Sora's gaze darted towards the dry and scorched land with little parts of it covered in the Scourge's deadly poison, strong enough to melt anything in its path. Sora summoned the system's tab, scrolling through a list of her other weapons:
[Steel longsword equipped]
Sora returned the daggers she held, drawing out a long blade that looked like the identical copy of a katana. Mustering all the strength, she raised the blade in the air, bringing her hand down looking down at her reflection through the clean metal.
The weapon had been crafted during her journey to the scourge's nest and now she had found something useful for it. Cautiously walking forward, she took short glances at the rocks that had been left unscathed from the Scourge's attack.
*Trudge, Trudge!
The sound of footsteps alerted her from behind, sounding like metal being pressed against the hard earth. Sora turned around quickly and the scene before her left the young girl petrified. Walking slowly towards her, its metal, durable amour melting away from the purple liquid dripping from its body was the Metal Giant, now reduced to the size of a human.
Limping towards Sora who stood still, it fell on its face motionless. Sora breathed a sigh of relief, before cautiously making her way towards its corpse.
As she looked down, a thought came to her mind, 'I think I can siphon it,' she said to herself inwardly. But she was still unsure, seeing how damaged the mythic was, but she never knew if this was going to work without giving it a try.
Stretching her hand forth, her eyes burning with an orange light she commanded, saying the keyword, "Extract"
Dark shadowy tendrils emerged from the corpse before her, bathing Sora with its form. Sora felt the force of this power on her shoulders, weighing her down—she could feel her knees being brought down by this force but she held herself against it.
Sora gritted her teeth, raising her hands in the air as the shadows slithered through her clothing like a snake. Sora could feel this but in order to obtain this power, she had to hold herself and the power in place and with much effort, she was able to hold it and just like that the shadows dancing around like tentacles subsided.
The system tab appeared after that, giving her good news:
[You Have Obtained The Siphon Skill: Metal Giant]
Sora smiled brightly, 'Yes, I did it,' she praised herself inwardly—then, another tab appeared right next to the one she read which picked her attention and as she read through that one, she was overwhelmed by the words:
[Siphon Skill Abilities]
•Phantom Slash (6s) {Unlocked}
•Sonic Speed (10s) {Unlocked}
•Vibranium Surge {Locked}
•Claw storm {Locked}
'This is amazing,' she thought to herself, seeing that the skill she had siphoned had abilities under it—but the other ones being locked meant that she needed to reach certain levels in order to unlock it.
Though she was going to get back to those ones later, as she wanted to test the Phantom Slash ability for herself. Saying the command "Activate," which she had learned about in her journey, the sword she held in hand was coated in dark, translucent flames.
Sora glanced down at this strange phenomenon, her eyes having changed to a red color—an effect of the Metal Giant's siphoned skill. After a few seconds, the flames slowly died as a countdown of six seconds started from the system.
Sora sighed, disappointed from how long the skill could be used—but she was happy, at least she had gotten what she longed for now she could face the Scourge. As she basked in her glory, a sudden rumbling from under the earth caught her off-guard.
Sora managed to stand firm, gripping her blade tightly, "Looks like that damn snake is coming back. Just in time for me to use my skill," she said out loud, an just as she had expected the Scourge had emerged from the ground a few feet away from her.
At a length of fifty feet, the Scourge loomed over Sora—its forked tongue slithering in and out of its jaws as it hissed. Sora stood; her legs stuck on the ground as she faced the monster head on.
It suddenly charged, and Sora did the same leaping into the air with a battle cry, her blade poised to strike at the snake. As the two opponents met head on, the scourge had gotten the upper hand as it bit on her blade with enough force to crack it.
Using the hilt of her blade as the monster struggled with it, Sora spun herself in the air now finding herself above the scourge. Quickly drawing out her dual axes—the weapons she had crafted in the dream world, Sora spun back down tearing at its head but there was no use.
Her weapons were bounced back after making contact with the impenetrable skin of the scourge, 'It's no use, the scales are too strong,' she commented inwardly, overwhelmed by the powerful force of the metal scales. The scourge had taken notice of her efforts and while she was caught mid-air, it turned around opening its mouth to swallow her whole.
[Siphon Skill Activated: Metal Giant]
The system chimed as Sora activated the new siphoned skill she had newly obtained, her eyes glowed with a red hue as she harnessed the ability she had under the siphoned skill 'Phantom Speed' and in a sudden flash of black, she was gone from the area being saved by this ability now landing herself back to the ground.
[Cooldown: 10s]
The scourge finally clamped its jaws with force only swallowing the air in the process as Sora had transported herself from. Sora's eyes widened at what this ability of hers just did.
Seeing that it hadn't gotten a feel of its prey's flesh, the scourge quickly turned its attention to Sora who stood behind it. Having at least a few seconds to attack, Sora scanned the scourge's body, 'They should be a weakness around there, somewhere,' she thought, her burning yellow eyes glancing through its scaled amour.
Then, it finally hit her,
Sora had took notice of the snake's neck, the only place that was left amour less—if she could get there as fast as she could, there was a high chance that she could slit it's throat but at this point, there was no way of calculating her movement as the monster charged at her, its jaws wide open ready to swallow her. Sora gripped her weapon and with every ounce of strength she had left she charged, "It's now or never!" she said with a strained voice, running full force towards the titan.
Activating the speed she had possessed from the Metal Giant and the strength she had obtained from the Minotaurous, she charged with determination and resolve, dodging every attack from the monster.
——
As Sora faced the monster, a fully healed and angry Merric climbed the exit of the pit, "Damn that wretched newbie," he cursed as she steadily rose to the top and as soon as he reached it he was completely overwhelmed by the display of battle before his eyes.
He couldn't believe what he had set his eyes upon. Just few meters away from where he was, Sora gracefully dodged the attacks from the scourge trying her best to land attacks on its weak spot but before she could reach it, the monster twisted threatening to swallow her whole.
After what felt like a whole minute of fighting, Sora felt like her efforts were meaningless at this point, facing off against such an opponent felt like she was threading water continuously without reaching her destination.
Then another idea had run across her head, and she wasn't proud of executing it. The scourge charged again, its jaws wide open ready to swallow her, the thing it had planned on doing from the start which Sora had took notice of just now.
Merric watched in horror as the young lady exhaled taking off the cloak that was draped over her shoulders as it was carried by the wind, her gaze darting towards him as she stood still—and as he saw this, he knew immediately what Sora planned to do at that point.
"What... what are you doing rookie?" he said, knowing fully well Sora couldn't hear him. He climbed out of the pit fully as he shouted, "Get out of the way, goddammit!"
Despite his screams and protests, Sora stood still now turning her gaze from the young man back to the scourge who was now inches away. Sora charged in, jumping into its mouth like she was leaping into a body of water.
Just like that, Sora was gone—lost in the innards of the deadly Scourge, a beast that struck fear in the hearts of many merchants and warriors over the decades. Merric knelt to the ground, the pain he felt on his knees not being as much as the one he felt after losing a comrade of his.
The cloak Sora had carried on her shoulders flew to his direction and landing on the traumatized young man's head.