I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 323: New Type of Attack

While the disembodied voice had announced the official start of Argentum’s first trial, Argentum, on the other hand, was waiting for the snake to make its move, circulating all of the energy inside his body in preparation for his counterattack. Fortunately, with the taunting he had done earlier, it seemed that the Mountain Serpent King was adamant on showing Argentum who’s boss. 

Hiss!

As if the large snake had legs beneath its underbelly, it madly slithered towards Argentum with a large amount of Earth energy particles surrounding it. It did not take long for the snake to arrive where it wanted to go, stopping at the exact moment there was only a few meters of space between the two. While in the process of stopping, it manipulated all of the Earth energy particles to absorb the momentum it had accumulated and used that to shoot a large barrage of condensed Earth towards Argentum.

Fwoosh! Swoosh! Psh!

Seeing this, Argentum could not help but snicker a bit as his enhanced senses could feel the trajectory of each condensed piece of Earth that was heading towards his way. Stimulating all of the strength inside his body in tandem with the buffs he had applied, he dodged all of the attacks in a swift yet graceful manner, with the wall behind him becoming the victim of the attacks instead.

After dodging all of the condensed Earth the large snake threw at him, he then went back to his original position before deciding to taunt the snake once more as he shouted with a hint of arrogance, “For a beast named the Mountain Serpent King, don’t you think it’s shameful that someone weaker than you has dodged all of your attacks?”

“Hiss!” In response, the large snake became more infuriated as a massive amount of Earth energy particles coalesced around its body one more time. This time around, it manipulated all of these particles to mold itself into sharp spikes large enough for a sizable hole to be opened on Argentum’s body if at least one hit. At this moment, Argentum finally felt that the snake was becoming serious, coming to the conclusion that there was no point in taunting it further.

While the snake was charging up its next attack, Argentum focused his attention towards the disembodied voice that announced the start of their fight and asked, “Since the Desecrated Inheritance is an Earth-based inheritance, I’m only limited to using attacks of the Earth element, right?”

Surprisingly, the disembodied voice replied to his question not even an instant after he had finished, disagreeing with his words as it said, “You are not limited to the Earth element at all. As mentioned earlier, the thing that the first trial tests from the inheritor is strength. Naturally, being proficient in other elements is also considered your own strength. If you were limited to only the Earth element, then all of the elemental buffs on your body would have been forcefully dispelled at the very instant you tried casting them.”

“Is that so?” Argentum said, thinking that the disembodied voice’s words did make a lot of sense. With the disembodied voice’s words lingering in his mind, he could not help but let out a light chuckle as he pondered on what element would be the best attack against something like the Mountain Serpent King. Of course, the latter wasn’t going to give him time to think, proceeding with its attack as it slithered closer to Argentum with multiple spikes in tow.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In less than an instant, the large snake had arrived to where Argentum was, using its body to keep him in place as spikes started to circle around him in a slightly terrifying formation. Seeing this, Argentum decided to allocate a large portion of his attention towards the spikes while the remaining portion would continue thinking up of a counterattack. Without waiting for the spikes to come firing at him, he stimulated all of the buffs applied on his body before dashing farther away from the large snake.

It came without saying that the Mountain Serpent King wouldn’t let Argentum have his way, firing one spike after the other at him as more and more spikes were made on the spot. Fortunately, thanks to all of the buffs on his body, Argentum was slightly ahead of the spikes in terms of speed, with his position always being a couple meters away from where the spikes would land, giving him a bit of leeway in terms of maneuverability.

Eventually, after running away from the spikes for a while, Argentum abruptly made a sharp turn towards the snake, making the latter joyous as it then focused its spikes in front of him. Unfortunately for the enraged snake, it seemed that its prey would know when the spike would land, always jumping at the very last moment it could. This, in turn, just made the Mountain Serpent King more enraged than ever before.

When did someone like the Mountain Serpent King become unable to defeat such a weakling, it thought to itself. With that in mind, it became more aggressive in its attacks without thinking about defenses, sending two spikes instead of one after some time. Not long after, this turned into three…then four…then five…until after some more time passed, a large array of spikes were heading towards Argentum.

Of course, Argentum wasn’t going to let the snake’s attacks land on him. Thinking that it was going to be difficult to escape the large array of earth spikes, he unhesitatingly raised his left hand before channeling a lot of energy towards it as a light green haze enveloped his raised hand. Soon after, this light green haze transformed into a monstrous gust of wind that headed towards the spikes as he shouted, “[Higher Zephyr Magic]!”

“[Tempest Pulse]!”

Fwoosh!

In an instant, almost all of the spikes that the large snake fired in order to impale Argentum had instead turned the hall’s ceiling into swiss cheese, with the remaining few that weren’t blown away by Argentum’s skill impaling the ground instead. Unsurprisingly, seeing that the entity it considered as a weakling that overestimated itself do something like that, the Mountain Serpent King was left at an impasse, not knowing what to do next.

Unfortunately for the Mountain Serpent King, it was at this moment that Argentum thought that it was the right time to attack, recasting all of the buffs he had applied on his body in order for a greater boost in speed as he arrived in front of the large snake in a flash. Then again, as a Rank 3 Animate, the Mountain Serpent King had incredibly powerful instincts, regaining its senses as it noticed a change in its field of vision. 

Noticing that the weakling it considered as prey was already in front of it, it went ahead and summoned a large mass of Earth energy particles as it hastily slithered backwards, forming a wall between the two after it realized the power behind Argentum’s skill. In response, Argentum lightly chuckled as he extended both of his hands towards the wall as he channeled a great portion of his energy towards both of it as a darker green haze appeared on its surface.

