Dave inspected the centipede-monster.

***

Chaos Centipede (Corrupted)

Level: 450

Base damage: 80,000-100,000

Danger Level : ☠ ☠

HP : 1,200,000

DN : 60,000

MA : 60,000

Skills:

[Mandible Crush]: the chaos centipede bites the target with its mandibles causing 100% base damage and an additional 20% of base damage in poison damage over 20 seconds.

[Tail-Segment Crush]: the centipede attacks with its tail end, stunning the target for five (5) seconds.

[Poison Breath]: the centipede releases a poison cloud that remains in a target area for 20 seconds. The cloud causes 1,500 HP poison damage per second.

[Acid Spray]: the centipede spits acid that reduces movement speed by 20% and reduces weapon and armor durability.

[Defensive Ball]: the chaos centipede curls around itself rejuvenating 0.1% of its total HP per second. Its carapaces deflects sharp weapons and increases the centipede's [Tenacity]*

Lore:

The Chaos Centipede is a creature corrupted by the rampant Chaos energy that permeates the underworld. Chaos Centipedes are monsters of a royal lineage, they are highly aggressive and territorial.

***

.

The basilisk hopped to the side to evade the chaos centipede then swung its tail-club. The spiked tail bounced off the centipede carapace with a loud thud.

"Charge!"

The other six basilisks charged the boss, their heads lowered like battering rams. They slammed into the centipede, but the creature just shook them off and swung its tail end around knocking one of the basilisks away and unseating the two riders.

The centipede hissed then lifted its body off the floor. Its mouth gaped open and it spewed a cloud of purple gas.

***

The Chaos Centipede used [Poison Breath] on you.

Your undead state grants you immunity to poison.

[Poison Breath] has no effect on you.

***

"Doesn't work on the undead, biatch!" Dave gestured, four chattering skulls appeared and flew up at the centipede's face. Dave snapped his fingers and the skulls detonated.

A debuff icon, a red eye with a slash through it, appeared above the mini-boss.

***

You have afflicted the Chaos Centipede with a [Blind] status effect.

The centipede is unable to locate targets for 60 seconds.

Accuracy and damage has been reduced by 35% for the duration of the [Blind] status effect.

***

The centipede flailed, tail and body swinging wildly.

"Make it rain, Boyz!" Dave shouted.

As one, the basilisks puffed up and roared, shooting hundreds of spikes from their backs. Most of the bone projectiles bounced off the centipede's carapace but some of them penetrated the joints.

Dozens of red numerals appeared over the centipede as it squirmed and screeched in pain.

-1,000

-1,000

-1,000

…

The red eye icon disappeared from above the centipede, the debuff gone, its vision restored. Enraged, the creature skittered toward Dave, mandibles snapping.

"Grumpy, [Petrifying Gaze]."

Grumpy's eyes glowed a bright yellow. A notification appeared in front of Dave.

***

[Petrifying Gaze] level is too low to cause [Petrification].

[Petrifying Gaze] has inflicted a [Slow] effect on the Chaos Centipede.

The [Slow] effect causes a 20% penalty to base movement speed.

***

Dave jumped up from Grumpy's back at the incoming centipede-face, his [Block] activated. The mandibles snapped against the shield, Dave bounced away and fell to the floor, landing in a superhero pose with his shield held above him. Two basilisks impacted low against the centipede's side and simultaneously strained as they lifted up from under the edge of its carapace. The centipede slowly tipped over, it thrashed, trying to prevent itself from tipping over, then writhed in panic as its white underbelly was exposed.

Grumpy bit at belly of the monster and dug into the soft flesh, making the centipede squeal and squirm in pain.

-30,250

Dave moved back to the nearest pillar to avoid the wildly flailing legs.

"Good job! Follow Grumpy's lead, attack the belly."

Red damage values appeared above the centipede. Moments later with a last desperate heave the creature managed to flip itself back over. The centipede hissed and snapped its mandibles at the basilisks, but then flowed toward Dave, sensing an easier target. Dave rolled away at the last moment causing the centipede to ram into the pillar behind him. Jagged boulders and sheets of lava rained down on the centipede, inflicting damage and stunning it. A pointed stalactite speared into a sweet spot, one of the joins between two segments, breaking the centipede apart and causing it to screech in pain.

"That'll teach you to mess with The Dave!"

The tail section of the centipede flopped once then fell motionless.

"Attack the short one," Dave pointed at the immobile part.

The basilisks headbutted the immobile part tipping it over and began biting and worrying at it, the paladins climbed the carapace and started stabbing their swords into the creature's soft belly. The basilisks tore at the tail part like hyenas. Red damage values appearing above it whenever a hit landed. The longer section skittered toward them, slamming into one basilisk and tearing away a tenth of its HP. The centipede reattached itself to the shorter end, rejoining the sections and increasing its mobility and power.

Dave looked around, he could lead the centipede into the other pillars, splitting bits of it everytime.

One of the carapaces was cracked in two, a leg completely broken off. When the creature moved, the damaged part dragged instead of moving smoothly in coordination with the rest of the segments.

