Chapter 9 ~<781st Tower of Ascensions>-III~

*BOOM!*

A loud explosion was heard as the tip of my sword made contact with the beast and the light covered my vision. I had passed out.

I opened my eyes. Slowly, the light returned to my vision. I found myself lying face-up on the ground, the grasses and trees around had been obliterated by the sheer force of the collision and what replaced it was a large crater.

I sat up and looked forward at where my enmy was and I saw the obsidian centipede. The creature lay on the ground, the only sign of it still being alive was the occasional wriggling and twitching of it's long body, probably in an attempt to get up. It was now totally covered all around with injuries and it's purple coloured blood. Most of it's legs had either been torn off or completely destroyed and there was a huge hole, about the size of my upper body around the right side of it's belly. It seemed to have dodged my attack at the last second and escaped instant death, but the wound it retained was brave. Given a few minutes, the beast would surely die but the experience I obtained from my many years of combat had taught me to ensure that the enemy was no longer alive before moving on, thus I did. It took me more than half of my remaining strength, but with my determination and the support of my weapon, I managed to stand up. I wanted to walk over to where the creature lay and finish it off, but before I could even take a step forward, my body stopped responding and I fell flat on the floor. Almost immediately afterwards, I was overcome by a sudden but massive surge of pain.

It was as though my muscles were tearing up from the inside and rebuilding itself, most of my bones were already broken and shattered but the remaining ones trembled violently giving birth to an excruciating level of pain. My brain was overloaded and even when I tried to scream, the words got stuck in my throat and all that came out was blood.

*Cough*

*Cough*

*Huffs*

I coughed out entire mouthfuls of blood, I huffed and heaved like there was no tomorrow. Veins were popping out on my forehead as I held my throat and my eyes were a bloodshot red.

'D-damn it!' I thought, the words were unable to escape from my mouth. I went too far and now I was reaping the consequences.

'is this really all this body can handle'. It was an issue. If I was reduced to this state after a battle with a mere grade 8 monster, then how was I supposed to face the monarchs, not to mention the soverigns who were far more powerful. This was the difference between my original strength and the current me, we were entire universes apart.

When the coughing and blood womiting had died down a little, I calmed myself and steadied my breathing.

"Kie....".

"Ki....k".

It seemed like the centipede was in a similar state to me, maybe even worse. It's body was convulsing seriously as it tried to lift it's weight up, !maybe for one last push. I looked at the beast as it stood up and clenched my teeth. I remembered the words my master left behind for me and my spirit was rekindled.

I literally pulled my self up, my legs were wobbly as I was about to fall, but just before I did, I pushed my dominant leg forward alongside my weapon to support my weight. I was now in a standing posture......I think. To celebrate my successful standing up, I wanted to smile, but I quickly realized that it wasn't over yet as I was assaulted by even more pain.

Blood gushed out from my numerous injuries and the bones of my left ribcage, which were already broken by now, stabbed at me from the inside, birthing new levels of terrible pain.

"Kuek". Blood flowed from my mouth once again, this time though, I'm pretty sure that I splirred out at least half a litre of my blood. My head dizzied and I was about to fall again but I held my self up, encouraged by the realization that if I fell, I would be returned to square one. I raised my head and straightened my vision. The centipede was still trying to scream, if I was going to kill it, it would be now.

"Raaaaaawwh!!"

I forced myself and let out a loud roar. Steeling my determination, I took another step forward, and another. Each step I took rewarded me with a pain superior to the last, but I didn't give up. I knew that if I won and survived this confrontation, I would be rewarded accordingly. So I dragged my self, till the point where I was now stood before the monster. The tip of it's head was now laid bare before me, the spot I was aiming for also had no shell protecting it.

I raised my weapon, looking down at the beast, I shouted and resounding

"Die!!!" before I stabbed downwards, in an attempt to finish this once and for all.

"Kiiiiieeeeeek!!!"

The beast released a deafening scream that hurled me backwards, back to point zero. I landed on my back and before the pain could catch up to me, I quite literally dragged myself up to face the centipede. My limbs were trembling, an aftereffect of taking the beast's large scream at point blank range. My ears ring and my vision shook, my body was dangling awkwardly as a result of the scream's stun effect. I was drifting !eft and right like a drunkard, my sense organs were completely disoriented.

After a few seconds, I partially regained myself. I began hearing sounds of the bushes rustling and various frightened sounds of animals from the surrouding area, hidden in the trees. They seemed to be running away from something, the question was.... What?!

What was so scary, it made several dozens of karmic beasts run with their tails between their legs in fear. There was a loud silence, the only thing interrupting it was the sound of the trees being blown by the wind.

I started sweating, my exposed back was already almost drenched in cold sweat. I was afraid. Whatever it was that was going to make an appearance here, would kill me. I knew this, but my legs were already frozen in fear, the pain I was experiencing before had been suppressed by my superior instincts, and I couldn't run away.

*RUMBLE!!*

The earth trembled at the sheer mass of the creature. It was several magnitudes higher than that the previous on and the entire forest quaked powerfully, especially the ground underneath me. It was shaking more than anywhere else, I got a bad premonition. I gathered what little karmic energy I had left and jumped, at least thirty meters away, and that was when IT happened.

The ground of where I previously was blew open and a massive entity emerged from the hole. It's body was at least fifty meters in diameter and its length was at least eighty feet, it was a massive creature.

I stood, gazing at it's incredible height. I had already seen far larger and stronger presences but my new bodies resistance to such things was unbelievably low and even a creature of this magnitude made my body tremble at its presence.

The creatures red eyes faced me and it released a loud screech

"SCREEEEEEECH!!!" That was when I head a voice in my head, it belonged to No.2

'You have encountered the Grade 6 insect species, the Adult obsidian centipede".

~END~