Free Web NovelChapter 160: Chapter 160 - Suicidal Attack
"Isabel, I need you to check on Gracie. Make sure she’s still breathing."
Isabel didn’t move immediately. Her tear-streaked face was pale, and her fingers knotted into the fabric of her apron. "But Master... taking on that thing alone? It’s too big. You can’t possibly survive without backup!"
"Just trust me. Let me handle this. I even got a consultant on my side, isn’t that right, Kitty?" Kurt glanced up at his shoulder where the white cat sat watching the beast with narrowed, glowing blue eyes.
*Meow*
The furball didn’t answer back and began to enthusiastically lick its paw as if it had no part in the conversation.
"Really?" Kut stared blankly at him.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
In the distance, the giant centipede monster was already forcing its massive body back up from the crater. The deep slashes Kurt had delivered were smoking with green, acidic vital fluid, and its massive mandibles clicked together in a frenzy of pure, unadulterated malice.
"Isabel! Move! Now!"
Isabel hesitated for a fraction of a second, but the authority in Kurt’s voice left no argument. With a reluctant nod, she hurried away through the debris, her eyes scanning ahead for the ruined house that Gracie crashed into.
Left alone in the center of the shattered village square, Kurt took a deep breath, focused himself and looked ahead.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
BOOM!
The monster had spotted him. With an explosive burst of movement, it charged with a speed that was insane for an entity of its size. The ground rolled beneath Kurt’s boots with tremors that threatened to throw him off balance.
He didn’t run. Instead, he gripped the hilt of his black blade with one hand and focused from deep within, forcing the translucent blue mana up through his arm and coating the steel until it hummed like a live wire.
Before taking off, he did a few quick skipping motions in place to shake off any nervous tension and ready himself.
"Alright... let’s get it, let’s go!" Once he was ready, he burst directly toward the oncoming mountain of armor.
The monster saw the tiny insect running to meet its doom. It opened its massive maw and hissed, a great glob of venomous green spit erupting from its throat like a cannonball.
Kurt didn’t turn nor did he plan a detour. He kept his eyes locked on the target, praying to whatever universal logic was pulling the strings that his plan would work.
As the giant ball of acid closed the distance, every nerve in his body began to tingle with a violent buzz. His instincts screamed at him to throw himself into the dirt. To dodge or move because death was coming and it was coming fast.
He ignored this feeling and even pushed more mana into his legs, accelerating straight into the eye of the storm.
Then, the world stood still.
The roaring wind fell silent. The green sphere of acid froze three feet from his face and the debris thrown up by the monster’s charge remained suspended in mid-air.
Kurt, however, was still moving.
He didn’t waste this chance. He side-stepped the frozen ball of poison, skidding his boots slightly on the motionless dirt, and launched himself off a suspended chunk of masonry. He soared toward the monster’s face.
The moment he cleared the immediate trajectory of the danger, the world snapped back to life and the venom ball splattered harmlessly behind him, dissolving the cobblestones into a hissing pit of white smoke.
The monster’s head slammed forward as its mandibles clicked on empty air. Confusion struck its freakish twelve milky eyes as it tried to locate the target that had just disappeared.
"Up here, you overgrown maggot!"
The monster looked up just in time to see Kurt descending from the sky with his mana-coated blade held high. With a brutal, two-handed downward stroke, he drove the blade straight into the center of the beast’s eye.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
A wet, sickening explosion of green fluid erupted from the socket. The monster let out a shriek so loud it felt like a physical blow against Kurt’s chest. It began to thrash frantically, shaking its massive head from side to side, spinning its body in a chaotic dance of agony to rid itself of the parasite on its face.
Kurt hung on for dear life, his fingers locked around the hilt of his sword as he dangled in the air. Kitty as well, hung onto the fabric of his shirt as he dangled with him.
Realising it couldn’t shake him, the creature reared up and then drove its head straight down toward the ground, intending to smash Kurt into a bloody paste.
Tingle
"Move, you suicidal idiot! It’s going to squash us!" Kitty screamed from his shoulder, digging its claws deeper into Kurt’s shirt and skin.
"Don’t worry about it!" Kurt shouted back through the rushing wind.
The ground rushed up.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
Inches.
Then, the world froze again.
The giant head was a hair’s breadth from the earth with the pressure of its descent already cracking the stones below. Kurt pulled out his sword, twisted his body in mid-air, and dropped safely into the dirt beside the frozen snout.
Without pausing, he channeled another burst of mana into his thighs and performed an enhanced jump, landing squarely on the back of the monster’s neck, preparing his position.
