Not A Regressor - Chapter 381

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 381
Interlude – Sisters (5)
Slither, slither.
Within the Abandoned Building, shrouded in shadow.
The eerie sound of The Snake crawling across the floor echoed through the space.
It did not come from just one direction.
Front, back, above, below, and all sides.
As if trapped within a massive cage woven entirely of serpents, the sound reverberated from every direction.
“Exhale.”
Kwon O-jin tightened his grip on the spear, his expression tense with focus.
He activated the Canis Major Constellation stigma, drawing upon every sense in his body.
Slither, slither, slither—
The moment the eerie sound abruptly ceased.
‘Here they come!’
Black serpents erupted explosively from all directions at once.
‘Right side.’
The first to arrive was a snake bursting forth from the moldy wall.
I spun the spear like a windmill, detonating the lightning condensed within its shaft.
Crackling thunder!
With a sound like the heavens splitting, hundreds of serpents were swept away by the lightning.
Hissssss!
While defending against the snakes rushing from the right, one serpent that had approached me latched onto my left arm.
In an instant, the snake coiled around my left arm and opened its massive maw wide, sinking its fangs into my forearm.
Crunch.
As the needle-sharp teeth pierced flesh, a tingling sensation coursed through my arm.
‘Venom.’
Even if it were venom, it would not be some tepid neurotoxin.
No matter how deadly a neurotoxin might be to ordinary humans, to an Awakened with a superhuman body, it was merely a light tingle—a trivial poison.
“Ugh.”
As expected, the venom that had infiltrated my body began ravaging my mana circuits chaotically.
I could see the skin turning blackened and necrotic along the path where the fangs had pierced.
Since mana circuits were the pathways through which stigma mana flowed, even light damage could lead to fatal internal injuries.
‘At this level…’
Crackling!
The stigma mana infused with lightning burned away the venom that had infiltrated the circuits, reducing the snake that had bitten my forearm to ash in a single breath.
‘Recharge.’
I moved toward the right where the snakes were relatively fewer in number, condensing lightning into my left arm.
“Burst.”
Crackling thunder!
The lightning condensed in my left arm exploded outward, sweeping away the charging serpents.
It was merely lightning that had been charged five times over, but since the snakes’ durability wasn’t particularly robust, there was no problem sweeping them away in one strike.
‘The problem was.’
Slither, slither.
No matter how many I swept away, new snakes continued to surge forth from the shadows.
‘This won’t end at this rate.’
There was a way to drag this into a war of attrition, but Cassia had sustained internal injuries and couldn’t endure a prolonged battle—I had no idea what she might do to Isabella.
Kwon O-jin ignored the charging snakes and kicked toward Cassia.
“My, finally gracing me with your attention.”
Cassia smiled brightly as if she’d been waiting, and flicked her fingers lightly.
A massive arm surged from the shadows, blocking Kwon O-jin’s path.
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed sharply as he watched the colossal arm swing down with terrifying force.
Break through it.
Or dodge and circle around.
The deliberation wasn’t long.
‘I’ll break through.’
I drew upon the stigma’s mana and clenched my fist.
In an instant, a vast amount of lightning condensed, and my clenched fist transformed into blue lightning.
The portion transformed into lightning body extended from my fingertips to my wrist.
Since it was created in abbreviated form, its destructive power and durability fell far short of the original lightning body.
But it would be more than enough to pierce through Cassia’s shadows, given that her injuries prevented her from using her full strength.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!
The massive arm composed of shadows exploded outward.
I threw myself through the scattering shadows and swung my spear toward where Cassia had been standing, but.
‘What?’
Cassia’s form, which had been visible until I shattered the shadow arm, had vanished like a phantom.
“Are you perhaps looking for me?”
A voice from behind.
Even without turning around, I could tell her voice was coming from ‘my own shadow.’
‘This is insane.’
She could actually use other people’s shadows too.
Kwon O-jin quickly rolled forward and swung his spear backward.
Whoosh!
The spear swing, executed while rolling forward, carried considerable force, but once again it merely cut through empty air.
“How rough you are~”
This time Cassia’s voice came from overhead.
When Kwon O-jin looked up with an incredulous expression, he saw Cassia standing upside down on the ceiling of the Abandoned Building.
‘Like some ghost from a horror movie.’
To be honest, she was far more terrifying than any ghost.
Kwon O-jin looked up at Cassia standing upside down on the ceiling and spoke.
“You’re going to show your underwear like that.”
“Huh?”
The black dress Cassia wore seemed to have some adhesive applied to it, for despite hanging upside down, it refused to slip. Yet no matter how secure it was, as long as gravity still held sway, any violent movement would inevitably cause the dress to flip.
“Would you like to see my panties?”
Cassia flashed a seductive smile and flipped the hem of the black dress that clung to the ceiling, turning it inside out with a flourish.
Against her slender frame and legs as white as the Snowy Field, black lace panties were now fully exposed.
“Feel free to look all you want.”
“….”
Kwon O-jin pressed his forehead with his hand as if his head ached.
