Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1409: Inspiration

Turning time back a little, focusing on the other pair of human and alien evolved warrior engaged in a deadly battle.

Rodney’s situation had degenerated quickly after the alien had started fighting him for real. He had kept himself alive through a mixture of skillful planning, perfectly executed strategies, and straight-up miraculous, reality-bending spells.

Nevertheless, the effort had left Rodney wounded, exhausted beyond reason, and not a step closer to defeating his opponent than he was several exchanges ago.

Rodney’s utmost tidy military uniform had turned into a mess of torn rags. Something had eaten away a piece of the clothes covering his waist, exposing his abs and leaving a shallow, horizontal cut on them.

The entirety of the right leg of Rodney’s trousers had also disappeared, the shoe included. Finger-sized holes even littered it, releasing blood that didn’t show signs of stopping flowing.

Still, the worst offender there was Rodney’s left arm. Something had eaten away half of his sleeve, together with the skin over his forearm, almost exposing his muscles, and burning like crazy.

In regular times, Rodney would have already healed himself. After all, his energy consumption was relatively minimal when it came to himself, so he could easily use it to fix himself. He only had to imagine himself whole to make that a reality.

Yet, Rodney held back on that skill due to the worst offender when it came to his mental state, which was the detail he was worried about the most.

Blood flowed out of Rodney’s nostrils like an unending stream that vouched for the terrible state of his brain. His eyelids had also long since become heavy, threatening to close themselves for entire hours, or even forever. He had almost reached his limit, and that wasn’t even the end.

The mutagen worked like an infection, but for the mana. It was meant to be expelled on its own, and the duration of that process depended on a person’s tolerance and ethereal metabolism.

George was stronger than Rodney, but his attacks hardly used any mana. His sharpness had to be maintained, not constantly summoned. After doing that, George’s mana consumption plummeted, demanding no refilling from his mana core.

Rodney was the complete opposite. He had abilities that didn’t waste much mana. Still, they were obviously ineffective against his powerful opponent, forcing him to rely on better but more mana-heavy spells to fight on a somewhat even field.

The miracles were far worse than those mana-heavy spells, almost existing in their own separate category. Their mana consumption was immense, forcing Rodney to refill his reserves constantly.

As more new mana circulated through Rodney, the mutagen’s effects thinned. The effort cleansed him of that infection far faster than what George was experiencing, almost reverting his enhanced state already.

Rodney had a second syringe, which was somehow still on him despite the damage his trousers had suffered. However, the mutagen remained an experimental product with both significant and unclear possible side effects. Even the known, confirmed ones were fearsome enough to keep most warriors away.

One of those side effects involved the nature of the mutations. After all, the mutagen’s effects were profound, and its abuse could make those temporary changes permanent.

The universe seemed to be mocking Rodney. It almost sounded like his only way to continue fighting was to risk turning into something inhuman. After all his bragging about humankind, that outcome would be sort of a karmic punishment.

Yet, that would be pointless, too. Prolonging Rodney’s mutated state, or even turning it into his new normality, wouldn’t achieve anything. He would still be beyond exhausted, injured, and with no hope of winning that battle.

The leaner alien’s stance was more than enough to prove that last part. He was unharmed, with tall tongues of black, bright smoke flickering from his head, shoulders, and back.

Ten gaseous, worm-like figures also hovered above the alien evolved warriors, coiling their long, dense bodies in the air while keeping their big, elliptical mouths pointed at Rodney.

Despite the multiple exchanges, the leaner alien didn’t look any weaker. Rodney had guessed from the video with the two scouts that the denser smoke was a finite resource, but he didn’t seem to have affected its reserves in any meaningful way.

The only real silver lining in those losing exchanges involved details about the alien’s abilities. He indeed mostly relied on those worm-like creatures to fight and could give birth to them rather freely.

However, the first gaseous worm always acted as the center of the alien’s offensive. Moreover, its smoke was denser than that of the other fuming creatures, as well as the intensity of its effects.

The worm-like creatures only had one purpose. They devoured matter, air, and energy, adding it to their structure.

That was one of the reasons behind the alien’s still-perfect state, and Rodney had also learned that those elliptical mouths were just for show. Any inch of those gaseous shapes carried those more intense annihilating effects.

The other nine worms were weaker than their leader, but Rodney couldn’t do much with that information since they could still hurt him easily.

The battle’s outcome looked set in stone, and Rodney didn’t try to defy it. Even with his miracles, he knew he couldn’t win. Things might have been different against an opponent with no self-sustaining abilities, but cursing his bad luck wasn’t in his style.

Of course, that didn’t mean Rodney would despair. He simply couldn’t anymore. He had been there and had worked his entire life not to be that kind of hopeless man again, inspired by an iconic scene he still recalled after so many years.

Rodney still vividly remembered the time he and the alien lover fell. They had been heading toward their deaths back then. Any ordinary warrior would have died in that situation. Rodney would have, too, but Khan had ended up showing him a different path.

Khan was no man. He wasn’t human, either. He was a traitorous entity that had turned his back on humankind. However, Khan was also unfathomably incredible. He had been like that even when he still lacked any alien advantage or political position.

No matter the situation, that annoying alien-lover didn’t despair. He faced his predicaments fearlessly, only focusing on what he could do to overcome them, no matter how crazy those plans sounded.

Rodney did exactly that now. He was exhausted both physically and mentally. The sole reason behind his ability to wield mana in that situation was expiring, and his opponent had no real stamina limits. Yet, Rodney didn’t despair. Machinations kept happening in his mind until an obvious plan took form.