Chapter 35 - Fighting a giant beast

Jack considers for a few moments whether he should check out this notification, it is the first time a notification has appeared like this. His curiosity is overwhelming but he suppresses his desires and considers the task at hand.

The first village site was filled with rats that have been cleared out now allowing them to found the first kobold village but the following sites aren't clear with the 2nd site being the biggest question looming over the whole operation, signs of a giant beast have been seen in the area.

Jack would be a bad leader if he were to just create a village with that sort of information not taken into account. In the future there will be more people to handle these tasks but for now, the upper end of their firepower is severely limited to just Jack, Drakon, Fenrir and Sleipner.

Jessica, Mai and also Leah could be considered part of it too but Jack would rather allow them to do as they please, those three have not joined the military nor have military professions or jobs. The trio are making their way on the back of Sleipner towards the 2nd village site, it's roughly 10-minute ride from the 1st.

"System announcement – Your Two-headed Hellfire Wolf High King has killed an Elite magic beast, the grassy Rat King."

"System announcement - You have gained 15 Achievement Points."

Two messages resound in Jacks mind answering a question that was at the back of his mind, 'what was Fenrir doing while they were killing rats?'. Jack mind feels slightly lighter as one less worry is lifted from him, they will now be able to safely settle the 1st kobold village.

The trio soon arrive at their destination and look around for signs of the giant beast, they don't even know what they're looking for.

"Mai can you search the area from the few tree tops and see if you can spot anything?" Jack asks her.

"Ok but that is half a cup of blood!" Mai answers disappearing into the tree tops before Jack can answer, leaving his shaking his fist at the quick little girl.

"Jessica you should stay on top of Sleipner and search the area with him, Fenrir should be coming back soon and he should be able to track down the giant beast easily but I'll look around on foot first, if you spot anything just rush back or yell Sleipner should keep you safe"

"Ok be careful" Jessica leaves on Sleipner, slowly making their way through the long brown grass that is easily 7ft tall. Jack proceeds on foot and attempts to search the ground for signs of something.

Jack come across a depressed area of grass that looks like something big sat in the area but there's no sign of footsteps coming and going. Jack begins to wonder if it's a flying beast that they're after but dismisses it, the reports would have said something about a flying beast instead of just a 'Giant Beast'.

The group separately look around the area and after 5 minutes, discover what they're looking for. It's a long thin trail that looks like some sort of giant snake was cutting through the long grass leaving a clear trail, but it's not a snake judging by all the bloodied remains of various animals that are strewn along the path.

It looks more like a giant beast that has giant pincers, like an ant but much larger. Jack thinks about the possibilities of what this animal could be and shudders upon his ideas, giant insects. The giant ants were bad enough but at least they stuck to their own area clearly this giant insect roams about a lot.

*AWOOOOOO*

A howl can be heard from a distance as a giant wolf can be seen standing over the grass, Fenrir has finally arrived and announces it causing many howls to resound in the distance indicating that his pack has also followed him. He then bounces over Jack while slowly shrinking down to a normal size carrying something in its mouth.

Fenrir arrives before Jack and drops the item from his mouth into Jack's hand, covered in drool. Jack looks at it and it's a white coloured orb with a brown stripe, pulling up the information:

[Den – Grass Rat]: (Primary 500/5000), Grade: White, Description: The Den of Grass Rats, spawns 20-30 Grass Rats per day.

"Good boy!" Jack smiles while he roughly plays and pats Fenrir like a normal dog, Fenrir playfully responds while showing off to Sleipner as though saying, 'Jealous that I'm getting all the attention?', Sleipner just shakes his head and looks away.

"Fenrir, we need to find this giant beast, are you able to find it?" Jack points towards the trail they found and the bloodied remains of some creature, possibly a deer. Fenrir looks at the area pointed and sniffs it, before letting out another howl and running off in a direction.

"Let's go!" Jack shouts at the group before mounting Sleipner, Mai quickly jumps onto the giant horse as the trio follow Fenrir as they proceed along the trail left in the long brown grass. Riding roughly 20 minutes they come across an open area that seems devoid of anything but grass.

Fenrir has stopped on the long trail through the grass and is looking at a certain spot at full attention, the fur on its back is erect as fire flickers within his eyes. It can sense the enemy and it's an enemy that will cause it some problems by himself, Jack stops where Fenrir is and looks to where the wolf is looking.

He is unable to see anything, the long grass is covering everything but as the wind softly blows over the flat plains causing the grass to sway, something can be seen sticking out. It's a long creature curled up, it's brown and black with many legs.

Jack is unable to see the face of the creature because it's twirled up in a circle as though it's covering something located at the centre but he feels confident enough to identify what creature this is. It's one of his most hated creatures, a centipede. A giant centipede that looks to be about 2m wide and an unknown length but easily over 100m.

The centipede hasn't noticed the new comers yet and Jack feels very tempted to just forget about the whole thing. Looking at the unmoving centipede Jack feels like it'll be trouble but something about it also feels like there will be a big reward if he succeeds.

