Luke's arm was gone, swallowed whole by the serpent. He hit the ground, barely escaping being eaten alive. His eyes snapped to the ragged stump where his arm had been, and the agony flared into something worse: a burning sensation that wasn't just from the pain. Acid. The fang had been laced with it.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" the Beast Lord roared.

Luke forced himself up, legs shaky, breath ragged. The monster stared him down, eyes wild, chest heaving with hatred. His bow lay nearby. He dismissed it, sent it back to his inventory. Blood poured from the torn hole where his arm used to be, soaking his side in dark red. The Dark Blood skill was already trying to seal it, but it wasn't fast enough. Not against this. His heart thudded like a war drum. The truth was unavoidable. He was going to die.

The serpent lunged, fast and brutal. Luke dove aside as the ground erupted behind him from the impact, flinging him through the air like a ragdoll. The Beast Lord came again, mouth wide, dragging itself forward like a living avalanche. He was about to be eaten. Scrambling, Luke sprinted into a nearby house just as the walls exploded inward. That gaping maw broke through the debris, jaws wide to consume.

He ran through the collapsing home as the serpent's massive body coiled through the walls behind him, crushing everything like a tightening noose. Acid dripped from his wound, the venom not yet in his bloodstream, but the pain was unbearable, an open, searing burn layered over the raw trauma of the missing limb.

He jumped.

While still in midair, the serpent struck, ramming into him and sending him crashing through a wall and into another building. Before he could move, another blow, a headbutt, sent him flying. He skipped across the ground like a stone on water, bones crunching with every bounce. He tore through a wall and landed in a heap.

"I'M GOING TO DEVOUR YOU ALIVE!" the serpent roared, rage spilling from every word. The shattered fang. That was it. That was the reason. The fury in its voice was feral, personal. Luke had taken something from it, and now it wanted everything.

The Beast Lord slithered closer, its forked tongue flickering in the air like a whisper of death. Luke tried to stand. He staggered, body wrecked, face swollen, vision blurring at the edges. He was barely alive. Still, he reached down and grabbed one kukri. Just one. Held it low, like a fang. That's all they had now. One fang each.

The serpent opened its mouth, revealing its single remaining tooth. Luke glanced around. He was surrounded. The serpent's massive coils had encircled the entire building, forming a death ring. Above, the Beast Lord reared back, ready to strike.

"Any last words, little rat?" the monster hissed.

"I already told you!" Luke spat blood and pointed his kukri at the serpent. "Even a rat gets dangerous when cornered. Go ask your fang what happened to it."

The Beast Lord swelled with rage. Its jaws opened wide, letting out a roar so forceful it pressed the air flat around them. It reared back, maw stretching even farther, then lunged with a killing strike. But just before the impact...

"AARGH!" the serpent recoiled, writhing mid-lunge.

It stopped close to Luke, body twitching, then pulled back even farther in pain.

"Esophagus!" Luke shouted, still pointing the kukri. He reached for his necklace and pulled out a potion, not a healing one, but a stamina potion.

The serpent thrashed harder, spasming uncontrollably.

The Beast Lord locked eyes with him, confused and furious. "What did you do?!"

It tried to push forward again but staggered instead, its coils trembling.

"Everything you swallow goes through the esophagus and straight into your stomach," Luke said as he returned the kukri to his inventory. In its place, the bow appeared in his hand. "Did you forget you swallowed something?"

The serpent's gaze flicked to the bloody hole where Luke's arm used to be. Realization hit. It had swallowed his arm. The Beast Lord let out another guttural shriek and slammed into a nearby building, writhing against the stone as if trying to tear something out from inside itself.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Your stomach's full of hydrochloric acid. That stuff melts anything you don't chew," Luke continued. "So I packed my arm with enchanted seeds and made them sprout the second you swallowed it."

It had all been possible thanks to Freya's Blood, and the Botanical Bond. Luke pulled a special arrow from storage while the serpent convulsed in the distance, howling in agony. The arrowhead was made from the fang he had torn from the Beast Lord in the past, using the forest minotaur's axe.

"In other words, you son of a bitch, I just brewed a potion inside your stomach. Used your own acid as a catalyst!"

