029 Terror

After some time, Nico opened his eyes and stood up.

He sensed daylight approaching.

He was going to run out of time. It was pointless to think about what was right and wrong in these type of situation.

He signaled Snowy and Junior to return home.

The twins were reluctant to leave their master alone, but Nico would rather they leave the forest. He was planning to travel down the crevice and he wasn't sure if the twins will be of any help. He might even lead them into danger. He trusted them to return safely to the dorm with both of their combined skills.

Snowy led her brother away.

Nico cast another light spell. He unpacked some items from his leather bag, tied a rope onto a tree and then himself.

He carried only a short sword and a little sack.

He looked down below the crevice and hoisted himself down. After landing on the bottom, he took out two different talismans from his inside pocket to prepare for any unexpected attack. He looked around, the cavern entrance wasn't too big, but it was enough to dwarf his figure. There was a narrow tunnel up ahead, leading to a path of complete darkness.

Nico walked in slowly. The cave was uneven, with rocky stalagmite blocking portion of the floor. Nico grabbed onto one stalagmite and leveraged his body across the cavern.

The dimly lit path was small, barely big enough to fit a small carriage.

Nico felt a breeze whispering through the gaps of the cave's jagged teeth. The wind carried with it a faint stench of blood.

After treading carefully for thirty minutes, Nico stopped and cancelled his light spell.

In the damp darkness of the cavern, he could not see what was up ahead, but using Minko's vision, he could see a large amount of symbols concentrated together up ahead. The creature was not alerted by Nico, yet, and he would like to keep it that way.

Nico began gathering shadow symbols for a gust spell with Minko.

Nico tapped slightly on the sack. Sorry little guy, it was either the twins' dinner-plate or this.

The creature inside the sack moved about, finally awakened after being drugged by the lifeless water.

Nico released the wind gust spell. A gust of wind carried the sack deeper into the cave. The sack flew several meters toward the creature, immediately attracting its attention.

Nico watched the shadow symbols and listened to the movement of the creature hidden in the dark.

Cit, cit, cit, cit, cit...

Cit, cit, cit, cit, cit...

The endless sounds of tapping entered Nico's ears.

Hundred and eighty-two legs? Nico counted the various clicks. Centipede?

As the creature charged toward the sack, the creature inside the bag became erratic and struggled about after sensing danger. The tie on the sack loosened and a small manarabbit escaped, only to see a giant centipede heading toward it. The manarabbit sped away.

Nico counted the movement of the two creatures. The manarabbit was fast, but the centipede attack was faster, traveling up to 100 km/h. The manarabbit leapt up high to evade.

Through Minko's vision, Nico could sense the movement of the manarabbit. Nico estimated that the Manacentipede cavern was at least 10 meters high.

The manacentipede looked up and spitted out a ball of gooey substance. The ball engulfed the manarabbit and poisoned it. The manarabbit dropped down in midair, but before it hit the ground, the manacentipede clamped onto the rabbit with its many legs.

The centipede tossed up the manarabbit and gobbled it up. Within 10 seconds, it was done.

Nico waited to observe its next move, but the centipede snapped its front body toward Nico. Nico could feel the dangerous intent.

F***! It found me. Nico stopped for a moment, but he shot back up and headed toward the exit.

As he ran, Nico blasted a Red Flame Talisman in front of him, almost tripping the first few steps. The cave exit lit up with bright flames and broke several stalagmites. Without Minko's vision, he was basically blind and he had no time to cast light.

Nico took out another Red Flame Talisman, but aimed it toward the manacentipede as he ran.

The red fireball landed directly on the center of its segmented body.

No damage, but it momentarily stopped the manacentipede movement.

The manacentipede shook out the red flame like it was a fly and charged toward Nico.

The manacentipede attacking speed was quick, but its regular movement was average.

Nico turned back again and blasted a Purple Flame Talisman, but it was also ineffective.

The manacentipede spitted out a ball of acid toward Nico. Nico jumped on top of a broken stalagmite and continued to leap in a zigzag motion toward the exit.

Every time he leapt away, he shot another talisman. By the time he was close to the exit, he had used eleven talismans. Five of those talismans were used to light his way toward the exit.

Of all the six talismans used against the centipede, the Blue Light Talisman was the most effective. It didn't do much harm, but it slowed down the beast movement.

Does it have a force barrier? Nico was sure most manacreatures would have been destroyed after the 4th talismans.

Nico saw the rope hanging, and sped up.

Nico aimed the red flame talisman on a loose overhanging tree root sticking out near the center of the crevice wall. The root caught on fire, lighting his way.

He grabbed onto the rope and climbed back to the top.

The manacentipede shot another acid ball toward Nico. Nico pushed his legs against the cliff to evade and released a different talisman. The black flame shot toward the bottom, but it missed.

The manacentipede aimed another acid ball, but this time toward the rope.

The rope snapped.

Nico dropped. He quickly performed a galeforce on his feet and kicked into the cliff to propel him upward until he could reach the rope that were still connected to the tree above.

Nico exited the crevice and landed on the forest surface.

He took out another talisman to prepare another attack.

He waited, but couldn't hear any movement coming toward him.

He felt the manacentipede retreating.

Nico exhaled in relief. Well, now I know that I'm faster than that thing, I just need to be careful of the gooey ball thing that shoots out.

Nico returned to the dorm and recorded his experience in a journal called Manabeasts, Vol. II.

He had a Volume I stored in the farm with all the data he had collected on the manabeasts in Lindan Peak.

He returned to the small crevice the next following days to practice using Saturn, and continued to gather as many data as possible about the manacentipede.