Chapter 12: Apex...?

"...En Garde!"

Multiple strands of Lucian's hair soon turned into spikes; all pointing at the Scorpion Assassin in front of him. But unlike the hoarders or any of the other creatures in the sewers, the Scorpion Assassin did not rush to attack Lucian at all and just stood where it stood.

It was still just rattling in place while staring at Lucian with its dark eyes — unlike the rest of the monsters in the sewers… it seemed to sense that Lucian was dangerous.

It had been the apex predator of the sewers for an entire year, and now its throne was finally being challenged by a creature it hadn't seen before, but for some reason, seemed a little familiar to him.

"Are you… not going to move?" Lucian let out a small scoff; squinting his eyes as he started very slowly slithering to the side for no reason at all but to look cool, even stretching his hand to the side as he stared at the scorpion's eyes, "If so…

…then let that be the place you die on."

And with that as his final warning, Lucian rushed toward the Scorpion Assasin; slithering across the murky floor of the sewers like he was some sort of bullet.

The Scorpion Assassin quickly perked up its tail as it just suddenly lost Lucian from his sight, only for it to realize that he was already right in front of it. It then quickly swung its sharp arm to slice Lucian in half, but Lucian just leaned his upper body down and went straight beneath the Scorpion Assassin.

"Hup!" Lucian then worded out a small but very deep breath as he dug some of his hair through the ground, making sure he was completely steady before the strands of hair that he had already turned into spikes started to spin; slightly throwing out some of Lucian's ooze. But then, with another breath, Lucian stabbed through the Scorpion Assassin's body, basically drilling through its hard exoskeleton.

Lucian was very aware of how hard the scorpion's armor was, but what he did not expect, however…

…was for his hair to just go through the scorpion's body like it was cardboard.

"Krhk!" The Scorpion Assassin let out a loud rattle as it tried to get away, but with Lucian practically attached to the ground, the scorpion could do nothing but just struggle in place. It then tried reaching Lucian with its arms and tail, prompting Lucian to pull all his hair out and slither away…

…but not before, however, turning his drilling hair into blades — waving it around in a circle and practically cutting through the joints of all the scorpion's legs and causing it to just drop to the ground.

And without even any hesitation, Lucian's hair swung toward the joints of the scorpion's arms and completely separated its sharp blades from the rest of its body. Before the blades could drop to the ground, however, Lucian caught them by their base…

…and just swung them down straight across the scorpion's body, completely cleaving it vertically in half like he was cutting through air.

"Wooh…" Lucian then breathed out even though his body was not capable of getting tired at all. He then crossed the blades together before very slowly separating them to the side, all for dramatic effect. But after a few seconds, his eyes widened while looking at the cleaved scorpion,

"...I killed it already?"

Lucian looked around almost as if trying to find someone to answer his question for him,

"Ack…" Lucian then raised his newfound weapons in the air as he let out a groan, "...Why did you remove my System!? If I had it, I would have known it was way weaker than me and I could have made the fight more dramatic. God, are you still listening!? This was so anticlimactic!"

Lucian once again talked to himself; it did not last as long as his usual monologue during his previous life, however, as he just shook his head in disappointment before approaching the glowing green part of the scorpion's juices.

"System… where's my system?"

***

"Chii!"

Back in Eduardo's kingdom, the hoarders were rejoicing and once again scattering the trash everywhere as they celebrated the death of their new boss. All of them were sure that Lucian had died already.

One of them was about to desecrate and stepped on Shakira's grave… but then noticed something glowing from the distance. The mutated rat squinted its eyes to see more clearly — only for the glow to be the last thing he saw before his head was sliced by the scorpion blade.

And as soon as everyone saw that, they all very quickly stopped whatever it was they were doing and looked at Lucian, whose left eye was glowing violently and completely drowning the darkness in the sewers.

The Hoarders were all frozen in place as they watched as Lucian just slowly slithered his way closer to them; their eyes, all focused on the two large blades that were floating above Lucian's head.

"S…S… Scopio!"

And as they realized what the blades were, they all once again just bowed their heads; even slamming them on the ground as Lucian continued to approach.

"Hm…" Lucian looked around, "...Clean this place up."

And as soon as he said that, all the mutated rats scampered and rushed to put everything back in place in less than a minute.

"Everyone of you, line up."

All the hoarders gathered in front of Lucian as soon as they were done; not even letting him finish his words before bowing their heads again.

"I am leaving this place," Lucian then let out a very long and deep sigh as he glanced at the mountain of trash before looking back at Shakira and Eduardo's graves.

The hoarders subtly looked at each other as they heard that; some of them, already letting out a quiet chitter of relief.

"We… we take care kingdom!" One of the hoarders whispered loudly.

"Yes! We care!"

"Hm," Lucian nodded several times, "Yes, well…

…No."

"Wh—"

And before any of the hoarders could lift their heads, Lucian's two blades traveled across them like scissors — cutting through each of them like they were not even there at all.

"You see…" Lucian then smiled as he saw the green radioactive blood flowing along with their normal blood, "...You are all experience points, no? Don't worry…

…you guys won't be alone."

Lucian then went through the sewers like a plague — killing each and every creature he saw that even felt a little irradiated or radioactive on his way to the hole that opened up due to the lightning strike.

"N…no…"

"Yes," and Lucian's final stop was Shakira's childhood home, the Lizard's Nest. And right now, all their corpses littered everywhere; he did not even spare the children at all, and even the eggs that were gathered in a single place were not spared.

The only one that was left was the leader of the nest — her large human breasts, grabbed by Lucian's hand as he lifted her up in the air using his hair.

"Did you have fun watching?" Lucian smiled.

"N…no…"

"...Is that all the words you know?" Lucian tilted his head to the side before letting out a sigh, "Oh well… goodbye."

And with that — Lucian has wiped out the entire sewer, well… at least his section of the sewer. He then spent some time absorbing all the radiation from the lizards…

…before finally heading to his destination.

"Oh, the adventures that await me on the—"

"Crazy what happened here, no?"

And as soon as Lucian got closer to the hole, he saw a bunch of humans there — and judging by their clothes, they were workers of some sort.

"Just how strong was that lightning strike for it to just fuck this shit up? The sewer's ceiling is made of some sort of carbide, right? What do you—"

"What the fuck…? The Geiger's going nuts."

"S…shit. Maybe it's just malfunctioning…? Are all of your RadOff shots updated? Fuck… I think I forgot to have mine done."

"Wait… it's going stronger right… here?"

All the humans turned their heads to the direction where the Geiger counter was pointed to…

…only to see a tiny, weird creature the size of a thumb also staring at them in shock.

"...Greetings, surface dwellers."