Chapter 170: Breaking Point

Chapter 170: Chapter 170: Breaking Point

Now that Alex he decided that he would put majority of his focus on his Shadow Bond and his Adaptation Aspect going forward, he tried to open the full system interface but nothing answered him and the window refused to form like it usually did.

’Huh?’

It was only then that he noticed something bizarre was happening when he tried to open his system interface, it was not opening at all, only the Adaptation notifications still forced their way through when he tried his best.

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

Alex already suspected that something was pressing down on him and his strength sat lower than it should.

Even Shadow Vision had demanded more focus than it ever had in the past week and the pathways around the Mana Heart felt sluggish, as if an invisible weight sat on every circulation route.

’Something is actively suppressing me, but its getting weaker, I guess Adaptation is on it.’

He kept the Adaptation running because whatever this thing was, this pressure that was actively suppressing him from the start of the Proving, his Adaptation Aspect was already chewing on it, and stopping that process felt like the worst possible choice.

The notifications kept coming in short bursts, and it was the proof that the Adaptation Aspect was still working even under the unknown restriction, and then the notifications multiplied.

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

A broken voice scraped across the bond.

’Al—x—ans—me—bon—restri—’

Alex’s head snapped up.

’Hey Zara! Can you hear me?!’

He poured everything he had into the link.

The connection still felt thick and distant, but the fragments were clearer than before and for the first time since the teleport the bond had given him more than silence.

’At least it’s finally starting to work, I need to hold on until the Adaptation is complete.’

The air shifted and Alex’s senses flared hard, he saw more circular objects raining down from every direction at once.

SUI! SUI! SUI! SUI!

He twisted, leapt, rolled as they continued to rain and most of the circular objects sailed past him but sadly, three still caught him mid motion at the end.

BURST! BURST! BURST!

Poison smoke exploded against his left side.

"Fuck!"

The force threw him backward and he smashed through one trunk.

CRACK!

Wood splintered and he tumbled, and then he slammed into a second tree, and then he dropped hard to the forest floor.

THUD!

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

Alex forced himself up, his left arm was now completely charred and sizzling and could see his flesh blacken and peel in real time while the corrosive smoke ate deeper with every heartbeat.

SIZZLE!

He could have directed Adaptation at the poison, but he refused to do so.

’If I turn Adaptation on the poison, it stops working on whatever is sppressing me from the start.’

’Removing that suppression comes first.’

Alex gripped Viper’s Spine in his right hand only, one arm would have to be enough for now, he can make do with it.

A black humanoid dropped from the canopy first.

THUD!

Alex met it with a rising cut as the segments of Viper’s Spine locked onto the target.

Shhh-clack!

SLASH!

The black humanoid’s torso split apart cleanly and black blood sprayed all over the place.

BURST!

A snake struck from the left.

HISSS!

Alex snapped the Viper’s Spine sideways and the blade extended mid-swing and sheared the serpent in half.

Shhhk!

Thud! Thud!

Two more humanoids climbed the same trunk as their claws tore bark.

Alex stepped in and his one horizontal slash them took both at the waist.

SLASH! SLASH!

More bodies fell on the ground as the numbers started to rise unnaturally.

A third snake coiled above and dropped.

HISSS!

He drove the pommel into its skull, then ripped the serrated edge down its length.

CRACK! Shhhk!

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

’I can feel the change, and something more is changing near my Mana Heart.’

Birds with bone beaks dove from higher branches and locked onto Alex’s battered form.

Screech! Screech!

Alex cut the first from the air.

The second raked his shoulder before the blade found it.

SLASH! SLASH!

Blood, his own blood this time, it ran hot down his back.

More shapes continued to pour in without stop.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

He stopped counting exact numbers at this point.

A fourth humanoid lunged low.

Alex hopped back, extended the blade, and took its head.

Shhh-clack! SLASH!

Two snakes struck together from opposite sides.

Alex spun once and both of the snakes came apart in mid-air.

Shhhk! Shhhk!

Thud! Thud!

An eighth creature came from behind.

Alex sensed the air change, reversed the blade, and drove the pommel into its chest before finishing with a full extension cut.

