Chapter 302: Cry
Liam’s clarity skyrocketed. His already superhuman senses became even sharper, updating him on everything, especially what was happening inside him.
The usual itch from the dragon-shaped burn flared with such intensity that Liam considered ripping off his arm. A deafening version of the auditory hallucination flooded his ears, its screams and voices overwhelming his sense of reason.
Liam’s cultivation began to release Qi nonstop, his roots and core wringing themselves out to unleash every bit of energy they contained, uncaring if they snapped in the process.
Liam’s muscles also abandoned any idea of self-preservation, removing any innate limiter as the Primal Urge activated completely.
And all that came in exchange for one simple thing. Power, more than Liam had ever experienced, flooded every inch of his being, focused on the sole purpose that the human hiss in his ears perfectly announced.
’Kill!’ Liam hissed in his mind, that voice both his and ancient.
The snake was still pushing its head on Liam, uncaring that the effort dug his fingers deeper into its scales, until its physical strength found its match for the first time since the beginning of the battle.
Liam made a grabbing motion, the snake’s fake flesh becoming a handhold so that he could hurl its head to the side, slamming it into the wall.
The impact was so violent that it sent tremors throughout the hall while shattering scales and flesh. Liam’s fingers also ruptured their handhold, slipping out of that reptilian mouth, which fell toward the floor.
Liam began to fall without the snake pressing him against the wall, but he hardly recorded the event. He only saw that the magical beast was still alive, whatever alive meant for that fake creature, and he couldn’t let it stand.
The impact had debilitated the snake, so Liam seized the initiative, his sliding feet pressing on the wall to release thunderous noises, his right arm stretching to become a spear.
The spear impaled the snake. Liam’s fingers pierced its mangled eye and went deeper still, propelled by his momentum to stab the entirety of his arm into the creature’s head.
The crash slammed the reptilian head to the floor while Liam was on top of it, but he only hissed, ignoring the tremors spreading through him to pull with everything he had.
Liam heard his muscle fibers snapping. Blood vessels burst open all over his right arm and neck. Even the injuries on his chest and leg bled more profusely until his stabbed arm tore through the upper part of the snake’s head.
The snake had recovered by then. Its left eye was gone, and the right one was virtually in the same state after the venom and the crash onto the wall, but the blindness didn’t make it give up.
Nevertheless, Liam was now free, and with that came chaos.
A cacophony of thunderous noises started, followed by the continuous explosions of scales.
Liam just ran, zigzagging all around the snake’s huge body, unleashing momentum-enhanced Seismic Palms every time.
The Lightning Step’s top speed depended on how many chained executions the user could endure. Still, the Primal Urge not only empowered Liam beyond his structural limits. It also made him disregard them.
So, Liam never slowed down or stopped chaining speed bursts. He only knew how to go faster, which didn’t stop even after his shoes broke, his feet bled, his muscles tore, and his toes cracked.
Liam’s shoulders and hands weren’t fine, either, but he didn’t even begin to care, and the reward was massive.
Blindness aside, the snake just couldn’t follow Liam.
Agility wasn’t the snake’s forte, while Liam had unleashed a version of the Lightning Step that only the Primal Urge could enable, sticking to his first strategy. He was using the magical beast’s size against it in a far more violent and powerful manner.
That power was the second reason behind the snake’s powerlessness. Liam was dealing heavy blows continuously and with virtually no breaks, discombobulating it constantly, preventing it from moving as it wished.
The magical beast was accumulating injuries nonstop. Its body became a mess of exposed, mangled flesh and lingering patches of shattered scales, but Liam still broke first.
The world had become a mess of blurred pictures in Liam’s vision, but he still knew where his enemy was. He felt it as clear as day, so his bleeding feet stomped the floor, unleashing another loud speed burst.
However, thunder wasn’t the only noise that echoed. Liam’s right knee cracked, and his sprint turned into a violent crash onto the floor that made him slide powerlessly as he coughed blood.
The slide was short-lived since Liam slammed into a tough body of mangled scales. His constant momentum finally vanished, stopped by something the blind magical beast could sense.
Liam tried to push himself to his feet, but his left arm didn’t move. His fingers were still somewhat responsive, but the limb was basically limp.
Something had begun to rush toward Liam during that failed attempt. The snake had snapped its head at him. It was already close, and the rest of its body was coiling around him, cutting his way out.
But the idea of running didn’t exist in Liam’s mind. His right leg was useless, but he still had the left, and he slammed it on the floor, grabbing his limp limb in the meantime.
Something else broke, but Liam only cared that his figure flew above the descending triangular head, close enough for him to drive his left arm into it. He didn’t need it to dig deeply. He only wanted to stab his somewhat responsive fingers, and the success acted as an anchor that stopped his leap.
Liam spun around the stabbed hand, slamming awkwardly on the snake’s head. His legs weren’t in the right state to perform any landing, but that was beside the point.
Liam’s right arm still worked, and that was enough. He pressed his palm on the layer of scales, and a trembling, destructive wave of Qi shot out.
Without the speed from the Lightning Step, the Seismic Palm was virtually at its weakest, only benefiting from the superior amount of Qi the Primal Urge was recklessly releasing.
Scales still shattered, but the damage was negligible, only carving a shallow palm-sized hole into the reptilian head. Yet, Liam soon released another Seismic Palm, and then another, planning to continue until the snake died or his cultivation crumbled.
Liam didn’t have the energy to pursue death by a thousand cuts, but the situation changed if he could cut the same spot every time.
The snake trashed, shaking its head, slamming on the floor and nearby walls, but Liam’s left hand remained stuck in its flesh, while his right kept firing martial arts nonstop.
Once, the trashing slammed Liam on the wall, squeezing him between that surface and the reptilian head.
Still, the painful hyper-clarity the Primal Urge provided prevented Liam from fainting. Blood filled his foamy mouth, but he just let it spill, using everything he had to continue pressing his right palm down.
And, without any warning or tangible achievement, the snake eventually flopped down, crashing to the floor, its mangled figure evaporating into Qi that the hall reabsorbed.
Without the handhold, Liam also fell, his back hitting the floor, promptly deactivating the Primal Urge, but hissing at the ceiling anyway, unable to suppress that instinctive victory cry.
After all, Liam had finally overcome his past weakness, and he had done so as a cultivator, not as a hunter.
