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Chapter 320: Parasite Attack

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“Leave it to me!”

The call ended and left Rafaela in the air but she didn’t feel offended since she knew that Siva was in a place that didn’t warrant him to explain.

He had already wasted ten seconds of his time just to give that personal warning. It was already enough to show Siva’s consideration of their past… relationship.

She could only sigh and steel her attention.

“Prepare for Hyper-Jump.”

Newgate nodded and then issued his commands.

“Charge the Hyperdrive and prepare to jump! We are going back to the Empire! All main batteries to standby thrusters! Lock cannons on main target, ready the Hawk Missiles! Prepare for emergency maneuvers on my mark and initiate fleet merging sequence now!”

*****

Having arranged everything, Siva heaved a long sigh then opened his hand and summoned a ball made up of NanoCubes.

Its inside was fully charged by Plasma Smoke Screen Grenade. He wasn’t actually just staying put inside the dragon’s stomach.

“Cortana, with what I’m about to do, what’s the chances of completely killing this dragon?”

“50%.”

“The chances increased?” Siva wasn’t completely asking a question in surprise. He was actually in a good mood because he knows why it increased.

“My breakthrough made it possible, sir.”

“I hope you continue to improve more, Cortana.”

“It will depend on you, sir.”

Of course it does. Because all of Cortana was still dependent on Siva’s way of thinking; the more unique thoughts and ideas she process, the faster and better her improvements will be.

VOOOM!!!

Without warning, a layer of Mana engulfed the insides of the dragon’s stomach and the boiling acid liquid in the lake writhed more aggressively.

“Time to do this.”

Siva point the sword on the direction where the heart was on the data he got from Cortana.

The ‘teeth’ on the blade of the 3m long, and 1/4 meter wide sword began to vibrate, a chainsaw effect started to hum in the stale air around him.

*****

The dragon stopped on its tracks and opened its mouth towards the Miranda Fleet, scaring every soul and hearts inside the city.

“Dragon Roar!”

A single phrase to scare every living being; just one of these roars was enough to decimate the Walled City of Alexandria and even its defenses raised up wouldn’t do much to minimize the might of this attack.

“My Lady! Siva had abandoned us!”

Rafaela remained steadfast. He only glared at the incoming attack of the dragon.

“My Lady! Teleport away from the ship! My Lady!”

Seeing that she has no reaction, Newgate thought that perhaps she had been hugged by fear.

He then ordered the crew, “Abandon shi—“

“Belay that order!” Her voice rung strongly, “Stand down, all of you…”

“But Milady….”

“Trust me, Captain. Siva will never lie to me.”

“…”

*****

Siva looked down at the boiling acid and let go of the item in his hand.

It fell in no time on the boiling acid and upon the first contact, broke the fragile metal sphere and released an explosion of cold smoke that instantly upset the PG-balance of its environment.

*****

Outside, the dragon opened its mouth and began to gather its Mana in preparation to its attack but at the next moment stopped and paused.

No.

It froze.

And then it lowered its head and cried out in a fit of agony towards the sky.

Everybody else was astounded.

At the next moment, it acted as if it wanted to vomit but didn’t vomit anything for five seconds before it began to vomit blood.

*****

Inside, the explosion Siva made rendered the 100+ meter wide stomach aching with red wounds with a few parts of the wall closest to the blast in a more tattered state as it bled thoroughly.

But Siva didn’t stop.

He released more Plasma Smoke Screen to continue his bombardment and only stopped after two moments to ignite another fire.

BOOM!!!

This time, the closest wall had been breached and blood oozed out as the acid liquid poured out of its internal cavities, melting more internal organs, searing flesh, thawing bones.

Siva felt satisfied and he began to fly!

[Killing Zone] activated, the dragon is his enemy!

PSSSHHHFFTTTT!!!

Siva easily pierced through the stomach lining and went up against the flesh of its liver and lungs.

He was clearly going straight to its heart!

“Now, Cortana!”

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

CLAK! CLAK! CLAK! CLAK! CLAK~~!!!

Four flashes of lights appeared just right next to Siva and followed by their transformations.

They were the [Faceless] and they transformed into four shuriken-shaped weapons.

“Grind!”

The meat shredder, Siva was surrounded by the four shuriken that not only had sharp blades, but are also rotating like jet propellers.

The dragon, outside, was full of agony. It tried to cast its healing spell but the pain continued as the wounds healed.

It was facing its worst nightmare.

The dragon cannot cast magic that can deal this small parasite in its body. It can, however, use its tremendous amounts of Mana to suppress this scourge by multiplying its defense, but with Siva’s current state, not only his stats were tripled, he also now had his BMA which boasted defenses that was on par with a warship.

Stalemate… stalemate on a fucked up level. The dragon, in the end, could only heal itself over and over, awaiting the end of its agony.

Within three minutes, they will see who could endure more until the end to see the victor.

Facts remained, no matter the species; rodents can be killed as parasites can be quarantined. But the combination of a parasite and a rodent in one who actively destroys your internal organs is just plain nightmare.

Was it a weakness, that Labrador is a dragon that is hard to kill because it can heal itself?

