CHAPTER 49: OVER THE EDGE.

Nero stabbed down with all his might.

The softer, fur covered flesh of the creature’s foot was much easier to pierce through than the harder carapace.

The Abominable hissed furiously and kicked at him, sending him flying.

It growled and licked at its wound. Then it opened its maw and shrieked furiously at him.

Wobbling to his feet, a sneer appeared on Nero’s face,

"Go on you damned monster! Do your fucking worst!"

Without thinking about it, Nero stabbed himself with his own blade.

The pain, combined with the poison coating the blade served as an adrenaline booster to his body, sending his heart racing instantly.

Even if he was going to die, he was now determined to take this thing out.

He took a step forward.

And then, with all his might...

He threw the Silver Blade.

Like a silver bolt of lightning cutting through the night sky, the blade flew through the air, aimed at the eye of the beast.

Of course, it was rather fast and knocked the blade out of the air like it was some harmless twig.

However, Nero was already sprinting forward, frothing at the mouth like a beast.

His fingers were balled into a fist which he threw forward with the most audacity he had ever summoned.

With a hundred Seals of Sin, Nero was much stronger than a regular human, perhaps even broaching the level of superhuman.

Combining that with his generated momentum and the added robustness from the {Black Body Transformation}, into a creature like the Shadow Stalker that didn’t have the most powerful of defenses...

The blow struck harder than a sledgehammer.

The Abomination shrieked, but Nero was having none of it as he threw another blow, his fist flying up at its head.

The Abomination snapped, bitting at his fingers. His balled fist unfurled into a grip.

With strong fingers, he gripped at the fur of the beast’s long neck and then pulled hard, jerking it towards the ground.

The Shadow Stalker shrieked and pushed his head up. That was more than enough to lift Nero off the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Nero tried using his body weight to pull it back towards the ground, but was unsuccessful.

All this was an ugly final attempt. A rather miserably ugly one at that.

With his strength, even though he could wish, there was nothing he could accomplish.

The Shadow Stalker smashed him into the truck of a tree then bit into his stomach.

Nero cries out as blood gushed out of his mouth.

His eyes wide open, his clenched his bleeding knuckles and punched down on the skull of the Abomination.

And then he punched again.

And then he kept punching. Over and over again.

Each punch gradually became weaker until he stopped completely.

After some time, the Abomination let his body collapse to the ground like a dropped rag.

With a heavy this, he fell. Nero tried to breathe, but all he did was make gargling, wheezing noises.

The beast had destroyed his innards completely.

One of his lungs had a huge bite taken out of it, and some organs were also severely damaged.

In a few minutes, he would have bled to death.

Helplessly, he crawled towards the Silver Blade laying in the ground.

The blade still gave off a saint, glowing luster that reflected in the depths of his dying eyes.

Behind him, the Shadow Stalker crept slowly.

Nero laid helplessly on the ground, fingers wrapping around the hilt of his sword.

And then he went still.

The Shadow Stalker was still for a few moments.

Then it cautiously walked up to him.

Nero had been severely wounded. It had already taken multiple bites out of him. Unlike the other Abominations, the flesh of a human was much more appetizing.

I’m fact, it could even be considered a panacea that could boost the development of an Abomination and help it develop its intellect.

The maw of the Shadow Stalker stretched open to take another large bite.

"Choke on this, bastard!"

Nero turned into his back and threw yhee vials of Purple Evergrowth sap as hard as he possibly could.

He threw them so hard, they exploded into glass shards inside the mouth of the beast.

The creature instinctively shut its mouth.

Then it stumbled backwards.

Nero fell to the ground with a wretched grin on his face.

"Serves you right, bastard!"

Then he coughed up a mouthful of blackened blood.

The adrenaline from the poison was slowly wearing off and the side effects were setting in.

His vision became blurry.

Ever since he entered the wilderness, he has endured torment of both physical and mental natures.

He had had his arms ripped off, his eyes gouged out, his organs rattled, and even his soul nearly torn from his body.

And yet, he had survived them all. After just a relatively short time, he had build a surprising resistance to pain.

Even when he was keeled over, blood pouring out of him in streams, he still had enough presence of mind to plot.

This was how he had also killed the Pig Demon.

’That one had also been a greedy bastard.’

However, unlike the Pig Demon, he had administered three times the dosage.

Still, it was unfortunate that there would be no true winner of this battle.

After all, he also had the poison in his system.

Bleeding from its eye and maw, the Shadow Stalker rushed at him furiously, smashing his head into the trunk of the tree behind him and flinging him the other way.

Rolling into the ground, Nero suddenly found himself dangerously close to the ravine again.

The sound of flowing water, for some reason, was like a cool ointment to his wounds, making him forget the pain for a moment.

Now just a shell of what he once was, the Heretic rose to his feet slowly.

Blood flowed freely from his wounds, painting his flesh scarlet.

The heavens rumbled in this utter display of defiance.

On his face, was a serene gaze.

One of acceptance.

Of course, none of that mattered to the Shadow Stalker as it rushed at him with wicked murderous intent.

It was so fast, the shadows trailed behind it.

Nero closed his eyes.

The claws of the beast stabbed into his flesh.

Nero wrapped his arms around its neck.

Then he leaned over, dragging them both into the swirling dark abyss below...