Novels online

Chapter 723: Scythe

Even having heard the description of this Reaper, when truly facing it, one couldn't help but feel a sense of looking up in awe.

It was humanity's natural reverence for the colossal, the instinctive fear animals felt when encountering a creature tens of times larger than themselves. It was the sheer immensity that brought forth this oppressive presence.

A body over a hundred meters tall—its very existence was a threat.

Outside Hope City, a hollow and grotesque giant head swayed from side to side, seemingly observing the world with non-existent eyes.

Of course, it wasn't just eyes that were absent; aside from a massive, otherworldly maw glowing with green light and leading to an unknown dimension, there was nothing else on its head.

Beneath its distorted head, there was no normal neck or limbs, only a multitude of scythe-like tentacles swirling everywhere.

If one had to use a species from the human world as a comparison, they looked somewhat like an obese, tentacled version of a super-giant lamprey.

...

The people of Hope City were rather fortunate. This time, the monster didn't descend directly into the city like the first time, causing massive unprepared casualties. Instead, it suddenly appeared a kilometer outside the city walls.

Apart from the artifact holders, the strongest weapons in anyone else's hands were merely small pistols and homemade crossbows—trifles that couldn't even tickle the colossal beast before them.

"Thankfully, there's only one." Lun Qin let out a sigh of relief. "At least it's not a worse outcome."

"Hiss-screech, hiss-screech, hiss-screech..." The monster opened the only organ on its head, emitting a sound like knives scraping glass, setting teeth on edge.

An ordinary knife scraping glass might just sound a little grating, but if that sound's volume were amplified a thousandfold...

Ears were bleeding.

Eighty percent of those who didn't cover their ears immediately had their eardrums ruptured by the sound waves.

And those who were lucky enough to escape the first wave of attack soon felt waves of nausea.

The terrifying sound waves not only tore their eardrums but also disrupted their inner balance, causing blurred vision, dry retching, and nausea. The small bit of fighting spirit they had painstakingly mustered crumbled before that single roar.

After roaring wildly skyward, the monster aimed the only mouth-like cavity on its head at Lun Qin, who stood at the very front. It seemed clear that only she was an opponent worthy of facing; everyone else was merely a tiny insect that could be casually swatted dead.

"How could the difference between the first and second impact be so vast..."

Recalling the observers who had rashly intruded into the human world a month prior, even ordinary people had a chance to kill them in a one-on-one fight.

Yet, this second impact brought forth such a hundred-meter-tall mythological creature, it was practically a "pair of threes" followed immediately by a "Joker."

The strength humanity had developed in the past month was utterly insignificant before them.

"Don't lose heart, we can..." Before the final word, "win," could even leave her lips, Lun Qin looked back. Apart from her younger brother and a handful of artifact holders, everyone else had already entered a frantic escape mode.

The monster's sonic attack caused the already low-morale "allied army" of Hope City to collapse, both mentally and physically.

Thousands of people clutched their bleeding ears, running in the opposite direction without a backward glance.

Along the way, people constantly fell due to loss of balance, and not a few were trampled, but still, nothing curbed their desperate impulse to flee.

"Whoosh."

"Whoosh."

"..."

The Reaper's scythes lashed out at subsonic speeds, stirring up chaotic winds and creating arcs of blood.

The necks of the slowest two dozen people were cleanly severed by the scythe-like tentacles, as if they were chives being cut.

Eyes that hadn't yet closed flew into the air along with their heads, as arcs of blood spurted forth.

Only, unlike actual chives, their heads had no chance of growing back.

"Stop!"

Lun Qin, regaining her senses, roared and then lunged forward, grabbing a tentacle with her right hand.

The tentacle, as thick as a normal person's thigh, was incredibly slippery. She had to forcefully press her fingers into its flesh to barely maintain her grip.

The python-like tentacle struggled desperately, but it couldn't escape those five fingers that were clamped on like iron nails.

At this moment, Lun Qin's left hand formed a blade, and with a downward sweep, riding the wind, she sliced off the tentacle's scythe-like head.

Even after falling to the ground, the severed scythe-head of the tentacle wasn't completely lifeless. Driven perhaps by neural instinct, it twitched and thrashed on the ground several times, kicking up clouds of dust, before finally settling into stillness.

However, in the mere few seconds it took her to sever that one tentacle, its owner had used dozens of other tentacles to kill over three hundred people attempting to flee, including eight artifact holders.

"Damn it!"

She released the severed tentacle and, alone, charged directly at the monster's main body.

"Swish!"

It was the sound of fibers tearing.

Amidst spurting blood, the Reaper, struck head-on by Lun Qin, had a wound over three meters long torn open on its body.

Blood gushed from the wound, drenching her entirely, turning her into a person made of blood.

"Roar!" The monster let out a cry of pain, and over twenty tentacles swiftly swept towards Lun Qin.

Unfortunately, Lun Qin's speed was even greater. She stepped into the void to her left, her body instantly propelled to the right by exploding air, and then, with all her might, she kicked off the ground, catapulting herself into mid-air by the countless cracks on the surface, landing on one of the tentacles.

In less than a second, she moved along the tentacle, covering nearly two hundred meters, arriving at the top of the Reaper's head.

Silence reigned all around, for Lun Qin's speed was truly too great; even sound hadn't had time to propagate.

In this silent world, she unleashed a punch, fully laden with fury, at the monster's head!

The fist landed squarely in the monster's center, and shockwaves, born from a massive amount of kinetic energy, spread outward in expanding circles from that point, continuously tearing apart the fibers that composed its body.

One.

Ten.

A hundred.

Over a hundred wounds, large and small, appeared on the Reaper's body, continuously gushing blood.

"Bleuuurgh!" From its horrifying maw, a geyser of blood erupted, and its massive, skyscraper-like body began to sway precariously. It even needed more than half of its tentacles to grip the ground just to maintain its balance.

Large amounts of white steam billowed from behind Lun Qin. Her clothes had long since been shredded into fragments during the intense movement, leaving only monster blood covering her body and a few tattered scraps of fabric still clinging to her.

But she had no time to concern herself with such matters; killing the monster before her with the utmost speed was the most important task at hand.

PS: Just a little shout-out for "Limitless Heavens," it's a bit of a darker read. Hope I don't jinx it to death..