If the sizes of the two centipedes were to be compared, the elemental subterra centipedes seemed like ants with their size of less than 50 meters compared to the Golden centipede in front of them.

It had to be the king of the Golden centipedes which was shocking to see.

However, what was worse were the mana fluctuations that suppressed everyone with a mana purity below 80% making it difficult to even move. Even Leon Rar, who possessed a mana purity of 80% couldn't move freely.

Everyone was frozen in their tracks and nobody dared move a muscle, as Aisha's expression stiffened.

This was worse than what she had expected. The golden centipede's presence should have been sensed long ago by the valkyries and its appearance, so close to their shelter, was worrisome.

The Valkyries around her were also frozen in fear because they knew that the golden centipede in front of them was something at par, or maybe even stronger than the bloodlust thunder wolf, which was not something they could fight easily.

Another issue was the spatial affinity that the centipede seemed to possess because the Valkyries had never fought a beast with such an affinity, which caused them to be extremely careful.

Right now there were only a handful of people such as Aisha, Frer and two more Valkyries that were able to move freely and instead of wasting any time in order to give the golden centipede the chance to attack, they initiated their attack first.

Exerting her [Tier-2 (Platinum)] movement technique [Path to the Sanctuary], while activating her [Holy Spear] skill, Aisha's silver spear grew in size, as she appeared in front of the Golden centipede King, and lashed out.

However, before the spear could even touch the Golden centipede King, a tiny, 20 centimeter in diameter, spatial portal manifested in front of her, while the exact copy appeared in front of Shane's head.

A spatial portal required one to possess a spatial affinity. It connects two certain points with each other, which allows objects and living beings to teleport, crossing a distance of several hundred meters without much effort.

Shane was not exactly sure why he was chosen as the Golden centipede King's target, but it was most likely fortunate for the others because he knew what was going on.

When the spatial portal manifested in front of him, the suppressing force around him disappeared immediately, and he could activate his title skill [Berserk(F)]. He groaned before leaning backwards, twisting his body until he almost touched the ground.

Fortunately, he knew what exactly the spatial portals indicated and from his previous experience while training with his father, he knew that there always had to be an entrance and an exit to every portal.

As such, he could barely evade the silver spear that pierced straight through the spatial portal.

Only the mana fluctuations from the [Holy spear]skill grazed him but they were enough for him to be pushed to the ground, as his eyes widened in shock.

'Damn….she didn't hold back a tiny bit!!'

From the wind draft and mana fluctuations around him, Shane was sure that Aisha had given her best, yet the Golden Centipede King didn't seem to bother about that, as it manifested another spatial portal below her.

The second portal manifested on the ceiling right above the group of roughly 30 peak-Awakened elemental subterra centipedes that were able to move again.

Shane was still shocked that he was almost killed by Aisha, when he noticed something odd.

With the third set of spatial portals appearing on the ceiling, in the center of the cave, a large batch of peak awakened elemental subterra centipedes emerged from within, with a large number of rainbow subterra centipedes within.

This scenario was shocking, but Shane noticed that in order to let the other, weaker centipedes, move freely, the Golden centipede King had to restrain its mana fluctuations.

Restricting the mana fluctuations seemed to affect the Golden centipede King's spatial affinity. It couldn't forcefully eject the most threatening foes, Aisha and Frer, from its elemental crystal cave and then finish off the rest first.

Shane was not sure if the Golden centipede King was just too stupid to even think about this, but it was unlikely, and other than that, he also noticed that it didn't even try to initiate an attack, despite being attacked by Aisha when it had first appeared in front of her.

Somehow, it seemed to Shane that the Golden centipede King was toying with them, as it opened several sets of spatial portals one after another in order to create a chaotic battlefield.

Even if that was extremely disadvantageous for the Valkyries and students, everyone slowly began to notice that the highest threat came from the other peak-Awakened ranked centipedes, and not directly from the Golden centipede King.

Other than that, Aisha, who was occupied with the elemental subterra centipedes, noticed that at most three sets of spatial portals were manifested at once after the humongous-sized one disappeared.

With this, it was not difficult to have a fair idea of the Golden centipede King's limits, and now they only had to figure out its combat prowess.

Instead of moving around, it remained in the center of the battlefield, as its mana fluctuations enveloped everything in its wake. The mana fluctuations and the resultant restrictions to move freely confused most Valkyries, as Frer appeared next to Shane, ready to join the fray.

However, before she could do so, Shane held her back, as he shouted.

"If the Golden centipede King doesn't utilize a skill, it can only manifest spatial portals where its mana fluctuations are! Furthermore, it's difficult to maintain several portals at once while fighting, which is probably the reason for it to stay rooted to a spot."

Hearing this, Frer frowned lightly, asking herself how Shane knew something like this, but rather than caring about this right now, she gave him a brief nod as she appeared next to Aisha, and both of them slaughtered the elemental subterra centipedes.

Shane only saw Frer tell Aisha something in between their slaughter and that Aisha looked at him for a quarter of a second, before averting her attention once again.

The other Valkyries were also freed from the suppression and started to fight, while only a few remained next to the students, who slowly backed off, as their legs began to shiver.

Even Leon felt overwhelmed by what they had witnessed right now and he could barely keep himself from panicking when he saw Shane look around as if nothing happened.

'Who the hell is he? He doesn't even bother that he was almost killed, and now, it looks like he doesn't even notice that we are right in the center of a disaster waiting to happen??'

Little did they know that Shane was the one who panicked the most. It was because of the willpower training he had received when he had been young, coupled with his passive skill [Hunter's mind] and several life-threatening situations he had faced, that he was barely able to remain calm on the outside.

Shane couldn't really tell if their situation was good or bad, but he was sure of one thing.

If they were to survive without casualties, their expedition group would have to receive a whole bunch of miracles at once.

Their group's large size was the obvious problem, but the emergence of the Golden centipede King with its spatial affinity created a distinct fear and hesitation within everyone, which led to a decline in their combat prowess by a large margin.

This was extremely bad and could result in a mass panic even if the Golden centipede King didn't do anything at all, but unfortunately, this was not the case.

To Shane, it was as if the Golden centipede King was only the mastermind in the background, letting its chess pieces act according to its orders while tweaking the circumstances to create an advantageous situation for itself.

Everything the Golden centipede King did, seemed like a game, and the worst thing was that their expedition team was on the losing side!

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