Mutagen

<strong>Day 240 - 10:49 AM - Mount Canlaon, Municipality of Codcod, Province of Negros Occidental</strong>

Sinogo was rapidly evolving. He began to adapt to its new body, and his intelligence was rising fast. From the intelligent predator that still behaved like a wild beast, he began learning to trick his foes and attack with feints. The balance of his body was improving, and his speed was also increasing. Even his use of his magical attacks was getting better.

Since Sinogo gained the body that the real Sinogo had before getting cursed, it would not be long before he would learn how to speak and utilize his abilities to their maximum. Sooner or later, if left alone, Sinogo would become a threat far worse than he currently was. It was something that would happen without a shred of doubt.

That was why he must perish here.

Sneak attacks were not new to Sinogo. He pulled this trick several times on Mark and succeeded twice. It was a pity for him that Mark was just as unkillable as a cockroach.

Now, Sinogo learned how to pull sneak attacks while employing new tricks. He stared at Mark before attacking, making the latter brace for the incoming attack when the truth was Sinogo was going to attack someone else.

And that someone was Mei.

This would have been dangerous. Unlike Mark and Chimetrice, Mei's body was far more fragile.

But compared to Mark and Chimetrice, Mei had the fastest reflexes among the three.

As Sinogo appeared in front of Mei with barely any gust of wind, Mei's eyes dilated and slowed down everything in her sight. She could clearly see Sinogo moving his right hand over his shoulder to swat her to the ground.

And as fast as the hand fell on Mei from above, her body flashed with bright light.

Sinogo passed through its trajectory, but nothing was hit by this hand and fell to the ground.

Instead...

<strong>THOOOM!</strong>

<strong>BAM!</strong>

Sinogo lost balance as a powerful beam of light hit the very same left temple that was hit before. Not to mention that the attack had far more force than the previous one.

It was because Mei fired that beam using the [Crystal Converter] at point-blank range.

Sinogo was unaware, but everyone else saw it. Mei turned into a flash of light, disappearing before his right hand hit her and appeared right beside his head.

It was the ability Mark gave her from the first crystal he had years before. An ability similar to Mark's [Shadow Mist Movement], but with different rules and effects to follow.

At the same time that Mei fired her gun, Amihan on her shoulder made her attack. The [Sylph] conjured a strong gust of wind that pushed Sinogo amidst his loss of balance.

<strong>BAM!</strong>

Sinogo fell to his right side, causing the magical creatures below to retreat quickly. His body might be faster and as strong as his crocodile form. But the smaller body he had was far easier to topple than the aircraft carrier-sized golden crocodile.

"▋▋▋▋▋!!!"

Sinogo became even more enraged because of his uncanny fall. But most of all, everyone was surprised when Sinogo let out his first words that did not sound like beastly growls.

It was still unintelligible. Nonetheless, from growls to something that sounded like words, it was a clear sign of Sinogo's rapidly developing mind.

With Sinogo falling down, many magical creatures saw this as an opportunity to attack, especially the scalded-looking back of Sinogo after Mark's attack. They might not be able to approach the guy too close because of the pressure emitted by Sinogo, but they could at least attack from a distance.

However...

"RRRRRRAAAAA!!!"

The magical creatures could only let out a few attacks before turning into either dust or meat pieces after Sinogo whipped his tail at bullet speed. The shockwave created by the attack even staggered the strongest ones among the magical army, while most were blown away by the force of the shockwave.

But revenging the deaths, a ball of light shot onto Sinogo's face, causing him to stagger once more before he could even attempt to stand up.

There... Tinala and Binituin took advantage of the situation, both holding onto a familiar-looking staff.

"So, that's where it went."

Mark said, relaxing after seeing Mei and Amihan safe and sound. Like what Magwayen had said, the two would be of great help in this fight. But that was not Mark's current focus of attention. It was the crystal spear-like staff that the [Diwata] sisters were holding.

When Sinogo swatted Mark away, while he managed to hold tightly unto the [Butterfly of Knowledge], he lost grip of the [Crystal Staff], and it was flung somewhere. It looked like the two [Diwatas] managed to find it while Mark and his entourage got Sinogo's attention.

Holding tightly onto the [Crystal Staff], Tinala and Binituin tried to conjure another attack. However...

"Dodge!"

Tinala pushed Binituin away as she moved in the opposite direction. A beam of light passed through their initial position.

But before the two could even stabilize themselves in the air...

<strong>THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!</strong>

Hundreds of balls of light appeared around Sinogo and started to discriminately fire beams everywhere.

Everyone hurried to run and dodge. It was the same for the magical creatures in the field.

The rain of beams of light immediately killed hundreds of magical creatures while Sinogo slowly stood up from his fall. However, the ants below were the least of his concern as he stared at Mark's group, together with the two [Diwatas], as they all joined up together.

Sinogo suddenly felt a surge of energy in the surroundings. He noticed Mark raising his right hand up to the sky. What he did not notice was the magical army beginning to retreat, especially the [Fire Elementals].

The sky darkened further as the clouds began to gather.

Succumbing to the feeling of threat, Sinogo charged unto Mark. He intended to stop whatever Mark was doing.

But, of course, that would not be easy.

Before Sinogo could even kick the ground, Mei already appeared in front of Mark. Her [Shooting Moon Blade] was already charged up and ready to fire.

<strong>THOOM!!</strong>

Sinogo moved at frightening speeds, but he had one flaw. In his current state, he had very little control over his movements. And thus, he was more prone to moving straight.

