261 – Chaos Awakens – 1
“Iris! Watch your left!”
Three centipedes pounced on Iris’ left flank. Iris twisted her body and swung her sword diagonally. It was a sword wielded in an awkward posture, but it was powerful enough.
The raging wind split the heads of the centipedes side by side. Soon after, a bolt of lightning flew in and toasted the body that had lost its head. The part of the stomach that could not bear the pressure burst open.
It was a thunderbolt with enough power to make the body explode, but it was not enough to kill them. The centipede, which had completely restored her body, snapped at his lower jaw.
“What are these things? Why aren’t you dying?”
Rize, who trampled the frozen centipede with her feet and completely crushed it, saw her body clinging to her in a matter of seconds after being scattered into hundreds of pieces along with her ice shards, and shouted in a voice filled with annoyance.
“I don’t know! It’s something I’ve never seen before! If there was something like this, there would definitely be a record!”
From the side, Erica replied while cutting the centipede into pieces.
The blade engulfed in flames slashed the centipede and at the same time slashed her amputated surface, but the fire that burned through her flesh as a medium was ineffective, and extinguished as soon as the amputated surface reattached.
Seeing her figure, Erica stuck out her tongue. Among the regenerative monsters, she hadn’t heard that she was so terrible. At this point, I was very curious about the identity of that rift.
Iris grabbed her sword and took a step with her left foot, swinging the longsword parallel to the floor. Following the trail of her sword, my stinging wind split everything in its path in two.
The centipedes swept away by the slash recovered their torn bodies in less than a second and then attacked again. It didn’t look like it was even worth a little bit of time.
“…… It’s a pain in the ass.”
Iris let out her drool. His ridiculous regenerative powers were mocking every strategy he could think of right now.
It wasn’t that there weren’t many individuals recorded as regenerative monsters. Because such an object would appear whenever I forgot about it.
However, the body was split into dozens of pieces, the cut surfaces were burned, the stomach was blown out by lightning, and it was frozen and then shattered into hundreds of pieces.
No matter how much he cuts, cuts, tears, or bursts, his crazy regenerative power that completes recovery in three seconds at the longest and hundreds of units add up, so even the captains of the Silver Dawn Knights had no choice but to struggle.
In fact, the powerlessness of the four has already been proven at the point where this situation can simply be described as struggling. If it had been someone else, I would have died long ago.
“Ugh?!”
Aiming for the gap where the greatsword was being swung, one bit Claudia’s left forearm until her body was torn apart by a thunderbolt. The body that exploded immediately after biting the forearm returned to its original state.
The armor, which could easily deflect even the slightest steel sword, was bent like cardboard. Claudia quietly spat out harsh words and tore off the centipede’s head with her hands.
With a knocking sound, only the head was pulled out as the lower jaw was stuck in the forearm. After kicking her in the head, Claudia pulled the mandible out of her forearm. Red blood dripped through the armor.
Judging by the trembling of her left hand, it must have been hit quite deeply, but the centipede that was thrown away had completely regenerated her body in that short amount of time.
This is a one-sided loss. Claudia smiled bitterly.
“I will stop you, so treat yourself first, Claudia!”
Lize approached Claudia and swung her dagger. Awls protruded like thorny bushes from the icy floor on the floor. Dozens of centipedes were pierced by the awl.
But even that didn’t last long. They bit each other’s body to escape, and the bitten spot immediately finished regenerating.
“Thank you! Rize!”
Taking advantage of that gap, Claudia hurriedly infused her health potion and held her greatsword with both hands. Lightning struck the place where the ice pick rose.
The centipedes turned into black lumps of charcoal and then started regenerating slowly.
“There are so many dirty things!”
“It keeps crawling out! If we keep going like this, there will be no end!”
The rift is spitting centipedes, but I haven’t killed a single one of them yet, so maybe it was a natural flow that the area was filled with centipedes.
The sight of hundreds of centipedes entangling among themselves, filling the air everywhere, was a truly disgusting spectacle. Even the four of them, who were confident that they had gone through all of the prenatal battles, had never seen anything like this.
“Iris! Look over there!”
Suddenly, Rize pointed at something with the tip of her dagger. Unfortunately, I saw another monster swept away by the waves of centipedes. All four thought that the unlucky monster would be eaten by the centipede.
But the centipede didn’t eat that monster. Rather, they climbed up his legs as if competing with each other, then wrapped themselves around his torso and bit off his torso.
The head burrowed into the monster’s body through the bitten hole. As the centipede dug halfway inside, the monster’s struggles stopped. Others who were pushed out of the competition went down to the ground.
