He couldn’t stop staring at his hands. The purple streaks spreading rapidly across his skin as it fell away in dry flakes. It was fascinating — almost hypnotizing. Eyes wide, he continuously clenched and unclenched his fists, watching raptly as the colorful veins wiggled and danced. This wasn’t what Backflow was supposed to look like.

  It looked so funny. Chuckling quietly to himself, Eik had almost forgotten the gigantic maw of the hydra desperately snapping for him mere paces away. It was trying so hard to get to him, but it was so stupid that it couldn’t even see the futility of it. Like, it was solid rock, right?

  Or, actually, wait a second. Eik could totally break rock if he wanted. He was super strong. And the hydra was stronger than him too. So if the hydra couldn’t break the rock, did that mean Eik was actually stronger than the hydra? Totally! He giggled gleefully at the realization. He was the strongest after all.

  Throwing a side eye at the hydra, he paused. Hold on. Why was there so much debris in here? And an incessant crunch as well. Was it too much to ask for a little bit of peace and quiet when he was trying to string two coherent thoughts together? This damn hydra was an extremely rude host.

  “Bro, can you shut up for, like, five second, seriously? I’m trying to think here! When I get home I’m going to give you the most scathingest of scathing reviews you’ve ever gotten, mate, believe that! I’m going to absolutely destroy your AirBnB account!” Eik shouted. “And where’s the night light in this room, huh? You said there would be one and I don’t like to sleep in the dark. The bed’s way too hard as well! Did you even put down a freakin’ mattress?” He slapped the stone floor he was sitting on to emphasize his point. “Horrid!”

  ***

  “What the fuck is he talking about?” Heath asked, unable to believe what he was seeing on the screen.

  “That looks like Backflow but it’s… it’s definitely wrong,” Michael said.

  “Why is it purple?” Sonja asked.

  “It’s all purple now. He did spend some time with his wooden plaque earlier. And he did pull one face of surprise after the other, so maybe he got something good?”

  “If by good, you mean infuriate the monster to a point where it might pop a vein and die from blood loss, then sure,” Heath commented.

  “But did you see how the hydra suddenly shied away from Eik for a moment back there?” Mikla broke in, fascination shining through in his tone.

  “Now that you mention it, yes. That definitely happened. I kinda thought I just mistook its behavior. What the hell is that ability?”

  "No Idea," Mikla replied.

  "Speaking of, why couldn't we see the text on his wooden plaque when he was going through his level ups?"

  Mikla snapped his fingers. "That one I can answer. In order to not reveal their ability sets, and in extension to protect their privacy, all status text like that is censored completely in the broadcast. Only Eik himself can see it."

  A muffled but nonetheless irritating voice piped up from the seats next to them. “I guess your boy isn’t quite as great as you advertised, is he now?” the guy Heath had put to sleep with a single punch sung, his confidence after that knockout more impressive than anything else. “He’s gone completely mad in the face of death.” His friend, who had originally been on board with the teasing, had long since realized that it was a bad idea and was now trying to get him to shut his mouth.

  “Why are you… Why are you still here, man?” Heath asked, most of his previous anger replaced by genuine incredulity. “Didn’t we all just witness him exterminating like four hundred thousand of those ugly-ass worms with a smile on his face?”

  Michael nudged the tank. “He was out cold until like three minutes ago, dude.”

  “Ah, really?”

  “I didn’t see shit!” the young, entirely too self-confident man sneered.

  “I’m going to do it again, Mikey,” Heath muttered, beginning to fold up his sleeves. “I’m going to punch that little shit right in his dumb mug again!”

  “Calm yourself and just watch Eik, Heath,” Sonja said. “He’s fighting for all of us right now. It’s the least we can do for him when we were too weak to join him.”

  Heath paused and gave her a long look. Plopping back into his seat, he didn’t deign to offer the annoyance two seats down another glance.

  ***

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Eik just couldn’t stop laughing.

  As it turned out, the hydra was making its way closer to him. Each movement of its massive jaws shaved off whole sections of the bedrock. Eik had just been mistaken, and that was absolutely hilarious.

  “But if you’re coming all the way in here, then I really do have to kill you, don’t I?” he giggled maniacally.

  He rolled to his feet and swallowed a Potion of Mighty Strength class 2, watching the maw gnashing ceaselessly. With a speed that have been impossible, he shot forward, switching into Toxic Liquefaction in an instant and entered the beast’s mouth.

  Inside he regained his human form the moment he made it past the teeth. It was tight but that was the way he liked it. Stabbing the wakizashi into the base of the hydra’s tongue as numerous small spikes pierced the lining of its throat from any opening in his armor, he was well and truly stuck.

  “Ah, this brings back memories!” he howled, full of mirth. “Third time’s the charm, eh!”

  Liquefying one of the many spikes, Eik jammed his whole hand into the gash left behind and pumped purple toxin directly into the hydra’s bloodstream while the rest of his body went to work on filling its belly.

