CHAPTER 32 — THE LAST STRIKE
Zodac kept moving.
Every step felt like his bones were grinding against one another, every breath scraped through his lungs like broken glass, but he did not stop. The cavern echoed with the violent thrashing of Nagendra's massive body as the serpent writhed in agony, its severed tail twitching uselessly on the stone floor below.
*SSSSSSSSSSSSSS—*
The sound was no longer just a hiss.
It was rage.
The cobra's enormous head jerked violently from side to side, its body coiling and uncoiling in instinctive fury. Jagged green scales glistened under the dim cavern light, slick with ichor. Its fangs clicked together as venom dripped in thick strands, sizzling faintly where it struck stone.
Zodac narrowed his eyes.
He was close now. Too close to retreat. Too injured to hesitate.
His muscles screamed in protest as he pushed himself forward, leaping from one Hectorgon shield to another. His arms trembled violently, still numb from the full-powered Whirlwind that had severed the serpent's tail moments earlier. His vision blurred at the edges, flashes of white bleeding into darkness.
But his mind remained sharp.
Cold.
Focused.
*One strike,* he calculated.
*One chance.*
Nagendra sensed it.
The serpent's head snapped toward him with terrifying precision, golden eyes locking onto Zodac's battered form. For a split second, the cavern fell eerily silent.
Then—
*SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!*
Nagendra lunged.
The sheer speed was monstrous. Its massive jaws opened wide enough to swallow Zodac whole, rows of venom-coated fangs glinting like executioner's blades. The pressure displaced the air itself, a violent shockwave tearing toward him.
Zodac reacted instantly.
"Hectorgon."
A shield formed beneath his feet.
He landed on it for barely a heartbeat before launching himself sideways, twisting midair as Nagendra's jaws slammed shut where he had been a moment earlier. The impact cracked stone, splintering the cavern wall behind him.
Dust and debris exploded outward.
Zodac gritted his teeth as pain surged through his body. His limbs felt heavy—unresponsive. His grip on Kogestu loosened for a fraction of a second.
*Don't slip.*
Nagendra recoiled, preparing to strike again.
Zodac's eyes hardened.
*This is it.*
He drew in a shaky breath and spoke, each word dragging something vital out of him.
"Reserve Mana… drain."
The system responded instantly.
A violent surge of energy ripped through his core as his Reserve Mana tank emptied completely. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"Blitz Mana… drain."
Red lightning crawled across his skin as Blitz Mana followed, flooding his muscles with explosive power. The pain intensified, every nerve screaming as if it were being torn apart from the inside.
"Pure Mana… drain."
The last command was barely audible.
His body erupted in light.
White. Green. Red.
Every remaining ounce of energy he possessed surged into his bloodstream, his veins glowing faintly beneath torn armor and blood-soaked fabric. His vision sharpened unnaturally, time seeming to slow as the world crystallized around him.
Kogestu answered his call.
The blade roared to life, its edge blazing with blinding emerald light that illuminated the cavern like a rising sun. The oppressive darkness was driven back, shadows recoiling as if in fear.
Zodac launched forward.
His body screamed in protest as he forced it beyond its limits, every step in midair supported by fleeting Hectorgon shields that shattered behind him the instant he touched them.
Nagendra struck again.
Too late.
Zodac raised Kogestu with both hands, channeling *everything* into a single point. His consciousness wavered, darkness pressing in from all sides.
But he smiled faintly.
"KOGESTU…!"
His voice echoed through the cavern like a war drum.
"…Whirlwind."
He swung.
The slash wave that erupted was unlike anything before it.
It was massive—wide enough to fill the cavern, sharp enough to shear through stone as if it were cloth. The air itself screamed as it was split apart, the shockwave obliterating every protruding spike along the cavern ceiling before racing forward in a flawless arc.
Nagendra did not even have time to hiss.
The slash passed through its neck cleanly.
Perfectly.
The serpent's head separated from its body in silence.
Then gravity claimed it.
*THUD.*
The massive corpse collapsed to the cavern floor, the impact shaking the entire underground chamber. Stone cracked. Dust billowed upward in choking clouds.
Zodac fell with it.
His body struck the lifeless serpent, the impact knocking what little strength remained from him. Darkness rushed in as his consciousness slipped.
Just before losing awareness, he forced out one final command.
"Pure… Mana… drain…"
A dim white glow spread across his body as the system obeyed, stabilizing him just enough to keep him alive.
He lay there, unmoving.
The cavern was silent.
Minutes passed.
Slowly, painfully, Zodac's eyes opened.
He stared at the ceiling, chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. His body felt hollow, as if everything inside him had been burned away.
After a long while, he rolled off the serpent's corpse and hit the ground with a dull thud.
His gaze drifted toward Nagendra's severed head.
The eyes were still open.
Still staring.
A chill crawled up his spine.
"…Annoying," he muttered hoarsely.
Summoning the last of his strength, he raised a trembling hand.
"Hectorgon."
A massive shield formed beneath the serpent's head, far larger than any he had summoned before. It lifted smoothly into the air before compressing inward, shrinking along with the head until both vanished completely.
The system panel flickered.
Type: Attack
Attack Type: Gauntling — Poison
Zodac exhaled slowly.
"Good."
He didn't smile.
Before him was a large human sized hole in the snake skin, its scales were tough but he found a way through it and besides it was worth every hour as all his Mana tanks were maxed, well except from.....
Soul Mana
Dragon Mana
"Turns out the Nagendra organic matter contained traces of dragon Mana, so maybe its origin was a lot closer to Dragons"
Reserve Mana
Blitz Mana
Dark Mana
"Nagendra also contained traces of dark Mana I don't know how that's possible but now I have it"
Pure Mana
Then he transferred 31 pieces of organic materials snake flesh, and more up to 260 poisonous snake scales into his inventory.
Zodac struggled to get up and began using Kogestu as a walking stick to help him move as he slowly made his way to the caverns ladder. As he moved he walked past the Sentico corpse, then the bats, then the moles until he came across the first monster he fought.
"Somehow I managed to survive" He said with a grin as he walked past it.
As he made his way to the ladder exit he saw his cross bag on the ground, which fell off while he battled the bat in mid air. He bent down and picked it up and raised his hand to look through it, everything inside was complete which included the large chunk of illeaum crystal he placed in earlier everything seemed complete except for his money pouch.
He hung it over his shoulder and also saw a fairly large crystal on the ground around him, moved by greed he smiles fought through the pain and picked up the illeaum crystal on the ground placing it into his cross bag as he made his way to the exit.
When he emerged from the cavern, sunlight struck him like a foreign thing.
Warm.
Blinding.
And waiting.
A crowd had gathered.
Men and women backed away instinctively the moment they saw him climb out—bloodied, armor torn, eyes cold and unfeeling.
Whispers erupted instantly.
"It's him…"
"The elemental devil…"
"What did he do down there?"
Fear spread like fire.
Zodac stepped forward.
The crowd recoiled as one.
Their faces twisted in terror, disgust, awe. Some trembled. Others clenched their fists, unable to meet his gaze.
He looked at none of them.
"All the monsters," he said, voice flat and exhausted, "are gone."
Silence followed.
Then he turned away.
Behind him, fear remained.