An ingenious plan, for someone like you

Indeed, Adam had come up with a truly ingenious plan. So unexpected and well thought out it was that later it would be written in history textbooks as “Adam's first ingenious plan”. Even more impressive was how it had been thought up with on the spot. Adam thought that it would be funny if he said “Who said anything about sneaking past them?” so he just spit it out as a joke. However, In this moment, his thoughts converged into epiphany. As if this plan were bestowed from the heavens itself, everything came together in an instant.

Here, we skip to the great enactment.

Step 1, go fishing!

I stood at the edge of the glowing lake, slowly pouring blood into the pristine waters.

There were a few things that I had learned from the initial encounter with the sea serpent. Firstly, the only thing sea serpents have in common with snakes is that they have no arms or legs. Secondly, sea serpents are big enough to swallow a cow in its entirety. Thirdly, sea serpents have a decent bit of intelligence. Fourthly, sea serpents are significantly weaker on land than in water but still completely outclass all other monsters on this level of the labyrinth. Fifthly, the other monsters stay away from the shoreline because the sea serpent often eats them.

So why did the sea serpent spend so much energy to attack us?

It’s not like we could at all threaten it or entered its personal territory.

One might assume that the sea serpent has a taste for human flesh. But if this were true, the sea serpent would go to areas where humans frequently visited and we would hear more reports of the sea serpent eating adventurers. Instead, most adventurers don’t even know that the sea serpent exists on this level. There isn’t even a warning to not go close to the water.

Additionally, high level monsters are able to sense Ryuzu’s Fang or at least know that it is dangerous. Why would the sea serpent expend extra effort to attack an enemy that could be dangerous? I’m sure that if Raya released Ryuzu’s Fang she could have easily dealt with the sea serpent. If things truly had gotten dangerous she wouldn’t hesitate to use it. The only reason she didn’t was because if she did than the real monster would rear it’s head and ruin the plans she has going on in Celestia.

Therefore, there is only one reason why the sea serpent would attack us, and that is its pride. The sea serpent must view itself as the sovereign of this level.

It permits the adventurers to pass through to the next level through its generosity.

It permits the monsters to amass in large numbers and guard the elevator.

As long as it is in control, it doesn’t get mad.

But what happens when someone strong splashes down in its waters and casually walks around the coastline, completely open to attack?

Well, its pride simply cannot handle that. And so it tried to kill us.

By taking off one of our arms, it believed that we learned our lesson and had successfully asserted its dominance. It was happy.

By willingly spilling my own blood into its waters, I was clearly and openly taunting it. Such a prideful creature could never accept such a thing, even when it was clearly a trap.

Pain nullification, on

Limit break, on

Blood and body magic, on

From the calm waters, a high pressure jet of water erupted with a speed unable to be traced by the naked eye. Unable to fully dodge it, the jet struck me in the chest.

Adam: Great, it’s only step one and things are already going wrong.

Luckily I managed to dodge a little bit, so it missed my heart and pierced slightly below my shoulder.

The rest of the sea serpent came rushing in to finish me off. It snapped it’s gaping jaw shut but I had already leapt backwards out of the way.

Adam: Alright, I can work with this.

Step 2, reel it in

The sea serpent was pursuing me faster than it had last time but I always stayed just out of reach. I was guiding us towards the horde of monsters. The idea behind this plan was that the sea serpent would take care of a few monsters, or create some chaos at the very least.

I had been healing my wound while we were running so by the time we got to the monster horde, I was at peak condition.

Some of the monsters had noticed me but before the could reach me I squatted down and then jumped as high as I could in the air.

As soon as I left the ground, I began losing velocity as according to the laws of physics. But after a certain height gravity stopped and I was floating midair. This was the boundary between the normal gravity below us and the artificial gravity that came from the ceiling. It worked the same as the dressing shop that we visited when we first arrived at Celestia.

I flipped upside down and looked up at the sea serpent. It was coiled up on itself and preparing to pounce on me. It closed the distance in a fraction of a second. There was nothing I could do but hope that Raya would do her job correctly.

Over on the roof of a building on the roof, Raya was perched and drew her longbow.

Step 0, Infiltration

Raya was the only one who could go into the monster horde while undetected. Her concealment was a higher level than mine and her electric scales allowed her to move soundlessly and much faster than I could. Truthfully, this was just an excuse I made so that she wouldn’t try to take my dangerous job of being bait and being on the front lines.

Drawing back the bowstring with two arrows notched in, Raya finished chanting her strongest attack that didn’t require unsheathing Ryuzu’s Fang. Of course, just because Ryuzu’s Fang wasn’t being unsheathed didn’t mean that it wasn’t being used.

Raya: –O’ great cloud dragon of the golden dynasty, in the name of vengeance I beseech thee lend me your aid. Pierce with heavenly guidance –Twofold Lightning Arrow

Large amounts of electricity were imbued into the two arrows. Static electricity charged the surroundings and a bright light emanated from the roof of the building Raya was standing on. Several monsters noticed this but before they could even think about reacting to it, the bright light shot out two blue beams of light into the giant sea serpent.

The lightning arrows were aimed at the sea serpent’s eyes and hit their targets almost instantaneously. The sea serpent managed to close its eyes in time but the lighting arrows pierced through its eyelids and struck true all the same.

Boom!

