Chapter 36 Chapter 36 - Beyond the Veil (1/2)

CHAPTER 36

BEYOND THE VEIL

Spearing forward, Lino suddenly felt a grip on his ankle as his heart paused for a moment. Looking down, he saw decaying, pale fingers twirled around his right ankle, pressing tightly as sizzling sounds echoed out. Freaked out, he threw a straight thrust at the ground without holding anything back, causing a massive explosion to bellow out, slicing the earth apart and revealing a gaping hole - as though a massive beast's maw - filled with corpses beyond numbers' count. Whilst in air, he crossed above the mist as his eyes landed on the other side, where he was finally able to make out the features of the grotesque thing; rather than spider's limbs, it had arms instead, extending out from every inch of its body, while its round, spherical body had dozens of protrusions akin to nails at its back. At front were eight heads - or, better yet, eight pairs of eyes and mouths, all gaping wide - swirling about the body like trunk in mud. The eight pairs of eyes suddenly turned upward, entirely black in hue, and focused onto him. A mere blink later, the mouths gaped even further as incredulous screech broke out, causing air itself to vibrate briefly.

Lino took a deep breath while midair, and drew Qi into his feet while using momentum to dive toward the creature. What the hell is that thing?! he thought as he observed every inch of the strange creature.

[Analyzing...]

The familiar, robotic voice echoed out inside his mind all of a sudden, startling him further.

[Analysis complete...]

[Name: Abominable Morphed Devil Child]

[Level: 71]

[Source: Born when an overflow of Devil Qi occurs at places with a lot of corpses.]

[Strength: Illusion Arts, ???, ???, ???]

[Weaknesses: Fire, ???, ???, ???]

[Recommendation: Fight]

Lino nearly rolled his eyes so far back up they'd end up on the other side of the skull, barely holding back from cursing out loud. With a great momentum, he broke through the curtain of pale-white arms, piercing directly toward the creature and sliding past its shoulder-like area while its arms twirled around as though independent of its body, turning into flashing spikes flying toward his back. He crashed directly into the ground, blowing it apart thanks to the Qi he infused previously, and spun immediately, barreling the spear in his arm between his ribcage and elbow and slicing it in a wide arc, dissecting the incoming arms in a swift motion. A mournful screech followed, which he ignored to the best of his ability, gritting his teeth and kicking off yet again, circling sideways while making sure to side step all the arms breaching past the earth. He took the spear directly into his hand and began piercing it in quick successions; each time he'd hit the creature, it'd feel as if he'd briefly stuck the spear into the mud, and it took far more effort to pull it out than to reel it in. While circling, he felt cold winds slowly blow from above and he took a chance to glance up, sighing inwardly. Arms all around, all blowing toward him, creating an inescapable net. He tightened the grip on the shaft and came to a halt, infusing Qi directly into the spear while using the only Martial Art he had for fighting for the first time: