Chapter 86: Mission for Ascendance: The Shri'kilian (3)

The creature's long feelers twitched and its seemingly thousands of sharp-tipped legs began writhing about as it slowly moved around its den. It looked around as if searching for something, before exuding a thick cloud of poison.

~It can't see,~ Lucius realized, before bracing himself. He didn't know why the creature had yet to eat the fruit, but he had his guesses.

The fruit seemed too small to be of any significance to a hungry creature of this size, so he guessed that it probably slept here, lying in wait for the creatures that would come after the fruit.

The creature began walking up the walls, its body now covering every possible path towards the fruit. Was this its method of seeing? Lucius wondered.

As he looked closer at the creature, he noticed that its body had a shiny glint, and right then he realized.

~It has metallic armor.~

His chances of winning against this thing as he was right now were zero. Not even his magic could save him, as he heavily doubted the efficiency of solar burst against a metal shield.

~I'll have to find another path,~ he decided. However as he was about to leave, the smoke cloud reached him.

And as if just suddenly seeing him, the centipede rushed at him, its speed unreal. Lucius just barely dodged it, running along the wall as fast as he could, before using his knife to latch on to a point a little off the ground.

~What the?~ he wondered, now just a small distance away from the poison cloud. And like before the centipede returned to a docile state, now seemingly unaware of Lucius's presence.

~So it uses the poison cloud as a way to sense its prey, huh?~ Lucius deduced, making his way back to the ground.

~I wonder,~ he thought to himself. ~Perhaps there's a way.~ Besides, even if he left, there was no guaranteeing he would find another fruit, much less one that did not have a centipede, or something worse guarding it. So he decided to take his chances here.

He swiftly ran into the poison cloud, and like before, the centipede rushed at him. However, a split moment after he entered, he cast solar field, and the poison cloud within its radius disappeared, and with that, the centipede lost track of him and halted.

It writhed its feelers in the air, and once it sensed nothing, it went back to a docile state.

~This'll work,~ Lucius thought with a tired smile.

He quickly jumped out of the force field, and covered a small distance before bringing it back up again. The plan seemed to be working, however, with every run he did, the creature got closer and closer. Eventually, he would not have enough room to move, and he would be forced to face the creature.

~Surely this poison cant tell living from non-living,~ Lucius thought to himself, before throwing one of his daggers at the wall. The creature instantly lunged at it, opening its wide maw and smashing into the dagger, shaking the floor with its force.

Lucius used that time to cover a large distance, and by the time the creature realized it had been duped, he had already set up the next field.

The fruit was now within reach, its magnificent red glow almost mesmerizing. In fact, it felt hypnotizing and Lucius could feel himself being drawn toward it.

~Is that singing?~ he wondered, as he heard what sounded like sirens replace the horrid echoes that once plagued his ears.

He took a step forward, seeing an image in the fruit.

"Martha?" he whispered. The fruit's light seemed to project the image of his wife. Lucius took a step forward, to get a better look, as the image seemed a little blurred.

Another step and the image got clearer.

Another, and the image was almost in clear view. Meanwhile, he was slowly heading out of the force field. One more step and the image would be clear, one more step and he would have his wife, one more step and he would be out of his force field.

~What a cruel trick,~ Lucius thought to himself, stopping his foot right as it was about to exit the force field.

~Martha's dead, how could I forget that for even a split second. Matha's dead, and I killed her,~ Lucius thought to himself, before steeling his resolve.

He threw his other blade at the wall, once again buying time for himself before making the final lunge for the fruit, grabbing it with both hands before casting solar field.

~Finally,~ he thought to himself, inspecting the fruit in his hands.

~Wait, why didn't the-~ before he could even finish the thought he was forced to dodge one of the centipede's attacks.

~What the?~ he thought to himself, realizing that the fruit felt hot like it was burning him. He tried to let go of it but found that it had stuck to his hands like glue.

~Wait, this isn't a fruit,~ he realized, dodging yet another attack.

The thing had threads leading to the centipede. In fact, it was part of the centipede.

~It's a fucking lure! But how come I couldn't see the threads before?~ he thought to himself, now running for his life, with his only weapon now being the needle. Meanwhile, he was slowly succumbing to the effects of the poison.

~Then where's the real fru-~ as he was running, his eyes came across a small red glint in the distance. Its light had been overpowered by the lure's luminescence, and Lucius could only now just see it.

Redirecting his course, he ran towards it. However the centipede was faster than he was, it would reach him before he reached the fruit.

~There's a way,~ he realized, stopping midway. It was a gamble, a gamble with his life on the line. But for the first time in a while, he felt truly excited with himself.

He allowed the creature to swallow him, and the world around him went pitch black.

Death's door in front of him, once again.

"Solar Burst!!!!!"