They hadn't gone far when Damien felt something approaching, and this time, he wasn't wrong. The clink clink was the first, like the sound of clashing knives. Then he felt the aura of the monster, which shocked Damien the more because he was supposed to have long since felt its presence before seeing or hearing it.

  What came crittering through the mist, with footsteps like a hundred sticks stabbing at the same time onto the earth, was the least monster he'd expected, but no less deadly.

  A centipede.

  Six black, glassy orbs, equally set on opposite sides of its bulbous head, and then lining down to meet each other in a V-shaped formation turned with unnerving intensity to focus on Damien, with twin long antennas twitching in the air.

  Its long, black, scaly body, segmented into more than a hundred sections, reminiscent of a train of attached carts, with more than a hundred knife-like legs—four below each segment—moving with preternatural coordination.

  Attached to the side of its head were two deadly sharp looking mandibles. Damien instantly recognized them as the origin of the clink clink sound he'd heard at the beginning. He grimaced as he stared at those weapons that were half his full body length, with their outer edges down to the tip colored a deathly bone white.

  "I can't stress how much I hate this idea," Damien said right as his spear materialized in his right hand.

  Beside him, Keilan grunted and then tapped a brown, ordinary looking belt on his waist. As soon as he did, there was a brief flash of purple-black light, and then he too soon had a long spear in his hand.

  Its longer part was made out of brown wood, one of the most powerful types on the planet, if what they'd gotten was true. It had been boasted with more sturdiness than some metals, which had made Damien more skeptical until a test had been conducted right in front of them.

  The tip, which, thankfully, was made out of real metal this time, was leaf-shaped— somewhat like Damien's —and so sharp it had gone through Peak tier Spirit lord material without stress.

  Thankfully, it had been gifted. Damien knew the cumulative wealth of him and his brother. They couldn't afford it.

  Far behind the two hundred feet long body of the centipede, two stingers, roughly ten feet long, rose in a smooth curve that pointed down at them.

  Damien could only utter out a curse before the entire body of the centipede curled, and then it brought its back end down on them.

  Damien brought his spear up the moment he landed on the right side of the centipede, Keilan on the other side.

  A thick breath of destruction slammed the Centipede, pushing it back and leaving a scorching mark on its form.

  Damien's eyes widened as he looked at the injury, not even a deadly one, on the dark reflective body. That attack should have done more than that.

  With a warbling screech that briefly had Damien's body locking up and his head ringing, the monster moved.

  Damien had only been locked down for a brief instant, but it seemed that that was enough for the hundred legged creature, as it slammed into him the moment his body was freed.

  Damien could only manage to turn a little, putting himself a little bit out of range of its outward blade before it crashed into him, flinging him into the air with a good level of mist displacement to crash with a grunt on the ground.

  Before the mist could rush back in, a gust of wind blew, dispersing it further and clearing out a larger circle for them to fight in.

  Distantly, as Damien rushed back to meet the monster, which was now trying to lock onto a speedy Keilan who was actively attacking from every angle, he noted how much less result had come out from that gust.

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  The effect of that intent should have been enough to clear out a mile around them. Instead, it only worked up to a dozen feet.

  Damien knew he wasn't the only one who took notice of this, and he was proven correct when instead of his usual signature area attacks, Keilan simply came at the monster with pinpoint accuracy.

  A swarm of tiny emerald blades tore into the centipede's sides, tearing a deeper gash than Damien's attempt.

  Not one to be undone, Damien decided to take things a little bit further.

  As he speedily approached, half a dozen star like constructs began forming up behind him, leaving a long trail of blazing grey light.

  Despite all Gray had said about Mentally inclined monsters lacking in physical strength, Damien recognized that they were still Spirit lords, and as such, should have at least the basic physical fortifications all Spirit lords were accorded at their ascension.

