God Class Awakening: Ascension of the Demon Hunter-Chapter 44: Beetle

Vale was entranced by the process as he gazed up at the sky, wondering what could be controlling the day and night cycle. Who knows, maybe he would be able to get a close glimpse at it before leaving the prison realm.

Just then, a slight groan brought him out of his reverie. He snapped his head to the side and before his eyes was Rein, with her eyes open.

A wave of relief washed over him. If she had sustained any permanent damage, or worse, then he would most likely have to face divine punishment for breaching the contract. Luckily, that wouldn’t be happening anymore.

Roxy wasn’t done yet, as her hand was still firmly placed on Rein’s head. Only when she fully regained consciousness did Roxy remove her hand, revealing the girl’s tired and confused look.

It took Rein a moment to realise what was happening—waking up to endless sand was quite disorienting.

She seemed to realise something as she looked at Roxy and mouthed a thank you towards her. Roxy nodded, accepting her gratitude.

"It’s good you’re awake now," Vale said. "Thanks, by the way. You saved us back there."

Rein hastily waved her hand at him, signifying it was no big deal.

To this, Vale just nodded. "I guess we’d better get going, with the sun up now, the journey will definitely be harder,"

Before moving on, Rein requested some water which Vale gave her. Watching her finish it all, he was once again reminded that they were in a desert and water was a precious commodity. She finished it before he could remind her to save some. And looking at the empty bottle, a hint of dread appeared in his heart.

Seeing she was still a bit spent, Vale suggested carrying her for the remainder of the journey; she humbly declined.

He could only scratch his head and walk away.

No one spoke as they continued walking in the heat. Fortunately, the sand wasn’t hot so at the very least their feet weren’t getting cooked.

Along the way, they encountered various items, ranging from normal waste to broken carriages. And Vale made an effort to ransack each of them for anything of value. And other than a neatly preserved can of beans there wasn’t anything worth keeping.

They had some food, but most of it had been destroyed by the sand worm so it would be wise not to discard anything they found.

There were also a few animal corpses, with most of them being incomplete and damaged. Clearly, whatever had killed them didn’t find any interest in finishing its meal. Such bad manners.

As someone who had lived at the bottom of society in his two lives, wasting food was something he absolutely despised.

The damage sustained by the corpses of was so much that it made it impossible to distinguish beast from human. Not that it would make any difference, in a place such as this man and beast were equal before nature.

There was a destroyed cart that he found particularly familiar, though.

So familiar that he had drifted off course to check it out. Only when he looked closely did he realise where the familiarity arose from.

And it wasn’t some memory spark that made him remember, but rather it was the corpse, lying within the rubble of the mess.

Rein who was beside him immediately turned her face away and fought against the urge to throw up at the unsightly scene.

The corpse’s face wasn’t as damaged as one would expect, although something had clearly taken a bite out of the lower body. The cut was clean though, eerily clean.

He couldn’t remember her name, but the face of the old lady who had helped him get to the closest town was etched in his mind.

It was clear she had met with a disaster and for a moment Vale wondered if she would’ve still been alive if she hadn’t helped him. He shook his head; such thoughts weren’t good for the soul, she was gone and there was nothing he could do about it.

Hadn’t she had a husband? Vale wondered. He looked around but didn’t find the man.

He contemplated whether to bury the body, but in the end he felt that would be a waste. It would most likely end up as sandworm food.

The woman’s eyes were still open, staring into the void in horror.

The least he could do was close her eyes, but the moment he stepped forward, his stomach dropped. Underneath his feet was something hard and out of place.

The next instant, the ground shifted and a large creature raised its head that Vale had stepped on.

’Shit.’

Vale cursed as he fell backwards in a clumsy manner, letting the pair of sharp mandibles snap in front of him. If he had still been standing then he would most likely have been cut in half.

Rein let out a loud yelp, looking at the creature that had revealed itself. Roxy, who was far back, ran towards them when she heard the noise. Meanwhile, Vale was still on the ground staring at the large beetle-like creature in front of him with devastatingly sharp mandibles.

Seeing his current situation wasn’t optimal, he desperately rolled to the side, in the next second, the large beetle brought its mandibles down, slamming them where Vale had previously been.

If he had still been there his head would have definitely been crushed.

Vale didn’t have much time to analyse the situation as he jumped to his feet in a single motion. The beetle creature wasn’t done yet, as it ran towards Vale, waving its mandibles sideways.

He hadn’t stabilised himself, so dodging the strike wasn’t an option. All he could do was place both of his hands in front of his chest in a bid to minimise damage. He was indeed able to minimise damage as his chest wasn’t affected by the impact.

His hands on the other hand, became a victim of his favouritism as pain radiated throughout them causing him to grimace.

The force from the strike pushed him back and he was luckily able to get out of the range of the mandibles, but that barely did anything to reduce the severity of the situation.

As the beetle prepared to attack, he noticed something: in a tiny gap on the body armour protecting the creature’s head, there was an arrow lodged in it. The beetle didn’t let him analyse the situation as it ran towards him with a frightening speed.

In this situation, Vale could try to retrieve his dagger to fight off the creature. But he didn’t do that.

The distance was closed and man and monster faced each other directly, the pincers snapped towards him, aiming to slice him into two halves. But he wasn’t planning to die just yet. In the last second, he leapt from the floor, narrowly escaping the snapping jaws.

He threw his entire body weight onto the mandibles, slamming them into the sand and clinging to the creature.

The beetle furiously shook itself, but Vale desperately held on as he grabbed the arrow lodged into the creature’s armour. With all the strength left in his bones, he desperately pushed the arrow deeper into the gap.

The entirety of the arrow entered completely into the creature’s skull causing the creature to furiously thrash around.

This time Vale wasn’t able to hold on as he fell towards the ground.

Just when he thought it was over, the beetle, in a rage, brought down its jaws. Looking at the mandibles descend on him a cold chill ran down his spine and Vale’s heart skipped many beats.

At this distance, it was impossible to even block so he would have to take the strike head-on, and if he was lucky, he would break multiple bones. If he wasn’t then...

Just as the incoming strike was about to land he felt something pull him from the waist with great force.

A string that seemed to be attached to his waist dragged him from underneath the attack. The strike landed, missing its target by a few inches. Dust was stirred as the attack created a small crater where Vale had been.

Without wasting another second, he pushed himself back on all fours, crawling out of the beetle’s range. The beetle, though, was in no condition to fight back as its body shook vigorously trying to remove the arrow stuck in its skull. Its attempts were futile and Vale watched it slowly lose its power, before coming to a complete halt.

______

You successfully killed a warrior beetle.

You have gained 5 epic demon points.

______

"Finally..." Vale let out a sigh of relief as he crumbled to the ground.

At the same time, Roxy retrieved the thread she had sent to wrap around him. The threads were pulled back to her as they went into her skin pores.

Right now her ability could only produce threads, and she was still learning how to make the most of it.

Vale’s breathing gradually stabilised as he recovered from overexertion.

Still, it would take a minute before the pain coursing through his hands fully disappeared.