Chapter 48: Fighting The Queen Jawfiend

"ROARRR!!!" Arion let out another hair-raising roar, making one wonder if he was roaring out of excitement for gaining a new ability or because he was still hungry.

He jumped down from the walls and continued his frenzied onslaught, this time with even more vigor, power, and speed.

His Enhanced Balance ability was helping him accomplish this with ease without letting him lose his balance while jumping between walls.

The wounds he was suffering from their bites were less severe this time since his defense stats had gone up while his increased agility stats helped him to quickly move one from spot to another before more Jawfiends could crowd over his body.

If the cave was illuminated, one could see Jawfiends flying here and there, each time they were sent flying as Arion leaped from one place to another.

Of course, one could even see dark red blood spraying here and there under the dim light of the pink stones embedded on the walls.

The ground was mostly dyed with the blood of the Jawfiends, and Arion's bites were now truly lethal. Even if he didn't properly crush a Jawfiend's head with his jaws, a single scratch from his sharp teeth was enough to poison them to death within seconds.

Arion's venom was not exactly the same as Jawfiend's venom since his bloodline was different, and he possessed the Darkness Aspect.

*Kreee!! Kreee!!" 

The screeches of the Jawfiends began to sound more despairing and painful since their numbers were dwindling so fast that it would only be a matter of time before every single one of them died to Arion.

They even tried calling their Queen Jawfiend for help, but it instead seemed in a deeper state of hibernation, oblivious to what was happening around it.

Within just a matter of minutes, only ten Jawfiends remained, and Arion's huge jaws were completely smeared with dark red blood, his eyes still burning like embers.

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Strength: 5.5 -> 6

Defense: 2.2 -> 2.5

Agility: 5.5 -> 6

Defity: Prana Binding Stage [10th Cycle - 800,000 / 1,048,576 ]

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By this time, the Queen Jawfiend suddenly opened its multiple eyes, only to see its children being slaughtered left and right like bugs.

It got up feeling completely enraged and was about to let out a screech when it felt an unnerving aura from a ten feet tall lizard-like monster, clawing through its children and tearing them apart like paper.

Its eyes almost bulged out when it felt that it had lost connection to almost all the Jawfiends nearby and the only ones left were dying at a fast pace to Arion.

It was completely shocked to see the monster with ember eyes since it didn't feel that Arion was this powerful just a while ago.

It thought its children could handle him till it woke up. But now, the aura radiating from Arion made it feel like its own blood was suffocating it.

By the time it was able to process the situation happening around it, only three Jawfiends had remained, and within just a couple of seconds, the last three Jawfiends got shredded into different pieces by Arion's razor-sharp claws.

"Grrrrrr…" Grunts were continuously escaping from Arion's mouth as he finally came to a stop upon noticing that there weren't any more Jawfiends to eat.

He had been fighting like an unkillable machine, without getting tired at all since he was continuously gaining energy to fight by eating the Jawfiends.

It was all thanks to his innate ability—-Ingestion Empowerment that kept him going without losing any of his original vigor and strength.

Even the horrendous wounds he suffered right after his transformation had entirely healed by now due to yet another one of his innate abilities—Gluttonous Healing.

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Strength: 6 -> 6.1

Defense: 2.5

Agility: 6 -> 6.1

Defity: Prana Binding Stage [10th Cycle - 1,000,000 / 1,048,576 ]

Gluttonous Healing [Lvl. 2] : Heal wounds by ingesting pranic items. Rate of healing improves with each level

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By now, he had almost reached the zenith of the Prana Binding Stage with only 48,000 rounds left to ascend this stage.

Not only that, but his Gluttonous Healing ability had leveled up, allowing him to heal a bit faster than before.

If previously it took him a second for his blood to clot, then now it would take him around 3/4th of that.

However, from his ember eyes and his grunts, one could see that Arion was still not 'conscious' and instead, a feral mind was occupying his mind.

It also seemed that his thirst for blood hadn't lessened a bit since his gaze had already fallen upon the vigilant Queen Jawfiend.

Arion didn't charge at it immediately since it seemed as if he could sense that the Queen Jawfiend was different and more powerful, unlike its children.

And from how a small part of its blood was dripping from its abdomen because of the injury Arion had inflicted it before, Arion was able to smell its blood and thus sense that it had the Darkness Aspect just like him!

If he was 'conscious', he would have put together some pieces of puzzle inside his head and realized why the Queen Jawfiend was saving him for a good meal.

But now, he was looking at the Queen Jawfiend with killing intent, not at all intimidated at how huge or how strong it was.

"GRRRR...." Letting out growls, Arion began to approach the Queen Jawfiend, that was one meter taller than him

His chest was still shimmering on and about in ember color, along with the rhythm of his heartbeat.

The Queen Jawfiend's instincts were telling it to avoid fighting Arion, but its senses were telling it that Arion was weaker than itself, thus fueled its anger and motivation to kill Arion for killing all its children.

Now that almost all its children were wiped out, it would have to spend a lot of time to breed another horde of Jawfiends and thus take more time to strengthen itself and hunt for more food.

*KREEEEEE!!*

This fact completely incited the flames of rage within it, making it let out an ear-rendering screech.

However, Arion seemed unfazed, and instead, he expanded his chest and let out a blood-curdling roar, completely feeling provoked.

"ROAAARRRRRR!!!!*

Arion's roar echoed throughout the whole region, and all the vermin in that region even immediately left their homes, feeling the worst threat from that roar.

They felt as if it was the roar of a higher evolved being that they should absolutely not stay nearby.

*KREEEEE!!*

The Queen Jawfiend got intimidated by Arion's roar for a second, but then it recovered itself and scurried towards Arion, feeling confident of the fact that it was more powerful than Arion.

Not only that, but it was also now interested in 'eating' Arion since it sensed that Arion's Darkness Aspect was even more profound than before, making it think that his pranic heart should be even more delicious and provide innumerous benefits to it.

"ROARR!!*

Arion also charged towards the Queen Jawfiend at a frightening speed and leaped towards its upper body to claw at its face.

However, the Queen Jawfiend, who had a better experience in hunting and fighting, quickly moved all its eight legs towards the side and kicked Arion's back, sending him crashing down the wall.

"ROARRR!" Arion let out an angry roar as his back heavily crashed against the wall, making him drop down to the ground.

Because of the speed at which he had lept towards the Queen Jawfiend coupled with the full force the Queen Jawfiend had hit him made him suffer quite a blow to his back when he crashed against the rocky walls as even his skin got pierced and blood oozed out.

Because his defense was relatively low, some fractures formed on his back, not allowing him to jump to his feet instantly.

But his Enhanced Healing triggered, and his bleeding already stopped, and his bones were starting to heal slowly.

If he had eaten a Jawfiend at this moment, he would have healed rapidly. But Arion still struggled himself to get up since his bestial instincts were telling him that this was not the time to collapse on the ground.

The Queen Jawfiend was surprised that Arion managed to recover from such a heavy blow so quickly when it was sure that it had used all its strength to strike Arion before.

Because of this, it couldn't follow up on its attack and again came to a stare-off against Arion, expecting him to make a move like he did before.

But this only proved that the Queen Jawfiend was not at all serious when it fought Arion in his human form. Otherwise, with the strength that it struck Arion just before, his human spine would have broken into two or even worse!