I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 581: Floor 5 - Phase-Winder Part II

Time resumed, and Jack released the accumulated lightning in the same instant, the bolt crossing the minimal distance toward where his slowed perception had shown the serpent would be.

The electricity struck scales and....

Nothing.

The Phase-Winder’s enhanced durability shrugged off the attack like rain hitting stone; the creature’s biology apparently evolved to withstand far more punishment than a single lightning bolt could deliver.

Its charge continued uninterrupted, jaws snapping shut on empty air as Jack activated Lightning Steps to dodge clear of the strike.

But he’d landed a hit.

The first contact with a creature that had been untouchable moments ago.

The damage was negligible, but it proved the Phase-Winder could be struck during the brief windows when Abyssal Step let him track its movement.

He just needed more power. More force behind each strike to overcome the serpent’s enhanced resistance.

The Phase-Winder screamed, the sound that made the floating islands shudder, and accelerated to even higher velocity, green streak becoming harder to track even during the sonic booms that marked its passage.

The creature was angry now, its hunting strategy abandoned in favor of an overwhelming assault designed to eliminate prey that had somehow managed to land a strike against a supposedly untouchable predator.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

Three platforms detonated in rapid succession, the Phase-Winder destroying islands with vicious efficiency that left Jack stranded on a single isolated position with nowhere to retreat.

The serpent was done playing, ready to end this useless fight.

Father Caelen’s golden light intensified as the old priest channeled more power into his supportive blessings. "Whatever you’re planning, do it quickly! We’re running out of stable ground!"

Jack’s tactical mind was already three steps ahead, calculating the best approach with information gathered from his previous Abyssal Step activations.

The Phase-Winder was too fast to hit with normal attacks, too durable to damage with single strikes, even when slowed perception let him track its position.

But what if he didn’t try to damage it from the outside? What if he let it close in, let it think it had won, then struck from a position where its enhanced scales couldn’t protect vulnerable internal organs?

Risky.

Potentially suicidal. But standing on an isolated platform with no escape routes left him with limited options.

The Phase-Winder’s green streak was accelerating toward him again, this time on a trajectory that wouldn’t allow dodge even with Lightning Steps’ enhanced mobility.

The creature had learned and adapted its approach to account for Jack’s movement.

Jack activated Abyssal Step.

Time slowed. The Phase-Winder became visible, its massive jaws already opening wide enough to swallow him whole, crystalline fangs positioned to crush and pierce simultaneously.

The creature’s multiple eyes showed satisfaction.

It knew this strike would land, that its prey had nowhere left to run.

Jack didn’t try to dodge.

Instead, he gathered golden lightning around his body as it slowly transformed, all while time remained slowed.

Abyssal Step ended.

Time resumed, and the Phase-Winder’s jaws closed around Jack’s torso in the same instant that his accumulated lightning reached critical mass.

Crystalline fangs punched through Dragon’s Scales passive, the enhanced skin density that normally protected him from cutting damage proving insufficient against teeth designed to function at supersonic velocities.

Pain exploded through his system as the serpent’s bite crushed ribs and punctured organs with force that would have killed normal warriors instantly.

But Jack had been expecting the pain.

Ha had braced for the injury, and accepted it as the necessary cost of getting close enough to strike where the Phase-Winder’s scales couldn’t protect it.

The creature’s throat muscles contracted, beginning to swallow as it prepared to consume the prey it had finally caught.

Wet darkness surrounded Jack as he was pulled deeper into the serpent’s body, digestive tract designed to process anything the Phase-Winder’s enhanced metabolism could break down.

Then Jack released everything.

Arc Blast activated at full power, sustained a lightning stream inside Phase-Winder’s throat.

There was nowhere for the electricity to go except through vulnerable tissue that wasn’t protected by the enhanced scales covering the creature’s exterior.

The serpent’s scream was pure agony, the sound of a creature suffering internal damage as concentrated lightning cooked its organs, heat beyond what even its enhanced biology could withstand.

The Phase-Winder’s body convulsed, its massive form twisting through the void as it tried to expel the threat consuming it from within.

But Jack wasn’t done.

His resilience, primarily fueled by an unwavering determination to survive, rendered being engulfed a calculated risk rather than a tactical misstep.

His consciousness remained intact somehow, while his body transformed into pure lightning that filled the Phase-Winder’s throat and upper digestive tract.

The transformation was agony.

Every nerve screaming as his physical form dissolved into energy, every instinct howling that this was her death.

But Jack forced himself through the transition, maintaining awareness as he passed through a process that should have scattered his consciousness across the dimensional boundaries between matter and pure force.

His transformed state burned through tissue, following the path of least resistance as electricity sought ground that didn’t exist in the void between floating islands.

The Phase-Winder’s internal organs ruptured under the assault, blood vessels exploding as lightning exceeding anything the serpent had expected.

Jack found the creature’s heart and concentrated every remaining amp of power into it.

The tissue exploded, cardiac muscle vaporizing under electrical discharge that turned the Phase-Winder’s chest cavity into a furnace.

With effort that felt like tearing his own consciousness apart, Jack forced the electrical energy comprising his current existence to concentrate into a single point near the serpent’s sternum.

Then he released everything at once, an explosion of force that treated the Phase-Winder’s chest as a barrier to be broken.

The serpent’s chest cavity detonated outward in a shower of scales and burning tissue.

Jack’s physical form reconstituted in the same instant, his body reforming from pure lightning back into flesh and bone as he burst through the hole his transformed state had created in the creature’s torso.

The transition back to physical existence was just as agonizing as the transformation had been, organs, bones, and skin rebuilding themselves from electrical discharges in a process that defied every law of biology he’d ever understood.

He emerged covered in blood and electrical burns, his Dragon’s Flesh passive already working to regenerate organs that had been damaged during the consumption and transformation process.

The Phase-Winder’s massive body was falling, its life already fled despite the physical form still twitching with residual activity.

[Field Boss Eliminated: Phase-Winder Serpent]

[+150,000 EXP]

[+45,000 Death Tokens]

[+1 Disaster-class Core]

Jack landed on one of the floating islands, his body screaming from injuries that would have killed normal warriors, despite Dragon’s Flesh already working on repairs.

His legs nearly buckled as he struggled to keep himself upright through damage that had liquefied several internal organs and cracked bones throughout his torso.

Father Caelen was there immediately, golden light washing across Jack’s form as Radiant Heal began accelerating the regeneration process beyond what his passive abilities could achieve alone.

"That was deeply concerning to watch," the old priest stated with professional calm that barely masked genuine worry. "You disappeared into the creature’s mouth, then it started screaming and exploded from the inside. I wasn’t certain you’d survive whatever technique you employed."

"Neither was I," Jack admitted, his voice hoarse from the transformation trauma his vocal cords had experienced during the lightning conversion.