Way of the Knights

Chapter 123 - Slay!

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Raven's spiritual sense never left the centipede. Even though he was forced to watch the gruesome and disgusting table manners of the beast, he never averted his senses.

Eventually, the centipede munched on the last bone of the rhino's skull and fully devoured it's brain scattering juices everywhere, it let out a disgustingly satisfied sound and curled up like a coil. But Jackson didn't give the go signal just yet, he waited and observed the centipede carefully. Paying close attention to the rhythm of its breath, Jackson's eyes flashed and gave the go signal.

The team immediately jumped out of their cover and ran toward it. Swords, spears, and fist flashing with energy, they charged towards the sleeping centipede, hoping to take advantage of it's momentary weakness.

But it seems that they underestimated the centipedes senses.

While it's true that the centipede hadn't discovered them when they entered its domain, it's impossible not to specially now that they are charging towards it.

With a loud screech and multiple scuttling noises from it's legs, it stood halfway to its height in order to look at the intruders. Once it saw that it was humans, its ire was provoked even more. It tried spitting out acid from its mouth but it remembered that it can't since it just finished eating. This made it even furious since acid attacks are one of its main combat capabilities. Nevertheless, it had to defend itself from these humans.

It slithered and pounced on the closest human which is Jackson. Seeing it jump high despite it's weight, Jackson's gaze darkened as he hurriedly went out of its way. George tried shooting it with arrows while it was mid-air but he missed, Jordan and Raven were both still charging at it, hoping to get close so that they could deal some serious damage.

The centipede saw them coming and turned its attention to them instead. Raven clicked his tongue as he saw the centipede charging straight at him with maws wide open. His gaze turned colder and didn't stop from charging even though Jordan, who was behind him, also moved out of the way.

When the team saw the centipede closing in on Raven, their hearts unknowingly tightened. Without a doubt, Raven was weakest in the team and they didn't believe that he could bear its full weight or even struggle once he's captured.

Without a second thought, they charged towards the centipede in attempts to draw its attention but the beast ignored them and only had Raven in its eyes. Raven watched and bid his time until the centipede was close, close enough for it to think that he was helpless and could only accept death.

Inches away before the maws of the beast touched him, Raven's body seemed to have defied time and moved several times faster than the centipede could. He slid on his knees and went under the centipede. All the while, his fist was already charging up for an attack. Once he found himself under its belly, he released his fist and punched the centipedes belly using all of his force.

As his fist met the belly, he felt it sink on the belly while the strength behind it were transfered to it's whole body. The centipede's body arched up for a bit before it let out a pained screech. Even the carapace which was placed directly on to of where Raven's punch connected, had a visible crack from the force his attack.

But Raven still wasn't done, he moved his energies onto his leg and delivered a sharp kick on one of its legs. The said leg was torn off from its body because of the intensity of his attack. Raven then used the gap available to squeeze himself out away underneath the beasts. It turned out that this was correct choice since after the he kicked the leg, the centipede planned on squashing him down using it's colossal body. Sadly, Raven was already out by then and his teammates already arrived. Jackson jumped and landed on the carapace of the centipede, he knew that his spear won't manage to penetrate it no matter how much force he uses so instead, he used the blunt end of his spear and pounded on the carapace. This will make sure that the impact of his attack will spread towards the rest of its body, hurting its insides on the process.

He then ran along towards the head of the beast, jumped and delivered a fatal stab on its head. The centipede screech with fury and pain, it just so happened that Jackson's stab was slightly slanted, thus making the tip of the spear damage its eyes as well. Now that its vision is impaired, it would have more difficulty seeing its targets.

Jordan also arrived, but unlike Jackson he targeted the legs directly and managed to sever two in the process. However, since it has a hundred legs, it barely has any effect on the mobility of beast. Alina and George just supported the team in ranged manner, shooting arrows and targeting its underside as much as they could.

The centipede lost all of its patience, its body stood up halfway again and this time, its eye and the two antennas were glowing with a sharp red light.Jackson didn't need to remind everyone about what its trying to do since he already told them about this earlier.

Everyone already had their Energy Vision activated and also prepared to evade if the need arises. The centipede did not know this so it targeted Raven, who's once again the closest to it. The projectile it sent to trap him in an illusion is fast, unfortunately even it landed on Raven, it didn't trap him even for a second.

The light contained a complex effect which disrupts the flow of energy and attack an individual's brain, feeding it with corrupting toxins which in turn makes this person see realistic illusions. But if one was already anticipating it and countered it using Energy Vision or any ocular technique and methods, it will just be like a breeze of wind, completely harmless.

Seeing its attack ineffective, the centipede screeched once more and tried its best to rampage all over the team. It just decided to charge through their ranks and attack using its body. The centipede didn't specifically targeted anyone this time, it would just attack whoever's the closest.

At first, the team didn't like its rampage since it made the centipede more agile and harder to approach, add the fact that whoever gets close would be in danger and it wasn't stopping as well. But in time, they gradually adjusted to its rhythm and began to weave in attacks.

In the end, because of its reckless rampaging, the centipede quickly spent its stamina and became exhausted and weakened. This of course didn't escape the eyes of the team.Thus, the final assault ensued.

Jordan hacked away at its legs and managed to cut off enough to make the centipede lose its balance. Jackson slashed away at its face while Raven jumped and fell from above like a meteor, landing on the head of the centipede and crushing its brain in the process.

The beast shivered for a while before it fell limp on the ground and breathed its last.The team heard the sound of a glass breaking from the entrance, meaning that Illusion Curtain was lifted.

"Move quick, store the body of this monstrosity and found remnants of the dead, anything from spatial ring down to pieces of clothes, we have to at least return something for their families to mourn." Jackson ordered and the team, though exhausted, followed.

Raven scanned the area once more using his spiritual sense and marked the things he could harvest, Jordan, George and Alina was similarly harvesting some trinkets of dead while Jackson took care of the centipede's carcass.

The hideout of the Dream Sucking Centipede wasn't large, it didn't take the team too long to gathered whatever they could from the place. After doing the task, they planned to set out and leave this place since the smell of rotting flesh is extremely attractive to some deadly beasts, and since the illusion curtain is gone, then this scent will permeate everywhere.

But before they left, Raven did one final act in order to appease the unwilling souls of the dead. He lit up a torch and scattered flammables all over the place while he was moving earlier. Before they left, he threw down the torch, went down on his knees with a hand on his chest and silently gave a prayer.

"May you find peace on the other side, knowing that you didn't find it here." Giving the place one final glance, he left with the team in a hurry and searched for a place to camp nearby.

When he left, the whole hideout of the centipede was cleansed by raging flames. Strangely, these flames did not scatter to other places and was completely confined in this area. The smoke coming off from the burning dead bodies formed faces of people who had a relieved expression on their faces, departing with peace from this world and onto the other side.