Chapter 74: Innate Ability [3]
[A/N: Day 2 (2/3)]
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The rain had not stopped. If anything, it fell harder now, each drop cold and relentless against Cael’s skin.
The burly man stood on the ridge, arrow notched, bow drawn.
His eyes were fixed on Cael with the same strange presence as the salamander below.
Cael’s space pouch was gone.
His sword was somewhere in the mud below, buried somewhere in the dense grass, along with his scattered potions and cards.
Searching for it was not a good option.
He needed to conserve mana.
Something about this situation felt off, and he could not afford to waste mana on a fight he did not fully understand.
The bow man was an [Early Gold] ranker. Not an impossible foe, but dangerous nonetheless.
Cael moved as he disappeared from the spot.
Black Lightning Steps carried him from the tree branch, his body dissolving into shadow.
He reappeared behind the bow man in an instant, his hand already reaching for the man’s neck.
Death Reaper’s Focus activated.
His senses sharpened as the world around him became clearer, the rain slower, the man’s breathing louder.
Cael stretched his hand forward, lightning crackling around his fingers, ready to electrocute the man into submission.
He had no sword. And he needed answers; this was the only way.
Then something moved from behind the bow man’s collar.
A snake.
It launched itself at Cael’s face with blinding speed.
Thanks to his enhanced senses, he caught the motion just in time.
Cael twisted his body, and the snake’s fangs passed by without doing any harm or damage.
Cael landed a few steps back, his eyes wide.
The bow man stumbled forward, finally realizing how close he had come to death. His hand touched his neck where Cael’s fingers had almost been.
"You almost..."
He did not finish the sentence.
Cael’s eyes settled on the snake. It had landed on the wet ground and was already coiling, ready to strike again.
Then, suddenly, recognition hit him.
That snake mana...
It was the same one he had killed earlier.
The same snake whose corpse had disappeared from the forest floor yesterday.
There was no mistaking it.
Unlike the bow man and the salamander, Cael could clearly sense the snake’s mana.
It was weak, [Imperfect Silver] rank, but unmistakable.
’Why can I sense this one and not the others?’
He did not have time to answer.
The snake lunged again.
Cael raised his hand and flicked his wrist.
A wind blade shot forward, clean and precise.
The snake’s body split into two midair, its severed halves falling to the ground with wet thuds. Dark blood mixed with rain.
"NOOO"
The bowman shouted as he released another arrow,
-WHOOSH
The arrow crackling with lightning flew toward Cael’s chest.
’Time Deceleration.’
The world slowed. The arrow became a drifting speck, its lightning frozen mid-crackle.
The rain hung in the air like suspended glass.
The bow man’s expression was locked in rage, his muscles straining against the slowed time.
Cael moved as he leaped from his position, his body cutting through the frozen air, and landed directly in the bow man’s shadow.
His hand gripped the man’s neck, and lightning surged from his palm.
Cael deactivated Time Deceleration.
The world snapped back to normal.
The bow man’s body convulsed as electricity coursed through him.
His bow clattered to the ground. His knees buckled. He fell forward, catching himself on his hands, gasping for breath.
Cael stood over him, his expression indifferent. He asked in a calm voice,
"Tell me, who are you? And why did you attack me?"
The bow man did not answer. He was too busy trying to breathe, his muscles still twitching from the shock.
Then the dead snake suddenly opened its eyes.
The severed halves of the snake’s body twitched, then fused back together. Its scales rippled, and its eyes glowed with a faint, sickly light.
Cael saw it from the corner of his vision, but before he could react, the snake lunged.
Not at him. At the bow man.
Its speed was impossible.
Cael’s enhanced senses could not follow the motion.
One moment, the snake was on the ground. The next, its fangs were buried deep in the bow man’s neck.
The man’s eyes widened.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out. Dark veins spread from the bite wound, crawling across his face like roots.
The venom was immediate.
By the time Cael processed what had happened, both the snake and the bow man were dead.
The snake’s body lay still, its eyes dull and lifeless.
The bow man’s face was frozen in an expression of shock, his skin already turning gray.
Cael stared at them, his fists clenched as he cursed out loud,
"Fuck, why the hell?"
He looked around.
The salamander was gone. The deer was also nowhere to be seen.
Cael took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing thoughts.
None of this made sense. The snake had died. He had killed it himself.
But somehow its body fused back into one and came alive. Then it killed its own master.
’Is he even Snake’s master?’
’Something is wrong with this snake.’
He looked down at the bowman’s body. The dark veins had spread across his entire face now, his eyes completely white.
Cael knelt and searched the man’s pockets.
Nothing. No identification, no supplies, no clues. Just a bow and a quiver of arrows.
He stood up and looked in the direction where the deer had disappeared.
The mark on the deer is still working without any issues.
-GROWL
Suddenly, Cael’s stomach demanded something to eat.
Cael sighed; he was indeed feeling hungry.
He turned his head and looked where his space pouch and items inside fell down.
Looking at the dense, tall grass, he instantly knew that this was going to take a long time.
Then Cael turned his head back to the corpses.
’Whoa, since when did I start taking people’s lives so lightly that I even think of what to eat in front of a human corpse?’
As soon as his gaze fell back on the corpses, Cael was stunned to find out...
"The snake corpse... vanished?"
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[A/N: 5 Chapters will be uploaded tomorrow]