The bitten spot healed rapidly, and the monster, which had completely recovered the wound caused by the centipede’s digging, charged with a scream.
“Are you even a gisaeng? I didn’t expect that.”
Claudia was disgusted.
I don’t know which of the two ends is more terrible: being surrounded by hundreds of centipedes and being eaten alive, or living without being parasitized by them.
Still, one thing is clear: both are terrifying to the brim.
ㅡSuddenly!
Iris’ slash cut the monster’s head with precision. The decapitated head seemed to fall apart, but stuck to the cut surface. The running speed didn’t even slow down, let alone stop.
“The regenerative power is the same. Goosebumps. If you keep leaving it, it will be a big problem.”
The number of centipedes, which are threatening even as a single entity, is enormous, and can burrow into the body of a monster to parasitize, and even grant the host the same regenerative ability as itself.
They were really picky guys.
“…… What do we do? Should I go back to the imperial palace and deal with it with proper support?”
“No. It shouldn’t be. Where do you think these things will go if we run away from here?”
“It will spread all over the place.”
Erica gritted her teeth. Hundreds of centipedes that appeared from the rift, and are still appearing, were all rushing this way, except for the lucky one who took possession of the nearby monster.
But what if the captains of the Knights of the Silver Dawn were gone in this situation? It was obvious where the centipedes, who had lost their target, would move.
“This is not good enough for a guard. Besides, even if they were knights, I wondered if they would be able to deal with one by themselves. I’m sure you can’t stop it unless it’s in a big city, right?”
Claudia made a cold assessment.
Since it is a force of about four, it can at least withstand hundreds of centipedes. It was clear that he would not even be able to get a scratch with an ordinary weapon and his mediocre skills.
“I will try to break the crack first! Erica, Claudia!”
Iris shouted, deciding to do something to prevent hundreds of centipedes from spreading across the empire.
“Okay!”
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“Leave it to me!”
Erica and Claudia stepped forward, and Rize and Iris assisted from the side and back. Flames rose near Erica’s body. As Claudia raised her greatsword over her head, her thunderbolt dwelt.
A nearby tree that was struck by lightning turned into a lump of charcoal, and the soil exposed to high heat turned into a shiny pottery. Red and yellow lights flashed and flickered.
Having gathered the elements to their limits, the two brandished their weapons without saying who was first.
Stepping forward with her right foot, Erica slashed her upper right with her sword, which had been lowered to her lower left. The flames gathered on the blade drew an arc and burned everything in front of it.
Spreading her legs shoulder-width apart, Claudia struck down her greatsword. The thunderbolts gathered at the tip of the sword exploded, creating a roar like thunder.
Thunderbolts and flames hit the cracks. A tremendous explosion occurred with a roar. Due to the shock wave and the aftermath, the centipedes around were lifted into the air and scattered in all directions.
Trees fell on their sides and weeds were uprooted and blown away, exposing a bare dirt floor. When the dust cleared, the surrounding landscape was completely devastated.
It was as if someone had erased this area with an eraser.
“…… Under.”
“All right…… It does.”
But the cracks were fine. No, not only was it fine, but it even spewed out more centipedes at shorter and shorter intervals. Those who were swept away by the explosion also quietly gathered again.
“It will be impossible to destroy with our firepower.”
“For four people to attack at the same time…… It won’t work They will bite you before that.”
While the four were discussing countermeasures, a mass of centipedes wriggled violently. It was because they were biting each other or going crazy rolling on the floor.
There were crunching, frantic sounds coming from all directions. Iris, who didn’t know why he was doing that, saw this as an opportunity and quickly came to a conclusion.
“Erika. Use the teleportation scroll to return to the imperial palace. Call for support as soon as you return. If possible, at the rank of deputy knight commander or higher. We will be in charge here.”
“… ….”
“They are our target. So if we all go back to the imperial palace, it’s obvious that we’ll lose our target and spread in all directions. It shouldn’t be. Do you know, Erica?”
“…… Yes.”
Erika answered in a barely squeezed voice. Iris patted her on the shoulder and encouraged her.
“Go, Erica. If you really want to help us, go to the imperial palace and return with reinforcements as soon as possible. Got it?”
“Okay, Iris. Until I come-“
In an instant, before Erica could finish her words, a centipede popped out from the ground beneath her feet.
“What?!”
Erica tried to swing her sword in haste, but her centipede was faster. Her grotesque torso wrapped around her weapon-wielding right hand first. As her wrapped body tightened, the armor around her arms collapsed at once.
