The serpent was massive, to say the least—twice his size, with a body that stretched twenty meters long. Its deep, verdant green scales shimmered as the early morning rays touched them.

  Realizing its ambush had failed, the serpent whipped its head around to face Archie, who stood atop a tree branch, staring at it with surprise. It let out a sharp hiss, baring its wide-open mouth to reveal long, vicious, jet-black fangs.

  Archie thought, staring into its slitted, blood-red eyes. From his vantage point, he could still glimpse the camp in the valley below, where people were rushing out of the base and into the jungle.

  Archie decided

  The serpent lunged at him again, leaping off the ground as though it were a trampoline, forcing Archie to dodge and land on the ground below. The branch he’d been standing on shattered under the serpent’s weight, sending splinters flying in all directions. Archie landed a few meters away, his heart racing as wooden splinters rained atop him.

  Without missing a beat, he pivoted and sprinted deeper into the jungle, activating Adrenaline RushThornscourge Expansion

  Archie vaulted over the large mangrove roots blocking his path and wove around lower-level jungle creatures. The serpent’s hissing echoed throughout the jungle, unnervingly close, as though it were right behind him.

  The jungle’s other inhabitants sensed the danger. Creatures froze in panic before squealing and shrieking, scrambling to escape the oncoming threat. Their blind rush triggered a chaotic stampede, the forest erupting in a cacophony of fear as they fled from the relentless serpent.

  , Archie thought while kicking off the head of some type of monkey that had fallen from its branch. Using the monkey as a headstand, Archie launched himself onto the branches above.

  Turning back to locate the serpent, Archie’s eyes widened as he saw a massive open maw flying through the air toward him. In a split second, he leaned his head back slightly, his gaze catching the faint outline of a boar impaling a grounded monkey with its unicorn-like tusks.

  Reacting instantly, Archie activated Savage Charge

  He reappeared with a thunderous impact, slamming into the boar with such force that the F-Grade beast exploded in a spray of gore. Archie rolled across the ground, quickly steadying himself as his eyes locked onto the serpent now sprawled on the ground. A deep cut into the right side of his mask revealed one wide, shocked brown eye.

  Archie let out an excited nervous chuckle as a grin spread across his face. Adrenaline surged through his being, flooding his senses with dopamine and making him kick off the ground and activate Savage Charge

  Archie closed the distance in moments, smashing his right fist into the serpent's large face. The blow nudged it back slightly, but he quickly followed through with his left fist, hitting with enough force to knock it a bit further away. He activated Relentless Flurry

  , Archie thought.

  The serpent, unable to retaliate with a lunge, re-coiled and whipped its tail at Archie, sending him hurtling into a tree with a resounding crash.

  Groaning, Archie pushed himself up just in time to dodge as the serpent slammed into the tree where he’d been moments before. Seizing the opportunity, he kicked off the ground, increasing Adrenaline RushThorns

  Archie struck relentlessly at the serpent’s exposed side, the thorns across his fists now piercing deep into its flesh. Each time he pulled his fist back, its blood splattered onto him and the foliage below, painting the jungle floor a greenish-crimson color.

  The serpent wasn’t idle. It slowly coiled itself into a circle, tanking the blows to deliver an unseen attack. Once it was ready, it began to tightly coil itself, in an attempt to constrict Archie.

  Archie, while focused on inflicting as much damage as possible, staying sharply aware of his surroundings. The moment he saw the serpent's body surrounding him; he kicked off the ground launching himself ten meters into the air. Dodging the serpent's constricting attack.

  Flipping midair, Archie kicked off a sturdy branch to propel himself downward, his fist glowing with the power of

  The serpent let out a piercing hiss, its body flailing wildly in pain, thrashing against the trees.

  Archie ignored the pain from his left shoulder dislocating from the strain of the 20% Impact Dynamo punch. Blinking away the black spots in his vision, he felt it pop back into place within seconds. He jumped backward, landing deftly on the ground before unleashing another flurry of punches at the serpent.

