Chapter 44.0: Adaptability and Deception

After activating his boosting spells and enchanted items, Marcus' agility had surpassed 200 points, allowing him to move faster than humanly possible, and allowed him to close the distance between him and the priest in the blink of an eye, while leaving some afterimages in his wake.

"Grrroooaaah!" Aylinor roared and immediately sent a series of blows with his three right fists towards Marcus. Despite the great speed of his opponent, the priest had superhuman senses which were amplified by the [Entomorphosis] which allowed him to clearly perceive Marcus' movements.

But before the fists could touch him, Marcus ducked his body, causing the fists to just hit his afterimage, and quickly performed a vertical slash towards the priest's arms.

*Slash*

With an agile and smooth movement, the energy edge that covered the blade of the sword traced an upward arc and severed the priest's middle right arm as if it were made of butter.

Aylinor counterattacked and struck Marcus with his left upper fist. But before he could touch him, he raised his sword and launched a slash towards the huge fist. The blade of the sword sliced the priest's flesh without any resistance, splitting the fist and forearm into two halves.

"Aaaaargh!" Aylinor screamed in pain and immediately struck Marcus with his four remaining arms.

*Bam*

Before the arms could reach him, Marcus pulled out the sword that had become embedded in the priest's forearm and jumped backward to evade the blows, which only impacted the ground with a loud clatter, creating a small crater in the process.

"Son of a bitch!!!" Aylinor cursed as he saw the state his arm had been left in. "Garr...GAAAAAAh!"Without hesitation, he grabbed his damaged left arm and immediately ripped it off. The priest's monstrous spidery face contorted in pain as his blue-green blood leaked from his severed limbs.

Aylinor threw his severed arm to the side and the next second; he opened his hideous spider maw and spat out a strange yellow goo that flew towards Marcus at great speed.

He reacted instantly; he bent the left side of his body backward and managed to dodge the priest's attack by a hair's breadth.

The yellow goo continued its path until it hit a tree a couple of meters away from Marcus. In the instant that the substance touched the tree, it began to harden until it solidified completely.

Seeing this, Marcus was immediately able to recognize the substance with which the priest had attacked him.

It was the same substance used by the Arsenis ants, which he had encountered so many times in the three months he had been in the jungle, to immobilize and capture their prey. But this was not the only thing Aylinor spat out.

Next, the priest opened his spidery mouth again and spat out a barrage of different substances. Acidic vomit, sticky saliva that hardened instantly, and liquid balls of purple poison flew towards Marcus at great speed.

But instead of backing away or using the town's trees and houses for cover, Marcus kicked the ground with all his might and ran straight towards Aylinor while dodging the barrage of attacks. When he was only a few steps away from the priest, he put all his strength into his legs and jumped several meters into the air.

As he descended, Marcus raised his sword and made a downward slash towards Aylinor's head. But before the sword touched his head, he raised his four remaining arms to block the sword's attack.

*Clang!*

The energy edge of the sword slammed into the monstrous arms of the priest with a loud metallic clang, creating sparks in the process. This surprised Marcus.

Until a few seconds ago, Uroboros' blade was able to cut through Aylinor's exoskeleton like butter. But now the blade had not been able to leave even a single wound on the priest's skin.

But upon closer inspection, Marcus noticed that the exoskeleton covering the priest's body seemed to have taken on a more metallic hue. In addition, the wounds he had inflicted on him earlier were no longer bleeding and were even healing at great speed.

At that moment, a horrible smile formed on Aylinor's face. In a split second, he swung his scorpion tail and stabbed at Marcus' head with his stinger.

He tilted his head to the right, managing to evade Aylinor's attack by a hair; then, he kicked the priest's arms and jumped back several meters to get some distance.

But just as he was about to hit the ground, Aylinor charged towards him and unloaded a flurry of blows so fast that a normal person would only be able to see the afterimages of them.

*Clang Clang Clang Clang Clang*.

Sparks flew as the sword and the huge fists clashed with a metallic sound. Only five seconds passed and Marcus had already blocked and deflected over a hundred of Aylinor's blows.

"HAHAHAHA... It's useless! Useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, USELESS! My body has already adapted to your attacks. From now on, that piece of junk you call a sword won't be able to hurt me!" Shouted Aylinor and as the speed of his blows increased again.

[HP: 782/ 1001]

'Tch...' Marcus clicked his non-existent tongue internally. Even though both his strength and speed had already surpassed 200 points, the priest was even stronger. The force behind each strike was immense and every time he blocked an attack with his sword, his arms would fracture a little and he would be forced back a couple of steps.

*Bam*

'Aaaagh!'

Finally, Aylinor's attack speed overcame Marcus' defense. The huge fist slammed into his ribcage, pushing him over 10 meters (10 yards) backward. There were two long lines on the ground, tracing the path left by his feet when he received the force of the impact.

