Chapter 29: At the Edge of the Outer Region
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After defeating the five students, Theon sat beside a large tree for about five minutes.
While he felt like he could still keep on going to find the D rank beast, his arms still felt numb from blocking the war hammer that slammed into him.
After he felt like he had rested enough, he searched the students bodies and found a little over three F rank cores and a single E rank core.
’I guess I should just take this along,’ he grabbed a small bag that lay beside Jude. The one where they kept their cores before.
’This would’ve been way easier if the system had an inventory function— like other systems!’ Theon sighed.
Taking the bag along with him, he walked over to the boundary of the outer region.
’So this is the edge of the outer region,’ His eyes narrowed. ’I can already feel the difference. The essence grows denser the deeper I go.’
He slashed at another dense group of bushes.
CLICK! ClICK!
The sudden sounds of clicking caused Theon to narrow his eyes. He unsheathed his sword and held it tightly.
He could feel— hear something dashing high above the trees, watching his every movement keenly.
Theon’s hair stood on end and he shifted his body slightly, just in time to feel something fast whiz past him.
’Is that—’ Theon’s eyes widened. "A web?"
He whispered and stared at the long, thick white string that stretched from one of the trees to the spot where he stood moments ago.
Then the ground around him darkened.
At first, it looked like the shadow of a small ball that was suspended overhead.
But the shadow began to rapidly expand, swallowing more and more of the forest floor.
’Are those— legs?’ Theon’s pupils contracted.
The shadow wasn’t being cast by a ball. It belonged to a monstrous creature that seemed to be plummeting from above.
His head snapped upward, just in time to see a massive figure descending towards him at incredible speeds, it’s enormous body ready to crush him into paste.
Theon hurriedly threw himself to the side— rolling on the hard ground.
BOOM!
The creature slammed into the ground where he had been standing. The earth exploded beneath the impact, cracks spreading across the soil as countless chunks of rock and dirt were hurled into the air.
The creature’s appearance finally came into view as the dust settled.
The beast was lion-shaped, but it’s limbs were impossibly long, covered in a sleek obsidian exoskeleton that dug into the ground.
Eight glowing eyes blinked unnaturally fast. It’s long mane rippled in the wind and two long fangs dripped a greenish venom from a mouth that didn’t look like it belonged on anything natural.
Based on the essence the beast released, Theon could instantly tell it was a D rank beast.
’Are all beasts really this ugly?’ Theon grimaced at the sight of the D rank beast.
"But still—" Theon grinned, then bent slightly. His grip on the katana tightened and his eyes glowed brightly.
Multiple golden lightning arcs encased his entire body and he activated [Flash Step].
The ground shattered beneath him and a moment later, he appeared beneath the long legs of the beast. "I’m glad you came along. I was getting tired of searching."
Theon slashed at the obsidian legs of the spider-lion, but it reacted quickly.
It jumped into the air and latched itself unto a tree.
HISS!
It hissed, then shot forward, it’s claw swiping at Theon’s head aiming to decapitate him.
But Theon ducked, and the claw missed him by a few inches. It was so close, Theon could feel the distortion in the air as the obsidian long leg slashed above him, cutting down multiple trees.
’Ughhh! It smells,’ Theon’s nose scrunched up, he twisted his body and his katana slashed at one of the legs— severing it from its body.
SCREECH!! HISS!!
The beast grimaced in pain. It began throwing a barage of slashes with its other legs, each one faster and sharper than the last.
Sometimes, it would even spit out a mouthful of venom from its fangs. Theon made sure that— attack never hit after he saw what it did to a tree after it landed on it’s surface.
It melted a whole through the tree. Theon didn’t want to end up like the tree and so, for the next one minute or so it seemed from his perspective— Theon found himself on the defensive, struggling to weave and dodge each of the attacks.
One of the attacks got way to close for him to be able to dodge, so he place his sword in its path, blocking it but was sent flying.
He gritted his teeth. His arm rattled. He could almost swear a bone had cracked.
His back smashed against a tree, shattering it on impact.
Without giving him a chance to rest, the beast’s legs clicked once more— appearing in front of Theon once more— it’s claw ready to slice him in two.
Theon ducked, then rolled aside avoiding the attack, then he immediately activated [Umbra Bind].
Long dark tentacles emerged from the ground and held the beast in place. It’s body in unnatural ways as it tried to break out of the weird shadows that held it in place, but it’s hold on the spider-lion only grew tighter.
Theon grinned, then hopped into the air.
"Give me your head," he whispered, then activated [Death
Slash].
The necrotic energy encased the dark blade, giving it a more darkly purple hue. He performed a downward slash and a thin line of the necrotic energy slashed through the air at breakneck speeds.
The beast’s red eyes blinked faster seeing the approaching attack. It used its fangs— trying to rip the shadow tentacles apart but it didn’t work.
The attack slashed through its neck, decapitating it instantly. The head fell with a loud thud and it began to decay slowly with the rest of its body.
Theon landed on the ground softly, his breathing uneven.
The exhaustion from his fight with the five students from before and the D rank beast was already taking it’s toll on him.
The essence in his resonance core was already completely depleted.
If not for the fact that he possessed a divine purity that allowed him absorb essence from the environment unconsciously whenever his core was being depleted, he would’ve already collapsed.
He exhaled softly, then slowly walked over to the large spider-lion’s body.
Theon’s katana flashed in the air cutting a thin line across the abdomen of the beast.
’I hate to do this, but—’ He thought grimly, then stabbed his hand into the open wound.
He rummaged through the beast’s interior till he felt his hand grasp something hard, then he grabbed it and yanked it out of the beast’s body.
A glowing crystal the size of a fully grown man’s hand lay in his palm.
"This should be enough to get that Instructor’s reward," he clenched the beast’s core softly, then walked over to the bag that held the other cores.
Taking it in his hands, he strapped it across his shoulder and placed the D rank core within before walking out of the boundary of the outer region.
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