"I'M IMMUNE TO POISONS!" the serpent roared, barely able to stay upright. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"

It was true. The Beast Lord was immune to toxins. But Luke hadn't brewed a poison.

"Who said I poisoned you?" Luke grinned. "I gave you a powerful ANTIDOTE!"

There was only one way to purge toxins when using the kind of antidotes Luke could create...

The serpent started to vomit.

"I made a hyper-concentrated vomit remedy."

It kept vomiting. And now, the stench in the air turned foul.

"Oh yeah," Luke added. "Those cramps you're feeling? That's you shitting yourself too."

The Beast Lord let out a tortured scream as its body convulsed, retching and... well, the rest.

"CURSED HUMAN! USING HUMILIATION MAGIC!"

"This is pharmaceutical science, you bastard. That's how medicine works!" Luke shouted, clenching the arrow in his teeth as he drew it back.

[Stamina: 901/1970]

All of it, every step, had been part of the plan from the start. The Beast Lord collapsed, twitching on the ground, vomit spilling from its maw. It was paralyzed. Just for a moment, but that was all Luke needed.

The bow was already in his hand. The special arrow too. But only one arm left. Without hesitation, he pressed the bow tight against his body, nocked the arrow, and leaned forward. Clenching his teeth around the shaft, he pulled the string back with his mouth. The tension groaned against his jaw. His muscles shook. His shoulder burned. The pain was unbearable, but he didn't scream. He was never going to land a perfect shot like this. It didn't matter. The target was close. Still. That was enough.

He began channeling stamina into the arrow. And something else. The shaft started to glow, blazing with white light wrapped in shimmering rainbow particles. That was his trump card. The skill he'd earned at level 40 as an Assassin.

[Mana Infusion (Rare)]: By channeling mana into a weapon or projectile, the impact becomes charged with concentrated arcane energy, triggering a magical explosion on contact. The more mana consumed, the more unstable and destructive the release becomes, capable of reaching extreme levels of power when pushed to the limit.

Luke poured mana into the arrow with everything he had, forcing it through at maximum speed. This was what he'd trained for. Channeling energy faster than instinct. But he didn't stop there. He added stamina too.

Mana and stamina, flowing together. The arrow pulsed with blinding light, trembling in his grip. Every time he'd tried this combination before. Overloading the arrow with too much mana or pushing both energies in tandem. It had always exploded in his hands. The arrows couldn't handle it. That's why he'd crafted a special one.

Its tip was made from the fang he'd ripped out of the Beast Lord's jaw with his axe, back when this all began.

"I needed you still. I needed you thinking you'd already won," Luke growled, words muffled around the string clenched between his teeth. "You thought I was caught, but the truth is, I was the one coiled around your neck... waiting to strike."

And he let go. The arrow shot forward, wrapped in a blinding white light, aimed straight at the monster's wounded eye. The serpent, weak and writhing, let out a guttural scream and tried to twist away.

Too late. The explosion hit.

A massive blast tore through the ruins. Luke was flung, swallowed by the very shockwave he'd unleashed. Debris shattered around him, heat licked at his skin, and then...

[You have slain Frankzaroth, the Great Serpent (Beast Lord) - Lvl 83]

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 43! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 44! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**[You have reached Level 32! Half-Demon (Rank F)] (+1 bonus point to all attributes, +1 free point)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 45! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

[You have unlocked a new Class Skill]

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 46! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**[You have reached Level 33! Half-Demon (Rank F)] (+1 bonus point to all attributes, +1 free point)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 47! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 48! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**Your profession [Botanist of Mother Freya] has reached Level 39! (+2 Str, +2 Agi, +2 End, +2 Vit, +2 Per, +2 Int, +4 Free Points)**

**[You have reached Level 34! Half-Demon (Rank F)] (+1 bonus point to all attributes, +1 free point)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 49! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**Your class [Demonic Assassin] has reached Level 50! (+5 Per, +4 Str, +4 Agi, +3 Vit, +2 Int, +3 Free Points)**

**[You have reached Level 35! Half-Demon (Rank F)] (+1 bonus point to all attributes, +1 free point)**

And finally, the last notification flashed across his vision:

[An item has been added to your inventory].

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