Chapter 192: Gruesome
Just when he was about to reach one of the branches, Lucian gripped one of the holes, but he felt as if his finger had brushed against something.
Before he could even retract his hand, he felt a tearing pain over his fingers.
Lucian forcefully pulled his hand back and saw tiny black-colored insects crawling into his skin and eating away his flesh.
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
It was not just one or two insects but several dozens of them. Within a second, Lucian\'s hand was bleeding, and tiny holes appeared all over his fingers and palm.
"Fuck?! GET AWAY… Ughhhhhh" With a curse, Lucian jerked his hand several times, but it was no use.
This was the first time he was properly inside a Chasm and fighting the Unknown creatures.
It was as if they were constantly multiplying, their numbers had already increased by hundreds.
For a moment, he panicked, but he quickly noticed that jerking his hand was not the solution as the pain increased exponentially, and the strange insects devoured his flesh like crazy, even eating away his bones.
By the time Lucian ordered Velm to act, the insects had already crawled midway to his elbow.
His right hand was in an extremely bad shape, with tiny holes appearing all over it, giving his hand a terrifying look.
In the next instant, black flames rushed out of his body and enveloped all the insects, along with a red colored venom like substance that turned into countless small needles, piercing through the bodies of the tiny insects.
But the true horror was yet to come; those insects didn\'t die even after their bodies were pierced.
These were all 2nd phase creatures despite their tiny size.
Although Zero had informed him that Volcano boars were the strongest creatures on this planet, she overlooked one fact.
The boars were indeed one of the strongest creatures at one point, but after humans had cleared this Chasm, the strongest of the boars had died while these insects stayed hidden and kept growing.
The volcano boar\'s fire was special, and these insects weren\'t able to kill them.
Even the skin of the boars was extremely tough, more so than the steel-like surface of these trees.
So the insects could only eat the steel-like trees and survive.
But now that the strongest volcano boars were gone, they got their chance.
The strongest of these insects, the breeder, their queen, secretly attacked the weaker boars and slowly began to increase its strength until she was strong enough to hunt their natural predators openly.
At that point, the number of boars had decreased greatly while the strongest on the planet became the breeder, the mother of all these insects.
All her kids now could grow freely over the entire planet, eating whatever they wished.
On top of that, the humans didn\'t come to attack this place for quite some time, giving them enough time to grow, and finally, the Chasm was locked again.
This was because of the 40th group, they didn\'t even came to check the creatures inside the Chasm and just sent back fake reports to the branch of the organisation.
They wanted the creatures inside to grow a little more stronger and for the
Chasm
to be locked again so that they could obtain more benefits after killing all the creatures inside.
But because of their carelessness, instead of the the Volcano boars it was these insects that grew at an exponential rate and became the ruler of this planet.
And so the planet had completely changed.
The once proud hunters, the volcano boars, who roamed this land openly and did whatever they wished now had to hide from these insects just to survive and escape the painful and gruesome death.
Zero only got to see a part of the past in such a short time, so she made such a blunder.
Just as the thousands of tiny needles pierced the bodies of the insects crawling into Lucian\'s flesh, those insects burst into what seemed like a liquid.
At first, Lucian heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that the insects had turned into a small pool of blood, but he soon understood his mistake.
The creatures hadn\'t died; instead, they had all broken down into an even smaller size, becoming a sea of flesh-eating insects.
His heart felt heavy, with a pain that made him scream as loud as he could.
The sea of insects devoured his flesh much faster than before, tearing apart his skin and bones as blood kept dripping down. Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelBin.net
Within a second, they had already crawled up to his elbow and kept eating nonstop, their numbers multiplying with each passing moment.
"This speed is after I had slowed them down using the fire of Corruption. If they moved at full speed, I might have already become a corpse."
Lucian\'s mind was working at full speed as he forcefully stopped himself from throwing up blood.
In that instant, Lucian made a hard choice, which was the only option left. Turning Velm into a blade, he cut off his own right hand from the shoulder.
"Aaaaahhh! S- Stop the bleeding! Huff Huff… Velm, ughhhhh," Lucian screamed in pain as blood spluttered out of his wound. His entire body was consumed by this pain as blood filled his mouth.
THUD
The torn-off arm fell down, but before it could even touch the ground, it was stuck on top of the blade-like grass, showing just how sharp they were.
As Velm covered his wound, Lucian glanced down. He was suddenly feeling overly weak; the pain just wouldn\'t stop as blood gushed out of his mouth.
Within seconds, those insects had actually eaten his entire hand without leaving anything behind, nothing.
Lucian felt his body shiver at this sight. If he had not cut his arm off, they would probably have eaten his entire body, and right now, he didn\'t have any way to stop them.
But then he noticed something. The insects had multiplied by thousands now, looking from the top, they looked like some kind of black object.
After the hand disappeared, some of the insects fell onto the grass and immediately began to eat it, but much slower compared to his flesh.
But some of the insects fell onto the ground, running all around as if searching for something, but a few of those insects couldn\'t reach the grass in time.
"T- That\'s… What\'s happening Huff Huff to them?"
Those insects popped like bubbles, becoming nothing more than black spots on the ground; they were dead.
Just as Lucian was considering his findings, he felt cold sweat dripping down his body as a shiver ran across his spine.
This was the exact feeling he got when the insects had crawled onto his right hand. Lucian didn\'t even turn to look; he pushed himself away from the tree, letting go of his grip.
As he fell backward, Lucian saw a wave of those insects crawling into the same hole he had gripped just moments ago.
If it weren\'t for the dark flames, which had slowed them down greatly, he might have lost his other hand too.
Lucian began to fall at a high speed towards the tall grass that stood like sharp blades. If he really fell over them, his body would be riddled with holes.
"W- Wings!!" In the next instant, two large red-colored wings with a black pattern appeared on his back. But his back was facing the ground, and he was only a few meters away from the grass.
It was impossible to stop himself, so instead, he decided to use the wings to land on the grass, making Velm as tough as it could get.
TING TING TING TING TING TING
The sound of metal hitting metal rang out as the grass tips hit the wings, causing sparks to fly around. But fortunately, the grass was not able to penetrate through Velm, and Lucian managed to land on them safely.
"What the hell is… ughhhh going on over here? What are t- those… haa haa insects? Zero, do you know anything?"
Lucian asked as he clutched his right shoulder, the pain making him dizzy.
"…" No reply came from Zero; it seemed she was still busy finding more about this planet, so he would have to depend on himself for now.
Lucian used his wings to properly land between the grass, carefully checking for any of the insects.
"I wonder if Velm can even heal such an injury, can it grow my hand back?" Lucian wondered, but he felt doubtful. After all, Velm probably wouldn\'t be able to grow back the bones of his hand.
With this alone, he had lost a big part of his combat ability. Not that he could do anything against these insects; they were like his natural predator.
And winning against them seemed impossible. They didn\'t die even when their bodies were cut or pierced. What could kill these tiny creatures?
"Maybe fire can kill them, but how am I supposed to get fire in this land?
Even the trees and grass are made of some steel-like metal, and I haven\'t brought any lighter or anything with me." Lucian sighed.
Fire probably was their only weakness, yet there was a chance that normal fire might not be as fatal.
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