Chapter 7: Spirit Of The Sadman Lake (3)
Great, just great! To think that it could exploit its ability to make the sky 'weep'!
Not only did it become much harder to see the surroundings, but it was also impossible for him to discern the smell of blood anymore!
The heavy rain poured down onto Liam, who had gone into despair; his muscles felt like crap after being squished inside the spirit throat, and his vision grew hazy from tiredness.
He had held his breath for quite a while after all, and before he could gasp for air, he was already dragged into this hellish situation.
'When will this nightmare end?'
Is this the influence of the spirit 'Hardships'? Surely, the Spirit Of The SadMan Lake couldn't be intelligent enough to pull this off!
'Argh, there's no time to dwell on that.'
He had to figure out a way to kill this spirit before it retreated back to the water.
When that happened, there's no next time killing this thing for another while since it already has a taste of his scheme.
'You will die, right here and right now.'
Raising the axe that he picked up with his right arm, Liam watched the surroundings as he prepared himself for another throw.
If there's one good thing about the situation, it's that the spirit is just as desperate, maybe even more so than him.
Its throat was ripped out after all, so it's only a matter of time for it to bleed to death, but he couldn't be sure.
It's an abomination that wasn't supposed to exist in this world, even if it could be suffocated, bleed and feel hunger, it's an anomaly in the end, so there's no telling what it could do now that it has had a chance to witness how skillful it is in its ability.
Swoosh—!
"What the—"
Liam's back turned cold as he ducked down immediately!
At the same time, he could feel something sweep past him and strike at something behind him.
'It is still in front of him.'
Seems so, or is this a tactic it used to catch him off guard?
He had always thought of it as a mere beast, but now, he couldn't be careless and throw away his last axe.
'Wait, there's a way to figure it out.'
If it's a beast, then this ability would be useless, but if it's intelligent, then...
Liam's emerald eyes slowly turned yellow as he activated [Alternate Vision]
The vision around him changed as it turned into complete darkness with only him inside it.
Then he could feel his body acting on its own, immediately lunging forward while raising his axe in the air.
'Hmm'
Just as quickly as it came, the darkness faded away, and Liam was back to his situation.
"A beast is a beast in the end."
[Alternate Vision] allowed him to view how others he had interacted with would act when they were in his situation.
The situation here isn't just the environment and the enemy but also his body, his memory and his abilities; all of that was taken into account too.
The only change was that the person he chose would retain their personality and their wisdom, making this skill something he used to cheat in chess or to gain experience.
So when he was immersed in that thing, all he felt and saw was recklessness and savagery, so he believed that it shouldn't be able to trick him.
'But the fact that I immediately rushed to it despite being weaker by a lot. Even a beast wouldn't be that stupid!'
Which means it's known that the other is at its most vulnerable moment and decided to take a risk.
'Ah, screw it.'
Deciding to trust the vision, Liam decided to confront the beast, but instead of lunging, he quietly sneaked to the side.
Crack—!
Bang—!
Sounds of ravaging appeared left and right as the monster didn't even bother to guess where he was anymore and decided to attack randomly.
[Fool Deduction] is useless when a person knows the truth or the person decides to stop guessing and just act randomly, which is something the monster is doing right now.
Catching the wooden branch that was flying toward him, Liam began to walk faster while strategizing what he should do.
"Hm? Is that"
Liam slowly smirked; chances are coming toward him!
*****
Fury
That's all it's felt.
At first, it was annoyance, the same rat bothering it as always, but sadly, it's too slippery to catch.
So it treated it as a play toy for its ability, and it thinks the rat thought like that too.
Every day is a new surprise; sometimes it was flesh, other times it was a tree and a boulder. It brings out new things to play with, to devour and to torment.
Today is just like every other day, until the rat started getting on its nerves through its nonstop ranting.
It was fun, but it decided to end the rat once and for all and prepared for its next step to evolve.
But now here it is, battered and bloody, all come from a mere rat that was supposed to be weak, to be killed by it or to be digested.
But the rat was cunning and devious; it sacrificed its kin and defied the natural order of being eaten.
When it caught the rat, it did not kill it but slowly drained out all of its blood until it wasn't capable of screaming anymore.
The thought of it brings ecstasy to the spirit.
"Grah"
Using its ability to seal its wound for now, it slowly dragged its large body further from the lake while leaving a trail of water behind it.
It may not be as scheming as that rat but that didn't mean it wasn't dumb.
It knows how to scheme, too and right at this moment, when its life is in danger, its mind is blooming with new ideas, all to kill.
It deactivated the water limb and stood still in quiet, looking in the direction where it was and let one of its limbs touch the water.
Now, it waited, just like how that rat had waited to try and kill it; now it's going to be the one who hunts.
Step-!
Step-!
Step-!
Sound of squelchy steps entered its ears even within the rain; it patiently anticipated.
It didn't take long for the prey to finally fall into its trap of water; the moment its foot touched the surface of the water, the prey stopped moving as its body began to convulse before it turned skinny in a matter of seconds.
But then something strange happened: another figure came from behind the prey and jumped on its back before lunging toward it.