Jack takes a deep breath, steeling his mind and makes a decision.

"Ok, let's kill this bitch" Jack says with a sly smile on his face disguising the unease he feels.

"That thing is so ugly it deserves to die! Elder sister always said that you must kill those big insects before they mutate and adapt." Mai explains before adding, "It'll be better if I run around by myself, I can hide in the grass easier than you guys".

"Ok but be careful, I don't want to see you get hurt and your sister take it out on me when she gets back" Jack says while the girl disappears.

"You will owe me even more now!" Mai can be heard saying while giggling as her form disappears into the long grass.

"Jessica, we'll stay back on Sleipner and launch distance attacks" Jack explains, "It'll be much safer because he can run faster than us and we don't need to be on the ground to launch fireballs" he adds.

"Ok but what about Fenrir?" Jessica asks looking at the wolf emitting smoke from its nose, Fenrir wants to attack right now, he wants to show this centipede just what a Hellfire Wolf High King can do but he also needs to listen to Jack.

"He can distract the centipede" Jack talks towards Fenrir, "I just don't want him to get hurt by doing something stupid".

*AWOOOOOOOOO*

Fenrir arches his back and howls towards the sky, shockwaves can be seen coming from him causing the surrounding grass to flatten lasting a moment before he disappears running into the distance as though signalling the start of the battle.

The centipede has heard the howl just now, its antennae dancing in the air as though it's trying to find out what's going on. It's still curled up in a ball hiding the entire size of the centipede, the entire shell covered with weird spikes giving it the appearance of a strong defence.

*WHOOOOSH*

A couple of the newly spawned Hellfire Wolves let out their Hellfire Flare skill, shooting flames from their nostrils at a distance towards the centipede landing a few hits causing some of the armour of the centipede to be damaged, a few of the normal wolves try to land a few bites on the armour after quietly creeping forward but find themselves unable to bite anywhere due to spikes.

This round of attack lasts a moment before the centipede finally has enough, it lets out a high-pitched screech that sounds disgusting while it rears up finally revealing its full size. It's standing 40m off the ground splaying its pincers trying to scare off the wolves, the 6m long razor-sharp pincers that look like it could crush anything and the disgusting mouth that can eat almost anything causing Jack to shiver down his spine.

The centipede lunges at the closest wolf and easily cuts it in half, it's just one of the grey wolves but it was instantly cut in half after being caught by the pincers, this signals the start of the mad battle as the wolves start to run away full speed.

The centipede chases after one of the hellfire wolves but luckily the wolf is able to dodge the centipede pincers, Fenrir can see that this wolf isn't able to last very long and sets out himself. His body changing in size, becoming twice as large as a normal hellfire wolf and letting out a Hellfire Flare.

The centipede turns its attention towards Fenrir and starts to chase it but not leaving more than a few steps away from where it was found. Jack notices that it doesn't want to leave the area and decides that it's a good time to start bombarding it from a distance.

"Jessica, time to attack!" Jack shouts while gathering a fireball into his hand, Jessica does the same quickly and the two launch a fireball, landing on the centipede causing minimal damage but it doesn't discourage them as they launch another round of attacks

Mai is launching needles unseen from the grasses but she is unable to find anywhere to land them and not having much effect, "Elder sister what do I do?" she asks out loud in an almost panic after seeing that she is having minimal effect, she has never been in this situation before and needs her sister.

*HIGH PITCHED SCREECHING SOUND*

The centipede gets annoyed at Fenrir who is able to dodge all of its attacks causing it to crush boulders, logs and just random debris strewn about the plains instead of its target. Suddenly the centipede whips its tail end stabbing several wolves causing them to bleed to death slowly from stab wounds filling the plains with yelping.

Jack's heart feels heavy upon hearing all the yelping from the wolves, they are his wolves that are dying to this insect. His mind becomes enraged as he feels his body becoming influenced by demonic qi, "Jessica lets attack the head!" he yells before suppressing the demonic qi.

Jessica doesn't notice the change in Jack and aims at the head, Jack also takes aim at the head.

*BOOM* *BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The two fireballs land on the same spot slightly after one another but when they combine, a large explosion can be seen causing the centipede to be knocked over letting out frantic screeching sounds as it goes down, a large hole can be seen where the combined fireball blew up.

The centipede lets out another loud high-pitched screech into the air before it can be heard vibrating, the group don't stop attacking the centipede but it ignores it while the vibrating sound can be heard coming from all of its body, the brown and black armour is sliding off and falling on the ground.

The centipede now looks slightly smaller and less armour but it has a new colour, it's a bright red colour instead of the previous brown and black. It lets out an enraged sounding screech that resounds through the area before turning towards one of the many wolves and shooting out a napalm like substance towards it.

*SZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

The wolf instantly melts into a puddle of nothing causing nearly everyone to take a deep breath, the centipede has mutated into a new form. Not wanting to give it time to recover, Jack and Jessica let out another set of fireballs landing on the same area again but this time, it's like the armour of the centipede is able to absorb their attack causing no damage to appear.

Fenrir appears before the centipede trying to turn its attention towards it again, shooting a Hellfire Flare out of its nose causing the Centipede to start chasing it, this time not bothering about what it was guarding as though it's enraged.

Jack watches the centipede chase Fenrir from a distance, "Jessica let's try combining our fireballs together, it seemed to hurt it" he isn't sure if this will work but wants to try it, Jessica nods and calls a small fireball into her hand, Jack does the same and brings his fireball closer to hers.

The two small fireballs repel each other initially but as they're brought closer, it can be seen that they're combining for some reason. The two different types of qi are both fire type but they're almost exact opposite types of fire, each one wants to reign supreme over the other causing the fireball to burst into explosion from rejecting each other.

Jack could feel that his qi integrated into the fireball easy but Jessica wasn't able to control her side of the fireball very well causing it to break apart and explode in an uncontrolled manner. Jessica has a disappointed look on her face upon seeing the fireball break apart.

"Looks like we're not ready for that, we should quickly check out what the centipede was guarding while it's distracted" Jack says while looking at the small mound that is located where the centipede was.

Jack feels as though he can call upon his own two types of qi to produce the large explosion fireball but he needs to time to call upon it, investigating the centipede's treasure will give him a few moments not riding Sleipner to attempt this.

Jessica deeply looks into Jack's eyes, she really doesn't think this is a good idea but she also doesn't want to be the one to hold him back from growing, this world is truly dangerous and sometimes to get stronger you need to risk your life. "Be careful" she softly says, Jack smiles at her before signalling to Sleipner to gallops towards the centipede's mound taking under a minute to reach it.

The duo arrive before the centipede's mound, it's just a small tree with a single fruit surrounded by red coloured grasses, "You stay here on Sleipner and watch the surroundings, it'll be easier to spot things up there and give me a warning" Jack says to Jessica before jumping off. Jessica's gaze turns serious as she watches the distance, Fenrir is still luring the now enraged centipede shooting napalm everywhere.

Jack runs up to the small tree and grabs the fruit, it's like a red coloured pear that feels rather hot and looks at the information provided by the system:

[Wild Fire Origin Fruit]: Grade: Grade 4 Medicinal Fruit Description: A fruit that contains the origin of Wild Fire, contains massive fire qi, purifies existing fire qi and enhances fire qi temporarily.

Jack takes a bite out of the fruit making sure he saves the seeds, he can feel the fire qi in his body has somehow advanced to the next step but it's limited to the fire qi that exists within his body currently, disappointing him but looking at the seeds within his hand he finishes the fruit without feeling like it's a waste and looks towards the centipede circulating the fruit's effects through his body.

He decides that he will try to call upon the two types of fire qi within his body at the same time, quietening his mind he calls upon the dragon qi fire, it enters his hand and is black instead of its usual red colour.

Jack ignores this change as his eyes are shut while he's trying to call upon the other type of fire qi within his body, the phoenix qi. He tries to force a fireball into his other hand but spits up a large mouthful of blood, his veins are stretched already with this upgraded black fireball now he's trying to add a second type.

His mind is deeply focused trying to control these types of qi that are battling for supremacy within his veins and dantian, slowly the black fireball grows smaller while a white flame flickers into existence within his other hand.

Jack suddenly opens his eyes; his pupils have changed as there is a rainbow petal pattern around his iris while his left iris is white and his right iris is black indicating which hand has which coloured fireball. These are the temporarily upgraded Dragon Qi and Phoenix Qi that have shifted into Pure Yang Fire and Pure Yin Fire, Jack can feel his veins screaming as they are stretched beyond their normal limits as more blood leaks out of his mouth.

His gaze is expressionless as he looks at the centipede in the distance before throwing the two basketball sized fireballs out of his hand, the fireballs cut through the air audibly causing everyone to pause for a few moments to watch it.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A massive explosion erupts in the area where the fireballs land, creating a 500m large fireball where one part is pure white, the other part is pure black. Engulfing the area, the centipede is luckily missing all of the wolves including Fenrir.

The explosion lasts a breath before disappearing revealing what happened, there's a small crater on the plains area where the surrounding grass has been blown away from the forces involved, the centipede is cut in two with both ends writhing about spraying the napalm everywhere including over itself.

Jack feels disappointed that this explosion wasn't able to kill it and upon looking at the centipede, the wounds seem to be healing rapidly from being covered in the napalm like substance causing the armour around the centipede to shift from bright red into almost white.

He tries to call upon the fireballs again to launch another strike but he doesn't have enough reserve qi, causing two tiny black and white fireballs to enter his hand. He quietly looks at these small fireballs as he slowly brings his hands together trying to combine these two upgraded fireballs.