Marcus fell to his knees and drove his sword into the ground to support himself.

Aylinor smiled and his spidery eyes flashed a sinister killing intent. Seeing that his enemy was weak and wounded, he did not hesitate and charged Marcus at full speed. Every step the priest took was charged with an incredible power that made the earth rumble

'Field of bone thorns!' When Aylinor was only about a couple of meters away, Marcus rested his left hand on the ground, and immediately, hundreds of sharp bone thorns over three meters (10 ft) long sprouted from the ground simultaneously covering an area of four meters (13ft) around him.

Each and every one of the thorns contained a high concentration of necrotic energy; they were poisonous thorns for living beings that also threatened to impale, stab or maim anyone close to the thaumaturge, and Aylinor would be no exception.

In just a few seconds, the priest was attacked and blocked by the wall of sharp white thorns, until Marcus could no longer see his figure. But when the thorns had finished emerging from the earth, Aylinor's voice came from behind the wall of bone and it wasn't his cries of pain.

"Hahaha, didn't I tell you it was useless? My body has already adapted to all your attacks. From now on, neither your sword nor your pathetic necromancy will be able to harm me!"Just as Marcus had stood up, Aylinor's huge fist pierced through the wall of thorns and hit him in the chest.

Marcus was sent flying, as if he had been hit by a truck at over 180 km/h, crashing into and destroying multiple houses, traveling over two hundred (200 yards) meters before finally falling into a house whose walls were in better shape than the rest, but now had a huge hole in it.

[HP: 350/ 1001]

'Kghhh...F**k...this hurts like sh*t.' Marcus cursed internally as he used some necrotic energy to repair his wounds. Almost his entire body was shattered; his ribs were a pile of splintered bones, and his legs were bent in an abnormal position and his arms had so many cracks that they could snap off with the slightest movement.

Marcus was very perplexed by the damage his body had sustained.

Despite being weak to blunt damage, he was wearing the enchanted armor Jormungandr and had activated the defensive spell imbued in it. In addition, Marcus had activated all his defensive enchanted artifacts and boosting spells so his defense had already reached 500 points.

And yet, a single hit from Aylinor had taken away a little over 30% of his HP.

'I don't understand. Why do my attacks have no effect?' Marcus was startled, he was confused, annoyed, and, in a way, frustrated.

'Did he get used to my moves or did he get stronger while we were fighting...?No, it's not that... There's something else I'm not seeing...' Marcus squeezed his inexistent brain to the limit and tried to think of all possible answers.

At the beginning of the fight, Marcus had been able to damage and cut Aylinor's body with relative ease, but after a couple of minutes, physical attacks had become ineffective against him, and not even the sharp bone thorns had been able to pierce through his hard armor.

Even necrotic energy, which was deadly to living things, didn't seem to have much effect on the priest.

'What is it that I'm missing?! How is it possible that my sword attacks can't get through it...?! The increase in its attack speed and strength has something to do with it?'

Initially, Marcus believed that Aylinor had gotten used to his fighting style as they fought. This thanks to his increased physical and sensory abilities after using [Entomorphosis].

However, he quickly dismissed this idea.

This was because even though Aylinor's physical capabilities and senses were superior to his, he had still been unable to evade or predict all of Marcus' attacks and movements.

Even when they were exchanging blows at high speed, Marcus was still able to land a couple of blows on Aylinor's body, though he had been unable to break through his hard exoskeleton. So the priest had not been able to predict Marcus' movements.

'Even though he got a little faster during the fight, that still doesn't explain why the necrotic energy no longer affects him. It's as if... as if he gained resistance after I attacked him... as if he adapted.' At that moment, Marcus thought he had found the answer and in fact, the more he thought about it the more it made sense.

Marcus then reviewed all the events that had occurred during the fight. Aylinor's improved attack speed, his increased regenerative ability, his resistance to physical attacks, and his resistance to necrotic energy; all indicated that somehow the priest's body was adapting specifically to deal with him.

'If he can gain resistance by adapting to my attacks then I have to cause him more damage than his body can take so that he doesn't even have a chance to adapt. But...' Once he recovered from his more severe wounds Marcus stood up and checked how much MP he had left.

[MP: 166 / 3,735]

When Marcus saw his remaining MP he felt he was screwed. With the amount of MP he had left, even if he canceled all his physical boosting spells, he would only be able to conjure one 2nd level spell before he ran out of energy and was helpless against Aylinor.

'A 2nd level spell won't be enough. I need something stronger, something more powerful... I need more power, more... energy!' At that moment an idea crossed Marcus' mind.

He opened his [Inventory] and took out a fist-sized Rehi crystal. However, this crystal was black and gave off cold and sinister energy.

'I just hope this works.'

An instant later, Marcus deactivated all of his reinforcement spells except those that increased his agility, sheathed his sword, and exited the house at full speed. If he wanted his plan to work then he had to hurry.