There was no teamwork between the centipedes, no passion for victory, no pity for the fallen. They all just ran over the corpses that were spilling yellow blood from the wounds, aiming to cross the few meters and circle Alice. The girl lowered herself to the limit.

Her eyes for a split moment spurred to the armored centipede that had fallen behind. It was bigger than the others. All centipedes until now could only reach the girl's ankle and were attacking her by making use of their long bodies and multiple legs to stand up. This bulky boss's spikes on the carapace were easily reaching the girl's belly. The legs were less numerous and thicker, also were more sharp, able to easily hook the creature to walls.

The hunters acted when they reached the glaive from the left and right. One of them spurted with another acid jet, the other charged, screeching.

Burn, now she focused on strength.

Alice jumped two meters high like a shadow sliding on the wall in her dark armor when her blood essence combusted again. The tip of the glaive traversed through the air and somehow appeared before the charging centipede. Alice shot herself from the wall like from a cannon, the pole spinning in her hand from the inertia after the hunter having threaded itself onto the blade.

Four left!

The angle was a bit wrong, so the girl almost missed the armored centipede and her best chance to chop its head. Falling, she hacked off three of his right legs instead, and for the first time felt resistance as her arms shook and even bones seemed to vibrate once. The blade screamed hatefully when it drew a line on the rocky floor.

A forcipule came for Alice's left leg. Still dealing with the landing momentum, the girl managed to place her thigh plate in the way.

Smash!

Alice used the force to step away and retrieve the glaive. She poised herself, turning her body away from the armored boss to see it and other centipedes with a corner of her eyes. The boss lunged with its claws, the girl jumped back, barely leaving feet from the ground; for the armored centipede it was to its left, so it missed.

An opportunity! Alice moved the glaive and stabbed at the normal centipede that came too close. A miss! She had to dodge another acid spit from the last hunter so the blade barely scratched the carapace.

The lucky regular rammed into unbalanced her, two forcipules whipped the legs' plates hurtlessly. A fuzzy idea flashed and Alice jumped on the creature's back right before it could grab her with claws.

Only supernatural Dexterity and then thrust into her improvised mount glaive allowed the girl to keep herself from falling. It suddenly occurred centipedes could put up with a lot of weight: the creature screamed piercingly and carried the girl through the whole cave,  luckily away from its kin.

Alice blinked, chose a moment and twisted the blade inside her mount, breaking the carapace, and then plowed it like an experienced farmer.

Three left.

The glaive spinned in a large circle. Alice sharp ears heard a familiar 'psh', she arced back, but this time a spurt of acid scarcily hit her left shoulder. The girl hissed out of annoyance and retreated from the armored boss on the offense.

The pain didn't make her wait, it burned through the leather and into the arm just as Alice expected. The girl mobilized the blood energy in the heart while running away in circles. Fortunately, the hunter was waiting for something too, maybe recharging its ammo, so Alice only had the armored centipede to deal with, and the bastard was weak on turns after she had chopped some of its legs off.

There was one more regular centipede the girl had slashed from the air, but it was hardly moving by now.

Two and a half, Alice spared a nervous chuckle.

The fight was tiring. Her maidenly thinned legs and arms hadn't restored after 3-days dream, but the growing dungeon and shrinking timer had been pushing and pushing the girl onto this adventure.

Not even once Alice'd used her full speed either, fearing it would really tear her muscles.

Yet...

Her blood was boiling in many ways.

The girl waved with her left hand. The injury was light, insignificant, the pain mildly distracting.

The hunter bent its body when Alice dodged the boss close to it. Her 'hunt' skill signaled about the tells and she made a decision in a split second,

Risk it!

The glaive seemingly disappeared. In a time an average human could only blink, it crossed the space like a ray of light. The air compressed around the edge, howled, pushed apart by a wide horizontal swipe. Before its glands could spurt acid, the hunter's head was cut off.

The blade shined under the cave's luminescent light, not tarnished by monsters' blood and trembled together with Alice's hand.

Two, no, one left!

Not just the right arm, strength left most of Alice's upper body, leaving her with no choice but to promptly run away from the armored boss.

The exit to the save zone was very close, as planned, but the girl clenched her teeth and stubbornly refused to escape.

Oh. Can do this.

The glaive danced in Alice's left that hadn't acted much, and spurred in a light downward stab. An eye-orb exploded, the centipede screamed loudly to the point it stressed the girl's eardrum. Disgusting liquid poured out and resistance hinted there was no empty socked to use it as an entry point for a mercy strike.

Alice gave a very malicious grunt as she slashed several times until she overcame the creature's crude defenses and blinded it completely. Two trickles smeared the ground among blood and traces of acid.

"He-he... hey!"

Barely having managed to smile, Alice had to dodge the armored centipede clawing at her very accurately. The loss of vision seemed hardly shook it. Although...

Vibrations and sounds.

With this realization, Alice immediately struck the ground with the tip of her glaive in rapid succession while softening her steps to the limit. The centipede jumped at the proposed wild goose chaise with great ardor.

Soon the girl could take a breath while walking the creature with a stick that lacked even a carrot. Only a temporal good solution, but a good one.

He-he.

Feeling her main hand somewhat recovered, Alice barraged the armored centipede with light strikes. The blade was giving off metallic sounds and leaving shallow cuts. The girl soon figured she had to use her highest speed or boost strength with blood energy to truly injure the damn thing. So she jumped away.

"Phew..."

The centiped swang its head, turned on the sound and went ramming.

Deep breath in, breath out. This time, Alice expected a lot of pain as she directed blood energy into her arms.

Burn brightly.

The glaive seemed to fall slowly at the start, then faster and faster. The shaft bent upwards from the sheer force when the blade met the centipede half-way. Alice watched calmly it breaking defenses and cleaving deep between the empty eyes. The creature's ram rocketed the girl back several meters until her back touched the wall.

Zero?... She glanced over the injured regular. Zero.

Gasping for air, Alice looked down at her hands. They were shaking and hurting, but not as bad as she'd believed they would.

Blood essence has some protection functions, the girl realized, "Nice."

Alice wavered on unsteady legs and crossed the cave to her last living foe. The [Centipede Lvl. 7] watched her, moving jaws in a pool of its yellow vital liquids. The girl emotionlessly set her glaive just above, readied herself and moved a leg closer.

What would a monster do? Clench it without hesitation in the claws. Alice felt creepy pressure, but the armor kept up so she allowed the creature to drag herself closer until the jaws bit the metal with gritting sounds.

For a few seconds, Alice was standing still with a poker face and chills running in her stomach until she couldn't take it anymore. The glaive swept, cutting off part of the centipede's jaws together with one claw.

[+700 EXP, +140 BP]

"That's enough for one experiment."

Tiredly she called out the status.

> Battle Points: 3->3,303

"I won."

She blinked. Fair and squire. Monsters got an alpha-strike. Had overwhelming numbers. The bow remained in the quiver.

"I won," Alice repeated. Every previous victory her stupid inferiority complex had been attributing to conveniences. Not anymore.

I have a few minutes... I won, she couldn't just erase a foolish grin as she walked into the mist wall of the safe zone. Nothing seemed to change inside.

"System shop."

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"Status category."

[1 EXP per 1 BP]
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