Chapter 744: Poisoning the Beast

Chapter 744: Poisoning the Beast

During one of his trips inside the Behemoth’s wound, while trying to inflict some meaningful internal damage, Leo stumbled across a rubbery column that compressed under his touch. His low spirits from all the travelling through the Behemoth’s blood immediately lifted.

After all these days, he had finally stumbled across a major vein!

Until now, he had only been randomly spraying [Netherblight Poison] directly into the blood. And even though the poison would eventually make its way into the bloodstream flowing through its veins, arteries and capillaries, it would take a long time considering the sheer size of its body. This meant that, until now, Leo had only been poisoning a small, localised part of its body.

But now that he had found a vein, he could directly dump all the poison into the Behemoth’s body. From there, it would travel to the heart and then spread throughout the body much faster.

Leo made the aura coating his eyes a bit denser and finally got a proper look at it. Despite the murky, blood-red surroundings, he could still make out its appearance.

The vein—or rather, a huge tube longer than his own body—had a dark purplish-blue colour. When Leo touched it again, he could feel the sluggish, oxygen-depleted blood flowing through it at an extremely slow pace.

Hmm, I really need to understand the significance of oxygen... he thought.

He wanted to know because if oxygen was so important to the body, how had he managed to stay inside this bloody mess for more than 2 hours without breathing?

And he still didn’t feel the need to breathe.

But since even a beast as powerful and enormous as this one needed oxygen-rich blood flowing through its body, it had to be something important.

Well... oxygen is needed for energy production... uh... waste removal, and cellular maintenance. He tried recalling his studies from his previous world.

For now, Leo could only infer that if he went without breathing for a long time, his stamina would stop recovering because he wouldn’t be able to produce energy. Waste would gradually accumulate in his body, acting like poison and destroying him from the inside, and he wouldn’t be able to regenerate his damaged body parts.

Hmm, but doesn’t having a high-rank body with absurd stats make me highly resilient to those things? Leo wondered as he touched the vein, which looked extremely thin and collapsed, like a water balloon that hadn’t been filled completely.

Not only that, but its surface was incredibly slick, causing his hand to slip in a different direction whenever he tried to grip it.

He summoned his sword and struck the vein.

When the attack landed, the rubbery vein compressed inward to a great degree before its slick surface eventually caused the blade to slide away.

Leo tried a few more normal slashes, but it was incredibly difficult to cut through.

Even his thrust attacks, which he used in an attempt to pierce it, failed as the vein simply collapsed completely under the pressure.

In the end, Leo decided to use Shyra’s new skill, [Shadow Claws], and infused its skill essence into his sword, greatly enhancing its cutting power.

He also thrust forward with a sharp jerk, and the sword finally punctured through.

For now, there was no blood flow, as the sword acted as a plug. However, Leo then began forcing it downward, slicing through the vein.

Almost instantly, dark red, almost maroon blood started gushing out. It was even darker then the blood he was swimming in right now.

Thankfully, the pressure in veins wasn’t as high as in arteries. Otherwise, Leo would have been pushed back by the force of the blood flowing out of that small incision alone... well, small in the sense that the beast itself was enormous.

He continued slicing until half the vein had been cut open, and blood began gushing out in waves from both sides. Now, sheer force of the flow was enough to push him slightly backwards.

As the blood flowed out, the vein slowly began flattening into a rubbery, ribbon-like tube. However, at some point, the blood started flowing out only from the left side, while suction began forming on the right.

This could only mean one thing: the right side led to the heart, and the sudden drop in pressure was actively trying to draw blood in it.

Leo steadied himself to make sure he wasn’t pulled in by the suction and extended one hand forward, directly into the vein.

Let’s see how long it takes for you to get poisoned! Leo thought. He still didn’t speak aloud because he didn’t want to risk drinking the thick blood surrounding him.

GRRRRRRRR~~~

The Hydra’s poison was released through his arm directly into the vein. The suction immediately drew it inward, and it would soon reach the heart. From there, the poison would spread throughout the entire body much faster.

Leo had already planned to keep pumping the poison into the vein until the poisoned blood started coming out from the left side of the incision, where the blood was still gushing out.

However, Leo had miscalculated how long it would take.

Hours passed, and he still hadn’t come out.

While the other Aurelius students grew worried, Lily merely narrowed her eyes as she stood right in front of the wound Leo had entered. She could feel that he was intensely focused and, at the same time, intensely bored.

He was still pumping the poison.

18 hours passed, but there was still no sign of him.

The other students had even begun worrying that Leo might have eliminated himself after losing his way out.

Outside the stadium, everyone was shocked.

Because—

1st hour since Leo started pumping the poison:

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 6.1% -> 10.1%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 19.3% -> 19.5

4th hour

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 10.1% → 14.2%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 19.5% → 20.2%

10th hour

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 14.2% → 19.6%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 20.2% → 21%

15th hour

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 19.6% → 29.3%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 21% → 22.2%

18th hour

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 30.3% → 40.1%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 22.2% → 24.8%

And by the 20th hour, the damage percentage for Aurelius Beast Academy was increasing by 0.01% every second!

The Hydra’s poison was progressively gaining momentum inside the Behemoth’s body.

"Holy crap! What is Leo even doing inside the Behemoth?!"

"He hasn’t come out for 20 hours!"

"Hey, look! The Behemoth has now completely stopped those tiny bits of reinforcement it did with a small amount of mana recovery! I bet it will die soon!"

"Let’s go!"

"Finally! After 26 days of continuous fighting!"

The audience was utterly bewildered. Just 20 hours ago, the dragons had been leading by an astonishing margin, and many had even gone to sleep, convinced that they would win the event.

However, the very next day, Aurelius’s damage percentage began skyrocketing, bringing everyone back to the edge of their seats.

Aurelius Beast Academy Damage Progress: 40.1% → 47.9%

Sunborn Royal Academy Damage Progress: 24.8% → 26.7%

But just as things were beginning to heat up, something happened.