Time resumed and the monster’s head slammed into the ground with the force of a meteor. A massive explosion of dirt, stone erupted outward, carving a giant crater into the center of the village.
The shockwave rattled Kurt and Kitty, but because he was on top of the monster rather than beneath it, he survived the impact.
While its head was temporarily pinned by its own momentum in the dirt, Kurt used this opportunity. He gripped his mana coated blade tightly and began to stab, slice, and pierce the thick armor plating at the base of its skull over and over again.
CRACK!
With a final, desperate heave, a large chunk of the monster’s exoskeleton broke away, exposing the pale, pink, pulsating muscle beneath.
"GOTCHA!" Kurt roared as savage abandon took over and he began to hack into the exposed meat.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
The monster let out a sound of pure torment and straightened its massive body straight up into the air like a pillar. The sudden vertical shift pulled Kurt off his feet. He was left hanging onto the hilt of his sword with one hand, his body dangling high in the air again as the beast swayed.
"Play stupid games... win stupid prizes!" With his free hand, he reached into his belt and pulled out his brass-knuckle switchblade.
He clicked the mechanism, wrapped the small blade in a dense layer of blue mana, and began to viciously stab at the exposed flesh within his reach, digging his fingers into the wounds to maintain his grip.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
"Yeah! Get him, Kurt! Keep going! Carve the bastard up! I want to hear him scream!" Kitty’s little white face was contorted into an expression of manic glee as it cheered from his shoulder.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
The monster had had enough. It gathered its strength, curled its body, and dove straight back down, its mandibles churning as it began to enter the underground earth to bury its problems.
Because Kurt wasn’t in immediate danger of being crushed by an external object, time didn’t slow. He stayed on.
The world went dark as the monster plowed into the dirt. Kurt closed his eyes and mouth tight, enduring the brutal, abrasive force of stones, roots, and soil scraping against him as he hung on for dear life beneath the earth. The friction tore at his clothes and bruised his ribs, but his grip remained firm.
Seconds later, the monster burst back through the surface, launching itself high into the sky like a dolphin breaching the ocean.
The air cleared and Kurt opened his eye, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. He immediately resumed his assault, driving his blades into the exposed flesh over and over.
But the beast wasn’t done. It tilted its head and dove back into the earth again.
"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!" Kurt grunted, bracing himself as the darkness swallowed them once more.
Another agonizing ride through the subterranean dark followed with the pressure nearly tearing him from the hilt.
When it emerged a second time, it soared incredibly high, losing its momentum at the peak of its arc. Kurt looked down and saw that the beast was tilting backward. If it landed like this, he would be the tiny cushion for this massive insect. freewebnoveℓ.com
His body flared with the oncoming danger and once he was close enough to the ground, the world stopped mid-air.
He yanked his blades free, used the monster’s own frozen body as a launching pad, and jumped as far as his legs could carry him, clearing the falling trajectory entirely.
He hit the ground running as time resumed behind him with a thunderous explosion. The monster crashed on its back, creating a massive crater of dust and stone debris.
Kurt tried to keep his stride, but his legs suddenly felt like jelly. He stumbled, nearly tripping over his own boots. A sharp throbbing started pounding at the sides of his head, and a warm, thick crimson liquid began to drip rapidly from his nose, splattering onto his chin.
"What... What the hell is happening to me?" He gasped, wiping the blood away with the back of his hand.
"What did you think was going to happen?" Kitty responded as a matter of fact. "You’ve been burning through your mana core like dry kindling. Not just for the blade coating, but for stopping time four times in a row. In one day no less? You’re redlining. Keep this up and may even flatline."
"Why the hell didn’t you say something before?!"
"Some lessons are best learned the hard way."
*Tsk* "Dammit! I can’t stop now. It’s not dead yet..."
He put his black sword away since his hand was trembling too much for him to hold a proper grip, and instead equipped both of his switchblades, coating them in a thin, conservative layer of mana.
The monster was currently on its back, writhing and trying to flip over. And the exposed opening on its neck was right there.
"Let’s finish this!" Kurt shouted, leaping out from behind the wall.
He sprinted toward the beast’s head and began bashing the ever-living hell out of it.
"Die! Die! Die! Ahahahaha!" A manic, desperate laugh bubbling up in his throat as the adrenaline fought against the exhaustion.
*SCREEEECH!!!*
"Yeah! Tear it apart, Kurt!" Kitty yelled as its white fur bristled with excitement as the monster screamed in pain.
