Chapter 276: Surprise and Horror (1/2)

The eyes of the Spiked Lizard went into a daze. It recalled its lifetime's worth of memories, gazing at them with a point of view that was pessimistic. It watched the death of the being that birthed it. Soon after giving birth, it had lost control.

It thrashed around in pain, the process morphing its body as the Frenzy Parasite in it took control. Brethren, hatchlings that had hatched at the same time as it were stomped to death one after another. In the span of two seconds, everyone else apart from it had died.

Its mother had lifted its leg, raising it above the hatchling, about to kill it. A blast of acid sent it flying away as another giant Spiked Lizard came into view. Followed by its attack, many Spiked Lizards came into the picture, raining down attacks on the one that had lost control.

It saw in helplessness, its tiny body flying up and down, a result of the ground trembling upon each stomp of the giant Spiked Lizards. A small droplet of the acid fell on its tail, instantly melting it. The hatchling could only cry in agony.

Years later, after a scary event, it had obtained a Frenzy Parasite. Just when it thought its life would change for the better, it found its powers were weak, almost useless in comparison to its brethren whose bodies were growing stronger day by day.

It tried to improve, hunting prey and devouring them to quickly grow stronger. One day, humanoid beings came and thrashed its home, capturing everyone. Their resistance proved futile. It was then locked up in a cage, forced to watch its brethren taken out from their cages to never return.

Whatever it tried to do, whatever it tried to achieve, the outcome remained the same. Its fate was to remain perpetually weak.

Insignificance!

The Spiked Lizard's body plopped to the ground, lacking the strength to even more. Tears streamed out its eyes, falling on the ground, causing a mild smoke to waft out as a result.

Seeing the outcome, Jyorta nodded in satisfaction. He turned around and proceeded deeper into the path, uncaring about the Spiked Lizard. The moment he injured it, the resulting stench of blood would make things complicated.

That's why left it as is and proceeded deeper.

'Ugh!' He placed his hand before his mouth, controlling his urge to throw up. Two metres before him, at a spot a metre underground was a space wide enough to fit a man. Wriggling within it were 10 Ring Worms, munching on the carcass of a Spiked Lizard.

They drilled into its body and made many loops inside, coming out from the other end while forming a blood pool. They moved close to each other, with many of them crawling over one another, causing a sight disgustingly disgusting to watch.

Jyorta even reduced the range of his domain just to prevent his mental sanity from suffering critical damage. He didn't have much tolerance for ugliness. And the scene underground was nightmare-inducing. Trauma was the least of his concerns.

'No wonder they always say the Ring Worms were the ugliest Frenzy Beast in Marble City's surroundings. I don't even wish to encounter Frenzy Beasts even worse than them.' He massaged his brows, taking a wide detour to avoid alerting them.

They may only be Tier 1, but handling 10 of them at the same time was difficult for Jyorta. The difficult part was that they moved underground, diminishing the influence of his aura on them. Moreover, the moment he killed some of them, the scent of blood would lure more of their kind to the scene.

When that happened, he would have no choice but to fight until he expended all his psychic energy. It would signify the end of his second exploration, something he didn't wish to happen.

The path was 10 metres wide, so he had enough room to go around them, finding a safe route, all the while thinking, 'At the entrance in layer 1, there were Spiked Lizards. The moment I come to the second half, the dominant species turn out to be the Ring Worms.'

Suddenly, he heard a thud 10 metres before him. He looked at the location with alertness, unable to make out anything due to the darkness. He inched forward, taking cautious steps, intending to make a back leap the moment he encountered something amiss.

A couple of seconds later, he smelled the scent of blood, thick enough to overwhelm his olfactory senses. He didn't filter out the scents using his barrier, it was to remain alert. After all, why filter and limit his senses when he could identify many things through smell alone?