The deafening boom of thunder exploded shortly after the arrows were fired. If I hadn’t been expecting it then I probably would have been left deaf for a few minutes.

The sea serpent roared in both pain and confusion. The lightning arrows must have released their electricity into the sea serpent’s brain, causing considerable damage.

I took the opportunity to pull myself towards the serpent’s head and give it a gift of my own.

Adam: Violence and bloodshed for the Berserker –Hand Canon

The explosion of blood sent the sea serpent hurtling towards the ceiling and made me fall towards the ground.

Step 3, chaos

At this point, the sea serpent’s tail was on the floor while its head was on the ceiling. I pulled on its tail using a large amount of blood soaked bandages to keep it from regaining its balance while Raya moved towards its head. With its eyes gone, the sea serpent could only rely on its sense of smell to locate us so I sent several small blobs of blood flying around to confuse it.

Thus, the big snake was helpless against the pummeling that Raya and I gave it. The large horde of monsters had definitely noticed us but most couldn’t quite reach the battleground that was mostly taking place along the boundary of opposing gravities. The few monsters that could fly weren’t strong enough to threaten Raya or myself and the ones with bows and arrows couldn’t organize themselves to make a big enough attack that could do anything.

As the big snake flailed around it naturally squashed many monsters beneath it and sent many more flying in all sorts of directions. The monsters tried attacking the sea serpent, but couldn’t break through its layers of hard scales and the sea serpent would end up swatting them away as it flailed around.

Truthfully, Raya and I weren’t doing much damage to the sea serpent either. After the initial volley of attacks we were mostly just making it more and more angry as we slowly guided it towards the elevator.

Step 4, last stand

I glanced at Raya and we both understood that now was the time to enact the final stage of the plan.

While I held off the sea serpent and kept things chaotic, Raya would deal with the monsters directly in front of the elevator.

It was unknown how strong these last few monsters were, making this the most dangerous part of this mission.

The sea serpent’s tail swept past the elevator and Raya took the opportunity to dive in.

I couldn’t help her out any more than keeping other monsters from interfering.

But, amidst the chaos, I managed to take a glance at how Raya was doing.

She was facing off against two minotaurs and a horned orc general. I don’t know how much time had passed since the fight started but so far she had killed one minotaur, heavily injured the other, and destroyed the weapon of the horned orc general. The minotaur stood at 8 feet tall and was breathing heavily through its bloody snout. Likewise, the horned orc general breathed heavily and stared at Raya with the horns protruding from where its eyes should be. After a moment passed, they both lunged at Raya, who apart from looking winded, was physically fine.

On the other hand, I didn’t think my condition was doing so well. The sea serpent had hit me dozens of times throughout the battle, breaking my bones each time and cutting open my skin on its scales that were more rough than sandpaper. Spears and arrows had pierced my arms, legs, abdomen, and neck several times. At some point, my healing became slower and less accurate. Currently, I was mostly relying on blood manipulation to move my body while only healing things that would lead to my immediate death.

Still, I made sure that no one would interfere with Raya’s fight.

Every second felt like an eternity.

How much longer can I keep going?

Where are you Raya?

I can barely even think without you by my side.

My vision was becoming blurry, and something giant slammed me into the ground.

–Cough–

Blood came out of my mouth just now. I can’t even tell what’s broken though.

Hmmm, It looks like my arm is missing too. Wonder where I dropped it, haha.

Am I dying here?

Something picked me up and put me on its back.

Golden floor? The elevator?

Adam: Raya? Did we do it?

A beautiful face appeared before me. For some reason it looked distressed.

Raya: Adam, you did well! You did a great job! Heal yourself!

She took a step back and looked at my condition.

Raya: I-I think one of ribs have punctured your left lung. Heal that first! Shit, your bleeding all over the place! Stop the bleeding! No, wait, I’ll use these bandages and patch you up. Heal your organs and stuff!

She rummaged through her backpack for a moment before procuring some bandages and medicine. She applied them hurriedly but then turned to me anxiously.

Is it just me or is she lookin kinda cute? I’m a lucky dude.

Raya: Adam? Adam! Stay with me, it’ll be alright! You’ve lost a lot of blood. Can you take mine and use it to heal yourself?

…That’s actually not a bad idea,

Adam: …probably –cough– put as much mana as you can in it and pour it in my mouth.

The main reason why I was in this state was mana deficiency. If I just had a little bit then I could figure out a way to heal myself.

Normally, you can’t give your mana to someone else. I’m a special case though. Because I use blood manipulation I should be able to take in some mana by acting as if the blood is mine and digesting it. In theory, this might work but it will definitely have some side effects.

Raya immediately cut open her wrist and let herself bleed into my mouth… This would be quite a strange situation is someone was looking from the outside.

I mentally prepared myself and swallowed the mana imbued blood.

Immediately a shock spread throughout my entire body. It hurt even though I still had pain nullification on.

Note: Mana should not be mixed.

My first instinct was to vomit it all out but I controlled myself and forced my stomach to break it down and assimilate the mana imbued.

It felt as if my soul was being torn apart but eventually it worked and I had just enough mana to heal my internal organs.

Raya also finished with the bandages.

In the end, I looked like a mummy as I laid spread eagle on my back in the middle of a golden elevator.

Adam: Heh, looks like the ingenious plan worked out flawlessly.