Say, Do You Bleed?
Chapter 17
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"Hmm… If you don't mind, system, could you pull up the information regarding the newest Ability for reaching Rank 4?"
[Ding! Sure can!]
{[Rank 4 Micro Jellyfish]}
{Acquired Abilities:}
[Multi-Pulsation Lazer] - (Fires beams of energy from four different horns. Can be fired in a way synonymous to that of a Gatling gun. Moderate energy usage.)
[Super Pulsation Lazer - (Unleashes a very powerful beam of energy using the combined energy from four different horns. Uses up large amounts of energy.)
[P.S. Energy usage is dependent on the strength of the host when using that ability at that specific time.]
"Ahh… well, thanks for informing me of this beforehand." Nodding his head in appreciation, Astaroth then focused his attention on the Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish.
Not once had it stopped attacking him, and not once did it hold its punches…
Bang. Whap. Bang. Whap!
Over and over again, the Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish lashed out at Astaroth. Time and time again, Astaroth had to dodge and just barely escape full-body paralysis. Luckily, he had only been grazed a couple times, because if not for that… well…
He preferred not to think about such a scenario. Instead, he figured he would give up on the defensive and finally strike back!
|Undulation Zoom| X6
After getting a good distance away from the front side of the Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish, Astaroth gathered energy at the tips of his horns.
Causing the air to slightly warp underneath the energy, he prepared himself to use something that no one possibly could've expected a jellyfish to be capable of using…
As the buildup of energy reached a zenith point, Astaroth activated Undulation Zoom a few more times, evading the most recent attacks. Then, with a vivid eruption of crystal clear light, Astaroth pronounced the name of a mind-numbingly powerful ability.
|Multi-Pulsation Lazer|
BLAZINGGINGUNG!!!
Like a rapid-fire machine gun, pulsation lasers were shot off in rapid succession, burning through a good chunk of Astaroth's energy storage!
"You're the one who brought this upon yourself, big guy."
These were the words to be emulated through Astaroth's expression before hundreds of dark red, searing holes were burrowed through the massive Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish.
As the mighty creature breathed its last breath, its killer didn't bother with pleasantries and simply devoured the corpse of the jellyfish in one chomp.
CHOMP!
[Ding! You have absorbed 80 billion Energy from a Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish!]
RUMBLE!
The air around Astaroth violently trembled as his body rapidly expanded, eventually reaching a size nearly a dozen times what it once was!
Looking around himself, he saw countless Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish just as large as he was.
"Ai, I guess I should get used to seeing my horizons expanded sooner rather than later…"
Sighing to himself, Astaroth spammed |Undulation Zoom| and zigzagged through a few groups of Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish. At the same time, he also used |Multi-Pulsation Lazer|, causing the water space to be turned into a full-blown shootout!
As thousands of holes were being tunneled through the squishy jellyfish bodies, Astaroth made sure to finish the job with his |Razor Whip|, taking their heads right off their tentacles.
[Ding! You have absorbed 120 billion Energy from a Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 115 billion Energy from a Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 190 billion Energy from a Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 2 million Energy from a Lvl 4 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 260 billion Energy from a Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have…]
Somehow, a tiny Lvl 4 Micro Jellyfish got caught up in his killing spree.
Overlooking this occurrence, Astaroth went back to massacring the Lvl 6 Micro Jellyfish.
After around half a minute of mowing down their numbers, Lvl 7 Micro Jellyfish started appearing. Though Astaroth successfully killed one after a minute of back and forth, there arrived a familiar face that used to look like the sun to him.
A Lvl 8 Micro Jellyfish; to be precise, it was the black-tagged one that Astaroth witnessed when he first arrived in the Jelly Sea.
Now, it was a red-tag, but still far more manageable than before…
However, even with it only being an extreme threat to his life, Astaroth was backed into a corner on more than one occasion, even reaching a state of near-death multiple times.
In the end, he had to resort to using the Ability that would deplete him of at least 50% of his energy storage.
WHIRL!
Calling immense levels of energy to an area above his horns, all of it swirled into the shape of a wavy clear sphere. Growing larger and larger, this sphere ultimately reached a point where it became twice the size of the Lvl 8 Micro Jellyfish, dozens of times his own size.
This burned through all of Astaroth's energy storage and even 70% of his actual energy mass, but it was fair to say that the result was spectacular!
After stopping at double the size of his shivering rival, Astaroth used his energy control abilities and forced the sphere to shrink and shrink. Eventually, it achieved a tenth Astaroth's size.
Silence.
With the cold winter water acting as the setting for the spine-tingling tension that permeated the atmosphere, silence enveloped everything in its solemn embrace.
Then, out of nowhere, Astaroth broke the silence with, "Say, do you bleed?"
Silence.
Although no response came from the one he directed this question to, Astaroth could almost instinctively feel the Lvl 8 Micro Jellyfish fervently answer, 'Noooo!!!'.
Taking this response quite well, Astaroth's eyes darkened, and the condensed ball of death above his head vibrated in a way craving destruction.
"Well, you will now," he declared.
|Super Pulsation Lazer|
Silence.
The silence was palpable, until it wasn't.
WHAZOOOOOM!!!
Violent winds shook this side of the sponge as the tiny ball of energy shot out like an unstoppable rocket! Around it were tunnels of air that curved and warped underneath the sheer immensity of the Pulsation Lazer!
Before the Lvl 8 Micro Jellyfish even had the chance to react, 80% of its body was missing; in its place was a massive bloody hole…
|True Energy Absorption|
[Ding! You have absorbed 320 Trillion Energy from a Lvl 8 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You are nearly 50% of the way to your next Energy Overflow!]
[Ding! Rank 5 is next, and Rank 6 is the maximum limit for the evolution phases of the Micro Jellyfish, then will come the next Major Energy Overflow!]
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