Twelve (4)

"Hm?" As though he had sensed something, Adre hastily moved away from where he stood and slipped into the shadows.

"Still too late?" Chris arrived at the site of the battle from the other side, but only two gradually cooling corpses greeted him.

The air was thick with the stench of blood mixed with a peculiar smell of gunpowder. Chris drew a breath, his gaze falling on the two small burning spheres before shifting toward the shadows behind them.

The dark-gold Scale-kin leaped out of the shadows. Because of the injury to its leg, it was considerably slower. Chris easily dodged to the side, flashed over to the corpses, picked up a fallen longsword, and slashed without hesitation at the empty space beside him.

Several black threads were severed at once. Adre charged out from the side, the skin and flesh of his right hand rapidly blackening and transforming into a tentacle that lashed directly at Chris. The Scale-kin spun around as well and pounced on Chris again.

The jet-black tentacle swept past, knocking the longsword from Chris's hand. His body was sent flying sideways, but he rolled along the ground and dodged the Scale-kin's pounce.

A finger-wide wound had been gouged into the tentacle formed from Adre's right hand by the longsword. Black threads continuously Spread from the wound, and in mere seconds, it had already repaired itself.

"I used Black Crow Pathogen to Devour the muscles in my arm. Because of the limits of the human body, an arm can only contain so much muscle. But Lord Negary's gift allowed me to break through the limits of humanity."

Adre's body trembled as a vast amount of black matter gathered from his body into his arms. Tentacles emerged one after another from his shoulders, each formed of muscle imitated by Black Crow Pathogen. The muscular tentacles waved ceaselessly, and the howling wind they stirred seemed to proclaim just how terrifying his strength was.

Chris got to his feet and flexed his wrist. The force of that black tentacle was no weaker than that of the Sub-Dragon from before. If a human body took a direct hit like that, it would probably be smashed in two at the waist. If he had not sensed that something was wrong and released the sword on his own, even his hand would have been broken outright.

"You've become a monster through and through." Looking at the several jet-black muscular tentacles Adre had grown, it seemed that Adre himself was now centered around those tentacles. The rest of his body had instead become dead weight.

"Scale-kin, go. Tear him apart."

Chris drew a deep breath and moved. The Scale-kin had slowed down, and with the help of the Dragon Powder, it was already difficult for it to injure him as long as he was careful. Still, it restricted his range of movement.

Two of Adre's tentacles braced against the ground while several others whipped about without pause. Trees that blocked the way were smashed apart. Houses that stood in the way were battered into ruins by the tentacles. The gale stirred up by them made Chris's skin sting.

Faced with such frenzied tentacle attacks, along with the Scale-kin's intermittent pounces, all of his focus was devoted to dealing with them. He could not afford the slightest lapse. If he was struck by a tentacle even once, or pinned down by the Scale-kin, death would descend upon him.

"What are you still holding out for? Give up. Black Crow Pathogen doesn't suffer fatigue and soreness like human muscles do, while you'll soon run out of strength, won't you?" Adre's body was practically hanging from the black tentacles. Since the Black Crow Pathogen that formed the rest of his body had been drawn out to form muscular tentacles, he now looked extremely thin and small. Without two tentacles supporting him, he could not even stand steadily.

It was also because of this that, although his tentacle attacks were violent, their speed and range were not especially formidable. Otherwise, Chris could not possibly have held on until now.

"Give up resisting, Chris. You can't beat me, let alone Lord Negary!!" Adre said slowly. "Look beneath your feet, Chris. You've already lost."

Chris was startled. The two jet-black tentacles supporting Adre against the ground had somehow become much thinner, while black threads had formed a great net across the ground—and Chris had fallen into it.

The black threads pierced through Chris's trousers and stabbed into the skin of his feet. Fine strands burrowed ever deeper into his feet, controlling his movements, while the thick tentacles smashed down at the immobilized Chris.

"You're the one who's lost." Chris exhaled. "Deep Chaos Rhythm."

A slight discomfort appeared in Adre's body, but he did not take it too seriously. "Chris, your Deep Chaos Rhythm needs time to build up. The only contact you've had with me was the brief moment when my threads pierced your body. At most, your Deep Chaos Rhythm can make me feel a little discomfort. Other than that, it has no effect whatsoever."

"Still haven't noticed?" Chris raised his hand, using Gold Rhythm to force himself to withstand the tentacle's attack.

"You Devoured most of your body with Black Crow Pathogen, then drew it out again to form tentacles. That has already created an imbalance in your Rhythm. Your shrunken body proves it. Added to that, you've been poisoned. Your own Rhythm already has enormous problems. My Deep Chaos Rhythm was merely the spark."

"Poisoned..." Adre's gaze shifted, and he saw the two spheres that were nearly burnt out, as well as the things those two people had been chewing in their mouths. He understood in an instant.

"You're gradually losing strength!" Chris took a tentacle strike head-on, but now, because of the imbalance in its Rhythm, the tentacle had become weak and feeble. "The counterattack begins!"

"Rhythm Stripping Fist!" Chris swung his fist, striking the tentacles as though they were targets. Rhythm Fist could attack the weak points in an enemy's Rhythm, preventing them from reacting, while Rhythm Stripping could create a repulsive force against whatever was stripped away. Combined, every punch Chris threw carried a powerful repulsive force.

The threads embedded in his feet were torn away as well. Punch after punch followed, until at last one fist smashed directly into Adre's chest. The repulsive force struck his heart, rupturing it and stopping its beat.

Sensing Adre's life force gradually fading, Chris forced himself to hold on and warily guarded against a surprise attack from the Scale-kin. Though it looked as if he had won easily, he truly was running out of strength. If Adre had held on a little longer, he might really have lost.

He had no way to deal with the Scale-kin now. He could only hope that, without its master's control, it would not attack him while he carried the Dragon Powder.

After Adre died, the Scale-kin became extremely agitated. It stared fixedly at Adre's corpse, repeatedly moving closer and retreating. Finally, it let out a roar and pounced onto Adre's body. Opening its tooth-filled mouth, it bit through Adre's neck without hesitation. A small lump implanted in his neck was bitten open, and golden blood spilled out from within.

Watching the Scale-kin continuously lap at the golden blood, Chris slowly backed away. He had dealt with the enemy on his side. He wondered how the others were doing.

Just as Chris was thinking this, a dazzling light flared up in the distance, its radiance exceptionally magnificent.

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