Rise of The Immortal Wraith - 31 I Hate Mandibles

The crowd slowly dispersed, whispers of the days’ events would be passed on to anyone who had not come to the execution. Salem held the bodies behind him, they would soon begin to stink from voiding their bowels once the major organs began to fail, he walked quickly towards the animal pens and stables.

He had the cage placed away from the horses and other beasts, there was no point in frightening them and creating a fuss for the servants who would have to keep them calm so as not to injure themselves.

He moved past the barn and into an open field, the cage at its center shook and rattled, it was definitely not pleased with its current treatment. Approaching the cage, Salem saw the massive centipede within writing and slamming into the metal bars, bite marks had bitten through some of the thick iron bars.

Impressed with his chosen mount, he looked upon its massive body covered in a thick black carapace that would easily withstand blows from his knights, its mandibles looked strong enough to bite at the bars for days without breaking. He noticed the dark liquid that coated the bite marked bars, taking one of his tails he wiped a little away and asked the system if it was poisonous.

The response the system gave was that there were two poisons on the bar, one was a slow-acting lethal poison while the other was neuro toxin that would paralyze the victim, but it suspected that the neurotoxin was produced in very small amounts, it was extremely potent but there was very little of it near the bite marks.

Though the system would do what it could to make the neurotoxin stronger and produce more at a time, it would be after it had evolved once or twice before a noticeable change started occurring in its production, but the strength of it should increase gradually.

Hearing this wonderful news Salem was excited to begin, he chucked a body into the cage, he had placed a few blue pearls inside the elder’s body so that the centipede would grow accustomed to the bloodline gradually.

The body landed near the side of the cage, just enough room to be pulled through if you got too close, seeing the prey the centipede caught hold of the dying body and pulled it through the bars.

The bones broke with the rough treatment until it was ripped into pieces and devoured quickly, it seemed this beast craved flesh, he hadn’t expected it to finish its first meal so soon.

Throwing more bodies to the hungry beast, Salem watched as it devoured each one until he only had the body of that very old elder left, he cut open the body and stuffed it full of the remaining pearls. Tossing the last body to the beast he watched as it slowly devoured this last remaining meal, it was getting full and seemed a bit sluggish from eating so many nutritious meals in a row.

It finished the last meal and curled up on itself, making it near impervious with its carapace facing outwards. Salem moved forwards, summoning his armor and keeping his tails at the ready he moved to the bars of the cage, taking a deep breath he unlatched the door slowly, once it was open he moved silently forward till he could feel the heavy breathing of the creature.

Its breath so sickly sweet smelling it was no wonder it had gotten so large, able to attract other prey with such a smell, they would fall right into its jaws before they knew what had happened. He could feel the heart beating slowly, he reached his hand forward, his guard on high he let his tails encircle the centipede.

Prepared he placed his hand on the carapace, feeling a slight shudder from it he nearly jumped back, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he began to chant and activated his bloodline. He felt the reaction to all the pearls placed in its body, they burst open and began to spread, like an invading force, a battle waged against the centipedes’ natural defenses.

<System Activated>

Analyzing the foreign creature. Estimated time of completion: Five minutes.

After the system began, the beast awoke, before it could thrash about Salem bound it with his tails keeping it as still as possible. The beast, however, would not just give up it started to move its legs and spitting out a cloud of poison to deter whatever was attacking it. Holding his breath Salem conjured his green flames around his face, burning the poison before it reached his orifices.

Shreiking in anger the beast pushed against the tails, Salem grabbed onto the carapace harder to steady himself. This was a mistake, it found his location through the pressure of his hands and started to push him against the bars of the cage trying to crush him under its massive weight.

Moving a few tails from the coiled body to the bars, lessening the pressure on his body and onto the bars giving him some relief. The beast finally freed its head from its coiled massive body and lunged towards him, two wings appeared and block the blow, shoving him hard against the bars. The air in his lungs fled his body, the unexpected blow dizzying him for a second while he gasped for air.

Coughing and trying to refill his lungs he heard the system count down telling him he only needed just a few more seconds till the connection would be complete. He gritted his teeth and prepared to grab ahold of it again. He felt the chill again.

The head of the beast lurked above him and prepared to strike again, feeling a chill on his spine Salem pulled his remaining tails away from the beast and made a quick net around himself. He felt a massive pressure slam onto him making him lose contact with the carapace, he rolled over, seeing the mandibles of the beast coming towards his face.