Chapter 529: Meeting the Ant Queen (1).
{Redscale General}: level 111 (Epic,Tier 1)
Strength: 73,400.
Agility: 47,000.
Defense: 3,550.
Magic: 70,000.
HP: 1,200,000/1,200,000.
MP: 860,000/860,000.
Skills: Law of the Jungle, Unbridled Might, Lance Judgment, Speech Recognition, Regeneration, lvl 5, Physical Boost lvl 5, Commander, Red Aura.
'So many skills!' Cain was a bit taken aback.
Staring directly into the face of the creature, Cain was surprised even more.
This creature was quite different from its other counterparts. For one, it was quite small; about his height and his body structure. It's humanoid physique was far more defined also.
For facial features, it looked eerily human. Despite having two sets of eyes, it looked more like a human with insectoid mutations than a creature that had most likely evolved from a bug.
"What the hell is this abomination?" Cain could help but mutter through gritted teeth.
Something absolutely terrifying suddenly happened.
The creature opened its fanged mouth... and spoke;
"The... only... abom-inations... that crawl... this... world...
is Humans!"
Cain felt a fear he had never experienced before wash over him.
"What the hell?!"
The {Redscale General} pushed back with all its might, sending Cain flying. Struggling to maintain his balance midair, Cain could hardly control his thoughts.
'It... it spoke?!'
Cain's mind churned, 'Speech Recognition? Not only that, but it is also able to replicate and understand human speech? What the hell is going on?!'
It was simply to strange. There was no logic behind it. Even if this creature had evolved to possess some sort of supernatural intellect, it made no sense for it to be able to understand human speech with him just saying a few words.
'Not only that, but it seems to hold an abnormal amount of hatred for humans.'
Cain's eyes narrowed, 'There's only one thing I can thing of. The system...'
There was no rule that stated that the system was accessible to only humans. In fact, of he could recall correctly, the system was available to all races of living beings within the confines of the universe. All except the Devil race.
Be they beast, human, or everything in between...
The moment his feet reached the ground, Cain was greeted with a five feet long, three inch wide javelin screaming through the air towards his face.
"Infernal Wings."
Blooming wings of flames enveloped his body. The javelin smashed into it, causing dozens of flaming feathers to burn away.
"Son of a-!" Pressured by the furious onslaught, Cain had a hard time breathing for a moment.
The {Redscale General} raced after him like a red spectre, determined to tear him apart. However, Cain had already regained his lost balance.
The moment the creature attempted to move into his space, his blade was already singing.
Cain's eyes were frigid as he unerringly cut a straight path towards the creature. The {Redscale General} brought its blades forearms up to defend, but at the last moment, Cain dismissed the blade, and with arms wrapped in a layer of [Ki Fire], he slammed a punch with an unhealthy amount of force into the creature's abdominal region.
A loud boom caused the nearby trees to bend backwards. The body of the {Redscale General} was already flying back, but Cain stretched his leg forward and stomped on the creature's feet.
His eyes were enveloped with menacing light,
"I'm not done, bastard."
Wrapping his hands in Demon Matter, Cain proceeded to deliver an ungodly barrage of punches.
Pieces of cretin flew all over the place as the exoskeleton of the creature cracked in places.
However, the {Redscale General} was a Tier 1 creature for a reason...
With a loud roar, a thick, red aura enveloped the creature, forcing Cain to take a step back, freeing the beast from his hold.
The cracks he had inflicted on the creature began to heal, leaving Cain feeling a bit despondent.
The creature raised its arm causimg the mana in the environment to surge. A long bone javelin appeared in its out stretched palm.
"I... will... not... allow you... human... destroy here!
I... will... Devour!"
The creature's voice was like a broken recording, filled with an impossible amount of hatred and bloodlust.
Cain sneered, "What did I ever do to you?"
The creature skillfully twirled the bone javelin,which had now become a bone spear.
"Humans are weak. But... they are evil. They use... their weakness to deceive, plunging... many world...
into ruin. I will purge humans."
For some reason, the creature was getting better at speaking, filling Cain with dread.
Cain's eyes narrowed, 'Where exactly is this coming from?'
There were many ways to interpret the creature's words. What did it mean by ruin? What world was it talking about? How did it know about these worlds that had supposedly been turned into ruins?
Things weren't adding up at all...
