Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

Chapter 41: The Hunt: Fuck Centipedes

A/N: This weekend will be difficult for me as my mother has a knee injury and so I will need to look after both her and my disabled grandmother and consequently won't have much time to write.

I apologise but the next chapter may not be released until Monday or even tuesday.

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"Okay, so here's the deal," Shane said somewhat defeatedly, he really really didn't like centipedes.

"In front of us, lying in wait is a voracious predator that is naturally able to hide its aura and it is also in either the [1st or 2nd of Earth Profound]." Xiao Che and Lingxi both took in a sharp breath and the colour drained from their faces.

They may have reached the [4th of Nascent Profound] in just a few days, but an Earth Profound was still basically just a legendary existence to them, they wouldn't even be able to escape, let alone fight the damn thing.

Qingyue, however, remained unfazed in the face of this revelation.

She was at the [6th of Spirit Profound] already and could, for a limited time, display enough strength to rival a mid-level Earth Profound if she went all out with her sword, small world, and high-level profound arts. That was even without forcefully using the domain.

"Husband, I don't know exactly how strong you are, but Qingyue believes you can kill a profound beast at the Earth Profound Realm even though you are only at the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound]." She said and looked towards him with unwavering belief, only to freeze as her eyes met his and saw horror, disgust and hesitation inside of the unusually dim crimson globes.

Those kinds of eyes seemed somewhat familiar to her but she couldn't put her finger on the why, although it didn't stop the cold shiver that traced its way along her spine, bringing with it an unsettling feeling that made her skin crawl.

For absolutely no reason at all, Qingyue suddenly remembered the hordes of dog-sized ants.

As if sensing her thoughts, Shane shared a look of comradery and smiled wryly at her before saying. "I can..." Three sighs of relief and three people's expressions relaxed and then he dropped the bomb.

"But I really really don't want to fight it." Followed by three gasps in disbelief.

Shane, this battle maniac, didn't want to fight something he knew he could defeat, albeit, with a certain level of effort expended. "Brother Long, are you feeling okay?" Xiao Che said with a slight smile and mostly mock concern while Lingxi just mumbled "Is that really big brother Long?"

Qingyue's unsettling feeling intensified and when she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. "Shane, quickly tell us what kind of beast it is!"

He spread his hands out to the sides and hunched his shoulders with a helpless expression. "A centipede"

Lingxi froze in fear, her eyes turning hollow as she no doubt vividly relived the horrors of those swarms of Profound Ants, Qingyue went pale and gripped his hand hard enough that her knuckles turned white while Xiao Che still seemed relatively unfazed.

The other three rounded on him with looks of disbelief, he just rolled his eyes and kicked the ground a couple of times. "...What, it's just a centipede."

Shane sneered at him and with a wave of his hand, a model of the vicious looking centipede rose from the ground near their feet. "Imagine that, but fifteen meters long and can cover a hundred meters of distance in under a second! Still think it's, just a centipede!?"

Qingyue's grip somehow became even tighter and she desperately said. "Shane, let's quickly run away!"

"Unfortunately, we can't"

"...Why not?"

"It has already sensed us, the only reason it hasn't attacked yet is because it's an ambush predator and probably believes itself undetected.

That would surely change if we were to turn tail and as we are not likely to outrun an Earth Profound beast with over a hundred legs, we would still need to fight it in the end." He said helplessly.

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Damn it all! He really really didn't want to fight this thing...

Sure, the thing was creepy, disgusting and the stuff of nightmares, but there was another reason why he was reluctant to fight it: centipedes had powerful and extreme pain-inducing venom...

If bitten by one or in any way affected by the venom for the first time, a person's combat prowess was bound to experience a sharp decline and in a battle with a beast a realm above them, even a momentary lapse could prove fatal.

Shane held his chin in a thinking pose for a while, immersing himself in his thoughts. 'If only there was a way to hold it in place long enough for me to launch an attack with all my strength. If I could do that, I could probably kill it in a single blow.'

'What can we use hmm' His eyes casually passed over Qingyue and all of a sudden, they lit up like Christmas. 'Maybe it couldn't be held in place, but it could be frozen in place!'

"I have a plan"

Shane's plan was relatively simple in theory but actually required great skill, control, luck and just a smidgen of his wife's special brand of bullshit.

In essence, He would pour almost everything he had into a single attack. Meanwhile, Dusty would launch him, as fast as possible, towards the rock pillar that the deadly arthropod was lurking behind while Qingyue cast a localised domain on its location.

Shane didn't believe that the foul creature would be able to move under the might of a domain, pseudo or not, the power of a Throne was not something an Earth Profound could compare to.

As long as the domain managed to last for a couple of seconds, it would be enough. Even if the initial strike didn't kill the creature, it would still be wounded and they would only be back at a more favourable square one.

If it didn't die in a single blow, he could still use his weapon and the strength of his Body Cultivation to fight it, along with Qingyue and his beasts.

