The Beginning Of A Five Year Agony-Chapter 46: One with Death

He landed in the whale’s stomach, a cavernous, pulsating space reeking of digestive fluids. He was not alone. A couple of sharks, the very ones the whale had just eaten, were still alive in its grotesque belly. About 40 of them lunged forward at Samuel, their eyes gleaming in the dark and internal light.

Up, down, right, left...Samuel became a whirlwind of motion, a blur of dark green energy and muscle. He slashed and cut through them, his blade a deadly extension of his will. The whale’s stomach acid began to rise, a corrosive tide that stung his exposed skin. It was getting harder to breathe, the atmosphere was thick and acrid. Samuel knew he had to get out, and fast...

Then, with a grim set to his jaw, he activated "Hand of War" once more. The power flowed into him, and with a monstrous effort, he began to gather the scattered, mangled remains of the sharks into a ball of meatball flesh, compressing them with raw force....

Using this improvised mass as a leverage point, he drove his blade into the stomach lining. He began stabbing the stomach of the whale repeatedly, each thrust a desperate blow for freedom... The colossal creature began to shake violently, its entire body convulsing. Red sand started flowing in from the outside, trickling through the wounds he was inflicting. Samuel used his hands, empowered by the "Hand of War", to widen the hole, tearing at the thick, muscular tissue. Blood, thick and crimson, dripped and splashed, mixing with the corrosive stomach acids, creating a horrifying, steaming concoction...

His face began to melt, the acids burning through his flesh, but his body remained intact. Thanks to the clothes he had received from the goddess...garments that were not merely fire-resistant like common armor, but almost indestructible, woven with a power beyond that of a mortal understanding...

With a final, gargantuan effort, Samuel tore open the stomach. The immense whale burst outwards from under the sand, a seismic eruption of crimson flesh and red earth. It thrashed, roaring in agonizing pain, its vast skin exposed on the desert surface.

Samuel jumped down from the ruined stomach, landing heavily on the sand, covered in stomach acid and blood, a gruesome trophy of his hard fight. He faced the still...writhing whale, now exposed and vulnerable. He held his "Faith-keeper." His shield in front of him, aiming it at the colossal and massive creature...

With a blinding flash, the shield unleashed another beam of energy, an obliterating force that blasted the immense whale into two, cleaving its enormous body with surgical precision like a doctor...

Samuel looked ahead at the red desert. It was still filled with fins. Thousands upon thousands of them, stretching into the distance, an endless sea of predators waiting beneath the desert Red sand...

He smiled a tired but resolute grin.

"Aegirion," he murmured, gripping his blade tighter. "Let’s try something else. Activate...

’The Voice of an Accuser.’"

Samuel uttered, the name of a power he had never, not once, dared to unleash. Another of his special powers...that lay dormant in him, its true potential locked away...

A disembodied voice, deep and resonant, boomed in his mind, "I am sorry, Samuel. You have not reached the requirement."

"Not this again," Samuel murmured, a vein throbbing in his temples... Frustration, raw and potent, coiled within him. The memories of past limitations, of powers just out of reach, fueled his anger...

"Well, activate! Art of War!" Samuel shouted, his voice cutting through the oppressive heat. As if on cue, the very ground trembled...

A group of giant crimson whales...even larger than the one he’d just bisected...erupted from the desert, their massive forms breaching the red sand as if it were a turbulent ocean... Their colossal bodies churned the earth, rushing towards him with terrifying speed, a wave of living destructions...

Then, a blast of dark green energy pulsed outwards from Samuel. It wasn’t an attack, but a transformation. Aegirion, his blade, shimmered and expanded, its form shifting. It grew in size, its dark green gleam replaced by a darker, more formidable aesthetic. It had changed into its Knight form, taking on a more robust, almost sentient appearance, its hilt now resembling a gauntlet.

"Now, you take left, I take right!" Samuel commanded a battle...hardened gleam in his eyes. Without a moment’s hesitation, both Samuel and the newly transformed blade "Aegirion" rushed forward, a whirlwind of coordinated destruction. They moved as one, a seamless blend of man and weapon, slicing through the charging sharks and whales with devastating efficiency.

Aegirion’s heavier strikes cleaved through the colossal whale flesh, while Samuel’s movements were precise, targeting vital points...

Samuel wove a deadly dance, mixing the techniques of "Periodic Poltergeist" with the raw power of "Hand of War." With Periodic Poltergeist, he would phase in and out of existence turning invisible, appearing seemingly at random points around the whales, creating afterimages that confused his monstrous opponents....

He’d vanish from one spot, only to reappear moments later on a whale’s flank, delivering a precise, punishing strike. This disorientation, combined with the immense, focused power of "Hand of War"....which amplified his physical strikes and the force of "Aegirion"...played major roles in the rapid annihilation of the whales. Bodies of the fallen fishes, crimson and grotesque, piled up around him...

