Big bag frog [5]

Isaac, carrying his newly transformed grotesque amalgamation of an arm, ran towards the massive tail of the stone dragon.

Azhdaha's body was currently buried, leaving only its tail exposed. For Isaac, such an arrangement couldn't have been more suitable.

Of course, if not for the fact that the tail was also retaliating.

The massive stone tail which had elemental shards growing on it swayed, causing a great tremor, and what came with it was another attack.

Electro energy condensed above, and, shortly after, struck down the ants trying to approach the tail.

'Darn it.'

Seeing this, Isaac quickly outstretched his demonic plant arm above his head while continuing his sprint.

- Boom!

A loud thunder crackled, and a concentrated force of destruction struck down on the general area around Isaac. The deep, purple color of the lightning rushing down on him made Isaac scowl. None of them managed to hit them directly, but it was still unnerving seeing lightning bolts be struck right next to you.

His eyes then shifted and saw two other people similar to him who were dashing towards the tail.

Lumine, enclosed in an amber shield conjured by Zhongli, was carrying her trusty Dull Blade as she ran up to challenge the stone dragon. Elements gathered and crackled around her, mainly consisting of Anemo and Geo, and coalesced in her sword.

On the other hand, the demonic Yaksha, Xiao, had long since appeared near Azhdaha's body. His fierce and swift moves struck the stone tail with his jade polearm, however, he was more exposed to the raining Electro cast by the behemoth. As a result, he was unable to repeatedly strike it.

Currently, the three of them were the only ones fighting Azhdaha.

'What a lovely trio.'

Seeing how close he is to the tail, Isaac dodged another lightning bolt before swiftly lunging forward, carrying his deformed floral arm.

Surprisingly, the arm wasn't quite hard to carry. In fact, it was as if the shifting worm-like vines were assisting Isaac with movement, making it easier to control. In just a second or two, Isaac had already managed to familiarize himself with it.

Seeing the stone tail in front of him, Isaac didn't waste time and immediately outstretched his arm, its claw-like extensions moving forward with a sharp lethality.

He jumped up for momentum, and, with a hard push, pierced the tail.

The deep black claws were not met with any kind of resistance. As they made contact with the stone hide of the behemoth, they just slid in like a knife in butter. Sensing this, Isaac didn't stop and buried it further, intending to inflict as much damage as possible.

He grunted, and, with an explosive display of movement, glided his sharp dark claws across a wide area of the stone behemoth's body.

'How's that, you darn frog?!'

Of course, despite his successful attack, Isaac didn't linger near the tail and immediately backed away with a dark smile on his face.

- Bang!

On the other side of the tail, Lumine struck the tail with her sword. Infused with Anemo and Geo, the strike's force was amplified, causing a long streak of fracture on the tail's surface.

Xiao, meanwhile, appeared on top of the tail before plunging down with his polearm aiming down. The moment his polearm touched the ground, various sharp teal spikes emerged from the ground struck the tail.

Not wanting to be left behind by the other two, Isaac didn't hesitate to continue attacking the tail while simultaneously dodging the raining lightning bolts.

He carried his arm and repeatedly pierced the lower sections of the tail, causing great dark streaks to appear all over. Isaac didn't know if Azhdaha bleeds red, but if it did, it would surely be doing it now.

Those sharp dark claws, coupled with the enhancement of the vines acting as pseudo-muscles, all managed to seep deep into the tail, infusing the inside with a strange relentless darkness.

- Hum!

The stone tail shuddered erratically as it desperately gathered more and more elemental energy to summon lightning bolts. Deep beneath the Earth, an unknown vibration reached the surface— which Isaac could only guess as Azhdaha screaming again.

What a loud frog it was.

As Isaac continued to injure Azhdaha as much as possible, two simultaneous lightning bolts suddenly caught him in surprise, striking directly on him.

Isaac's hair stood up, a sign of his instincts telling him to quickly dodge, but he could only do much with human limitations. He did not manage to dodge in time.

'Darn it...'

He grimaced, imagining himself turning to an electrocuted pile soon. Closing his eyes, he prepared himself.

However, that imagination did not come into fruition. Because at the next moment, when he opened his eyes, he saw his grotesque floral arm covering his head.

Vibrant purple electric sparks danced on top of the arm, seemingly disappearing— or rather devoured— into nothingness by the darkness hidden inside all those slithering vines.

'...I might have underestimated your durability...'

Previously, he just thought that the arm would give him pure offensive capabilities. He didn't think that it could also be highly durable!

Seeing his new transformation in a new light, a sigh of relief escaped his lips. However, that was only for a moment as he swiftly blended back to the fight.

He, together with the other members of the club, fought the buried stone dragon from all sides, focused on defeating as fast as possible. But of course, Azhdaha could not just stand and let that happen— so it became more and more desperate with its attacks.

Fortunately, all of them were either agile or durable enough to dodge all of the attacks. Xiao was the former, while Lumine and Isaac were the latter.

In the middle of the fight, however, Isaac started to notice something.

As his sharp claws dug deep into the stone tail of the behemoth, he could subtly feel the enraged agony of the stone dragon in clarity. The unbearable torment of being attacked while one's mind was being grinded to dust where only madness could manifest...

It was all making Isaac... want to cause it more pain.

'Not so tough now, are you?'