But if there something Cain had learnt after all this time, it would be to never, ever, confine himself within the walls of logic.
He had to think outside the box...
'Perhaps this creature might have come in contact with the Remnant of a Celestythat despises humans. Perhaps that might be the root of its hatred.'
That wasn't an unreasonable deduction to make. After all, it was possible for a Celestial to influence its minions. The only question now, is to what degree...
Shaking his head, Cain tried to dispell those thoughts and focus on the battle at hand...
'In terms of speed and strength, I can say we are evenly matched. Using spells on him would be quite futile unless they are my extremely potent spells. Even then, their effects might be minimal.'
Watching the {Redscale General} condense the Red Aura onto its bone spear, his eyes narrowed,
'It can create bone spears and javelins from nothing, so its main elemental affiliation is the Blood Element, form what I can tell. Combining all these things together, I can say this fight can go either way.'
Taking a deep breath, Cain coated the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} with Demon Matter.
The strange substance coated the body of the weapon, giving it a darker hue. At the same time, he activated another ability,
"Burning Spirit: Lightning Enchantment."
Sparks of electricity enveloped his body as strands of his hair levitated above his shoulders. His eye were like storm clouds as he put one feet ahead of the other.
Each Elemental Enchantment of {Burning Spirit} provide immense boosts, but come with their drawbacks. The Lightning Enchantment, something he didn't use quote often, caused a drastic decrease in his control.
Normally, this wouldn't be a good thing, as well he control stat was very vital in controlling his energy levels so his output wouldn't be too much or too little. With this enchantment, he had to be extremely careful, as a single mistake could quite literally cost him his life.
But with this increase in risk, came a corresponding increase in reward...
Like a fleeting thought, Cain was already streaking across the battlefield, his blade raised horizontally beside him.
'Be calm... Exercise perfect control.
Even though his control stat had been significantly lowered, that didn't mean he was in immediate danger. As long as he didn't create too many risky moves, or he didn't activate any complex spells and skills, he wouldn't be in too much danger.
Instead, what he really had to worry about, was controlling his physical might...
While his physique had become something else, different from that of a human, it wouldn't be able to bear the burden of him releasing all his physical might at once. Doing something like that might cause all the he muscles in his arms to unravel like twine.
'That... is something I wouldn't like to experience.'
Making sure every step was calculated, not to much, not too little, Cain drifted across the battlefield like an after image, leaving nothing but sonic rings behind.
The {Redscale General} was not too far behind. Instead, it let out an insane bellow, rushing forward as well.
The bone spear on its hands turned into an elastic viper that shot straight at Cain.
With a forward swing, Cain managed to easily smash the weapon to the side. However, the wide swing left him open.
The {Redscale General}<, seeing its chance, brought its spear back in control and stabbed forward on one fluid movement.
Cain, on the other hand, was two steps ahead. His body blitzed out of reality, and his frame was replaced by a star-tipped blade.
Reappearing behind the creature, Cain swung his blade with tremendous force. The ground beneath him split apart, sending dust and stone flying everywhere as he slammed the weapon sideways.
The {Redscale General} managed to sense the danger just in time to bring his bone spear down.
The blade of the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} broke the bike spear like it was a twig. The blade was stopped as a result, but the rest of the force was enough to cut into the side of the {Redscale General} amd draw blood, throwing it away like a piece of dead wood.
Mowing down a few trees, the {Redscale General} came to a stop with its back against a rather sturdy tree. Throwing up an unhealthy amount of blood, it raised its head just to see Cain mid-swing, ready to lop its head clean off.
"Enough."
Just as he was about to put the beast out of its misery, Cain felt a magnetic voice echo within his head. It was so sudden, appearing out of the blue and containing an absolutely dreadful power that compelled him to pause mid-swing.
His face was as pale as a corpse's,
"What the hell?!"
Much to his horror, he found than not only him, but also every single other creature on the battlefield had stopped in its tracks, compelled by a single voice.
Trying his best to fight against this compulsive order, Cain forcibly turned his body.
"Who... who are you, damn it?!"
He stared straight into the entrance of the massive structure the {Redscale Soldiers} had been busy building.
From the darkness enveloping the entrance, a vague figure could be seen, walking out with slow, measured steps.
When Cain saw what it was, all he could do, was grit his teeth, horror fully engulfing him.
"Now there's two of them..."