Kapitel 39: Pitiful Creature.

Dashing forwards while dodging obsidian scorpion's terrible claws, Raian slowly but surely made his way for direct confrontation.

He couldn't help it, the range of the two was vastly different, hell the scorpion doubled its range with its extending joint on the right claw so he gritted forward.

As the distance shrank, Raian weaved between the attacks like a seasoned veteran. He had already comprehended the optimal range and timing of the right claw. In his mind, the scorpion's death was inevitable. Whether his left hand could move or not did not matter. The dreadful descending claw, the left pincher hitting him, even the stinger accurately striking his skull—none of these mattered. Its death was absolute.

Against such a situation unknown confidence or maybe an arrogance flooded Raian's mind. Where did such emotions come from remains a mystery but at the moment all he thought was the creature against him.

Roaring blindly at nothing, he finally reached the place he sought to get.

Surprised at himself, Raian pondered for a moment, standing still. He had forgotten the plan, in his subsequent quest to reach its legs the previous plan meticulously forged had slipped out of his mind.

Almost slipping, through his cognition the pincher flew at his open back only to miss when Raian ducked it effortlessly. The move seemed to surprise both of them. Not because it was something impossible or rather it was so natural, too natural in fact Raian didn't even think of dodging, his body moved involuntarily.

Shocked yet calmly thinking, Raian attempted to find the reason, throwing away his plan to attack the scorpion's head in the process. Now only dodging and weaving between attacks that could potentially take his life the mystery surrounding his body felt weird.

Logical Raian took pride in understanding his body, after all the body was his most valuable asset no matter how wealthy he got or how many subordinates he had under serving the needs of the boss at the top of the food chain in the slums.

Then a sudden enlightenment lighted up a light above his head. Back when he successfully conquered the first nightmare and got his aspect the three little attributes elude his attention but remembering them now cleared things up a little.

Dodging physically yet deeply thinking mentally, Raian allowed the mysterious feelings to embrace his body to survive against the obsidian scorpion. Both of them seemingly wanted survival and death of the scorpion so there was no hesitation to reject something unknowingly he thought.

[Greater Senses] one of the three attributes he got had to be the reason what else could be.

It had to be his attribute, while the attention on it was light compared to the main aspect the effects likely differed. Remembering when he dodged the pincer using it something wasn't right.

Thoughts like 'Why didn't it activate before when the dangers of Maddened Kast threatened his life,' rushed through his brain but no questions were answered in that short moment.

Weaving between the two claws and keeping a certain distance from the poisonous stinger, Raian was still in danger but the unknown feeling was gone, its mystery still at a far distance.

With a loud thud barely by skin of his teeth he evaded the descending claw but the effects of [Greater Senses] was gone.

'Maybe it's bugged.' through Raian.

Unreliable ally was worse than a competent enemy, many years in the slums taught this hard to many, some learned it and moved on while others were too blind to see maybe they could see it but ignored it, blindly trusting others for aid yet in their detriment tragedy unfolded and Raian was nothing but adaptable.

Throwing away the unnecessary thoughts he entered offense yet again aiming to claim it's head in his next move. Twisting his body to dodge, Raian punched the claw next to him, testing its toughness and his mastery over adamantine kata.

Two days wasn't much but there was still some progress in the battle to death even the slightest advantage mattered.

First punch felt like he was hitting an unbreakable mountain but after a couple more dodging and punching sequence the creature's hard exoskeleton began to crumble and then began to shatter.

Accurately hitting back now seemed so easy, usually battles like this don't last long he thought. One side with the overwhelming advantage would quickly decimate the other but after learning the ins and outs of the scorpion defensively Raian had much easier time dodging compared to the initial moments.

Done with his self filler moment Raian was ready to end this farce of a dance between two of them. The battle between them was sacred yet he had thrown mud and spit on it, taking a moment to ponder under assault of the scorpion felt shameful so he apologized to it mentally.

As if sensing his apology the obsidian scorpion sped up attacking frequently and the ferocity behind it rose.

Rolling forward to dodge, Raian canceled the roll midway but jumped upwards reaching one of its many legs. Even the legs were covered by its exoskeleton but Raian didn't mind, after all the legs weren't the aim.

Substituting the leg with solid ground and launching himself upwards, Raian dodged the sharp stinger as he climbed forward. Practically hearing the stinger cut air as it flew past his head, Raian traveled across its huge body to the head.

Moving as fast as he could the retraction of the stinger was faster, until he could get the head the stinger aimed at him multiple times each missing and hitting the scorpion's body lighting sparkes as it tried to defend itself from him.

Taking deep breaths to concentrate even deeper, Raian dashed forward, landing a devastating punch at the scorpion's head with all he had. Not hearing but feeling the exoskeleton shatter at the impact of his punch a vile smile started to form across his face making him look like a demon.

