There was a slight qualitative increase in his strength, in regards to his control of oblivion flux. Even though it was crude, it was slightly better, bordering on the beginner's level of control.
'This is not nearly enough to defeat the snake,' Zayden pondered, adding to the fact that I am weaponless.
"HISS!!"
The Umbra Serpent let out a loud hiss as darkness surrounded it, its mouth open wide, ready for a large attack. Zayden's eyes widened. He had no skills that could help him dodge the attack of the umbra serpent.
His skill library was very small, almost nonexistent.
Channeling his oblivion flux into his legs, he jumped very high into the sky, and at that same moment, a beam of darkness, with the width of about four feet, escaped the mouth of the umbra serpent.
'I can't keep running around like this,' Zayden thought in the air. It has more stamina than I, and if I run out of stamina, I'm going to die. I need to think of something.
'Its scales are too hard, even with my increased control of oblivion flux, without a weapon, it's impossible to pierce through those scales it' Zayden thought as he landed on the ground. He quickly hid behind one of the many rocks, out of the sight of the snake.
The snake was sluggish. It seemed like the previous attack took a lot out of the body of the snake. But even in this condition, the snake had more than enough strength to defeat Zayden, and Zayden knew that.
Zayden kept looking around the body of the snake, in a bid to find something that would give him some sort of breakthrough. It was at this moment that the snake lay on its back, ignorant of the presence of Zayden in its lair.
After all, there was no way that Zayden would have survived a strike like that.
It was very small, almost unnoticeable, but just below the chin area of the snake was a single scale. Unlike the rest of the scales of the snake that were arranged upwards, this scale was going downward, against the grid.
'the reverse scale'
Zayden's eyes locked onto the reverse scale of the snake. Even though it was going to be more than a thousand times more dangerous, Zayden needed to take the risk, as this was going to be his only chance to defeat the snake.
There was no way he could leave this snake here. If he did not kill the snake, it would make surviving the apocalypse a whole lot harder, not to mention that the horde of nulls would nulls be stopped. But then his mind wandered.
'There's no way that this snake could have reached such a high level so early into the apocalypse,' Zayden thought, 'even if it kills all the beasts here, it should only reach level seventeen at least.'
'Something fishy is going on here,' he finalized
But there was no time to think about all that. He needed to find a way to kill the snake. And that was to make the snake go berserk and lose what little rationality it had. At this point, Zayden would be able to find the openings and take them to his advantage.
'To do that, I need something with a penetrative ability,' Zayden thought.
It all came down to the fact that he was weaponless. He needed to forge a weapon real soon, if not, surviving the apocalypse would become a whole lot harder.
'But I can substitute that,' Zayden thought, as darkness gathered in his hand, forming a solid ball. But like dough, the ball started stretching, becoming longer and longer, thinner and thinner, more defined.
Before long, a thin, three-foot-long needle-looking spike made entirely out of darkness was in Zayden's hand. Zayden exhaled breath that he didn't realize he was holding all this time.
He took in a deep breath once again and charged at the Umbra Serpent. His footsteps echoed in the cave, but before the Umbra Serpent could realize that Zayden was not dead, Zayden had already jumped high into the air, the dark spike aimed at the reverse scale of the Umbra Serpent.
The two eyes of the umbra serpent locked onto Zayden, but it was too late. There was no way for the Umbra Serpent to dodge the attack at point-blank range.
"HISSSSSSSSS!!!"
The dark spike stabbed deep into the reverse scale of the Umbra Serpent, so deep that only the tip of the spike could be seen. The Serpent let out a loud hiss of both agony and deep fury as its eyes turned a deep, furious shade of red. And even though Zayden could not see it, its narrow slit like irises glowed a slight purple color.
The spike that was stabbed into the reverse scale of the beast dissolved into liquid and started wreaking havoc inside the body of the Umbra serpent. But at this point, the Umbra serpent didn't seem to notice it as its furious red eyes were locked on Zayden, who was running away as fast as his legs could carry him.
Now, one would think, why didn't Zayden just throw his spike into the reverse scale of the snake, which would allow him to take advantage of the brief period of stun the snake had to deal a more fatal attack.
He didn't do that because there were some problems with that approach.
First of all, he has no experience in throwing polearms, both in his previous life and in this life, he never used any polearms, so throwing the spike would basically be leaving his chance at survival to luck. In the sense that the spike may or may not land on the reverse scale of the snake.
And the chance of the latter happening was a whole lot higher due to the first reason, no experience.
Furthermore, in the off case that the spike managed to land on the reverse scale of the snake, due to the friction of air, the speed would be reduced, and along with it, the power of the spike. And if the spike does not go in deep enough, the second part of his plan would not work.
The second part of his plan was the spike dissolving into liquid, with the properties of darkness, so as to deal a lot more damage to the snake. But if he threw it and it didn't pierce deep enough, the spike would dissolve on the scales of the snake, doing nothing but angering the snake.
But timing it right and piercing the spike into the body of the snake himself would make all his plans work, and he could use the brief period that the snake was stunned to put some space between the snake and himself and wait, if possible, to hide from the snake.
Unfortunately for him, things were never destined to go that smoothly. It seems like the berserk state that the snake entered overrode the stunned state of the snake, halving the stunned state.
Meaning that. Zayden only had half the time to run or figure out what to do.
With a deep breath, Zayden turned around to face the snake. The red-eyed furious snake lashed out with its tail, coated in darkness and some kind of purplish energy.
Zayden swerved a little to the right, dodging the attack of the snake. But he was surprised when the attack he thought he had dodged appeared in front of him again. There was nothing that he could do in this stance, so he resigned to his fate, letting the tail hit him.
[HP: -30%]
Zayden coughed up a mouthful of blood as he slowly stood up, his right hand broken.
'I can't take another attack; if not, I might die.' Zayden thought his gaze landed on the snake that was still rushing towards him furiously.
It was a slight change, but Zayden could see it. The snake was slower. It was like the darkness energy that Zayden put into its body was already doing its work. But it wasn't fast enough.
Zayden took a look at his stats and couldn't help but smile wryly at the amount of energy remaining.
The process of forming the dark spike took a whole lot of time and a whole lot of energy. First, he had to gather up enough energy to form a solid ball that was still malleable. And putting in more energy, he had to change the shape of the energy from a ball into a spike.
This not only took time, approximately five seconds, but also took up a lot of energy, to the point that if Zayden formed another spike, he would be totally spent. Now, it was stupid to do it again, but it was the only way he could live.
He wasted no more time and gathered up the energy into his palm, and before long, the ball appeared.
'one'
Zayden suddenly started charging at the snake, his hand held up like a valiant hero. The snake was surprised, but its direction didn't change.
They said not to touch the reverse scale. But not only did this foolish human touch it, he went a step further and injured it. He had to die.
'two'
'three'
The spike in his hand was already taking shape, becoming sharper and sharper, longer and longer, thinner and thinner. The space between Zayden and the snake was reduced to only a few meters.
'four'
Zayden suddenly jumped into the air, avoiding the open mouth of the snake, the dark spike already taking form. With help from gravity, he started free-falling.
'five!'
Zayden stabbed the spike with all his strength into the eye of the snake. So deep and so powerful that no part of the spike was showing, and even some of Zayden's hands. The spike went so deep, destroying the brain of the snake, effectively killing it.
But it wasn't done yet; it dissolved into liquid, corroding the brain of the snake, turning it into mush.
Both he and the snake landed on the ground, and he was breathing heavily. But if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that the snake was deader than dead.