Pschu~
Blood spurted as I took another eye from the beast, it screeched and rolled, trying to throw me off its body but to no avail. I held the shaft of the crudely constructed spear tightly, keeping myself on the monster and pushing the spear deeper and deeper.
Boom~
The beast began to slam itself into the trees around, trying to shake me off its body. I felt my insides mesh together, a taste of iron following in its wake.
'Urgh… I have to finish this quickly.'
I thought that once this monster's mind was occupied with fear and it lost its rationality, it would be less dangerous but I was wrong. This monster was getting wilder by the moment and it was quickly getting worse.
At any rate, it might kill us together! What a suicidal beast.
Thankfully, now that I was paying attention to my surroundings, I could see that the others were joining the fight too.
Shrieeeeeeek~
The monster bellowed again and I immediately moved, taking the small window of pause that it used to raise its head to shout into the sky.
I moved towards where the two daggers were lodged into one of the monster's eyes and pulled them out before quickly inserting them into another, earning another pained shriek before the rampage continued.
But this time, it was relatively less. Some of the larvae's small legs had been chopped off and it was getting harder and harder to lift its heavy body using whatever remained of them.
I took that lull as my chance. I placed high daggers in my mouth and bit down on the wooden hilts before lunging for the spear. I grabbed it and began to deal lethal damage.
I didn't look at where I was stabbing, or what else was going on around me, instead I focused solely on stabbing. I used both the spear and the daggers, changing between them as I see fit.
It instantly became a battle of attrition and I suddenly realised something,
'A beast can still be this strong after I had the chance to land in a few sneak attacks?'
This thought sent a shiver down my spine as I imagined what would have happened if we fought head on and directly. It only sank in now more than ever why the Medusae had run away instead of trying to use their numbers to their advantage.
'All I need is to hold on and keep doing as much damage as I can!"
One of the reasons I wanted to kill this monster was to preserve my and my teammates life, but there was also a different reason.
The quest.
If I was right, then completing this quest and connecting with the massive cube in the sky was key in gathering information in this world and that was my next priority.
In fact, it was my number one priority, after all, without information, I might not even be able to keep my team safe.
Hence I kept stabbing and slashing, ignoring the pains that wracked my body and pushing back the blurriness at the edge of my eyes.
'I must hold on!'
***
[Fragmented creature killed, Mors Papilio Larvae]
[One hundred achievement points earned]
Huff~ Huff~
My heart was pounding in my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins even as my muscles ache and my vision felt dizzy. There was a foul smell in the air from the blood of the monster who was apparently the larva of a creature known as Mors Papilio.
But more than that, more than the strange looks I was getting from the Medusae, more than the happiness in the eyes of Nerissa and Faris at this well earned victory, more than the thumping heart in my chest that filled with with more rush than I have felt in ages was a sound, the voice of what I suspect to be the gigantic cube in the sky.
'Mors Papilio… that translates to death butterfly…. It could also mean something else. I'll have to find out more.'
My mind went to something else immediately,
'Fragmented creature…'
It's highly likely that the 'Fragmented' term was a grading of sorts. I stood straight, taking a deep breath as I stared at the creature before me.
Four of its seven eyes had been ruptured with either the daggers or the spear, I changed between them so much that I didn't even remember which one exactly did the most damage.
The remaining three were dull and vacant, the hints of fear it felt as I reaped its life still evident within them. There were small dents all over the beast, ebic
There were cuts all over its body from Nerissa, Faris and the Medusae—just Vaku and Noemie—who joined much later, attacking it from all sides and relieving the pressure from me.
I turned around to Vaku approaching me with Noemie and the rest of the Medusae following behind him.
"You are an even better warrior than I imagined. No wonder you are called commander by your people."
"What is a fragmented creature? Do you know the origins of this monster? And how do I absorb gene points?"
Vaku walked past me, heading for the beast. He raised a brow in surprise as I spoke,
"You know about gene points but not how to absorb them?"
Vaku gripped his dagger in reverse and began to cut into the body of the massive larvae, splitting open its abdomen section and letting the viscera pour out, followed by a pungent smell.
Vaku didn't mind though and instead continued working, digging and fumbling his way through the creatures innards.
"We are not from this dimension. All I know is the little I was able to glean from that thing in the sky. What is it?"
He seemed to be searching for something.
"You really aren't from this world?" Noemie asked. I looked at him, not bothering to reply. He already knew the answer after all.
"That," he pointed towards the sky with his index finger, "that is the entity that governs the evolution of every being in existence."
"That is the Cerebrum."