Perhaps.

Right now, its main magic spell is the very thing itself that’s giving it more agony. Alas, the more it resisted death by healing itself, the more pain it will feel as the internal punishment will just continue.

“Chances of victory increased to 60%.”

“Let’s see who’s going to give up first!”

Siva was in a superman posture; sword up and surrounded by shredders who not only rotated around him like moons, but also rotated on their axis to double the effects of their shredding. And while he advanced, he also made sure to leave a few tens of Plasma Screen Grenades.

It was for a more sinister plot he has in mind.

“Maybe it’s because you’re evil, boss, that I was able to discover that I can actually evolve in many ways…”

“Please, stop slandering me. I am not evil.”

Yet he indeed is a very sinister parasite. To grind his host body from the inside was too cruel of a punishment and the dragon had no choice but to endure it because it doesn’t have its intelligence.

All it has is its basic instinct to use its abilities.

Elementis has this limit. Its summoned form can’t think, even if it’s a dragon, contrary to even the Lesser Dragons who were all smartly sinister than any average person.

Its dragon roar was stopped and it bowed its head to cough up large amounts of blood. Sigh… how much people would pay to be showered by this dragon blood?

Aside from the heart, almost all parts of dragons have equal importance though different uses.

That includes Dragon Blood as well.

Only fresh blood from any wound from a dragon is precious. After ten breaths of leaving the body of the dragon, the value of dragon blood vanishes in the wind.

Seeing that many Dragon Blood being wasted in its cough, many people are tempted to dive in and bathe on them but they were all afraid of making the dragon angry and stomp them to death.

Eventually though, there were five or some who had abandoned all caution and dived down to the dragon’s mouth and sneakily angled themselves to be just below the dragon’s body and waited for it to cough another batch of its blood before they came in.

Upon that awaited shower of dragon blood, they immediately used T-Devices and teleported back to a random city and only a few moments later that news of a dragon’s blood came to all directions of the world.

“Dragon Blood! There is fresh Dragon Blood in the Northern Continent!”

As soon as this news came to be, many people began to rush up with their T-Devices, flooding in on Alexandria in haste to see the sudden event.

But of course, seeing the success of those first five people, the media agents and regular players all also dived in to take their own chance.

Alas… the dragon wasn’t a merciful fella.

GRAAAAAAAAARRRR…!!!

Labrador was known only for his healing ability and its especially hard defenses, but aside from that, it was a dragon who can’t cast any spell on its own… although it has a unique ability to increase its defense to an unimaginable level.

Still, Labrador is a real True Dragon. Although this Labrador was but a copy and thus don’t have any actual intelligence and only had instinct driven by its master’s ‘will’ to operate its body, this instinct is still enough to birth its ability to create a vortex of Mana to drive off the swarming pests.

BOOM!!!

ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR~~!!!

A single burst of Mana created a vortex of power around it, sweeping through the greedy group of individuals who wanted to take advantage of the same tactic the lucky first batch had made.

But once people’s greed was fueled, it will burn for a long time until the source of its ignition is consumed or the cause of it had vanished.

Droves of men and women still went on for a long time and their only goal was to be lucky enough to be one of those who will be blessed to bathe on the blood of a dragon.

Thus, with the continuous swarm of players that plagued it on its most dire of states, its attention was divided, giving Siva more time to complete this one-sided quest.

*****

The dragon was truly just frighteningly big.

Despite him having a drill-shredder, his advance towards its heart was still slow in a general sense.

He might be dealing it enough damage, but the fact still remained that he can only deal it with the pain of being shredded inside, but because it has the ability to heal, the damage was still being fixed almost every 30 seconds.

Since his attack, it has been a full minute, but his progress has only been a mere 400+ meters from where he first left.

Adding to that, time seemed to go slowly. He can feel the ticking seconds as if they lased for over an entire minute, if not for an hour.

“It’s now a battle of endurance. Its muscles are really tight and if I can’t kill it within the next two minutes, I will leave here immediately.”

“Boss, the outside world is going crazy right now because the dragon is on its knees and that your attacks inside its body are making it vomit fresh dragon blood for bathing.”

“Oh? For bathing? Why is that?”

“I’ve read the articles online and they all say that it has the ability to increase your entire base stats by two points every second, for as long as you can bathe in its fresh blood.”

“WHAT?!!”

Siva was startled by this news. Just how long has he been inside the dragon’s body?

“Shit. I didn’t know that… quick, make an opening to my armor and let the blood flow through it. It is a once in a lifetime chance for me!”

Cortana did what was ordered and he felt the hot dragon blood wet his entire body at the very next second.

It was like a really hot bath with temperature that’s enough to scald his skin yet it didn’t and instead only left him with lingering aftereffects of having his body tempered like steel on an anvil.

Through the space provided in the armor, it felt murky and disgusting to move around with the sticky feeling, but he didn’t mind because the heat coming from being subjected to the dragon blood was dampening his senses with heavenly bliss.

He didn’t check his stats and see if it’s rising and only trusted his instincts as he felt that his overall bodily constitution was indeed changing.

