Grey's face twisted with shock and confusion behind that mask of his. He was in his invisible state just a few meters behind Blaze's group.

The door that stood in front of him now was not there when he first cleared this dungeon, it was just an arched entrance.

He believed at the end of the dungeon; there would be a scourge class or else there would be a group of highest-level warped classes. But those huge ominous double doors separating the boss room, from the rest of the dungeon, was giving him a feeling of foreboding.

"Let's take some rest before moving ahead. Aeron, take the healing potion Grey gave you. We need to be in our optimal states, since I believe the room behind those doors will definitely test our will." Blaze said in a grave tone.

The mood instantly got tense. They all agreed and sat down, resting their backs against the wall.

Aeron groaned in pain, his wounds opening with every movement. He somehow managed to sit, removing the cap from the vial, he gulped down the greenish liquid of the health potion down his throat.

His brows creased and his face twisted with pain, a groan escaping his lips. Sizzling sounds came as his wounds started closing up, the blood dried and new skin wriggled above the cuts.

Just when they had closed their eyes, peacefully gathering their stamina, the double doors opened with a rumble.

Their eyes jumped open, shock apparent on their faces as they turned their heads towards the doors.

There was pitch black darkness, not a speck of dust visible inside. Even Lenore was taken aback, since her eyes couldn't gauge anything, the darkness was similar for even her.

But just for an instant, she saw the outlines of a figure moving inside, a trace of heat signature just flashed past her eyes, vanishing immediately the next moment as the doors slowly closed themselves back.

"W-What the hell! T-That was fucking creepy! I-Is it probably a…g-g-ghost?" Aeron's voice grew shaky from fear.

The three of them gave him a scornful look. "You still believe in those fucking bedtime stories?" Lenore scoffed at him.

"Something seems wrong." Zenon commented.

"Hmm! Use your cultivation techniques, it will help recover fast. We'll move inside immediately after we all are ready." Blaze said in an urgent tone.

Aeron and Zenon nodded and immediately sat in lotus position, activating their cultivation techniques and channeling the aura through the meridians.

Blaze was about to start too when he saw Lenore standing still. "You won't cultivate?" He asked.

"You people go on. I'll keep guard. I don't need to cultivate anyway." She said nonchalantly.

Blaze was a bit confused, but he decided to keep this for later and closed his eyes, staring to cultivate.

****

THUD! RUMBLE!

The huge stone doors closed shut. The blinding darkness was suffocating, and the eerie silence added to the grim atmosphere, but it was not a trouble for Grey as he slowly appeared from his invisible state.

He had opened the dungeon door and entered inside to check. The uneasy feeling inside him was growing. He couldn't put Blaze and the others life in danger, pushing them inside to this unknown situation.

He had to put the dawn stone inside without them noticing anyway, so it was better he checked the insides first.

With his eyes of omniscience active, Grey scanned the room all around. But as his eyes moved around, he saw not a single beast except another double door erected just at the entrance of the hidden room. The same wall that had crumbled under his fist.

"Impossible." He murmured, the word swallowed instantly by the surrounding dark. He extended a hand, brushing against the rough stone door.

Something was definitely wrong. This couldn't have been the work of a human or any other being from the unified race. Someone from the eclipse beast's side was definitely involved. He smelled a conspiracy far bigger then what he could be a part of.

Just then, from the impenetrable darkness directly above, came a sound. It was a low, chitinous growl.

SNAP!

A section of the ceiling directly above him cracked. Not the sound of rock, but of segmented shell.

Grey didn't wait. He threw himself into a backward roll just as a horrific, elongated mass plummeted from above.

THOOM!

The impact shook the stone beneath his feet. Grey scrambled up, his eyes straining uselessly, but the sudden, terrifying presence was overwhelming.

The creature was immense. The low-frequency scraping and clicking of hundreds of legs confirmed it. It was a centipede, a humongous monstrosity.

[..]