  Some of the hysteria had faded at this point but the madness had settled deep inside him in a way that he just couldn’t shake. This fight was just so fun that he could barely contain himself, his little feet stomping mirthfully on the inner walls of its esophagus. It felt like a trampoline, it was so elastic!

  He both heard and felt it go through a severe coughing fit but that only made the whole thing better. It had always been on his bucket list to try what it was like to sleep on a waterbed, but this must surely have been a close approximation.

  Actually, the more it went on, the more annoying the hydra’s thrashing became. It was just way too much. He could barely think with all the racket. Everything would be better if the damn beast would just calm down a little bit.

  Giggling to himself, Eik switched off Visage of Death for just long enough to trigger Accelerant on all liquid toxin present in the hydra’s system. The moment he felt the liquid react to his will and detonate throughout the system, he reactivated Visage of Death, purple flowing in as the blue was washed away once more. The stalagmite-like crystals of toxin also changed back.

  He had barely allowed any time for the madness to face but there was a still a noticeable sensation as it returned in full force. Caught up in it as he was, it felt amazing to the point where he found himself wishing it would never end. It was the incarnation of freedom.

  Rationally, he was well aware of the fact that he would change his mind once he was out of it — that his sane mind would not be a fan of his current state of mind. Dumb, stick-up-his-ass bastard.

  Actually, now that rationality wasn’t at the forefront of his mind for a moment, perhaps simply keeping the Backflow ala Visage of Death up and running indefinitely was an option as well. Why not? It would certainly be way more fun that way, and what was life supposed to be if not a venue to experience all those happy chemicals coursing through his brain right now.

  Howling with uncontrollable laughter at the genius of his own mind, he let himself be carried along on the ride that was the hydra’s certain demise, the beast’s massive body thrown around by the violent pulses of the exploding Accelerant.

  Any precision work made nearly impossible by the rocking, he giggled his way through the creation of a purple disk that widened until it completely blocked the esophageal tube. Accidentally cutting numerous small gashes into own arms and hands in the process, he sliced a deep and continuous circular wound all the way around the flesh tube. Sloppy work.

  With another push of his will, the crystalline disk settled into the wound to become a solid wall. He leaned against it and made himself comfortable. “Who’s a shitty handyman now, huh, Heath?” he cried gleefully. “I fit this baby right in there and I didn’t even need a ruler! Nothing but the primal instincts of a master carpenter!” he rapped a knuckle against the wall.

  He didn’t manage to stab more than another five purple spikes into the hydra before he lost his patience completely. “Alright, enough with this. Time to get to the main event!”

  Flowing smoothly into Toxic Liquefaction, Eik rushed out of the gaping maw as it snapped and panted. Just as the last glob of his fluid body was about to let go of the gums, he triggered another Accelerant — this one on the array of toxic spikes inside on of the heads.

  This had better do something useful.

  Returning to his human form, he watched the hydra and he fell backward toward the ground.

  Ravaged by the blue Accelerant, it didn’t have the presence of mind to lunge for him before a shrill, piercing shriek tore out of the throat of the head he’d just exited. A purple glow burst from inside the beast’s head and, for a brief moment, flared across its skin, down its neck, back, and tail.

  The gigantic monster suddenly cramped up and seemed to almost shrink in on itself as it writhed and squirmed.

  “What’s going on with you, you big bastard?” Eik asked, hands on his hips as he looked up at the spectacle. He felt fear roaming aimlessly in the back of his head but the madness seemed to keep it at bay, instead filling him with liters upon liters of careless confidence.

  As he took a few steps closer, the hydra cowered away from his approach like a frightened fox caught in a trap. Pausing for a second and watching the creature carefully, he took one more step forward. A shiver ran through the thing, its eyeless faces all honed in on him like a hawk on a mouse on a football field.

  “Are you… Are you scared of me?” Eik asked quietly as a shit-eating grin split his face in two. “You are! You totally are! Oh, perfect! You know, I was just about to ask for directions!”

  ***

  “The screen is dark! Why is the screen dark?” Michael asked, shooting up from his seat with.

  “They went toward those tunnels! Is it because they’re inside the earth right now?”

  “Is Eik just totally incapable of playing it safe at least sometimes? Does he always have to take as many crazy risks as he can get away with? I know it’s worked out well thus far, but its fraying my nerves to a thread,” Michael sighed.

  Heath glanced to the side but the loud mouth from before had grown quiet after witnessing the way Eik held his own against the hydra. The guy had been laughing in the beginning, but after the Earthling had begun to gain the upper hand his tune had changed completely.

  Eik had definitely been the most highlighted contestant thus far, many of his strategies and fights so outrageous that nobody else had qualified.

  Heath’s eyes snapped back up to the screen when the crowd suddenly roared in chorus. The previously black display burst into light in an instant, the gloomy underground arena now a wide shot of the forest spanning further into the distance than they could see.

  Above the crowns was possibly the most insane sight of the challenge yet.

  Laughing like a lunatic zoo keeper, Eik sat in the open mouth of one of the hydra’s heads as the titanic creature erupted from the earth.

  He was back in the game and headed straight for one of the intact mountains. And this time he'd found a big horse.

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