22. Choice and Result

I closed my eyes and kept...

The system is right, I am weak. I need to live, I need to survive. I can't risk my life for a chicken. I shouldn't be even thinking about this, my life is more important.

I shouldn't be doing this!!!

I hate myself!!!

I opened my eyes, the darkness vanishing. I was now flying straight towards the Alligator. I had turned. I can't forgive myself if I were to leave. I am not one to let someone die for my sake, not now, not ever. I am lazy, but I am not one to let my friend die.

Even I die today,

Even if pain consumes me,

Not gonna run today,

I screamed in my head, trying to keep the pain from clouding my mind. My body was burning with pain, each moment of my wings sending a searing agony through my body. But I needed speed, I need to grab Fluffy and fly out in an instance.

I pulled my wings in and let the gravity increase my speed. If I timed it correct, I could instantly decelerate, grab fluffy without killing her, and fly away. Open, grab and go.

God help me, this is going to be tight.

The winds hummed and the slight sound of whistle accompanied as I neared the ground. I kept my speed, ready for what comes next.

One,

Two,

Go,

I opened my wings, and felt like I hit a wall at full speed. The amount of air resistance and drag, combined with my momentum made some of my tendons snap. I felt the stinging pain of muscle tearing. A groan escaped as I extended my hands to grab Fluffy. I managed to grab Fluffy,

I moved my wings,

It was only two seconds, the time it took me to accelerate and to grab Fluffy. The whole world felt frozen when you accelerate that much. But no time to think, not time to feel. I need to fly out.

The winds gathered and pushed me up.

I was out, just need to go home and never look back until I am stronger, stronger than anything on this forest.

But Lijen's joy lasted only a moment, as he saw Alligator chomp on his tail.

The alligator reacted faster than the Lijen had expected it to. It snapped its head in Lijen's direction and chomped down. Lijen was just about to take off when his tail got caught in the Alligator's mouth. The Alligator's teeth weren't sharp enough to chomp through Lijen's tail, but they were strong enough to break it. With Lijen's tail caught in its mouth, its snapped his head in another direction.

~Urg~

Lijen yelped and threw Fluffy into the air as his body descended to earth. His body met the ground with sickening thud. The pain coursing through his body knocked him out unconscious for a moment. The alligator than snapped his head in another direction, swinging Lijen in another direction.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

The second collision sent another wave of pain that brought him back and forth from darkness before another swing sent him back.

BAM BAM BAM

The Alligator was not done and swung Lijen multiple times before he let go of the tail. He then lifted his foot and stomped down with force, waking Lijen up with sheer pain.

~URG~

Lijen's eyes were widen as saliva and black blood dripped from his mouth. His eyes clouded as pain overwhelmed his mind. Lijen was feeling a pain he had never experienced in his life, before and after reincarnation. His mind couldn't handle the pain as his body could, so instinct took over.

~RAw~

He clawed the leg stumping on him, his claws tore through the tough hide of the alligator. The Alligator cried in pain and anger as it lifted its legs to stomp again. But Lijen kicked with his hind legs and rolled away from the stomp.

He got up and rounded, getting away from the Alligator. He looked back at the Alligator, his eyes slits narrow. Lijen limped as he tried to retreat while keeping an eyes on the Alligator. However, his fell sideways as his mind gave up, his blood loss and pain was getting to him. Lijen bit his tongue, sending an acute pain to halt himself from falling.

The pain cleared the mind fog, letting him finally notice many different things. First thing was the tasted of his blood, which felt like copper. Second, his body was burning and weak. Most of his muscles were torn, a spike on his back was bent. His tail was an L. Finally, pain, pain, and pain. Pain that was resonating with his racing heartbeat.

Simply, his body was a mess.

He braced himself and breathed deeply. His expanding abdomen sending another wave of pain, but the breath helped him from feeling suffocated and he rolled to the side.

While he was doing all this, his eyes never left the Alligator, so he was able to easily avoid the charge the Alligator did. He rolled away and turned to keep his eyes on the Alligator but to his horror, the Alligator was already behind with its mouth open.

Lijen's eyes turned to a thin line as his body when into the flow state. His mind raced to find a solution to the situation and he willed an item from the inventory. Their was no time delay when items come out of the inventory.

~Chomp~

The Alligator closed its mouth, expecting a crunch but his teeth broke as they met a large wide scale that looked to be carved out of an old rock. A rank 2 beast can't even scratch a Ranks fours skin, even if it was the lowest in the ranking. And Earth Verdant Serpent was at the top middle of the scale.

Lijen used the moments of bafflement to claw at the Alligator's snort while pulling the scale back into his inventory. The Scale vanished from Alligator's mouth and appeared back in his hand as he slapped the Alligator with it. He didn't let go and slammed the scale on the Alligator's head again and again.

BAM BAM BAM

The Alligator was dazed but it avoided the next attack and retreated back. Lijen put the scale back and jumped back himself, creating a distance between himself and the Alligator as he charged his breath.

He didn't have much Qi in his core as most of it was being directed to heal his body and keep him moving. He need to end the Alligator or at least push it back enough for him run. Qi from his Core was pulled and his breath was charging, but the destructive property had to be willed.

Lijen just though about something similar to a missile or a grenade, something with powerful explosion. The Qi moved to his will, turning from gold to purple.

