CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42: HIPPO

’ Faster faster faster.’ Ved swung his tail left and right to swim faster, on his tail was a giant mass of muscle and rage eager to rip him to shreds with it giants teeth.

It been over 7 years since he’d been trapped here. For the past seven years he had been searching for a way out and 2 months ago he found it but there was a little problem.

It was on an island, that on it itself ofcourse was not an issue but the island was home to a sky grade rank 4 golden toad and around the island lived a family of hippos.

Which is how he got into this situation in the first place. He thought back to the past 7 years and almost teared up, they were rough.

He spent the first year hunting solitary rank 2 creatures, it was easy for him, they all had lower grade bloodlines than him so he was much stronger than them.

This became even more so after he fully healed from his soul wound. That year was good, really good, he lived and ate like a king without even having to risk his life.

But good things don’t last, after a while he couldn’t find solitary rank 2 beasts so he had to set his eyes on groups and that where his problems started.

The creatures that lived in packs here were strange, like the family of anteaters they had the ability to share their power which meant they could collectively resist his will.

It became impossible for him to put them into sleep without a fight unless they were a family of only rank 1 but the amount of points he got from those were pitiful.

That situation led him to his old ways, fighting. Most had high resistance to poison and while his web still worked it was not as effective underwater.

So he was forced to fight with his body because everytime he put some into sleep they would be woken up by the others and when those fell asleep they too would be woken up by others, although in the end he did manage to put all of them to sleep it was slow and took efforts.

He doesn’t even know how many time he had been poisoned and had to consume that type of poison to gain immunity and it had to be of the same rank and grade as the one that poisoned him. He couldn’t gain immunity by eating a rank 1 beast after being poisoned by rank 2 beast, even if they were the same species.

It was frustrating but who was he, even though he had to sometimes fight 50 to 1 he still won, ofcourse at most there were 3 rank 2 and most were useless rank 1.

That situation continued for 5 years then he could nolonger find any rank 2 in his area and was forced to move. Unfortunately there weren’t many creatures of that rank.

So he was forced to consume large numbers of rank 1 to the point he ended up messing the entire ecosystem. When he was done with that he turned his attention to rank 3.

And that when everything went down hill, it was also when he discovered the way out. While targeting a rank 3 crocodile, having been following it for days slowly poisoning it with the sleeping gas he found the hippos.

And God were there many rank 2 hippos, with them around why would he have to risk his life following a crocodile that almost discovered him multiple times.

So he did what he does best, he abandoned the crocodile, that was a lost course anyways, it body was too strong and it would’ve taken months to put it to sleep.

Even then he didn’t know how long it would’ve actually stayed asleep. However it wasn’t a complete loss since the poison never disappears.

It will remain in it body until he removes it himself or the crocodile discovers it which is unlikely.

After abandoning the crocodile he targeted a rank 2 hippo that strayed from the others, he had gained too much confidence in his method due to it consistent success even with with rough patches, he believed he could sneak in and out without being discovered by their leader and It did not take long for him to silently put the hippo into sweet deep sleep.

However just as he killed it, even before he could enjoy his kill she appeared. A hippo the size of a hill, it body was so large each of it movements caused giant waves that could drown ships.

But it size was not the issue, it was it aura. An aura he had only felt once before. The aura of a rank 4, the moment he saw it he swam as fast as he could even abandoning his prey.

But he underestimated how vengeful it was, fortunately it was slow for a creature of it rank which made sense since hippos can’t swim and the swamp water was very thick but it had been chasing him for hours.

He swam around the island and that when he saw it, a giant toad sitting comfortably on the centre of the small island watching him in amusement and below it was a familiar magic circle.

He was so happy he almost forgot about the giant beast behind him and that almost cost

him his life. Right now he was trying to get as far away from here as possible.

’Until I evolve again i won’t be able to deal with that toad anyways so there is no point in..’ BOOOOM, his thoughts were cut off by a giant explosion behind him.

’huh?’ he suddenly found himself flying through the air with blood spurting out of his mouth and nose. His scales were cracks and blood was leaking through them.

Even his organs were demaged then a mind numbing pain followed. He looked down with blurry eyes, his vision was red, clouded by blood and he saw the space for hundreds of metres around the hippo was devoid of water, visible ripples spread out of it body pushing the water away and cracked the ground beneath it feet.

He knew this is what hit him, no wonder he felt like his insides had become sludge, ofcourse this was merely an illusion due to pain or he would be dead.

His body soared through the air faster than sound, the hippo got smaller and smaller in his vision until it was the size of a cow.

Which was still huge but nothing compared to it hill like size. He didn’t even know how far he flew when his body hit the water like a meteor.

The water exploded and sent giant waves in all directions then his mind went blank, his last thought was, ’ Stupid curse.’