Unexpectedly, with Argentum’s last second move, the wall that was supposed to separate the snake from Argentum had instead allowed his arms to pass through, forming around it. This, in turn, allowed Argentum to continue with the preparation of his attack as he used a bit of the energy coalescing around his hands to destroy the wall in front of his field of vision.

Crack!

Although the Wind element was not the true counter for the Earth element, it was still an element that was renowned for wreaking havoc alongside the Fire element. It did not take long for the wall hastily made by the Mountain Serpent King to crumble from that small bit of energy while Argentum’s actual attack was finally ready. Taking a look at the Mountain Serpent King, who had made a few thick shields of earth around its front to protect from his attack, Argentum could not help but let out a malevolent chuckle as he muttered to himself, “I should really read the Tome of the Four Elements some more. To think that there was a solution to the problem I had with the Wind element being lacking in terms of destruction.”

Fwoosh!

At the very instant he was finished saying those words, the dark green energy surrounding both of his hands were then shot towards the Mountain Serpent King, hastily transforming into two dragons that circled around each other as the power behind each of the dragons increased. Now knowing how much power Argentum actually had, the large snake knew that the attack he sent had a lot of force, prompting it to conjure more earth shields around it.

“Unfortunately, conjuring more shields wouldn’t be enough for this attack,” Argentum muttered as he looked at the Mountain Serpent King’s hasty move as two balls of fiery red energy were soon conjured on both of his hands before throwing it towards the dragons made out of wind at high speeds.

Swoosh!

Just before the wind dragons could collide with the earth shields, the two fiery red balls had arrived where the two dragons were, with the wind dragons seemingly engulfing both of them at the same time. Not long after, a massive change had undergone to these two dragons, with the Wind element making up the dragons’ bodies now being replaced by the Fire element. Soon after, the Fire element was then replaced by the Wind element, with the cycle continuing as the dragons gradually swelled in size.

Bang!

Eventually, the constant exchanging of both elements had stopped, with the dragons swelling up to a size around three times the original. Unexpectedly, one of the two dragons had taken on the Fire element, while the other dragon had taken on the Wind element.

Fwoosh!

At the very moment the two dragons had collided with the first layer of earth shields, all of them were blown away from the sheer amount of force contained inside the two dragons as a great portion of the hall had now transformed into a fiery wasteland. With such an outcome, it wasn’t surprising for the remaining earth shields to be destroyed. Of course, with the earth shields destroyed, then it went without saying that the Mountain Serpent King had been affected by the attack as well.

Thud!

Not long after the two dragons had transformed into a fiery inferno, a loud thud could be heard from the side of the snake as the hall shook quite violently for a bit. Seeing the effects of his new attack firsthand, Argentum could not help but shudder as he muttered, “Wind and Fire devouring one another in a cyclical manner. If these two elements alone already have such an effect on what would normally be a somewhat weak attack, what if I add the Water element to it? What if I add the Earth element on top of that? What if I unlock Lesser Origin?”

As he got to this point, he was instantly motivated to increase his understanding of the Wind and Fire element to the True Element level as well.

“Ah, right. Almost forgot to mention.”

“[Zephyr Ignis Ouroboros Magic]!”

“[Draconic Tempest Inferno]!”

Fwoosh!

The fiery inferno brought about by the two dragons had lasted for quite some time, with the flames only starting to dissipate after about half a minute or so. At that point, Argentum now had a decent view of the other side of the hall, speechless as his sense of vision fixated towards a certain region of the hall.

On one of the walls, a large hole in the shape of the serpent could be seen. Not only that, but this hole was at the very least a few decimeters deep, becoming the living proof of how powerful Argentum’s new attack was. Just as Argentum was wondering where the snake he was fighting had gone, a faint hiss could be heard from the deep hole as the silhouette of the Mountain Serpent King gradually appeared.

From the looks of it, the Mountain Serpent King seemed to have been grievously wounded by the attack, even with all of the earth shields protecting him. Noticing this, Argentum did not hesitate to prepare another round of the attack wanting to settle it once and for all. Unfortunately, the Mountain Serpent King was one step ahead of him, letting out a loud hiss, which gradually turned into a roar as a mass of Earth energy particles far beyond what it had summoned at first, was now coalescing around its body, healing up all of the injuries the Mountain Serpent King had accrued.

But it did not stop there.

After the injuries were healed, the scales on its body were then reshaped by the excess Earth energy particles to make its body more streamlined while the crown on its head had become more pointy than ever before, even exuding the intent normally found in a weapon. Soon after, a faint red energy not normally found in Earth energy particles soon surrounded the Mountain Serpent King, even making Argentum feel like it had gotten a bit hot inside the hall.

Naturally, Argentum thought that the Mountain Serpent King was just using one of its skills as a last ditch effort to land a hit on him, even though it was actually severely injured inside. With that in mind, he continued to prepare the previous attack he had used, only to stop as the large snake had disappeared from his field of vision.

In an instant, he hastily shifted his sense of vision in various places to find out where the large snake had gone. Fortunately, his sense of hearing was able to hear the sound of a faint hiss behind him, prompting him to recast all of his buffs as he dashed forward.

Bang!

As for where he was previously standing, a loud explosion sound had resounded, revealing a beast that did not look like the Mountain Serpent King. At this moment, its body was covered in dark scales while viscous red fluid flowed through the seams between the scales. Looking at this, Argentum finally came to his senses, knowing that the snake wasn’t making a last ditch effort at all, but rather, it was now becoming more serious than ever before.

As if the inheritance was reading his mind, the disembodied voice soon resounded throughout the hall, informing Argentum of what was happening.

“The Mountain Serpent King has now evolved into the Rank 4 Volcanic Serpent Monarch.”

“At this moment, it has entered its berserk mode.”

In response, Argentum could only say…

“…”

“…”

“It fucking evolved from my attack?”