A Man Like None Other - Season 8 Episode 27

The smoldering remains of dead beetles, along with the writhing and twitching of soon-to-be-dead ones that littered the ground proved a gruesome sight.

Poison King was livid at how his entire horde of carefully cultivated beetles had been burnt to a crisp. Aside from his venomous wasps, his beetles were his next best weapons.

“Mmm,” Jared grunted appreciatively as he inhaled deeply through his nose. “What a waste that they had to burn away. I could have used the extra nourishment for my elixir field. Well, there goes your beetles. What else do you have to use against me?”

With a cold chuckle, he appeared before Poison King in the blink of an eye. Before the latter could react, Jared had struck his chest with a ferocious punch.

Without the protection of his armor, Poison King’s body flew backward with such force and velocity that it was only after he had landed on the ground thirty feet away that the collective crunch of all of his ribs shattering was heard.

Struggling to stand up, Poison King let loose a roar of frustration.

Jared suggested, “If you kill yourself right now, perhaps I can spare you some dignity.”

“Kill myself?” repeated Poison King as he spat in contempt. “You underestimate me.”

Suddenly, poisonous black gas emitted out of him. He did not attack Jared with the gas but continued to rise above the trees, as weightless as the gas he conjured. Once he had ascended high enough, every poisonous creature in Mapleton flocked toward him like a monstrous beacon of destruction.

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Jared was pleased with the prospect of refilling his spiritual energy after having expended it in his fight.

However, the creatures did not attack Jared. Instead, they began to tear at Poison King’s skin without the slightest hint of objection from him.

“Is he poisoning himself? What’s he doing?” Jared muttered, nonplussed.

Soon, Poison King’s skin hung loosely down his bones in tatters. He appeared to be bleeding profusely all over, except that the blood was as black as tar.

“I’m taking you down with me, Jared!” Poison King bellowed, the hole in his cheek making his muffled threat all the more menacing.

Despite already becoming impossibly dense, the gas continued to accumulate before finally solidifying in midair.

“This is Poison King’s secret technique, Necromastery!” screamed Lyanna in terror. “Be careful, Jared!”

The other members of Mapleton, too, fell to their knees as they quaked in fearful reverence. Not a single one dared to look up.

The gas condensed into a tangible figure of a giant as tall as a mountain. Throughout its formation, It glared down at Jared from its great height.

When the last remnants of black gas flowed out from Poison King’s body, he toppled over with a final shudder and seemed to deflate before their very eyes. In less than a second, his ravaged corpse shriveled up as if it had been exposed to desert gales for centuries.

“Go to hell, Jared!” the shadowy figure boomed in Poison King’s voice.

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“Retreat!” yelled Weston in fear as he leaped to his feet.

The other members of Mapleton hurried in his wake. Nobody dared remain.

“Run, Jared! Run for it!” Lyanna screamed before turning around herself.

Hmm… Seems like this Necromastery has really got the Mapleton folks scared witless.

Jared craned his neck to address his monstrous adversary. “Your body is already gone,” he taunted. “Why should I be afraid of you?”

Boom!

Without warning, the figure swooped toward the ground. Suffocating under its immense weight, the fact that it was comprised of gas suddenly made no sense to Jared as it seemed to have solidified into something denser than rocks.

Jared was driven into the earth up to his knees from bearing the brunt of the impact. Even then, the crushing weight did not abate.

“Jared!” Lyanna screamed, yearning with all her heart to rescue him but was rooted to the spot by her paralyzing fear of the immense shadow.

*Stay where you are!” Jared called back. “A mere shadow can’t hurt me!”

As soon as he spoke, his body glowed yellow like he was engulfed by the sun. The pitch black of the mountainous forests became momentarily brighter than day.

The intense beam vaporized the shadow upon contact.

As the blinding glow subsided gradually, only the mummified remains of Poison King were left behind. Not a trace of the apparition remained.

The members of Mapleton, who had been cowering behind the trees surrounding the clearing, wore similar expressions of awe and terror. That was Poison King’s ultimate skill brought to life by

extinguishing his own. But it still did not stand a chance against Jared!