Chapter 270 : Escaping the Third Zone's Bridge!
Stark watched in anticipation as the crimson ball flew through the air, his heart pounding in his chest. He knew that this was his last chance, his only hope of survival.
The ball seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before finally connecting with the platform.
As stated before, the crimson ball doesn't bounce at all, so the moment it hit the ground…
~DING~
[Target set, teleportation is safe!]
"GOT YOU!" Stark at this point was within range from the serpent's mouth, beginning to enter it.
And so…
~SLAM~
It closed its mouth on Stark.
For a moment, all the boy could see was darkness, and the laugher echoing from inside the serpent terrified him.
But…
~SNAP~
Instantly, faster than ever the giant snake could act, Stark teleported out of its mouth and materialized on the platform at the end of the bridge.
He didn't even take the microsecond it took him to usually adjust to his new surroundings this time: he immediately dashed toward the small hole below, and slid down.
Yet again, it didn't even take more than a single second for the apostle to realize it had been fucked for the second time, and so using all of its speed, moving instantly, almost as fast as the crimson ball, it opened its mouth and rushed toward Stark as he slid down under the hole.
"…" the timing was so close that even a delay of a tenth of a second would have resulted in Stark's body to be cut in half, or at least crushed.
But thankfully enough…
~FWISH~
He managed to slide down, and the serpent hit the wall instead.
"NO, NOT POSSSSIBLE-" the serpent was absolutely enraged, and so it assaulted the wall that protected Stark as he emerged on the other side several times.
~BAM, BAM, BAM~
Normally its sheer size and strength would be able to take out any walls, yet this one was SPECIFICALLY designed so that the apostle couldn't get out if a human ever passed the third zone.
Meaning… that Stark had won.
"You… ah, forget about it," the serpent growled as it backed away, then its body slowly descended back into the void, its piercing crimson pupils staring intently at the human, "You will die, chosssen, do not forget."
And so it disappeared from view.
~FWISH~
Silence.
There was complete silence now that the apostle was gone.
'Fuck…' Stark dropped to the ground on one knee, breathing in and out repeatedly.
This was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the worst experience he had EVER gotten during his time in this world.
That thing was probably why this rift was ranked [Determination].
But it still didn't make sense: if the serpent was always there to begin with, then why did he speak about getting orders to eliminate him?
Maybe… all the apostles knew about him?
Up until now, the ones he fought and killed probably all believed he was just one of the many humans trying to challenge them.
But now… if all of them knew that he was an [Apostle Slayer], then…
"Hm, doesn't matter," Stark rested five minutes before getting back up.
At this point he just wanted to go home, and seeing how badly shaped he was, Lana would surely scold him while saying that she was in the right and that he should have listened to her, which was kind of true.
But how could he know he would meet such a… thing?!
~DING~
[Congratulations, you have survived an encounter against the 'Great Serpent', one of the most powerful apostles of all, you should be happy!]
"Happy…?"
Stark didn't see how he could feel that way at this very moment.
For him, all of this was bad: the serpent was too fast, so fast in fact his eyes couldn't follow it even though its body was giant, and let's not talk about its strength and aura, easily overwhelming him.
He had fought the monsters and apostles gradually up until now, but now that he saw that difference in level, he knew that getting stronger was the only way to keep going.
Because… at some point… he would have to fight that thing again, at least if he wanted to complete his [ApostleDex].
Oh! And talking about [ApostleDex], Stark decided to open it to check it out.
5x3 again, first line fully completed, the second line's figures completely dark except for the [Crimson Moons Trio], and he knew of their locations anyway.
But now that he met with the [Great Serpent]… Stark looked at the third line.
And just as expected, the third square of the third line revealed itself to be the [Great Serpent], its figure now visible to him as he saw it in real life.
"Hm…" this meant that before it were two apostles who were weaker.
But also… that there were two that are stronger.
Stark felt utter despair: how long would it take for him to finally be able to reach the necessary level to win?
Months? Years? Never?
Who knows.
But right as he got up… another notification appeared before him.
[Despair level is very high, let us change that!]
~DING~
[Please do check the "Great Serpent's" square.]
"Huh?" Stark, while now standing up, clicked on the third square of the third line, which revealed the white snake.
And suddenly…
~FWISH~
….
[Name: The Great Serpent (Godless Demon Apostle)]
[Level: 820]
[Rank: Universal]
…
"Yeah…?" this seemed normal, as it was the information he had already gotten.
But… Stark noticed a new line below it all. Continue the saga at m v l e mpyr
And it was…
[The Great Serpent has a special weakness that can kill it almost instantly, look for that.]
"Oh?"
To be honest, Stark wouldn't usually believe that such a giant and powerful thing could have a hidden weakness, a weakness so powerful against it that it could kill it instantly.
But… after remembering about the many times monsters or even bosses were overwhelmed by their weaknesses… then maybe it was possible.
Let's take example of this rift and the previous one Stark went through!
The [Sniper Monkey]'s weakness was their head and close combat, killing them really fast if they were hit, the [Tongue-Claw Ambushes] on the other hand would INSTANTLY die if their tongues were hit too.
And as for the previous rift, the [Corpse Cemetery], well the weakness was obvious: all the undead in it would instantly if Stark used his [Exorcist] attack, and even [Reaper] and [Lother] were easily defeated once by an attack.
Every monster has a weakness, all you needed to do was to find and exploit it.
"…Oh well," now that Stark knew this, he put it at the back of his mind to remember and try to look for it when possible.
But now… he needed to go forward, as resting in this place forever wouldn't do anything, though it did seem to be like some kind of safe zone as no monster spawned or could reach him here.
Around him were stone walls, and all he could see what the sky above him.
And right in front of him… at the place he needed to go to… was a black fog.
Yes, this was the entrance to the boss zone, which was the fourth.
He had survived the first two zones easily, and the third almost killed him, but he couldn't forget that he still needed to beat the boss to leave.
And now you might ask, what kind of boss could be waiting in a [Determination] rift, right?
Well… only one way to find out.
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