Heir Of Chaos

Chapter 38: Undying Centipede

Trevor turned and glanced at them. For some reason, his demeanor seemed to be far colder and blunter.

It was almost like his emotions had dulled a little.

"I’d advise you to use this chance to escape. If push comes to shove, I can at least ensure that I escape." He spoke slowly despite the multi-legged myriapod that was currently chittering towards him.

Dale would’ve liked nothing more than to turn on his heels and dash away but that was no better than suicide.

Right now, the energy of the two Ascended would stir the attention of all beasts Dormant or Awakened.

They would be patiently waiting for one or even both of the Ascended beings to be weakened so that they could kill them and feast.

If any of the others tried to escape into the forest, the onslaught of beasts would use them to whet their appetite while waiting for the battle of the Ascended to finish.

So he, alongside the others, shook their head. Their survival — or death — depended on who won.

Trevor was about to scold them, but it was too late. The centipede was on him.

He threw out his fist, slamming his knuckles against the exoskeleton.

The chitin shattered, splitting and allowing Trevor’s fist to dig through the flesh of the beast.

It was a bit of a surprise. At the very least, it had expected the beast to be far stronger.

By comparison, even the eagle had given them more of a headache.

What he didn’t know was that his physical strength was far above anything a mere Awakened was capable of producing.

Alas, the beast was far from dead. The flesh surrounding his fist began to pulse, outstretching and healing.

Trevor barely pulled out his arm just as the beast healed — as good as new.

Dale’s eyes widened as he watched from behind the safety of Gary’s forcefield.

’It didn’t enter the pool so how did it heal so quickly?! Is it some kind of side effect of spending who knows how long repeatedly healing yourself with an Awakening pool or its ability?’

Whichever it was didn’t matter. What did, however, was that the beast still drew breath.

It twisted, coiling on its body and unleashing itself like a spring.

The forciples of the beast widened, secreting a clear fluid that reeked of bleach and ammonia.

Trevor threw out his fist, meeting the beast with a loud crack.

Both of them were thrown aside.

The exoskeleton of the centipede barely had a crack and it closed up.

Trevor’s wrist on the other hand twitched. There was a slight scrape on his skin where the forciples had managed to meet his blood.

The beast had managed to inject some venom into him.

He gritted his teeth and removed an adjective from himself and replaced it with another, ’Immune’.

While he would have liked to stack on as many adjectives as he could think of, there was a limit to what he could do.

Even raising his rank to Pseudo-Ascended had been a risky move. It raised his energy and power level but the price was quite crippling after he went back to normal.

Not that it would matter if he lost.

Trevor and the centipede took several steps in a circle. They watched each other carefully.

Dale stared at the centipede. It was incredibly intelligent.

It must have realized that its venom didn’t affect Trevor so it was waiting for a sign of weakness to attack.

Trevor stumbled a little and the centipede sprang at him immediately.

The former immediately reacted, a smile on his face.

He had naturally come to the same conclusion as Dale. The beast possessed a frightening amount of intelligence but not enough to comprehend the existence of a feint.

A command slipped from Trevor’s lips... this one was for himself. "Kill."

His hand quickly closed in the distance between it and the underside of the beast.

However, something impossible happened.

From one of its segments, a small bump appeared and quickly swelled, exploding into a mass of flesh.

The flesh coalesced into the head of the centipede.

At the same time, the actual head of the centipede atrophied in less than a second, turning to ash.

Its new head separated from its body and a body grew out from under it.

By the time Trevor finished swinging his fist, it met nothing but ash.

The beast crawled away and curled into a ball as it stared at him.

It seemed that the more they fought the centipede, the more tricks it would reveal.

’No wonder it is the head of the forest. I can’t imagine how many beasts fell at its mandibles because they thought they had killed it.’

Dale watched it in complete silence.

There had always been a hypothesis he had once, when he started Theory of Mysticism... If each of the stars were abilities, did that mean that there was a limited amount?

And when beasts entered pools, did they see a star or anything at all?

Naturally, he couldn’t know for sure either.

But if it was true then the centipede had technically stolen an amazing ability from humanity.

Austin tapped Gary and pointed at the forcefield. "Take it down."

The latter turned to the redhead and raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Austin nodded and the other shrugged, collapsing the forcefield. frёeωebɳovel.com

Dale watched as his roommate stepped forward and stood beside Trevor.

’What is he doing?’ He couldn’t help but ponder. If anything, it seemed a little suicidal for a Dormant to dare think of stepping up against an Ascended beast.

Trevor turned to him, "Why are you here?" Once again, his voice was colder and more distant.

Austin didn’t answer immediately. His mind was busy racing a mile a minute.

Noticing their distraction, the centipede suddenly shot forward, mouth ajar.

Austin’s muscles clenched and a force landed squarely on the centipede but failed to push it back.

He tried again and again but the centipede seemed unrelenting... Austin was even more so.

What he was trying to do felt no different from flexing your arm’s muscle repeatedly until you could keep it clenched.

Each attempt produced a kinetic thrust that failed to achieve anything.

Gritting his teeth, he tried once more and succeeded, triggering his Awakening.