“BRRR!”
“Rockie!” Red shouted, her eyes wracked with fury.
The Steel Bug, which easily weighed over a hundred kilograms – perhaps hundreds – was thrown like a ragdoll across the field of flesh. It skidding along helplessly, tumbling into stray Bitter Dregs until finally grinding to a halt.
“Brrrr! Br! BRRRR!” It trembled.
Pieces of its shell littered the ground as parts of its innards spilled.
And yet, against all odds, and despite facing an insurmountable foe, the Steel Bug stabbed its legs into the ground and stood tall.
“Rockie…” Red repeated.
Her Steel Bug was only level 25 compared to the monstrosity before them that was level 60. Snow was also just level 20 with 400 HP to her name. If she received even a single scratch…
< Your Emotions are Heightening >
//////// < CAUTION > ////////
< (S) Bonds! >
< Your Emotional State varies depending on the condition of your Friends. Similarly, your bonded friends will experience the bends of emotion depending on your circumstance >
Red slowly rose to her feet. She held out her blade with her left hand and pointed it at the Queen with the intent of driving it straight through her heart.
“I overestimated the strength of my gun, and it nearly cost us this fight.”
The Hunt Must Go On
ATT : 500
“Do you believe you can continue to fight in that condition?”
“The Healer does not seem competent enough.”
“She could not even save the life of that infected pest.”
Snow mashed flesh in her bare hands. Her eyes grew close to the same shade of Red’s as she bared her fangs in utter contempt. Her emotions surged beyond belief, propelling her straight into the First State.
“Snow. I’m counting on you. I’ll do it right this time.” She slashed the air again. “Let me be your bullet to carve another hole into this scum!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Snow gnashed her teeth. “Red – Your ‘voice’ can read what’s written in my diary, right?”
“Yeah!” Red threw herself forward, abandoning her Fairytale’s Bane as it no longer served a purpose in this fight.
Snow hurriedly wrote into her diary with blood.
< Then you should be able to see this! >
< I’ll guide you through this fight without that thing knowing what our next moves are! >
< Now that my Emotional State has risen… It’s only a matter of time before I find its weakpoint! >
< For now – I want you to target the hands! I suspect the scissors she’s using is interfering with my vision… Either that, or the light behind her! >
I wouldn’t be able to get to the tree without taking out those hands anyway. Snow’s logic makes sense. The Bloody Trail only leads me to the Queen herself. But Snow’s showing me a different path…
The Hunt Must Go On
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
ATT : 650
She placed her faith into Snow’s plan. Red closed her eyes momentarily and imagined a white trail to follow. Her AGI was identical to the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns. And yet, as those hands and blades came crashing down to bisect her–
< [Crush The Interlopers!] >
< [A Million Roses But One Must Blossom] >
< [A Million Roses But One Must Blossom] >
< [Crush The Interlopers!] >
–They missed their mark as if she was moving twice their speed.
“My forest yearns to become a garden of roses.”
“Roses are like humans.”
“Squeeze them and they shall bleed.”
“Humans consume to survive.”
“As do roses. As do all things.”
“Hence, when you break a human down to their core principles, they will stand atop the shoulders of others. When they look back, they will be standing atop a mountain of corpses.”
“The difference between you and I…”
“Is that I adhere to the core aspects of humanity.”
“Good for you!” Red cried, ignoring the murmurs of the Queen as she dragged her blade around the base of one of the arms.
Now that her ATT was at 1,310, she was able to deal 120 damage per strike.
It was minimal.
But Red struck as much as she could regardless of this fact.
“Tch – It’d be nice if I could heal my arm!” She shouted.
Suddenly, as she avoided being cut in half by the swipe of a large scissor-blade, she received a prompt.
< You may use Nemesis Tokens in exchange for various benefits >
“You’re telling me this now!? No, don’t get mad Red! Actually, wait – Keep getting mad! GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Somehow, her speed seemed to increase, as did her slashes against the arms.
Craving Nutrients
The Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns
HP : 10,000
< EFFECT: Nil >
Just then, her blade received an extra 50 ATT.
The Hunt Must Go On
ATT: 700
“WHAT CAN I EXCHANGE THEM FOR!?”
< You may exchange your Nemesis Tokens for Infinite Hatred (Bullets) or Inextinguishable Wrath (Regeneration) >
“What’s the second one!?”
< Regenerate lost limbs and replenish HP and stamina at the cost of lowering your maximum HP and MP pool until your HP reaches 0 >
“That’s the one I want then! Exchange! Let me exchange the token! Let me fight till the bitter end!”
The game of cat and mouse had fatigued her.
But this revelation would amend the flaws of fighting in a human body, to ensure that she could fight for as long as possible in peak condition. Her hatred was made manifest in the form of these Tokens.
Suddenly, her heart began to heat up as she sensed the light she had seen in her dreams resounding within her chest.
“Who is it that you’re speaking to? Or has your mind already began to corrode?”
Red didn’t respond again.
She had a plan that followed a similar principle that hunters like Theron used. While her attacks did little against the Corrupted’s HP, it was not the damage she was looking for.
But rather, the effects of these cuts.
After all, each strike was performed using [Huntress’ Slash].
“Haaah… Haaah… Tch!”
“Another limitation of humanity comes in the form of physical capabilities.”
“They require rest, and nutrients to be prepared in an optimal manner.”
“But the likes of myself bypass such limitations and retain the pureness of humanity.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that!” Red proclaimed.
Suddenly, her pace picked right back up as a soaring pain shot through her right arm. Muscles wove into place, creating an arm. She twirled her blade between the fingers of her right hand as she smirked defiantly in the face of the Queen.
Red | HP: 12,000 | 12,000
“Impossible…”
“You’re not the only one with regenerative abilities!”
“Nonsense. Yours is but an inferior version of mine. I have all the biomass in the world.”
“But can you keep up with the rate you’re losing blood?”
“!?”
Indeed, unbeknownst to the Queen was that she was rapidly losing blood in her towering arms. It was not perceived as a problem initially as she was constantly replenishing it with biomass. But at some point, the bottleneck was not in the supply, but rather in the rate of which she could feasibly replace what was being lost.
Blood poured from the wounds at the base of her arms.
< Craving Nutrients currently has 100 Bleed Stacks >
< Fountain of Blood Condition inflicted >
Fountain of Blood
< A high-tiered blood loss Condition. Lose 75% of total HP per minute >
“Was I not able to detect it?”
“Never felt pain, have you? The whole schmick about pain is that it tells us when there’s a problem with our body! You call it a limitation–!”
Red watched as both hands loomed above her. They collided into one another, creating their own fountain of blood.
< [Nutrients of Millions] >
< Churn them for their primordial aspect >
< EFFECT: Convert biomass into an attack. Deal 900 MAG ATT per liter of blood >
Blood, gore, bones – human remains showered over Red. She dodged falling bone-shaped spears and spines that spun like throwing axes. She used one of these spears as leverage to abruptly change her direction, confusing the Queen for a moment as she drove her blade into the right arm.
Then, with a terrifying war cry–
“–BUT IT IS WHAT KEEPS HUMANS ALIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE!”
–She dragged her blade along its length as she climbed onto it. It failed, attempted to throw her off but her blade was anchored firmly into the meat. Afterwards, she leapt onto the next hand and slashed it from top to bottom, opening it like someone had unzipped it, releasing a torrent of foul, rotting flesh.
The twin scissor blades fell, and they rotted away, becoming one with the endless mound of meat.
“You… dare…?”
Craving Nutrients | HP: 0
Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns | HP: 20,000
18 Chapters ahead over on the
Discord! We have cute Vengeful Red emotes!
