite, however, possessed considerable intelligence. After replacing its original host's brain, it had likely become almost a true intelligent creature.

The youth stared at the corpse of the figure he had defeated. He took out the Crocodile Dragon's brain crystal from his waist and used the fluorescent earth-aspected Origin Matter within it to illuminate the details of the other's body.

The analysis began.

The figure that had intended to attack Ian was a "mutant human," its entire body covered in dark brown overgrown hair and its legs and feet completely deformed.

It matched the descriptions in books of those inferior Aliens that had mutated without gaining sufficient power. It looked hideously ugly and withered.

Its legs had birdlike backward joints, while thin membranes stretched between its arms and legs, making it resemble a flying squirrel or bat. Combined with its ability to manipulate wind elements, this allowed it to glide silently between the stone pillars and skillfully evade Ian's first slash.

Beneath the mutant human's hair were layers upon layers of protruding hardened skin growths. Their outer surfaces had calcified, forming tooth-like structures, while certain parts resembled large fingernails. Through the translucent keratinous layer, one could even see the reddish-brown muscles within the mutant's body.

Those were merely outward features. The true key still lay in that parasite.