[Dr. Kerenski / Klint / Keps ]

Fear of the high-level hunter was pressing against my mind, pure terror growing, gnawing at my soul.

I reassessed my situation. I had 13 Lymphagons. It was time to destroy as much as possible, to level up my soldiers and myself as much as I could.

I knew that I had time. I wasn't sure how much time, but I hoped that it would be enough.

My Lymphagons contained a small bit of my soul and were about as intelligent as a kitten. I realised that as they were my Astral phylacteries, my tools... not only could I command each of them, but I could pass information to them. The information being... meaning encoded skills!

I extrapolated the word [Sectus-Anima] with [Identify LV 4] as far as I could mathematically, memorizing every notch. Then, I added it to my skills.

Sasonny showed it as [Sectus-Anima LV 4].

I moved the [Tether] from one Lymphagon to the other, binding the [Sectus-Anima LV 4] skill to each one of them using [Conjugo-Anima].

As I did, I ordered each Lymphagon to start indiscriminately firing upon our enemies.

One by one, each of the twelve sides of my shield turned into turrets. From every direction, they began to fire at the passing enemy Lymphagons. In moments, the bloodstream became filled with corpses, which slammed into my shield and became absorbed, consumed by my soldiers.

My experience skyrocketed.

The bloodstream became less populated with every moment.

Occasionally the Sectus fired by my soldiers missed, cutting apart the vein causing the ghost whale's blood to thin even further.

The ghost whale shuddered in discomfort as I depopulated its veins.

The further I flew down the vein, the more catastrophic damage was being caused to the whale.

I was back inside the heart. Level four Sectus blasted into all directions. The Phantom shuddered, silver clouds bursting from its damaged heart. My shield absorbed the clouds of spilled mana and soul. The heart released us forward.

I kept rapidly moving the Tether from one Lymphagon to the other, absorbing the gained power and experience from them. My shield and I started to grow in size, glowing with more defined emerald brilliance.

On and on it went in an endless carousel of destruction. I started to laugh giddily as the enormous monster wailed in agony, granting me more and more experience as it perished from within.

As I shredded the bloodstream and veins, I scanned the walls, determining my position. Soon enough the heart became so weak that it barely pushed me forward, so I had to start to rely on my own tendrils to push me along. I released them through the gaps in the shield, crawling down the vein akin to a Pholcidae or daddy long legs spider.

There were no longer sufficient Lymphagons in the bloodstream to oppose or to do any damage to me. Whatever the whale was producing was being cut down by constant Sectus fire from my segments.

I suddenly noticed that I was almost as big as the entire vein.

I slowed down the rate of my attack to let the whale regenerate. It was glorious. I was winning!

I glanced at my experience stat.

Experience:

9783/800

Yes.... Murder was really paying off!

[Find and take over the brain]

[Strike down the whale's heart]