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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 157: Choice
🕑 Added 2024-11-29 18:00:09 +0000 UTCEveryone who was able to speak cried out as a bulge began sliding down the garax’s throat, heading toward its stomach. Edge shook off his shock as he looked up at the beast, forcing himself to process what had taken place before his eyes.
Trapper just sacrificed herself to save Riller. Even though the rest of the crew might not live five minutes past that point, it was easily the most heroic thing that he had ever seen.
In the wake of that terrible event, time came to a standstill. By now, regeneration had healed his concussion, allowing him to think clearly once more. In that frozen moment, Edge realized that he had a choice to make. That his journey had arrived at another crossroads—each path leading to a divergent future.
He could cut his losses here and now. Retreat with the rest of the crew and hope that everyone else survived. Or he could reveal the totality of his secret, and fight with everything he had to save his friend.
Edge had already come up with a plan. But there was no guarantee that it was going to work. In fact, there was a good chance that it would wind up getting him killed too. Even if things went the way that he hoped, the crew might try to claim the bounty on his unique core. He would live a life on the run from that moment on, even if he got away.
The practical portion of his psyche told him to cut his losses. He could find another team to join or pursue a solo career and keep progressing on his own. Friends were nice, but they weren’t worth dying for.
But when he searched his feelings, he discovered that he had another voice inside him. The part of Edge that had awoken since binding Skill-Eater believed in himself and believed in his friends. It refused to give up without struggling until his final breath.
What was the point of pursuing power, if he couldn’t use it to protect the people he cared about? What kind of person would he become if he prioritized growing stronger to the exclusion of everything else?
Edge would never be a hero. He simply wasn’t selfless enough to sacrifice himself for faceless strangers. To risk it all for the sake of some lofty ideal or in the pursuit of a greater cause. But in the heart of that decisive moment, he realized that he was willing to put it all on the line for the things that mattered—the people and places that made his new life worth living.
In short, he wasn’t about to let the garax get away with eating Trapper—not when there was a chance that he could save her. Besides, he wasn’t a pure soul acting out of untainted altruism. He still wanted to complete the quest and steal the garax’s skill, and there was no way that it was going to happen without the crew by his side.
He could feel the frozen instant fading. It was time to decide which road to the future he wanted to walk.
So, Edge made his choice. He turned away from the solitary path and took his first step in another direction. As time resumed its full course, he set his gaze upon the behemoth, dropped his naginata, and then willed his ultimate ability to activate. “Overdrive.” I’m counting on you, partner. Let’s put on a show that the System will never forget.
Heat began building behind his ribs as the great engine appeared within his mind’s eye. It roared to life like a volcano erupting, locking into place alongside Skill-Eater. [Overdrive] revved up and kicked into high gear, pumping an endless river of incandescent might into his reactor—turbocharging all eleven of Edge’s skills.
Knowing that every second was precious, he activated shadow step. Fueled by the extra Amplification provided by his ultimate, he shrugged off the garax’s power and went charging straight for it. As the world turned to smoke and mist, he surged forward in a flash.
The behemoth beast grew to fill his gaze—an irate mountain of muscle, ivory, and ill-will. By the time it saw him, he was too close to claw. The garax growled and prepared to lunge, getting ready to bite the strange shape speeding toward it.
The second that the creature’s jaws cracked open, Edge gathered his strength and leapt. With the extra boost from [Overdrive] and the reduced weight of his shadow form, he launched himself into the air like a rocket taking flight.
The garax was shocked to see something so small willingly entering its kill zone. It tracked his trajectory and got ready to bite, which was exactly what he had been counting on. He dove between its teeth and landed on its tongue. Then he looked down the dark tunnel of its throat and jumped, a heartbeat before its teeth snapped shut.
Walls of flesh rose to engulf him as the light of the world vanished, accompanied by a clack that he could feel in his bones. There wasn’t time to think, and he desperately needed to get this next part right. Instead, Edge had to rely on his instincts and on his training. Make split-second decisions on how to use his powers and survive his reckless rescue operation.
He needed to keep the beast’s muscles from crushing him, then stop its stomach acid from eating him once he reached the bottom of the ride. With any luck, Trapper was already using manipulate air to create a bubble that would let her survive in the belly of the beast for at least a few more minutes. That realization gave him an idea. As he started sliding down the behemoth’s throat, Edge used the power he’d stolen from Warren the manslayer.
A sphere of mana expanded from his core as he activated repel water—pushing away the sides of the garax’s throat. It gave him enough room to use his arms, which offered him another insight. He had enacted this risky maneuver to save Trapper, but it wasn’t his only objective in using [Overdrive]. He couldn’t afford to waste the opportunity to dish out some damage along the way.
As he made the thirty-foot voyage to the belly of the beast, he deactivated shadow step and began his assault. By this point, he had already conjured his iceblade. An arm-long sword forged from glacial crystal—sharper and colder than ever before. It’s not enough. I need to hit harder. Acting on instinct, Edge shifted the weapon into his left hand, and then called upon elemental blade once more.