Samuel stood amidst the carnage, his boots planted firmly on the pulped bodies of the defeated whale... Blood splattered everywhere, staining the scorching dry sand a darker, more vibrant crimson. His chest heaved, each breath a struggle against the dust and the lingering acrid smell of blood and whale guts. He thought it was over. He truly did...

But in a split second, the ground beneath the horizon burst upwards with terrifying force. A mountain of red sand erupted, unveiling a new horror.... a monstrous sand serpent, its colossal form almost 40 feet in diameter, its scales the color of rust, its body massive enough to blot out the sun. A primal roar ripped from its immense maw, a sound that shook the very ground Samuel stood on...

Before Samuel could fully react, the serpent lashed out, its body convulsing as it shot a volley of its hardened scales toward him...

The projectiles, like razor-sharp shrapnel, screamed through the air. Samuel instinctively deactivated "Art of War"...it was too unwieldy for defense against such a swift, precise attack. Instead, he channeled all his focus into his blade, using Aegirion in its standard form to deflect the incoming projectiles, the clang of metal against scale ringing out sharply in the landscape...

"Faith-keeper!" he shouted, activating both his new shields simultaneously. The radiant yellow energy erupted, forming a formidable barrier. The serpent’s scales slammed into the shields, each impact reverberating with immense force, but the Faith-keeper held firm, absorbing the kinetic energy. Samuel, with grim determination, felt the shields overcharging with kinetic energy, the stored power building to an explosive degree...

With a powerful leap, Samuel launched himself into the air, directly towards the monstrous serpent...

As he flew, he directed his overcharged shield, a beacon of intensely bright yellow light, toward the serpent’s head. The stored kinetic energy, a culmination of all the blows endured, unleashed in a devastating beam. It blasted towards the serpent’s head, striking it with concussive force. The colossal beast staggered back, its massive head recoiling from the blow...

A thick, purple blood oozed from its eyes, mingling with the red sand. The blast from Samuel’s shield had not just wounded...it had incapacitated its sight, leaving the serpent momentarily blinded and disoriented...

It roared in pain, a sound of immense agony and fury. Blinded but not defeated, the serpent lunged forward blindly towards Samuel, a massive, thrashing force.

Samuel met the charge with his Faith-keeper, the shield slamming against the serpent’s armored snout. The impact jolted him, but he held his ground, the shield absorbing more kinetic energy. At the same moment, he drove Aegirion with all his might into the serpent’s ear, twisting the blade. He dragged the weapon across the tough hide, tearing deeper into the skin and muscle, a grotesque gash opening wide...

The serpent bellowed, a sound of agony and rage, and its colossal tail, thick as a tree, whipped around with crushing force, slamming into Samuel’s back. The blow sent him flying upwards, a human projectile, but the shield hummed, increasing its kinetic energy charge exponentially with the added impact.

As he soared, Samuel aimed his Faith-keeper and blasted another beam of light directly into the serpent’s massive, vulnerable belly. The focused energy ripped through the softer underside, causing the creature to convulse violently. With a sickening gurgle, the serpent began to vomit a torrent of sand and half-digested fish-sharks, a grotesque, churning flood that splattered across the desert...

Still mid-air, Samuel had little time to recover. The serpent, even in its agony, was relentless. Its tail struck again, connecting with Samuel’s back and propelling him even higher. Before he could adjust, the serpent, sensing him, lunged upwards, its massive, gaping maw snapping shut directly on his airborne form.

Samuel braced, his hands shooting out. He caught its teeth, his immense strength stopping the powerful jaws from closing, the razor-sharp fangs pressing against his palms.

"Aegirion!" Samuel shouted, his voice strained as he held the serpent’s mouth open with one hand. The blade, sensing his will, flew towards him...

As it came into contact with his free hand, he snatched it from the air. With a powerful, upward thrust, he stabbed the blade directly into the roof of the serpent’s mouth, pushing upward with all his might. The blade tore through the serpent’s veins, hot purple blood gushing, and with a sickening crack, he broke its upper mouth bones, dislocating its jaw. The serpent spasmed, its control over its massive body dissolving into uncontrolled thrashing.

Samuel used the moment of chaos, leaping back from the serpent’s now mangled mouth. As he vaulted clear, he kicked Aegirion like a football, sending the blood-soaked blade spinning with deadly precision. It slammed into the serpent’s remaining eye, burying itself deep within the shattered orb. The serpent convulsed one last time, a final, shuddering roar dying in its throat, before its immense form crashed to the sand, shaking the entire desert.

Samuel landed lightly, his feet sinking slightly into the warm, blood-soaked sand...

"Hand of War!"

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