Jumping head first into an nigh-on invisible army of snakes doesn't look all that bad.

Keyword look.

It's actually really damn terrifying.

Like really really terrifying.

It feels like I can almost feel each and every molecule of sweat currently going down my back.

I'm hyperaware of every thought going through my mind aswell as everything going on around me, I know the exact position of each and every snake in a 10 metre radius surrounding me.

As I land I flare my aura, and grab the snake corpse off of my neck and start using it as a shu-covered whip.

With each and every snake that is being hit by the whip, that is one less snake I have to deal with, why?

Because I can absorb their aura the moment they are hit, through my aura touching theirs.

Every snake that falls only serves to make me and me alone stronger.

One after the other they will all fall.

And sure I've got a few openings, but it isn't like they could even hope to damage me, they can't catch me off guard like the first unfortunate snake I met.

Good, I've now completely regained my aur--

!

Damn this snake whip really had to break didn't it?

A snake started flying right towards my handsome face.

Frowning and getting into a stance, stepping forward I stike the snake with the dorsal side of my wrist on it's jaw.

Due to the blow, the snake's body immediately started to fly upwards, taking another step forward I traced my left hand against it's body waiting for it's tail to meet my hand, once it did I started using this snake as a new whip.

On a happier note, with my aura capacity limit reached, when I continue to absorb even more aura, my aura capacity increases and my previous wounds from the fall have started to heal at an accelerated pace, the poison is also affecting me less and less as time goes on, and the best part is that it seems to be a never-ending cycle of improvement.

It's almost as If I'm farming exp, and what's even better is that I've only had to invoke the use of the aura absorbtion hatsu once, techniqually if I never turn it off then I'll just never have to turn it back on.

And the hatsu will never turn itself off becuase bacteria are considered to be living creatures, and as long as there is bacteria inside my aura sensing dome then there will always be something to absorb.

This truly is a perfect example of synergy.

The lack of a fighting style is certainly getting to me, so, I tried remembering all the self defense classes my parents made me take as a child, even though those are uh.. mostly directed to humans, surely there's a way to apply them to other creatures like snakes.

It could be said that all martial arts at a high level are somewhat similar to eachother, not so much in the movements as there are thousands upon thousands of techniques from dozens of different martial arts.

But in purpose.

Most martial arts can be categorised into two categories, they are either designed for defense or for offense.

In my current situation, self defensive martial arts are more useful, all I need is one tap and the opponent is removed from the equation, now while I may not be an expert in this field of life, nor is it all that applicable to animals, one can always try.

Bobbing and weaving inbetween snakes, always making sure I'm on the move, if a snake gets to close all I do is tap it and move on.

And as for the snakes that are jumping uptowards me from the ground, I simply either dodge them or use their momentum against them by guiding them towards the other snakes.

With all the shriveled up snake corspses sprawled out on the floor it was inevitable that I would step on some of them and create a colourful picture of blood guts and carcasses, that are littered all over the soft and moist rainforest floor.

As I continued to reap one life after another in a quick and slightly efficient manner, I started to notice that even though the river of blood mixing in with the soil was getting larger and larger, the number of adversaries I was facing was only continuing to increase.

I was slowly improving throughout this battle, my use of the advance principle shu was getting better and better, though that could also be attributed to my aura capacity increasing.

Almost as if dancing, I continued to stay on the move and not let myself be pinned down, slowly moving through the horde of fangs, it was obvious for all to see that my movements were slowing down slightly.

This could be attributed to a few things, it's either the heat or the gross mixture of vemon, blood and mud slowly coagulating and solidifying over my skin, or maybe both.

---narration pov

What do you think happens when a group of wasps enter a bee nest? Usually it only takes a group of wasps to go in and decemate an entire hive of bees, they go in there and decapitate them one by one, and the bees can't really do anything to stop them because of the size difference, or well that was the case until they figured out a strategy, which involved...

Killing through the use of body heat, it one of the worst ways to go out, it's a strategy usually implemented bees.

They essentailly cook by swarming you from all sides and stacking on top of each other in a way that makes a huge ball, some people like to refer to these 'balls' as 'Hot bee balls'.

The reason such a painstaking and roundabout way of killing intruders is used because the animals that implement such strategies cannot damage or kill the being that enters their territory through conventional methods.

Since this particular species of snake could not damage Lior, due to his ken, they switched up and tried to cook him using their bodyheat.

As for the carcasses of their breathren? They also play a important role in this strategy, they inhibit his movement, albeit not by a lot, and in later stages they'll keep the heat traped and bury him alive, so that if he doesn't die from heatstroke, he'll die from asphyxiation.

What really makes this strategy a double whammy is that this strategy, while not as effective as it is for bees, it would still absolutely destroy the average human, the average joe's body temperature can reach up to 40° celcius (104°F) and it only takes about 42° celcius (108.14°F) before the brain gets damaged irreparably, now these limits are slightly raised due to aura, but even raw aura has it's limits.

However, aura is said to feel like a warm and viscous liquid, it is unknown if aura actually emits heat but even if it doesn't the nocebo effect could be enough to push Lior's body and mind over the edge and into a state of heat stroke.

With that in mind, Lior started to plough through the dead and alive snakes, his feet sinking from time to time as if he was either running on top of snow or mud.

---

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