A second iceblade emerged from his right palm to mirror the weapon in his left. Bathed in the crimson glow emanating from his turbocharged core, he started swinging. There was just enough room to activate slash and double strike to execute a triple combo. His first double slash carved into the beast’s tissue, leaving ice and ruin in its wake.
He repeated the move, then continued to alternate—comboing twice for every beat of his heart. His offensive sliced frost-rimed gouges into the creature’s throat and esophagus. Although due to the beast’s incredible Durability and Disruption, his blades couldn’t penetrate deep.
He kept carving away like a subzero blender as he crossed the last stretch of tissue leading to the garax’s stomach, using repel water to give him enough room to swing. After sliding through a sphincter that he double slashed along the way, the walls of meat opened, and the worst stench that he’d ever smelled hit him like a punch to the nose.
He shut out the awful odor and started searching the garax’s stomach—desperate to reach Trapper before it was too late. It was sweltering inside the digestive organ, and it was hard to see past the folds of pink flesh. Edge turned on regulate temperature so that he wouldn’t overheat. Then a ball of green radiance sprang to life another five feet ahead. It revealed the form of Trapper, who had just fired her flare gun.
The woman looked determined instead of defeated. It was clear that she hadn’t given up, even in this deadly situation. A ring of stomach acid surrounded her on all sides, as Trapper used manipulate air to create a bubble around herself. It kept her breathing but was barley strong enough to hold the garax’s tissue back. With every beat of his heart, the living walls inched closer to engulfing her.
It was incredibly hard to move in here, so Edge shadow stepped to close the distance. He judged that had about twenty seconds left on [Overdrive]. Twenty seconds to find a way out of this mess, before the light of hope was extinguished like a candle in a monsoon. He rematerialized beside the courageous hunter—combining repel water with manipulate air to widen the gap around them.
Her eyes went round with astonishment when she saw him standing beside her. Then her expression shifted into sorrow. “Ah, hell. It got you too. I’m sorry, Edge. We should never have let the System bait us into such a hopeless situation. I’ll bet it’s thrilled by how this all played out.”
He was already wailing away with his twin iceblades, while trying to figure out what else he could do to. It was clear by this point that he wasn’t going to be able to cut his way out. Even with the extra Amplification from [Overdrive], the stage-three beast was too tough.
“Actually, I came to get you out of here. No time to explain. We have about fifteen seconds to turn this around before I run out of juice and we both get eaten.”
He could see a thousand questions spring to life in her eyes, but Trapper didn’t waste a second. She drew her sword and began stabbing away, after firing off another pair of flares. When her sword didn’t work, she reached for her belt and began flinging a wide variety of consumables. Flashbangs, smoke bombs, and stink bombs detonated on all sides—filling the garax’s stomach with a blend of noxious substances.
Edge kept freezing as much tissue as he could, trying to give the big beast one hell of a stomachache. When she ran out of devices, Trapper reached into his belt pouch and added his last two smoke bombs to the mix. “Put as much pressure as you can on one place!” She nodded in reply.
By now, there were less than ten seconds left on [Overdrive]. I’m almost out of time. He started leaping, slamming into the digestive organ on top of everything else. He kept attacking the entire time—both elemental blades powered by slash and double strike to unleash an endless barrage of triple combos.
He could tell that the cold was making a difference. Half the beast’s stomach was covered in ice, along with a series of scratches. Just when Edge was certain that it wasn’t going to be enough, that they were about to be eaten despite his best efforts, he felt the garax shudder. Its whole body heaved, tightening as it began to convulse.
He wrapped his arms around Trapper as the world shook—their combined skills preventing the motion from crushing them to paste. With five seconds to go on [Overdrive], the sphincter above opened, and the behemoth vomited.
The hunters were ejected from the belly of the beast, flying up through the throat and into its mouth. The big bad tried to keep its jaws shut, but the involuntary reflex was too powerful to overcome.
It puked—bones, smoke, and stomach acid flying out from its mouth. Not to mention, two immensely relieved hunters.
But the garax wasn’t done yet. The furious creature activated one final skill while they were still in midair—intending to kill them no matter what it took. Half a heartbeat before its chomp bisected them both, Edge activated harden on his entire body at once. Crystals grew across his skin, just as the beat’s jaws snapped shut with cataclysmic force.
To the surprise of everyone involved, they didn’t close all the way. Edge, arms raised, and legs spread, was lodged between its teeth— giving Trapper a chance to slide free. Apparently, when he used harden on everywhere at once, it locked his joints inside the full-body coating of diamondlike mineral.
He tried to shadow step away, but nothing happened. Oh shit. That’s not good. He could tell from the skill’s feedback what was going on. He had just learned the hard way that if something with a Disruption field was touching him, he couldn’t transform.
He was stuck between the behemoth’s teeth. [Overdrive] would cut out in another three seconds. Then harden would fail, and its jaws would crush him.
But then a barrage of missiles hit the garax in the gut, as the crew unleashed everything they had left. The beast opened its mouth and puked again, sending Edge plummeting to the ground below.