Kurt raised his blades and just as he was about to leap onto the neck, a sharp, cold tingle flared in his side. Before his sluggish, distracted mind could process the direction, a heavy body slammed into his ribs, tackling him violently out of the way.
"Argh! What the–!"
"Elder! Elder, we’re here!" a man’s voice screamed.
Standing between Kurt and the writhing monster were three men and one woman. They wore the rough clothes of the village, their faces pale and streaked with dirt and tears. They were the ones who had left for the swamp.
"What are you doing?!" Kurt yelled, pushing himself up. "Get away from it! Run!"
The four villagers didn’t listen. They fell to their knees before the thrashing centipede, their eyes glassy, filled with a fanatical, broken light. "For our beliefs and the Brotherhood! We give our flesh to you! Take us, Elder! Use our blood to rise!"
"Are you insane? That’s not the Elder anymore! It’s a mindless monster!"
They didn’t care. They began scrambling toward the giant, clicking mandibles of the beast, offering themselves up like livestock.
"NO–!"
Before they could throw themselves into the abyss of the monster’s mouth, the air around them erupted.
"Master Rossana!"
Suddenly, thick, thorny green roots exploded from the soil beneath the villagers, wrapping around their ankles and chests, pinning them to the earth in an instant. The villagers screamed, struggling against the magical flora.
A shadow fell over them. Gracie appeared from the side of a ruined building, her dark cloak fluttering. Her eyes were pitch-black, devoid of any mercy.
She didn’t say a word.
She raised her hand, a sphere of dense, violet-black magic forming at the palm of her hand, and slammed it into the center of the pinned villagers. The dark energy expanded foggy mist and entered their systems.
They writhed in pain and foamed out the corner of their mouths while their eyes bled tears. After ten agonising seconds, they lay still. Dead from Gracie’s dark magic.
Kurt let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, relieved to see Gracie upright. "You’re alive. I’m glad."
Gracie didn’t answer. She walked toward him, her face dead serious, her dark eyes drilling into his. Kurt felt a sudden, defensive tingle in his chest as her posture shifted. He raised his switchblades slightly, unsure of her intent.
Instead of attacking, Gracie reached deep into the folds of her cloak and pulled out a small, glass vial. Inside, only a few ounces of a bright, shimmering blue liquid sloshed against the sides.
"Is this the ’cure’ you were bragging about downstairs? The one from the dead guy?"
"... Yes. That’s it." ’What the hell? The feeling of danger has disappeared...’ "How did you get that?"
"Apparently, she crashed through Liam’s house when the monster hit her." Isabel said, running up to join them. "She found it near his body."
"I see... There’s not much left yet, but maybe it’ll help us end this–"
Crack! Shatter!
A stone flew through the air with pinpoint accuracy, striking the glass vial directly in Gracie’s hand. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, the precious blue liquid spilling into the dry dirt, disappearing into the dust in a fraction of a second.
It was gone.
Kurt’s head snapped toward the trajectory of the stone. Standing near the remains of the well was another villager – a woman, her face twisted in fanatical hatred. The moment she saw Kurt look at her; she turned and began to run toward the edge of the field.
"YOU BITCH!" Kurt screamed in rage. "I’LL KILL YOU!"
He didn’t hesitate. He pulled back his arm and threw his mana-coated switchblade with everything he had left. The weapon whistled through the air, striking her cleanly, straight through the back of the skull. She collapsed into the dirt, dead before she hit the ground.
Almost immediately after, the earth began to rumble again – not with the localised thuds of the centipede, but with a deep, low vibration that shook the ground in the distance.
Kurt looked at the monster in the crater, expecting it to be the source, but the beast was still writhing from its injuries, incapable of causing this kind of shift.
"M-Master Rossana..." Isabel whispered as her hand trembled when she pointed toward the road leading to the lake. "Look."
When Kurt turned his head, his breath got caught in his throat. "Haha... Great. That’s fantastic."
Emerging from the horizon were shifting shapes. Hundreds of them. The grey-skinned zombies were sprinting on all fours toward the village with animalistic speed, flanked by dozens of smaller centipede monsters that scurried over the rocks. The entire horde was coming for them.
Suddenly, the ground directly beneath Kurt, Isabel, and Gracie began to swell, and with an explosive motion, the earth beneath them shot upward like a piston. The dirt hardened into stone, rising rapidly into a high, solid, two-story pillar that lifted them far above the level of the village square, isolating them from the reaching hands below.
As the pillar settled, a swirl of pink sakura petals materialized on the stone platform, drifting through the wind before condensing into a familiar, elegant shape.
Izumi Ayako.
"Rossana-sama. I have returned safely."
