With each swing of my sword, I would slash three to four of the white parasites. However, no matter how many cuts they took, each slice would just squirm towards the other parts, combining into a larger piece once more before returning to attack me.
Fang was facing the same dilemma, not being able to kill a single one of those parasites no matter what she did. With every swing of her claws, the parasites would get splattered into dozens of pieces, but they would slowly gather their sliced parts and recreate a full-sized body before rushing forward again.
The two of us couldn't even fight at our top potential since we needed to keep watch over the unmoving red parasites. Once those big guys move, then this almost endless battle might end instantly.
"Leader!"
Fang, despite struggling to keep her surroundings clear of parasites, called to me with a desperate tone.
"I'll clear the path ahead; Leader should go into the heart first!"
Fang pointed ahead of her, where, through the gaps between the red parasites, a large beating organ could barely be seen. It was without a doubt the heart that we were trying to reach, and it was literally less than a hundred meters away. It was so close, yet so far!
"Ugh!"
Fang raised a loud groan, making me forcefully turn toward her in worry. There, I could see that Fang received her first wound after the long skirmish we had endured. A long wound on her back, stretching from her right shoulder to her left-side waist, was bleeding lightly. The wound wasn't too deep, as could be seen by how the bleeding wasn't too severe, but the pain from it should be lowering her concentration even more.
"Fang!"
I moved toward her, ignoring most of the attacks aimed at my non-vital parts. The parasites were relentless, even vicious, as even before I could reach Fang's side, both of us were already peppered with wounds all over.
"MOVE!"
Mustering all my strength in one large swing, I managed to send all the nearby parasites flying from the air pressure alone, creating a small buffer between us and them. Without wasting a moment, I quickly checked Fang's state. Her wounds, starting with the large one on her back, weren't life-threatening. However, the number of cuts she got was too many, literally making her bleed too much.
I pulled Fang to her feet, but her stance was wobbly. Even though she didn't let her guard down, only a slight opening was enough to render her incapable of fighting. Thinking that it wasn't time to be stingy, I quickly pulled out a million-credit-worth potion and splashed the contents over the two of us.
It wasn't enough for a full recovery, but we could at least maintain our previous battle potential. The wounds on our bodies released puffs of smoke as they rapidly closed. Fang's stance became firmer, recovering from her weakened state a little earlier.
"... I'm fine now, Leader..."
With a weak tone, she tried to reassure me with a clumsy smile. However, it was still visible in her posture that the potion wasn't enough to heal her completely. She looked like she'd keel over if I let her walk away.
However, before I could even pull her back, she pushed me away as a burst of shadow energy wrapped around her whole body. Instantly, dozens of Fang's clones popped into being and went around fighting against the parasites using their claws.
"Kuh...!"
As soon as she did, though, Fang fell to the floor in pain. Cold sweat was pouring down from her forehead, a sign of her pushing her brain to the limit. She was controlling almost 50 clones simultaneously! It was way over the quantity that she could employ normally.
Having no other choice, I lifted Fang's arm and placed it over my neck while also supporting her by her waist. Although this made my left hand unusable, one hand was enough to grip the sword. Nothing much changed.
"..."
Only groans could leave Fang's mouth, as she can't even spare the energy to speak a single word anymore. She was basically using all her strength on her clones to hold back the white parasites.
'Fang is doing her best to the point of straining herself; I can't let her suffer alone!'
With Fang's clones handling the white ones, the red parasites finally started moving. They were so slow that it was almost unnoticeable, but they were definitely closing the distance between us.
"This is my job now!"
With Fang unable to move, I need to fight the red parasites while carrying her. It was basically an impossible feat, but I've done a lot of those while training with the five regressors.
"Sorry, Fang, but hold on."
Without waiting for her reply, I switched my hold on her and instead placed her over my shoulder like a large sack. Fang let out a soft groan as her stomach felt the full pressure of her own body weight. With this, although I need to bear her full weight while moving, it at least enables me to move more nimbly than before.
