Book 3 Chapter 10.3 - Net
Muffled pu pu pu sounds continuously rang through the air. In just a short minute, the black chain and Su's short blade exchanged who knew how many attacks. Sarton's stamina was already reaching a critical 31%, so his power in using the black chain was similarly declining. Meanwhile, every strike Su released was unexpectedly the same as when they first made contact!
Su's body was covered in injuries, to the extent where there were even beads of blood flying about, and he was clearly even maintaining seven levels of perception ability! Meanwhile, the horror Sarton felt inside seemed nearly unsuppressible. He truly doubted just how much of Su's genes could still be considered human. Sarton maintained five levels of perception ability. Even though the pain brought by the dozen or so wounds on his body wouldn't affect his attacks, it would still bring him a sliver of distraction. This was the perception ability limit Sarton could maintain in the current battle.
However, Sarton's shock didn't last that long. The final decisive battle instantly erupted when his stamina dropped to 30%! The black chain pierced through Su's abdomen without hindrance and came out from his back. Meanwhile, Su didn't seem to feel anything at all as he continued to frantically sprint forward, allowing his body to be pierced by the black chain!
The black chain curved into an S shape, preventing Su from closing in any further, but this distance was already close enough. The short blade in Su's hand pierced into Sarton's stomach ruthlessly and then hacked out horizontally, almost hacking apart half of his stomach's muscle fibers! Sarton's right hand immediately grabbed Su's left hand, not allowing him to point his pistol at himself, and from there on, a physical struggle began. Meanwhile, the black chain continued to wriggle about within Su's body, tearing apart piece after piece of internal organs and tissues. Sarton's hand seemed to almost be completely inserted into Su's abdomen! The black chain was still inserted into the ground ten meters away with no time to retract it at all, so it could only use its vibrations to destroy Su's body. Meanwhile, the price Sarton paid was much more severe than that of Su's. With just two slashes, the short blade already completely hacked open Sarton's chest! If it were not for his brilliant combat technique, his neck would have long been hacked open by Su!
The heavy injuries instantly made Sarton's power drop, to the extent where he couldn't even maintain four levels of power. Meanwhile, the blade in Su's right hand forcefully twisted about, accurately and ferociously hacking about, all while displaying five levels of explosive strength!
Droplets of blood splashed outwards like rain, forming a faint layer of red mist around the two individuals. Within the mists, pieces of flesh continuously flew outwards as well! These flesh fragments were extremely fine, to the extent where, under the scarlet mist, they slowly floated downwards. When the first piece of flesh landed on the ground, Sarton's eyes suddenly released a powerful wave of blue colored radiance. Then, they gradually grew dim before ultimately fading.
"You weren't… human… after all…" Only when he fell down did Sarton spit out these final words. His voice contained a bit of sorrowful joy.
When the conclusion had already been decided, Sarton similarly used seven levels of perception ability at his final moments, clearly sensing that the stamina left in Su's body was 11%! This was definitely not a level which a human could maintain.
Su knelt down in a weak manner. He gathered the final bit of strength to forcefully sever Sarton's right arm, and then cut off all of its tendons, and only then did the black chain become soft. What followed was the removal of the black chain from his body. Right now, the black chain extended ten meters outwards. The process was painful and long. Su had to lower his own perception down to one level, and only by doing this could he last until the end.
The moment the black chain was completely pulled out, Su had a feeling that what he pulled out just now wasn't a black chain, but instead his own intestines. He knelt down onto the ground, feeling that not only his throat, but even his chest was burning and parched to the limit. Every breath of air he took in only reached his throat, unable to swallow down. When he exhaled, it was accompanied with bloody mist and scorching air.
Su covered the terrifying hole in front of his abdomen, but he was powerless to do anything about the injury on his back. As for the other injuries, he couldn't bother with them right now at all.
Su opened his eyes that were gradually becoming blurry and observed his surroundings. Even though the distance between Dragon City and the Town of Trials wasn't that far, this was the true wilderness. There were no medications, no medical equipment, no food, no clean water, no fuel, to the extent where there wasn't even any mutated creatures! Apart from darkness and coldness, there was nothing. In addition, regardless of whether it was Su or Sarton, none of them brought any communications devices.
Was he going to die? He couldn't prevent this thought from surfacing.
Of course not!
Su's will to survive was always powerful, and this time was no exception. Killing Sarton wasn't enough; there were still at least a dozen people here. Peperus, the only one that was on Madeline's side, was stripped clean and suspended in the air like fish meat. Su didn't know what the blood pond was, but the first impression that blood pond brought him was an instinctive fear. He wasn't willing to get even half a step closer to it.
