FREE USE in Primitive World

Chapter 236: Chapter 236: Surrounded

As he focused on avoiding the relentless aerial bombardment, the Badgers rapidly closed the distance on the ground, their jaws snapping inches from his heels.

His initial goal had been to just back away and escape the aggro radius, but these bastards kept chasing him. And since two of them were flying, acid-spitting Layer 2 Omen-Bloods, running away indefinitely in a dense jungle was becoming mathematically impossible. One slip on a slick root, or one direct hit from that acid, and he was dead.

Sol gritted his teeth, his crimson eyes flashing with sudden, violent annoyance.

Fine, Sol thought, his patience evaporating.

He dug his heavy boots hard into the dirt, skidding to an abrupt, violent halt that kicked up a wave of mud. He spun around, dropping his center of gravity, and channeled a massive surge of Golden Liquid directly into his arms.

The leading Layer 2 Dreadwing, assuming the exhausted prey had finally given up, dove straight for his head. Its terrifying, serrated mandibles opened wide to deliver a lethal, point-blank bite of acid.

Sol didn’t dodge. He thrust his heavy Void-Oak spear straight up into the air.

He didn’t aim for the heavily armored stone thorax. He aimed directly for the creature’s gaping, venom-dripping mouth. The sheer, blinding speed and crushing physical force of Sol’s thrust caught the Layer 2 insect completely off guard.

CRUNCH-SQUELCH!

The obsidian blade pierced the roof of its mouth, bypassed its armor entirely, and drove straight through its primitive brain, exiting the top of its faceted skull in an explosion of green fluid. The beast didn’t even have time to react, let alone shriek, before it died instantly, its own downward momentum impaling it deeper onto the shaft.

Sol violently jerked the heavy spear sideways, using the dead Dreadwing’s own massive weight to tear the blade free. He threw the bleeding, twitching carcass directly into the mud, forcing the charging Badgers to awkwardly stumble over it.

He lowered his spear, breathing heavily, a cruel, feral smile spreading across his face as he looked at the remaining four Omen-Blood beasts.

“Okay,” Sol sneered, his Golden Liquid core roaring to life, actively begging for the slaughter. “Since you bastards want to die so badly, I’ll be happy to help you relieve the pain of living.”

He didn’t run anymore. He actively lunged directly into the pack of beasts, going on an absolute rampage.

As he fought, his analytical mind worked in overdrive, processing the battlefield. He realized quickly that the biggest, most annoying feature of the Dreadwings was their combination of flight and acid spit, requiring constant, high-speed evasion. Meanwhile, the Badgers were incredibly tenacious, utilizing their strong earth-defense to tank hits that would have split a normal beast in half.

But thankfully, most of his current attackers were only Layer 1, and the greatest aerial threat was now dead in the mud.

He was surrounded, outnumbered, and fighting high-tier Omen-Bloods in the darkest part of the Great Orrath while two Lords waged war just a mile away. And he had never felt more alive.

…

The dark woods echoed with the sickening thud of the dead Layer 2 Dreadwing hitting the mud.

Sol didn’t pause to admire his handiwork. The moment his boots touched the earth, the three Layer 1 Great Badgers were already on him, their silver fur bristling as thick, heavy yellow earth essence coated their scythe-like claws. They attacked with the coordinated, mindless fury of a pack that had never known defeat.

Threat assessment, Sol’s internal monologue raced in bullet-time. Three ground tanks with high physical defense. One remaining Layer 2 aerial bomber charging a ranged acid attack. Neutralize the bomber first.

Above him, the surviving Layer 2 Dreadwing shrieked in rage, its faceted eyes locking onto Sol. Its translucent crystal wings beat furiously, hovering just out of spear reach as its mandibles unhinged, glowing with a sickening, radioactive green light.

It spat a massive volley of corrosive venom directly at Sol.

“Too slow,” Sol grunted.

He didn’t dodge backward, instead he rushed forward. He flooded his legs with the heavy, crushing gravity of his Golden Liquid, dropping his center of mass, and slid aggressively through the damp moss, sliding directly under the arc of the descending acid. The neon-green venom splashed violently behind him, melting a thick fern into bubbling sludge.

Before his slide even finished, the leading Badger snapped its jaws at his face.

Sol planted his left boot hard into the dirt, halting his momentum instantly. He grabbed the heavy Void-Oak shaft of his spear with both hands and drove the blunt butt of the weapon upward in a vicious uppercut.

CRACK!

The wood slammed into the underside of the Badger’s jaw, rattling its brain inside its reinforced skull and knocking its front paws off the ground.

Using the momentarily stunned beast as a stepping stone, Sol channeled maximum output into his calves and vaulted directly off the Badger’s broad, armored back. He launched himself twenty feet into the air, completely defying gravity, and met the hovering Dreadwing face-to-face.

The giant insect’s faceted eyes widened in primitive shock. It hadn’t expected the ground-bound prey to suddenly take to the sky.

“Bug spray,” Sol sneered.

In mid-air, he spun his body, using his sheer momentum to swing the obsidian spear in a devastating, horizontal executioner’s arc. The black glass blade bypassed the creature’s thick stone armor entirely and sheared cleanly through the joint of its right crystal wing.

The Dreadwing shrieked in absolute agony as its wing was severed cleanly off. Its flight pattern immediately collapsed, and it spiraled downward, crashing heavily into the thick roots of a purple tree, its remaining wing thrashing uselessly in the mud.

Sol landed heavily back on the forest floor, the Golden Liquid in his chest roaring like an open furnace. He was instantly surrounded by the three enraged Badgers.

Aerial threat neutralized. Time to break some rocks.

The fight turned into a brutal brawl. The Great Badgers were relentless, relying on their earth-hardened fur to tank his thrusts. But Sol was a biological engine of infinite stamina. He didn’t tire, he didn’t slow down, and his spatial awareness was absolute.

He wove through their snapping jaws and glowing claws with terrifying precision. He parried a swipe with the shaft of his spear, stepped inside the guard of the second Badger, and delivered a devastating, Golden-Liquid-infused palm strike directly to its ribs. He had previously killed a layer 2 omen blood, so what were these layer 1. They were slower, weaker and smaller than that layer 2.

The sheer concussive force bypassed the armor and shattered the beast’s internal organs, dropping it instantly.

The third Badger lunged for his hamstring. Sol violently pivoted, sweeping the spear low to trip its front legs, then brought his heavy boot down in a brutal, earth-shattering stomp directly onto the back of its neck.

Crunch. Within sixty seconds, the clearing was dead silent. The three Badgers and the two Dreadwings lay dead in the churning mud, completely eradicated by a newly awakened youth who hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Sol stood amidst the carnage, breathing heavily, a wild, exhilarated grin on his face. He rolled his broad shoulders, wiping a speck of acidic spray from his leather armor.

“Okay,” Sol murmured, his crimson eyes glowing faintly. “That was a solid warm-up.”