Transcendent Gene
Chapter 44: Blackwing Blood Serpent [4]

Chapter 44: Blackwing Blood Serpent [4]

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gio desperately crawled on the floor, hearing the chaos around him.

No, he wasn’t just hearing it.

The rocks that flew from the walls hit him and knocked the wind out of him. The snake’s body was always barely above his own, grinding against him and tearing apart his clothing.

His back would be next if he couldn’t find a way out. If he wasn’t smothered or crushed, he would be flayed to death.

BANG!

The serpent’s body shifted, almost landing on top of him. Gio barely managed to roll out of the way and escape with only cuts and scratches.

’Tch!’

He looked around, looking for any kind of opening. If there was just something he could use to shield himself from the snake...

’There.’

He spotted multiple locations in the span of several seconds before picking one. It was a small depression in the wall that could act as a cubby. If he hid there, he at least wouldn’t have to worry about being crushed.

’I can earn myself time to think from there. I just need a moment to get there...!’

He crawled away from the snake as fast as possible, not caring about the ground cutting into his skin.

BANG!

The snake’s tail whipped in his direction, slamming into the wall to his right. He waited, anticipating that moment when–

BANG!

Its body flicked the other way. He pushed himself up on his arms and rapidly kicked his legs, forcing himself forward. He stumbled as ungracefully as one could imagine, but grace wasn’t in his dictionary right now.

He sprinted, pushing his body to its limits in the short few seconds it took to get to his target.

BANG!

He dove into the wall. At the same time, the snake’s tail went out again. As he hit the floor, he was pelted by a flurry of debris, but he still dragged himself across the floor and entered the cubby.

"Haa...Haa..."

This was a good position temporarily, but it wasn’t anything good. He was standing only a few feet away from the flame wall blocking the entrance of the tunnel, and on the other side was the rampaging snake.

’This is bad.’

Gio looked at the flames in front of him with a sour expression. They weren’t massive in the sense that they only reached up to his knee, but they were spread like a sea, turning the rocky floor into a hellscape.

How was the flame able to burn so strongly on rock? Gio could only attribute it to the special properties of the serpent’s flame. In the end, it didn’t matter. There wasn’t a way for him to get over it unless he magically gained the ability to jump ten feet at a time.

His eyes turned back in the other direction. He was huddled in a small cubby in the rock, protecting him from everything but the aftershocks of the impacts, but the serpent’s corpse was still wildly flinging itself from side to side.

No, perhaps it was worse now. Its wings were unfurled, flapping wildly without aim and creating gusts that bolstered the flames. Everything within its flame gland was being expelled, making the colorless flame coming from its mouth exponentially stronger with every passing second.

The heat was almost unbearable by itself. Every time the serpent struck the wall he hid in, Gio’s entire body was flung around. He was lucky enough to not get injured, but he couldn’t avoid pain.

But none of that made him think the situation was bad.

If that was it, then all he had to do was wait until the syringe was filled and retrieve it after the corpse calmed down.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t it at all.

It was a bit different for monsters, but Aether interacted with the bodies of beasts the same way it did for humans with Aether Cores. It saw their bodies as containers and naturally flowed through them.

When a beast died, the Aether in the corpse would slowly dissipate into the environment and become one with the air. For this reason, beast corpses had to be harvested and preserved as soon as possible to contain as much of the original essence as possible.

Naturally, Gio wasn’t able to do that.

As the serpent lashed around, spitting flames wantonly, the Aether in its body dissipated at an even faster rate than normal. The Aether in the coating around its scales gradually vanished, and as its body slammed into the walls, its scales started to fly off.

When its bare skin made contact with the jagged rocks with nothing other than its physical protections, with enough force and repetition, it was bound to bleed.

The acidic blood flying through the air was the last of Gio’s worries. He was more worried about the fact that he couldn’t stop its flow.

He’d barely moved himself into a spot out of the serpent corpse’s reach, with only a wall of fire separating him from the cave entrance.

But that situation was soon to change.

He could already see them approaching from the horizon. He could already hear the cries of the beasts who lived nearby awaiting the moment when the Blackwing Blood Serpent finally died.

They rushed over to fight for its corpse. It was a battle meant to be among themselves, but there was one human boy who was bound to be trapped within that collision.

Gio’s face hardened severely.

Everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

And he had no way to stop it.

’Tch!’

He looked back at the serpent corpse, trying to get a good look at the syringe in its back. It was barely holding on through the force of its own vacuum, but the moment it was filled, it would be thrown away.

He couldn’t allow it to break and spill the Essence Blood.

’I can’t leave.’

He gritted his teeth. This Essence Blood was too important to leave behind. He had no choice but to stay.

’But if I stay...’

ROOOOOAR!

A massive roar was followed by over ten more. The ground rumbled as the approaching beasts got closer. In only a few seconds, they’d be in front of the cave.

"Shit..."

It didn’t take long for Gio to understand that there wasn’t a way out of this situation.

He looked back into the tunnel one more time.

’Do I really have to abandon the syringe?’

It was as if his thoughts were perfectly timed. All of a sudden, the serpent’s body jolted and straightened. Its head rose into the air one more time, but nothing came out of its mouth.

It was stuck in that position before it dropped to the ground once more, its body completely rid of anything keeping it responding.

Gio’s eyes focused on the metal casing of the syringe that went flying through the air.

He could hear those beasts just behind the flame wall. He understood that there was no way back.

But still, he leapt out of the cubby.

’Go!’

He pushed himself, sprinting as fast as he could back to the serpent and past its head. He jumped into the air, putting both of his hands out to cup the syringe, safely bringing it to his chest.

His eyes wanted to turn back one more time.

He didn’t let them.

Booom!

One of those beasts must have done something.

A massive sound rang out, followed by the crumbling of the earth.

The flame wall had become a protective barrier for Gio the moment those beasts arrived, but they were determined to reach their goal by any means possible. When they reached it, a slaughter would begin.

For Gio to have any chance of escaping before that slaughter started, he needed the flame wall to keep the beasts back.

But it had only been a few seconds.

In a few seconds, they tore the ground apart and stomped out the flames, leaving them with a clear path to him and the serpent.

’Run.’

He didn’t even take the time to look back. He dashed into the tunnel with all his might, traveling back into the serpent’s cave.

’This is also pointless. The cave probably still has some poison gas in it, and as I get closer, it’ll get stronger.’

He was safe near the entrance, but if he went inside, he was bound to die to his own poison.

If anyone thought going into the cave and relying on luck to escape through its attached tunnels was a good idea, they could throw it out the window now.

Everything around Gio wanted him dead.

’Was it a stupid idea to come alone?’

He smiled wryly to himself, looking between his options.

’I have to do something stupid again.’

He had to charge through the beast horde and get outside with the Essence Blood. As long as he saved it, he could deal with the loss of everything else.

He had to somehow avoid their attacks and detection. He had to avoid their eyes, ears, and noses. He had to avoid their perfect instinct trained to find humans and kill them. He had to–

Xiuuuuu!

Gio’s wild plans were cut off before they could be formed.

BOOOOOOOOM!

A wave of dust obscured his vision.

"Something" had just dropped from the sky.

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