Max stood alone in the midst of the deep violet wasteland. The land stretched endlessly around him, barren and lifeless, with nothing but brittle, dried trees clawing at the horizon and scattered bones lying half-buried in the dust. The air itself carried a faint metallic tang, as though the land had once been drenched in blood and never recovered.

"There is nothing here," he muttered, his voice quiet as his eyes swept across every direction. Even with the perception granted by his Three Dimensional Body, his senses revealed nothing but desolation. No life stirred, no structures broke the monotony, only the oppressive silence of a land long forgotten.

After a moment's thought, Max began to walk, choosing a direction at random. The sound of his steps echoed faintly against the hardened soil, each one a dull thud in the empty world. He kept moving, time slipping away without notice, until hours had passed in unbroken silence.

Then, without warning, his body stiffened. His stride faltered, and a deep frown spread across his face. A strange heaviness had begun to settle on him.

"The weight on me is increasing the further I go," Max thought grimly. He tested another step, and the sensation grew clearer. "Something is affecting this land. It could be gravity, or it might be pressure bearing down on me." He could not be certain of the cause, but the effect was undeniable. With each pace, the energy required to move forward grew heavier, as though the air itself was conspiring to drag him down into the violet earth.

Still, he pressed on, his mind sharpening with the awareness that something lay ahead.

Whoosh!

The ground quivered with sudden force, and Max's eyes snapped forward. From the distance, an enormous shape burst into view. A centipede, so massive its body rivaled the size of a skyscraper, tore its way across the wasteland.

Max stood still, his eyes narrowing as the ground ahead of him shook with each thunderous movement. The enormous centipede tore through the dried earth, its body surging in and out of the ground like a serpent of steel.

Segments of its thick, chitinous armor glistened under the dim light, each plate ridged and black, sharper than stone and harder than metal. Its countless legs stabbed into the soil with terrifying rhythm, leaving the ground fractured and trembling in its wake.

"A centipede?" Max muttered, his voice calm despite the looming threat. He drew his sword, its blade glimmering faintly as the energy of the Severing Sword Concept rose from it. Threads of sharp intent coiled around the edge, humming with lethal precision. The light of the third level of comprehension danced across the steel, ready to slice through anything that stood in his path.

As the creature lunged, its massive mandibles opening with a screech that echoed across the wasteland, Max stepped forward and slashed. His strike carried the weight of his concept, the sword aura extending outward in a brilliant arc of destructive light. The slash cut through the air like a judgment, aimed straight at the centipede's head.

The sound of impact rang out, loud and harsh. Sparks erupted where the blade met the creature's armored hide. To Max's surprise, the slash did not pierce through as cleanly as he had expected. Instead, the blade was deflected, the energy of his strike scattering across the surface of the centipede's body. The thick armor plates absorbed the force, leaving only a shallow scratch across the blackened skin.

Max's eyes narrowed further. "My attacks are useless?"

The massive centipede lunged toward him again, its armored body shuddering with every motion. Max swung his sword in response, his blade coated with the power of the third level of the Concept of Severing Sword.

The arc of energy lashed out, bright and sharp, cutting across the beast's chitinous body. Sparks burst upon impact, but once again the strike was deflected by the thick plates of its natural armor. The attack left no mark, the defense far too durable to be broken so easily.

"The exoskeleton of this centipede are too strong!" Max muttered in shock as he retreated back flashing with blue lightning from time to time.

But then....

The earth groaned beneath his feet. Cracks splintered across the wasteland, and suddenly the ground erupted in multiple places. One after another, colossal centipedes surged upward, their grotesque bodies splitting through the hardened soil as they swarmed the area.

They came from every direction, countless in number, their screeches echoing in the desolate expanse. The air vibrated with the weight of their collective movements, and the wasteland became a writhing battlefield of armored monstrosities.

Max braced himself as the swarm closed in. He struck again and again, his sword flashing with the Severing Sword Concept, each slash aimed with precision. Yet the results remained the same. The centipedes' thick skin turned aside his attacks with ease. His strikes left shallow streaks of light across their shells, but the armor held firm, mocking the sharpness of his blade.

Suddenly, the ground beneath him shuddered violently, and a centipede burst out from directly below, its mandibles wide open to devour him whole. Max's Three Dimensional Body flared into action, his senses piercing through the ground to reveal the attack an instant before it struck.

He pivoted, raising his sword, and this time unleashed not just the raw concept but the second form of his Sky Shattering Sword Art—Heaven Severing Sword.

The slash tore through the air with far greater force than his earlier strikes, the intent of severing condensed into a razor edge. His blade struck the centipede's armored body with explosive power.

The impact rang out like thunder, and for the first time, his sword carved a shallow wound into the beast. A spray of green blood burst forth, dripping onto the violet earth, its foul stench burning the air. Yet even then, the wound was only a scratch. The creature recoiled, screeching in pain, but it did not fall.

The other centipedes shrieked in response, their monstrous bodies surging toward him in relentless waves. Mandibles snapped like blades, legs stabbed like spears, and armored tails swung with crushing force.

Max's figure moved like a shadow among them with his blue lightning flashing around his body, his sword slashing out in desperate counters, each blow aimed to deflect or push back their assaults. He twisted and spun, narrowly avoiding their strikes, his body weaving through the chaos with practiced precision. Every dodge was razor-thin, every counterattack born of instinct honed by countless battles.

Still, no matter how many times he struck, their thick hides refused to yield beyond shallow cuts and dripping streaks of green blood.

The wasteland shook as the swarm pressed harder, their screeches echoing in his ears. Max felt the weight of their numbers pressing down on him like an endless tide. He could not kill them, not with his current strength. The realization hit him as sharply as any blade.

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