  With a sudden jerk, the serpent whipped its massive tail and sent Archie crashing into a tree. Pushing himself off the tree, the serpent raised its head toward the sky and let out a piercing hiss that echoed throughout the jungle.

  Just as it let out the piercing hiss, Archie felt magic flaring up around him—small, concentrated spots of disgustingly neon green mana—his eyes went wide as he sensed the mana on him as well. Glancing down at his gauntlet, he caught his reflection in its polished surface. His body was covered in the serpent’s blood.

  Its spilled blood began to sizzle and morph, transforming into a thick, neon green-colored toxic sludge that sunk into the ground.

  The splotches of the serpent’s blood on his body turned a disgusting neon green as the toxic sludge ate through his gear and melted into his flesh.

  The pain was unlike anything else he had felt before, but Archie barely had time to process it before a sudden barrage of roots and vines shot toward him from all directions.

  Archie quickly backstepped away from the barrage of attacks, but the vines and roots twisted in midair and charged back at him.

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  Archie flooded his vital energy against the toxic sludge that was melting through his body, empowering Pugilist’s Grit

  Archie jumped over the vines and roots charging at him, pivoting and rushing towards the serpent. Activating Savage Charge

  He felt the serpent tense its body, but Archie kept punching, he needed to generate enough power into his gauntlets. Dodging back from another lunge, Archie kicked off the ground and released another flurry of punches, this time targeting its head.

  Archie wondered.

  Suddenly the serpent shivered slightly as Archie was a meter away from it. Just as Archie’s fist was about to touch the serpent, an explosion erupted from the serpent.

  A dense, dark green fog expanded outward, engulfing a 200-meter radius of the jungle. Trees decayed instantly, their trunks crumbling as animals fleeing the blast collapsed mid-run, their bodies withering and rotting within seconds of being caught in the blast.

  Archie, caught at point-blank range, felt the full force of the explosion. His mask shattered, fragments flying as his shocked face was exposed.

  Bits of his skin sizzled painfully, the acidic fog eating into his flesh. His armor also began to melt rapidly under the assault of the toxic fumes surrounding him.

  Archie knew it in the pit of his soul as the serpent’s deadly toxins enveloped him completely. The noxious fog invaded his lungs, spreading through his body. His skin both melted and rotted away in horrifying patches, his vision blurring and wavering as agony consumed him.

  

  There was nothing Archie could do. Pugilist’s Grit

  Even if he managed to escape, the serpent would chase him down. And even if it didn’t, the toxic poison coursing through his body would finish him off. He was too far from any healers.

  He felt the skin on his chest melt away, exposing the raw muscle beneath, which was already turning necrotic. The lower half of his face was stripped bare, leaving nothing but exposed flesh and searing agony.

  The dopamine rush from his adrenaline—the one thing that had numbed his pain—was gone. The cold, crushing reality of his impending death settled over him like a lead weight.

  There was no escaping it.

  His lower jaw began to turn necrotic, the flesh blackening and sloughing off as his strength waned further.

  

  Memories flooded his mind. , Archie thought.

  Everything went dark. Archie couldn’t see anymore, his eyes shriveled and rotted from the fog. The only thing he could hear was the hissing of the serpent.

  Archie thought, feeling his vital energy get weaker, his legs struggling to stand.

  Archie…You know…

  Confusion filled Archie as he heard those words.

  I always…considered…you as…

  "Daniel!" Archie shouted, his voice raw and strained. Desperately, he tried to focus, straining to hear where Daniel’s voice might have come from.

  Archie felt the necrosis start to touch his organs…Daniel’s organs…No.

  My brother…right?

  This was unacceptable.

  BUMP!

  Adrenaline surged through Archie, erupting from his heart and flooding his entire body. He couldn’t die here—not like this. If there was no way out, he’d create one.

