The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich, still encased in the two lights sensed the approaching danger and made a run for it to buy time. His ignition was not over, the inscription of the first symbol took time, it was not an instantaneous process.

Aldrich looked at his remaining orbs, one green orb and sixty four red orbs, he hid behind one of the stone pillars and upgraded intelligence to five as well reducing the red orbs to sixteen.

Aldrich sure as hell wasn't going to do nothing but wait, he chose to upgrade intelligence after spirit because it had the most to do with his mind. It was the fastest way to recover from the effects of [Psychic Lash].

This was the main reason why Aldrich got in so much trouble here, he wasn't able to fight like his usual self because of the two strikes of [Psychic Lash].

Of course it was very likely his circumstances wouldn't improve all that much but still, he may have been able to use the seal of Tindalor to escape who knows?

The attack of a grade one creature was just that bad for a grade zero creature, it was only because he was Aldrich that he actually survived.

Aldrich continued running because the monstrous centipede almost caught up to him. As he did so he felt his mind clear out for the first time in a while. Well it wasn't that long but it certainly felt like that.

Aldrich wanted to upgrade another attribute but it was already too late, the centipede was upon him. It cleverly circled around him with its long body and was about to crush him like it did not long ago.

But—

[Aeon Crest: processing]

Strength: 4 —> 7

Agility: 4 —> 7

Although the ignition wasn't finished yet Aldrich saw his Strength and Agility attributes explode to seven all at once. His power tripled all of a sudden.

Aldrich spread his hands wide as if he was about to hug someone, his hands caught the body of the centipede that was about to squeeze him to death. And it stopped.

"Eh?"

The head of the centipede's upper body let out a surprised sound. Aldrich made eye contact with it for the first time, it had completely blacked out eyes and a necklace hung from it's neck.

That was the key to the underground prison of the Unseen Hand which Aldrich needed to open the metal gate without triggering an traps.

Aldrich released the pressure on his hands, and jumped. The body losing that stalemate suddenly contracted unto itself and he stepped on top of the protective outer shell of the centipede, and dashed.

His goal was the humanoid upper body of the Superior, Aldrich stepped on the already cracked shells and destroyed them further with each step, he left a footprint in blood.

He still did not get used to his significant increase in speed and power and almost slipped out. But in the end he still made it, with a jump he raised his fist and wished that he had his sword with him at this moment.

However, the upper body of the Superior suddenly crosse his hands and conjured a torrent of blood red flames at him. Aldrich was in the air and had no way to dodge.

Aldrich was pushed back by the flames but he still gritted his teeth and punched down, at the abdomen of the Superior. In the meantime he sneakily snatched the yellow key.

The punch was so powerful the conjured flames were put out by the air blast and he heard several bones breaking on the upper body of the Superior.

The punch pushed him back and with that the whole six meters long body of the centipede below was flung violently along with the Superior's upper body.

It seems like whatever happened to the upper body had a severe effect on the lower body.

Aldrich was taken back and winced at his burned skin, he was grabbed by several human arms of the centipede and—using the momentum it hurled him across the hall.

He slammed into several cage pillars and finally landed on a stone pillar which stopped his short-term flight. His own bones broke, everywhere.

Aldrich willed his body to move, to respond, but to no avail. 'Just a little bit of time.' 'Almost there.'

He looked to the front, the centipede did not give chase nor did it come any closer, it had opened it's disgusting mouth, which had eaten him at first—and he saw water swirling in that massive maw. It was being focused into one single point.

This is the high pressure water canon that destroyed the wall, Aldrich smiled bitterly, all he needed was just a bit or time and he could have completed his ignition and killed this thing.

But there was also something else concerning time that he had not payed attention to. A condition that Aldrich didn't give much thought to.

For some reason he was attracted to that condition now of all times, it was just an instinct.

Something's not right. How could he not even investigate this? It's like whenever he opened his attributes panel he would always gloss over it for some reason.

The last time he used the Eyes of Insight on it he saw this: Condition: the blood of #######: time remaining:???

But now he saw this: Condition: the blood of #######: time remaining: 00:00:02 sec

And the time reached zero. Aldrich felt like he fell into an ice cold lake in the dead of winter. But he did not feel any cold, he felt nothing, only insatiable hunger.

With a feral roar Aldrich suddenly moved his supposedly broken body and dodged the high pressure water cannon.

But he did not run not that he even knew what that was any more, all he knew was that he was hungry. And he must feed.

As he charged at the centipede his body grew to stand at five meters tall, his body hair grew wildly like fur and two more pairs of eyes appeared under his original eyes, glowing in yellow.

An extra pair of arms right under his original arms, claws that released dark ominous smoke and his face grew long to support dozens and dozens of fangs. His head had four horns like a crown.