However, the Alligator quickly recovered and charged at Lijen. Its affinity with water helping it recover faster. The Alligators was way faster than expected. It was too agile for its size. It didn't leave time for Lijen to complete the attack and rammed into Lijen disrupting his attack .

Lijen was able to bring the Scale back and block the ramming, but his concentrated Qi was gone, dissipating into the air.

Bam boom boom

The Alligator didn't stop and rammed through many trees like a raging bull before shaking its head, throwing Lijen and his shield away. The forceful throw send Lijen spiraling into the air before he smashed through burnt trees.

boom boom boom boom

Lijen skidded on the ground, the scale slipped from his claw. The pike on his back broke, and blood began to drip through his scales. The specks of light on his scales dimmed like the star in his chest. His breathing became ragged as his body shivered to stand still.

But Lijen pushed through the pain to stand up.

He couldn't stand straight but he stood back up. His looked forward, the Alligator was charging again. He breathed a shallow one before he waited. He waited for the attack to come, It was his stand.

The Alligator rushed at full speed before it jumped with its mouth open like a shark to its prey. All it teeth gleamed in the light as they closed, a crunching sound escaping its mouth. It didn't stop and chomped down a few more time, ripping its prey in its mouth.

But before it could rejoice in its hunt, a sharp pain came from front as its snort was smashed by a heady force. The attack came from the blind spot exactly before it. It then saw the assistant, a black dragon warping its caw around its snort, its claws digging it its skin.

The Alligator swung its head to remove the Dragon, but Lijen's weight and hold made it impossible, yet, Lijen was not here for that. He swung his caw at the Alligators eyes. His sharp claws easily ripped through the soft skin, drawing blood from the beast.

Lijen moved his other hand to claw the other eye, but the momentary imbalance and the frantic swings made it hard. The Alligator was not taking chance anymore as it slammed its head through the trees around it.

And finally it slammed though a live tree, which managed to removed Lijen from its head, but not without multiple torn wounds on its head. Lijen rolled away from the impact and retreated back. He knew he was not in condition for a head on fight. Lijen kept retreating back slowly, he had blinded the alligator on one side.

But the Alligator had great sense as it turned around. Its other eyes focused on Lijen. Alligator was pissed, its eyes turning red as it was entering a state of berserk. Its Qi turned red as the situation took a demonic turn.

The demonic Qi gathered around its scaled, its blood hardening. The aura that it was releasing was of pure death. This made Lijen's scale to close tight, to protect itself. Lijen wasn't waiting as he turned around and ran.

He limped through his run, his speed dramatically slower due to his pain. His muscles and legs buckled in pain. His mind trying to numb the pain to survive. But all that damage was piled up and his body was pushed to limit.

He tripped.

Lijen grunted and got up. He turned his head slightly to notice the alligator had vanished from the spot, but it have no relief. Lijen immediately opened his wings to fly away, but he saw a blue blur rush from his periphery as his winds gathered.

As the wind lifted his in the air, the blur leapt, catching Lijen in mid-air. Two bodies slammed heavily to the ground. Alligator bit down and shook its head to tear Lijen apart, but his scales were strong, too strong for their own good.

Seeing that it could not tear Lijen it threw him to the side before stomping down, knocking the air out of him. It stomped a few more times until a sound of cracking echoed, it moved its head and saw a target for its mouth.

Lijen awake though the whole pain got only a moment of breather when he saw the Alligator aim for his wing. He tried pulled them in, but he flinched at the pain, which costed him everything.

The Alligator bit his wing and snapped its head in another direction.

~TRrrrr~

A tearing sound accompanied by a burst of black blood and an agonizing cry of a little Dragon. The Alligator had torn the soft skin of Lijen's wings. His bones were not harmed due to their scale and durability, but he had lost his flight.

~Rooaarr~

Lijen's cry of pain and sorrow echoed through the forest. The pain finally hit the limit of his mind, breaking it, birthing something more.

Lijen's eyes turned red as crimson Qi oozed from his blood. His scales opened to breath, to absorb... everything. The Qi, life force, light, even the Dao, it absorbed everything. His core burned crimson as the very essence of Self burned.

~Claw claw~ ~BEEEEEM~

Lijen swung his claw frantically, ripping the alligators leg to the bone. He opened his mouth and breathed, their was no charged timed this time. It was just pure destructive force of his Star core going Nova. The red beam of destruction tore through the Alligator, ending the fight in a moment.

A force unequaled, but at what cost.

Lijen got up and walked to the headless alligator before he lifted his claw and tore the alligator apart. He reduced the massive beast to nothing but chunks of meat. But he was not done, he devoured the meat from head to core, leaving nothing behind except dried blood on the ground.

The red Qi mixed and flowed as Lijen turned frenzied.

The fall of a Dragon and birth of a Demonic Monster with nothing but a thrust to kill. One that kills until it is killed.

A mindless beast without goal and hope.

[ Wake up, Idiot! ]

[(╬▔皿▔)╯]

The golden words thundered as lightning descended from the heaven. A lightning massive enough to mistaken as tribulation, so thick that it could be a 10000 year old tree. The small Dragon was swallowed by the lightning.

His demonic Qi rose to fight, only to be burned by the pure destruction.

The lightning burned every bit of Demonic Qi in his body, leaving in a crater, purified. Water then flooded the crater, drowning the unconscious Dragon in a bubble.