  Suddenly, a shroud of Infernal Flames burst to life around him, his amulet activating with a fiery glow. He was now below 30% of his maximum Health, which automatically activated

  Archie pushed Adrenaline Rush

  With a roar, Archie kicked off the ground, his joints groaning under the strain. He sent out a pulse of nature-mana and activated Material Insight

  Archie turned towards the blood-soaked serpent and charged at it, releasing a flurry of punches. Each punch punctured through its flesh with unfound ease, making it hiss in pain, but not retaliating.

  The serpent, utterly drained from its explosive attack, could only lie there, spent and immobile. It waited, expecting its prey to collapse like all the others had, succumbing to the toxic devastation of its ultimate move.

  However, Archie didn't give up...No. He couldn't give up, not anymore.

  Archie felt his vital energy fading fast—he was down to 25% health. He had maybe a minute and a half to figure something out before he would die.

  Desperately, Archie pulled out his Effigy of Health using a mana string and snapped it. A surge of vital energy coursed through him, healing the encroaching necrosis and buying him another minute to think.

  Archie thought.

  He focused intently on the sensation of vital energy—the spark of life coursing through his being. He felt it flow within himself when meditating and through the effigy he used. But why couldn’t he feel it from the serpent?

  Archie’s fists froze mid-strike as realization dawned. Instead of continuing his relentless attacks, he plunged both hands into one of the large puncture wounds in the serpent’s body.

  Flooding his fists with vital energy, he concentrated, trying to sense the same spark within the serpent. He focused harder, searching for that familiar thread of vitality.

  Nothing…19%15%12%

  Archie latched onto that something, pulled it towards him, and forced it to fill his body…13%

  Archie smiled and pulled more of that something inside him…It was vital energy.

  14%

  He needed it faster.

  15%

  More.

  17%

  Suddenly everything clicked. Archie pulled out his fists and released a flurry of blows at the serpent, each blow stealing vital energy from the serpent.

  Archie released a guttural roar from his throat as he pushed himself harder than he ever had before, activating Taunt

  23%

  The necrosis on his body started to recede and flesh began to renew with every blow. The dense toxic poisonous fog surrounding the jungle now started to disperse.

  Archie kept punching, each punch healed him, from both the poison running through him and the damage his body was undergoing from Adrenaline Rush

  40%

  He could see it now, the giant mass of vital energy coiled in front of him. His eyes had yet to grow back, but he could sense it now. How had he not before? It was right there…in front of him.

  Archie jumped over its tail swipe, mid jump he felt the poison flowing through him vanish, seemingly spent.

  Archie flung his arms towards the serpent’s head, wrapping around it. He then pulled himself towards it, cocking back his right fist.

  Just as his fist made contact, Archie activated Impact Dynamo and Retaliation

  The top half of the serpent exploded from the blast of nature-attuned kinetic energy. Its remaining body fell to the ground lifelessly.

  Archie himself crashed into a tree, with his right arm completely missing. Landing on a branch, Archie deactivated Adrenaline RushThornscourge Expansion

  The rush of nausea flooded him, making him heave over and vomit onto the ground below.

  Everything felt painful. His health was standing at 30% and steadily rising. Archie funneled his vital energy to regenerate his eyes and tried to patch up what he could with his waning clarity.

  His control over vital energy had far surpassed anything he had ever controlled, even his mana that he’d been practicing every free moment he had religiously.

  Archie jumped off the branch he stood atop of and walked towards the large sphere of condensed vital energy, the largest source of vital energy around him. While his sight was still not completely restored, he could still see it, similar to how he was able to see the serpent.

  Chucking it into his spatial storage, Archie looked around and saw two faint yet powerful sparks of vital energy off to his Northeast. Upon focusing on them, he recognized who they belonged to; Xelgar and Syllia.

  While he wasn’t sure how he could tell who the sparks of vital energy belonged to, he just did. It gave off the feeling as though it were obvious.

  An even larger group of people getting closer to him. , Archie recognized as he felt a stronger spark of Vitality within the group.

  Archie kicked off the ground and headed towards where he felt Xelgar and Syllia’s vital sparks were, constantly pulsing Material Insight

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