The moment Adrian Vale's transformation finished—
the livestream exploded.
"Holy—so everything before was just a warm-up?!"
"What kind of warm-up makes you bleed like that…?"
"My worldview just shattered. Who says that while getting ripped open?!"
"Did you hear what he called it?"
"'Little bug'…?"
"Bro, that thing is forty or fifty meters long! That's a little bug?!"
The chat was losing its mind.
So was the Thousand-Handed Centipede.
The instant Adrian stopped holding back, something primal crawled up its spine.
Then it drowned that feeling in rage.
It was an A-rank lifeform—the overlord of this forest. For years, it had crushed everything that stepped into its territory.
Little bug?
You dare?!
With a furious screech, it surged forward—
not with its countless legs this time…
but by throwing its entire body at him like a living battering ram.
BOOM!!
A forty-to-fifty-meter monster charging at full speed was a disaster made flesh.
Trees shattered. Rock split. The ground buckled.
It didn't slow for anything.
It only aimed for Adrian.
And yet—
Adrian didn't even blink.
"Heh… heh… heh…"
In Half-Kakuja: Centipede form, his mind was hazy—just enough that everything outside the fight faded away.
But in exchange…
his reactions became terrifyingly sharp.
Swish!
Right before the centipede hit—
Adrian vanished.
BOOM!!
The centipede plowed through the spot he'd been standing, turning it into a crater.
And Adrian—
reappeared midair above its head.
Six dark-red Kagune floated behind him like blades suspended in the air.
The Ghoul-Eyed Oni Mask hid his face—
but the broadcast didn't need to see it.
Everyone could feel that grin.
Swish!
His Rinkaku shot down like lightning.
The centipede reacted too late.
PSHHK!!
No struggle. No suspense.
Its so-called "unbreakable" armor folded like paper as the Rinkaku speared clean through its massive body.
"SKREEEE!!"
Pain ripped through it—
and Adrian looked… delighted.
"Heh… heh… heh…"
That laugh shook the centipede's mind.
How?! Earlier he couldn't pierce me at all—why is this happening?!
The studio panel broadcasting I Came to Watch the Divine Domain went stiff.
Sienna Blake stared at the screen, pale. "It… it pierced straight through…"
Captain Ryan Cole swallowed hard. "Earlier attacks did nothing—now one strike and it's crippled. Those Kagune… are insane."
Dr. Elias Hart's expression tightened. The gap was too ridiculous.
Before the Kagune appeared, Adrian looked helpless.
After they appeared—
the fight flipped instantly.
Back in the Divine Domain—
the centipede roared and lashed out.
Countless legs stabbed forward like a storm.
This time—
Adrian didn't dodge.
A darker red glow surged along his Kagune.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Every incoming leg was blocked.
Not a single hit landed.
Worse—
legs started snapping under the impact.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
In seconds, the forest floor was littered with broken pieces.
"Heh…"
Adrian vanished again.
The centipede's barrage stabbed into empty air.
Then—
a wet, horrifying sound came from behind it.
PSHHK!!
"SKREE—!"
It only understood after the pain arrived—another clean puncture.
Adrian ripped his Kagune out.
A geyser of blood sprayed over him, steaming in the air.
He didn't flinch.
He looked satisfied.
Under the mask, his tongue brushed the blood at the corner of his mouth.
"Blood…"
The livestream went silent for half a second—
then detonated.
"My scalp is tingling…"
"Foodie—no, Adrian—something's wrong with him right now…"
"He didn't look like this earlier!"
"Is it because of those two extra centipede Kagune…?"
"Those two look way more vicious than the first four…"
The audience could feel it.
So could the centipede.
"Human… what are you—"
Swish!
It didn't even finish.
Adrian was already in its face again.
"DIE!!" the centipede shrieked, stabbing wildly.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Furious.
Helpless.
For the first time in its life, an A-rank overlord realized something humiliating:
it had power, it had methods—
but against Adrian's speed and Kagune pressure, it was forced into spamming the same desperate leg barrage.
Adrian didn't care.
In that hungry Half-Kakuja fog, only one thought mattered:
Kill it. Then eat it.
"Heh… heh… heh…"
PSHHK!!
Another puncture.
"SKREE—!"
The centipede didn't have Adrian's monstrous regeneration.
Damage stacked fast.
Holes spread across its body. Legs were torn off. Blood soaked everything.
It should've been retreating.
Instead, it grew more feral.
It forced its aura higher—
then charged again.
Adrian answered with a low growl and rushed it head-on.
On screens in the Eastern Isles, high-level officials stared like their brains had stopped working.
"That's an A-rank!"
"How is it getting beaten like this?!"
"Then does that mean Adrian Vale is stronger than A-rank?! That's impossible!"
"He's not human. He's a creature from the Divine Domain—has to be!"
"Wait—look! The other Dragonia contestant… that woman—!"
The broadcast switched.
Raven Shaw.
She was also overwhelming her opponent—another A-rank Giant Thousand-Handed Centipede—and it was turning into the same kind of one-sided beating.
With Cell Burn active, Raven became a monster.
And the two earlier stat rewards she'd gained—
normally, they wouldn't mean much to her.
But once Cell Burn ignited, she realized something shocking:
those stats were being amplified.
Multiplied.
Even more importantly—
the "Divine Domain" stat boosts didn't seem to carry the same life-burning backlash.
They faded over time, yes.
But fading was a bargain compared to lifespan.
If she could earn enough points… could she offset Cell Burn's cost completely?
She didn't know yet.
But the possibility alone made her eyes colder.
Back in the fight—
the moment Raven entered Cell Burn, the centipede's control vanished.
It went from dominant to desperate.
Raven didn't taunt.
She moved.
Swish!
