At the moment of life and death, Ruminas poured all her "qi" into her feet, creating a powerful kick to the ground, causing herself to bounce back, narrowly avoiding the fatal slash. However, the powerful push also caused her to stagger when she landed.
"If this continues… I'll die!"
Realizing the danger of the situation, Ruminas quickly thought of another plan. If a head-on fight couldn't win, then she had to change tactics.
"I can't fight it for long, nor can I run away… But if I can create a break, even if it's just a little bit, I'll have a chance to regain my strength."
She glanced around. The area had been devastated by the long battle. There were broken rocks, and the ground was jagged with deep craters from attacks. She could use the terrain to gain enough distance to recover some stamina.
"I need to fool it"
Thinking so, Ruminas immediately took action. She pretended to charge forward to attack, but just as the Manducater was about to counterattack, she suddenly changed direction, using the large rocks as obstacles, constantly changing direction and using maximum speed to make the monster lose track for a moment.
The Manducater roared, clearly unhappy with its opponent stalling for time. But with its growing intelligence, it quickly realized Ruminas' scheme. It began using its power to destroy all the surrounding obstacles, giving her no chance to hide.
But this was exactly what Ruminas expected.
"I just need a few more seconds!"
She regulated her breathing, forcing herself to focus on recovering her strength. The numbness in her limbs gradually lessened, and her rapid breathing began to stabilize.
But she knew she didn't have much time.
"This alone isn't enough to turn the situation around, but at least I can buy some time."
The Manducater quickly realized her position and immediately rushed forward. Ruminas took a deep breath, preparing for the next engagement. This time, she couldn't just defend—she needed to find a way to counterattack more effectively.
The war is not over yet.
Ruminas once again used the tactic of using the surrounding terrain to hide. The more the monster wanted to find her, the more carefully she hid. Doing so not only helped her buy more time, but also made it lose its composure.
"Continuing to hide is not the way, what is important is how to help the "qi" enter a new stage… Based on one's own characteristics… based on one's own characteristics…"
Ruminas kept repeating this sentence.
She focused inside her body again to see the currents of energy running everywhere, this sight was already very familiar to her but she wanted to pierce it and create something new.
"Initially, the way to awaken "qi" is to release the meridians in the body to gradually enter a gentle state. In combat, it is necessary to push the body to its limits so that it can fully develop its capabilities…"
Ruminas started to reason based on this theoretical point.
"If I really have to push my body to the brink of death to unleash new potential, it will be a bit difficult because I'm not sure I can completely control the situation."
Before doing that, Ruminas needed to understand a few other things. She searched her body to see if there was anything that had not been used yet. Once she had used 100% of her body, she could only think about what to do next.
Through "qi" she could see that all the organs were working continuously to restore the body, the blood vessels were continuously transporting blood with the support of the flow of qi.
Boom!
The Manducater attacked again and made her stop thinking and continue moving, she quickly climbed up a tall tree and used her momentum to jump to another ruined building.
Manducater also very quickly chased behind.
"This is so annoying, I can't concentrate like this…"
"I have to find a way to temporarily get rid of it…"
Ruminas began to look around for something that might help.
Just then, Ruminas's gaze stopped at a nearby steep cliff.
"If I can just lure it there..."
An idea flashed through her mind. The Manducater was agitated by the pursuit, if she could take advantage of that impatience, perhaps she would have a chance to lose it for a moment.
Without further ado, Ruminas quickly picked up speed, moving towards the cliff. She deliberately left clear traces along the way, making it look like she had lost control due to exhaustion. Manducater, as expected, immediately gave chase without hesitation.
A short distance from the cliff, Ruminas suddenly changed direction, using all the remaining strength in her body to bounce back up high, jumping to a protruding rock on the other side.
The Manducater didn't have enough time to react. It was going at high speed and couldn't stop in time.
BOOM!
The monster's enormous body slammed into the cliff, creating a deafening explosion. Rubble flew everywhere, and dust covered the entire area.
"Well, at least I got a short break."
Ruminas wasted no time. As soon as she landed safely, she immediately focused on her inner self, feeling the flow of "qi" within her body.
Now that no one was bothering her, she could continue her reasoning.
"If I can control the 'qi' in the sense that I can force it to change…? Or can I use something to press inside the qi and make it stronger?"
Ruminas looked into her inventory and an item caught her eye.
"The Ghostly Heart…"
She got this after completing the dungeon and because she won the event, she was also given two hearts, one to do the clown's quest and the other one she didn't know what to do with yet.
"If I can use it… how about trying it…?"
Ruminas had just thought about that when a small sound rang out, making her come to her senses. She realized that her thought just now could be very dangerous. Although the demonic heart had the ability to grant power to the user, it also came with the possibility of having their personality transformed by it.
"It can't be done… but I have no other choice right now… Maybe just using it once in this battle will be enough since I've drunk so much black blood before and it hasn't affected me at all…"
Ruminas was quite confident in her ability to maintain her composure, but at the same time, she was still worried about the consequences.
But she knew right now this was the only way to gain more strength and win this war.
"Let's take a risk…!"
Ruminas took out the demonic heart and used 'qi' to cover it, immediately a stream of black smoke appeared from the heart and began to merge with Ruminas' white 'qi'.
"Ah…"
Ruminas began to feel power being transferred into her body but along with that came a strange feeling along with a ghostly voice appearing in her head.
"Ah…"
Ruminas tried to calm herself down, using the demon heart wasn't the only thing she wanted to use this time. She also wanted to put her own characteristics into it.
She focused all her willpower to maintain control. Her white aura was slowly being blackened by the power of her demonic heart, but she did not allow it to completely overwhelm her. Instead of letting herself be controlled, she tried to blend it with her own aura, making it a part of her power instead of being controlled by it.
"If I can fully control this source of power… it could become my greatest advantage."
A numbing sensation began to spread throughout her body, but at the same time, Ruminas could also feel a clear increase in power. Her muscles tensed, and the flow of "qi" surged more violently than ever. A terrifying pressure radiated from her body, causing the surrounding rocks to crack.
Her eyes were dyed black with a golden glow in their pupils, her breath turned cold. The demonic heart had completely melted inside and her entire 'qi' had turned pitch black but it was still interspersed with golden streaks.
"It worked," she said softly.
She successfully upgraded her 'qi', the black representing her evil heart and the yellow representing her own unique characteristics - her adaptability and extremely strong fighting talent.
Manducater, even though it had just crashed into the cliff and was still not fully recovered, could sense the change in Ruminas. It let out a fierce roar, as if wary of what she had just become.
"Still need to adjust…"
Ruminas clenched her fists.
Currently, the black color is the majority, showing that the power from the demonic heart is the majority, and if everything turns black, Ruminas might not be able to control herself.
But that's for later, and now...
Ruminas looked at the enemy ahead.
Manducater still stood there, it was not afraid but only carefully assessed this opponent, it knew that the opponent had just molted and gained more power so it itself had to start evolving as well.
But it was confident in being able to copy its opponent's fighting ability, so it just roared once and then proactively charged forward to gain the advantage.
Ruminas smiled slightly.
She put the knife away, using only her bare hands to deal with her new black-gold 'air'.
"Let try this new power!"