Chapter 732: Giant Cave Centipede

Despite its massive, forty-foot frame, the beast possessed a terrifying, unnatural speed in its native environment.

It didn’t charge straight across the floor like a surface boar; instead, its hundreds of sharp legs caught the vertical surface of a nearby slate pillar, allowing the monster to shoot up the stone wall with horrifying agility!

It blended instantly into the high shadows, its jet-black armor merging seamlessly with the dark crevices of the ceiling.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!

The dry, echoing sound of its legs skittered across the high roof, bouncing off the cavern walls so rapidly that it was impossible to pinpoint its location by sound alone and this bastard seems to be using it to his advantage by constantly skittering around.

The beast was using the subterranean landscape, the darkness, and the echoing acoustics to obscure its position, turning the entire cavern ceiling into its personal hunting ground.

SZZZZT!

As usual with these bastards, without warning, a stream of bright green, highly concentrated venom hissed out from the darkness overhead, aiming straight for Sol’s face!

But with Sol’s extreme senses it was naturally impossible to be ambushed, and even though it was dark, thanks to various traits he had absorbed from a multitude of souls he was able to still kinda see and make out its position.

He suddenly leaned his torso back at an impossible angle, letting the stream of acidic venom fly past his nose.

The corrosive liquid splashed against the stone behind him, immediately sizzling and melting an inch-deep groove into the rock.

Before Sol could straighten his back, the shadows above burst open!

The Giant Centipede dropped down a second time, but this time, it didn’t use its head. It coiled its massive, forty-foot body into a tight spiral, using its entire armored mass as a crushing whip aimed directly at Sol’s torso!

BOOM!

Sol raised both arms, catching the full weight of the falling, forty-foot armored body against his forearms.

The kinetic force was immense... like catching a falling ironwood trunk.

The sheer weight drove Sol’s feet two inches deep into the solid slate floor, the impact echoing through his legs.

"Tsk," Sol grunted, his eyes narrowing as he felt the slippery, smooth texture of the beast’s carapace, but the Centipede didn’t stay to wrestle.

The moment its body made contact with Sol’s grip, its hundreds of sharp legs twitched in unison.

The beast used its incredible flexibility to slide effortlessly out of his hold, its sharp legs scratching violently against Sol’s leather jerkin... leaving faint white marks on the treated hide... before it slithered back up a nearby stalactite, disappearing into the dark ceiling once more.

Sol straightened his back, rolling his shoulders as he looked up into the starry gloom.

Seeing the beast slip await from his literal hands, he felt a rare flicker of mild frustration.

This beast was undeniably a Layer 3 equivalent, but it wasn’t fighting like the wild horrors on the surface. Beasts like the Obsidian Behemoth relied on raw physical mass, direct charges, and elemental breath attacks... things Sol could easily overpower, crush, or dodge.

This cave centipede, however, was a born stealth specialist. And if it was just that it wouldn’t be a big deal, after all he was somewhat of a stealth expert himself.

But this beast utilized the three-dimensional space of the underground cavern, the pitch-black ceiling, its slippery carapace, and hit-and-run ambush tactics to keep its distance.

In these cramped, vertical surroundings, Sol’s raw brute force was slightly hindered because every time he tried to strike, the beast vanished back into the dark crevices overhead.

"Clever bastard," Sol spat out, causally wiping a stray drop of acidic spray from his shoulder with his bare hand. "You think having a hundred legs and a dark roof makes you untouchable?"

Sol closed his eyes.

He stopped relying on his visual sight, which was constantly disoriented by the dancing bioluminescent shadows overhead. He also stopped listening to the dry, echoing skitter of its legs bouncing off the walls.

Instead, Sol expanded his senses outward in a fifty-foot sphere centered on his body.

The spatial domain didn’t care about darkness. It didn’t care about hit-and-run tactics, nor was it fooled by bouncing echoes.

The moment Sol’s domain activated, the entire vertical cavern wall, the high ceiling, and every microscopic vibration of the air were mapped directly into his mind with crystal clarity.

He felt it.

Thirty feet above his head, tucked behind a thick cluster of glowing azure fungi, the Giant Centipede was coiling its lower segments, preparing for a third, fatal strike aimed at his blind spot.

It opened its dripping mandibles, gathering a thick reservoir of venom in its throat, intending to blind him before dropping down to wrap its entire forty-foot body around his neck.

Sol didn’t move an inch. He stood completely still, his hands hanging loosely at his sides, breathing slowly, deliberately projecting an image of disorientation and vulnerability.

The Centipede immediately took the bait.

FWHOOSH!

It launched itself from the ceiling like a black spear, dropping silently behind Sol’s back, its massive mandibles stretched wide to crush his skull!

Ten feet. Five feet. Three feet.

The moment the beast’s dripping mandibles entered the absolute core of his spatial domain—

Sol moved!

He didn’t turn his body. With a speed that shattered the air pressure around him, Sol’s left hand shot backward over his shoulder like a iron clamp!

CRUNCH!

Sol’s bare fingers caught the Centipede’s left mandible mid-air!

The sheer physical density of his grip shattered the beast’s outer chitinous joint instantly, black venom and yellow fluid spurting out over his hand.

Before the subterranean horror could even let out a shriek of pain or use its hundreds of legs to coil around his arm, Sol’s right hand moved.

SHING!

The Dreadwing blade cleared its sheath with a deafening, metallic ring.

Holding the beast’s crushing jaw locked in his left hand, Sol spun his torso with violent, explosive power, driving the sapphire-tinted tblade upward in a brutal, reverse-thrust arc!

SPLICK!

The blade entered directly through the soft, fleshy underside of the Centipede’s throat, slicing clean through its digestive tract, piercing its central nerve cluster, and bursting out through the top of its armored head in a fountain of black blood!

SKREEEEEEE—!