A gray-white blur flashed—
Raven appeared in front of it.
BOOM!!
Her long leg whipped out from beneath her coat and slammed into its body.
"SKREEEE!!"
A thirty-to-forty-meter monster was kicked away like it weighed nothing.
The visual impact alone stunned the livestream.
Raven exhaled once—
then she was gone again.
Swish!
She appeared behind the flying centipede faster than it was moving.
BOOM!!
Another kick.
Its trajectory snapped sideways.
Swish! BOOM!!
Swish! BOOM!!
The A-rank terror—
was being kicked around like a ball.
The overseas chat short-circuited.
"This is an A-rank? It looks weak!"
"Didn't squads from multiple countries get wiped by these things?!"
"Dragonia's contestants… what the hell are they?!"
Raven's "kick torture" didn't stop—
until the centipede finally hit the brink.
During a tiny gap, it shrieked in fury:
"BASTARD!! You forced me into this!!"
Its body convulsed.
Cracks spread across its armor—
then a crimson light bled out from within.
With a sharp snap, the shell split away.
It shed its armor entirely, revealing a grotesque mass of crimson flesh.
And those sharp insect legs—
twisted into countless blood-red tendrils.
It barely resembled a centipede anymore.
It looked like a crawling nightmare.
Raven finally paused.
Not from fear—
from evaluation.
Her gaze stayed flat.
Her right hand settled on the hilt of her combat saber.
"Compared to the little one… you're weak."
Shing—
Her blade slid free.
The chat barely processed her words.
"Another berserk mode?!"
"What is this—an MMORPG boss fight?!"
"That thing is disgusting…"
"Is Raven okay against that?!"
Then the chat screamed again:
"Go back to Adrian's feed!! Something changed over there too!!"
They weren't wrong.
Adrian's A-rank centipede had hit its limit.
After being carved apart nonstop, it finally snapped.
"Human!! I will tear you apart!!"
The battlefield was already hell.
Ground. Trees. Air.
Everything was soaked red.
The stench of blood was thick enough to choke.
If it weren't A-rank—if it didn't have absurd vitality—
it would've died long ago.
And Adrian?
Drenched head to toe in the centipede's steaming blood, he looked like something that crawled out of a slaughterhouse.
Six Kagune floated behind him.
The mask made him look even less human.
With the blood-soaked forest behind him—
Adrian didn't look like a contestant.
He looked like an executioner.
Then the centipede's final burst arrived.
"BERSERK—!!"
A red glow flared.
Its armor peeled away—
and the wounds Adrian had inflicted began healing at visible speed.
Then the glow vanished—
and its form completed.
Its shell was gone, replaced by an elongated mass of exposed flesh.
Black, tangled markings spread across it like cursed tattoos.
Its legs didn't become tendrils—
they hardened into razor spikes, gleaming crimson, tougher than before.
In the Eastern Isles command room, officials went pale.
"This… this is the real A-rank form?!"
"How can humanity fight something like that?!"
Panic started—
until a bald, heavyset official slammed the table.
"Quiet."
He spoke coldly, like a verdict.
"Doesn't matter how strong it is. With a form like that… Adrian Vale is dead for sure."
That snapped them into ugly delight.
They remembered who was facing it.
Dragonia's contestant.
Laughter broke out.
"Hahaha! Let's see him handle THAT!"
"How does he handle it? He dies!"
But in the Divine Domain—
Adrian didn't move an inch.
Under the mask, there was no fear.
Only hunger.
He chuckled, voice low and hoarse.
"Interesting…"
Then, almost thoughtfully:
"But compared to that old woman… you're still weak."
Swish!
He launched forward—straight at the flesh-mass centipede.
The centipede sneered.
"Heh… you think you're the only one who was holding back? In this state, no one—"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Adrian didn't let it finish.
The instant he appeared in front of it—
the two extra centipede Kagune finally moved.
They slashed out in a blur.
Hooked barbs tore through flesh—
RIP—!!
A gash opened clean across its massive body.
The centipede's mind blanked.
When did he get that close?! Why can't I catch him even now?!
"SKREEEEEE!!"
Fear finally punched through its rage.
This makes no sense! I used my last trump card! Why am I still too slow?!
Before it could think further—
Adrian's shadow flashed behind it.
RIP—!!
Another huge wound.
"SKREE—!"
And the slaughter continued.
"Heh… heh…"
Adrian moved like a reaper across its body—
up, down, front, back.
Nowhere was safe.
The centipede was enormous.
Adrian was a speck in comparison.
But that speck—
was carving it apart piece by piece.
He used four Rinkaku as footholds, bouncing across its flesh.
Every landing left a new puncture.
Every pass of those two centipede Kagune left long, brutal gashes.
The centipede had power.
It had techniques.
But it couldn't land a single hit.
It only reacted after the wounds appeared—
and by the time it tried to counterattack, Adrian was already somewhere else.
Even in berserk mode—
it never got its rhythm back.
This was Adrian Vale's true terror in Half-Kakuja.
An A-rank that humanity called unbeatable—
being treated like a "little bug."
Toyed with.
Carved.
Broken.
"Human!!!"
Its rage meant nothing.
By now, its body barely had an intact patch left.
And finally, one truth crushed it completely:
Unwinnable.
This wasn't a fight.
It was an execution.
Run.
I have to run!
With a desperate convulsion, it plunged into the earth.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It drilled downward at shocking speed.
Within seconds, the massive body was nearly swallowed by the ground—
only the last few meters still visible.
Adrian tilted his head.
A finger lifted, almost casual.
"Heh… little bug… leaving already?"
His voice turned playful.
"But I'm not done playing."
He leaned forward slightly.
"Let me ask you again…"
"1000 minus 7 equals what?"
And—
Adrian Vale vanished.
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