novelraw Chapter 51: The Reaper’s Harvest
Chapter 51: The Reaper’s Harvest
The serpent had reached him in a heartbeat.
Verso’s eyes narrowed he focused entirely on tracking the movement of the mangled, blood mouth of the serpent. With its lower jaw gone and the upper bones broken, the path was clear.
’I need to get to the brain and finish it off in an instant.’
He tightened his grip on the cold handle of the Dark Scythe, waiting for the exact microsecond that he could dodge without the beast turning towards him.
Just as the serpent’s face was about to collide with him, Verso burned his final bit of mana to push his body forward using Water Manipulation.
He moved like a ghost through the water as he dodged the lunge by a hair’s breadth.
The serpent overshot him, crashing violently into the stone floor of the ruins.
The impact of the crash was so violent that it sent a heavy vibration through the water and completely stunned the Sea Serpent for a brief moment.
Verso didn’t waste his chance and acted on the opening.
He pulled the scythe back and with a loud grunt, struck the exposed mangled flesh of the upper jaw with everything he had.
CLANG.
"Ugh..." Verso groaned in frustration.
The blade of the scythe had bit into the bone but did not sink deep enough. So he quickly pulled the scythe back but as he did, he felt a strange, cold vibration travel up the handle.
The dark blade began to bleed a dark shadowy aura.
This was Death’s Mark, the new innate ability of the evolved Lil Bone.
Just like how Xavier’s weapon had been enchanted with lightning to stun and burn, Verso’s scythe was designed for applying curses.
Every consecutive strike he made on an enemy stacked a curse on the target, weakening its defenses and amplifying the damage of the next blow.
"I am going all in!"
Verso roared, swinging the scythe like a maniac. He abandoned all sense of self preservation and became a whirlwind of dark steel.
With his first strike, the bones of the creature cracked, with the second one, the aura flared as it started cutting off the the mangled flesh and with the third strike the upper jaw of the beast began to cave inward.
On the fourth strike, the blade finally sank deep, but it ended up hitting a dense pocket of bone and got stuck.
Just then, Verso noticed that the serpent’s entire body had began to twitch. This was a sign that it was about to recover very soon.
’This is it.’
Verso pulled his body back and using his entire weight delivered a violent kick to the back of the scythe’s blade.
CRACK.
The scythe got lodged deep into the serpent’s skull.
The creature let out a silent scream that vibrated in the water, its body whipping around in a final, agonizing reflex. The massive tail caught Verso in the chest and threw him back like a ball that was hit with a bat.
"It’s still not dead?!"
Verso scrambled to find his footing on the ocean floor as his heart starting hammering loudly against his ribs.
He was completely out of mana, he did not have any other golems to summon leaving him with no other options.
Turning to look back at the serpent, he was ready for the worst but just then the system’s chime finally echoed in his ears.
[Elite Beast Slain: Sea Serpent.]
[Beast Soul Acquired: Sea Serpent.]
The tension snapped in his had instantly as Verso froze for a moment.
After a good second, he did not just smile, he started cheering on the top of his lungs, his voice vibrating through the water in a series of muffled shouts.
"Woohoo! I told you! I told you I was going to kill you!"
He looked like a complete maniac that had lost his mind. Standing in the middle of a flooded ancient ruin that only mentioned in mythical stories.
Surrounded by the dark blood of the elite serpent that he had just killed, Verso started performing a little victory dance.
He bobbed his head and spun in the water, a teenager wearing a hoodie celebrating over a convulsing, fifteen foot corpse.
It was a jarring, almost insane sight to look at. But it did not last long.
As Verso turned around, his heart stopped.
The trail of dark, potent elite blood had acted like a beacon. As emerging from the darkness of the deep were several MASSIVE Leviathans.
Their size made the Sea Serpent he had just killed look like a common earthworm.
Verso froze, his victory dance dying instantly.
"Umm... I am sorry for the commotion?"
Before he could even attempt to move, the water around him exploded. All of the massive beasts jumped at him at once, their jaws closing as his vision went dark.
------
Verso’s eyes snapped open.
The hum of the bus and the smell of the sweating students around him hit him like a physical weight.
He was back in the read world. A massive uncontrollable smile spread across his face as he ignored the other students who were chatting.
He did not waste a single second as he pulled up the status window of the new entry in his summoning space.
---
[✦Summon Window✦]
Name: Sea Serpent
Title: -
Rank: Elite (0%)
Stats:
[Strength: 23]
[Agility: 29]
[Endurance: 26]
[Mana: 18]
Manifestation: [Scale Armor]
Abilities: [Vortex] [Tidal Wave] [Last Push]
---
’Finally...’
He finally had an elite summon of his own, which meant that he was no longer weaker than any of the elites present at the Exam.
The bus began to slow down, the hydraulic brakes letting out a long weary hiss.
"We have reached the Venue!" the attendant informed the cabin.
"Everyone, please gather your belongings and prepare to check in for the exam!"
Verso barely heard her.
He was busy looking through the Sea Serpent’s status window, his mind racing with the large amount of possibilities for the exam.
’Let’s see whose the real elite now.’