Hundreds of small violet legs moved rapidly on the hard black stone of the ceiling. The little violet legs were attached to a long oblong gray body, four meters long and a half meter wide. Two big dark compound eyes were the only visible feature on the head of the creature, while its rear end was armed with a half-moon shaped tail.
This was one of the most dangerous creatures in the Second Level of the Ashen Grotto, the Violet Legged Centipede. It moved silently on the ceiling of the various caves and tunnels, attacking unaware travelers and sleeping miners. The numbers of lives lost to these beasts were enormous.
The specimen in question was a big male in search of a meal. It ran on the ceiling of a dark tunnel, sliding silently between the stalactites in the complete darkness. Like many other creatures in the Grotto, it was used to extreme conditions, being able to live without needed light at all. Two large eyes that seemed a collection of hundreds of small dark screen gazed the area under the beast, looking for preys.
Suddenly the tunnel that the beast was traversing ended in a large cave filled with several giant luminescent mushrooms. The Large centipede kept moving on the ceiling, hiding between the giant formation of rocks while he searched the terrain for something to hunt.
"Wuu wuuu wuuu"
A distressed crying sound attired the attention of the featureless giant insect. Two big dark compound eyes pointed their attention on the direction where the sounds came and they immediately found a small white cub wondering aimlessly. The insect looked around the cave and was surprised when it noticed that there wasn't any other bat in the place.
Normally, Violet Legged Centipedes were way more cautious while hunting. They would study the prey for days before attacking at the most convenient time. However, things changed when they considered the prey incredibly vulnerable or when presented with an incredibly fortuitous opportunity. A bloodshed bat cub crying aloud alone? It was, without doubt, an incredibly rare occasion to feast on a species that normally the insect would avoid at all costs.
The Centipede knew that he could take the cub down, although the adult form of the bats was strong, their cubs were way weaker than itself. The creature's giant gray body moved between the stalactites, approaching silently what it saw as easy prey.
When the insect was directly above the cub, it stopped on the place. The featureless face opened in two in the middle. Two wicked looking set of sharp teeth shined in the darkness, while the oblong body of the centipede contracted on itself like a spring.
- SWANG -
With a dull sound the giant beast darted like an arrow towards the small crying cub, it jaws opened wide. The white cub seemed to notice the arriving beast, but instead trying to run away terrified, it gave a haughty look to the incoming insect.
Suddenly three green colored chains emerged from behind a rock, extending towards the attacking beast. As the latter wasn't able to change its direction in mid-air, it was easily surrounded by the chains and fell heavily on the ground.
The centipede roared in pain, trying to escape the grasp of the attack. The chains held off for the moment, but it was evident that the centipede would be able to break them off if it tried for a few more breaths.
However, a black-robed youth had already emerged from under the rocks. His left arm was surrounded by a green flame, from which the tree chains originated. The other arm held a black blade that he used to slash the right eye of the insect. On the other side of the centipede, the white cub darted towards the chained beast and clawed with fury at his other eye.
Both attacks were successful, making the insect scream with agonizing pain.
"Oh well, that went good…"
A smile appeared on Sif as he retreated from around the centipede. He probably had still the time to throw a couple of other blows at the body of the creature, but he preferred to play it safe. These beasts tended to summon an incredible amount of strength when they knew that they were done for.
"Uh-oh… here it is…"
The insect roared with rage, his body twisting on itself and breaking all the green chains that bound him. The latter simply started to disappear into thin air. Luna, that didn't manage to leave quick enough, got hit by the tail of the giant worm-like creature and the strength of the impact sent her crushing on a wall of stone several meters away.
However, after the great explosion of power the beast seemed lost: not being able to see anything around it, it started to trip into the various boulders on the ground of the cave and ended up crashing on the truck of one of the giant glowing mushrooms.
'Its legs girl, one by one…'
Commanded the youth, as the fire on his arm slowly extinguished. A white bolt emerged from the place Luna had been sent flying, moving towards the giant creature without eyes.
Sif nodded satisfied, then started to clean the black knife on a close-by wall filled with illuminating musk. When he finished what he was doing, he simply sat on a large boulder and waited. He looked lazily as his familiar slowly grinded down the giant insect.
'Such a great fight, the way I like them the most… unfair for the others'
The insect had no chance. He couldn't even see Luna's attacks. A dozen minutes went by and the centipede was drowning in a giant pool of dense violet blood. Most of its legs were missing and his body was losing considerable amounts of blood.
Only then Sif stood up. He started to gather Earth Energy on his left hand, forming a large green flame around his arm. Then he began waiving said energy in the form of three chains, sending them towards the large dying insect.
This was called Energy Construct Technique, it was one of the most basic magic techniques around. Also one of the few techniques that he actually bothered to learn.