Liam had found that the thug was still alive even after being chased by those three arms; maybe it is because the spirit had realized that Liam had tricked it, so it deactivated the ability and dealt with Liam himself.
So the thug lived only for him to be a sacrificial lamb for the second time.
Now, Liam was close enough to see the silhouette of the spirit and immediately threw a knife right at its head.
Stab-!
"GRAHH"
The knife struck its eyes, causing it to roar in agony but that didn't stop it from reaching another water arm toward Liam.
The water arm stretched out through the dark and touched Liam's shoulder, but before it could take a grip on it, Liam quickly slashed the wrist of the water arm midair before he tumbled down into the mud.
With just a mere touch from the water arm, Liam's skin grew saggier and darker, though his shoulder remained all bone and skin like before.
'Well, now it is truly all skin and bone.'
His body appearance was changed due to a penalty from the failed quest; he was supposed to have the muscular body of a man.
Well, now his shoulder is probably not as manly as before anymore.
'Its other arm has grown significantly smaller than before.'
When the spirit resided inside the lake, the water arm could be stretched up to a kilometer and have a hand that could put Dorian inside its grip.
Now, it could probably stretch down around ten or twenty meters, and the size of its hand is the same as a normal human's.
But the power it contained remained relatively the same, as did the effect of the [Water Draining] ability.
Still, the loss in size is a major loss for the spirit since now, Liam could easily cut through the water with his axe.
'The vision was right; just charge at it!'
Liam grew more confident and charged right at the spirit with his axe in his right hand.
The spirit also fought back as it summoned one water arm around its body and another through the water trails, all of it extended toward Liam's direction.
But now its flaw had been seen through Liam; he easily passed through the arm and cut through the water before moving forward.
"GRAHH"
The spirit roared and directly attacked Liam by swinging its head at him.
This caught him by surprise, and due to the other water arms reaching near him, he didn't have a path to dodge.
Bang-!
As the two collided, Liam was knocked back a few steps and coughed out blood.
Yet, he still forced out a smile.
"Stupid beast"
The spirit roared once again, for its remaining eyes had been blinded by him.
The moment the spirit swung its neck at him, he thought that it was going to use its long neck to attack him like a whip, but to think that it used its own head and not its neck.
So Liam struck at its eyes at the moment of impact.
"Use your head more carefully, will you?"
"GRAHHH"
The spirit grew even more enraged as it began to use its water arm differently from before.
Instead of pointlessly trying to touch Liam, it used whatever it could grab to throw at him, whether it was a rock or a tree branch.
He tried to dodge but found himself struggling to even stand, so he could only slightly move his body so that it wouldn't strike his vital spots.
'Ah, the force is much greater than I thought.'
Liam could feel that his ribs were broken and his skull was fractured, but he gritted his teeth and charged forward.
Bang-!
A flying rock struck his leg, but he is still moving.
Slash—!
A flying branch slashed through his right ear, but Liam still charged forward.
After what felt like an eternity, he could finally stand close enough to vaguely see the spirit he had been fighting all this time.
The spirit was a large monster, bigger than anything Liam had seen before, even bigger than the elephant that the chieftain had.
Its lower body is large and rounded, with smooth dark skin and four flippers similar to those seals in the animal encyclopedia books, but it definitely is not a giant seal since its neck is ridiculously long, maybe around fifteen meters or more.
And its face is more of a reptile than a mammal, with bulging eyes, scaly skin and small sharp teeth; its face was truly hideous!
"Let's put an end to it—"
Bang-!
A rock flew right at Liam's head, and this time, he stopped moving onward or even being able to move at all.
Liam's body fell to the ground, his grip on the axe loosened, and his eyes opened wide in terror.
Streams of warm water trickled out of Liam's eyes, and a sense of weakness spread through his body.
He, too, has fallen to the ability of 'weeping.'
Maybe it's due to his mental fortitude that allowed him to persevere till now, but the constant battle and injury have made his mind weaker; thus, he has fallen to this ability.
Liam had grown arrogant about himself, and now, he faced the consequence.
"No, move my body, Move!"
But no matter how much Liam screamed, his body refused to budge an inch.
Just when he was struggling, Liam saw the towering creature in front of him slowly descending its neck in his direction.
'Ah, it was a shitty life.'
Liam closed his eyes and accepted his fate of being eaten by the beast.
Stumped-!
… But death never came, only the strong smell of blood in the air and Liam felt the warm liquid wash through him.
"...Could it be!"
After a minute or two, the rain stopped, and at the same time, Liam felt the dizziness fade away.
He struggled to sit back up before looking at the spirit lying next to him.
Maybe due to desperation from being blinded and losing blood, the spirit grew paranoid and decided to use all three of its arms to attack, ignoring its wound.
And that is the reason for its defeat; the spirit succumbed to its wound and died from blood loss, marking its end in this world.
Just when he was still dazed from the situation, the system screen popped up.
| You have defeated the Spirit Of SadMan Lake |
[Reward]
-Pain relieved
-Raised in attainment
{Congratulations, Spirit Destroyer, your journey has truly begun.}