Chapter 44
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Blood Vessel Predator (3)
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Immense heat, light, and pressure came crashing down.
Honestly, this was downright insane.
Even a flashbang at point-blank range packs a vicious punch, but detonating a high-explosive grenade designed to strip armor off armored vehicles from this distance? That was basically suicide.
But that's exactly why it worked so damn well.
Guuaaaaang-!
A deafening vibration swept through, leaving my ears ringing as the mutants smothering me were flung tumbling away.
Reinforced skulls?
Don't make me laugh.
They might shrug off AK-47 rounds, but this? No chance.
"Kiaaaaa!!"
The Blood Vessel Predator, who took a direct high-explosive hit, thrashed around like it was loving every second.
Now that I looked closer, one of the vein roots it had been so proud of had a massive hole punched right through it, like someone took a huge bite.
"Tasty, huh?"
Its response was explosive.
The thing whipped its vein roots around and slammed them down at me.
I barely dodged the strike hurtling toward me.
Kuuwuuung-!
"This guy's nuts."
That blow was so powerful it shook the entire building. Honestly, the fact it hadn't collapsed yet was a miracle.
Watching that, a twinge of regret bubbled up.
'If I'd known it was this bad, I would've grabbed Allah's magic wand too!'
Back then, I figured it was just rubbery mutant-sized at worst.
I had no idea it'd be this massive.
This is why you can't trust raiders.
They should've drawn a proper picture...
"Whoa."
While I was thinking, another strike came flying in.
The moment I stood, I dodged again.
The flesh wall on the floor burst upward, and chunks of unlucky mutants caught in the trajectory sprayed everywhere.
'Does this thing even have a cooldown?!'
Each blow was an AoE attack, but to the Blood Vessel Predator, they were just basic swings.
Even scarier were the occasional sneaky strikes bursting up from the floor... Huh?
But then.
While dodging the relentless barrage, something off caught my eye.
Below the floor, now blasted open by its own wide swings into a gaping hole, something reddish gleamed.
'Hold up, no way.'
A ominous premonition flashed through my mind.
I hoped I was wrong, but wise survivors in a post-apocalypse always trust those gut feelings.
The longer you've lasted as a veteran, the more spot-on they are—like straight-up precognition.
Ping-
While evading, I pulled another high-explosive grenade.
Yanked the pin and chucked it straight into the hole.
The Blood Vessel Predator spotted it and lunged to block, but
Kuwaaaaang?!!
If it could block this, it would've crushed that monster flower and claimed village boss ages ago.
The unblocked grenade detonated fiercely below, and the ceiling finally gave way, crumbling more than halfway.
Mutants tumbled down in a heap, and I leaped up through the surviving gap to safety.
What I saw from the safe zone above was—
"Not just big. Colossal."
A scene drenched in crimson.
Now I saw: those vein roots I'd glimpsed? Just the stems. Down there, veins tangled into a massive, blood-red tree crammed full.
So it was an anglerfish after all?
The real body was below.
Gush gush gush-
Red blood poured from the ruptured tree, blasted by the grenade. One wrong step and you'd be swept away. Sure enough, some mutants flailed in it, out of their minds like they'd all OD'd.
'Gotta be narcotic substances.'
Head-spinning chaos.
Mutant evolution had outpaced my common sense entirely.
I was lost on what pattern it'd pull next when the Blood Vessel Predator—forced to bare its innards—roared in fury.
"Grooooaaar!!!"
Shuuuu shuu shuu shuuu!!
No more hiding: vein stems surged up from below like mad.
Fine, in this world, why bother predicting?
Just smash whatever comes.
I swung my pickaxe, loaded with internal energy, intercepting the incoming vein stems.
Spluuurt- They burst with a pop.
Scarlet fluid splattered everywhere.
The moment I wondered if sniffing that would send me mutant-zombie too,
'Nah. No way.'
Reverse it: this could be a golden opportunity.
No matter how fast mutants evolve, they're still human-tier at best.
Even if Krillin flies and Yamcha masters his Wolf Fang Fist to perfection, he caps at below Super Saiyan level.
"Come here."
I extended my left hand—not gripping the pickaxe—and unleashed a heavenly technique.
Star Absorption Great Law.
The Martial God's creation, mimicking cosmic reversal, sucked in the flying fluids with immense pull.
Sluuuuurp-!!
'Oh ho?'
My spent internal energy didn't just recover—it overcharged beyond.
Previously at 120%, now easily 150%+.
"Hahaha! That's more like it!!!"
Has the sea ever cared if water's salt or fresh?
The Star Absorption Great Law turned even mutant hallucinogens into internal energy. Invincible didn't cover it.
"Master Color Emperor is a god!!"
Kwaaaang!!
Boosted physical prowess launched me skyward.
As the flustered Blood Vessel Predator's face rushed close, my internal-energy-charged pickaxe swung again.
Sensing doom, it lashed roots wildly, but
Spluuurt-
Pop pop-
My pickaxe looked wild, but it was honed by hundreds of days under AlphaGo's beatings—precision incarnate.
Each strike hit perfect openings, pulverizing roots on contact.
I poured internal energy per blow, fearing shortfall, even as it melted away inside me.
But the mad drain was refilled real-time by sucking bursting blood with Star Absorption Great Law—accelerating further.
'It's settled.'
We're a bad matchup for it.
A building-sized mass-pusher can't stop a blood-sucking berserker like Unyielding Magic Sword!
Tanks always counter bloodthirst bruisers.
"If you're gonna gamble, at least rig the odds!!"
200%.
I slammed the over-overcharged pickaxe into its torso.
Then,
"Kiaaaaaaaa!!"
Cornered, it unleashed a final death screech!
In reality, a fighter screaming from a beatdown changes nothing,
'Ah, fuck. This is a fantasy genre.'
Kuku kuku kung-
The whole building shook in response to its cry.
I'd smashed half its vein stems just before, but this vibration dwarfed that, engulfing everything.
Kururung-
The building couldn't take the hit—it collapsed. The rooftop gave way too.
A suicide bomb at this point?!
Even 300% overcharged Unyielding Magic Sword can't defy falling ground.
Even human world's strongest Krillin said it:
I can't fly.
If I knew flight arts, maybe—but no such luck from the Martial Gods.
Thus began the plunge.
Debris and swirling red filled my vision.
Beyond, a hazy shape emerged.
'You bastard.'
It was grinning.
Mid freefall, the Blood Vessel Predator smirked.
'Gonna crush me flat with this overwhelming mass?'
We'll both take the impact, but its bulk survives. For my frail human flesh? Fatal. And if I black out, even a dazed it finishes me.
Bold, sharp gamble from the enemy.
But,
'I've thrown plenty of those myself!'
Last chance.
Abandoning balance, I swung my pickaxe with all my might.
Target: the massive debris chunk falling beside me.
Kwaaaang!!
A thunderous boom amid the roar—debris exploded, recoil hurling me right beside the Blood Vessel Predator.
Startled by my sudden approach, it whipped roots in reaction.
Which meant,
'That's your fatal mistake.'
Ignore me? Maybe. But attacking?
I had another heavenly art for perfect counters.
Heavenly Mechanism Calculation Method.
Secret Technique.
Crescent Reaver.
My tumbling body flipped once more.
A crescent etched in midair.
That impossibly beautiful arc snagged a repulsive monster.
Shlick-!
An unreal slicing sound from a pickaxe.
The crescent bisected the monster's body.