One More Natural Enemy

In the sky, arrow after arrow of light rained down in dense clusters, turning the air into a golden downpour.

One or two light arrows striking a Commander-class creature might barely register — but when hundreds, even thousands of those golden shafts fell from the sky at once, the combined force became something truly terrifying.

The Marsh Poison Centipede could never have anticipated that among this small group of humans lurked a Mage of such power. Tinged with dark attributes as it was, it was at its most helpless against the Light Element.

Every light arrow that drove into its shell pierced and dissolved the hardened carapace. Every scorching ray of golden radiance that sank into its exposed flesh wrung another shriek of agony from the creature.

*Light Falls Boundless Zhang — Sacred Word!*

This was a purifying force that dealt devastating blows to creatures of evil. The Marsh Poison Centipede's entire body was suffused with toxins — every inch of its hide, every drop of its blood recoiled from these light arrows infused with the divine judgment of Sacred Word...

**Sssss—**

The light arrows didn't tear through flesh the way a blade might — no spraying blood, no brutal puncture. Instead, the golden shafts dissolved on contact, like white-hot brands pressed into wax. It didn't matter how tough the flesh or how thick the armor; under the force of the golden Sacred Word, everything melted away just the same.

**SKREE! SKREE!**

The Marsh Poison Centipede thrashed wildly, its massive body rolling across the ground in sheer agony.

Each sweep of its enormous tail sent tremors rippling through the earth, and Mo Fan wasted no time getting clear of the area.

One Commander-class Remnant Soul was enough. Whether the Marsh Poison Centipede could actually be killed was a separate question entirely.

That said, the Light Element clearly dealt lethal damage to this kind of creature. The Marsh Poison Centipede looked as though it might simply rot apart. If the power had been even a fraction stronger, it could very well have finished the centipede off completely.

Through its pain, the Marsh Poison Centipede scanned for whoever had cast that Light Element magic. It raised its massive tail high and slammed it into the ground...

**CRACK!**

The earth split open. A long, jagged fissure raced toward the spot where Ah Li Man stood.

Ah Li Man reacted instantly, leaping aside. At the same moment, her stream of light arrows veered off-target, scattering in all directions, the devastating rain losing much of its force.

The Marsh Poison Centipede hurled a storm of rock fragments toward Ah Li Man and Zhang Xiaohou's positions.

What were mere debris to the centipede were boulders larger than a person to Zhang Xiaohou and Ah Li Man. Both of them scrambled frantically to dodge.

Seizing the opening, the Marsh Poison Centipede launched itself forward and plunged straight into the mud lake.

With most of its legs gone, it writhed like a serpent — lurching off-balance, it toppled headfirst into the mud and swam quickly through the shallows before burrowing deep into the lake's murky interior.

"Don't let it escape!" Zhang Xiaohou shouted.

The Marsh Poison Centipede was down to half its life at most — this was the perfect opportunity to finish it off. A Commander's corpse could yield countless treasures.

"Sure," Ah Li Man said. "You go after it."

Mo Fan had no intention of chasing it either. In his experience, killing a Commander was no easy feat. The creatures that reached Commander rank varied in strength, but every last one of them possessed exceptional survival instincts and the ability to turn the tables on their pursuers.

Ah Li Man had clearly been affected by the poison, which was limiting her full strength. As for Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou — two Intermediate-Level Mages — even with their Spirit Seeds, wounding a Commander-class creature was far from guaranteed. The Marsh Poison Centipede had already done something none of them expected by fighting the Armored-Shell Giant Lizard to the death. They had completed their task of killing the Armored-Shell Giant Lizard. Pushing further out of greed and going after the Marsh Poison Centipede might just get all of them killed.

"Let it go," Mo Fan said, making no move to pursue. "Unless we can trap the Marsh Poison Centipede first, killing it would cost far more than it's worth."

Ah Li Man had no desire to chase it either. Even if Mo Fan and Zhang Xiaohou had both been High-Level Mages, the three of them working together could only barely hope to stop the heavily wounded centipede. Given that both of them were Intermediate-Level Mages, the fact that they had managed to lay a trap and destroy the Armored-Shell Giant Lizard was already something of a miracle.

"So you're a High-Level Mage," Zhang Xiaohou said, looking at Ah Li Man with something close to awe. "Why didn't you say so earlier? We wouldn't have had to work so hard."

Ah Li Man didn't look particularly old, yet her strength was this remarkable.

"It wouldn't have mattered if I had," Ah Li Man replied. "We still weren't a match for those creatures."

"Seriously?" Zhang Xiaohou looked baffled. "A High-Level Mage can't beat a Commander?"

Ah Li Man shook her head. "A High-Level Mage capable of going toe-to-toe with a Commander is already among the very elite of High-Level Mages — and even then, they usually can't actually kill one. The moment a Commander senses the tide turning, it runs. On top of that, they're highly intelligent. They set traps, just like humans do. And they're never alone — a Commander is always surrounded by endless Battle Commanders and Servant-class creatures, cannon fodder you can never truly thin out."

"No wonder Zhankong never managed to finish off the Wing-Azure Wolf," Zhang Xiaohou murmured, turning it over in his mind. "Wait — does that make Zhankong one of the strongest High-Level Mages out there? He faces the Wing-Azure Wolf alone?" His admiration for his superior only deepened.

Killing a Commander required a near-perfect plan.

First: dealing with the ocean of Servant-class creatures and Battle Commanders that surrounded every Commander. To their Commander, these creatures were worthless — endless fodder thrown at the enemy freely, their only purpose to bleed the opposition dry.

Second: a Commander in peak condition could match six or seven High-Level Mages in combat — even a weaker one could hold its own against five. And Commanders had extraordinary stamina paired with even greater vitality. Long after every High-Level Mage had burned through their last drop of Magical Energy, a Commander would still be going strong.

Finally: Commanders possessed formidable escape abilities. Without planning in advance how to pin down an injured Commander, any attempt to kill one was doomed to fail. Despite their enormous size, they moved freely and could vanish when they chose. Push too deep in pursuit, and a Mage's formation would collapse — turning the hunters into the hunted.

That they had managed to kill a Commander at all was the result of a rare convergence of circumstances.

Both the Armored-Shell Giant Lizard and the Marsh Poison Centipede had been carrying heavy wounds, and the hatred between them ran so deep that neither would accept anything less than the other's death. Under normal circumstances, a Commander would never throw itself into a fight to the finish — that was the foolishness of Servant-class creatures.

"The military doesn't actually want the Marsh Poison Centipede dead, do they?" Mo Fan glanced over at Ah Li Man with a slight smile.

Ah Li Man nodded. "The reason the Dongting Lake Tribe has been able to run rampant is that the Lizard Clan has no natural enemies in this region. The Marsh Poison Centipede just killed the Armored-Shell Giant Lizard — once it recovers, its strength will almost certainly grow by leaps and bounds. It and the Lizard Clan are mortal enemies. With its current power, it can help us keep an entire Lizard-Skull Giant Demon Clan in check."

"Indeed," Mo Fan agreed, nodding. "Give it less than a month — there won't be a single lizard left in Sunset Valley."