The blow drove the breath from his lungs and forced dark blood from his mouth. The blood immediately dissolved into the surrounding current and was carried forward by the river’s flow. As though the water itself refused to acknowledge his injury.
For a brief moment, the world spun violently around him as he struggled to stabilise his footing against the uneven riverbed. His senses dulled under the combined shock and the sudden pressure of water surging around his body.
Yet even in that instant of disorientation, years of combat-honed instinct prevented him from collapsing entirely. Forcing himself upright, he raised his gaze toward the source of the attack with cold focus rather than panic.
What met his eyes was a being that dwarfed the surrounding terrain. It was a colossal serpent-like creature nearly six hundred feet in length, its thick, wide body coiled partially along the riverbed and partially suspended within the water. Near black-brown scales covered its form, ancient and scarred, each plate layered tightly over the next like natural armour forged through centuries of survival. Violent arcs of lightning continuously crawled across its massive body.
The Lightning emerged from beneath its dense skin before converging and dispersing again into the water. The irregular patterns gave the impression that thunder itself was imprisoned within the creature’s flesh.
The oppressive pressure radiating from the beast distorted the water around it. Even before it moved again, Eklavya could feel the threat pressing directly against his senses.
It was a silent declaration that this was not a creature meant to be challenged lightly. Yet he did not hesitate because hesitation in such moments meant death.
Drawing his sword in a single smooth motion, Eklavya thrust forward and channelled ki into the blade as the serpent surged toward him simultaneously. It released a deafening ‘Schhheee!’ that rippled through the water and vibrated violently against his body.
The sound alone carried enough force to destabilise a weaker cultivator before the creature even closed the distance.
The clash came instantly and without mercy. Eklavya’s sword met the sweeping arc of the serpent’s tail, which the beast had whipped forward with terrifying speed in an attempt to crush him aside before using its massive jaws to swallow him whole.
Reinforcing his arm with surging ki, five luminous chakras manifested around each of his hands as he poured increasing strength into the block.
‘haaaaaa’
His muscles screamed in protest as he absorbed the full weight of the blow.
Even as he resisted the crushing force of the tail, his eyes caught sight of the serpent’s enormous mouth opening wide. Rows of jagged fangs were exposed as it lunged closer, clearly intent on ending the battle in a single, decisive gulp.
“Fuck.”
The word escaped him instinctively as he disengaged. He retreated in a burst of speed and circled around the serpent’s massive body before it could fully turn its head to track his movement.
Using the brief opening, he leapt high through the water. He gathered momentum before driving his sword downward with precision into the hardened scales atop the creature’s head.
The impact sent a violent tremor through the serpent’s body. It released a distorted, enraged roar beneath the water as Eklavya landed atop its skull, his blade buried deep between armoured plates. The strike anchored him momentarily to the beast’s massive form as he prepared to follow up with another attack.
However, before he could press his advantage further, the serpent retaliated.
Without warning, a violent surge of lightning erupted from its body and struck Eklavya from behind. The electrical force tore through his defences and flooded his nervous system with numbing agony.
In the next instant, he was thrown violently across the riverbed. He crashed into stone and debris before rolling several times. His body finally came to a halt amid disturbed silt and fractured rock.
Pain lanced through every part of him as he groaned and forced himself upright. His muscles trembled as they protested the movement. He muttered through clenched teeth, his breath heavy and uneven, “If I didn’t have the Supreme Body, I would have died from that single strike,” just as Magha’s voice echoed urgently inside his mind, sharp with tension rarely heard from the ancient beast.
‘It’s a high three-star beast,’ Magha warned. ‘Its strength is comparable to that of a seven-star master warrior, or even slightly higher.’
Hearing this, Eklavya swallowed heavily, his expression tightening as he processed the implication. Defeating a seven-tier master warrior was well within his current capabilities. That meant the creature before him stood dangerously close to a level where even a single mistake could prove fatal.
His grip tightened around his sword as he murmured under his breath, “Near an eight-star warrior… huh.”
The serpent did not allow him time to dwell on the realisation. It surged forward once more with its jaws wide open, blood still drifting near its lower jaw from the earlier strike before dissolving into the current. Its exposed fangs gleamed hungrily, as if already savouring its next meal.
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Eklavya responded instantly. He leapt upward again and clashed his sword directly against the thunder surging from the beast’s body, using only one hand strengthened by the five rapidly revolving chakras around his arm. His other hand extended forward, releasing those same chakras outward in a controlled burst.
They transformed into binding rings that shot through the water and locked tightly around five separate sections of the serpent’s massive body.
Binding such a creature was far from easy. Eklavya felt intense resistance as the serpent struggled violently, its enormous form twisting and thrashing in an attempt to wrench itself free.
Each movement was halted the instant the chakra rings tightened further, constricting its body with relentless force. The beast released a furious ‘schees!’ beneath the water as it intensified the lightning crawling across its scales. It’s desperately trying to fry Eklavya alive for what it clearly considered its rightful meal.
Maintaining his focus despite the escalating pain, Eklavya began to close his palm slowly and deliberately. He poured every ounce of strength into the motion while simultaneously parrying the surging lightning with his sword. His body was pushed to its limits as the Supreme Body absorbed and dispersed damage that would have obliterated a lesser cultivator.
When his hand finally clenched completely, the chakra rings responded instantly. They snapped shut like divine restraints, and in a single, decisive moment, the serpent’s enormous body was severed into six distinct segments at five evenly spaced points. The cuts were clean and absolute, leaving no chance for survival.