Isaac's dark smile widened as his movement got faster. The slithering vines coiling his arms moved and contracted, assisting their master by amplifying each of his strikes delivered to the claws.

He felt elated— his body never felt so light and powerful before. Each strike was like quenching his thirst and replenishing his stamina, driving him to continuously attack the creature with escalating vicious voracity.

It was as if every time the dark claws entered, they took something from the dragon and gave it to Isaac to empower him, repeating a cycle of enhancement. And the more the dragon felt agony, the more empowered Isaac felt.

He could feel the tail shiver. He felt the ground shudder! He could see the behemoth cry in agony!

'I'm doing it! I'm defeating it!'

So far, Isaac has only fought fellow humans. He had never fought something far more powerful and achieved victory. As such, the thrill of killing an ancient beast enthralled him to pursue such an achievement as fast as possible.

Before he knew it, a wide smile befitting of a foolish lunatic appeared on his face. Each and every push of his dark claws that seeped deep into the dragon brought him an unimaginable joy.

At some point, even the darkness hidden at the center of his deep amber eyes became much darker— much like an onyx.

But at some point, he felt that it wasn't enough.

'The heart... I need to aim for the heart!'

His crazed eyes darted with a vicious hunger, setting his sight into the ground. But he knew he couldn't get to the main body just by digging. As such, his only way to get to the heart of such a behemoth is...

'...through the body.'

He wanted to dig his way from the bottom to the top... Or the top to the bottom.

Whatever it was, he needed to enter Azhdaha's bottom.

As a pragmatist, he believed that it was the fastest way to victory.

With this thought in mind, Isaac stopped clawing the stone tail and quickly jumped up to the tail, climbing it to the peak.

His grotesque arm slithered and outstretched as he grabbed on to the tail using his claws, making his ascent faster. Some elemental shards would obstruct him from time to time, but he would just punch his way through them.

He felt powerful... So why not take advantage of it?

Reaching the very top of the tail, Isaac observed the beautiful shade of purple on the branches of the tree-like tail for a moment. Calming purple shades of leaves inhabited the end of the behemoth's tail, a complete contrast to its personality.

'...poetic.'

He then noticed that Lumine and Xiao haven't followed him, but it didn't bother him one bit. It just means that he could get a head start.

Isaac lingered for a moment before turning his attention away. Suddenly, his ears perked up as he heard a sound.

"...sac! ...nses! ...op it!"

"...ome back!"

Isaac squinted and looked around him at the top of the tail but couldn't find anything or anyone that could have made such sounds. Were the voices all in his head?

...was he turning to a schizo?

Shaking his head, Isaac scowled.

'Darn it... Are the adverse effects already affecting me?'

'That can't be good. I need to kill this thing now if I don't want to be tainted more with that corruption...'

He shuddered a bit at the thought of becoming a raving lunatic under the influence of the [Evernight] skill.

He had seen the outcomes of being exposed to the corruptive force of the [Evernight] skill before. Once exposed, humans would immediately degenerate to lunatics who only know nothing but to seek blood and destruction.

How could he allow himself to be one?

"Right... So I need to finish this. Here... And now!"

Lifting his grotesque slithering arm, Isaac struck down the tail of the behemoth with full force. As he did so, the slithering vines that contained the corruptive darkness seemed to have grown past his shoulder and were about to wrap around his chest...

When suddenly, a hand grabbed on to his right shoulder, spreading an unknown warmth around his body.

"Let's stop here."

Exasperated at how someone stopped him from continuing his hunt, Isaac grimaced.

Wait... Hunt?

Suddenly, Isaac's eyes widened as a sense of dread gripped his heart. His pulse quickened as beads of sweet formed on the surface of his face. His breath got shorter as he quickly grasped for air.

Torrents of information entered his mind, and various scenes played. He was suddenly remembering memories of not giving in to the senseless bloodlust of the Hunt, for doing so would just make him no different from a beast.

His body shuddered as mysterious memories that weren't his own flooded his mind. Yes, they were the memories of the First Hunter he had inherited.

The core principle of hunters that differentiated them from the beasts they hunted was, and will always be...

To fear the blood.

Suddenly, a sickening dark mist that clouded Isaac's judgments cleared up. At that moment, Isaac recalled what he had been doing just recently.

- Thud...

"Hieck..."

He fell to his knees as he grasped for his chest, breathing heavily as his body shivered in horror. What followed was a familiar migraine headache that Isaac had greatly detested— one that he knew too well.

'I... I lost myself...'

The grotesque floral arm that was coiled up in Isaac's arm fell to the ground in front of him, its dark corruptive power seemingly dissipating into oblivion. It seems that the effects of the skill had worn off just in time.

Without the nourishment of the dark power, the slithering thorns quickly convulsed before dying swiftly. Even the flowers that grew on top withered.

"Take a moment to calm down and control your breathing, and do not fall unconscious."

Once more, the warm voice comforted him.

Isaac didn't even need to turn around to recognize who was talking to him. Just from the mannerism and tone of his voice, Isaac already knew that it was the elusive consultant, Zhongli.

A throbbing migraine headache ravaged his head, but Isaac did his best to remain composed.

As he gazed down, Isaac managed to get a glimpse of his smooth brass revolver, its shiny reflection showing his face.

In that reflection of his...

All he saw was the face of that hypocritical clown.