Chapter 57: First Evolution
Rudy stared at the jellyfish dreadborn with a grim expression.
Even though he had always been extremely confident in his skills and ability to win, there was no way for him to defeat a deviant horror.
Horrors were the ones who flipped the board of irregulars, having the ability to take down any dreadborn with enough training and resources.
’I have to do it.’ Although Rudy knew that the chances of him defeating the dreadborn were low, he had no other choice.
Rudy was already free from the hex; if he wished, he could leave this place, but he needed Seraphel to guide him to the return beacon.
In the past few days, he had tried to free her multiple times, and each had the same result — failure.
As he stood still in the water, he noticed that the dreadborn wasn’t attacking him; it was as if it was unaware of Rudy’s presence.
’Is it blind?’ he thought as he finally surged forward.
As he neared the clam, the bright pearl appeared even brighter, and his gaze fell onto the wounds all over the jellyfish.
He stopped moving his limbs and looked at it in confusion. ’It’s wounded...?’
His lips curled upwards. ’That’s great!’
He didn’t know how the horror got into its current situation, and he didn’t want to know either. What he wanted was to take it down while it was already injured.
As he swam, he used blood essence to heal himself, and once he got closer to the pearl, the dreadborn jellyfish noticed his presence.
’Shit!’ he cursed as the jellyfish lifted one of its stinging arms and snapped it towards him.
Rudy immediately propelled himself to the side and dodged the incoming tentacle.
The gelatinous arms went past him and slammed into the dark, uneven walls of the enormous cavity.
Dark dust spread into the water near the impact site, and Rudy’s expression twisted.
He hardened his heart and swam forward with all of his might.
The jellyfish launched more of its limbs at him, and he dodged all of them at the very last moment.
’Hah... I got to thank Elena for teaching me to swim again,’ he mumbled in his head as he finally planted his feet on the clam.
His first goal was simple: destroy the pearl, which he believed to be the one performing the hex, because if it were the jellyfish, it would have already tried it on him.
Without wasting any moment, he took out the crimstone sword he had shaped from his and the deviant fiends’ blood.
Blood essence coursed through his body and zipped towards the crystal.
He raised his sword to the front and thrust forward.
The tip of the sword entered the pearl’s proximity, and a sharp cry that sounded like the popping of bubbles echoed throughout the area.
The jellyfish swung all of its tentacles at him, and Rudy’s eyes widened in horror upon seeing more than ten gelatinous whips zipping towards him.
But as it was about to slam into him, white sparks appeared around his left hand and transformed into a crimstone shield.
The pearl and his shield broke instantly. Red crystalline and white glassy shards floated into the water as the tentacles crashed into him and sent him flying towards the cavity’s wall, and with a devastating thud, he was slammed into it.
"Ugh!" A pained groan tore through his bloody lips as he felt the might of the deviant horror.
His body quivered as he plummeted downwards with an unfocused look on his face.
He slowly sank to the bottom, and a loud shriek assaulted his ears.
The jellyfish thrashed its limbs everywhere as it saw its treasure explode into glassy bits.
Rudy regained his senses, blood seeped out from the corners of his lips as they widened into a grin, and he thought, ’It hurts like hell...’
He pushed himself upwards, and the jellyfish’s limbs snapped towards him.
Blood essence filled his body, and he kicked upwards while the viscous whips streaked past him. ’No point in staying here any longer,’ he concluded as he swam towards the opening of the cavity.
But before he could even reach the opening, one of the tentacles coiled around his right leg and slammed him into the wall and the ground.
Rudy’s eyes grew dazed, and his vision began to turn dark as blood poured out of his wounds.
The jellyfish dreadborn shot towards him and raised all of its tentacles above him. Their tips met like a lance’s end, and ominous purple light spread from its four corrupt cores to the tip.
Rudy stared at the looming danger with barely open eyes and thought, ’Is this how I will die? After everything I did, is this how my story would end...?’
The dreadborn let out a harrowing screech, then drove its tentacles towards Rudy.
The limbs pierced through his abdomen, and blood flooded outwards.
Rudy gasped as he felt his throat go warm from the blood seeping into it.
’N-No... I can’t die... not yet. Not like this...’ He stuttered, and blood essence escaped from his body.
The blood near him gathered around his left hand and took the shape of a crude blade before solidifying into vivid red crystal.
He slowly raised his bladed hand and plunged it into the jellyfish’s gelatinous body.
A jelly-like pink blood oozed from the wound, and more blood essence drained from his core.
His vision finally turned dark, and the jellyfish moved its tentacles out of his body.
At that moment, a familiar voice resounded in Rudy’s head.
[The blood is suitable for usurpation.]
[Your blood is evolving.]
Suddenly, the jellyfish shook violently, and its purple cores began to dim.
Blood essence flooded Rudy’s body, and his wounds healed at an unimaginable rate as he usurped the jellyfish’s life force.
But as fortune and misfortune always came together, something within him also changed; the flesh and skin of his left arm turned gelatinous, making his veins and bones visible to the naked eye.
As his body finished healing, Rudy’s eyes snapped open.
Rudy stared at the cavity’s opening with a pained grin, and then suddenly noticed something. For some reason, he couldn’t feel any pain in his left arm.