The snake’s eyes flew wide open as it released a final, dying cry that rippled weakly through the water before fading. Its life was extinguished completely as its massive form went limp. Eklavya exhaled deeply, his shoulders finally lowering as the immediate threat ended.
He surveyed the remains in silence. Venom seeped from the severed body into the surrounding water before being swiftly carried away by the river’s flow, unable to linger long enough to pose further danger, as though even the river itself was eager to erase the creature’s presence.
Slowly ascending through the water with heavy, measured breaths. Eklavya felt the chakra rings dissolve back into his arms and disappear. What remained was only the quiet churn of the river and the lingering aftermath of a battle that had tested both his strength and the limits of his resolve.
…
But before Eklavya could ascend any further and place meaningful distance between himself and the corpse of the thunder serpent, Magha’s voice echoed suddenly inside his mind. It was calm, yet carried a subtle weight of calculation.
‘We still have roughly seven hours before the primordial ki sustaining your body runs dry,’ Magha said. ‘I am sensing something unusual in the opposite direction of the river’s flow. Do you want to check it out?’
Eklavya did not hesitate even for a heartbeat. He nodded instinctively as a spark of excitement stirred within him, a reaction Magha immediately noticed and found strange.
This was not excitement born of novelty or greed, but something quieter and more internal. The ancient beast murmured to himself, ‘It’s not as if he hasn’t seen larger or more terrifying beings before…’
Eklavya himself was unaware of the exact reason behind the change. He only knew that it felt easier now to feel anticipation, to allow emotion to surface with less resistance than before, as though some invisible restraint within him had loosened ever so slightly.
What Magha did not know and what Eklavya himself had never fully understood, was that for years his emotions had existed beneath layers of suppression embedded deep within his muscles and instincts.
These were remnants of forgotten memories and conditioned survival responses that had trained his body to deny expression even when his mind experienced excitement, fear, or joy. Now, for the first time, those barriers were no longer absolute, allowing emotion to pass through with minimal effort rather than force.
Moving deliberately against the river’s flow. Eklavya advanced with a faint smile tugging at his lips. His body cut cleanly through the water as Magha observed him silently before muttering, half-amused and half-wary, ‘You’re really acting strange today.’
Eklavya chose not to respond. Not because he wished to hide the truth, but because he himself lacked the words to explain a change he had only just begun to feel.
After advancing a short distance upstream, the terrain around them shifted subtly. Eklavya noticed the river wall ahead begin to rise unnaturally, forming an uneven stone outcropping that jutted outward like a scar in the river’s body.
Its surface was jagged and ancient, as though shaped not by erosion alone but by something that had pressed against it repeatedly over countless years.
‘Slow down,’ Magha instructed immediately, his tone sharp with caution. ‘Observe what lies beyond that wall before exposing yourself.’
Acknowledging the warning, Eklavya reduced his presence to the bare minimum. He drew close to the stone and leaned just enough to peer around its edge, moving with the careful precision of a seasoned predator. What he saw caused even his hardened composure to tighten.
Beyond the wall lay a monstrous form stretched partially along the riverbed and partially braced against the stone itself. It was a centipede-like beast of horrifying proportions, nearly nine hundred feet in length. Its elongated body was covered in overlapping, dark-scaled armor that reflected faint light like damp obsidian.
Countless segmented legs lined its underside, each one jointed, hooked, and flexing slowly in a rhythmic motion that stirred clouds of silt with every subtle movement.
The creature’s body was thick and heavily plated. Its back was ridged with hardened scales that rose like jagged spines.
Along its length, faint veins of toxic energy pulsed beneath the surface, giving off an oppressive aura that pressed heavily against the surrounding water. Its massive head rested near the stone wall as though using it for support, mandibles twitching occasionally as it absorbed its surroundings with predatory awareness rather than sleep.
Even from this distance, the presence of the Thousand-Legged Centipede was overwhelming. It was not merely because of its size, but because of the sheer density of power coiled within its body, the kind tempered through long survival rather than reckless aggression.
Eklavya felt a chill creep along his spine as he assessed it silently. He clicked his tongue in irritation and murmured under his breath, “Tsh… a high three-tier beast, and close to a nine-star master warrior.” Magha agreed immediately, his silence confirming the gravity of the situation.
Carefully, Eklavya began to retreat, intending to withdraw and reconsider his approach. It was fortunate, perhaps fatefully so, that he did not fully turn his head away from the centipede. In that exact moment, the creature moved.
Without warning, its massive body surged forward with unimaginable speed. Water exploded outward as hundreds of legs propelled it in a single fluid motion, its predatory instincts honed enough to sense intrusion even without direct confrontation.
From its mandibles, a glob of thick, dark poison shot toward Eklavya like a living projectile.
Reacting purely on instinct, Eklavya twisted his body sharply and dodged the attack by a narrow margin. The poisonous mass streaked past him and dissolved violently against the stone behind, releasing a corrosive hiss that ate into the rock itself. It was a clear indication that even a single mistake in this encounter would not be forgiven.
OP Regression ? LitRPG ? Urban Fantasy
Of course, I chose regression.
But I won’t be.
What to Expect:
- ?? Overpowered main character with a human heart
- ? Full regression with future knowledge
- ?? A hostile System and an unforgiving world
- ?? Dark progression fantasy with ruthless growth
- ?? Epic battles, betrayal, and real consequences