Raian could feel it, dodging the stinger again the image of him standing over the scorpion's mangled body flashed in his mind. Overcoming the scorpion wasn't too hard. Maybe someone with a sword would have a hard time cutting through the exoskeleton but Raian didn't have that problem. This was one of the rare positives he realized about his aspect.

It was too simple but simplicity was better sometimes. While he couldn't get any profound powers from his aspect, the immediate strength of his aspect supported him, supported him too well in fact, almost no mastery across his powers Raian was still able to dodge and poke while standing on the body of the scorpion.

'The poor thing couldn't evolve correctly', most of its combat ability focused on what stood in front the creature had only one way of attacking when someone snuck on top of him.

'What a pitiful little creature you are, here let this Warrior of Will end your demise' thought Raian as he punched the same place in quick succession. With increased strength and agility performing three punches before the stinger eventually flew past him was easy. Not to mention the aspect boosted his basic stats to a terrifying degree giving him almost endless levels of endurance.

After a dozen punches he started to hit something soft instead of the hard outer shell.

'What a joke'

With his final dodge Raian's fist pierced through the scorpion's pitiful head ending all resistance against him.

"Get a better attack pattern in your next life." talking like the victor he was Raian slowly took a deep breath and tried to logically analyze the battle.

[You have slain an Awakened Devil: Obsidian Scorpion.]

[Your will has grown greater.]

Ignoring the spooky whispers of the Spell, Raian started to revise.

First his initial hesitation, he felt embarrassed, a veteran such a himself made such a beginner mistake was humiliation Raian didn't mind, it was easily correctable.

Second the mysterious feelings regarding [Greater Senses] and its mysterious conditions for functioning.

Third was his arsenal and upcoming creatures he needed to kill. Analyzing more was a better choice to make, maybe if he had looked a little harder and thought a little more the scorpion's descending claw wouldn't have hit him in the first place.

Finishing the light revision Raian pulled his still purple left hand upfront. Looking at the injury the color was getting better but it was still slower than he had expected. Before this the [Potion of cursed vitality] healed heavy injuries easily making him rely on it blindly and expect more.

Such behavior wasn't good. He needed to focus more on fighting himself, the frequent use of the potion wasn't good in the long term, plus it was unreliable seeing it unable to instantly heal a poisoned, almost rotting hand. He felt the limits of an ascended memory.

'Would transcending heal it in an instant?'

'What do Corrupted level memories look like?'

Imagining an otherworldly unique memory, Raian shook his head to stop the wild imaginations. Even if he got a memory the chances of his being able to use it was still depressingly low.

Reminded of his terrible luck Raian wasn't sad about not getting a memory rather he was sad about not getting an echo. Granted echo was the rarest, its abysmal low rate towering above chances of getting a memory it still saddened him.

Watching the unmoving body of the scorpion, Raian flicked his right hand to get the wet innards off his right hand.

Shockingly he couldn't stop the initial flicking motion, following the force behind the flick Raian fell down failing to stop and retract his hand back.

Falling flat on the tough exoskeleton, Raian finally realized the state of his body.

Back wet with cold sweat and legs slightly trembling, his abdomen was truly bruised looking like a large ink of blue and purple mapped across, the damage from one hit of the claw along with use of cursed vitality took a lot more than he imagined.

Turning himself over, Raian looked up to the sky. The white sun shone too brightly but it was the least of his concern. Moving his body from bottom to top his left fingers lightly twitched.

Happy he didn't have to chop off his arm, Raian smiled smugly.

"What's with that smile?" a head popped in his vision wanting an answer.

Looking at Liala Raian's smug smile grew bigger.

Rolling her eyes Liala checked Raian's condition, while tired he looked like he could still move.

Welcome him to grab her and lend a hand as she asked. " So, how was the fight are you satisfied now?"

Grabbing the hand and pulling himself up, Raian looked Liala in the eye, smiling with overflowing joy he replied. "It was great, no, in fact it was the best, I learned so much. No wonder people say what doesn't kill them makes them stronger, I think I got a whole lot stronger than before."

Smiling at Raian's happy face, Liala patted his shoulder a few times lightly and summoned her claymore to dissect the scorpion, wanting the little stones inside. While she had few hints about Raian's aspect there was no guarantee so her curiosity only stayed as one.

Seeing Liala immediately jump to get the soul shard, Raian took a deep breath and asked "So what's next?"

Answering as she stabbed the claymore deep into the exoskeleton Liala replied. "Now we… you should recover."

Checking the state of his body, Raian replied "I can still walk, let's move right after you take the shards, I don't wanna run from the Dark Sea again." said in a casual tone.

Stopping for a moment Liala smiled at Raian "If you think you can then let go, if you start getting tired you may hop on my back, this sister will carry you." teasing him a little.

"I would rather die." Rolling his eyes, Raian rejected her effort.

Looking at each other in a sudden silence both started laughing "Hahaha" x2

/// I m back i think 1 chapter every 2 days feels allright.///

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