As the creature attempted to slip by him to get at the others, Eik slammed the sharp, crystalline edge of one of his conjured shields into its chest and sent it flying backward, his own legs already moving to take chase.

  This one looked remarkably similar to the very first spawn of the Lord of the Moon that Eik had had the pleasure of encountering. Humanoid not only in its facial features and extremities but also in the general form of its body.

  What Eik had met back in that snowy hell where he had nearly been killed had been hauntingly slender in any sense of the word but this one was something even worse. Its limbs and neck were so unfathomably skeletal that it looked fragile enough for even the unawakened Bin to be able to snap it in two like a grissino.

  Although he wasn’t quite used to the recent jump in his own power yet, there was no doubt in his mind that this particularly ugly son of a bitch was the most powerful of the spawn thus far. And judging by the way Profound Toxin was behaving within his spirit—running wild with unbridled excitement and aggression—this might just be what he had been looking for.

  An ugly smirk, just like what had marred all other spawns, had been plastered across its features but now that Eik had thwarted its hopes to harass the others. It hadn’t been allowed to enjoy the suffering of its victims, instead stuck fighting the strongest man there.

  Or rather, second strongest, but if Chop the Blade had earnestly bared his fangs at the monster, it would probably have turned tail and fled long ago. But if this was powerful enough to give him the experience required by Profound Toxin for the evolution, then the old X-ranker had better not scare it off.

  With his friends and family so close by, he would not allow it even a single moment to get its balance and go in for another attack.

  “Go!” he hissed as multiple Living Manifestations surged out of him, scattering outward in order to approach the monster from all directions. One of them—a flyer—was granted a buff of Raise to the Occasion as it left, all of its stats bolstered heavily. “Rip that bitch apart.”

  Like an enormous pack of wolves, the Profound Toxic beasts swarmed the monster before it could regain its bearings, attacking it from all sides. Unfortunately, they didn’t appear capable of injuring it properly, fangs and claws ignored completely as the creature’s gaze locked onto his.

  Fury crackled in its eyes and kept it from realizing what was truly happening. Yes, the many Profound Toxic beasts attacking it simultaneously stood no realistic chance of penetrating its terrifyingly durable hide no matter how many times they tried but that didn’t mean the bastard was safe from them.

  What they lacked in capability to deliver devastating strikes, they made up for in subtle and sinister infiltration that would promise death with more certainty than even Chop’s blade, and if they were careful, the enemy wouldn’t even realize that death was certain before it was too late.

  Eik’s bash with the sharp shield of blooming crystal had sliced an open albeit small gash in the beast’s skin, and although it had already begun to knit itself back together again, Profound Toxin was already seeping in and initiating its deadly task. From now on it was only a matter of time before the end.

  Having assessed Eik, the creature launched itself at him, a raspy, ferocious howl ripping from its throat. It managed to make it a whole two or three paces before the compact dragon of a Living Manifestation that had been Raised to the Occasion hammered into it from directly above.

  Eik had deliberately been exerting the full force of his aura in order to mask the flyer’s approach and apparently in had worked, because despite noticing the attack a moment before impact, the monster was only able to look up to take in right in the face.

  Those Profound Toxic beasts that hadn’t already been flung off by the creature’s sudden movement were scattered by the force of the collision as the earth opened up to welcome the two combatants into its depths. Eik hopped into the air above the hole.

  Eight needle-thin limbs of solid crystal sprouted from his back like spider legs, each digging deep into the disturbed ground around the crater. Placing him perfectly centered above the hole and stabilizing his position like military-grade equipment, a crystal gun formed in his hands. This one had and extraordinarily wide barrel and the fuel chamber resting on his shoulder, already filling with tiny Living Manifestations ready to detonate the payload.

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  With less than a second of preparation, he shot the first projectile—a thick but frighteningly sharp spear that bored into the collapsing soil like jet fuel-powered drill head. Four more rounds followed, each digging deeper.

  Eik sensed the contact through his connection to all deployed Profound Toxin and detonated everything. Conjuring a simple plate under his feet, he let himself be hurled skyward by the blast that ripped up the estate ground like liquid, stones, soil, and grass coming down like rain.

