Mutagen

The magic circle in the sky shone brightly. It was too bright to the point that the surroundings felt darker. But as that light intensified, so did the morale of the people of the Reclaimed City. They were all familiar with that light. It was the very same light that protected the Reclaimed City during the catastrophe that changed Earth entirely.

With that magic circle in the sky, the Defense Forces fought fiercer against the enemies. While the barrier that this light would form would not stop the incoming horde, it would deter further enemies from following the current enemies\' steps. Once that barrier stabilized, the only thing left was to kill the enemies present.

Of course, it included the giant eight-headed serpent in the sky.

And right now, that serpent received an attack it did not expect as it tried to interfere with the barrier the Priestess was attempting to erect.

Akin to a red meteor falling from the sky, Mark crashed onto the Serpent God\'s Fire-Breathing head.

The impact of the crash was strong, to the point that everyone sensed the air shaking even from afar. The witnesses even saw the Serpent God momentarily losing its balance mid-flight.

ROOOAR!!!

The Serpent God immediately stabilized its body in the sky. Using its other heads, it tried to chomp onto the enemy that crashed on one of its heads.

Unfortunately for the Serpent God, another artillery barrage of the Defense Forces came at this moment. Its body and eight heads rattled unstably by the explosions and failed to enact revenge on the attacker. And then, as it stared at the attacker as he jumped off, it was met with golden flames from the giant fox swiftly jumping around in the air.

ROOOOOARRRR!!!

Besieged by attacks from three sides, the Serpent God roared in rage. It was not able to give out a proper counterattack because of all the attacks it continuously received. The Serpent God was angry. It was a powerful being. However, pests who could not accept their fate to get eaten and die continuously hindered its path.

The Serpent God struggled. Anger began filling its roars. As it tried to find a way to attack its enemies, it noticed the metal vessel below, its weapons lighting up, ready to unleash another of those lightning explosions.

But then, the Serpent God\'s eyes fell on a certain individual. Not the Demon in front of it, not the giant fox, and definitely not the white-dressed human. Its eyes focused on the smallest creature on the battlefield. It focused on a [Sylph].

The Serpent God then gave out another roar while it protected one of its heads from the incoming attacks. Explosions continued as the artillery and the golden flames hit its body. But as the metal vessel on the water shot its pair of lightning explosives, the protected head of the Serpent God roared fiercely.

And the next thing everyone felt was the storm-like gust of wind enveloping the surroundings.

***

The artillery barrage continued, and the special shells from the Warship Susanoo were unleashed. These attacks exploded in the sky like before. But everyone noticed immediately. The explosion did not occur on the Serpent God\'s body.

Those explosions happened in front of it.

ROOOOAR!

A gloating roar echoed in everyone\'s ears. It was just a simple roar like before, but everyone could feel the emotions it carried.

And in front of the Serpent God, there was a wall made of spiraling wind. The very same kind of wind wall that Amihan used to counter the Serpent God\'s attacks.

***

"Well, this isn\'t good."

Mark murmured as he saw what the Serpent God did.

The Serpent God was learning. It might be just a beastly incarnation of the true Yamata-no-Orochi, but it was still of a Godly origin. Compared to the usual beasts, it was as intelligent as a human. It might have lacked knowledge and common sense as it had only woken up, but it did not mean it could not learn in the middle of the battle.

And the Serpent God learned a very valuable thing. It was to use its elements to make a wall to protect itself.

Allowing the Serpent God to grow mentally was not something anyone would want at this moment.

As such, while the Priestess was in the middle of her work, Mark should not just draw the Serpent God\'s attention. He should also attempt to defeat it whether he could or not.

Mark briefly closed his eyes under his helmet and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, purplish light shone in both his eyes. This glow indicated that Mark decided to rely more on his [Future Sight] than his [Empath] abilities in this situation. Because in this situation, there was no way Mark\'s [Emotion Induction] could do anything against a Godly Beast\'s instincts.

With a few movements of his new sword, a few slides and clicks, the sword changed its appearance. It was first a pair of swords, which combined into a greatsword. Now, it became a double-edged sword with a strange gap in the middle that ran from the tip to the middle section of the blade.

And as Mark gave it a final swing, the gap suddenly became filled with chains made of electricity. It was as if there was a strong electric field within the gap of the sword. And the electric field was not all, as the blades became engulfed in ominous black flames.

Mark\'s entire body glowed red. He activated the full potential of his [Blood Enhancement] while in his Demon Form.

And with a single flap of Mark\'s wings, a sonic boom echoed behind him.

As swift as a fighter jet at full speed, Mark suddenly appeared in front of the Serpent God\'s head that manipulated wind. He swung his sword right at its forehead. Mark slashed his sword downwards with all his might.

BOOOM!

The sword and the Serpent God\'s Wind Attribute head clashed, resulting in a massive explosion of magical energy.

That clash shook the sky, blowing away what remained of the clouds above. It was a powerful clash that even overshadowed the artillery barrage from the Defense Forces.

The Serpent God\'s Wind Attribute Head shook violently at the clash. The wind wall it created waned in might. Another barrage of artillery attacks would surely make it collapse.

Unfortunately, the Serpent God did not only have one head. The head Mark attacked might have been stopped momentarily, but the other heads were clearly unaffected. And the other heads were angry as they faced Mark, unleashing seven attacks of different attributes.

Mark immediately lifted his sword and kicked the head in front of him to accelerate his movements. Just in time, he evaded a wall of flames as the Fire Attribute head spewed fire at him.

