Heir Of Chaos

Chapter 40: Dying

The light shot whistled fluidly through the air and while the lack of a recoil was a little jarring for Dale, he quickly brushed it off.

The sphere quickly crossed the space between them and dug into the open wound.

From the hole, a network of white cracks flared up, spreading like a malignant tumor through its exoskeleton.

The centipede bit one of its legs and tossed it aside.

From the base of the detached leg, a mass of flesh started to swell until it exploded and an entirely new centipede appeared from the limb.

The original body turned to ash, leaving the effect of the attack null and void.

Dale’s team gathered beside him and all of them stared at the beast opposite them.

It clicked and chirped lightly as it watched them.

From the corner of his eye, he scanned the pile of ash that had been the beast’s original body but there was no sign of Decay.

’Did it actually digest my weapon?!’ The thought broke his heart. After getting used to both weapons, the world had to take one away. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

’But still, eating my weapon?’ It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Especially once you consider how Blessed weapons were made.

’Flesh of beasts and water from Awakening pools? Yeah. Checks out.’

It must have seen it as a free snack that would take it a step closer to whatever might lie outside Ascension.

Dale didn’t even want to imagine how difficult it would have been to kill this beast if it had been left to its own devices for much longer.

He turned his focus back to the thief... beast.

The centipede seemed to have realized that the battle would stretch out for a long time and wanted to conserve its energy for as long as possible.

It didn’t matter how powerful it was, rapidly regenerating and healing itself would deplete its energy reserves.

At that moment, the centipede suddenly shot away from them to the pool.

They charged in without hesitation. Austin was the first to reach it.

He dashed through the air and pulled back his fist.

Throwing out a fist, the centipede suddenly changed direction and brought its head to his fist.

The blow landed, detonating the air and sending a chunk of its head flying closer to the pool.

Mid-air, flesh exploded from it and turned into a new body.

Austin barely spent a second staring at the pile of ash that was now in front of him. The centipede had used him to propel itself forward.

While none of them was sure what it wanted to do, it was clear that they shouldn’t let the beast reach the pool.

The fact that it could readily grow a new body when the old one was at risk was enough of a reason why they couldn’t let it get any more of an advantage.

Sarah’s hair turned completely orange and a wall of earth lifted from the ground in front of the myriapod, stopping its progression.

It tried to swerve to the side but whenever it turned, she raised a wall, effectively trapping it.

Left with no choice, the centipede turned to face them. Its eyes — albeit beady and hard to see — held what was unmistakably hatred.

Not that Dale could blame it though. It had been on its own when they appeared from a mass of shadows.

And not only did one of them then raise their rank to match its own but they were trying to kill it.

In the mind of the beast, it was merely defending its territory from intruders.

Austin’s immense presence suddenly faltered and even Trevor’s skin became a little ashen yet his eyes were completely cold, incapable of showing emotion.

He stepped forward once more. At the cost of ’immune’ and ’dangerous’, he placed a whole new set of adjectives on himself.

’Powerful’. ’Immortal’. ’Boundless’.

He even went as far as changing the epithet he had placed on the beast. Now, the centipede was no longer ephemeral.

In place was a far more insidious one, ’Stagnant.’

The Stagnant epithet served as a two-pronged approach to culling the beast.

Naturally, the first was obvious. It would slow its speed and general reaction time... the other was a lot more complex.

One reason why it was still alive was because of its ability to heal by moving its muscles and flesh to heal.

If it was stagnant, then death was certain.

Dale began the assault by swinging Blight.

The white saber released a crescent slash that closed in on the centipede.

It slightly tilted its body to avoid the attack, falling for Dale’s feint.

The moment it moved, he used [Embodiment of Light] to close in the distance between them in mere moments.

He wasn’t foolish — he was but this was not related to life and death.

His blade flashed, unleashing another light shot. The sphere struck the exoskeleton of the beast and having no effect.

Dale slammed his free palm into the same segment and unleashed [Energy Pulse] three times and in quick succession.

The first completely failed, rebounding and coursing through his body.

He ignored the building pain and used the second. This time, only a part of it went through the surface, passing through the exoskeleton.

The last finally pushed through to the tender flesh underneath, rendering all forms of intelligence the beast had null.

It threw all caution to the wind.

Dale tried to retreat but it was too late.

The segment his hand was on split open and a mouth formed, forciples blaring out.

They struck a green forcefield that suddenly materialized around him but even that was not enough.

It shattered even faster than last time. If Dale didn’t know any better, he would think that the beast had decided that he needed to die. ƒreewebɳovel.com

The forciples gripped and pierced his hands, pumping gallons of toxins into his bloodstream.

At the same time, he activated [Embodiment of Light]. The weapon skill actively healed him by ridding his body of the venom.

But no matter how good the weapon was, a quasi-Ascended skill couldn’t compare to a direct Ascended-grade venom.

’Shit!!’ He knew he was most likely going to die. His body was still Dormant so there was no hope.

Yet, Dale gritted his teeth and pushed himself one more time. If he was going to die, he would make sure he and the beast entered hell together.

He gripped the forciples with his hands and continued to release energy pulse after energy pulse.

All this while using [Embodiment of Light] quickly dried up his skin.

Black dots appeared in his vision and he weakly lifted Blight, aiming it into the mouth.

’Light shot.’ A small sphere of light materialized but vanished as he lost consciousness.

As his eyes closed, he could barely make out the visual of the beast being divided in two by an invisible blade.