Jareth dispersed his useless violet fog but kept [Quintessence Claws] on both hands.
Raising the snake's head toward the other snake, he yelled, "It's not what it looks like. I met it in the corpse at the—"
He suddenly hurled the snake's head to the side with every bit of strength he could muster, and bolted away from the serpent while activating [Grieving Echo].
A green aura flared over him.
The snake released a deafening shriek.
From Jareth's side eyes, the shrieking snake was now wreathed in a cloak of suffocating green mist so thick and opaque like a miasma. It was the thickest green mist of grief Jareth had ever seen.
The snake abruptly swerved and shot at the hurtling head like a released coiled spring while swatting its tail at Jareth.
Jareth merely saw a blur of green and blue before he was launched like a released cannon. He bounced and tumbled on the ground before coming to a halt beside a building.
He groaned, feeling pain wracking through his body, especially his ribs where the snake's hard tail hit. Surprisingly, it wasn't as painful as he had envisioned.
'Is it because of my improved physique? Or [Grieving Echo]?'
A thunderous shriek suddenly boomed from the distance, drowning every other sound.
'The snake!'
Jareth's pupils shrank as he pulled himself to his feet. In the distance, he saw the snake roaring as it thrashed around. The green mist around it just kept thickening.
But Jareth noticed all the beasts rushing in disarray from the inner estate to the outer estate.
Seeing the incoming tide, Jareth ignored the pain and dashed into the building behind him. Fortunately, it was secure, without a window or any other opening except the broken door.
Sitting in a corner, he retrieved his last healing potion and gulped it.
He dispersed his spells and listened to the shrieking snake and the thrashings that made the room quake, while he recovered his mana and healed up.
'Fortunately, it sent me flying to the outer perimeters. Now, I'm almost out. The first thing I'll get when I leave is a nice wine.'
An hour later, the booming shriek and quaking ground stopped.
Jareth stood up but paused as he listened intently.
Five minutes later, he nodded when he was sure the snake was gone but paused after the first step at the sight of a bleeding beast at the door, glaring at him with a bloodthirsty gaze. His pupils shrank as it was the ash beast with a glowing blue horn on its forehead.
'That damn snake! And no other way out in this room.'
He activated [Quintessence Claws], [Infernal Torrent], and [Grieving Echo] in that instant.
In a second, black mist and crimson flame coiled around his lower arms and formed the clawed gauntlet, with a green aura flaring over him.
The beast charged at him the next moment.
Jareth darted aside, the beast ramming into the wall behind him with a thunderous bang.
From his side vision, he saw the beast was about retracting its stuck horn from the wall.
'My chance!'
He lunged at it and hopped on its back, lying down with his legs locked around its stomach and his right claws gripping its throat while the other held the head in place.
Gritting his teeth, Jareth's claws dug into the throat, its blood releasing sizzling noises as it boiled around his fingers.
The beast squealed and moved back. It shook around and ran wild, trying to disengage Jareth, but he stuck like an octopus, focusing only on the throat.
Jareth's claws finally dug deeper into the throat. Grinding his teeth, he pulled hard and ripped it, sending blood flying.
The beast went wilder, spraying blood around with gurgling noises from its mouth.
Jareth held on. A few seconds later, it slowed down and fell.
[Elite Feline Bull Killed.]
Jareth exhaled at the sight of the panel in his vision, when another appeared.
[Quintessence Claws borrowing—Spell Attribute and Mental Attribute…]
Suddenly, the black mist of his gauntlet transformed into a blue mist, matching the previous blue glowing horn of the dead beast, now looking like a blue mist undulating in a crimson fire.
Another panel appeared.
[SPELL ATTRIBUTE
>Rank 2 Nerve Freezer: Every injury from the spell slows the movement of the target.
MENTAL ATTRIBUTE
>Rank 2 Human Bloodthirstiness: Feel a pressing urge to kill every human in sight.]
'A hidden ability of the [Quintessence Claws]? And it's a Rank 2 spell. What a cheat!'
Jareth stared in shock before he felt his mana dropping like it was sucked by many straws— more like by a huge pipe.
"Damn!" His eyes rolled around as he quickly calculated. 'My mana was full, but it will only last for ten minutes or less at this rate! But with this spell, it'll facilitate my escape.'
Jareth squatted and sent the body into his badge before he activated [Quagmire] and cloaked himself in a cocoon of violet fog before dashing to the door.
Just as he came out, he was greeted with a descending thick black rod. Jareth bent forward and swerved aside, narrowly dodging the rod that slammed the ground with a loud bang, sending dust flying.
From within the violet fog, he spotted a tall black monkey holding the rod.
'A trap?'
The monkey swept the rod at him.
Jareth hopped over it and lunged at the monkey, his side eyes sighting the returning rod. He rolled to dodge and raked his claws on the monkey's leg while darting away.
As he predicted, the monkey stood still.
Jareth sprinted forward, jumped on its back, and locked his legs around it while clawing its throat.
He kept crazily swiping his other claws over the chest, drawing blood and freezing it in place while sinking his claw deeper into its throat. The skin was harder than the feline bull's.
The monkey struggled to move but it was slow. Its fingers were trembling. Jareth spent about a minute before finally ripping its throat, with blood gushing out and sizzling upon making contact with his flame.
[Elite Club Monkey Killed.]
Jareth sent it to his badge and observed around, seeing beasts scattered about.
'That snake…'
He pushed away every distracting thought and sprinted through the ruined site toward the border, clearly seeing the forest in the distance. He dispersed one claw, to slow his mana loss. He focused on his violet fog, his eyes calculating the best route.
He leapt, darted, and dashed passed everything in his way.
To the beasts, it was a shooting fog, weaving through their midst.
Three spotted quadrupedal beasts suddenly blocked his narrow way.
Jareth leapt and landed behind them. Spinning, he lunged at the one at the edge and clawed its throat. He ripped it with a single tug.
[Awakened Sand Leopard killed.]
'Awakened? Very weak?'
Jareth didn't stop as he sent the corpse to the badge while his clawed hand raked the neck of the next, which had only turned halfway.
His claws dug five deep gashes on the side of its neck, as it dropped dead.
[Awakened Sand Leopard killed.]
Stamping his left hand on the corpse, he dove forward and twisted, swinging his clawed hand like a knife while sending the corpse to his badge.
The claws slashed the side of the last beast's neck.
[Awakened Sand Leopard killed.]
He sent it to his badge and then rolled on the floor in on fluid motion.
The beasts around him ran away, seeing a 'demonic violet fog moving about and swiftly killing beasts.'
He sprang to his feet and dashed at the border.
He could see some humans in the distance.
It took four more minutes of quick sprinting and weaving before he burst out from the midst of the beasts while dispersing his violet fog to hide the oblivium.
He didn't stop but dashed at the arcanists, who were observing the ruined estate when he suddenly screeched to a grinding halt.
'Oh no!'
"Jareth!!!" A loud yell called out to him.
He turned and saw Liana running toward him, with Nadia behind.
'Humans? Th-Th-That mental attribute…'
He shuddered.