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Running away Theodore hid in the forest, trying to find a place where he could hide until the creature lost him or simply gave up looking for him. Jumping down into a small cave, he crawled into it, deep and far away from the opening.
It was a tight fit and his face was practically pressed up against the stone but at least it felt secure and he couldn't hear the creature anymore. He could sense it, though.
And that was bad.
So before it could narrow in on his location, Theodore pulled all the mana around him inside, and then wrapped himself with dimensional magic, shifting slightly into a neighboring mostly dead and peaceful dimension. Though he only half shifted into it, as it wasn't a place he could survive—it was "safe" for a reason after all, nothing could survive there.
As long as he remained absolutely still, half here half in the other dimension, wrapping the dimensional energy leaking off the tear around him, he would be completely undetectable.
It was going to be a very, very boring few minutes though. It was a shame the other dimension was so creepy, because it'd be nice to explore it.
The ground rumbled as the beast neared him, and Theodore turned into slime, stopping all his bodily functions such as a heartbeat and breathing. His slime form was brought out from whatever metaphysical place it typically was inside, and then he internally heaved a sigh of relief.
Focusing back on the centipede, he couldn’t help but wonder: just where did it come from? Theodore couldn't help but ask himself, as the centipede was too powerful to be in this area. He'd already scouted all around and figured out all the high Rank beasts' locations and made sure to be as far away as possible from all the big boys around the area, but he had never known about this one let alone be aware of its location.
Then again, his explosion might have woken it up and dragged it to him.
Goddamnit.
Shaking his head and cursing internally, Theodore remained in the cave until he sensed the creature's signature disappear. Even after it was gone, he didn't leave.
He wanted to be cautious. He'd rather stay here for a bit longer than get chased more. He liked to have fun with Rank 5 beasts but only those he knew he could handle, at worst he could turn into his slime form. But even he knew his limits.
Regardless, he had to wonder: this one didn't seem like a Rank 5 beast. Was it? Could it be that it was Rank 6? But how could that be possible? The beast wouldn't have let him escape if it were Rank 6. Given all he'd heard about Rank 6 and how everyone he talked to about it told him about some kind of qualitative difference between Rank 5 and Rank 6, Theodore wondered if this beast really was a Rank 6.
It seemed too gullible for that.
It should've gotten him already.
Anyway, after remaining inside the cave for far longer than he probably needed to, Theodore finally moved outside of it, heaving a sigh of relief.
Though he choked on that sigh of relief as the centipede was "staring" right at him, standing still a bit far away.
[Blink]. [Blink]. [Blink]. [Blink]. [Blink]. [Blink]. [Blink].
Continuously using the skill so much that he lost count, Theodore [Blinked] a good few miles away and then started running. The centipede screeched and started chasing after him.
This thing was a real pain in the ass.
Did it really just hide its signature and then wait for him to get out instead of just smashing the cave apart?
Was it just playing with him, was that it? Was it a sadistic little shit?
Anger rising within him, Theodore dismissed all his clone but the one back in Holden, and then concentrated, making three clones a few moments later, pumping more than half his mana into them. Running away with his main body as fast as his legs could carry him, Theodore pumped his legs as fast as humanly possible to get the hell out of that while leaving his three clones to jump right into the meat grinder and fight the giant centipede.
He forced his main body to ignore the mental strain of managing them actively fighting, [Mind Division] going into overdrive. He just focused on tearing through the underbrush toward his portal.
Having one specific clone hang back to start pulling together the ball of doom version 2.0, he made absolutely sure the other clones protected that guy with everything they had while the crazy magic condensed.
It was one absolutely suicidal job of keeping the monstrous centipede busy and away from the guy cooking up the giant bomb.
Blinking continuously all over the place like a swarm of really annoying flies, the clones popped into existence right next to its eyes and punched its thick shell with mana reinforced fists, hitting the massive bug once or twice per jump.
The physical hits carried a force akin to a simple light tap against a steel vault door. They were practically doing zero damage but the flashing lights and sudden movements absolutely infuriated the massive bug and kept its attention glued to them instead of the glowing orb forming nearby.
The centipede thrashed its front half around wildly and snapped its giant scythe-like legs through the air to catch the annoying flies.
One of the clones materialized a second too late and a jagged limb the size of a tree trunk sheared right through its torso before it could turn to slime. The clone popped like a balloon and exploded into useless sparks of fading mana.
A sharp spike of phantom pain slammed into Theodore's real head as he kept running away. Ow. That really hurt. Gritting his teeth, he forced the surviving distraction clone to work twice as hard to keep the beast distracted.
But it was futile, when the first one died it was like a domino toppled, and the second died slowly as the centipede snapped its giant scythe legs around. Though the clones bought just enough time for the ball of doom to finish cooking up
Blinking right above the centipede's disgusting head, the very last clone just hovered there and waited for the beast to open its giant mouth for a snack.
The clone just hovered there and completely let the monster eat him without a single struggle. Giant dripping mandibles snapped shut around the clone's body and plunged everything into fleshy darkness.
Right as the teeth crushed into him, the clone unleashed the ball of doom directly down its throat and reinforced the whole explosive mess with a heavy dose of purple fire right before dying.
Sprinting through the dense forest with his chest burning with a really sharp pain, Theodore realized his mana reserves were sitting at way less than ten percent.
Slamming right through the centipede's open mouth while the beast was screeching its lungs out, the heavy ball of magic detonated and wrecked everything.
A deafening explosion shook the entire woods.
Blowing off huge chunks of its gross mandibles and completely rupturing its armored head, the purple explosion made an absolutely disgusting mess of gore and fluid as it traveled all the way down into the creature's stomach.
With all the clones completely dead and gone, Theodore felt adrenaline rocketing through his veins as the fucking beast screeched so loudly in pain that his ears actually started ringing. Though it didn't die and only got angrier as he sensed it moving far too fast toward his location than Theodore liked, He knew that the clones had definitely distracted the bug for long enough.
He felt relieved as he reached his portal and threw his exhausted body through, and crashed heavily onto the wooden floor on the other side.
Sliding across the room, he slammed hard into the opposite wall with a heavy sigh and just let himself slide down to the floor. Lying flat on the cold ground and staring straight up at the familiar ceiling, Theodore let out a breathy laugh.
[Cloning] has leveled up! – Lvl 14 > Lvl 15!
[Mind Division] has leveled up! – Lvl 3 > Lvl 4!
[Basic Dimensional Magic] has leveled up! – Lvl 8 > Lvl 9!
[Mana Manipulation] has leveled up! – Lvl 10 > Lvl 11!
That was fun.
That thing was far stronger than anything he'd ever faced, and it played with him until the last moment when the ball of doom ruptured through it a bit. Given how fast it gained on him when he was near the portal, it would be naive of him to even consider that it wasn't playing with him.
Well, it was entirely possible and in fact he was certain that it would be camping at the portal now... So he should inform Freya and others to not go in there any time soon.
It wasn't Rank 6, he'd realized by the end.
It was probably still very strong for a Rank 5 creature, but it wasn't Rank 6.
He didn't think he'd have been able to survive if it were.
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