"Focus your attacks on the damaged section," Dave said.

He slammed the bottom of his shield into the floor, poised for an instant behind the rectangular slab of metal then pushed the whole thing forward, activating [Shield Charge], aiming for the damaged segment. Dave slammed into the centipede staggering it.

Dave rolled out of the way before Grumpy rammed into the same area he hit. Grumpy's [Trample] disjointed the segment away from both ends, the main body of the centipede and the tail part. The eighth segment rolled away from the centipede, stopping next to a lava pit. A fish raised its head from under the lava and dragged the carapace back under with it.

A red number appeared above the centipede boss when the lone segment was dragged into the pit.

-80,000

The centipede reattached to its second half, now only 11 segments long it curled around itself like a pillbug. The centipede managed to squeeze itself in so that the joints linking its segments were no longer exposed.

"Ram it!" Dave shouted. The basilisks backed away and charged at the curled up centipede, but they simply bounced off the sturdy carapace with no effect to it. Dog's basilisk even got a [Stunned] status from the impact.

"Shit," Dave cursed. He attacked the centipede's carapace with [Decimating Smash] in an attempt to stun the creature out of its healing state, but the sword bounced off, doing no damage and failing to apply the stun effect. He switched to his sworn stalwart gauntlets and punched at the carapace. Unlike the sword, the fist weapon were not deflected, but the carapaces were just too tough to dent or damage.

"Okay, so you can't be stunned, let's see if you can be electrocuted."

Dave punched faster and faster at the centipede until the gauntlet's passive [Ramp Up] was activated. His gauntlets blazed in white flames, he had activated [Ramp Up].

***

[Venom] runed Sworn Stalwart Gauntlets have poisoned the Chaos Centipede.

Chaos Centipede resists the effect of the rune, [Venom].

***

'Not the one I need. C'mon!'

Dave kept punching as the centipede regenerated more HP each second.

***

Your Sworn Stalwart Gauntlets equipped rune [Venom] has poisoned the Chaos Centipede.

Chaos Centipede resists the effect of the rune, [Venom].

***

***

"C'mon, proc already," Dave continued striking.

Then it finally happened, lightning flared from his gauntlets as it impacted the carapace. Electrical sparks danced over the centipede, eliciting a screech from it and disrupting its curled-up defensive posture.

The notification Dave was waiting for popped up.

***

Chaos Centipede is under the Runic Effect [Electro Shock].

[Electro Shock] has decreased Chaos Centipede's [Tenacity]

For 60 seconds, the Chaos centipede is more prone to be affected by Crowd Control abilities.

***

The centipede lifted the first half of its body up and opened its mouth, a yellow liquid dripped from the centipede's mouth.

"Spread out!" Dave called.

The basilisks moved away from the centipede's face as it spat a yellow liquid that splashed against the floor. The liquid smoked and bubbled, dissolving the stone floor.

Dave got a whiff of the vapors rising up, "That's nasty. Back away Boyz."

Dave switched to his sword and shield and ran at the centipede and jumped for its face as it snapped its mandibles at him. He activated [Block] in mid air, canceling the damage. The impact flung Dave away. He rolled a couple of times and stood back up then ducked away from mandibles aimed for his neck.

"You're one ugly motherfucker," he said and stabbed the sword in one of its compound eyes.

The centipede screeched and shook, throwing Dave off. As he fell Dave activated [Double Edged] and [Vertical Slash], backflipping in midair away from the centipede and the soon to be rising Minghocao.

The Minghocao tore through the rocky floor and rose, its teeth buried in the centipede's first few sections.

Dave scrambled back to his feet, poised behind his shield waiting for the Minghocao to finish, and the centipede to return to the attack.

But instead of spitting the centipede out and returning to the depths as usual, the mighty Minghocao lingered and let out a thunderous growl through clenched jaws.

A notification appeared in front of Dave.

***

You have triggered a Special Event: A Quarrel of Kings!

New lore has been added to your Lore Catalog.

The skill [Double Edged] has been updated and modified.

***

"Boyz, back away from them!"

The bonus bitch-slap was great, but Dave had no illusions that the Minghocao was a friend.

The centipede squealed in agony, still impaled on the Minghocao's teeth. It scrabbled desperately at the King Worm's tough hide with its crab-like legs.

The Minghocao tightened its jaws around the centipede, cracking carapace shells and tearing limbs. Then it started slamming the centipede repeatedly against the floor. Bits of carapace, legs, even whole segments were sent flying, bouncing off the walls and pillars.

-100,000

-100,000

-100,000

…

The centipede screeched as bits of its body were torn away, the parts that landed near lava pits were dragged into the molten rock by the fish.

Then the Minghocao spat the centipede at the floor, cracking the carapaces on several of the creature's segments. The king worm howled again, declaring its dominance, and dove back underground.

The centipede wheezed as it turned and crawled toward the opening it first came through.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere, mah bitch!" Dave ran to Grumpy and hopped on, "Let's bring the pain and pile it on, Boyz!" he called out.