  With a gentle spin on his body, Eik watched the crater that now looked more like the impact site of a meteor. Wincing slightly, it struck him how much money it would probably cost to get the entire mega back garden back into original shape. Andihar would probably refuse to let him pay but Eik couldn’t just leave the bill to his friends after having his fun.

  Another five rounds went in, followed by a second explosion. Before the debris had even begun to fall back down, all of the Profound Toxic beasts that had been pushed back rushed in and poured into the hole. It was pure chaos as they tumbled and melted into each other to get at the creature somewhere beneath.

  Their claws tore at the ground with enthusiasm until the first of them made contact. Eik gave them a couple of seconds to deliver more toxin into the monster’s system. When it began to stir he reached for a third dose of Accelerant.

  By the time the force of the blast reached him high above, the massive long gun was already aimed down, a bullet sitting in the barrel. With a mental flex, he lengthened the barrel even further and expanded the fuel tank twice over—creating the most powerful handheld weapon he had ever done.

  With an extra thick plate affixed to a reinforced butt on the fuel tank, Eik Accelerated multiple stacked cubes of crystal Profound Toxin in order to counter the terrifying recoil of the weapon that would normally be absorbed by a solid, deep-rooted foundation or Eik’s own S-ranked strength. Hanging in the air as he was, he needed something else to play that role.

  The boom cracked across the sky, the empowered bullet leaving jetting vapor trails as it descended faster than the eye could see. Eik felt the unmistakable impact of the crystalline projectile boring through the earth and then into a foreign, organic body deep down. Its needle-sharp point allowed it to pierce through with such force that it had barely lost any velocity by the time it made contact.

  With this one, rather than Accelerant, he simply let the bullet seed yet another wave of corruption of the creature’s system. A hyper concentrated rod of Profound Toxin had been embedded within the projectile, now dispersing its death sentence.

  A two meter long great sword manifested in his hand as he dropped down, eyes locked on the crater that now spanned most of the space between the distant front gate of the Dayarunar estate grounds and the large mansion on the top of the hill.

  He could feel its weakness through the connection to the deployed poison so it he was surprised when pitch black miasma suddenly spurted out like struck oil, covering him completely in the foul stuff.

  Spluttering and spitting, he immediately covered his face with his arms and switched his senses to a Living Manifestation he had perched on a tree branch at the edge of the crater. He saw himself plunging through the black substance as it sprayed ever upward, collecting ominously beneath the clouds.

  But there was something more hidden within the miasma. Clumps of… something. Maneuvering his body which he could feel but only see through a distant, third-person perspective was ridiculously difficult, even with his S-ranked physical capabilities.

  Wielding the blade as precisely as he could, he tried to slash through the clumps but only about one in four were actual hits. The ones that made it past him scattered outward along with the miasma once they reached the clouds.

  Like fleshy hail, they plummeted back down. Reacting without hesitation, Eik sent Living Manifestations after each one, but there were many and they had made it far in all directions already.

  Even as they fell, they began to unfold disgustingly like dehydrated sponges submerged in water. Every single one of them spouted massive amounts of miasma to bolster what had already come out of the crater.

  Seeing no way to get at all of them, Eik instead redoubled his straight dive, leading with his massive sword and propelling himself downward with Accelerated cubes of toxin.

  Still forced to maneuver according to his aura sense along with the third-person view from the Eyes of the Beast, he wasn’t able to react in time to avoid the spawn when it suddenly rocketed out of the crater at speed. He tried to get his blade up to deflect but he misjudged the timing and took a blow right in the nose.

  Warm pain flared through the front of his face. If True Toxic Harmony hadn’t temporarily granted him a body made of Profound Toxin, he would have broken his nose and more. As it was, he was just thrown backward, flipping as he crashed violently through thick vegetation.

  Considering the strength he knew it had, an unmitigated hit like that should definitely have hurt more.

  There was no doubt that his relentless assault had had an effect. He maintained a partial connection to Eyes of the Beast as he rushed back to the battlefield and knew before he even made it back that the spawn was displaying concerning behavior.

  Something was happening.

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