Page 372 of Light Leech

She swung her paws in blind fury, knocking me down, but only taking a point of my health.

Heaven’s General Sha of the Journeymen: Thirteen.

Boarrior of the Journeymen: Seventeen.

Chucarrier the Nihilist: Eleven.

Her health would be down to ten in a moment, but I couldn’t count on that being my endgame. While I let the scoreboard distract me–and before I could focus on Sha’s massacre–CarNin pounded me into the floor so hard that it dented the metal below me.

Down four more health.

I swung my rake up to swipe at her. It did nothing but peel her already dead flesh, dealing no damage. I had spent my concentrated black light and needed more time to charge it.

She lost one health but took another three from me as she bit into my torso and lifted me up like a toy for her to chew.

Drop in.

She opened her mouth to bite down harder, likely with the intention to split me in two. In that blink of a moment I felt my outer body’s agility mod burn.

Was it fixed?

Before she could react, I flung the end of the rake into her mouth, landing its prongs in the flesh of her cheek, and pulled the rest of my body in.

She closed her mouth, trying to vomit us out with the glowing bile that built up in the back of her through. I felt it burn me as she wretched, but the prongs did not release their grip in her cheek.

For a second, the back of her throat was not full of bile. I dove in, rake in hand, shredding her esophagus as light propelled me into her stomach. I burned my agility mod, allowing me to shoot through her gastric walk like a bullet with light-propelled velocity. Her innards had been shredded with the faint black light of my regenerating reserve. I landed across from her collapsing corpse, covered in glowing bile as I stared at the hole in her abdomen from which I had burst.

She collapsed.

Heaven’s General Sha of the Journeymen: Ten.

Boarrior of the Journeymen: Two.

Chucarrier the Nihilist: Zero.

I should have died. I shouldn’t have had access to my outer body’s mod.

Zhu snorted, then laughed. I did along with him in our shared body, but I think we laughed for different reasons.

What?

“Your outer body has ascended. You have ascended.”

What kind of insane timing is that?

“I do not wait for coincidences.”

It was difficult to know if diving into CarNin’s mouth and destroying her from inside had been his doing or mine.

“It was ours. It always is.”

So you needed the mod?

“I did, which was why you ascended.

You can just… cause that to happen?

“No. I orchestrated the events. I cannot cause a flame to arise, but I can organize the kindling with flint and steel.”