With Mei moving between Sinogo and Mark and firing opposite of the latter, Sinogo faced a full brunt beam shot from Mei right on his face.

Sinogo did not incur too much damage except for the face on his skin being burnt. But the sudden bright light blinded him to lose his direction and target.

The giant passed by Mark's group without touching them at all and fell ways behind their position.

And there, Mark succeeded in what he was doing.

Drop by drop, the rain began to fall. A strong storm was invoked by Mark, and the visibility of the surroundings began to lower.

No wonder the magical army, especially the [Fire Elementals], retreated. In this kind of storm, they would not be able to do anything. Luckily, Mark informed their leader, Alawana, beforehand through Tinala and Binituin.

With the storm invoked, Mark's group was pretty much wet already. But it did not matter as the rain did not hinder them that much. Well, it was pretty much the same for Sinogo.

The two opposing sides continued the battle. The others became audiences to the battle that would decide their fates afterward.

Beams of light shot everywhere. Most of the beams came from Sinogo, who was still far from having any serious damage. His energy had yet to show signs of depleting either, and it felt like he could shoot his attacks indefinitely.

On the other hand, Mark and the others were doing their best to deal some proper damage. Nonetheless, Sinogo was also struggling to fight the group as they grasped the patterns of the giant's attacks.

Everyone watched in awe and fear. As the ancient texts said, Godly beings of equal power could fight for days or months continuously without a clear winner.

What they were watching might be comparable to the fights of the Gods.

But then... Under everyone's watch, Sinogo tried to attack once more. And to everyone's surprise, the giant fell to the ground, creating a gigantic splash of mud and water.

None of the audience could understand what happened immediately. Some even though that Sinogo began to weaken.

But those with keen eyes, such as the [Eyes], Magwayen, and Alawana, understood what was going on.

Sinogo immediately tried to stand up, but he was having great difficulty for some reason. The moment he stood up and tried to charge at his opponents, he fell down once again with a large splash.

The giant did not understand what was happening either as he went on all fours. He then attacked with dozens of his beams instead. The beams forced Mark and the others to fly and dodge. At the same time, Chimetrice took the opportunity to charge and smashed Sinogo's back, causing the giant to fall once more.

And the cause for Sinogo's current state was not because he became weakened. It was the rain, or to be specific, the muddy ground caused by the rain.

The battlefield was already leveled into empty, vacant land with only corpses and craters. There were no trees or grass patches left in close proximity. Because of these factors, the rainwater gathered fast in this location, turning the barren land into slippery mud.

Any creature with a weak sense of balance would succumb to such an environment, causing the mud to weaken their momentum and make them slip to the ground.

Still, this was far from enough to kill the invincible Sinogo.

But the setup was done after Chimetrice landed onto Sinogo's back with a bang.

Chimetrice held his left hand, clenching it with force. He then punched Sinogo's back with all his might. The punch caused Sinogo to embed his body further in the mud below him, but dealing damage was the least of this punch's intended purpose.

The left arm of Chimetrice was tree-like. The roots and branches began to move like vines and started to spread around Sinogo's body.

Sinogo felt the slithering vines around his body and tried to shake Chimetrice off. He even shot several beams onto his back and also created a barrier of energy around his body. But all those did not faze Chimetrice even if he received quite a few injuries from Sinogo's retaliation.

The vines continued to spread and grow. It was already late when Sinogo noticed that his range of movement became more and more restricted.

Sinogo tried to wave his arms and legs and managed to remove the vines around his limbs. But that was all he could do as Mei and the two [Diwatas] kept him unable to raise his body from his fall. Amihan also helped, conjuring strong wind that pushed the giant's body to the ground as much as it could.

It did not take long. Sinogo became literally rooted to the muddy ground. The most he could do was raise his head and saw Mark preparing for another attack.

Sinogo's eyes dilated. He remembered the attack that Mark made just a while ago, and fear began to creep up his back.

Death. Sinogo felt that he would die here. A powerful being like him, the one that ruled the waters of his territory, would be killed in this place.

At the same time, Mark entered a trance.

His magical energy might be almost depleted already, but his [Miasma] was different. It never relied on his magical energy and only dwelled inside his body.

As such, he could still use it.

Mark took back the [Crystal Staff] from Tinala, who reluctantly returned the weapon. He then held the [Butterfly of Knowledge] once more and entered another trance.

And there, Mark chanted.

Like before, words entered Mark's mind. But as Mark spoke...

"▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋."

It sounded garbled and unintelligible. Even so, everyone felt chills as the surroundings began to darken.

"▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋."

A pitch-black cloud eerily surrounded Mark, spreading from inside his body.

"▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋."

The thick [Miasma] began emitting a chilling pressure in the surroundings, rivaling what Sinogo currently had.

And there, Mark uttered three words that they could finally understand.

<strong>"Feast of Darkness."</strong>

Everyone felt the horror when the cloud of [Miasma] around Mark formed a gigantic mouth that extended towards the immobile Sinogo.

Sinogo watched the monstrous mouth close in. It felt as if the mouth would lop his head off from his neck.

This made Sinogo panic for the first time as he began struggling to undo the bindings of roots and vines around his body. However, the bindings were tightly held on, and everything that broke was quickly replaced by Chimetrice still standing on his back.

But then... Sinogo's eyes widened, with flashes of scenes appearing in front of his eyes.

And there...

<strong>BOOM!</strong>

An explosion of light occurred...