Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

The centipede pushed them back. Ike dug his heels in, and still skidded across the floor. Hissing ferociously, it gnashed its mandibles, trying to slam them shut on Ike. Ike pressed his sword forward, holding it at a diagonal to block the centipede's mandibles open. It fought against him. The sword strained, almost sliding out of its hold. Ike braced it with a hand on its flat. He pushed it forward with both hands. Still the bug fought. It rushed toward him, its feet beating against the dirt.

Beside him, Wisp jumped up. She ran over the centipede's head and raced up its pale body, scuttling along on all fours. Startled, the centipede reared. It doubled back on itself, chasing after Wisp.

"Wisp!" Freed from blocking the centipede, Ike drew his sword back and slashed its exposed underbelly. Even though it was the underbelly, his blade bounced off. He gritted his teeth. Activating Storm Clad, he surged his strength to his arms and legs. Ike hauled back, then unleashed a blow with all his strength. The blade cut into the centipede, then stuck. It had only made it halfway through the armor. Ichor leaked around it, but it had failed to cut deep.

On its back, its head reached Wisp. She whirled. Its mandibles slammed toward her. She caught them with her hands, holding them open. It hissed ferociously. She hissed back, not intimidated in the least. Hauling her head back, she bit the centipede's face. The centipede startled and jerked back, shocked.

"Ha. Weren't expecting to get bit in the mouth, huh?" Wisp jeered, grinning.

Ike scowled. He braced his foot against the centipede and yanked his sword free. At that, the centipede finally whirled. It left Wisp behind and raced after Ike instead, un-doubling its body to chase him.

Wisp took advantage of its distraction to claw and bite its back. Its armor soaked most of her attacks, but that didn't stop her. She hammered it. One attack after another hit the same exact place on the centipede, slowly weakening it.

The centipede rushed at Ike. A darkening bruise marked where Wisp had bit it. Rather than biting Ike, it twisted its head to the side and swept it at him, slicing him with the edge of its mandibles instead. Ike parried the blow, turning it to the side. It hauled back and attacked again and again, slowly pushing Ike backward. He kept up with the blows, but barely. His Rank 3 physique, enhanced by Storm Clad, wasn't enough to easily keep up. He didn't need to extend his aether to know: the monster was Rank 4, if not mid-Rank 4.

No wonder no one survived. If you can only be Rank 4 to enter this dungeon, and you have to fight mid-Rank 4s… given how many Rank 3s and lower tried the trials, I wouldn't be surprised if few of those who made it here survived. Ike laughed under his breath. Slapping the centipede away, he drew his fist back. Green shockwaves built up on it, and red light shimmered over his skin.

The centipede struck at him again. This time, Ike let it come. He smashed his fist into the injured part of the centipede's face, using the force of its own blow against it. Green shockwaves and the red light of Exsanguination both struck the bruised part of the centipede's carapace. It cracked open. Ichor blasted out of the crack, splattering over the centipede's own body.

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Spreading its mandibles wide, the centipede roared. It reared up. Ike braced himself, expecting a blow, but instead of slamming down at him, it grabbed the ceiling with its many slender legs and burrowed back into the earth. On its back, Wisp rocked back and forth, raising her hands against the dust.

"Wisp! Jump off!" Ike shouted.

She leaped free. Her shoulder hit the ground, and she rolled, landing on her feet. The centipede banished into the ceiling. Its last spindly legs scrambled at the fresh bolt hole, and then it vanished, leaving nothing but a fresh pile of rocks and dust behind.

Ike backed toward Wisp. She hurried to his side. The two of them stood back to back, watching in every direction. Ike extended his aether. It stopped at the wall, absorbed back into the earth. He furrowed his brows. Aether flows through earth. Why should my senses stop at a wall? He focused, reaching further. Aether bounced off the earth, but as it did, its undulations changed. It synchronized with the natural aether embedded in the walls, and he could sense through it.

It wasn't the same as simply extending his aether. When he did that, it was almost like seeing further. As if he had full view of everything around him for a sphere around him, the same as his eyes could see, but in a tighter circle around him, since he couldn't push his aether to the limits of his vision. When he synchronized it with the earth, it was… muffled. He couldn't 'see.' Instead, it was like hearing. He could sense 'thumps' and large 'thuds.' Ike focused, trying to differentiate the thuds. But would I even recognize the centipede—

Thudthudthudthud.

Ike snorted. What was I worried about? He turned to Wisp. "It's coming from the left."

"Understood." She backed up, giving the left wall some space.

Ike backed up as well. He raised his sword and took a deep breath.

Roaring, the centipede burst through the wall. It leaped forward, expecting to take them by surprise, then hesitated as it found both of them ready and waiting.

"Let's pin it and finish it!" Wisp shouted. She leaped at the centipede, thread already flying from her fingertips. Thick ropes of spider thread wound around the centipede's body. It thrashed, but that only twisted the thread tighter.

"Hold it still!" Ike raised his sword high. He pushed all his aether into his arms, then struck down with all his might, aiming for the weak spot in its head where they'd already cracked its carapace. His sword pierced through and out the other side. He drove it all the way into the ground, truly pinning it.

Wisp charged in. She bit and clawed at its neck. Drawing the second sword Shopkeep had given them, Ike cut at the centipede's neck from the other side. The centipede fought, but it couldn't break free of the sword and thread together. Ichor flew. The centipede screamed and hissed. It swept its mandibles as much as it could, but it couldn't reach them any longer. The two of them cut through its neck. Its head fell away, and its body hit the floor. The centipede struggled no longer.

Ike stepped back. He dismissed Storm Clad and wiped his brow, then stepped forward, yanking his sword out of the centipede's head. "Damn. Those things are tough."

Panting, Wisp nodded as well. She glanced around them. "Hey, Ike. These tunnels… they kind of look like the tunnels the centipede carved, don't they?"

"Shit," Ike muttered, already finishing her chain of thought.

She said it aloud anyways. "Do you think they might all be centipede tunnels?"

From the distance, the furious thumpthumpthump of centipede feet rushed toward them. This time, it didn't just sound like the centipedes were coming from all directions. The thumps overlapped with each other as dozens of centipedes closed in on them.

"You know, I think that might just be the case," Ike muttered, raising his sword.

"We've got our work cut out for us," Wisp muttered back, her expression grim.

Mag glanced from one to the other. "This is bad. It's bad, isn't it?"

"Oh, just a little," Ike said lightly.

Blasting dirt and stone, a centipede leaped out of the earth at them. Ike and Wisp leaped forward, rushing into the fight.