Chapter 118: Arrow of Black Annihilation

Feeling the Soul-Fixing Divine Ring Curse, Gune began to cast the spell “Puppet Secret Threads” along its guidance.

Each time he condensed a Puppet Secret Thread, it silently flew along the pull of the Soul-Fixing Divine Ring Curse, then coiled around and even penetrated into the head of the Death Beast.

At this moment, the Death Beast was venting its fury wantonly.

Gune wondered whether it could sense these intangible, formless Puppet Secret Threads.

But the Death Beast’s current behavior suggested it did not.

Perhaps it did sense them, but these puppet threads seemed harmless and posed no danger, so it didn’t bother with such “trifles.”

After all, killing those two “little grubs” hiding in the canyon was the real priority.

With the 12-syllable spell “Puppet Secret Threads” channeled through Gune’s nine Secret Crossing Runes,

Gune could attach one Puppet Secret Thread to the Death Beast’s head every 0.75 seconds.

By the time the Death Beast had destroyed only one area, over fifty Puppet Secret Threads were already entwined around its head.

Meanwhile, George had long since vanished from Gune’s side.

Gune glanced at the Death Beast’s position; it was less than a hundred meters away.

“With this many Puppet Secret Threads, it should be enough,” Gune mused to himself.

He moved, swiftly approaching the Death Beast along a concealed corner.

If only light control was needed, these Puppet Secret Threads could be gently tugged from a distance.

But for strong control, he had to get closer.

He closed in to about forty meters from the Death Beast.

Gune released another Puppet Secret Thread, this one stretched very long.

At the same time, this thread did not touch the Death Beast but instead connected to the mass of Puppet Secret Threads on its head.

Under Gune’s manipulation, all fifty-plus Puppet Secret Threads on the Death Beast’s head linked together with this long thread he had released.

Roar, roar...

At that moment, the Death Beast, roaring furiously with mighty vibrations, was wantonly overturning bizarre stones with its claws.

Just as a claw lashed out, the Death Beast suddenly felt its entire head yanked violently to the left by a fierce force.

With its right wing already broken, the left side was heavier.

Caught off guard by the sudden pull, the Death Beast toppled directly to the left.

At the same instant, a blurry afterimage struck swiftly from behind.

The timing was perfect, exactly at the moment it fell.

Chi!

A fierce blade plunged into the Death Beast’s body through another wound.

The heart-wrenching, fundamental pain instantly turned the Death Beast’s eyes black and red.

Roar, roar~~

As the madly roaring Death Beast crashed to the ground, its claws slashed fiercely backward.

But all it hit was a large rock it had knocked over.

The enraged Death Beast grew even more frantic.

Just as it stood up, it suddenly felt another violent invisible force pulling its head backward, threatening to topple it again.

At that moment, the Death Beast sensed the nimble grub reappear.

Chi!

Another brutal blade pierced through the wound.

This strike made the Death Beast’s right leg movements sluggish.

Two consecutive attacks drove the Death Beast even crazier.

Roar... roar...

Fallen to the ground, the Death Beast roared and struggled.

Its claws madly scratched at its own head.

The Death Beast realized it was the invisible threads affecting it.

But such random clawing had no effect on the Puppet Secret Threads.

This futile, meaningless counterattack instead gave George a better opportunity.

The elusive George, with Gune’s cooperation, launched three more sneak attacks.

Though these three strikes were not as vicious as before, they worsened the Death Beast’s injuries.

The Death Beast, clawing at its head to break the mysterious threads, gained nothing and was ambushed three more times.

Forced to rise again, it no longer stood upright but crouched on the ground like a wild beast.

Its cold, black-red eyes vigilantly scanned the surroundings.

Having suffered repeated heavy losses, the Death Beast now resembled a wounded, frightened beast, crouching and alert, rather than charging recklessly as before.

But the Death Beast was ultimately too inexperienced.

Passive defense only further diminished its deterrent power.

“Roar, roar...”

A low, beastly growl rumbled in its throat as it warily watched its surroundings.

Suddenly, a stone flew from the right.

“Roar!” In its fury, the Death Beast lashed out with its claws.

The moment it struck, the invisible pulling force reappeared, this time upward.

As its head was yanked high,

“Puchi!”