"Great Mistake, Hexes are strong, but if I ever find myself in a situation as this one… with no materials to work with… well, knowing some magical techniques wouldn't be that bad…"
The youth had thought for a long time about his current predicament. If in his past life he concentrated a few more on learning skills instead of letting his mechanical servants and auxiliary systems do it for him, he would probably be a lot less in trouble at the moment.
In the end, he decided to start working on his magical skills, maybe he would even leave the Coast of Republics and go to the Belt of Empires to train as a Magician when he would be strong enough.
"There are some schools of magic that are pretty interesting… during the war, those Illusionists were pretty hard to deal with, and there also were those Necromancers that weren't that bad…"
While murmuring to himself, Sif started walking towards the now bound insect. He stopped only when he was directly in front of its large chained body. His free hand touched the surface of the gray flesh of the beast, sending inside him a wave of black energy.
"This should be enough…"
The youth moved back a dozen meters, standing next to a blood-drenched Luna. 'Jee, go wash yourself girl… this stuff will start to stink soon' He ordered to the animal while observing the movement of the Curse Energy inside the Violet Legged Centipede.
In the past days, he almost gained the necessary amount of Curse Energy needed to start binding Luna to the Third Level. It has to be known that most Summoners could only bind a creature to the Second Level.
Third Level Binding made the familiar's soul a part of the Summoner's. This meant that the Summoner wouldn't need any command rune or any other form of control to manage the familiar. Which left the Summoner's core free to be filled with other Energy or other Command Runes. This meant that the Summoner would have access to a superior number of familiar, more than what his own core could sustain.
Only Master and Grandmaster Summoners could manage to do something like this. Plus, the process to bind a familiar at the Third Level wasn't quick: it depended on the familiar's strength, but it was something that was usually measured in years.
Curse Energy was like a shortcut, allowing Sif to greatly reduce the time needed to bind things.
Naturally, nothing was so good without any side effect. It was true that Curse Energy would help Sif a lot and would also make him able to bind familiars even faster than an actual Grandmaster Summoners, however, there was a cost to pay.
He couldn't just use simple Curse Energy, he needed to fuse it with his Willpower. Basically, he had to strengthen the Curse Power that was already inside his Willpower!
This would mean that he would greatly improve his Curse affinity, but also he would be bound by the hunger coming from the element. The Curse Energy that he was gathering at the moment could be simply ejected from his core, thrown away and be forgotten. If it didn't find anything around to consume, it would just extinguish itself.
Sif wouldn't be affected in any way.
However, if the Curse Power was inside his Willpower, things became a lot different. He couldn't just throw away his Willpower. The Willpower was the most fundamental part of an individual. If one lost it, it meant that he had lost everything. It was even worse than dying.
So, the moment he strengthened the Curse Power inside his Willpower, Sif would need to forever feed the Curse Energy inside him. The moment he stopped doing so, for whatever reason, the Curse Power would just start to consume him instead.
In the past, Sif had to consume an insane amount of living beings to keep up with the demand coming from his Curse Energy. A couple of times he even started wars to get his hands around enough living creatures to survive.
However, no matter how harsh the malus looked like, the advantages of the Curse Energy were too enticing. A smile appeared on the youth's face as the giant centipede in front of him started to trembled weakly under the effect of the hungry energy that was eating it from the inside.
He could see the soul energy of the animal being consumed by the Curse Energy, bringing the latter at the level he needed it to be to start fusing it to his Willpower.
"Finally"
Not even an hour later, Sif was sitting in the same cave a few meters from the cadaver of the giant insect. Luna was sitting on a near boulder, her belly full of centipede flesh.
Suddenly, the small bat trembled. She opened her eyes and started wailing in pain for a few breaths, before losing her senses and crushing down on the floor.
Sif also trembled, blood starting to emerge from the corner of his mouth, but he kept cultivating for another couple of hours. Suddenly, both him and Luna opened their eyes. A dark gleam was hidden inside them.
"Done…"
He looked at the bat, and realized that he could completely control it without needing to use the connection that he established between the two of them. He immediately broke off the invisible chains between him and the white bat.
A strong sensation of satisfaction ran across his body when he felt his Willpower returning back to him. He concentrated a bit and he was also able to feel a small sliver of Willpower that remained inside Luna. That was her Willpower, yet now had been transformed into his own.
"Slowly making advancement… now it's time to see what they have to offer in this Iron Gates Fort"
He started moving east, entering in a tunnel and walking rapidly for a couple of kilometers until he arrived in another cavern.
This one wasn't at all like the last one he was in, or any of the others for that matter. It was simply immense. He couldn't even see the walls of the others three sides and could barely make up the ceiling.
Near the exit of the tunnel, Sif saw Blue sitting with the rest of the equipment.
The youth ordered Luna to come closer, this time without even needing to talk to her in his mind. He just willed it, as he would will his arm to move, and she did just that.
He rapidly placed the baggage on the creature's back and then started to walk forwards, in direction of the immense fort surrounded by tall black walls that stood in the middle of the cave.