Chapter 25: Fire and Blindness, Starting the Lemonade Machine

Just like a cat, curiosity overwhelms your fear.

The eeriness tingles your spine as you pull out your microgun, preparing to bear your hidden fangs to raze any threat. You're engulfed, as you lose your vision in the haze of—

Horror.

Each step you take is transporting you to another dimension where if savagery is a concept, it will be the magnum opus for the great parade attraction. Just like the death cavalcade, the corpses flowering with guts and hanging eyeballs are showcasing themselves in a meat market-like exhibition where the butcher is showing off their art with their victims being skewered into their own belongings.

Can't handle the pressure, the gush of acid and cheese within your guts is running away through your throat, pushing off any obstacles you make to prison them inside your meat vessel. Your legs are noodles, thousands of miasmic substances are slinking their way into your heart, clenching the bloodstream and your motivation to ever move forward.

"This is fine, I need to get out of here."

You go back to the barrier shell, nothing changes. The Calamity is gone and there is nothing you can do to temper the barrier in any kind of way.

Goyang is caressing your leg once again, purring as if he is saying that everything will be okay.

Monster, pain, suffering, mortal threat, all are trivial in the face of gore. Going in deeper is not a choice at all. Unless—

"Unless I'm lucky enough to get away from the predator."

Even with all of the foreboding, you march forward to the hellish landscape. You've died thousands of times and one more might not hurt. Then again, you're scared that there will be no other chance left but taking action is better than rotting away.

Before diving into the solo raid, you put away your backpack as it might slow you down. Chamber the ammunition of the microgun and slip five more into the crevice of your gothic lolita dress. You haven't noticed until now because the outfit actually has a self-repairing circuit. You want to take a look into it later.

With all the mana accumulated for the past seven hours, you now can control the infected blood more smoothly than before. Not wanting to risk the precious crystal gourd, you put all of the controlled blood onto your right arms in the shape of a vein—ready to be used for any kind of situation.

The killer moon is once again judging you. With the giant trees still in presence, you slinks and tiptoes your way into the reddish bush, holding Goyang with your left hand and microgun on the other. Just in case, the Chrolings are making a lot of 'Blood Bending Virus' using the virus factory. You already prepare 20 viruses and send them on standby and more to come. Over preparing won't hurt you in any way for this kind of dread. The more ready you are, the more confident you will be.

Within your view the danger appears large, it is a giant white-fur ape the size of a house with numerous weapons from its victim's resistance piercing its body, barely flinching the monster. One of them is a large broadsword making its way up its neck from end to end. A red geometric tattoo can be seen from its head to the feet, shaping a random pattern. Do those tattoos on the monster have meaning?

Your soul then almost leaves your body unprepared as the savage ape suddenly darts its gaze into your crippled soul with no hesitation to stomp forward with its limbs. The earth shakes and so does your whole body. Quickly regaining your balance, you leap and slink into the back of a nearby tree, avoiding the mad rush. Until a pure force is blasting the middle of your towering barricade and makes a large hole.

"I'm not ready, dammit!" You blast a shot into the giant hole with the savage on the other side. The round is occupied by three 'Blood Bending Virus', waiting for glory as the explosion shrinks the air and implodes the surrounding area of the impact. Unfazed, the great ape didn't flinch nor even startled a bit with the overflowing madness running through its spine, as the firepower couldn't deal any damage to the exterior of this Calamity.

But that doesn't matter, you're counting on the virus squadron getting ejected into the bloodstream of the ape. They dissolve but something is neutralizing them one by one before they can even deploy the mana circuit.

"This will be tough, what is the deal with the difficulty spike!?"

The ape peeks out from the large hole before splitting the skyscraping tree into two. The shockwave is too immense for your little body to handle, making you tumble and roll into an overly dangerous landscape filled with abandoned weaponry.

Adrenaline is kicking, more ever than your fear. You take the rusty and large lance beside you, using the infected blood as a supporting horsepower to lift up the weapon twice the size of your little body.

Just as when the lance is horizontally aimed, the ape is rushing once again. Using the 2% of the 'Ashura Body Array' within your mana sea together with the pseudo muscle from the blood—the lance is speeding its way into the ape's head.

It pierces the outer skin as it stucks at the ape's forehead but the mad rush hasn't been weakened for a second. Utilizing the other end of the lance, the ape is sweeping the battleground like a bastard sword.

You shift all of the blood into your lower limbs and dodge all of the consecutive sweeping. The adrenaline is overflowing, the cup can't hold the water anymore.

After all the sweeping, the great monkey is ending the combos by leaping to strike the ground. Your reflex is more on the offensive so you dodge the attack by evading forward into the bottom of the ape's stomach.

Putting all the controlled crimson red into the shape of a sharp blade on your left hand, you coat the tip with 30 compressed 'Blood Bending Virus'. Striking the stomach with the force of a meteor, the blade pierces deep into the flesh as the thick organisms of viruses sheltering one virus who is doing the infection.

Something is definitely residing within the ape.

The infection is successful; it then spreads like a plague with the overclocking from the Chrolings—temporarily immobilizing the Calamity. You hack and slash away, ending the blow with a closely executed shot into the big gap wound. Instantly increasing the distance with a huge leap right after.

A miasmic dark crimson suddenly envelopes the ape's body, the huge wound should have killed that monstrosity yet it is sending strike after strike. Goyang is keenly fast to absorb the meaningless damage by predicting the landing of each strike on the ground every time, which doesn't give you any benefits whatsoever in this life and death situation.

One of the uppercuts manage to land on your fragile body, destroying some of your ribs. The force propels you ten meters away headfirst as you land on the edge of a large sword. Using your microgun as a hard cushion, you're lucky that it only cracks your skull a few millimeters deep.

The fight isn't over yet.

Stress: 78%