He could microscopically feel his muscles and his bones tightening, hardening, then loosening up, and then they will repeat the cycle… but there is still the protracted feeling of freshness with every small changes that occur.

“All I knew is that if I get this dragon heart, I can use it to craft specialized equipment items… who knew its blood also had these effects?!”

“I’ve also done a research. Apparently, if you are able to eat part of its liver, you’ll gain additional 10 stat points in an instant; its bladder gives 8 stat points; its intestines 5 points; brain matter which is 20 points; one of its eyes, 16 points; tongue, 13 stat points; its bone marrow, 50 points… and then its heart, an instant increase of 130 stat points. All of this increase is immediate in all stats.”

“Ah, so the legends are true. A dragon is indeed a living treasure throve!”

“15%.”

“What?”

“You just thought of subduing the dragon alive as a livestock, right? 15% chance of success.”

“…”

“Boss, I already know how evil your thoughts are so there is no point in feeling shame on it. Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me.”

Cortana winked at him playfully with a smile. Siva felt his goosebumps rising despite the heat of the physical changes occurring on his body.

“…”

Cortana could read his mind. There was no use to hiding things from her. Yes, he may feel awkward but for some reason, Siva wasn’t bothered by the fact that a beautiful woman like Cortana was aware of his darkest secrets and most hidden of hidden desires.

He was treating Cortana the way she had said for him to treat her, a mere program —a smart AI.

Nothing more… nothing less…

“I just thought of a plan.” Siva thought.

Cortana didn’t reply but Siva’s thoughts were the prompt and all of the shuriken changed form mid-flight to become an intertwining helix of a serpent dragon with a streamlined body that flowed in a swirling drilling motion with the sword at its core.

In fact, right now, the sword itself had also begun its change. It became a lance that specialized in piercing, but the tip led the motion of the four serpentine drilling snakes; like the twin tails of a swallow, these four follow the clockwise motion that the drill tip of the spear made.

Siva… looked like he was tunneling through the stars at this moment as he collected blood to bath himself inside his armor, while he also destroyed its insides towards the dragon’s heart.

His tunneling movement became faster!

At the back of his mind, Siva wanted to ask how Cortana evolved this way but he had pinned that thought on a wall and just went on drill as fast and as useful as he can.

He knew the explanation already. Cortana was just a mere supplementary program and all her actions and even her ‘evolution’ was due to her [primary function] to help him organize his thoughts and be his reminder; or use them as inputs to better help him on his tasks; or be his spark to kindle the fire of his imagination and help him improve at a whole picture as a human being.

In the end, what Cortana used to improve herself were all his thoughts. She was his weapon.

She was his Cerebral Armament.

“Heh.” A confident smile rose on his lips. “Let’s add more spice to his agony.”

CRACKLE!!!

His right hand that held the weapon cracked with electricity and it was amplified by the Mjolnir.

The entire drill-spear crackled with electricity and it transferred until the tip of the four tails, sending a searing chill to the already agonized dragon.

“It’s not only one time!” Siva yelled. Following his declaration were the continuous crackling sounds of electricity that travelled through the handle of the Dragon Blade, towards the Mjolnir, then to the BMA…. and finally to the dragon.

While Siva advanced, he never failed to leave a few Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades to his path and while he was doing so, never failed to also ‘charge’ a Plasma Bomb.

Every ball of metal —the Plasma Bomb’s shell— is of 100+ NanoCubes done with the help of PNF’s secondary function, [Program], that allows Siva to program simple instructions to NanoCubes —just like hacking.

In this regard, 100+ NanoCubes were used to make the metal sphere. It was fragile enough that it will break like an egg upon a sudden impact but hard enough that it won’t break under pressure of one’s grip… or even from the pressure from the plasma charge he stalled inside.

And even that was a result of the miracles given by the spatial item transfer made by the Inventory Plus Ultra.

Unlike the normal Inventory that can only store and pull items 2m away from the player ‘without’ an obstacle… as the creator of the [IPU] is an Immortal that specialize in the Spatial Magic, Siva can ignore physical obstacles and directly pull up and store items directly to and from his inventory within its 20m distance imit.

He held the ball in his hand while charging it with Plasma from the grenades.

Siva only needed to give it a thought and the Plasma Screen Grenade on his three Quick Item Pockets will materialize in a space 20m away.

Right now, Siva was utilizing all his advantages.

He was in the process, and is literally, exploiting every nook and cranny of the freedom given by this stupid game.

When he was 70m away, he already left a trail that was filled with Plasma and so ignited them with a little spark grenade.

P-P-P-P-P-POOM!!!

Like fireworks detonated in a sturdy container, the muffled explosions rattled the dragon, wounding it and giving it more agonizing pain —just before it actually started to heal itself with its magic again.

“You may be able to heal the wounds, but my trail won’t be easily healed because of these gifts I left for you. Hahahaha…”

It was a sadistic laugh.

“Oh, boss. You’re so evil.”

“…”

Siva continued to move upwards towards its heart.

.

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Situational adaptation is strength as well…

Siva uses science to hurt the dragon!!!

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