Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix
Chapter 1251 - 1251: Control

"Come on, do it," Rain said while raising his voice. "Unless you attack me now, I will use my secret weapon. The jokester path."

Rain's taunt didn't work… the enemy could tell that his attack was no longer being charged, so he only needed something else to split his focus and then defeat him… that something was an endless swarm of insects flying and approaching Rain from behind.

"I would dare say that this technique of yours needs some work," Elisabetha said. "Something that forces you to stay still will only work on stupid enemies."

Rain didn't have time to say anything, he just waited until he could hear the sound of the mouths of the insects approaching and when that happened, he punched he ground with all his might.

A shockwave erupted from Rain's powerful punch, a force so intense that it seemed to disintegrate the monsters that got too close. The air itself quivered, and the ground caved in, forming a long crater around him. The blast of wind generated by the impact reached the insect queen, pushing her back dozens of meters.

Dust rose in the sky, shrouding the area in a temporary curtain of obscurity, and within moments, Rain vanished from sight.

As the settled dust stopped spreading, Rain had swiftly moved within the obscured space. Emerging from the dissipating particles, he charged toward the insect queen with his left arm poised for a devastating strike. The monsters in the vicinity, affected by the shockwave, lay scattered or disintegrated, and Rain's focused determination intensified as he closed in on his formidable adversary.

Still, his right side was completely wide open… the insect saw that as an opportunity to chop his limbs and stop him for real. She raised her right arm and blocked his punch while also swinging her left claw to split his upper and lower halves. When the attack landed, the right claw of the beast was half destroyed, and the other side pierced his right side…

Blood began to gush the wound, and Rain felt the claws of the monster carving his flesh… Still, the attack had a lot less power than expected. If the power of the gluttony of the beast made her stronger when she tasted Rain's blood, his left punch charged with the Temperance path nullified those effects… to some extent. The claws were still carving his flesh and cutting it.

However, the pain that the beast was feeling slowed her down… until a spear came flying from behind Rain at insane speeds and pierced the head of the monster.

A sudden coldness enveloped her, starting from her head and gradually spreading across every part of her monstrous form. The freezing effect manifested as an eerie, translucent layer of ice that encased the insect queen's body.

The frost crept along her antennae, causing them to shimmer with an icy glaze. Her multifaceted eyes became frosted over, rendering them temporarily opaque. The frost continued its advance, covering the chitinous exoskeleton and massive wings with a delicate layer of frost.

Each limb, each joint, succumbed to the relentless freezing, causing the once agile and menacing insect queen to slow down as if caught in the grip of an otherworldly winter.

"Ugh, I went to fight to avoid her fighting this beast, but she ended up saving me," Rain said, and then he broke the claw of the monster before he pulled it out.

Rain's eyes got turvy as the pain took over his body, and blood gushed from his wound. He tried to heal himself as fast as possible, but it took a while… The power of corruption was truly a pain to deal with. Sealyn and the others arrived in the area while they were still surrounded by countless flies around them.

"Kill her. I can't fight well within the spear," Sealyn said.

"Just give me a minute," Rain said.

Even in that state, the monster was alive. In the end, that was a good thing. Rain took the bow from his back and then summoned an arrow before pulling the spear from the head of the creature. Once the spear was out, the ice began to crack, and the monster began to move again… until Rain put the blood arrow on the head of the creature… In the next moment, all of the flies stopped moving.

"I guess it worked…" Rain said and then saw the arrow cracking. "It won't work forever, it seems."

The blood arrow that Rain had fired contained a fraction of the demon king's power, specifically geared towards manipulating the nervous system of its targets through their blood. While useful, it was not an absolute control; creatures with strong willpower could resist its effects to some extent.

Recognizing this limitation, Rain swiftly replaced the cracking arrow with another, understanding that time was of the essence.

In the brief moment provided by the immobilized insects, Sealyn and the others combined their skills to eliminate the surrounding flies. Rain, with his abilities, could have easily dispatched the weakened insect queen, but a strategic decision held him back. The prospect of gaining a substantial amount of experience by killing the swarm was too tempting to pass up.

As the combined powers of the group began to eliminate the remaining insects, Rain monitored the situation. Until he eventually pulled all the essence of the beast with his blood magic and turned it into a core. He thought that he would be able to force the beast to reveal its secrets like that, but he could only force the monster to stop moving. Still, it had been enough.

The skill Precision Aim leveled up.

The skill Sharp Eye leveled up.

The Temperance path leveled up.

As the battle was over, the wound on Rain's right side finally could be treated properly… he did that while looking around and confirming that the base of the enemy was completely underground, not like he expected to find a good base considering that the enemies were flies.

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