King Of Limbo

"Yellow legs and under back; dark exoskeleton; 56 body segments; tendril-like forcipules; and two red antennae..."

"Scholopendra, at the very least sixth or seventh tier." Aron shook his head and murmured out loud.

"What?" Garu, who was standing next to him, gave him an odd look because he couldn't make sense of what was being said.

Aron briefly put aside their ignorance and spoke freely, but it didn't matter to him because he believed that none of them would survive this encounter.

"Nothing." Before turning to face the other Panthera, who were now in a panic, Aron swiftly shook his head.

"Now, form a circle and face the outside! Make sure no blind spots are left!" He abruptly gave a loud command.

After hearing his command, nobody hesitated to act; they swiftly followed his instructions and arranged themselves in a way that allowed them to see the beast from all sides.

Katak~

The circle the beast had created around them by using its body to make a barrier seemed to have no effect on it as it moved closer.

'No, this is what it wants. To gather us in a central location.' Aron quickly saw that his existing formation wasn't adequate and that by continuing as is, he was actually falling into the trap set by it.

But by the time he could give more instructions, it was already too late.

Pa~

One of the points in the pattern suddenly let out a loud pop.

All they could see when they turned to gaze in the direction of the noise was a bleeding Panthera with a shattered bloody face.

One of the Scholopedra's tendrils was above it; it had reached out and struck the unaware Panthera in the blink of an eye.

"Dammit, break the formation and attack from all sides!"

Aron's incorrect judgement had already shown consequences with that fatality. The displeasure on his face could even be interpreted as anger towards the loss of a comrade.

But in truth…

'I need to at least wear it down before they die.' He prepared.

He had learned that tiers weren't necessarily the most important thing from Argos' simulations, if anything. He could still clearly recall his battle with a tier one golem.

Why? simply because it was constructed with a resource of Tier 7.

In this instance, the creature's physical attributes probably equaled or exceeded his own, especially given that it had a durable exoskeleton.

Thankfully, he demonstrated at the outset that it could be pierced by a spear. He made an attempt at planning, but it was insufficient and, if the tendril had attacked him instead, he almost paid dearly for it.

He then decided to launch a scramble-style attack, knowing that it would result in a greater number of casualties but also some degree of damage to the beast.

Howl~

Only those Panthera who were facing danger for the first time appeared troubled and paused; the rest of the Panthera pushed forward.

They would at least act as distractions, but Aron paid them no attention.

His muscles tightened as he fixed his focus on the creature's midsection, and he then charged away with great force.

He chose to attack one of the creature's body parts with an enhanced fist. Because those from the Scholopendra family often have venomous forcipules at the front and sharp pincers at the back, he chose the center.

And he was correct...

"Ahhh"

One Panthera was directly wounded through the chest by one of the razor-sharp pincers at the creature's tail as he charged to the central portion.

The Panthera began to bleed freely and bit his teeth as his veins grew larger till they eventually burst.

resulting with blood splattering everywhere.

"What a deadly poison."

As soon as Aron got close to the creature's middle, he punched hard into its thick external membrane.

Crack!~

The segment's protective covering instantly broke like a brittle brick, exposing the creature's slimy, gory inner muscles.

Katak!

~

The creature's reaction was horrible; it let out a harsh screech and started to move its pointed legs around quickly.

As soon as it did, many people caught in its path were fortunate enough to escape with only serious thigh cuts as opposed to fatal ones.

They couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but it was fleeting.

Thump!

Unexpectedly, one of the Panthera sadly fell to the ground.

"Porut!"

Another approached and shouted out to the fallen Panthera before collapsing themselves.

"What?"

The person who fell while running to the hospital was confused. He wanted to walk but felt his legs were numb, and this feeling quickly spread until he was unable to speak. All of this happened within the space of a few heartbeats.

Next, his being started to swell in an abnormal way, yet he remained motionless and silent.

When Aron turned to look at the two Panthera, he noticed that their cuts on their limbs had become darker.

"Poison, even it's legs have it." Aron muttered, deepening his frown.

"What do we do?" As one after another Panthera who had been hit started to fall, a worried Garu questioned.

"Attack the creatures mid segment where I exposed it's vulnerable insides."

Aron approached a fallen Panthera and took their weapon; he had no idea how powerful it was, but for the time being, it simply appeared to immobilize its victims.

Given that, it probably would have killed them first to cut down on the population, but Aron was going to stop that. If the group's size shrank and morale dropped, the others would disperse and his situation would worsen.

He pointed his weapon at the creature's wide open, round mouth, which was lined with razor-sharp teeth, and threw it!

Woosh~

The beast was struck by the spear, which had been fired with great force, and it also passed through it, exiting from its back.

The beast twitched furiously, but it was obvious that the damage was insufficient.

Fortunately, like other species, it was unable to tell the Panthera apart; in its peculiar view, they all appeared to be prey acting aggressively, which only served to aggravate it.

The weight of its body, thankfully, meant that it wasn't fast and couldn't even raise itself off the ground without keeping at least half of its body grounded. It suddenly started to move once more.

"Distract it, make it angrier, and pass me your spears when I tell you to," the person said. Aron gave the order before grabbing three more spears and extending his distance from the creature's head, which he considered to be the most hazardous part of it.

He couldn't risk engaging it head-on because, in contrast to the other places, its tentacles carried a powerful punch.

The others quickly agreed to Aron's offer because they had no other strategy and started rapidly targeting the mid segment and various locations.

Pa~ Pa~

The Panthera were then attacked by the creature's tendrils, with the majority of them suffering fatal injuries or passing away instantly.

Bam!

Aron assaulted other portions while it attacked the larger group, first launching spears straight through its brain before slamming a piece of its exoskeleton while it was in pain.

"Kreek!"

"More spears!"

He shouted and kept using the same technique without becoming weary.

The Scholopendra quickly developed numerous sizable exposed places on its body where thick, yellow fluid was oozing out.

Aron would impale the exposed portion with a spear after each time he exposed it. He hoped to at least strike a crucial organ. 𝐟𝙧ee𝔀e𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝑒𝗹.c𝗼𝚖

Its resistance to injury was demonstrated by the fact that it was carrying more than ten spears in various bodily parts and still stood its ground.

For the majority of organisms having exoskeletons, this was the case. They could still live even if limbs were lost.

"We can't triumph," Garu, who was visibly perspiring, had given up.

To get those spears into the beast, more than half of their initial number had to be destroyed, although the thing appeared unfazed.

Looked all about, and there were now fewer than twenty Panthera left. It made sense that morale would deteriorate.

Some of them had even used the conflict as an opportunity to flee and run away, further diminishing their numbers.

"We should escape!"

"That's right we can't win…"

Many individuals began to express their concerns, and even Garu agreed. Conflict would only arise if Aron persisted.

"Leave then, one person must remain to ensure it doesn't follow you all back to the settlement."

Aron replied coldly before readying his spear to fight, he was going to be that sacrifice?

"No!"

Garu was eager to object; how could he let his sibling remain behind and perish?

"You have a mate and child, I have no one waiting for me so you go!" He strongly suggested.

"The child is grown and my mate can always find another, but I only have one brother." Aron spoke forcefully, leaving Garu speechless.

Aron felt confident he could beat the creature utilizing a lot of mana and either his Horned Basilisk or Limbo Strider aspects because of the severe damage it had sustained.

Additionally, the others would disperse and believe he may have passed away as well, putting an end to Tlaloc with plenty of witnesses to support it.

But this obstinate brother would not give in.

"Then I will fight alongside you until the end, the rest of you go! Warn the village."