  With that taken to mind, he poured more power into the technique, feeling the effect on the world. The monster must have felt it also, because it sharply turned its attention from Keilan, its twin antennas twitching crazily.

  Probably recognizing the dangerousness of the technique bearing down on it, the monster moved to get away. And that was when Keilan struck again.

  A hammer of unformed wind crashed onto the monster, collapsing its legs beneath it with a heavy thump.

  Damien's technique landed.

  Instead of targeting a wide area of its body, Damien instead lined the stars to impact with pinpoint accuracy on a single segment of its long, serpentine form.

  The first star left a deep scorching mark on the targeted segment. The second one sent cracks spidering through the entire black shell, and the third one created a deep furrow that sent a geyser of what Damien assumed was blood—tar like blood—gushing out.

  The fourth and fifth tore the entire thing completely out of its line, leaving an explosion that completely shattered the nearest segments in a hail of blood and body parts.

  Nose wrinkling, Damien watched idly as the light in the monster's eyes died and then its body went slack.

  Keilan removed the weight on the corpse and then moved up to Damien's side.

  "Can you do something for the smell?" Damien choked out. It hadn't been up to five seconds yet and the monster was already reeking.

  The only response he got from his brother was a single nod, and then Damien sensed the smell tone down. It didn't completely disappear, but it also wasn't as unbearable as it had almost became.

  Out of curiosity, he asked. "What did you do to it?"

  Keilan quirked an eyebrow. "You sure you want to know that answer?"

  Immediately, Damien shook his head. This time, ignorance was something he was gladly going to embrace.

  "I can't believe an early tier monster, and a Mind affinity one for that matter, gave us such a hard time," Damien said with a grudging look of respect to the dead monster.

  "Speak for yourself," his brother chucked. "I was breezing through it. You were the one who went and got himself thrown away like a rag doll."

  Damien sighed in resignation. He recognized the futility of trying to follow up the argument, so he didn't. Instead, he turned his face towards their surroundings.

  "We should probably start going. This brief fight might not have been as silent as we think, and a dozen other monsters might probably be on their way as we speak."

  Keilan grunted with a look of distaste on his face. "Yeah, I agree." He said. "I definitely do not want to fight half a dozen more of that thing."

  "Want anything from it," Damien pointed at the corpse. "It's mandible? We could use it to create an extra spear for you."

  He looked down at the three foot long blades. "Your space belt certainly has enough space for it."

  The Space belt, as Damien liked to call it, had also been a gift, courtesy of their host, Vanis. Made by a Spirit King Crafter with an affinity for Space, the thing had enough room to hold probably four full sized Centipedes.

  Damien had encountered Space infused items before, but not one of this size which had then been fitted onto a thing as small and fragile as a belt, a leather made one, infact.

  He had inquired further from Vanis and the answer hadn't been that different from what he'd known. Yes, a metaphysical space had been created and then attached to the belt, like an anchor. It was vastly different from their host house and most of the other homes on the planet, which had simply had their interior spatially expanded. This was why Vanis' home, which outwardly was a tall, metallic tower, contained more space than the arena they'd used for Keilan's duel. At least Damien thought so.

  The belt's sturdiness had been settled when it had been put to the test right in front of Damien again.

  Damien recognized the worth of those things; at least, he was sure he did. And if it hadn't been that Vanis was trying to repay a life debt, he'd certainly not have accepted, and he was sure Keilan would not have, too.

  A shadow from the corner of his vision was all the warning he got, and it wasn't enough. Something crashed into him, and a sharp, blinding pain ignited on his left hand. For the second time in a few minutes, Damien was lifted into the air, farther than the previous time.

  He crashed onto the ground, slamming his left shoulder—whose arm was already burning with pain — onto the edge of something, and then he kept falling.

  Before he went past that, though, he just managed to catch a glimpse of their attacker: a long, sinuous body segmented with hundreds of metallic legs.

  He took a second to register how large this one was; far larger than the former. And then he was gone.

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