Chapter 44.5: Adaptability and Deception

Aylinor walked through the town, following the trail of destruction that Marcus had left when he was sent flying away. His wounds had already healed, and his two severed arms were fully regenerated as if they had never been cut off.

"Little raaat~Where are you...? Come out so we can play a little longer." Aylinor said in a playfully creepy tone. The truth was that although he had regained his calm, the priest was full of rage and exuded a strong killing intent.

[Entomorphosis] was a special entomancy spell. By using it, one could increase its physical capabilities and acquire multiple skills that only monsters had, as well as the ability to adapt one's body at an abnormal speed to acquire resistance against different threats.

In addition, the spell required very little mana to work and its effect could last for a long time. If the mastery rank of the thaumaturge was high enough, then it might be able to maintain the spell for months or even years. Although if one wished, one could nullify the spell with the help of a nullifying potion.

However, [Entomorphosis] had its flaws.

When the spell was active, the thaumaturge would be unable to use any other spell except for a couple of special skills and his mental state would become very unstable. In fact, after transforming, Aylinor could barely maintain the spell he used to control the monsters that were attacking the city. If it wasn't for the magical artifact he had, he would have already lost control over the horde.

But the worst flaw of the spell was the side effects after using it. Once the spell's effect ends, the user's body would suffer a recoil that would paralyze him for a set amount of time, in addition to suffering a loss in his cultivation level.

The only reason Aylinor had decided to use it was because he was in a life or death situation. At worst, he wouldn't be able to move his body for a couple of weeks and his cultivation would be reduced a bit. But just suffering a 1% loss of his current cultivation was too much for him.

The very thought of this had made Aylinor almost spit foam at the mouth. The shame and anger he felt right now were simply indescribable. If he didn't kill Marcus that night then he would regret it for the rest of his life.

"You little sh*t...Get the f**k out already, so I can butcher you!" Shouted Aylinor. In a fit of rage, the priest raised his massive arms and delivered a blow to the wall of a house knocking it down instantly.

"Hey Aylinor, up here!"

At that moment, Aylinor heard a voice directly in his head. He immediately looked up to the sky, only to see Marcus who was on top of the roof of a house a few feet away from him.

"I don't know if they ever told you, but you're so ugly that you could even make an onion cry!"

"YOU... GRAAH!" Just by looking at Marcus, Aylinor felt so much rage to the point where he could spit blood.

*Bam*

An instant later, Aylinor ran at full speed and rammed the house, knocking it down and turning it into a pile of rubble. However, before the house collapsed Marcus had already jumped and landed safely on the roof of another house.

'Well, I think I have his attention. Now I just have to get him to focus on me and get him there without him noticing. Easy peasy.'

*Bam, Whoosh*

Aylinor's scorpion tail came out of the rubble of the house at high speed and swiped in his direction. But Marcus simply moved his body to the right and dodged the attack.

An instant later, Aylinor retracted his long tail, put all his strength into his insect legs, and jumped several meters into the air.

*Boom!

Aylinor descended from the sky and his colossal body crashed into the house where Marcus was standing, raising a cloud of dust in the process. But he had already expected something like this, so when the priest landed on the roof of the house he had already landed safely on the ground.

A few seconds later, the dust cloud dissipated and the monstrous figure of Aylinor emerged from the rubble.

'Necrotic sphere!' Marcus raised his left arm and a black sphere the size of a baseball shot out of his palm. The sphere quickly flew into the air and impacted Aylinor's body. However, the sphere had no effect against his hard exoskeleton.

"Hahaha, I told you it was useless. No matter what you do you will die this ni-"

'Necrotic sphere!'

*Bang*

Before he could finish speaking, Marcus raised his arm again and shot another black sphere towards Aylinor's hideous face.

Although he had not hurt him, this only made Aylinor even more irate than before.

"You, I'll KILL YOU! I'll butcher your corpse, turn your skull into a wine goblet and use your skin as a carpet!"

"Yeah, that sounds really nice and all. But to do that you have to catch up with me first, asshole." At that moment Marcus turned around and started running at full speed.

Blinded by anger, the priest didn't even think twice about running after him. Every step he took, made the earth rumble and shake. As if it were a speeding train.

"When I get my hands on you I'll make mincemeat out of you!"

"Oh, speaking of minced meat, I once knew a guy from Argentina, or he was from Uruguay, maybe Chile... Anyway, the point is that even though the guy's personality wasn't very good, the 'Empanadas de Carne' that he made were awesome! I have to admit, South American food is really tasty!"

"Shut up!" Every time he heard him, Aylinor became more and more furious. At that moment, the priest finally managed to reach Marcus and threw a powerful punch towards his back.

*Bam... Thud!*

But Marcus was faster and dodged the attack. Aylinor's fist followed its path and hit a tree trunk, knocking it away in the process.

