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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 5 Part 3

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Since she was able to talk in a coherent manner then she should be fine for a while, but it was clear that her physical condition was serous and that she required immediate medical attention.

「You are trying to act all tough, but pretty much anyone with a working set of eyeballs could see that you are obviously in a lot of pain. There is a certain saying in my country: 「Nobody can win against advancing age」. It describes your situation perfectly.」

「And what exactly is that wise saying of yours supposed to mean, exactly?」

「That even someone as powerful and skilled in combat like you is bound to meet their match eventually. So if you find your current situation too difficult for you to handle in your current condition, then how about leaving your current host and obediently run for your life while you still can, huh? Certainly it would be a much better option for you than to drag the innocent girl whose body you are possessing down with you out of something as stupid as pride or selfishness, right?」

「Thank you oh s very much for stating the obvious. It is exactly as you say. The body of this girl is really at its limit. In fact, she is so weak right now that if I were to separate myself from her, at worst she might not survive this, and at best she might fall into a coma she might never wake up from after no longer than five minutes.」

Irritated at having to explain something that was supposed to be so obvious, Parashurama wiped the blood that has accumulated in the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand. But when he heard her words, Izayoi whistled with amusement at something he definitely did not expect to hear from her.

「Oh? What is this now? Am I hearing this right? You want to actually help your host?」

「*Tch!* You bastard, has anyone ever told you that you have an absolutely worst personality?」

Izayoi took Parashurama’s bitter question as an affirmation of his theory.

「All right then, if that is how it is, then I guess settling our little score from four days ago will have to wait. More importantly: there are some things that I would like to ask you about, and I also know someone who might be able to help your host out of her current predicament.」

「Huh? You actually know someone who can stop {Astra} from running out of control?!」

「{Astra}?. . .  Oh, you mean the Star Particle Bodies. Yeah, I guess you can say I know someone who knows all there is to know about them.」

Reaching into the depths of his pockets, Izayoi took out the seeds given to him by Pritt and handed them over to Parashurama.

「These will show you the way to my companion, so you should go and meet with her as soon as you can. Do you know how to use it, or do you want me to show you?」

「Kukuku. . .  do not patronize me, boy. The thought of having to rely on the help of a God is already humiliating enough as it is. I never thought that there will ever come a day when I would have to stoop so low. . . 」

「All right, all right, I get it. You do not like the idea, but it is not like you have any other options left to you now, right? So just shut your trap, stop complaining, take the natives with you and get the hell away from here. If you just stand here yapping that mouth of yours forever. . .  here it comes!」

A strong gust of wind blew through the forest, but Izayoi realized that it was probably not an ordinary wind, but rather an assault of string-like obscure threads, probably launched towards them by the same opponent who was targeting Parashurama earlier, so he jumped backwards and began the turbulent dance with the threads that were too thin to be caught by the naked eye, even though dodging them would be extremely difficult in the current conditions.

Watching him from the side, Parashurama had a few moments where it looked like some of his limbs or fingers have been cut cleanly away from his body, only to see that he was actually fine, which prompted her to remember that thanks to his {Gift of Leo} he was resistant to all kinds of slashing attacks, which made her hesitation at whether or not he is going to be fine fighting such an opponent disappear.

「Very well then! I am going to do exactly like you ask and leave this place to you!」

「Yeah, yeah, leave it to me and all that other crap! Now scram already while I teach this third-rate small fry that does not know proper fighting manners a lesson!」

Having to fight an opponent who remained hidden and was using a practically invisible weapon might have seemed like a tall order even for someone like Izayoi, but in order to deal with this situation all he had to do was a very simple thing: when he sensed that the next wave of threads was about to reach his body again, he caught them with his other hand, and now that he had them firmly in his grasp, he pulled them towards himself with all his might in an attempt to try and bring out whoever was controlling the threads out of hiding and into the open, but as soon as he did that the thread user cut it away from him themselves.

Rotating on his right foot to prevent himself from losing balance and rolling over, Izayoi leapt forward in a straight line. If the invisible threads were his enemy’s only advantage then the battle should be fairly straightforward, but if they end up having more than one ace up their sleeve, but if they actually possessed more than one, this could spell trouble for him, but if he was forced to choose between a more cautious, slow and steady approach or a balls-to-the-wall one where he could finish everything up with a single, powerful attack, then of course he was going to choose the latter without any second thoughts. So when he finally saw a shadowy figure hiding amidst the shadows of trees and bushes, he immediately chased after it.

But the figure also noticed him as well and fell back as if it was teleporting between the gaps in the lush greenery that surrounded it. It also shook its fingers, and once it did, another powerful gale swept through the forest, cutting it down one tree after another. but just like the figure’s previous attempts at hurting him by using this method of attack, these one did not hurt Izayoi at all. If anything, they only served to give him a better view of the surrounding area.

If they did not learn anything from the first attack and then just mindlessly repeated it, then was that enemy really that much of a threat? Or perhaps there was some other goal that they were trying to accomplish while keeping Izayoi occupied under the guise attacking him? With that in mind, Izayoi was trying to decipher his enemy’s intentions while cautiously avoiding the threads which continued to snake their way towards him like an endless torrent.

(Unless all of those threads have been coated with poison, trying to cut me with those threads makes no sense at all. They are certainly sharp, but against me they will be useless all the same, so what the hell are you aiming here for, buddy?)

What if these manuevers of cutting both him and the trees around him was just so that he could be led into mistakenly thinking that the threads have been used for the purpose of 「cutting」? Because when you think about it, threads are not the weapon that should be used to cut things in the first place.

(If I were the one fighting with threads, then what would be the most effective method of using them? Catching the opponent. . . tying them up in order to seal their ability to move. . . tighten the threads around them. . . no, when we’re talking about threads, then probably the most effective way of utilizing them to their fullest potential would have to be strangulation, and even I would have problem with that since being strangled does not count as a slashing attack. . . )

Izayoi reflexively moved his hand to his neck in order to checkout if there was no threads around it. . .  only to find out that not only there were threads around it, but also that there was an ungodly amount of it.