With a wave of his hand, the imposing Warhammer grew to full size and all the excess oxygen in the domain gathered towards it before wrapping around the 6ft long shaft in a slowly spinning green cyclone of energy. "Dusty, get into position."

She reverted to her full size and positioned her huge head behind him.

"Coral, remember to take the kiddos back to the forest as fast as possible and then fly back in case we need your support." He lovingly stroked her little crest and cooed. "Let me have some of the good fire too, precious."

*Phiiii* She blew out a gout of deep crimson coloured flame, several magnitudes hotter than she was able to previously and Shane wrapped it up in his own profound energy before having it spin around the head of his Warhammer in a counter direction to the oxygen-rich Wind Energy.

"Qingyue my dear, start gathering your energy." She stepped up and kissed him lovingly on the cheek then nodded and he could feel the air begin to saturate with both water and ice elements.

"Be careful" Her eyes narrowed. "Or else"

Shane nodded, took a deep breath and reabsorbed his pseudo-Wind Domain. "It's showtime!"

Then a few different things happened all at once...

*Screeech* Coral transformed, grabbed the Xiaos and powerfully flapped her wings before booking it towards the treeline at top speed.

Shane slightly bent his knees, bracing himself for the incoming impact, as a huge, spinning, ring-like structure formed in the air between his back and Dusty's open maw.

That terrifying amount of Ice Energy, always shackled within Qingyue's body, surged and bubbled just beneath the surface as her eyes flashed with an Icy Blue splendour. "Frozen..."

The Oxygen-rich Wind Energy coiled along the Warhammers shaft and fed into the crimson flames, giving birth to a tremendous roaring sound as the heat increased tremendously and they took on a slightly blue hue.

"...Cloud..."

Shane gripped his roaring weapon and extended it to the side... then he felt it.

the customised air cannon at his back pulsed once with a ridiculous feeling of unbridled power and burst into life.

*BOOOOOM* Then he simply disappeared.

leaving behind a sonic boom, a trail of flames and a cloud of dust.

Suddenly, Shane found himself travelling forwards at an incredible speed, excitement bubbling up in his chest and wild neck length hair whipping in the wind as the pillar that supported the former predator became larger and larger in his vision

His eyes adapted mid-flight and as if everything slowed down, he started to view the passing scenery as a series of still, shuttered, frames and when he was just meters away from the pillar, an immeasurable amount of Ice Elements rapidly gathered in front of him.

Shane's eyes glowed crimson, his grin turned feral and he tightened his grip on his weapon.

"...Domain!"

A localised sphere of the purest cold energy materialised around the top half of the beast, bringing with it snow, frost, hail, Ice... and the absolute freezing power of a Throne!

The Centipede, who had been prepared to pounce upon its swiftly approaching assailant, flinched and that was all the distraction Shane needed

In the blink of an eye, he had travelled the last dozen meters and the head of his hammer came into contact with the stone pillar.

The 1000kg block of metal sank right into the stone and caused ripples throughout its surface as if it were dense liquid rather than solid rock.

Cracks spread along the surface, following the ripples and the entire thing fragmented into an uncountable number of pieces while still momentarily holding its former shape.

As the hammer sank in further and was followed closely by its wielder, the resultant force carried by Shane's body caused the fragments of the stone pillar to explode outwards at a speed far faster than the naked eye could follow.

to anyone else it looked as if the stone simply disappeared, and in that split second, it left behind a disgusting 15m long Centipede, frozen in mid-air.

Shane had far from run out of momentum, his blazing Warhammer cleaved through the firmament and came crashing down towards the head of the vicious looking arthropod.

As frozen as the creature was, its bowl-sized eyes still followed his descent, and it even managed to barely move its mandibles into the path of his weapon.

The head of his Warhammer made contact with the short sword sized, serrated mandibles and pulverised them without skipping a beat, turning them into deadly shards of buckshot that fired back towards their owner's head, piercing its eyes and lodging inside its terrifying mouth.

The flattened, armoured head was next in the path of destruction and again provided little resistance to the hammer's charge. When contact between the two was finally made, the business end of the weapon sank right in through that hardened layer of chitin like a stone into the mud.

Shane saw all of this in slow motion, his instincts supported by his Will allowing him to access a higher state of mind and greater reaction speed for a short period of time.

With just a thought, the remaining dregs of Wind Energy, rich in Hydrogen rather than Oxygen, were crazily fed up the Hammer's shaft and into the roaring flames buried deep within the carapace.

*BOOOOOM* All of it expanded and then ignited at once, the resultant explosion completely destroying the head of the beast while the three segments below burst into a mist of blood and flesh chunks.

As if time finally started running again, the influence on Shane's instincts lifted just as his resultant force slammed into the headless body and nearby rocky structures.

Both Shane and the Centipede were carried far away into the forest of stone pillars by his remaining momentum, causing many more of them to collapse and filling the air with a cloud of dust and debris that blocked everyone's vision.

"Shane!" Qingyue extended her Spirit sense and frantically searched within the forest of pillars and rubble for her husband's energy signature, even as she smoothly mounted Dusty and rushed over towards him.

