The moment Shad finished speaking, the giant snake launched itself forward like a cannonball.
Its enormous body surged through the air, closing the distance between them in an instant.
Shad was no ordinary fighter. Even on Earth, his physical capabilities had surpassed what most trained athletes could achieve. He could reach speeds beyond the fastest sprinters, and his reaction time far exceeded that of an average MMA fighter. Without the superhuman serum, many ordinary combatants would have considered him superhuman.
Now, with access to the Flow, his already exceptional abilities had been pushed even further.
The instant the snake began its attack, Shad was already moving.
He had no intention of making the same mistake as the bear-like creature. He understood that the snake was faster and stronger than he was, and he had no reason to wait until its attack was fully committed before reacting.
Shad shifted sharply to the right.
The snake's jaws tore through the space where he had been standing, missing him by inches.
Using the momentum of his movement, Shad rotated his body and drove his right fist into the side of its head.
Flow surged through his arm.
""BOOM!""
His fist struck the snake's face with enough force to jolt its enormous head sideways.
The creature had not expected its prey to move so quickly, much less counterattack with such power.
Shad did not give it time to recover.
He stepped in and drove his left fist into its head.
"POW!"
The snake's body recoiled, its movements briefly uncoordinated.
Shad followed with a third punch, this time targeting its right eye.
The impact forced the creature's eye shut, and a violent hiss tore through the forest.
Shad immediately disengaged.
He dashed backward, creating roughly twenty meters of distance between them.
He had barely stopped when the snake's tail whipped through the air.
The attack was almost silent.
Shad caught the movement at the last moment and tried to evade, but he was not fast enough to escape completely. The tip of the tail slammed into his right side.
A sharp crack sounded beneath the impact.
Blood splattered from his ribs as the force sent him flying.
Shad struck the ground, rolled, and tumbled across the dirt before finally coming to a stop.
For a moment, he remained still.
Then he forced himself upright.
Pain spread through his right side. Several ribs had fractured, and each breath sent a sharp sensation through his chest. He pressed one hand against the injury, testing its severity.
It was bad.
But he could still stand.
That was enough.
"Damn."
A dry cough escaped him.
"Even a glancing hit is enough to put me in this condition."
He looked toward the snake.
Something about its movements bothered him.
It was not simply its speed or strength. The creature made almost no sound when it moved. Its body could slide through the forest and strike without producing the usual rustling of branches or scraping of scales against the ground.
That made its movements difficult to predict.
Shad narrowed his eyes.
"I need to kill it quickly."
His injured ribs were already enough of a problem. Another direct hit could leave him unable to continue—or kill him outright.
Across the clearing, the giant snake slowly recovered from the earlier blows.
Its dark-yellow eye fixed on him.
The creature no longer looked at him as prey.
Madness and hatred had replaced its hunger. It wanted to tear him apart, to make the source of its pain suffer in return.
Shad met its gaze without flinching.
Then he noticed something.
The snake's right eye remained closed.
A faint smile touched his lips.
"One eye is enough."
The snake lunged.
Its enormous body surged forward, its jaws opening wide. Two long, curved fangs extended from its mouth like short daggers.
The distance between them disappeared almost instantly.
Shad had anticipated the attack.
He shifted toward the snake's left side, moving into the blind spot created by its damaged right eye.
The creature seemed to expect him to move in the opposite direction. Its head twisted toward the wrong side, and for a brief moment, its attack lost alignment.
Shad used the opening.
His right fist shot toward the left side of its head.
But the snake adjusted faster than he expected.
Its long neck twisted violently, bringing its jaws around for another bite.
Shad recognized the change immediately.
He stopped his punch midway and dropped his body beneath the snake's head. Its fangs snapped shut above him, missing his body by a narrow margin.
He slid beneath its neck and moved toward its blind side.
His hand caught the right side of the snake's thick neck.
Using the grip as leverage, Shad leaped onto its body.
He did not hesitate.
Flow gathered around his fist, compressed into a concentrated point.
Rather than throwing a wide, powerful punch, he brought his fist forward in a short, compact motion.
An inch.
That was all the distance he needed.
His fist struck the center of the snake's head.
""POW—BOOM!""
The impact crushed through the skull.
The giant snake's body convulsed before collapsing onto the ground. Its head struck the earth, and its enormous body went limp.
It was not dead yet.
But the force of the blow had disrupted its ability to think and respond. Its nervous system had temporarily shut down, leaving it paralyzed.
Shad remained on its neck.
He raised his fist.
Then he struck again.
"BOOM!"
The second punch deepened the damage.
The third shattered more of the skull.
The fourth finished the job.
The snake's head split beneath the repeated impacts, and its brain was destroyed. Its body twitched once before falling completely still.
Shad stepped down from the corpse.
For several seconds, he stood in silence.
He had killed the creature.
A giant serpent nearly twice the length and width of a fully grown anaconda, and he had done it without the superhuman serum that had once enhanced his physical capabilities.
On Earth, even a superhuman would not have found killing an ordinary anaconda head-on easy. Yet Shad had just defeated something considerably larger and more dangerous.
He looked down at his hands.
'I suppose I've already surpassed the limits of a superhuman.'
The thought felt difficult to accept.
His strength, speed, reaction time, and ability to channel Flow had all improved at an astonishing rate. He could no longer measure himself using the standards he had once known.
"Everything is happening too quickly."
He released a heavy sigh and prepared to sit down.
Before he could lower himself to the ground, however, something caught his attention.
A faint light glowed beneath the snake's scales.
It came from the region where its heart should have been.
Shad's eyes narrowed.
The light was familiar.
It was the same strange radiance he had seen within the bear-like creature after its death.
The same resonance seemed to linger within it.
Despite the pain in his ribs, Shad stepped closer.
He reached toward the faint glow.
And once again, the strange light responded.