Read Novel Full Chapter 629: Already Too Far Gone?
Chapter 629: Already Too Far Gone?
The Salesman looked towards the ceiling, his eyes blank of light and sentience; his arms remained dangling by his sides.
He then began to straighten his spine, causing soft yet unnerving—
Pop Pop Pop
—Popping sounds to consecutively resound as he forced his spine straight.
Then, his malnourished jaw muscles began to tremble and shiver rapidly, creating the image of oversized maggots wiggling underneath his black skin.
And what followed—
Kuhk.
—Was the sharp cracking of the joints in his jaws as he began to slowly open his mouth.
Kuhk. Kuhk. Kuhk.
The cracking noise was reminiscent of the cocking of a handgun, except at a much lower and haunting pitch.
Kuhk. Kuhk. Kuhk.
Hearing these noises, Millis felt a shiver of fear shudder through her arms, leading to an army of goosebumps to rise; they trembled too.
And Lillian was no different.
Kuhk. Kuhk. Kuhk.
Fortunately, the cracking stopped after some time, but what followed was equally, if not more, disturbing.
"SKREEEEH!"
From within its mouth resounded a screech; his voice deep and scratchy, the sort of sound you would receive by scraping a brick against a car door.
It was an extremely haunting cry, enough to where Lillian’s bluish spiritual body seemingly paled a sickly white; the flames that partially covered her body stiffened, dying down as if shrinking from fear.
Lillian wouldn’t blame them if they did shrink due to such a thing, for she, too, was afraid.
The Rabbit grimly took a look inside the Salesman’s mouth, finding only a dark void within.
The Salesman’s mouth was wide - wide enough to fit and swallow an entire hippo in one gulp.
Besides teeth and flesh, Lillian did not see a tongue; that was because the Salesman’s tongue had completely fused with the monster’s lower jaw, strengthening its already existing jaw muscles.
The Salesman also didn’t have a drop of saliva, making the entire inside of his mouth dry and rough like sandpaper.
This was because, during his transformation, his body had completely broken down the salivary glands for more flesh to make use of - along with other organs and glands, except for those with major roles like the brain, stomach, heart, intestines, lungs, etc.
After Lillian could finally snatch her body’s control from the strong grasp of fear, she watched as the shadows stretching beneath the Salesman’s feet made their move.
They stretched and shot towards them with hostility; their forms were sharp and linear like blades, but also flexible as though bent and curved towards them like snakes.
Lillian’s eyes flashed with desperation.
Flicking the back of her hand towards Millis, she smacked the Heroine out of the way—
THWACK.
—While at the same time dodging herself.
Millis’s visor fell down over her face, hiding the girl’s visible surprise as she realised that they were now being attacked.
"HOLY SHIT!"
She immediately began to flap her wings.
Lillian flew into the air as well, dodging the swift shadows, which attacked them hazardously - destroying the surroundings without care.
The shadows moved with immense speed, while the Salesman remained standing still, far away.
The Rabbit spun in the air, watching as one of the shadows streaked past her and tore open a small gash in her robe; her face darkened instantly.
If Lillian hadn’t been close to Millis at the time, she feared she wouldn’t have been able to knock the woman back into her right state of mind.
As Lillian continued to dodge, she began to feel more and more distracted by the stinging pain in her hand, the one she used to smack Millis out of the way.
Her face wrinkled, cringing from the pain. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do much about it.
She couldn’t cradle her hand like an infant as she had earlier; for the moment, she stopped her dodging—
"C-crap!"
—She wouldn’t have anything left to cradle.
With a missed time dodge, Lillian watched as a shadow plunged through the sleeve of her robe before tearing through it.
She wasn’t sure if she should be grateful that the robe had wide sleeves or not.
Lillian continued to dodge, and while she did, she continued to feel the Salesman continue to emit his Predatory Aura.
’Already too far gone...’ Lillian thought solemnly.
Only monsters could emit Predatory Aura; the fact that the Salesman could even do that meant that he had fully transitioned into a monster, unlike the disfigured human before him - this also meant the Jester no longer sees him as a human.
