Chapter 137: Instant Improvement

Looking around vigilantly, Shane immediately noticed that the force with which the ground trembled was much stronger than the first time, an indicator that more than six centipedes would attack.

However, rather than feeling overwhelmed, he also figured out that everyone was calmer than before which improved everyone's overall situation.

Most students were still insecure, but they at least entered a combat stance with their unsheathed weapons.

Aisha nodded her head seeing this, and with her observance, she figured out that the second wave of variant elemental subterra centipedes would not only have a higher number but also a wider range of cultivation ranks.

Ordering the Valkyries to be careful, her expressions turned grim, when the first several dozen-meter-long centipedes with more vibrant colored carapaces shot out of the ground.

Not only were their colors more vibrant, but their speed was much faster as well. They wasted no time and immediately bombarded the group of students and Valkyries with all kinds of elemental attacks.

However, what astonished Shane was that most centipedes started to shoot out compressed elemental blasts out of their mouth which indicated that they also comprehended or inherited a skill while evolving.

He was unsure of why the centipedes were shooting out compressed elemental mana beams now and hadn't used them earlier, though it didn't change the fact that the subterra centipede's weakest trait, i.e, their attack was highly enhanced.

Not being able to forcefully dissipate the elemental beams shooting towards the students with their arrows or other elemental attacks which Shane and Aimy tried, they were forced to either evade the powerful beams or deflect them with their high graded weapons.

Aimy's water jets were negligible in attack power and thus dissipated when they came in contact with any compressed elemental beam, while Shane's arrows could be described as even more ineffective because they disintegrated on coming in contact with the blasts issued by the centipedes.

It was as if he had thrown away gold coins which was not something to feel good about.

As such, Shane told himself once again to disregard archery for now as his opponents were not beasts that he could easily hunt down with his current archery mastery and capabilities.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned his Crimson Yaeli longsword, before he rushed towards the first two dozen-meter-long centipedes in front of him.

It was an azure-colored centipede with sapphire eyes, and Shane immediately knew that his strength was too negligible to kill it.

Disregarding this, he activated his title's skill [Berserk(F)] in order to increase his strength, mana circulation and mana-outburst by 10% for the next 10 seconds.

Circulating mana throughout his body, which increased his already enhanced velocity, Shane appeared in front of the centipede that shot several water jets towards him, which he evaded by twisting his body, as a large crescent of water manifested in front of him.

Using more than half of his remaining mana, he inserted it into his curved longsword, as his full killing intent erupted.

Enveloping his sword, the killing intent screamed out, as he cleaved down at the water crescent that shot towards him with a terrifying velocity.

With his longsword being a [Tier-2 (Rare)] weapon it wouldn't break easily, and Shane used all his might to sever the crescent in front of him, even if the impact pushed him back several steps.

Having underestimated the crescent's might, Shane could only force himself through it, as his will to free the path in front of him was fully released.

Not only did he want to defeat the water elemental subterra centipede with all his might but what astonished him was that he wanted to clear the path in front of him by all means.

Suddenly, for a quarter of a second, Shane perceived a thick, crimson-colored hue intertwined in his killing intent, increasing his sword's sharpness and strength by a large margin, finally severing the water crescent.

The crimson-colored hue vanished as unexpectedly as it had appeared. Shane could only take a deep breath, when he noticed that the water elemental subterra centipede was now in front of him, with its jaw wide open.

It was about to sink its teeth into his calves, and devour him completely, when Shane's eyes turned extremely cold, causing the centipede to shiver involuntarily when it looked up to see its prey's fearless eyes in disappointment.

As Shane used his complete mana pool to inject it into his curved longsword, which was still enveloped with a thin layer of killing intent, the centipede only now noticed that its prey had turned into a deadly predator with a faint red hue around him.

Shane's [Berserk(F)] skill was about to exhaust in three seconds, as he thrusted out with the crimson yaeli longsword, piercing mercilessly through the centipede's sapphire eyes.

With a painful screech, the water elemental subterra centipede tried one last time to take him down, as Shane twisted the curved longsword in his hand forcefully with the last second of his [Berserk(F)] skill elapsing.

The faint red hue around him dissipated and his whole energy was almost immediately used up, causing him to feel extremely weak.

Looking at the centipede in front of him, Shane noticed that its life force had completely diminished and that he could store it inside his spatial ring, which he did, after he took several seconds in order to pull out his sword.

Taking a few deep breaths, he looked around to see if the others required help, only to see that the whole battlefield next to him was littered with several dozen variant elemental subterra centipedes lying on the ground.

There were still a few centipedes alive, but nobody seemed to need any help, as Shane noticed Aimy and Olivia work together in order to fight three Elite stage centipedes at once.

Their combat strength was much higher than the three centipedes, but the three beasts used their affinities together in order to prevent Olivia from approaching them, hindering her to enter a close combat fight, which was essential for a pugilist.

If a pugilist was unable to enter close combat, they had to either fight their way through, retreat or approach them in a different way, which could also mean that Olivia could force the three centipedes to drain their mana until she could slowly approach them.

However, even if their elemental attacks were at a lower rank, they could still injure Olivia, though she could evade most of the attacks.

Aimy supported Olivia from behind by using either water jets to attack, or small walls of water in order to block one centipede from burning Olivia, while it slowed down the wind blades.

Finally, after some time, their teamwork paid off and Olivia was able to enter close combat, allowing her to kill the centipedes without much more effort.

The vast difference of strength between Olivia and the centipede and her innate higher physical enhancement she received from her occupation enabled her to fight low awakened beasts head-on and elite stage centipedes were less of a problem, even if their defense was strong.

Aimy and Olivia hadn't suddenly turned into combat machines from a level zero to 100, but their fight was much better than the first instance, where they had frozen on the spot due to fear. Likewise, roughly the same result could be seen from the other students who were petrified in their first fight.

Leon and the other two high mana purity experts could easily defeat several dozen elite stage beasts at once, but they held back in order to let the other students figure out their problems and find a way to fix them.

Once all centipedes had been killed, everyone stored the corpses away from the centipedes they hunted, before they continued their slow, yet steady approach towards the deeper floors.

Shane was fully aware that the second fight was one of the easiest which caused him to frown because he knew that the water elemental subterra centipede he had fought against was the strongest beast he could have defeated at the moment.

It was not even a strong late-elite stage beast but he was still required to use every single tactic he knew of which was not something that should have happened.

There would be several more fights if not dozens and he was already weary and exhausted, which could be noticed by the other students, Aisha, and the Valkyries.

While everybody already had a fair idea of Shane's capabilities, the way he massacred the two late-elite stage centipedes single-handedly, while being at the 3rd Apprentice stage, made the others realize yet again that he wasn't to be taken lightly.

Aisha pondered if they should take a break, but in the end, she decided against it because fighting against stronger beasts while being exhausted was also a part of training, which might even help Shane to break through his own limits.

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