BXBX NOVEL Chapter 71: I’ll Take It From Here
The hits she suffered definitely hurt, but compared to what she suffered when the mansion was targeted and portions of it were destroyed, Yelena found the pain manageable.
That said, she wasn\'t delighting from getting struck over and over again but was unfortunately forced to endure because she was physically weaker and slower than her attackers and needed time to re-conjure her tendrils. Time she managed to get amidst all the blows.
*Kraka!*
The tendrils crackled into appearance and appeared like a curtain in front of Yelena. She was about to send them off as strikes against her enemy when the fists of said enemies struck the curtain and they froze in place as the chaotic energy tore through them.
"Arrghh!!!" They yelled and hurried to insulate their insides somewhat from the aggressive energy tearing through them and taking advantage of their preoccupation, Yelena unleashed the tendrils in strikes powerful enough to send them toppling away, stunned, but manageable enough not to kill them.
She looked at her tattered gown and then looked over at Henry where he was getting battered. She kept her eyes on him and with a look of the slightest bit of steeled focus, a green trail only visible to her, moved from her body and connected her to Henry, nourishing him with her immortality and healing all his sustained wounds in an instant.
The Vyker pommeling Henry paused his repeated strikes when he saw Henry begin to heal. He hit the side of his face with a blow that cut the skin so deep, the underlying bone was almost visible but that sealed up at once without leaving a mark behind.
"What is this?" He asked.
Henry simply smiled, raised \'The Hydra\'s Sting\', pressed its muzzle against the Vyker\'s jaw, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit hard and knocked the Vyker away.
It broke apart the scales protecting the Vyker\'s body but went enough further by forcing the cracked and shattered scales to lacerate the susceptible skin of the Vyker\'s throat.
The resulting gash was quite wide and as it was quickly tinged with the acid of <Acidic Combustion>, the wound became infected and, in seconds, the Vyker was clutching at it as blood filled his mouth and dripped out tinged with acidic green before he eventually lost his life.
[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]
[Vyker-Killer Bonus: +1 Strength]
[Strength: 24 ———> 25]
[Kill Steal Count: 6]
Feeling bolstered by the digit addition to his Strength and compounding his considerable Strength to his equally capable Agility, Henry left the body of the Scaled Vyker behind and went after the two Flame Vykers still living. They were still his targets.
The Vyker Captain standing beside one Feral Meister with both of them puffing air out of their nostrils at the absolute disaster that had descended upon their force, was not his concern. Not yet at least.
<Reload>
A blue light glowed across \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' filling it with the last three \'Hydra\'s Tongue\' bullets he still had in his Inventory.
A Flame Column came charging at Henry and his danger instincts warned him to leap to the side and avoid it but then, he smiled.
\'Why bother?\'
He stopped running, put his guns in his Inventory, and crossed his arms in front of his face as he braced himself for the flames. They burned hot.
His shirt was turned to ashes. His pants and gun belts would have suffered the same fate had it not been for the angle he had been in when the column hit as well as the fact that the attack targeted his upper-body area most of all.
Henry\'s skin was dried of all its fluid and his skin was charred in seconds, looking sunken and horrible.
[You have lost ?? Hit Points]
The System was unable to accurately calculate just how many Hit Points Henry lost because it was far beyond what he had to spare. Plus, his connection to Yelena recovered all his lost Hit Points almost as soon as he was losing them, hence, the next notification;
[You have Recovered all Lost Hit Points]
His connection with Yelena and her bestowing her conditional immortality on him was why Henry even dared face the brunt of the attack and as everyone paying attention watched, his dried-up skin regained its normal hue.
All damaged veins and muscles were mended and returned to being just as good as they were before the burn. He just no longer had a shirt.
"What in all hell?" One of the Flame Vykers let out as he and his fellow stared wide-eyed at Henry. Completely thrown off by what they just witnessed.
And then, it dawned on them.
They had seen something similar just today when the implosion of their fireball destroyed the Witch\'s arm.
"The Witch—!"
They turned to Yelena but their moment of distraction had allowed Yelena\'s tendril attack to arrive without them having the opportunity to avoid it.
The tendrils hit the protective Flame Fields and the violent reaction that ensued destroyed the fields before the aftereffects of the tendrils hit the two Flame Vykers and froze them in place for about two seconds as they fought hard to ensure the duration was not longer than that.
Henry did not give them the chance to complete that battle.
His bronze and gold painted Revolver appeared in his hand out of his Inventory and he fired two shots into their heads each. With no Flame Fields to protect them, there was no need for \'The Hydra\'s Sting\'.
[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]
[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]
[Vyker-Killer Bonus: +1 Stamina]
[Stamina: 13 ———> 14]
[Vyker-Killer Bonus: +1 Agility]
[Agility: 23 ———> 24]
[Kill-Steal Count: 8]
Sticking his bronze and gold gun into one of his Holsters, Henry pulled a Mana Potion from his Inventory and drank it while retrieving and holding \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' in his other hand.
[You have recovered 20 Mana Points]
[Mana Points: 60/90]
Without thinking about the Vyker Captain and the Feral Meister by his side, Henry turned the barrel of \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' toward the two Feral Meisters Yelena had stunned. The two were lying on the ground some feet away from her.
The two were recovering from their stuns when shots of <Acidic Combustion> hit them and they were both blasted away by the impact of their exploding scale cracks.
Henry pulled out his bronze and gold painted gun and ended them with well-placed shots from that far away, looking away from their collapsing bodies to finally pay attention to the Captain.
[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]
[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]
[Vyker-Killer Bonus: +1 Stamina]
[Stamina: 14 ———> 15]
[Vyker-Killer Bonus: +1 Stamina]
[Stamina: 15 ———> 16]
[Kill-Steal Count: 10]
The Vyker Captain stared right back at Henry but despite the pose of bravado he adopted, it had sunk in just how screwed he was. He had come with 14 to make up a force of 15 (including him) and was left with only one to obey his command— Facing two enemies who apparently could not stay injured and hence did not look capable of dying.
\'Blows. Kicks. Claw strikes. Horrific burns… They\'ve had it all tossed at them and they still stand!
I have to consider Retreat… Really? I\'m about to fail as others before me have?
Fuck!!\'
Henry raised both his guns and pointed them at the Vyker Captain and the Vyker by his side.
The looks in the eyes of the two became those of resignation and they coiled to spring in attack. Although Feral Meister by the Captain\'s side was scaled just like the others that Henry had killed so far, the Captain\'s mutation was of fur instead.
Henry doubted the protection of the Captain\'s fur would require more than one bullet, magical or not, to break through, and yet, he could not shake the feeling of fear he got.
The Captain was stronger than him. That was clear enough just from aura. The way he was coiled also had Henry guessing he was faster as well but Henry wasn\'t worried.
His finger twitched on the trigger of \'The Hydra\'s Sting\' with just enough Mana Points and just enough \'Hydra\'s Tongue bullets (one) to facilitate one last <Acidic Combustion> shot.
Plus, Yelena had his back.
In a battle where he could not be killed, Stat differences were unimportant and the moment he could get in a shot, it would all be over.
He had all the power here and was more than ready to exercise it to the limit.
But just then, as Yelena conjured more of her tendrils ready to offer her assistance —This was all something she was \'supposed\' to have done on her own anyway—, Angus stepped out of the Hadron Mansion with a delighted grin on his face.
"Alright, I think we can stop here," he said and the command of his words seized Henry and the Vykers, forcing them to stop all attacks.
"Yes, Yes. This is quite far enough. Well done Yelena— and Henry.
But, I\'ll take it from here."