Preys had no right to exist in the presence of predators. Even their sole attempts to fight back were an insult to the food chain. Their only right was to run away, struggling to survive another day.
That was what the children of the mana were for the Scarlet Eyes. The True Chaos was a superior energy, a natural enemy and predator for those inferior beings. The latter had also lost their God, so their only purpose was to become livestock now.
Of course, the mana had spread and had given birth to different iterations of itself. It also seemed to have attempted to create an existence similar to the True Chaosâ progenitor.
Yet, how could a mere experiment match the True Chaosâ God? The children of manaâs inferiority was set in stone, so the long-haired alien couldnât waste his superior energy to wipe out such brittle beings. It would be an insult to his King and the God above him.
Rodneyâs state was even more insulting. The long-haired alien could accept that the silver swordsman was somehow worthy of his true power, but his opponent was beyond unassuming. Their existences stood on levels so distant that attempted comparisons would be heresy.
Nevertheless, Rodney was proving himself to be quite resilient, albeit not only by virtue of his personal power. The long-haired evolved warrior sensed the strange mutation that had infected and empowered that mana. It was similar to the previous explosions but featuring far denser and intense effects.
That temporary attempt to surpass the manaâs limits was working, but the long-haired evolved warrior felt he had seen enough. After all, he couldnât indulge in time-consuming inspections. His time wasnât his own to waste. It belonged to his King.
The ellipse broke down into trails of smoke under Rodneyâs attentive gaze, which didnât return to the tide of True Chaos behind the evolved warrior.
Instead, tongues of the True Chaos flickering on the evolved warriorâs figure rose, fusing with the released smoke and claiming more of it from the tide behind him.
The smoke condensed and brightened, radiating more of that black light as objects similar to the one coiled around the alienâs right arm took shape.
Nine trails of smoke finished condensing above the evolved warrior, their bloated tips turning toward Rodney as their worm-like bodies kept slithering in the air. Elliptical cavities also opened in those head-like features, creating toothless, hungry maws.
The attack came without warning. The nine gaseous worms rushed toward Rodney, splitting to encircle him and attack from different directions. They were slower than the beam, but Rodney only had to look at their heat signatures to know that their power was several levels above it.
Still, the world in Rodneyâs reptilian eyes slowed down again as his brain went into overdrive. An even thicker storm of thoughts rushed through his mind, performing countless calculations that accounted for his physical prowess, casting speed, and more.
The nine gaseous worms seemed to oppose that invisible, ethereal technique. Theoretically, the spell only involved Rodneyâs brain, hastening its functions far beyond its limits to create that slow-motion effect.
Yet, the nine wormsâ thicker influence somehow affected the spell, reducing its effects, getting faster with each mental second Rodney spent in his inspection.
The nine spells didnât only look alive. They also seemed to possess some awareness and perception, sensing the accelerated inspection landing on their fabric and instinctively opposing it.
As for how the nine worms did that, Rodney couldnât know. Those fields were for the alien-lover and his scornful wife to study. He only had to find a way out of his predicament earlier than planned.
More blood flowed out of Rodneyâs nostrils as his body started to move. Mana occasionally rang in his brain, sending effects to the world and his flesh to aid his moves without ever interrupting the "Overdrive".
One of the worms attacked Rodney from behind, targeting his nape. Yet, he swiftly tilted his torso, dodging the charge by less than a centimeter.
Two more of those gaseous creatures attacked Rodney from his right side, where he had tilted his torso, only for him to half-turn his waist, narrowly sliding between them.
Three more flew directly at Rodney, even adjusting their trajectory to his recent moves. Still, that was within his calculations. He had actually already released the spells necessary to counter them.
The world and Rodneyâs flesh worked in unison, driven by the energy he had released earlier. His body seemed to move on its own, pushed by precise forces that half-turned him again, making him duck while propelling him forward.
Rodney somehow slipped under the three frontal attacks, which ended up crashing into the remaining worms coming from his left. He had escaped the barrage, but his calculations didnât end there, and two donging noises resounded in his burning brain, giving him the strength and speed to see them through.
Rodney suddenly accelerated, instantly closing the short distance that separated him from the evolved warrior, his arm stretched forward as one of his fingers pointed at that black head.
Everything had been perfect, swift, sudden, and optimized to the extreme. Rodney didnât waste a single second dodging the attack and delivering a counterattack.
However, Rodney soon became unable to see the black alien since the figure coiled around his right arm had appeared on his path, enlarging several times and pointing its now-huge, elliptical mouth at him.
Rondey couldnât have been faster or more perfect, but even his best performance had been useless against that opponent. The gap between mortals and evolved warriors was immense, and Rodney couldnât fill it despite the mutagenâs effects.
To make things worse, Rodneyâs momentum wasnât something he could disperse easily. He was in a crash-course toward the now-huge elliptical mouth, and his best calculations couldnât see him escaping it unscathed.
Reality itself had doomed Rodney, forcing him to resort to a spell he had hoped not to use so early, if at all. Everything indeed pointed toward his death, but reality was a brittle thing when it came to his element.
âMiracle,â Rodney thought, and the evolved warrior lost track of him, only for a painful sensation to spread from his nape.