"Scruhii...? (...kill...?) SCRUHIIIII! (KIIIIIIIIIIIL!)"

*swoosh*

The shining blade cut through the empty air as the centipede monster screeched horribly and climbed up, raising more of its body segments - dodging the initial swing with - ease and instantly charged at the small child.

|Dodge it!|

"Tsk...!"

*CRUSH*

Patience roared inside of Zombie's head, making him click his tongue as he rolled away, making the sigil monster unintentionally dig its head into the forest soil.

|Stop distracting me.|

The boy scoffed in annoyance as his weapon's blade started shining again.

|WATCH OUT FOR ITS BODY!|

Even with Zombie's angry request, Patience shouted again, once the centipede's body segments leashed out like whip using the buried head segment as an anchor.

"I'VE TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP WHILE I'M FIGHTING!"

*SHING*

*SPLURT*

"SCRUHIIIII! (H-HUUUUUUUTS!)"

Zombie cleaved at the approaching monster's body and used its acceleration and weight to add to the power of his own attack - ending up cutting off three of the lively black limbs causing the blackish blood to splurge everywhere as the centipede freed its head and screeched in pain while backing off in heavy shock.

/Proficiency level reached

You receive a skill

Counter (level 1)

|Huh?! Counter?! After just one hit?! How good was your technique?!|

|How many times do you think I saw my Cranberry use it? Now shut up.|

Patience got scolded by Zombie again while the boy was getting into a stance again, ready to either strike or dodge depending on what his opponent will do next.

"SCRUHIII! (HUMAN LARVA HURT ME!) SCRUHIII! (HUMAN LARVA JUST LIKE FEATHER-FOOD!) SCRUHIII! (ME HATE! ME KILL HUMAN LARVA TOO! AND EAT!)"

The demon centipede screeched horrible, letting a yellowish drool drip down its mandibles, as it curled up in a ball preparing for another attack.

|What the...! That's poison! You better not get hit by it!|

Patience warned Zombie again.

"...are you a damned unskippable tutorial or something?! You think that I wouldn't recognize what it was?! Just shut up, I remember everything Cranberry and I've learned about different types of monsters!"

The boy couldn't help himself and scoffed out loud, gritting his teeth and raising his sword-like dagger.

"Scruhii...! (human larva, annoying...!) SCRUHIIIIII! (ME KILL! WON'T EVEN EAT! JUST KILL!)"

The demon centipede uncurled and shoot straight at the young boy, spewing yellow poison everywhere.

At first, Zombie didn't move as if completely taken by surprise by the horribly fast vicious attack...

"...!"

Until, at the very last moment, when the centipede's mandibles were already closing to chop the child's fragile body right in half - when a faint white glow enveloped the boy and his body twisted and bent in a way that was hard to call possible, and the boy dodged both the mandibles and the poison splashing around!

*STAB*

"SCRUHIIII! (HUUUUUUUURTS!)"

Not only that, as soon as the head segment passed him, Zombie swiftly charged forward and stabbed his weapon right into the biggest wound in the centipede's segmented body dealt by chickens' talons - with already wakened carapace the blade met little to no resistance and dug deep into the burgundy flesh, causing another pained shrill to leave the monster's maw.

*THUNK*

But with a weapon stuck like that, it was impossible for Zombie to retrieve it fast enough - the monster coiled and jolted away in pain - and since the boy refused to let go of his cheap long dagger, its blade gave out and broke unevenly causing the sword-like dagger to turn into a pitiful short dagger-like trash.

It was still sharp and pointed trash though, and Zombie wasn't going to let go of the only weapon he had on him, no matter how much its reach has decreased.

The only other way was to fight using his own body, and that was out of the question - he didn't train to specifically increase his status points at all since he would be losing those once he would be turned into an undead, and instead focused on training skills necessary for his future rank-ups as a monster - most of which had something to do with weapons.

|SEE?! IT WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!|

"Tsk...!"

Patience showed that they can't keep quiet for more than a few seconds and shouted in panic.

"SCRUHIII! (HUUUURT!) SCRUHII! (ME HATE HUMAN LARVA!) SCRUHI! (ME KILL IT!)

Constant pain from the large piece of the blade being stuck inside its body made the monster enter the enraged state and its body release a red and black smoke instead of a light as it should normally happen - the one thing that began glowing much brighter than before, was the sigil of the eternal burning in the middle of the centipede's head segment.

"SCRUHIIIIII! (KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!)"

The demon centipede attacked again, but somehow in its enraged state, it actually went for a much smarter attack.

It didn't charge headfirst in a straight line, making it easy to dodge with the right timing, but instead, it began curling itself around the boy, making use of its superior size and trapping him within its coils - making all dodging completely useless.

"SCRUHIII! (ME GOT YOU!) SCRUHIII! (ME GOT YOU! ME SMARTER!)"

The monster shook from an ugly giggle that didn't sound right coming out of an insect's mouth, as it used its lively limbs to push Zombie's body upwards.

It was clearly taking pleasure in playing with its victim as it made sure to inflict as many wounds as possible without killing the boy - hence, once his head and the right hand still clenching the broken dagger, popped up, the monster giggled again when it saw that it managed to rip vertical wound at Zombie's forehead.

The boy could barely see and had to move his head so that only his right eye was being flooded by blood just so he could see anything.

"Scruhii... (Soft human larva, good...) Scruhii... (You annoying, you hurt me...) Scruhii...! (But now shining stick broken... ) Scruhii!(Me will chop through you, one bite!)"

Monster's mandibles moved around as it let out a series of low screeches.

It even moved Zombie up a bit just so his body could really be torn in half, not just his head.

|You are going to die from a centipede four years before you could even see your villainess! Are you happy now?!|

"SCRUHIII! (NOW, ME KIIILL!)"

Patience sounded as if they were gritting their teeth at the same time as the demon centipede screeched triumphantly and locked its mandibles on Zombie's torso in a deadly bite.

*clink*