Chapter 71: Rune Sorcery

Thomas flew through the dark cave with his right arm dissolved into a cloud of white smoke.

Subject 4314 reacted instantly. The beast slammed two of its razor sharp insect legs downward, aiming to skew Thomas to the stone floorboards.

But Thomas was faster. Using the fluid agility he had integrated from his fight with Raymond, he smoothly twisted his torso mid air. The heavy insect legs sliced through empty air, crashing into the dirt with a loud bang. The moment Thomas landed, he drove his gaseous fist straight past the monster’s front guards, targeting its main lizard chest. Mid strike, he solidified his hand into Gerald’s hyper dense armor using his Diamond Skin.

BOOM!

The heavy punch connected squarely with the beast’s scaly chest armor. A loud crack echoed through the cavern as the sheer physical force of the strike shattered a patch of its blackish green scales. Subject 4314 let out a painful hiss and stumbled backward three steps, its multi jointed legs skidding across the loose sand.

"You dare strike me, child?!" the beast roared, its dual toned voice vibrating with pure rage.

"I told you I am pissed," Thomas said simply.The monster’s six red eyes flashed with a mad frenzy. Instead of pouncing again, it slammed its heavy front claws into the ground. Instantly, the thick, bleeding black roots on the cavern ceiling answered its call. Dozens of wooden tendrils shot down like a barrage of spears, aiming to pin Thomas down.

Thomas began to run, his eyes wide open as he tracked the incoming threats. He had to keep the monster’s attention entirely locked onto him for the next two minutes. He zig zagged across the cavern floor, dodging the crashing roots by inches. Every time a root got too close, he used his Diamond Skin to deflect the kinetic impact or used his Gaseous Shift to let the wooden spikes phase harmlessly through his limbs.

While he was dodging, Thomas kept his mind moving, trying to pry for more information to keep the beast talking.

Thomas then looked directly into the monster’s glowing eyes and yelled, "Your master was right! You are a failure!"

The beast let out a deafening roar and screamed in absolute agony. "You dare look down upon me just because you bear the scent of divinity?!" Subject 4314 wept, its multi jointed legs thrashing wildly. "So what if you bear the scent of divinity? My master is divine! I have seen true divinity with my own eyes and it is beautiful!"

The monster looked up toward the ceiling with its eyes weeping fat tears, before violently locking its gaze back onto Thomas. "Don’t you dare look down on me!"

With that cry, the beast started attacking Thomas seriously. Its strikes were no longer clumsy or hesitant; they were blindingly fast and infused with raw power, actually hurting Thomas even through his defensive layers. Thomas didn’t back down. He began fighting at full force, using everything he had accumulated so far to hurt the beast as well. He seamlessly switched between Gerald’s density and Raymond’s agility, pouring his own mana into every counter strike.

"How dare a mere Grade A beast get cocky in front of me?!" Thomas shouted, his voice ringing through the cavern. "I do not care whether your creator was a man or a god! To me, you are still a fucking lizard!"

But right after saying that, the mana beast completely blitzed him. It punched Thomas so fast he did not even see it approach, the sheer velocity catching him completely off guard. The heavy strike slammed into his chest, knocking the absolute air out of his lungs and sending him crashing backward onto the sand.

As he struggled to breathe, the system suddenly flared to life.

[ INITIALIZING SPECIAL GRADE TALENT: ENDLESS ADAPTATION ]

* Protocol: Evolutionary Override Required.

* Process Speed: Constrained by Host Low Base Mana.

[ PROGRESS BAR: 0.03% ]

Even though the progress number was incredibly small, a dangerous smile broke across Thomas’s face. He coughed up a spatter of blood and thought to himself, If I grow stronger, I will come back to kill you.

Before the beast could launch a finishing blow, the two minutes were officially up. Julian moved instantly, stepping past the roots to catch Thomas as he rose. Julian didn’t waste a single second. He immediately utilized his Grade S talent to collapse the physical space in all four angles surrounding Subject 4314, forming an absolute, overlapping barrier of dark red gravity pockets that trapped the monster right in the center of the cavern floor.

"Move! Now!" Julian shouted.

They turned on their heels and made a desperate run for it out of the cavern. Realizing its prey was escaping, the mana beast’s massive roots began rapidly slithering along the walls, racing at high speeds to permanently seal off the path to the entrance.

Julian raised a single hand toward the dark tunnel ahead and began chanting under his breath. He was actively performing a complex runic spell, an advanced combat methodology that freshmen were only supposed to begin learning in their second year. But here, the High-blood was actively performing a spell from memory to clear their path wide open.

The mana in the air violently screamed as Julian finalized his chant, the sound high pitched and scraping like iron grinding against glass.

The ambient mana inside the dark tunnel instantly warped into something incredibly dark and bizarre, turning a heavy, sickly shade of midnight purple that made the hairs on Thomas’s neck stand completely on end.

"Decay," Julian commanded softly, his voice dropping into a cold, unsettling whisper.

The moment the name of the spell left his lips, a wave of pure, unnatural rot exploded outward from his raised palm. It was an exceptionally unsettling manifestation of magic. The air currents did not explode with kinetic force; instead, a foul, black mist violently surged forward, carrying a sickening scent of death that immediately caused the stone walls to turn brittle and flake away into fine ash.

The massive, slithering roots that were racing to permanently seal off the entrance didn’t just stop. The moment the dark purple magic touched their bark, the wood violently shriveled, turning pitch black and liquefying into a foul, bubbling tar before their eyes. The structural tissue of the ancient tree roots completely dissolved under the weight of the spell, the advanced year two runic magic effortlessly melting the path wide open.

Thomas didn’t waste a single frame of motion watching the bizarre rot work. He steeled his unyielding resolve and lunged through the dissolving barrier, with Julian tightly holding the perimeter behind him as they broke through the cavern mouth.