__________ POV Ashton__________
I slowly walked towards the worm. The only question on my mind being 'Is this truly dead?'.
On my way towards it, I started removing all of my relics and putting them in my void space. Preparing for the worst.
I reached the mouth of the beast and stared at the doll for a few seconds.
My previous question was answered in the form of a strange growling sound from the mouth of the worm.
Its teeth quickly tried to close themselves around me. I let it bite off my arm and just backed away a bit. Looking at the stump of my arm.
I could've dodged that, but that would've made this fight much more difficult. 'Parasitic Explosion' is a strange Hatsu, it's one of the few I can use discretely as long as it is already within something.
And, my body is always 'infected' with it. I just stared at the worm as it swallowed my arm.
I waited a bit, as to not blow up its mouth, and then detonated the hand as the beast was starting to manipulate the earth around me.
It rose a spike from underneath me, I simply stepped to the side and stared at the beast as its body was quickly expanding due to the explosion inside it.
But, it didn't burst. The beast let off a powerful roar along with a lot of smoke and just directed its teeth at me once more.
At least the roar pushed the doll out of its mouth. So I don't need to worry about that for now.
I guess it won't be this easy huh? I guess that's to be expected.
I extended an arm to the side and let a clone grow out of me, transferring my consciousness to it just as the worm took my body in its mouth.
Cell Splitter does have that condition, that the clone will be in the same state as the user was when it was made. But that can be circumvented.
I did so in the fight with Brion, but when I'm gravely injured I can create a healthy clone using some vitality. So I did just that, the clone had a healthy arm.
I stared as the worm crushed my previous body into the cave wall. Its teeth digging into the wall of the cave as the body of the clone dissolved in its mouth.
The blob of dissolving flesh exploded, engulfing the head of the Earth Screecher in flame and smoke.
The worm recoiled, smashing its head on the ceiling of the cave as the walls shook violently.
The earth around me quickly started moving, tendrils threatening to crush my bones and kill me. I immediately used 'Nature Resonance' and wrestled its control over the walls of the cave.
I managed to stop the spikes just as they were about to reach me. The monster unleashed an irritating wail, almost like that of a woman.
But it wasn't as pronounced, it felt out of this world.
Since I already used Nen... I guess I can just go all out now. Using Wind Aspect, I pulled onto the air around me and created a tornado that tore and shred through every single corner of the cave.
The worm tried to run around, but its body was far too large to avoid the blades of wind.
It was quickly filled with scars as its blood flowed, soaking the ground of the cave and forming puddles all over the room.
It slowly collapsed as the tornado in the room died down.
I used the air around it to manipulate its weakened body and force its mouth open. I could see the figure of the 'woman' inside that mouth. She seemed to be trembling in fear.
It was a strange thing... Wait. Is this being even my enemy? Would these 'Greater Gods' even have any influence over this being? Something created by humans?
Which means that this being is also not 'mad'. Well, it was created out of a human, so you can never know. But it should be intelligent enough.
I stared at it for a while, before deciding to take out 'Coatlicue's Blessing'. The ring I had previously used to heal Momoze's neck.
I enveloped the worm in my aura and started slowly closing up its wounds. I could hear some confused growls coming from it.
But they quickly turned in strange purrs as the warmth of the aura spread around its large body. I never thought I'd hear a worm purr in my life, but here I am.
It's currently beating its tail into the ground as my aura heals it.
I, unfortunately, don't have any time to heal it completely. The swarm is soon to be on its way to this place.
But, I can at least put this worm into my Void Space and heal it later. I guess I'll try to make it enter by itself first.
I ripped the space open large enough for the worm to enter and took out my relics too.
"Enter." I tried speaking the language of old.
It's quite unrefined and I'm sure my accent is all wrong. But the message got across.
As the beast slid itself into my void space with little protest. Just as it entered, I could feel the mountain range shake violently.
I went and picked up the doll, putting it in my void storage too.
This is no normal swarm... Something big is coming my way.
I think I know just who it is too. It's been a while since I've met my teacher...
I walked out through a different tunnel. In the distance was a beast of ridiculous proportions. It was far away, yet it seemed larger than the mountain range I was currently on.
It had six legs, its torso was strangely attached to the middle of it. Similar to a spider, yet not quite. The legs themselves weren't the same, one was the claw of a reptile, one the hoof of a goat.
Each leg belonged to a different animal. But I somehow think this being is where they actually originated from, not the other way around...
It only had four hands. Two of them seemed to have the head of a snake on them but without eyes. Just dangerous mouths with sharp teeth, similar more to those of a shark.
The other hands were more human-like in nature. Still covered in the same dark scales and spikes as the rest of its body is.
It had 12 eyes on top of a large head. Shaped similarly to that of a human. But had no holes for ears and nose. Its mouth was also human-like, only showing a cold expression.
Every step of the beast broke the ground and shook this side of the continent. This abomination is my teacher.
The Compendium has quite a few titles for my teacher, also no conclusive name for the species. But the title that comes to mind most often right now.
One that just recently started making more sense...
'The Guardian Of The Sunken Temple'
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