“Hehe, just kidding.”
Cassia burst into laughter and released the hem of the dress she had lifted.
The black dress rose slowly upward, defying gravity, then spread wide across the ceiling like spilled ink.
And then.
Whoosh!
Dozens of long black whips plummeted from the ceiling and lashed toward Kwon O-jin.
Or more precisely, they weren’t ‘whips’ at all.
‘The Snake’s tails.’
Dozens of serpentine tails shrieked through the air with a chilling whistle, targeting Kwon O-jin.
“Ugh!”
One of The Snake’s tails that flew from the side grazed his ribs.
Flesh tore away in chunks from the hooked, razor-sharp scales, and blood poured forth.
Kwon O-jin activated the Hourglass Constellation’s stigma to accelerate his perception, then slipped through the barrage of tails descending from all directions.
‘She’s unleashing this much power while injured.’
A hollow laugh escaped him as he marveled at the dizzying onslaught of attacks, his tongue clicking against his teeth.
At this point, he began to doubt whether Cassia was truly injured at all.
“Ugh….”
Yet seeing Cassia, who had been standing upside down on the ceiling, suddenly wince and descend back to the ground confirmed that her condition was far from good.
Kwon O-jin gripped his spear tighter and watched Cassia, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
“Looks like you’re getting tired.”
“Hah, hah. Oh my? Despite appearances, I’m quite confident in my stamina, you know?”
Cassia brushed her slender body with her hand and offered a composed smile, though she failed to notice the cold sweat trickling down her forehead—her beautiful platinum blonde hair now damp with perspiration.
“Hah.”
Cassia exhaled deeply and slowly closed her eyes.
Ssshhh, shhh!
The black dress she wore spread across the floor like it was being absorbed into it, beginning to engulf the interior of the Abandoned Building in shadow.
Once again, the sound of serpents echoed from all directions.
This time, the hissing was several times more numerous than before.
‘She’s trying to end this quickly.’
Kwon O-jin narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the spear.
‘It’ll be hard to defend inside the building.’
The hour was late at night.
The Abandoned Building, devoid of a single light source, lay shrouded in oppressive shadow.
For Cassia, who wielded shadow itself as a weapon, there could be no more perfect battlefield.
‘That’s precisely why she summoned me here.’
No matter how I tried to evade, shadows consumed everything from floor to ceiling—there was nowhere left to escape.
‘In this place, there is no sanctuary beyond the shadow’s domain.’
Then.
“Tch.”
I spread both arms wide and fired wires toward the wall.
Twang!
The wires shot from my launcher bit deep into the corroded wall, anchoring themselves firmly.
In that same instant.
Shhhhhhh!
Black serpents erupted from the shadows like a tidal wave.
I kicked off hard, evading the terrifying onslaught of snakes.
Like a scene from a famous science fiction film, I sprinted up the wall while hundreds of serpents surged in pursuit.
“Hah… hah… Running won’t save you, I’m afraid?”
Cassia gasped for breath, her eyes narrowed as though in agony.
Her body swayed as if she might collapse at any moment, yet the relentless tide of snakes attacking from all sides showed no sign of diminishing.
Crack! Snap!
I continued my sprint through the vast Abandoned Building, cleaving through the vicious serpents with my spear.
“Hmm. You are quite fast.”
Cassia’s eyes narrowed as she observed the snakes struggling to catch me.
“But what about this?”
The stigma carved upon Cassia’s left chest blazed with light, and sinister mana seeped into the shadows.
Whoooooosh!
A serpent’s tail, long as a whip, erupted explosively upward.
Not from the floor, nor the ceiling, nor the shadows draped upon the walls.
From my own shadow as I sprinted to evade the attacking snakes.
“No matter how fast you move, you cannot outrun your own shadow, can you?”
Her words rang true.
No matter how swiftly I moved, I could never move faster than my own shadow.
“I suppose not.”
I nodded in acknowledgment and came to an abrupt halt.
The space around me had become so saturated with black serpents that finding room to flee was nearly impossible.
‘If escape is impossible.’
I reached out and grasped the wire suspended before me.
As I had traversed the Abandoned Building’s interior, leaping from wall to wall, wires now crisscrossed the entire space like a spider’s web.
“Then I’ll simply burn it all away.”
I pushed my stigma’s power to its absolute limit and channeled lightning through the wire I held.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt!
Blue lightning danced along the wires that crisscrossed the interior of the Abandoned Building.
The Snakes that touched the wires—woven as densely as a spider’s web—burst apart in showers of light, and the darkness that had consumed the Abandoned Building instantly gave way to brilliant daylight.
“Ugh….”
Cassia squinted and stumbled backward.
The internal injuries were taking their toll; her retreating form swayed precariously with each step.
Boom!
Seizing the opening, Kwon O-jin lunged forward and seized Cassia’s slender throat in an iron grip.
“Gack!”
I looked down at her gasping for breath, her face contorted in agony, and spoke in a voice turned cold as ice.
“Let’s stop this pathetic nonsense right now, Cassia.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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