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When Shane finally came to a halt, his body had already smashed through several tens of stone pillars and he was almost completely covered in rubble.

He couldn't help but marvel at the minimal pain he was feeling.

Despite having just used his flesh and blood body to barrel through hundreds of tonnes of what he assumed were sandstone pillars at close to the speed of sound, he was basically unhurt with only a few slight scratches here and there.

'My life sure is ridiculous these days, if it were the old me, I would have turned into a red smear on the first pillar, or in the air beforehand.' He remarked inwardly.

Hearing the worried shout of his wife and feeling her familiar Spirit Sense wash over him he gathered his profound energy and pushed the rubble on top of him aside and waved a hand to clear the dust, only to jump back with a start.

"Holy Fuck!" The hideous coiled up body of the Centipede, sharp, bladed legs twitching rhythmically, was right in front of his face and scared the shit out of him!

"Shane!" Qingyue's frantic shout reached him. "Are you okay!? Are you hurt?"

Like he would ever tell her he almost pissed himself in fear. "*Cough Cough* I'm Okay, I'm Okay! Steel and fire types are super effective against bug types after all!"

He tried to make a crappy joke instead to allay her worries but she obviously didn't understand and thought he had a head injury instead. 'Gonna have to show her some pokemon in the dreamscape later' Shane thought while shaking his head.

Much to his dismay, she then began frantically digging and pushing rubble aside with Dusty's help before jumping up and landing on a rocky outcrop above him.

Only to let out an ear-piercing scream and jump straight back down again.

Not that he could blame her, it was rather terrifying to look at. Shell as black as the darkest night, angry red underbelly and orange legs that got lighter and changed into a bright yet somehow sickly yellow towards the glistening bladed tips.

There was also a slightly fishy smell that surrounded it that he suspected was its venom.

Shane shivered at its close proximity and then gulped. There was no use looking at it anymore, he might as well devour it immediately and hope that some of the fragmented bits nearby would also still count as connected.

He gulped once again and cautiously approached it with clear reluctance, unfortunately, to use Devour, he still needed to be in contact with the target.

Shane's hand reached out slowly and was almost upon its carapace when the body's nerve impulses fired one last time, all of its rigid muscles twitched and a single errant leg, the one closest to his arm, flailed in the air.

The unbelievably sharp tip passed right through his vambrace, directly into his muscle, the skin offering up only the most basic resistance, and then straight through his entire forearm as if a hot knife through butter, just as the entire creature erupted into a cloud of slightly purple-ish particles and was sucked into his palm.

"Gahhhhhhh!" A white-hot burning pain came from the area where the foot had pierced through and as the punctured armour drained back into his wrist, a ghastly looking hole that was surrounded by a multitude of devilish looking, wriggling black veins, became visible to his eyes.

The pain was immeasurable and within no time at all it had spread as Shane found himself rolling around on the floor with gritted teeth while he desperately gripped at the area above the injured flesh with his spare hand.

The muscles of his entire body started to spasm erratically but thankfully, due to his high willpower, he was able to maintain the grip which somewhat stemmed the flow of blood and slowed down the spread of the venom.

As the initial shock of the pain wore off slightly, he bit his tongue hard to draw blood and further clear his mind enough to access the storage. After several torturous seconds, a 'vitality pill' made from a peak True Profound beast appeared in his mouth.

The familiar cooling feeling started to spread and Shane eventually managed to focus inwards using his intent to spread the vital energy towards the wound.

He then set about clearing the toxins from the pathways and forcing out a bunch of blackened and dirtied blood through the wound, before it began closing up at a rapid rate.

Thankfully the bones were mostly untouched, and within a minute the wound was fully healed. That however was enough time for the rest of his concerned party to arrive and take up defensive positions by his side.

"Fuck fuck fuck! That hurt!" Shane let out a turbid breath full of curses and opened his eyes to see the concerned ones of his wife-to-be, shrugged his shoulders, and gave her an explanation.

"I forgot that Centipedes can still move, even after dying. On top of that, I have never seen one that had venom in its feet for goodness sake, isn't that a little ridiculous?!"

"My armour needs to be replaced with something stronger too, the leg passed through it like I wasn't even wearing any." She didn't look very impressed with his deflection but it wasn't the time or the place.

Shane's Spirit Sense spread out again in every direction and he found nothing else within the area so he dusted himself off a bit and said. "Let's make for the cave in the mountainside. Coral grab those two again, Qingyue you're with me on Dusty."

Amidst a few jumbled protests from the windswept duo, Coral, truck-sized edition, grasped them within her talons and took off into the air.

Shane stored his hammer, swept Qingyue into his arms and jumped up onto Dusty's back before they headed towards the cave he spotted earlier. Right now, he just wanted to get away from here, have a wash and absorb that turbulent energy within his profound veins..

When they arrived, the 'cave' was more of an ownerless indentation than any sort of livable den and so, after an hours worth of excavating and a lot of Earth Energy used to block the entrance, they had finally made it large enough for them to pitch tents and rest the night in...