God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 247: Cave Dweller.

Cain watched the darkness of the cave with narrowed eyes.

'If we make noise, it will just attract more of those abominations. What to do...'

Whilst thinking about the best course of action to take, the darkness within the cave stirred again. This time, a dangerous aura locked onto him.

'Crap!'

Cain barely had any time to activate a skill, when a massive creature dashed out of the cave. Looking at it, Cain had to swallow the urge to throw up in disgust.

The head of the creature was a mixture between that of a goat and a lizard. In a strange, eerie, and wrong way, it almost resembled a dragon.

Almost...

However, the body of the terrifying creature was what made Cain pause the most.

The creature had the body of a gigantic centipede. Hundreds of legs kicked against the ground as the creature dashed at them with frenzied madness.

"Jenny!" Calling out to his sharpshooter, Cain assessed the situation coldly

His eyes locked onto the creature, and information about it poured into his mind.

***

{Vile Centipede}: Level 100 (Half-god).

Strength: 3,000.

Agility: 2,000.

Defense: 700.

HP: 30,000/ 30,000.

Aether: 10,000/10,000.

Skills: Blood Poison, Blood Armor, Heart Turmoil, Burrow, Insect's Grasp.

***

'Crap! Another one?!'

Cain fought with the {Abyssal Realm-Walker} not too long ago, and the thing had nearly killed him. If not for the circumstances he had found himself in and a bit of luck, he would have been killed.

And now, he was about to face a similar creature...

The Giant centipede approached quickly, covering half the distance in a few seconds. The guardian of light skill Susan had was still on cooldown, so, there was no defender for them.

Jenny had already broken away from them and was moving toward the slope of a nearby hill where she would be able to snipe the creature.

'Someone needs to provide Susan cover as well...' Without the presence of the light guardian, Susan would be left fairly unprotected, and he didn't like the sound of that. Although she most likely had other defensive skills, he didn't want to count on them just yet.

'Alright, big boy. Come here!'

An idea was slowly being created in his head, and all he needed to do was find the courage to execute it.

Taking another step forward, he activated the {Burning Spirit} he had not fully recovered his mana yet, but he still had enough to activate the {Burning Spirit} and a single elemental enchantment.

A pale, gold flame enveloped his body in the next moment...

{Your defense has been increased by 100%, your movement speed has been reduced by 80%}.

Cain suddenly felt himself become as heavy as a mountain. He felt as though nothing would be able to move him from where he currently stood, including himself. His attack speed wasn't affected, but he was now as slow as a turtle.

Well, in the eyes of the rapidly approaching abomination, he was. Cain was certain he was very fast for human standards but the creature he was about to face was no human at all.

However, he didn't need speed right now. What he needed, was to stall the creature as much as he could, as long as he could...

Luckily for him, thanks to his newly acquired {Burning Spirit}, he would be able to easily change and adapt to any opponent he faced. With the equally malleable {Divine Essence of Mettalurgy}, he was bound to become a menace.

However, Cain knew he was about to face his most fearsome opponent yet, so he couldn't afford to be even a bit negligent.

The mana within him churned, and the floodgates were opened. Streams of gold flowed down his body and soon, he was covered by a thick layer of it. This was an improved version of the golden armor he could create. Thanks to the upgrade of the {Metal Creation} skill, his constructs of metal were much more solid.

They were stronger and more resilient, and he could now imbibe them with special properties using his basic knowledge of runes.

As soon as his preparations were complete, the creature was already upon him. Up close, the creature had a few details he couldn't notice thanks to the distance between them. There were thousands of little holes in the bright red carapace of the creature. A cloud of red fog suddenly sprayed out from these tiny holes and quickly consumed Cain and Susan.

Almost immediately, Cain felt a terrifying weakness fall upon him. He could feel the energy his stats provided him being quickly melted away.

Susan also had a weak expression on her face as the poisonous cloud washed over her.

{Host has been infected with a Blood Poison Variant. All stats have been reduced by 30%}.

'This is bad... Really, really bad!'

The ability to reduce stats was a very unique one even amongst humans. Thirty percent of his stats were a big deal, and because it was his base stats were affected by the malicious poison, the effect of the {Burning Spirit} skill was also reduced.

Gritting his teeth, Cain was determined to stand his ground. The opponent was fearsome, but he had seen and fought his fair share of fearsome opponents.

Chains of gold materialized out of thin air and shot at the approaching creature like slithering snakes.