Her lower jaw bit her on Erica’s opposite shoulder. She snapped, red liquid splashing over her armor. The armor near her shoulder was ripped off in its entirety.
“Ah!”
“Erika!”
Rize rushed at it, but a centipede jumped out from under Rize’s feet and tied her legs. With her legs tied, Rize lost her balance and stumbled forward.
She wasn’t the only one. Under Claudia’s feet and under Erica’s feet, three or four of her centipedes were sticking out.
“What? I can’t feel anything.”
Claudia then remembered that the centipedes all around her were fighting and biting each other, creating a constant uproar and noise.
It was done for the purpose of dispersing the senses on this side, so that they would not notice the strategy of digging into the ground and approaching. In other words, it means that I guessed that if you dig the land normally, you will notice it.
Only bugs, predicting the opponent’s strength isn’t enough, and even employing a strategy to deceive the opponent? Claudia let out a laugh.
Since the two knight commanders were incapacitated, the goal was achieved. The centipedes, which were biting each other from all sides, attacked together.
Iris and Claudia fought desperately, but the resistance did not last long. The moment two of the four were captured, the fight was already over.
Claudia fell backwards, and Iris landed on one knee with him. The centipedes recklessly attacked as if they were trying to compete to see who would get the host in front of them first.
The centipede, which luckily seizes the opportunity, bites off the helmet and burrows into Iris’ face.
ㅡKwajijijik!
The jet-black slash passed by.
When I confirmed that the centipedes clinging to my body had been cut to pieces, my body reacted first before I even recognized the situation. The four hurriedly swung their arms and legs to shake off the centipede’s corpse.
It wasn’t until I got my feet on the ground that I had time to think about what had just happened. I looked around. The request for support was also unsuccessful, but who the hell
“Delta!”
Rise threw off the half-torn helmet with her own hand and ran to somewhere with a big smile. Iris turned her head in the direction Rize was looking at, then inadvertently ran her hand over her arm.
In that place was Delta. Delta, who is cold to the point of unprecedented before, and rage with an expressionless expression that gives goosebumps.
Perhaps Erica and Claudia felt the chill as well, just like Iris, they were just checking their eyes. Rize approached Delta regardless of the atmosphere.
“You came to save us!”
The creepy atmosphere didn’t last long. As Rize hugged her body, her expression melted away. The hand that wasn’t holding his sword carefully stroked Rize’s head.
“Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
“A little bit? If you get treated though, you will be fine!”
Lize smiled shyly. Delta’s expression, as he checked the scars on Rize’s body, turned terrifyingly cold again, and then loosened up again when he finished checking.
“Minerva. Please treat me.”
“Okay. Leave it to me, child.”
Delta sent Rize to Minerva and approached Erica, Iris, and Claudia. She saw an old, rusty jet-black sword in her right hand. It was the first sword I had ever seen, but there was no time to worry about it.
“Everyone is fine…… Won’t lose sorry i’m late I should have come a little earlier.”
“No. I’m rather surprised that you’ve come this far. You must have tried to send a request for support but failed, so how did you find out?”
“There was a way. Exactly how to find them. It was a coincidence that you were here. Well, I’m glad I was able to save you in the end.”
Whoa, Delta let out a deep sigh and hugged Iris, Erica, and Claudia in turn. Iris unknowingly trembled at her reliable hand patting her on the back.
Perhaps it was the result of being surrounded by cold centipedes just a moment ago, it was very warm.
“I had a hard time. Now go and rest also receive treatment. I will take care of this.”
“…… Do it Be careful too, Delta.”
Delta instead of answering with a cool smile turned around. She trembled so much that she wondered if the old, rusty sword in her right hand might be breaking at some point.
Iris tried to walk to Minerva with Claudia and Claudia supporting each other, but when she remembered what she had forgotten, she turned around and shouted.
“Delta, watch out! These things play—”
“I know.”
You know? Only then did Iris look at the centipedes that had just been cut to pieces.
It wouldn’t be strange if they regenerated their wounds earlier and attacked them, but now they were just wriggling as they were cut off. Green blood gushed out from the cut.
Delta walked forward, not even paying attention to the centipede wriggling on the floor. The head of one who was trampled by that step was crushed very easily.
The centipedes that weren’t just chopped were no different. He hesitated in place, as if he couldn’t even think of attacking, putting the reckless attitude he had shown a moment ago to shame.
Delta, who was walking single-handedly toward the group of centipedes that could number in the hundreds, muttered in a cold voice.
“I practiced a lot in the past.”