A blade drove deep into a rib on its right hind leg.

This strike was more brutal and savage than any before.

The supernatural trait “Time Sharpness” poured directly into the Death Beast’s life core.

In that instant, the Death Beast nearly lost control of its body.

This blow had severely damaged its life core.

The interrupted breakthrough had already caused its energy to surge and destabilize.

If it had calmed down to heal, it might not have been a major problem.

But after continuous combat,

its wing severed, repeatedly struck by spells,

the sharp, time-destructive blade had breached its body many times, leaving its insides in chaos.

This attack, striking the core, pushed it a giant step from the cliff’s edge toward the abyss.

At this rate, death was not far off.

“Bang!”

As it hit the ground again, fear of death sprouted in the Death Beast’s heart.

Under the intertwining of rage and mortal terror,

the Death Beast flapped its wings, finally unable to resist fleeing.

But its frantic wingbeats only made its body uncoordinated.

It could not lift off.

As it flapped to escape, the strange force reappeared, yanking its head downward, causing it to fall.

“Bang!”

When its head hit the cold ground,

another strike, infused with “Time Sharpness” and piercing into the life core, came again.

The perfect timing left the Death Beast utterly despairing.

Fallen, it had no chance to counterattack; it could only struggle, roar, and bellow.

Roar, roar...

Roar, roar, roar...

The more it did so, the more the shadow of death loomed over its heart.

The Death Beast had never felt such terror from the overwhelming darkness.

The cold ground, the deep canyon, the monument-like mountains,

seemed to have already prepared a burial ground for its corpse.

In despair, the Death Beast refused to be killed by those two lowly grubs.

Even though its internal energy was in chaos, it still gathered most of its power into its head.

“Roar——”

A mournful howl tore through the darkness, echoing into deeper shadows.

The next moment, a terrifying, heart-stopping destructive force burst from the scales on the Death Beast’s forehead.

Though this would damage its forehead scales and, due to the burning of time, take a long while to recover,

none of that mattered now.

Before death, it would launch a desperate counterattack.

Suddenly, having gathered its destructive power, the Death Beast turned its head and fixed its gaze on a corner, as if it had discovered something.

Hum——

That irresistible, explosive force coalesced into a thick arrow as wide as a bowl, shooting straight through.

Where it passed, rocks as hard as black iron demon copper were pierced like tofu, silently annihilated without a sound.

After piercing over a dozen thick rocks, the Death Beast’s divine ability “Arrow of Black Annihilation” finally dissipated.

Such destructive power would be hard to withstand even with strong magic metal equipment in a frontal confrontation.

Having released this final strike, the Death Beast let out a last whimper.

Then its head fell heavily to the ground.

The second-tier apex leader, the Death Beast, had fallen!

“This Death Beast was indeed too young,” Gune said softly, over twenty meters from the tunnel carved by the Arrow of Black Annihilation.

If the Death Beast had randomly blasted before dying, it might have gotten lucky by chance.

So Gune had made some arrangements earlier while manipulating the Puppet Secret Threads.

Behind a large rock, Gune had connected a sealed black thornwood box containing a small amount of blood infused with the aura of the “Human-Faced Flower King.”

With a trigger, Gune could open the seal and release the blood aura.

When the Death Beast unleashed the Arrow of Black Annihilation, if it sensed the aura, it would likely pour all its power into that spot.

And indeed, that was exactly what the Death Beast did in the end.

Before dying, the Death Beast was tricked by Gune once more.

Gune did not rush to the Death Beast’s side.

Instead, he went to where the black thornwood box containing the “Human-Faced Flower King” had been.

The entire box and the blood of the Human-Faced Flower King had been completely vaporized.

Gune sniffed lightly; though the blood was utterly destroyed, a faint trace of its essence remained.

Standing there, Gune pondered briefly.

“This clue is too faint; over time, those who might come to herd the Death Beasts probably won’t find anything, so the trouble won’t be diverted.”

“Better to be safe.”

Then Gune took out a small test tube.

Inside the tube was a little blood from the Human-Faced Flower King.

Gune flicked it gently.

A few drops of blood landed in a corner at the base of a rock, invisible in the dim light unless carefully examined.

“Done!” A hint of a smile curled at the corner of Gune’s mouth.