Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 30: Chapter 30 — The Serpent

Chapter 30 — The Serpent

Victor waited at the mouth of the passage, his dagger raised in his right hand. He didn’t move. He barely breathed. Time seemed to slow as he stood there listening to the faint rustling coming from somewhere within the darkness. At first, the sound was almost impossible to hear, little more than a whisper against stone, but with every passing second it grew louder. Something was moving through the passage. Something was coming home.

Victor’s grip tightened around the dagger. His body was in terrible condition, and he knew it. If he fought whatever was approaching head-on, he might not survive. His strength was almost nonexistent, his left shoulder was still dislocated, and his Core had been reduced to almost nothing. The only advantage he had left was surprise. If he couldn’t kill whatever entered the cave immediately, he doubted he could win a prolonged fight.

So Victor waited.

The rustling grew louder.

A shadow slowly emerged from the passage, followed by the massive head of a serpent. Its body was thick, almost the size of a large anaconda, and its dark scales reflected the faint glow of the luminescent stones scattered throughout the cave. Its head swayed slightly as it entered, its tongue flicking through the air while it searched the chamber. Victor could see rows of curved teeth behind its partially opened jaws.

The moment its head crossed into the cave, Victor moved.

THUNK!

His dagger plunged into the top of its skull.

The serpent recoiled violently, its massive head snapping upward as its body surged deeper into the chamber. Victor twisted the blade with both hands, using every ounce of strength he had left.

The serpent thrashed.

Victor was nearly thrown from his feet, but he reacted instinctively. He jumped onto its thick body and straddled it, gripping the dagger tightly as the serpent began whipping itself against the cavern walls. Its coils slammed into the stone with enough force to send dust falling from the ceiling.

Victor held on.

He raised the dagger.

THUNK!

He drove it down again.

The serpent twisted violently beneath him.

Victor pulled the blade free and stabbed again.

THUNK!

Again.

THUNK!

His movements became almost mechanical. There was no technique behind them now, no elegance or precision. His body simply continued doing what it needed to do. Every time the serpent moved, Victor adjusted his position and drove the dagger back into its skull.

The serpent’s thrashing gradually weakened.

Its coils slowed.

Its movements became less violent.

Victor stabbed again.

And again.

Finally, the enormous body shuddered one last time before going still.

Victor remained sitting on top of it, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His hand still gripped the dagger, but he no longer had the strength to move.

For several seconds, he simply lay there.

Then the glow of the dagger disappeared.

Victor looked down.

The serpent was dead.

He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Only then did he begin to feel the faint energy radiating from the creature’s body. Victor slowly turned his attention toward it, his exhausted mind trying to understand what he was sensing.

Rank Seven.

Maybe Rank Eight.

Victor wasn’t completely certain.

But he was certain of something else.

Without the surprise attack, he would probably have died.

His current condition simply wasn’t enough to fight a creature like this head-on. He knew he got lucky with the way it played out. If the monster was any stronger he wouldn’t have survived.

Victor slowly pushed himself off the serpent. His legs nearly gave out beneath him, but he managed to remain standing. He glanced toward Jacob.

Still unconscious.

Victor’s eyes lingered on him for a moment before returning to the dead serpent.

His body felt completely empty.

Not merely tired.

Empty.

The sensation was difficult to describe. His muscles felt weak, his breathing remained shallow, and his Core felt like a dried-up well. He needed energy, and he needed it now.

Victor crouched beside the serpent and began cutting through its thick scales with his dagger. His movements were slow and clumsy, but something inside him seemed to know where to look. He dug deeper into the creature’s body until the dagger struck something solid.

Victor paused.

A faint glow leaked through the wound.

He pushed aside the flesh and uncovered a small, dense crystal.

The monster’s Core.

Victor carefully pulled it free.

Energy immediately washed over his senses.

Even in his weakened state, he could feel how much power was contained within it. Something instinctual told him he could absorb the energy with the black flame.

Victor sat down and crossed his legs as best he could, holding the Core between his hands.

He began cultivating.

The moment he started, energy surged into his body.

Victor’s consciousness slipped into his inner world.

He stared at his Core.

For several seconds, he simply stood there.

It was dim.

Far dimmer than he had ever seen it.

The Core that had once been filled with steady energy now barely seemed alive. Its light flickered weakly in the darkness, as though even the smallest disturbance might extinguish it completely.

Victor’s attention shifted toward the center.

The Black Phoenix Flame was still there.

But it was tiny.

A faint black flicker.

Almost nothing compared to what it had been before.

Victor finally understood just how much the transformation had cost him.

His Core had fallen.

Not slightly.

Not by a single step.

He had been a Rank Six cultivator before the fight.

Now he was barely holding onto the beginning of Rank Four.

Victor stared at the weakened Core.

So that’s what the pain was.

The realization made sense.

The Black Phoenix Flame had consumed an enormous amount of energy from his Core, and whatever had happened when the transformation ended had nearly emptied him completely.

The monster Core continued feeding energy into his body.

A steady stream of power flowed through his meridians and into his inner world. The faint Black Phoenix Flame trembled as the energy approached.

Then it moved.

The tiny flame began drawing the energy toward itself.

Victor watched as it absorbed the incoming power, refining it before releasing the purified energy toward his Core.

The process was slow.

Painfully slow.

But for the first time since the fight with Leo, Victor could feel something returning.

Strength.

Not much.

But enough to remind him that he wasn’t completely broken.

Time passed.

The energy within the monster Core gradually diminished as Victor continued cultivating. The faint flame absorbed every remaining trace of power, refining it and feeding it into his weakened Core.

Thirty minutes later, the monster Core was almost completely drained.

The last trace of energy disappeared.

The crystal cracked.

It crumbled into fine dust between Victor’s hands.

Victor slowly opened his eyes.

His body still felt weak, but the terrible emptiness inside him was gone. His Core was no longer desperately struggling to survive on whatever borrowed energy remained. It had stabilized at the beginning of Rank Five.

It wasn’t much.

But it was enough.

Victor lowered his hands and sat quietly for a moment, listening to the distant roar of the waterfall.

Then a weak voice came from beside him.

"Victor?"

Victor’s eyes snapped open.

He turned his head.

Jacob was awake.

And he was looking directly at him.

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