Chapter 190: Toxic Timing

Chapter 190: Toxic Timing

The drop is heavy and the landing rough. My body tears through leaves and branches like a hole puncher. When I finally reaches the bottom, I try to soften the blow using parkour skills. Thrusting my body parallel to the ground at the time of impact.

It doesnt exactly work.

At such high speeds, your body is going to take a significant amount of the energy no matter what you do.

But it worked a little.

This is where my healing aura comes in. Almost instantaneously at the point of impact, my body reforms and I run through the impact in a roll.

This buys me a good 3-4 seconds to get ahead of the giant feline.

My movement and combat scan are in Overdrive.

Im pushing it just up to where I may start having issues. However, with this amount, Ill be able to keep going continuously and it will allow me to move through this jungle pretty quickly and safely.

But its not good enough.

The Panther has home field advantage.

They can move through this even quicker than I am, even with my ability to see the optimal path for myself. With a body optimized for short and long bursts of speed in tight locations, they can thrive where I have to burst through.

So, the only way for me to get out ahead of them is to go through areas that I can survive and they would struggle.

I dip and dive through layer after layer of vines. Since I cant see that far in front of me, I have to rely on my scan to determine where and what to do next.

Its whats been saving me, as in this jungle you cannot trust your eyes.

Just before me, as soon as I ran out, there appeared to be an open area which I could dive into. My scan instead told me to run through the brush to the right of it and go around it.

Seconds later, the Panther does the same, albeit more gracefully.

That open clearing was actually a trap where the vines that I went through would actually reach out and grab whatever went through that area. By going directly through it, its sensors do not go off.

In another step, I jump above a perfectly normal piece of ground.

Beneath this area is a tunnel ready to collapse. The insect tunnel traps I had found earlier are very close to what I just avoided.

Funnily enough, the Panther actually falls into this trap. Its front paw breaks through the ground, as its full weight went down on it.

Like a cat, it attempted to spring up and away from the danger. The power of its spring allowed it to quickly pull free from the collapsing area.

Inside the ground, countless ant-like creatures could be seen swarming around, trying to catch anything that fell in.

The scariest part about this trap is that it is just one of many that any creature could fall into. Even the Panther, which has crossed this area countless times and probably stepped in that same place multiple times, could not anticipate where the trap would be laid.

The air around me is greenish purple and swirls with the maddening glint. In fact, it has been for some time. Just becoming stronger and stronger the closer we got to this area.

A kilometer away to me is a giant plant, nestled between two large trees and hidden away, unless you knew it was there. Its from here that the air has been corrupted and poisoned.

The Panther seems to have already known to avoid this place, as it was growing more and more distressed the closer I was getting to this area. In fact, it was moving faster and faster, trying to catch up to me before I got here.

But now it has stopped and staring at me, its eyes clearly watching carefully around this area.

It must know that if it follows me any further that it too will get poisoned. But it seems wary to lose its prey.

What does the poison do?, one may ask?

It weakens and paralyzes creatures up to at the high end of the Qi cultivation realm. For creatures without cultivation, it paralyzes and kills them quickly.

Even this far away from the main plant, my healing constitution is struggling to fight it. Compared to the poison that that young assassin woman who was diced in the alleyway gave me, it only comes a little close to the stuff Im breathing in now.

Which makes sense. Why would an organization waste high end materials on someone of my status?

If I were to get even closer, Id have to use my healing aura to combat it directly.

For this Panther before me? Even now, it looks a little weaker and is truly considering how much it wants to come after me.

I look strong, almost unaffected by the poison.

This is one of my strengths.

One that I should leverage more and almost learned a hard lesson without.

With frustration in its eyes, it slowly turns away. Moving back into the normal jungle.

But this is just a temporary reprieve, as this creature in particular has no need to only hunt at night.

Its a simply preference for it. And it does not need to sleep. Not for the amount of time Ill be here, at least.

And I get the strong feeling thatll be stalking me this whole time.

Looking for the opportune time to attack.

I start by setting up another treehouse here. The only issue is that I cant keep any ingredients here, as the poison will taint them in the air. Not only that, but my body is still fighting it.

While this is great for training my healing constitution and improving my body against even bigger poisons, Id like to not be placed in a worse position, in case something else happens. If attacked by the creatures that enjoy residing in this area, my body will have to switch to handling that besides the poison.

Even with the healing aura, Id like to not push it too far, especially this far from any sort of help.

But I can use this chance to find out more about this stalker of mine. And perhaps, gain some ingredients while I do so.