It gave a powerful and loud shriek that rivaled a banshee, it was powerful enough to dispel my [shadow cloak], the strong shriek was also accompanied by a powerful breeze of wind that pushed me against a tree.

-AHHHHH! W-what is this! HUMAN! What curse is this!

It yelled, in the meantime I was reloading my cylinder for the second round of bullets at the pond which now showed signs of its new color that started appearing, a darker tone of color than the first cylinder, more cylinders meant more damages, the darker the color the deadlier it is.

-Answer!

“Shut up, will you…”

I aimed my gun as I interrupted her yelling and emptied my cylinder once again at the pond, doubling the effect and damage that it was currently seeing, this type of gun was very lethal and I wanted to limit my use of it, so I can practice my summoning, resurrecting, magic capabilities, who knew it was useless here.

-THIS! HUMAN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME! YOU! WILL REGRET THIS!

It exclaimed, hearing it still talk and oppose the damages and lethality of my bullets made myself act now or never, but my movements were limited than when I was a ghost, when I am in [shadow cloak] [Blood Sacrifices]’s drawbacks would be reduced since I wasn’t in a physical state.

But now that it was dispelled, all of [Blood Sacrifice]’s drawbacks and post effects will now overrun my nerves and body, limiting my movement, faster fatigue rate, low health and unable to regenerate, it was a one-time use that needed to only be used for life-and-death situations.

She was powerful enough to kill my most powerful fire attribute summon and was able to pierce my body like butter using a wind spear or sword, since she was also invisible I wasn’t able to fight her head first so that only rational thing to do was to use [Blood Sacrifice]

I knew this would happen, so as a backup I casted [Bloodlust] this would delay the shock that I’d experience and the pain that I would feel a few more minutes later, not to mention, I was basically not a human anymore once I use [BloodLust] my speed, dexterity, defense, vitality would also be doubled, allowing me to move like a jaguar and act like I'm no longer human.

I walked up slowly to the pond and didn’t take any chances and fired another round of bullets at the water, emptying another cylinder before reloading another one and shooting the grass, trees, everything that I could think that it can use for a source.

The dry sounds of gunfire rang out multiple times, the bullets that hit the grass and tree started creating their craters, imbedding theirselves inside the trees and ground before releasing the powerful purple veins that torments life.

My guess was that since the purple veins job was to prolong life and to torture its target, the only targets I used my gun on was the monsters inside on the floors, since I barely saw any type of ecosystem that consisted of a tree and grassy lands, along with wildlife.

They were technically alive, they absorbed nutrients and they can die of old age, just like humans and monsters, demons, so if that my guess was right.

I looked at the trees and grass and soon noticed breakage and withering on their body as they were engulfed by the purple veins just like moss that grew on trees, the once brownish black trunk of the tree was engulfed with purple lines like worms crawling and slithering.

“Heh, knew it.”

But, come to think of I stopped hearing anything from my current enemy, was it already dead? That was impossible, the water will be the only one to be affected as the water is water, there is no life in it but the one that gives life.

The core is inside there, not to mention, it might be a ‘Fairy Core’ these types of cores are filled up with a heck ton of mana but was discarded as "quite useless" to most people since it was primarily an only-nature magic, if you didn’t have any practice in nature magic, then it was practically useless, it was then primarily used as ornaments and decorations, a secretly powerful one at that.

It can be useful to only a few heroes that my mind can think but the Hero of Nature is certainly one of them.

The problem with ‘Fairies’ is their jungle and guerilla tactics, they are intelligent as humans and can create strategies to defend themselves, they can use nature as their weapon while not being able to be seen by their enemies, their cores are hidden in their sources which are what they specifically choose like trees, grass, under rocks, ponds, waterfalls, anything as long as it is within the grasp of nature.

They are practically the “Vietcong” of the fantasy world, the only way to kill them is burn their sources, which practically meant the ‘Vietnam war’ and napalm strikes all over again, they rank second against the elves, in forest and jungle warfare though.

But since this one is different, I might have a chance in killing it, I’m not greedy if it doesn’t want to be killed then I can give it a false sense of hope, a phycological tactic that can be used anywhere and at any given time, giving your enemy false sense of hope so that when their final line is already in front of you, you just take pity on them for believing they can still win.

Feels good to be honest…

Back to the primary problem, where is it? it went silent and the pond is now purple, not too dark nor too bright, just the right amount that can be called ‘purple’, I can’t dive in there since its basically mixed with the bullets.

Basically, think of it as a waterborne parasitic virus, it got mixed with water then it is now infectious to those that swim, dive or enter the water, which basically means, enter this pond and die.

“a ‘Pond of Death’ to be clear…”

I said with a grim voice, obviously provoking my enemy to speak up and show itself but to no avail.

“Fuck… [Summon: Ferunea]”

I yelled as I felt my body weakening, ‘Ferunea’ basically a type of cave spider, skin as hard as steel, body that can withstand several high-level magic, a APC* *¹Armoured Personnel Carrierof the fantasy world, inside its big abdomen carried more small spiders with the same characteristic as it had, it was the perfect APC but it was pierced by an iron bullet leading it its demise.

From the ground up roughly an 8ft body of spider rose up clad in shadows, then immediately the shadow disappeared revealing the ‘Ferunea’, my Iron spider summon, its skin was just like I killed when it was still alive.

Skin that may look like normal flesh but as hard as Iron, the abdomen carries hundreds of smaller ones of it, it can release an army to fight for it, but it was still far shorter than the two-story one I killed, it was too high level even for me, Death should nerf my gun.

“Now then, Find the Core.”

I commanded it to, and without opposition it did what I commanded it to, it secreted a hundred or so smaller versions of itself at its butt and gave a strange sound like that of a chewing noise, then hearing that strange sounds the hundred smaller version of itself ran head first to the contaminated pond, some may die and some may retrieve the core, but all in all, that is was one costly way to do it.

Then I laid myself down on the ground and slept so that I can recover myself.

And after a few minutes or hours or whatever, I just knew it was a long time, I sat near the purple pond as the iron spiders swam and searched for it, but to no avail.

The core wasn’t there, it was impossible for it move in a different place, I destroyed the trees, grass, anything that it can use as another source, there was nowhere for it to place its core, was it able to run? I questioned myself.

“Shit, well, it was weak either way, it just gave me a sudden lethal attack then vanished.”

It wasn’t a type of ‘stab and run’ it had the ability to kill me…

Was it doing ‘Russian’ tactics, I still haven’t reached Axparixkus’s floor, so of course his demonic legion of hell are the first to combat me, it said she was part of the demonic legion of hell so it must’ve retreated to its allies.

How was I able to think that she was part of the demonic legion of hell? She said the ‘Last 5 Floors beneath me’ she informed me earlier, if I was to deduct what she said, she and the other 4 floors are the “Demonic Legion of Hell’ while the last one is Axparixkus’s Floor, the Floor of the Demon king.

I might be wrong, but who knows, but finally…

“I can finally escape! This wretched hell for a dungeon!”