Some tried to wrap around the creature's thick body, others tried to wrap around its hundreds of legs, and a few even clung to the creature's neck.

And yet, it was not enough. It simply broke the tough chains with the force of its acceleration, causing Cain to grit his teeth in anger.

'Let's have at it!'

Ki flowed into the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} like a river, and the weight of the thick blade increased dramatically, causing Cain to strain his muscles and bones just to swing it.

A moment later, the creature slammed into Cain like a speeding train, biting at the blade in his hand with its rows of venomous fangs. A gust of poisonous wind flew into his lungs, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

The creature on the other hand was not let off easily. The lower part of its jaw had been crushed by the weight of the sword. If it wasn't for its defenses, It might have been split in two due to how sharp the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} had become.

Cain quickly stemmed the flow of Ki. Because of the rate at which Ki was consumed when activating the skills attached to the blade, Cain had to be very cautious with how he activated it. Although there was still a decent amount of waste as he wasn't used to the skill, it was better than nothing.

The blade turned into a blur as it struck the hard carapace of the creature again. However, this time, only a faint white mark was left. The defenses of the creature were no small issue.

In retaliation, the creature threw itself at Cain and attacked him with tens of its disgusting crawlers at once. The blade in his hand danced as he fought to keep the sharp claws at bay.

A resounding crackle spread through the air a second later, and a beam of concentrated energy smashed straight into the head of the creature. Some meters away, Susan was busy reloading a second shot.

Susan had been chanting for a while, and as soon as she was done, a beam of holy light descended on Cain and the terrifying creature.

The creature seemed to recoil at the touch of the sacred light, while Cain felt incorporated. Ignoring the system prompt that came up, he continued launching a ferocious assault. Since he was trying to preserve mana and Ki, he avoided activating any unnecessary skills, choosing only a straightforward style of fighting

Despite the combined efforts of him and the two girls, their luck was bound to run out eventually.

Sidestepping a lunge from the creature, Cain poured Ki and devil essence into the blade. Despite not having the Black and White Claws, he could still activate the {Abyssal Crimson Slash}, only it was a bit unusual for him to use it with only one sword.

A flood of black and red exploded from the blade like burning embers and crashed down onto the carapace of the creature, crushing bits and pieces of it and reading through the creature's flesh. Blood gushed out from the harrowing injury, causing the {Vile Centipede} to shriek loudly.

Cain made a move to jump away from the creature, but before he could do anything else, the creature moved like a whip. Cracks of red light radiated from the gaps of its exoskeleton allowing it to curl its body up in less than a second.

Before Cain knew what was happening, the creature was firmly wrapped around his body.

'Wai-'

A sickening crunch followed...

"Cain!"

"Cain!"

The two girls watched in horror as tens of the sharp crawlers on the underbelly of the wicked creature easily tore through Cain's defenses and pierced his flesh.

Blood erupted like a fountain, and Cain's eyes w8dened from the pain and shock. Luckily, he still had enough presence of mind.

Two glowing wings created from flames immediately wrapped around his body, pushing the creature away from him and freeing him from its grasp.

He immediately jumped away, but staggered soon after due to the sheer loss of blood he was suffering.

'Damn it!'

The injury this time was simply too ghastly. He had been punctured in numerous places around his body, and blood was leaking from him like he had plenty of it to lose. Luckily or unluckily for him, none of his internal organs were damaged, so while the bleeding was terrible, it wouldn't kill him immediately. Not until his HP ran out completely at least.

'This fucker!'

Cain watched as the creature crawled slowly towards him with a gleeful look in its eyes. Letting out an ominous sound, it dashed at him again. However, a bullet from Jenny smashed into one of its eyes, drawing blood and causing the creature to recoil in pain and agony.

Cain used this time to jump up and swing a Ki-saturated blade at the creature, knocking it backward.

As the creature struggled to its feet, Cain drew a few potions from his inventory and began drinking them to recover some HP and MP.

'No other choice...'

Realized that prolonging the fight would do them no good. Not only was the creature way too strong, but it was also devious, and cunning, which would only lead to more injuries down the road. To prevent that from happening, he would need to act swiftly and diabolically.

Black flames poured into his hands and flowed onto the edge of his weapon. The air instantly became hotter, and the creature that was already on its feet looked at the eerie black weapon with a frozen expression on its face.

"My turn..."

Black flames furiously burning on the weapon, Cain jumped forward with all his might and struck down, trailing a blazing path of scratched earth and air...