LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL-Chapter 56: The Love For Battle
Elias drew his arm away from the head of the dying creature, feeling intense vitality flooding through his body. He did it just in time, as whatever was on the other end of that umbilical cord pulled back the creature, and Elias staggered as he was nearly dragged along with it.
’This is bad,’ he thought, as losing his balance gave the third creature closest to him the chance to raise its head and slam down upon him. Elias briefly considered staying in place to tank the blow even as he cut through its head, but common sense quickly asserted itself, and he rolled to the side.
The creature’s head slammed down where he’d been standing with a massive bang. The impact shook the floor, sending stone shards that cut his shins and calves. He came up bleeding, claws out, so he could tear through the skull of the creature, which seemed a bit stunned after slamming its head down on the ground like a hammer when the last flanking one hit him from the side.
He felt his ribs crack, and the air was ripped out of his body. Elias would have been sent flying into the horde behind him when he felt a large wet tongue wrap around his waist, and he was pulled back to the creature that had just sent him flying.
Elias grunted, pain lancing through his side. He could not allow the creature to pull him into its mouth; with the power he knew they had, he would be crushed to paste in mere moments.
He set his feet against the ground and grabbed the tongue with both hands, claws sinking deep, and pulled. The creature yanked back, dragging him off his feet. He hit the ground hard, air knocked out of him. The tongue tightened, teeth grinding against bone.
In front of him, the creature that wanted to flatten him to paste had recovered from slamming its head into the ground, and noticing Elias struggles, began to quickly crawl towards him, flesh jiggling like rotten meat about to fall off the bone.
Elias snarled, drove his claws into the tongue, and he sawed sideways with furious motions. Black fluid poured over his hands, some of them even poured inside his mouth; they tasted like death.
The across his waist tongue loosened because he had cut through the ligament, giving it structural integrity. He ripped free, rolled forward, and came up swinging under the creature that was coming to get a free meal. His claws took the creature’s lower face off in one stroke. It reared back, screaming, its umbilical cord snapping like a whip.
Seeing the opportunity, Elias lunged forward, and his claws struck at the umbilical cord. He was getting pissed off that he was not getting the full benefits of his kills.
His claw struck the cord, and it could not cut through it, only managing to cut halfway despite Elias putting all of his strength behind the blow. A surprised shriek of pain resounded in the distance, and the umbilical cord was pulled back alongside the dying creature, but the creature collapsed halfway, as the cut from Elias alongside the forceful pull from whatever was directing these monsters from the darkness caused the cord to snap all the way through.
Everything seemed to freeze in place, and Elias had no time to appreciate the growing tension when the body of the Creature exploded into a flood of red vitality that was drawn into his body like iron fillings being drawn to a gigantic magnet.
It was as if his pools were exerting a great force over any free Lumina around him, and the need for any summoning Incanations was useless. As red Lumina poured into his body, Elias nearly stumbled as something else was ripped from the body of the creature that was rapidly turning to ash. It resembled a miniature version of the creature that was made of flame, and he had no time to understand what had just happened when a crazed roar erupted from the darkness, and the babyish creatures surrounding him went insane.
As if they were cobras, they raised their massive heads away from the ground and began to charge at him. They fought amongst themselves to get to him, as two of them were able to push through the press of disgusting white bodies and emerge ahead. They came for him, black tongues swinging around as if they had a life of their own.
One of the tongues swept low, aiming for his legs. Elias knew he could not be at the center of these creatures, or he would be crushed to death by their mass, as he would have no way to exert his strength.
He leapt forward, clearing the tongue that had been sweeping for his legs, and landed on the head of the creature with his claws sinking into its pale scalp. The skull cracked under his weight, and he rode it down, twisting the blades, and he gasped as red light exploded from the skull of the creature, alongside what looked like its soul.
The creature dropped dead, and Elias stumbled, nearly screaming at himself for this mistake, as the second one that had struggled through the press of bodies to get to him struck and bit down on his right shoulder.
Elias’s bone crunched with a cracking sound as pain roared through him, white-hot, blinding. His increased Perception was a blessing, but right now, it was a curse.
Due to the creature now raising its head up like a snake, it gave Elias the space to drive his left claws into its throat and his right claws into its eye. The creature thrashed, teeth grinding deeper. It wanted to pull Elias closer so he could be fully devoured as its black tongue began to snake around his body.
Elias felt his collarbone snap, and he roared in rage. Pulling deep for any reserve of strength he had, he pushed both of his hands deeper before ripping both sets of claws outward.
The creature’s head split down the middle. Black fluid and the red light of its condensed Lumina sprayed across his face, alongside that tiny condensed light that resembled a soul. The teeth clamping down upon his shoulder released, and the body dropped like a boulder.
Elias staggered back. Blood poured from his back in steady streams. He had been injured when he was slammed twice against the rough ground and dragged by the tongue.
There were rake marks across his spine, which were so deep that his muscles were exposed, and they showed his vertebrae grinding with every breath.
His right shoulder was a ruin, the joint popped out again, the arm was dangling uselessly, right forearm was torn open from the teeth that were chewing on him. Tendons severed, hand barely closing.
The wound on his calf throbbed; the stones that had shot into it from the earlier strikes from these monsters were still dug into his flesh, but were slowly being pushed out.
He was losing blood fast. Elias’s mind was working in a frenzy, and he pushed his Will to the limit, calling for his Asecndant Swarm, and they responded. Tiny motes of purple and gold began to crawl over the worst of the wounds, purple threads stitching skin close so his body could heal faster, but it was still too slow. The regeneration was working, but not fast enough against this much damage.
Three more creatures surged forward, black tongues slapping their faces as umbilical cords twitched behind them, pulling the bodies closer.
Elias spat blood, aware that if not for his breeches, he would be fighting with a visible erection. Death felt scary when he was so outmatched that he could not fight for his life, but when he was given a chance to struggle, then the fight... was everything!
No time to wait for healing, he braced himself and popped back his shoulder as the nearest one lunged for him.
