He pulled the arrow back, and the moment he did, the air changed.
The wind stilled. The scent of ozone, sharp and metallic, hit the back of his throat. Sparks crackled across the arrow's shaft, running wild like veins of light. His fingers twitched as electricity danced between them and the bowstring, but he didn't flinch. Michael was able to control his lightning while he couldn't control much of it, and still, some of his essence still leaked out as the elemental coating wasn't perfect and wasn't equally circulated, but at least he was able to control the lightning from blowing up in his face. Michael saw that as a huge gain, other than the blackcoil armor of course.
He took one steady breath and let go of the arrow.
The string snapped forward with a sharp crack, but the arrow didn't just fly through the air; it launched, like a bolt torn straight from the clouds. A flash of blue light split the air, followed instantly by a deafening boom. The sky seemed to shudder, and Michael's hands faltered; his eardrum throbbed with a persistent tinnitus. Michael noticed that the better he got at controlling his lightning, the more he could produce and channel thunder into his lightning; it was like having two powers for one cause—whenever there is lightning, there must be thunder, right?
The arrow moved too fast to follow. One blink, and it was already halfway there. Its tail left a trail of flickering sparks, lighting up the air behind it like a comet. The thunder itself seemed to follow in its wake.
And when it hit, the world exploded.
A blinding flash lit up the ground, followed by a deep, rolling thunder that shook the earth. Lightning burst outward from the point of impact, snaking across the ground in jagged arcs as the arrow found its mark in the serpent's head.
Michael could already hear the system confirming his kill.
{You have killed venom serpent
You grow stronger}
The other serpents stood there, not moving. Michael couldn't figure out if it was due to the sound paralyzing them or the death of their companion leaving them unable to move, but Michael was sure that the serpents were stunned from the shot, while he should be, as even Michael was affected by it, as Michael channeled half of his essence into that shot, and his hand and eardrum were aching just from it. Michael was also stunned by the power of his own arrow, never anticipating that the arrow could be that strong.
Michael didn't hesitate to draw another arrow, seeing the stunned serpents. He released another arrow targeting the serpent on the left side, due to the serpent still being stunned from his last shot, it couldn't dodge the attack.
Michael released a second arrow aiming for the serpent on the left side and pulled the bowstring. The arrow hit true, finding its mark.
{You have killed venom serpent
You grow stronger}
The system announced, adding more joy to Michael's pounding heart. Michael couldn't believe that he scored two easy kills.
Michael won't say he wasn't bummed about not receiving any echoes, but he was still happy; he only had one more serpent to kill, and seeing how disoriented the remaining serpent was, Michael didn't waste time summoning the obsidian blade fang dagger. He planned to end this fight as fast as he could. Michael knew he wouldn't last much longer as his essence pool was already empty, and the little he had, he didn't waste time summoning the obsidian dagger's Fang of fury enchantment.
Michael didn't waste time rushing towards the serpent with both obsidian daggers in his hand.
Michael leapt forward, his body arcing towards the serpent as he unleashed a powerful, lightning-fast vertical slash, striking true with deadly precision, cleaving through the serpent's scales with ruthless force.
Michael landed on the desert floor, welcomed by the system's sweet melody confirming his kill.
{You have killed venom serpent
You grow stronger}
"Seriously, all that and not even a single echo or even a familiar," Michael said, bummed about how stingy the system was, but he couldn't do anything but bend down and fish out the cores from the serpents and stash them into his bag he carried with him.
After that, Michael continued heading to the center of the dungeon. "I wonder how David Blackwood is coping with this desert," Michael said. "Wait, if he gets killed in here by a creature, does that mean I succeeded with my task?" Michael said, scratching the back of his head. Even up to now, he hadn't even thought about how he would kill David Blackwood or even if he could do it; even though Michael was afraid of killing his fellow human, he was even more scared of losing his divine system. He can't return back to his old life and become a nobody, so Michael knew what was at stake for any decision he chose—either save his humanity or lose his system.
Michael kept moving forward and reached the desert quickly and conquered this dungeon; after all, this was still a test. "I don't know what to fear more in this desert, the monsters in it or the fact there's nowhere to find a water source. If I knew I would end up in this godforsaken desert, I would have brought some water." Currently, Michael's problem wasn't food but the lack of water.
As Michael kept walking north, he noticed how weak he was getting and how thirsty he was getting, but at least he hadn't seen another creature for a while, and also, this dungeon's time was different, as Michael had been walking for hours now and it doesn't show any signs of getting dark anytime soon, which was quite good because Michael wasn't sure if he was able to protect himself from danger in the dark.
Just as Michael was pondering about how messed up this dungeon was, he finally saw a structure up ahead, he couldn't make out the full shape of the structure but at least he saw a hope away from this waste land.