Earlier, Lillian had calculated her chances of winning.
When a person’s soul/body senses a monster’s Predatory Aura, they would subconsciously do one of two things.
They would either completely ignore the aura if it determined the monster was of little threat or be given rough feedback on their chances of winning.
This feedback would be given after the person’s soul had factored in their experience, their equipment, their abilities, their current condition, etc.
Lillian had less than a 50% chance of defeating the Salesman’s transformed self; this was because her soul had factored in three things.
The first factor was that she had yet to fully adapt to her spiritual body, in the sense that she couldn’t handle the pain of spiritual injuries, so that had definitely decreased a lot of her chances.
The second factor was that she was linked to Millis’s mana reserves to stay alive. She was also what allowed Lillian to utilise magic; granted, she could leech off of the Salesman, but she would rather not have him target her because of that.
The third and last factor was her current equipment.
Although the [Soul Sovereign’s Robe] was capable of reducing a large amount of damage to her soul (Soul Cohesion) and also saving her from near death (Death is a Motivator), she would rather not take any damage or have to wait another two months for [Death is a Motivator] to go off cooldown.
So, she was going to have to utilise Acus Maris for this fight.
After dodging another shadow, Lillian immediately entered into a throwing stance, aiming directly at the Salesman’s chest.
Lillian then called out her technique’s name.
"[Harpoon of the Blac—"
But before she could fully say it—
SCHPK!
—She felt something pierce through her left shoulder.
Lillian’s eyes immediately shot wide open.
Before the pain could fully hit her, Lillian hurled Acus Maris - regardless of whether or not she completed her technique’s name.
Acus Maris soared through the air, streaking through it as it transformed into a dark-blue lightning bolt; its power was much less compared to her previous throws.
Due to Lillian’s panicked hurl of Acus Maris, she had missed her desired target, but not completely!
The harpoon shot through the air and managed to puncture through the Salesman’s malnourished thigh, absolutely severing through it and causing the horrifying creature—
THUD!
—To collapse like a felled tree.
His fall caused the shadow beneath him to squirm erratically, as if it were writhing from pain. Fortunately, because of this, the shadow that had shockingly managed to pierce through Lillian’s shoulder receded.
"AHHHGN—MMN...!" Lillian screamed out in torment, but was soon muffled with a hand.
Having clasped her palm over her mouth, Lillian kicked her legs sporadically in the air - the pain overwhelming her mind.
’My shoulder, my shoulder, my shoulder...!’ The Rabbit repeated in her mind, suffering from the pain that throbbed wickedly in her shoulder.
Even with the [Soul Sovereign’s Robe]’s enchantment, to think it managed to pierce through her shoulder!
’Now, I know why I felt my chances were lower than 50%!’
The Salesman was capable of dealing enough damage to the point it didn’t even matter if the damage dealt had 75% of it reduced!
Just how many drugs did he use to make this possible!?
’Calm down, just calm down, calm down...!’ Lillian repeated inside her mind, quickly trying to soothe her panic and heal the damage done to her shoulder.
Unbeknownst to her, the pain she suffered had caused the flames covering her body to lessen and die slightly, like the fuel supplying her was burning out.
Lillian continued to linger and kick her legs in the air, struggling from the pain, before being caught in Millis’s arms.
Carrying her in a princess carry, Millis brought her to the ground.
The Heroine pushed up her helmet’s visor, revealing a solemn and serious expression in her eyes, as well as a wry smile.
"Ya look like ya hurtin’, don’t like being gone from ya dear woman?"
Lillian groaned loudly as she fell out of Millis’s arms, falling onto her legs as she soothed her shoulder.
She then responded with gaps in her voice:
"Not... particularly. But my body is with her... so, it’s fine..."
After muttering that, Lillian subconsciously placed her hand over her mask before injecting it with magic.
"It doesn’t hurt, the pain doesn’t hurt, there’s no pain..."
Simultaneously, as Lillian did this, she summoned a reflective glass shard in her hand, which flashed with the reflection of a crowned wendigo.
The Jungle Lord.