I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 210

Sex isn’t just physical, it’s chemical. During intimacy, the body releases a complex cocktail of hormones. These include oxytocin, dopamine, and endorphins. These hormones spike during climax, but can also remain in the body for up to forty-eight hours after sex. Oxytocin, the bonding hormone, creates a sense of closeness and trust. When going into battle, it was important to trust in your allies. Dopamine is best known for pleasure, but it also plays roles in smoothing our coordinated movements, relaxing the body, and making it easier to move. It also helps regulate mood, enhancing the body’s ability to tolerate stress, as well as aiding in focus and attention.

Endorphins, a natural painkiller, help relax the body and ease tension. However, perhaps the most important thing was that sex suppressed cortisol, the stress hormone. Lower cortisol meant better decision making, clearer thinking, and a momentary escape from the body’s fight-or-flight mechanism. In short, sex was the perfect activity to help one prepare for a stressful fight to the death. Fate was quite nervous, but after we finished, she appeared much more relaxed and prepared for what was coming next.

Was this why I had chosen to use some of our precious few remaining hours to sleep with Fate? It certainly didn’t hurt. Plus, the ensuing battle would pump her full of adrenaline. Minds struggle to differentiate between the excitement of sex and the excitement of battle. Having sex before battle only excites both, which will make her more enamored with me. This was why scary movies often included erotic scenes, and men took their girls on dates to amusement parks and movies. If they could excite her emotions, then she would associate their man with that excitement. Of course, that was the playboy in me speaking.

Fate sat with her back to the cavern wall, knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped loosely around them. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dimness, casting a soft light that shimmered against the stone like distant starlight trapped underground. I leaned beside her, close but not crowding her, my hand still resting over hers. She didn’t pull away. Her fingers remained beneath mine, warm and steady, a quiet anchor in the mounting tension.

Her breathing was even, practiced, drawn in deep, and then let out slowly. Focused, not quite calm but undeniably controlled. A breath of someone who grew up among soldiers. I could tell that she was preparing herself mentally, her free hand stroking the hilt of her blade as if ready to draw it at any moment. The silence between us wasn’t awkward. We were both preparing in our ways, waiting for the moment to come.

We had already set every trap we could think of within this short time, wringing every ounce of ingenuity from the meager resources we had left. It didn’t hurt that my luminal space was filled with farm tools and abandoned supplies. It allowed us to make spiked pitfalls, which we carved into the narrowest tunnels, hidden beneath scattered debris and thin stones. We rigged thin tripwires stretched tight across choke points, ready to trigger a cascade of poisoned darts. Fate etched unstable runes into the walls—traps that would explode, bind, or blind depending on what triggered them. It was enough to slow anything down.

“It’s begun.”

After hours of silence, these were the only words the wyvern left for us. We continued to wait while the mana of the wyvern fluctuated wildly. The beast would occasionally let out soft roars, but there was nothing we could do to help it lay its clutch. This was something the wyvern had to do on its own. For a while, that was all I could hear, but then there was a distant tremor, like the mountain was groaning.

“I wonder what is going on out there.”

I regretted not leaving any sentinels. It hadn’t occurred to me to do so until after I had sealed all of the exits. As a result, the same mountain that kept enemies at bay also seemed to blind me.

Fate responded while keeping her eyes closed. “Several powerful sage beasts are circling the mountain. More are incoming. Some are fighting, but they are just testing the situation right now.”

I glanced at her. “You can tell all that just by sitting there?”

She nodded. “Every paragon can sense the energy signatures of powerful beings. The stronger they are, the further you can sense them coming.”

“Right, Paragons with mana…” I muttered unhappily, realizing why we were different.

My mana level at the moment was in the single digits, just like most mortals. It was too low to accomplish anything but the most rudimentary tasks. A mortal might be able to sense that someone was very powerful, but that would be their limit. I could supplement some of that with my powerful senses, but to do so merely based on their energy was impossible for me. With a mountain in the way, I might as well be completely blind. This was something I hadn’t considered before.

In comparison, Fate’s mana would have three digits. It should be somewhere around 999. The difference between us was several leagues. Even if I continued to level up, my mana would only reach 9. Pretty much, unless I evolved, I’d be unable to use mana for much of anything. That would be fine, except the paragons of this world heavily depended on their energy to make use of their skills. I could only sigh.