And just as I was thinking about this and that, the slowpokes finally reached my vicinity. While waiting for what kind of attack they'd make, I lowered my stance and prepared to run and dodge whatever would come toward us.
*BANG!*
An unexpected movement!
A flash passed, making me reflexively turn my body away. I barely dodged the tentacle that stretched a few dozen meters in the blink of an eye before it smashed against the walls, probably the lungs, around us.
"Sh-!"
The problem was that about five of those gigantic red parasites had us in range. Each of them was even able to release more than one of those tentacles, making it hard to dodge everything. Two tentacles were aiming for my eyes, five at my torso, three toward Fang, and about six aimed randomly at my legs. It was even arranged so that wherever I turned to dodge, at least one tentacle would get an ensured hit. These blocks are definitely smarter than they seem.
"But I still have some tricks up my sleeve too!"
I held the sword in my hand aloft and took a deep breath, counting inside my head the timing of the tentacles that were approaching. Just like when using [Echoing Thunderclap], the surroundings seemingly slowed down to almost a stop. In that slow-mo world, I waved my sword with precision, swinging down in one clean and continuous motion.
After doing that, ten shadow copies of the sword, like afterimages, appeared around us. Each of those shadows struck down a tentacle, clearing most of them in one strike.
"Arcane Sword: Ten-fold Slash!"
It was a perfect execution of the skill, but even if some of the ten slashes were able to knock down multiple tentacles, three of them still managed to slip through my defense. One pierced through my right lung, another on my left knee, and the last one on my right thigh.
I can stifle the pain from the two flesh wounds and fight, but the problem is that one of the tentacles smashed my kneecap. I literally can't bend my left knee anymore, making it difficult to move even a single step.
Forget that; with a punctured lung, it's getting harder to breathe. If I can't clear the parasites fast, then I'm afraid... No. I won't give up!
"No choice!"
As our last ace in the hole, I pulled out the gun from my [Spatial Storage]. I wasn't able to use it before since it was set up for a specific usage, which takes a bit of prep work.
As soon as I pulled it out, I saw a long barrel, about one meter long, with specially prepared ammo already loaded on its front end. I quickly placed it over my shoulder and looked through the rectangular sights attached to it, aiming it at the middle of the wall of parasites before us.
"Fang, hang on tight!"
Shouting while spraying blood all over, I then pulled the trigger and let the large warhead fly forward at a visibly slow pace. It followed an arc and struck one of the red parasites.
A quiet tick sound, followed by a brief silence...
At the point of contact, a small black dot appeared. None of the parasites noticed it at first, but when it started pulling them in, they started panicking. It was futile, however, as the pulling force wasn't something that they could fight against.
I stabbed my sword against the floor with difficulty and kept my posture low. I made sure to hold onto Fang tightly, or else she would get sucked into the micro black hole generated by the warhead too. Of course, I didn't forget to stow away the now-empty RPG launcher, one of the gun's forms, into my [Spatial Storage] just in case.
What? Yes, a black hole.
With difficulty, I managed to get Ember to request one of them from Goddess Zeta. She spent a few hours with precision control just to create one of these bad boys. The problem was that it was hard to use, as there were several levels of protection set up so that it wouldn't accidentally implode while in storage.
The pulling force was stronger than I thought. Even Fang's clones and the little white parasites who were further away ended up being pulled inside without any resistance.
Just as the sword was creaking, almost unable to support our bodies against the pulling force of the black hole, the small black dot suddenly enlarged to about ten times its size for a moment before vanishing with a pop.
None of the red parasites nearby were left, and all of the white parasites ended up swallowed by the infinite darkness of the black hole. With the Dragon King's defenses thinned like this, we should be able to reach the heart now!
Or at least we thought.
*ROOOOOOAAAAAAAR!*
With how much damage we caused, the body's owner roared in a mix of pain and rage. This is bad, isn't it?
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