BAM! Shhhk!

’Their rate is increasing as my Adaptation continues to Adapt to the suppression, almost as if—’

A ninth and tenth climbed the same tree he stood on.

He dropped low, swept the blade in a wide arc, and took both pairs of legs.

SLASH! SLASH!

They fell screaming and he finished them before they hit the ground.

Thud! Thud!

"I guess mana enhancement alone won’t do the job anymore." Alex muttered, and then reached for the strongest spell he currently had in his arsenal.

"[Shadow Mantle]"

Alex’s own shadow rose like living ink, it climbed his legs, torso, and remaining arm in a single smooth wave, and then it sank inward as he felt the shadow element’s coldness flooding every pathway in his body.

His Strength and Agility jumped hard.

The change in surrounding was immediate, the temperature dropped instantly and a chill spread through the ranks of creatures attacking him, making all of them shudder for a moment.

And then...

Alex became a blur.

Viper’s Spine lengthened and retracted in continuous motion, it’s cascading teeth bit through flesh, scale, and bone without pause.

Shhh-clack! Shhhk! Shhhk! Shhhk!

A humanoid lost its head.

Two snakes came apart mid-strike.

Another bird exploded in black feathers and blood.

SLASH! BURST! Thud!

The wave kept growing.

Ten.

Twelve.

Fifteen.

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

Broken fragments of Zara’s voice kept scraping through.

’Al—hold—I—feel—’

’—survive—’

Alex’s left arm hung useless at his left side, he could even he his a part of his elbow’s upper bone jutting out of it as poison continued to eat his tissues and while fighting, and new cuts opened across his ribs and thigh, making his moment even more sluggish.

’I can feel it! Adaptation is almost there!’

Shadow Mantle kept him moving, but the numbers refused to drop.

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Twenty.

It had grown so insane that the creatures scrambled over their own dead to reach him, now the snakes dropped in clusters and the birds dove without fear and Alex spun, cut, extended, retracted, but his blade never stopped.

Shhh-clack! SLASH! Shhhk! BURST! Thud!

Blood was everywhere, it was a strangely horrifying sight to see a place covered in such amount of black blood, even more so when you realized red blood had started to mix in, because now both black and red blood painted the trunks, ground and everything around him.

Alex was bleeding profusely, but his breathing stayed controlled, only because he refused to let it break.

A heavy claw raked his side and Alex answered by driving the full length of the extended blade through the attacker’s chest and out the back.

Shhhk! BURST!

Two more snakes wrapped his legs.

Alex cut them free without looking down.

Shhhk! Shhhk!

Three birds dove together.

Alex took them with one sweeping extension that locked the teeth mid-arc.

Shhh-clack! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Four humanoids rushed from the front.

Alex stepped into them, his blade already moving.

Four cuts.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Four bodies.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

A large snake dropped onto his shoulders.

Alex flipped it forward and cut it in the air.

HISSS! Shhhk!

Another pair of humanoids tried to flank.

Alex met both with a single extended sweep that took their heads.

Shhh-clack! SLASH! SLASH!

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

[Adapting...]

A heavy impact slammed into his back and another poison sphere burst against his side.

BURST!

SIZZLE!

"WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE BALL COMING FRO—!"

The pain white-hot making his vision narrow and blurry, so much so that his knees threatened to buckle, but pain was not the issue, the main issue for him was that these balls was getting annoying, he forced the blade up and took the next three creatures in one extended sweep.

Shhhk! Shhhk! Shhhk!

Bodies continued to drop and more replaced them, and now the forest floor was covered in black blood and twitching remains, yet still more came from every direction.

The air itself felt heavy with the smell of poison and death.

Alex’s vision swam for a moment before he forced it clear again.

And then the bond opened clean for the first time.

’Alex! Finally I can reach you through the bond! I am coming towards the direction the bond is pointing!’

The voice was clearly Zara’s.

Alex’s remaining strength locked onto that single sentence.

He raised Viper’s Spine again as the next wave closed in.

[Adapting to—]

Suddenly the reality—

🌿 ─ ❦ ─ 🌿

End of Chapter 170: Breaking Point

🌿 ── ❦ ── 🌿