“A sagebreast is coming toward us quickly.” Fate’s eyes snapped open as she pointed. “You don’t feel it?”

“No, but I do sense the vibrations.” The pair of us stood up, staring in the same direction.

I couldn’t sense it through some energy sense, but I could at least hear it. It sounded like rock grinding, and the sound was approaching at an incredible speed. Fate drew her sword, and I took out Eternal Harmony. We didn’t have to wait long before the wall in front of us trembled with a deep rumble. Earth cracked, rock shattered, and the whole left side of the cave erupted. Dust exploded in a cloud as a massive beast burst through. It had clawed hands like shovels, thick armored fur, and a blunt snout twitching as it sniffed the air.

“Flawless tier,” Fate spoke coldly. “A dreadburrower.”

As the beast surged forward, I lunged first, grabbing a trap hook from the wall and dragging it into place. A wire snapped, and a spike shot out from the ceiling, impaling one of the mole’s front claws. It screamed in fury, flailing, and I dodged left. Fate came in from the side, slicing at its underbelly with her curved blade. It was strong, but we had already prepared the environment.

The fight didn’t last more than thirty seconds. Once I put Eternal Harmony into its eye socket and Fate cut its throat, it collapsed in a final thrash, blood steaming in the hot cave. I barely had time to wipe the gore off my blade when another tremor sounded. Another cave on the opposite side burst open. This creator was bigger, longer, and covered in spikes. It had slithered in, creating a new tunnel behind it. It is long and composed of segments, like an armored worm made of teeth and spikes.

“Another flawless,” Fate warned. “Tremorspitter.”

“Who names these named sage beats!” I cursed.

It let out a hiss, sending a shot of mucus toward us. Fate leaped to one side, and I took the other. The ground partially melted where the mucus had been shot. Why did these sage beasts have to be so disgusting? I may have grown powerful, but there was no way I could grow used to fighting abominations three times my size as a human.

The Tremorspitter lunged. I yanked Fate out of the way, and it slammed into a wall, cracking the stone. We scrambled to opposite sides, a pincer tactic. I tossed a concoction I was able to make into its mouth. It was the equivalent of a flash bang grenade by my best estimation. It detonated, stunning the creature.

We had yet to finish it off when another tunnel burst. This time it was a bulky, furious thing with sharp black claws and white stripes running down its shoulders.

I glanced at Fate, who shrugged. “I don’t know the name of every sage beast. It’s a badger thing.”

I rolled my eyes as I faced the badger, but the Tremorspitter was also recovering.

“We’re going to get overwhelmed, but we had to keep fighting. I was just starting to consider unleashing some of my power, but that’s when the sky exploded. A roar of fire and pressure blasted down from above, throwing us both back. Half the mountain caved in, and I landed hard, scraping my arms against the rocky floor. My ears rang. My vision blurred.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw that both the badger and the Tremorspitter had been crushed under collapsing rock. Above us, a hole had been formed. Sunlight was streaming in as fire and smoke streamed out. Still, I was able to see a creature hovering above it. Its wings were aflame, and it had a body of gold and red, eyes like molten lava. In short, it was a large bird wrapped in flames that flapped its wings overhead.

“Champion-tier,” Fate whispered. “Fiery Apex Eagle.”

“Let’s get a look,” I told her.

Together, we crawled to the ledge that had formed from the blast. The view was… chaos.

Below the mountain, a battlefield had erupted. Sage beasts, mostly evolved and flawless, swarmed the lower cliffs. Clashes of elemental bursts and aura waves collided with earth and flesh. Dozens of paragons were fighting their way up.

Fate narrowed her eyes. “Three groups. Look.”

I followed her gaze.

One group wore the unmistakable mismatched armor of mercenaries. It was undoubtedly the Goldtooth Company. The second group had robes marked by a familiar sun sigil. This was the Domani family. I’d seen their sigil once before when the knight visited the Tanner farm. The third, by far the smallest, was desperately fighting its way up. It was the Lou family, with Fortune at the lead. They were climbing, battling, and burning paths through sage beasts. The Domani family had made it the furthest.

Fate looked at me, face pale, but fierce. “They’re coming for the wyvern.”

I nodded. “Then we better be ready.”

Things were just getting started.