The next came the stone spikes conjured by the Earth Attribute head. Each stone spike was the size of a bus, numbered around thirty, and all those spikes shot at Mark without mercy.

Mark flew swiftly, leaving a trail of red light as he evaded the spikes. And as he did so, he did it with a smile while positioning himself mid-air with an intention in mind.

CRASH!

The stone spikes missed Mark and crashed to the ground. And each of those spikes killed at least a dozen [Infected] at the western side of the river.

Following the stone spikes, the Serpent God\'s Lightning Attribute head opened its mouth and fired a lightning bolt. Who would know how strong that attack was? It was similar to a lightning strike during a thunderstorm, which was a few thousand volts strong.

At the same time, the Water Attribute head bellowed, making a pillar of water from the river shot at Mark from below.

The Light Attribute head opened its mouth and shot a beam from above.

To the left, the Dark Attribute head released a dark smog-like veil.

And to the right, the Poison Attribute head spewed out a greenish cloud of poison.

Due to the difference in attributes, while the heads released those attacks at the same moment, the speed of the attacks heavily varied.

The light beam and the lightning bolt came almost immediately. However, Mark was unfazed as he faced these two attacks. These attacks might be fast. However, their trajectories could not be changed easily.

Mark shifted his body with the strong flap of his wings. The beam of light missed its target with that move. And that very same beam of light melted through quite a number of [Infected] on the ground.

The lightning bolt was trickier as it would follow a path leading to a conductor. And Mark was wearing armor, which would likely attract it. But at the same time, that was the weakness of this attack. As Mark took out a sword and threw it at the lightning bolt, its trajectory shifted away. The lightning bolt still disintegrated the sword. Nonetheless, it missed its original target before it fell to the ground, eliminating an unlucky group of [Mutated Infected].

Finally, the pillar of water came, trying to drown Mark in the sky. However,  while the pillar of water was fast, it was still slower than Mark, who evaded it swiftly.

And finally, the two cloud-like attacks, which should have been a deadly pair for mortals.

To counter these attacks, Mark waved his sword. The black flames vanished and were replaced by bright magma-like flames.

And Mark swung his sword, releasing the magma-like flames into blades that shot at the dark smog and poison cloud.

Both attacks disintegrated. Those might be deadly attacks, but the flames from a Flame Deity were more than enough to counter them.

The Serpent God was dumbfounded.

Mark flew unscathed despite the barrage of attacks the Serpent God released.

The Serpent God was huge, and Mark was just like a fly to it.

But as mortals knew, it was not easy to kill a fly, even if one had an assault rifle in their hands.

And the worst part, Mark used the Serpent God\'s attacks to reduce the horde of [Infected] below.

Mark was hitting two- no, dozens of [Infected] with a few stones.

And seeing his work, Mark felt a little bit confident to fight the Serpent God. He raised his head at the enemy flying higher than him. He then got into posture and flapped his wings, leaving a sonic boom behind.

Seeing its enemy on the move again, the Serpent God opened its mouths. It was ready to intercept. However, Mark\'s presence suddenly vanished, and what followed suit was the disappearance of his figure.

It was a strange feeling.

One vanishing from sight before hiding their presence was one thing. However, Mark\'s presence disappeared first before he entered stealth. It was quite a baffling sight to everyone who would witness it.

The Serpent God frantically looked around. But what it saw was the incoming barrage of Golden Flames from the Empress.

Receiving another barrage of attacks, the Serpent God was in pain despite remaining unscathed. Several of its heads faced the Empress while the rest continued to be on guard against the missing Mark.

However, the Serpent God would not expect Mark to have only one target at this moment.

Among the eight heads, only one showed the adaptability and capability to learn.

It was the Wind Attribute head of the Serpent God, which continued to maintain the wind wall to block the attacks from the Defense Forces.

But even if Mark tried to attack it, the Serpent God would not sustain any damage. Its scales were strong enough to ignore the Empress\' golden flames and even survive the explosion of Gar\'Vlam.

That was if Mark did not have a plan.

And as Mark\'s figure appeared, he was already charging forward a certain point.

GHSK!

The sound of flesh being penetrated entered Mark\'s ears as he drove the entire one-and-a-half meter blade of his sword into the right eye of the Serpent God\'s Wind Attribute head.

ROOOOOOARRRR!!!!

The Serpent God roared loudly. It was far different from the previous ones, as it was a roar filled with extreme pain.

And akin to an earthworm poured with salt, the Serpent God began flying erratically in the sky. It was especially wilder with the Wind Attribute head as it tried to shake Mark and his sword off from its right eye.

But Mark was not letting go even if he felt like he was a piece of wood swirling inside an F5 tornado.

It was because Mark was not done yet.

Mark emptied the [Fire Manipulation Crystal] with all of its remaining energy. And then, with a full burst of flames, released inside the Serpent God\'s eye.

BOOOOM!!!

Gar\'Vlam\'s flames exploded from within the Wind Attribute head\'s eye socket. It caused the Serpent God to roar even louder. It was so loud that everyone in the Reclaimed City had to cover their ears in pain.

And as a final retaliation, the Wind Attribute head opened its mouth. Not to release another attack from it but to make the air around its body explode outward.

That outburst caused everything nearby to be crushed by the force. The Empress was also thrown away. And if Amihan was not protecting The Cube, it might have been thrown off from the sky.

And the worst part, it threw Mark off the Wind Attribute head\'s right eye, flinging him off like a missile out of control, crashing at one of the above-ground shelters in Ariake.