There were still eight hours left before these people would be able to empty the blood pond. Moreover, there was only 71 kilometers between Su and the Town of Trials, so it seemed like he had quite a bit of time to hurry back. However, with his current circumstances, he didn't know if he could reach the Town of Trials at all, and even if he could, what then? Forget about that Guile who possessed an absurd amount of strength, the current Su might not even be able to defeat a random arbitration official.
Coldness slowly spread through his body. Su needed water and nutrients to save his body's cells that were quickly dying. However, in this place, where was he supposed to find food and water?
Su suddenly lowered himself down onto Sarton's body before drinking large mouthfuls of warm blood that was still dripping out from his chest. The fresh blood carried a thick abnormal taste. As soon as it slid down Su's throat and entered his stomach region, it would be broken down and absorbed by his body's tissues that were struggling on the brink of death. Under the shadow of death, every organ and cell in Su's body underwent a certain degree of irregular changes. They began to move about on their own to seize the nutrients needed for survival. If not for there being a priority sequence deep within these cells, perhaps the blood he sucked down wouldn't even reach his stomach.
Even though his absorption and breaking down of these nutrients was already several times that of normal, it was still far from being enough to make up for his body's dead cells. However, at the very least, this slowed down the rate at which his injuries worsened. His brain that had its vitality slightly restored immediately calculated that if he was going to completely stabilize these injuries and reach the lowest level of operation ability, Su had to at least devour all of Sarton's body. After all, Su's absorption speed was limited, and the life force remaining in Sarton's blood was flowing away at an even faster speed. In addition, the process of breaking down blood would definitely take a long time, and there would be some level of waste as well. When the blood was completely sucked, he could also eat the flesh, but the efficiency of this would only be less than a tenth that of blood.
Even though he had no choice but to do this, a hint of sorrow still emerged in the bottom of his heart. Those that recovered their own injuries by sucking blood and chewing on the flesh of humans or other similar creatures weren't few among mutated creatures, and many living corpses had this type of ability, but their rate of decomposition and generation of nutrients would be far slower than Su's.
Right at this moment, Su's mouth suddenly became dry. Sarton's body was close to becoming a dried corpse. There wasn't even half a drop of blood left to speak of.
What was going on? Based on Su's calculations, there should still be several hundred mililiters of blood left!
He struggled to support his body, and then he looked at Sarton's dried out body in a stupefied manner. The criss-crossed wounds on Sarton's chest were already dried to the extent where it looked like wood. He laid in a pool of blood, and compared to the blood that flowed out of his body, Su only sucked away less than a forth. What was somewhat strange was that under this negative forty degree temperature, this blood that should have frozen long ago was still flowing about, forming lumps of blood. They were currently squirming about, as if they were preparing to leave Sarton's body.
Su didn't notice this scene. His mind was completely and anxiously focused on his desire to survive. Right now, even if he completely devoured Sarton's body, he wasn't certain that he could survive, and there was no way he could reach the Town of Trials, let alone saving Madeline's body.
Wait!
Su suddenly shivered inwardly, suddenly thinking of a problem.
Madeline's body? Why were they talking about Madeline's body? Why was her body soaked in that terrifying blood pond? Could it be that Madeline had already died?!
An explosion sounded in Su's mind. The entire world seemed to be on the verge of shattering. An intangible pillar that had supported him for more than ten years shattered at that moment!
Perhaps, not even Su knew or understood that the little fairy-like pretty girl was actually the moral pillar he depended on for so many years.
Of course, this was only a maybe, and the chances of it weren't great.
Su's right hand subconsciously tightened, and then his pale and long fingers directly grabbed Sarton's corpse hat was as hard as wood.
Right at that moment, his body suddenly began to continuously shake. Sarton's blood that was moving about in all directions seemed to have been affected by some strange summoning, unexpectedly began to fly one drop after another towards Su! These dense spheres of blood seemed to have their own life force, continuously moving towards Su's body. As long as they encountered an injury, they would continuously make their way into Su's body. The terrifying wound on Su's back even had several dozen lumps of blood that wriggled about, as if they were going to dig their way in!
Ah!!!
Su suddenly straightened out his body. The unbearable pain made him roar out, his voice resounding through the night. Fortunately, he didn't suffer for too long. As soon as the lumps of blood entered his body, they would completely dissolve into pure nutrients for his body to absorb. Meanwhile, large amounts of dead cell remains piled up around his wounds, sealing them up.
After a moment of trembling, Su unexpectedly stood up!