RACE: Eclipse Dwellers

LEVEL: 47

CLASS: Shadowheart

STAMINA: 59

STRENGTH: 66

INTELLIGENCE: 29

AGILITY: 61

SKILLS: Poison spit (B+), Energy blade (C+), Energy blast (B+), Stone chitin (B)

"So that's why the doors were erected. It's to hide you." Grey thought, his eyes looking right into the glowing red beady eyes of the centipede.

A primal surge of adrenaline flashed through Grey. He didn't have the time to stay still and process the sight. His aura infused fists and legs flared, sending a wave of pressure out.

The centipede's head, a nightmare of antennae and clicking mandibles, swung towards Grey. It attacked immediately.

It spat a thick, viscous glob of bright emerald poison shot through the air, hissing.

Grey twisted mid-step and evaded the poison shot swiftly. It splashed against the wall behind him, where it immediately began to sizzle and dissolve the stone with a choking cloud of corrosive vapor.

Grey retaliated instantly, driving his aura infused left foot into the ground and launching himself into a devastating sprint along the curve of the wall.

He closed the distance in a heartbeat, targeting one of the monster's leg joints.

"Jab impact." His right fist, wreathed in roaring red aura, slammed into the chitin.

CRACK!

The shell buckled and a sickening squelch of internal fluid sprayed out, but the creature barely registered it. It had turned sideways, evading the full burn of the attack.

The centipede shrieked, a high-pitched metallic screech that grated on the ear. Its antennae whipped through the air, locking onto Grey's thermal signature.

It flexed its body, and three of its primary legs swept out in a wide, paralyzing arc.

Simultaneously, the mandible fired, not venom this time, but concentrated arc-shaped energy blades of raw, dark-blue energy, cutting through the space where Grey had been standing moments before, since Grey was already in motion.

His aura was blazing. He dropped into a combat slide beneath the sweeping legs, the massive limbs passing inches over his back.

The energy blades sliced past his head, embedding themselves deep into the stone wall with miniature explosions.

Rising from the slide, Grey spun, using the momentum, his left leg snapped out.

"Spinning madness."

Three kicks followed, the red aura amplifying the impact as he struck the centipede's underside, its softest part near the head.

The kicks send the centipede's body tumbling back, its equilibrium briefly shifted.

This was his chance. With his eyes of omniscience, Grey found the beating heart of the beast a few sections below inside the chest.

Grey's aura flared, the smoky aura taking almost a viscous, plasma state. Bending his knees, he leaped forward.

"Gattling destruction!" the aura punches followed one after another, rushing towards the centipede's chest.

Though its body was in motion backwards, the tens of legs around the area of its chest, curled inwards to form a plate like shield in front. The color of the legs changed to grey, solidifying into stone like state.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...BOOM!

Ten punches landed simultaneously. The centipede was pushed further back, slamming down on the hard stone, sending spiderweb cracks along the floor.

Grey clicked his tongue in annoyance. The legs cracked as a chitinous hard shell peeled off, along with a few legs breaking off, sending fountain of blood out. But its heart was safe, not a single scratch on its chest.

Grey landed on the floor and immediately rushed forward, he wanted end this as fast as he could.

But right after his first step, an energy ball appeared right in front of him, it was about to crash at him any moment.

With not much time to react, Grey moved his aura clad arms forward. "Arm guard!"

BOOM!

Grey flew back as the energy ball hit squarely on his arms. The turbulent energy mutilated his arms. His sleeves torn into ribbons, skin scraped off as his forearms got bloody.

He rolled a few times along the stone floor, coming to a stop after hitting the wall, as cracks spread from the point of impact.

"Hahahaha! This scheming motherfucker." Grey laughed out frustrated, annoyed at being played by the beast.

SCREECH!!

The centipede screeched aloud, as if mocking Grey at being unable to evade its attack.

Grey's aura moved towards the wounds in his arm. It seeped inside the skin as slowly the skin sizzled and started healing at a rapid pace.

The floor of the grotto shook intensely, the centipede was rushing towards Grey, the tables had turned, and now it wanted to end Grey as fast as it could.

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