373 The Darkest Night, The Shining Moon

Just as Virus' comparably slow body was about to take his next course of action into play, without any warnings whatsoever, the Plant Kraken went in motion as it appeared in front of Virus the very next moment before one of its tentacles smashed right at him.

Bang~

Unfortunately, the tentacle monster didn't seem to have any intentions of wanting to stop or give up at this point as the previous tentacle-attack was followed by many others.

Bang! Bang! Bang!...

After a few assaults, finally stopping, the green Kraken's eyes attentively stared into the small crater that had appeared in the middle of the city, wanting to see the results of its actions.

And then, gazing into the scene filled with dust, the creature was faced with a man, meters inside the cavity on the ground, still standing with his scale-engulfed hands raised above his head, covering and shielding his head against the continuous battering of the tentacles of his enemy.

With his freezing eyes as determined as ever, Virus was glaring into the monster's green eyes. Never once, during the entire process did he take his eyes off of the monster.

Truthfully, the tentacle monster was stunned seeing him standing-still even after it had trampled on him like that. Although it saw some bleedings in various parts of Virus' body, relying on its instincts, it was quite confident that those were only shallow wounds and injuries. They were not going to be fatal at all.

Of course, the creature still wasn't just going to stop and wait for Virus to make his move. Thus, one of its tentacles shot in Virus' direction, and shortly after, that tentacle wrapped itself around him.

Then, with the intention of wanting to examine Virus from a close distance while squashing his body into mincemeat, it brought his physique high-up right in front of its huge eyes.

SQUISH~

After that, the tentacle began squishing and wrapping itself around his figure harder and harder to the point that even Virus was starting to feel some pressure on his extremely firm bones and skeleton.

Meanwhile, getting a feel of its prey inside its grasp, the green Kraken knew that its adversary was close to his possible limits. He was going to shatter and break apart very soon. And that made the creature even more excited as it squashed the ant within his grasp even further.

…

Soon, the monster was just about to finally break a few of Virus' hard and solid bones…

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT~

Grrrrrr~

When abruptly, a section of the tentacle that was clenching Virus' firm physique exploded into several gory pieces of green meat before a massive amount of blood also sprayed all around him.

Now, even though Virus was covered in green blood from head to toe, he was at least free.

_______________

Dozen seconds ago, Virus was just about to make his next move, when, making use of its great speed, the Plant Kraken suddenly rushed at him before bombarding him under its tentacles.

Bam~ Bam~…

Under the nonstop bombardment of the ugly being, Virus was aware that before the tentacle monster ceases to attack, he would not be able to make any movements. All he could do now was to raise his arms above his head and defend against the continuous trashing.

Bam~

Under each attack, Virus sunk deeper and deeper into the ground itself…

Bam~…

Still, his resolved eyes didn't shake in the least as it was clear to him that the damage he was receiving was close to none since his scale-covered arms were absorbing most of the force behind the tentacles. Moreover, the hardness and the solidness of his skeleton was nothing to joke about. So even if his speed couldn't keep up with the opponent, he was at least confident in his bones and overall defense.

A while later, after the attacks ceased briefly, once again, before Virus could make any moves whatsoever, one of the monster's tentacles grabbed him with all its might. Then, bringing him close to its face, it clutched its grip harder and harder to the point that even Virus was feeling some amount of pressure.

Of course, no longer being under the nonstop punches of the creature still allowed Virus several new opportunities and possibilities of counterattacking. Therefore, not even wasting a single nanosecond, he directly connected to his ring.

'Divine Initial Configuration – Machine gun!' This command was also followed by another arrangement, 'Explosion mode!'

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT~

Grrrr~

And following the noises, as simple sounding as that, surrounding the location which was locking Virus up, the tentacle exploded into many pieces. And the next moment, already free, all around Virus was covered in green blood while he showered beneath it.

Furthermore, he didn't move or try to dodge the blood at all. The only movement he made was to close his eyes shut before sinking in the soothing melody of the monster's screams of agony. Apparently, he was relishing the feeling. This was what he wanted.

Of course, after being dealt some rather excruciating damage, the Kraken retreated in a hurry, distancing itself from this human who it now considered more of a threat than before.

Regrettably, however, by the time it was successful in retreating, the wounds on that particular tentacle had already closed up. The monster's healing ability was frightening indeed.

This immediately forced a frown to show up on Virus' face as he raised his futuristic-looking machine gun before commanding it to shoot without any pause.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT~…

By now, the scales covering Virus's 'right' arm had already disappeared. This happened because, from the second division onwards, every time he divides the ring, some selective part of the scale gets retracted before transforming into the commanded dividence.

In more simple terms, after triggering the [Median Configuration – Fragmentary Integument], Virus divided the ring once which transformed it into his [Simple Mask], it was fine up to this point. However, now that he had divided the ring once again for the second time, the scales covering his right arm had retreated as it changed into the machine gun he was holding currently.

Anyhow, under the persistent barrage of the machine gun, various wounds started to take shape and appear on the Kraken's body, unfortunately, since every part of its physique was too thick and substantial, the explosive shots of the gun didn't count as that much of a threat to it before its injuries closed up. Moreover, even stacking up the explosions could not penetrate deeper than a certain point on the creature's plant skeleton and body.

'Hmm, it seems even the machine gun's useless against its gigantic figure… if I want to deal with it… I think I'm gonna need to cut off those massive tentacles in a single slash.' Deliberating up to this point, Virus concluded, 'I'm gonna need a big sword.'

'Divide Initial Configuration – Longsword!'

Promptly, the machine gun dissipated before reconstructing itself into a very lengthy sheathed pitch-black longsword which automatically connected itself to his waist.

Now that the longsword had been formed, casually grabbing it from the hilt, Virus next pulled it out of its scabbard as it immediately started to give off an awe-inspiring yet spectacular blue hue of light from all over itself.

Hence, momentarily gazing at this dark longsword in his grasp which was emitting the blue icy light, Virus murmured.

"The Darkest Night, The Shining Moon."