"Ugh!" Landria groaned in pain as his body was lifted across the air and flung towards the side of the underground cave.
Bam!
He slammed into the rocky wall while the right antenna of the creature was still pierced into his chest area, causing blood to ooze down his clothes.
Landria hadn't even recovered from this sudden attack when he was once again lifted into the air and flung towards the left side of the underground cave.
Bang!
As the dust and smoke from the flame cleared up, it could be seen that the creature was barely fazed by the level ten draconic flames Landria had just attacked it with.
Despite the size and power of the attack, only a small scorch mark appeared on the creature's head.
It only seemed to have gotten more incensed by the attack of this human within its territory.
Landria was bleeding heavily as he fell to the ground after the antenna of the creature was pulled out of his left chest area.
The creature began charging toward him again while he was struggling to get off the ground.
One of the legs of the creature swept towards him once more. Landria managed to move to the side before it made contact, causing the creature's leg to pierce into the wall.
Making use of this opportunity, Landria quickly ran in the opposite direction while activating several spells.
"Muscle Enhancement Level Two,"
"Agility Enhancement Level Three,"
"Speed boost Level four,"
"Endurance boost..."
His mana core was being depleted at a fast rate as he made use of several physique-related spells to boost his strength.
As his body increased in size, the bleeding wound closed up a little. However, Landria was still losing blood and would have passed out by now if not for the physical enhancements.
Landria waved his hand and conjured another draconic flame but unlike the last one, this one was level thirteen.
It was almost twice as large as the former.
He conjured up three at the same time and sent them hurtling towards the creature which was charging forward.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The underground cave vibrated intensely as the flames collided with the creature forcing it backward this time.
Skrrrrhhhh~
The creature was incensed as it finally sustained a little damage from the three, level thirteen draconic flames.
However, Landria could not keep conjuring more of this same type of spell as his mana would deplete completely in a manner of seconds if he decided to.
The mana concentration in the area was helping him out but he was consuming way more than what was being replenished so he had to defeat the creature in another way.
Pulling out his dagger from the sheath, Landria dodged the first swing from one of the creature's legs and slashed it.
A long cut appeared on the leg as the creature shrieked loudly in pain and sent out multiple more legs towards Landria.
Landria moved as quickly as he could trying to dodge the multiple blade-like legs swinging at him.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
He slashed out repeatedly, inflicting injuries on the creature's legs.
The dagger suddenly glowed brightly with the reddish runes on the blade illuminating intensely as he poured mana into it.
Slash!!!
He swung the dagger fiercely towards the creature's legs, cutting two already injured ones off in one fell swoop.
As the creature shrieked in pain, nearly losing its balance, its antenna swung fiercely towards Landria.
Bang!
Landria felt his ribs cracking as the long and thick whip-like antenna slammed into him heavily sending him flying like a sack of beans.
He slammed into the wall and nearly passed out as his eyes turned blurry for a few seconds.
Blergh!
Landria vomited out a mouthful of blood as fell to his knees and struggled to stand straight.
Being injured to this extent, he wouldn't be able to fight properly.
The creature was a little imbalanced for a while but due to having over a hundred legs, it was able to stabilize itself quickly and began charging toward Landria again.
'Weak and spineless!'
He heard the voice speak in his head again.
'Imagine this creature is responsible for the death of your family!'
Landria's eyes suddenly turned listless the instead he heard this.
'Destroy it like it destroyed your family!'
'Kill!'
'Kill!'
'Kill!'
'Kill!'
He didn't know when he started chanting the same word with the voice in his mind as a sudden bloodlust arose within him.
Landria's right eye glowed with white light while his left eye radiated pitch darkness.
Dark scales grew out from both arms and his legs in nearly an instant as he held the dagger in a reverse grip.
The creature charging at him felt the change in the aura of the puny human and paused its movement for an instant. Warning bells were ringing in its head as it stared at Landria's transformation.
"kill!" Landria voiced out like a demonically possessed creature as he charged forward.
The massive centipede-like creature seeing Landria charge at it got incensed once more sending some of its legs swinging at Landria.
Fwhiii~
Landria moved slightly to the side, dodging the first leg and slashing upwards.
Another of the creature's legs was severed causing purplish blood to splatter all over the place.
As the creature shrieked in pain, it swung out more of its blade-like legs.
Landria raised his left hand to block his body while moving to the side. One of the blade-like legs slashed the scales on his arm but left no damage whatsoever.
Spinning around, Landria swung the dagger sideways with intensity, cutting off three legs at the same time.
"Hyyaahhh!"
He screamed out in rage as he charged forward slashing faster than the creature could send out attacks and cutting off the legs on its left side.
In a manner of seconds, Landria had managed to cut off almost all the legs on its left side, causing the creature to finally lose its balance and fall to the ground.
The creature shrieked in pain as it sent its Antennae swinging toward Landria.
Unlike the last time, Landria dodged the left one and caught the right in his grasp.
Raising his dagger, it glowed immensely before he struck down with force.
Slash!
The right antenna was cut off, causing more blood to splatter across the place. Landria leaped forward at this point and landed on the creature's massive head.
He moved towards its neck area and slashed with intensity once more. The dagger radiated with more energy than before as it cut through the golden-colored carapace of the creature, decapitating it in one strike.
Sppuurrgglll~ Plop!
The head of the creature fell off and purplish blood jetted out like a fountain.
Landria stood on its body breathing in and out heavily as his sight began to turn even blurrier than before.
He tried to climb off the corpse of the creature but he kept staggering.
Plop!
Landria suddenly fell off its body and passed out. The scales on his body retracted upon passing out as he returned to his normal look.
A strange phenomenon happened while Landria had passed out.
Dark energy phased out of him surrounding the entire place and covering Landria and the corpse of the creature.
In the midst of all this, a glowing symbol appeared at the back of his neck.
-----
"Uh? He's not back yet?" Lyra questioned with a look of confoundment.
"Yes, big brother Landria hasn't returned," Viktor responded with a slightly troubled look.
"...But it's almost nightfall," Lyra said with a worried tone.
"I'm sure he is fine. Big brother Landria is strong," Mira voiced out with a confident tone as she ran about the place.
It was currently late in the evening and the sun was beginning to set. Lyra came over looking for Landria since this was the time he usually trained her.
However, upon arriving in front of their home, the kids told her Landria hadn't returned. What made them worried was the fact that they would at least see Landria earlier than this which was when he was bringing the creature he had hunted out of the forest.
Then he would leave for Clearksy town to sell it which would take about two hours before returning to town.
They hadn't seen Landria come out of the forest at all today.