Chapter 39: Chapter 39 – Unholy Mana
The Shedu was aware of the danger of unholy mana. It took steps back to avoid getting close to the dark mist that surrounded Matthew. It shook its head dislodging the knife that was stuck on his face making it fall to the floor.
Vanessa ran far, but stood far enough to watch what was going to happen.
Matthew’s skin started to slowly get dark as the unholy mana emanated from it. A small ulcer formed under his right eye. Matthew couldn’t feel it though, for he was maintaining his body with the Anesthesia skill.
But Vanessa noticed. He couldn’t use unholy mana for long or he would destroy his own body.
The Shedu took the initiative and jumped high in the air using its wings to throw two air blades in Matthew’s direction.
Matthew dodged them easily. The combination of both unholy mana and demonic mana inside of him giving him an unimaginable power boost. He shot his gun as soon as he got a good aim, but it exploded on his hand. He overdid the power of Boost Gunpowder and exceeded the amount of pressure his gun could take. Luckily, his hand was unharmed.
The Shedu tried again sending more two air blades towards Matthew that easily dodged them again. Matthew ran in its direction with a smile behind all the blood on his face. He shifted his machete to his right hand, his dominant one, and tried to hack the Shedu on the face.
This time, it was the Shedu who dodged the attack by hopping back with a flap from its wings. On the same movement, it breathed fire against Matthew. The fire breath singed Matthew just a little as he jumped away just as soon as he was surrounded by the flames.
In another quick step, Matthew got close to the monster. This time his strike met flesh and bone, piercing the Shedu’s Vital Shield and cutting deep its front left leg.
Recoiling from the pain, the monster turned in a wide arc, hitting Matthew with its hip and kicking him with his left hind leg.
Matthew absorbed the damage holding his place and hacked at the beast’s left wing. It poured blood on Matthew as it bent in an impossible way and hanged on the beast’s side.
Feeling the pain, the Shedu laid on the floor on its side using its hooves to try to hit Matthew. When Matthew took a step back to avoid the barrage from the creature’s legs, the monster breathed fire on him again this time burning Matthew’s skin a bit more seriously than before.
Matthew rolled away from the fire and looked at the Shedu getting up. It was limping from its left front leg and its wing was hanging from its side. The cuts on the beast were turning black. The unholy mana corroding the wounds fast. He could see on the creature’s face the pain spreading.
Matthew charged again passing through another fire breath quickly and hitting another strike on the creature, this time on its eye.
The Shedu screamed from the pain and stomped Matthew on the right foot in return, pinning him in place. It prepared another wind blade from its remaining wing, but soon it screamed in pain again. Vanessa pierced its wing with throwing three knifes. Not enough damage to render it immobile, but enough to stop it casting the spell.
Matthew took the opportunity and held the Shedu’s hair with his left hand and started to hack the monster’s neck with his right.
The Shedu breathed fire without aim engulfing itself and Matthew on flames. But Matthew didn’t stop. On his third slash a river of the creature’s blood spilled on the floor. It immediately stopped breathing fire and was soon dead.
Matthew, upon seeing the Shedu falling to the ground lifeless, sat on the floor taking a deep breath and releasing the unholy mana that was surrounding him and rotting his skin.
Vanessa came close slowly, certifying that the black mist of the unholy mana was not in the air anymore.
"Kid. We should move away from the body." She said covering her mouth and nose.
Matthew looked at the Shedu’s body. The wounds he inflicted were still rotting by the effect of the unholy mana and starting to leak unholy mana themselves.
Vanessa helped Matthew to walk away from it and sat him in a safe place. She took all the healing potions they brought and poured some on his wounds and the others she made him drink.
His left eye was not emitting the red light of demonic mana anymore, but its iris was as crimson as blood. Matthew smiled at Vanessa while she fixed his broken nose. Being born in a family of doctors, she was familiar with first aid.
Matthew was feeling her breath on his skin. The tender of her touch while she cared for his wounds as she poured potions and enveloped them on gauze. He passed his hand around her waist and pulled her close to him.
"What the fuck, kid?!" Vanessa screamed.
Matthew ignored her and tried to kiss her mouth only to be met with a slap straight on the face.
Immediately, Matthew got filled with anger and lifted his machete, only stopping when he felt a blade press on his neck.
"You better purify yourself right now, kid. You might be way more powerful than me now, but you’re hurt enough for me to cut your jugular in a flash." She gnarled baring her teeth.
Matthew blinked twice before understanding what he was doing. He took out his hand from the small of Vanessa’s back as if it was on fire.
"Purification. Now!" Vanessa ordered pressing her knife on his neck with a bit more force.
Matthew obeyed and soon he lost his sight on his left eye again. The eye returning to its normal blue hue. His skin, that was gray from the unholy mana, turned back to white as well as Purification also removed the rot the unholy mana caused.
"There you go, Kid." Vanessa said softly as she got up and sheathed her knife on her thigh.
"I’m sorry about that." Matthew said breathing deeply.
"You’ll tell me everything as soon as we get out of here." Vanessa said in a menacing tone.
"I will. Sorry I didn’t."
"You might as well be sorry, you fucker. We’re a party. You don’t hide this kind of stuff from us." Vanessa said filled with anger.
Matthew just looked down to the floor. He had no excuse.
"But I can’t deny that it saved us. So... I’ll hear your excuse later." Vanessa said softly offering her hand for him to stand up.
"Thank you." He said taking her hand a getting up.
He soon let go of the Anesthesia skill for he was already feeling dizzy from consuming a lot of mana. When Matthew let go of the skill, all the pain hit him at once making him fall to his knee with a huge groan.
Vanessa held him by the arm and gave him a mana potion to drink.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Yeah." Matthew groaned again. "Just lifted the Anesthesia and felt the pain coming. Wasn’t prepared."
"Let’s just check that corridor where we found the Shedu for items. A mid-boss like that is bound to be protecting something nice. After that we’ll get you to a hospital to get a check up."
That corridor led to a room with a huge gold chest on the middle.
Vanessa walked slowly towards it throwing a rock at the chest checking if it was a mimic. Even if her Sense Traps skill was not making her feel anything, she still was thorough in checking for traps. She feared her skill or her Mind stat weren’t high enough to detect whatever trap was there.
For the joy of both of them, no trap was activated.
Nesting on a red velvet cushion inside the gilded chest, was a tiara made entirely of gold. Vanessa was careful handling it. Even if there were no traps, the item could still be cursed.
"We should have this appraised." She said looking at the runes carved on the sides.
"Should we also take the chest? It looks expensive." Matthew asked.
"No. The chests are made of mana, like the crea...tures..." Vanessa said the last part slowly looking at Matthew. He was covered in blood.
Matthew also realized it when she looked at him. That Shedu was a real creature. Not a mana simulacrum. His mind went back to the goblin incident. But this time there was no way a summoner could have brought that creature there like Orson did back then.
"If we report this to the Tower of Ryvylin they might give us something." Vanessa said making calculations on her head.
"We can’t carry the body. It’s too big." Matthew said.
"We can take the mana crystal inside it and perhaps some body part. They might pay for it. You’ll need to purify the body though."
They took the tiara with them hiding it inside Vanessa’s bag.
They returned to the Shedu’s body and Matthew purified it before they carved it open taking the crystal stone from inside of it. They also took the head, which they put inside Matthew’s bag and one of the wings, which Matthew carried.
They decided to leave, even though they had a lot of time before the new 10 hour cycle. Matthew was too hurt to keep going. Also, carrying a precious item like the tiara they found was a bit dangerous inside that dungeon. Other adventurers might get greedy and try to steal from them.