I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 196

The Howl Demon roared. It was a sound that shook the branches, vibrated the ground, and even momentarily froze what constituted blood within my veins. Felix seemed to be a bit steadier. He immediately pulled out his bow and shot. His hands moved like a blur, indicating he was using some skill. There were three twangs, and with it three arrows that shot out. That struck the demon in the shoulder, the ribs, and a leg. The howl demon didn’t attempt to dodge but took the shots directly. All three bounced off harmlessly, not even leaving a scratch.

“Any other bright ideas?” I asked.

“It was worth a shot. Keep it distracted!” Felix shouted, dropping behind a wide oak trunk and notching another arrow.

Distracted? Right…

I would have suspected that Felix was still aiming for my life, but it was clear that when he had been trying to kill me before, he had been holding back. He was not pulling out all of his skills in the hopes of surviving this battle. Well, it’d be boring if I didn’t at least help him. I let just a bit of my aura reach the howl demon. It was not so much to make him afraid but to get his attention.

The howl demon’s eyes locked onto me, its snout twitching as it inhaled. Its name likely came from the horns on its head, which made it look a bit like a skinned goat. Bladed sinew curled from its elbows like natural scythes, and its red skin was a tinge translucent, so if one looked hard enough, one would see the constricting muscles underneath. When it pounced at me, the earth cracked under the force of its movement.

I leaped, twisted, and landed behind it. Eternal Harmony sang in my hands as I slashed across its back. The cut barely dug in. Its hide was ironwood-thick, layered in mana-hardened flesh. However, this blade was something, able to damage a sage beast even at this level. It spun, claws cleaving the air. I ducked, shifted left, then back, then left again. I was faster—but I kept myself just behind his movements. The beast roared again, but this time, no sooner did it open its mouth than an arrow struck it.

It let out a shriek. The arrow struck its cheek. It dug into the cheek, causing the monster to spit out blood, but the arrow hadn’t been strong enough to pierce the skin. It closed its jaws, and the arrow cracked just like that. It turned to Felix.

“Keep it’s attention!” Felix cried out as he found a new spot.

I started to get a good idea of how he wanted to do this. Since I had the opportunity, I might as well do things his way. By observing him, I could learn a bit about how to fight sage beasts as a paragon, as well as how to fight in a team against a superior opponent. This time, the howl demon wasn’t phased by me releasing my aura. It had already been hurt by Felix once, while I had managed to do was cause superficial wounds. It seemed like I needed to make myself a greater threat if I wanted its agro. I pulled out the poison knife. After the fight, Fate gave it back to me. It was clear by her expression that she didn’t like things such as poison.

The howl demon seemed to be the same way because as soon as I pulled out the blade, it turned toward me and narrowed its eyes. It seemed to be able to smell the poison, or perhaps it had some other way of detecting it like my chemotaxis. This time, instead of running from the sage beast, I charged it. It seemed to be taken off guard by my sudden change from offensive to defensive. It leaped back, but the next second, an arrow struck its eye. It let out a howl of rage, shaking its head and sending the arrow to the ground. At that time, I reached it and sent my dagger toward it. The beast felt a moment of crisis because his body suddenly glowed. I ignored it, but Felix yelled out.

“Watch out! He’s using an Oscillating Waveform!” The next thing I knew, I was being pushed aside just as the beam of energy shot out of its mouth.

Felix ended up in my place. The beam struck him and he went flying back. That was a compressed concussive shot of pure energy, and Felix took it straight on. It would have easily vaporized his organs. As I recovered, I saw the Howl Demon backing up. It was extremely wary, looking like it might run if I charged at it. I supposed a skill like the one it just used would leave it temporarily weak. This would be the perfect time to attack and finish it off while it was compromised, but I didn’t care about such a thing. Instead, walked up to Felix, who sitting at the base of a tree, a hole in his stomach filled with mincemeat.

He would have already been dead if he was a mortal, but whatever energy existed in paragons, was keeping him alive for just a bit longer. I kneeled next to him. He looked up at me, blood leaking from his lips as he coughed.

“You were planning to kill me anyway,” I told him stiffly. “Why did you jump in the way of that beam?”

“I don’t know.” He let out a rough chuckle. “I just moved on impulse. We were allies before we were enemies.”

“Really?” I tilted my head. “That’s all?”

“The sagebeast must be killed. He’s weak for about a minute. I saw that dagger you pulled. He’s frightened of it. If you can make a wound on him with that dagger before he recovers, I believe he will be dead before he can trouble the rest of the party.”

“So, you saved me because you thought I’d best be able to deliver the finishing blow…” I responded thoughtfully.

“If it’s any consolation, I’d have preferred if I didn’t die. However, the second the howl demon appeared, both of our lives were already forfeit. This was just… the only way to win. Now… hurry… hurry before he recovers.”

I shook my head. “There was never a need in the first place.”

He blinked, staring at me in confusion, but a few moments later the howl demon let out another ear-shattering howl. He had recovered. Hopelessness appeared in Felix’s eyes, but I didn’t care. I stood up and turned to the demon. It bared its teeth at me, clearly preparing for a second round.

“Die.” I put all of my power into my hand and made a single chop down.

There was a moment when all sound in the forest dissipated, and then there was a massive eruption. The ground shook, and a massive crack split through the earth. This crack continued right to where the howl demon was standing, except that his back had been broken in half. He was pushed partially down into the crack, and his legs were twitching as his eyes looked partially popped out of his head. Beyond him, a dozen trees were blown down as if they had encountered a massive shockwave.

“He’s pretty strong,” I commented, lifting my hand and squeezing it.

I had expected to cut the howl demon in half. However, it had managed to survive my hit. It was even still kicking, although those were just the final spasms of a dying creature. This was the first time I had truly allowed myself to use a significant portion of my strength. It was still only about 30% of what I could truly do, and seeing the aftermath, it really was as terrifying as I imagined. I sent out some of my cells over to the sage beast. They began to rapidly break down and absorb the corpse of the howl demon. After about thirty seconds, the corpse became a dried husk of its former self, unrecognizable from the powerful creature that existed before it.

“Still not enough to level.” I made a face.

I naturally had left cells on all of the fleshhowlers we killed to be able to harvest them. After everyone left, I harvested them dry. I found I only needed a few cells to start consuming the energy from a monster. However, my absorption was limited, and immediately after dying, sage beasts started to lose their energy. This meant that this process wasn’t that efficient. I still did it this way as it was more inconspicuous than my other options, such as tossing the bodies into my luminal space where I could absorb all the mana directly. Still, I had incompletely absorbed the potential energy of hundreds of fleshhowlers before absorbing the howl demon, and still, it wasn’t enough to bring me to the point where I could reach the 5th tier of my human evolution.

“Just… what are you?” Felix’s weak, but shocked voice stated.

I looked back to see him even closer to death, yet still clinging to these last moments. Higher-level paragons truly were tenacious.