"Wait... Now that I think about it, if all you're doing is to impress that stupid goddess you worship, that means... Wait a minute you're not a faithful devotee, you're just a SIMP!"

"YOU'RE COURTING DEATH!"

At this point, Aylinor was completely blinded by rage and started throwing all kinds of punches and attacks against Marcus, but he always dodged them by a hair's breadth.

"For God's sake, don't you have any other wittier phrases to say? I'll make mincemeat out of you, you're dead, you're courting death, I'll chop you up... they're all hackneyed phrases."

After running for a while, Marcus finally came to a clearing in town and intentionally slowed down. He then turned around ready to face Aylinor, who had launched a stinger attack towards him.

'Ugh, this is going to hurt.'

*Shik*

The sharp stinger struck Marcus' body, managing to pierce through his enchanted armor. He could even feel that the stinger had managed to embed itself deep into his spine. Then, he relaxed his body and stopped resisting.

"HAHAHA...TAKE THAT! I told you that you will die tonight! HAHAHAHA." The moment he was pierced by the stinger, a smile of happiness, ecstasy, and excitement formed on the priest's face as he laughed out loud.

Aylinor swung his stinger and lifted Marcus' limp body as if it were a potato sack. Then, the priest wrapped his tail around the body and brought it within a step of his face.

"Oooh, this is really satisfying. How pleasurable, how exciting! Hahaha, I have to say, you have been a real splinter in my ass tonight. No one has ever managed to cause me as much trouble as you have...Oh, you're still alive?!"Aylinor noticed that Marcus was still moving, though he was unable to feel his pulse or breathing.

"Did you use a resurrection technique? Well, never mind." Aylinor stretched out his upper left arm and pointed his sharp claws towards Marcus' head "Any last words, little rat?" He asked arrogantly and indifferently.

"Actually, I just want to say that... Omae wa mou shindeiru."

"What?"

"That you're already dead, you idiot. Activate!"

*Weng Weng*

At that moment, the surrounding air began to vibrate and distort. A few seconds later, the eight Rehi crystals, which Marcus had placed in a circular area of 7 meters (23ft) in diameter where they stood, lit up.

*Weng Weng*

The glow of the crystals intensified until they formed eight pillars of black light that rose into the sky. Then, the light from the pillars merged and formed a huge black magic circle, over 6 meters (20 ft) in diameter, that contained hundreds of runes and mystical engravings.

"YOU...!!!" Finally, Aylinor realized that he had fallen into a trap. In a split second, his triumphant smile turned into an expression of stupefaction and fear. He immediately wanted to escape, but it was too late.

"Let's see you adjust to this, you f**king asshole. Tempest of death!"

*BOOM!*

A second later, the necrotic energy concentrated in the center of the magic circle, and huge black lightning, almost two meters (6.5 ft) wide , fell to the ground and impacted directly on Aylinor.

****

[Ranemal jungle, 16 km (9.94 miles) from the port city of Neima. A few moments ago]

*Whoosh*

In the darkness of the night, an agile and swift shadow moved among the branches of the trees several meters above the ground. But despite its speed, the shadow was so stealthy that each step it took seemed as if a soft, gentle breeze had passed through the treetops barely brushing their leaves.

Night Fox moved as fast as she could as she followed the trail of energy that led towards the abandoned town 8 kilometers (5 miles) from where she stood.

It had been about 15 minutes since she had left the city to head to the whereabouts of the Priest of Disease to eliminate him and stop the horde of monsters attacking the city.

But at that moment, Night Fox stopped abruptly and looked at her surroundings as if searching for something. But although her senses were more developed than those of a normal human, she was unable to detect anything. Except for the sound of the wind, the whole forest was silent, as if dead.

'This is strange. I've been following the trail for quite some time now and I still haven't found traces of any creature in the vicinity.' She thought as she resumed her mission.

Until now, Night Fox had been extremely careful to move undetected, as there was a possibility that the Priest of Disease had left a couple of monsters in the area to serve as sentries.

However, since leaving the city walls so far she had not encountered any creatures. This had seemed very strange to her and her instincts told her that something was wrong.

'Has someone arrived before me and eliminated all the monsters? No, if that were the case, I'd already come across some corpse. So, the priest really didn't leave any sentries to guard the surroundings? Is he just relying on his power to protect himself or does he have an ace up his sleeve?'

*Boom*

Just that moment, a loud explosive sound spread throughout the jungle and forced Night Fox out of her thoughts. But what really caught her attention was that the explosion had come from the same direction in which the disease priest was standing.

'What was that?! But whatever it is, it doesn't look like it's good. I have to hurry.' While thinking about all this, Night Fox took out a vial containing a light blue liquid from between her clothes and immediately emptied the liquid into her mouth.

The instant the blue liquid passed down her throat she felt all the fatigue in her body disappear and her vigor recover. Then she put the empty bottle away and ran at full speed through the jungle, in the direction of the abandoned town.