Chapter 36 – Centipede (1/2)

Some hours after Gravis left the Hunting Guild, he arrived at a destroyed village. All the wooden huts were broken into pieces and piled into a hill. This was The Demon's lair. No one could afford to place a bounty for a medium-grade demonic beast around these parts. So, most of the villagers had fled the village, while only the old, stubborn villagers remained. Sadly, by the looks of the destroyed village, their end was not peaceful.

The Demon had made its nest out of the remains of the village to demonstrate its dominance. Humans had exclusive living space and were the overlords of this world. Only in the wilderness, could beasts thrive. By occupying an exclusive living space of the humans, The Demon was demonstrating its dominance.

Gravis spotted parts of The Demon poking out from beneath the rubble. The Demon was a gigantic centipede, about 30 meters in length. Hooked legs grew from the centipede's segmented body, which they could use to stab and grip their prey. Their relatively small front, together with their many legs, made them incredibly fast. On top of that, every section of its body was encased in thick armor. Their bite was also incredibly venomous.

Speed, defense, power, and venom. All of this made The Demon a fearsome opponent. It was probably very powerful, even for a medium-grade demonic beast. All parts of its body were made to kill. At the start of their lives, centipedes were small and weak, which meant that this specimen had to work hard to get to its current strength. So, its will would also be very robust.

Under normal circumstances, Gravis couldn't even hope to scratch the centipede. It would outspeed him and surround him with all its legs. At that point, only death would await him. There were only two things he could rely on: His Formation Array, and his Elemental Synchronicity.

Gravis quickly retreated to the nearby forest and began his preparations.

About an hour later, he came back to the village. He could not win against The Devil in a fair one-on-one fight. This time, he had to use his smarts.

Gravis slowly entered the village's vicinity. When he felt that he was close enough, he instantly released his Will-Aura and ran away as fast as possible. His Will-Aura would provoke The Devil into attacking him since he had so arrogantly displayed his killing intent in its nest.

Just as he had thought, the mound in the village grew restless, and a big head with two humongous mandibles rose. The Devil felt the direction the Will-Aura was coming from, and sprinted to it, not making a single noise.

Gravis ran with all of his power, but The Devil was about three times as fast as him. If it caught him before he reached the forest, he would die. Gravis felt The Devil coming closer, and cold sweat came rushing down his back. He hadn't been this afraid since his fight with the tortoise, and he felt like he would die soon.

When Gravis went past the forest's edge, The Devil was only 20 meters behind him, and it was gaining ground, fast! Gravis continued sprinting into the forest, and soon, the Devil entered as well.

It quickly reached Gravis and tried to bite him.

”This is it!” Gravis shouted and jumped upward with all his strength. The bite barely missed him, and the centipede quickly surrounded the landing spot of Gravis, its legs ready to strike. ”Let's hope this works!” Gravis shouted and threw the jade token with all his strength in the middle of the surrounded area.

The jade token exploded, and many lines and drawings encompassed the surroundings in a ten-meter diameter. The centipede was completely boxed in since it had curled itself into a ring while surrounding Gravis.

The centipede felt something was wrong, and a shrill screech left its mouth. Gravis quickly took the chance, while the centipede was confused, and jumped through a gap between two of its legs. One leg completely bisected his left triceps, while the other one tore a massive gash into Gravis' other side.

Gravis was badly hurt and couldn't release his full power anymore, but that didn't matter now. The deed was done, and the remainder of his plan would not require his combat power.

Gravis quickly ran around the forest and cut down tree after tree. Then, he threw every tree into the Formation Array. The Devil was busy trying to break through the Formation Array and ignored the wood. Over a couple of minutes, Gravis filled nearly the whole restriction with wood.

After he had filled the restriction, he cut some more trees and laid them beside the formation. That took him another couple of minutes.

After a while, he had created multiple ”streets” of trees that led to the Formation Array. Now, all preparations were finished. Gravis looked around and saw that a couple of trees had started burning already. In the hour, where he had retreated after initially seeing the village, he had created multiple campfires in the forest. After all this time, some trees had started to ignite. Now, it was showtime!