Chapter 326: Ran away?
Damon’s heart raced as he watched his beefed-up attack tear apart a chunk of the damn beast’s fleshy body, crimson shards of scale and gore raining down around them.
But to his shock, the very next second, the torn flesh writhed like worms in meat and began knitting back together at an impossible speed. The shredded muscle smoothed over, scales reformed with a crystalline shimmer, and in mere breaths, the wound was gone.
The sight made Damon curse inwardly. That wasn’t normal regeneration... that was cheating.
A vicious voice hissing with venom rumbled through the air. "Not bad for a measly bloodsucker..." Eryndral’s antlered head lowered, its glacial blue and venom-green eyes blazing with disdain. "But you are not worthy to stand in front of the great Eryndral!"
The declaration came with a fresh wave of oppressive aura, heavier and sharper than before, as if the beast had been toying with him until now. The ground beneath Damon cracked deeper, the miasma curling into jagged, ghostly shapes that whispered in his ears. Another mental attack!
His muscles locked for a fraction of a second, every instinct screaming at him to move, but his blood surged hotter in defiance. He was not going to lose this fight because of a damned mental attack!
While Damon once again fought to wrench himself free of the crushing mental bind, Eryndral’s smug expression unexpectedly fractured. Its coils tightened in on themselves as an odd tremor rippled through its body. That imperious gaze faltered, replaced by a flicker of confusion, then pain.
The poison had taken root.
Damon’s toxic blood, steeped in the vicious alchemy of the first cycle of the Nine Million Poison Body, had already slipped past its natural resistances, threading itself into every channel of the beast’s mana flow.
Like molten acid poured into the veins, it crawled along nerves, corroding them from the inside out, and gnawed at the creature’s life force.
Eryndral’s hiss deepened into a guttural roar, its antlered head thrashing violently. The miasma around them bucked like a living storm, surging out in chaotic waves as the beast tried to flush the venom from its system.
Damon’s mind was still caught in the echoing whispers of submission, his vision flickering between reality and the suffocating mental illusion. But through the pain and haze, he felt it, the monster’s aura faltering, its once-absolute dominance cracking.
The weakness was small, fleeting... but enough.
"Got you..." he rasped through clenched teeth, forcing mana into his legs. His will lashed outward like a whip, shattering the illusion just enough for him to see clearly. The beast was still reeling, coils twisting in agony.
If he struck now, with everything he had, before the poison burned itself out... this fight could end in one blow.
Damon immediately began to conjure another all-out attack, but before he could actually unleash anything, the beast suddenly disappeared into a violent ripple in the air, only a gust of miasma left in its wake.
One moment, Eryndral’s antlered head was thrashing within striking range, and the next, the space in front of Damon collapsed inward with a whump of displaced air.
"What the hell?" Damon was startled. "Did the boss just... run?"
Damn it. He did not care anymore. This was a fight he at best had a 65% chance to win, maybe even that was pushing it. There was no need to risk things unnecessarily, not when his body had only just healed from a major fuck up.
He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "Yeah... screw that."
Kaelthorn should’ve grabbed a nice haul of treasure chests by now. Better to cash out than push his luck. With one last glance into the swirling miasma, Damon turned and started making his way back.
This trip wasn’t worth dying for. He could mass produce his spit and sell the shit for the remaining amount of money.
There were also plenty of items he had hoarded from the purification raid, and in the worst case, he could even mass-produce some shortcut alchemy recipes and farm a few more treasure chest spots.
He could always ask Mark and Kate to temporarily pause their work and focus on gold grinding before resuming the portal quest again.
Damon quickly started making new plans in his mind as he started retreating from the plague lands at high speed, using Blink as quickly as he could. He then stopped as he almost forgot something.
The entire place was still filled with the blood essence of the exploded corrupted monsters and abominations. There was still a lot of the blood essence left, and it would be a shame to leave it all here.
Damon quickly started absorbing all the corrupted blood essence he could get his hands on. At the same time, he also sent a message to Kaelthorn to fall back and meet him at the Blood Hall.
With the decision made, he only needed a few more seconds, maybe a minute or two. Damon knew he was pushing it, but he had to take at least this much risk. If he always played it safe, his power would stagnate, and he would never go. In the meantime, he also set up Blood Gate straight back to the Blood Hall.
Seconds ticked by slowly. There was still no sign of that beast. Damon clenched his fists, keeping his senses sharp and locked onto the tall mountain. The moment he sensed that beast again, he would make a run for it. Another few seconds passed by, and now a portal appeared as well.
Now he was truly safe. That thing, no matter how powerful it was, could no longer hold him back. Damon stayed back just a few more seconds to suck off all the spilled-over blood essence.
Every drop was strength, and leaving it behind would be a waste. His crimson aura swirled, tendrils of it drinking greedily from the blackened puddles and steaming carcasses that littered the ground.
Only when the last traces were absorbed, he finally decided to leave. He gave the mountain one last glance, half expecting the beast to come barreling down after him, then turned to step into the portal.
However, the next second, he froze. The big boss who had run away silently appeared in front of him.