The Psychopathic Beast Emperor-Chapter 61: Sel Against the Eliminator

The grassland breathed. Tall, pale-gold grass swayed in slow waves under a sky stretched wide and merciless. The wind carried no scent of water nor a promise of shelter. Only openness, exposure, and death if you weren’t careful.

Sel stood alone in it.

His boots were planted firmly, his knees slightly bent, and his bow already in his hand. The string hummed softly under tension, an almost affectionate sound. His quiver was lighter than it should’ve been after using too many arrows.

He’d stopped counting arrows days ago.

His eyes were calm and collected. The Circle of Mind rotated steadily behind him, invisible but present, sharpening every sound and every vibration in the earth beneath his feet. His thoughts were clean, without panic or excess emotion... just readiness stretched to its limit.

Then... the grass exploded.

The beast, the Eliminator, didn’t emerge as it normally does. It arrived!

Space folded like paper being crushed, and the Dark Phantom Scorpio was suddenly there, stinger already descending, claws tearing furrows into the ground where Sel had stood a heartbeat earlier.

But Sel wasn’t there.

He had moved on instinct honed past thought.

A sharp pivot, feet barely touching the earth, body twisting sideways with terrifying speed. The stinger smashed down where his spine would’ve been, cracking the ground open in a spiderweb of fractures.

Sel was already drawing... the bowstring snapped forward. An arrow screamed and struck the Eliminator’s eyes... and shattered.

The beast reeled back with a screech that rattled the air, more startled than wounded. It had expected prey, but it found resistance.

Sel didn’t stop. He shot another arrow, then another. Each shot was timed to the beast’s micro-movements, not where it was, but where it would be. One arrow lodged between its chitin plates. Another scraped along the base of the stinger, drawing a thin line of dark ichor.

The Eliminator roared, charging toward Sel.

The ground trembled as the massive body surged forward, claws tearing through soil and grass alike. Sel sprinted backward, not fleeing, but kiting. His breathing remained controlled even as his muscles screamed.

He slid, turned, and fired. The arrow hit a joint. The scorpion faltered for half a second. That half-second saved Sel’s life. The stinger whipped out, grazing past his ribs close enough to tear cloth and skin. Blood sprayed while pain flared.

But Sel smiled, his eyes switching to an emerald color. A sharp, feral grin split his face as his aura spiked. The Circle of Mind flared violently, its rotation accelerating until it felt like his skull might crack under the pressure. His perception sharpened to a razor’s edge. Time stretched while the wind slowed.

He could see it now... the beast wasn’t holding back. It wanted him dead.

"Good," Sel whispered, as a beautiful emerald arrow-like symbol appeared on his forehead. "Try." His aura flared, making his hair float.

...

In the Elders’ council meeting, Elder Derek suddenly stood up, his eyes widening in shock.

"It can’t be!" He shouted, causing everyone to look at him in confusion. Only Chief Elder Sekhem didn’t appear surprised.

"It seems he decided to come out, huh?" He said with a faint grin at Elder Derek.

"But... this could cause a war!" Elder Derek stated with a faint shiver in his tone.

"Don’t worry. He has that much authority to stop it with a word if it should ever happen," Chief Elder Sekhem said as he stared at the young elven boy with silver hair floating, and emerald glowing eyes, different from the earlier blue.

’Just what is such a figure doing in a sect?’

...

Sel planted his feet and drew again, but this time, he didn’t lose it immediately.

His fingers trembled as he forced more power through his limbs, veins standing out as something deeper stirred.

Circle of Initiation!

He was dangerously close to reaching that level.

He finally released the arrow. It didn’t whistle... it howled with power. It struck deep into the Eliminator’s chest, piercing straight through a cracked plate and sinking in almost to the fletching. The beast screamed, a real scream this time, staggering as dark blood spilled freely.

Sel dropped the bow, but the Eliminator had lunged already; too fast and close.

Sel rolled under its body, claws slicing the air above him, then came up behind it with a broken spear made from hardened bone and arrow shafts bound together with cord out of desperation.

He drove it in, but the spear shattered.

The impact still forced the stinger to the ground, embedding it deep. Sel leapt onto the beast’s back, his fingers digging into cracks in its armor, riding it as it thrashed wildly.

He stabbed again, and again.

Blood sprayed across the grass, painting the land in violent strokes black and red. The Eliminator bucked, twisted, and slammed itself backward into the earth.

Sel was forcefully thrown off. He hit the ground hard, the air exploding from his lungs as pain ripped through his side. He rolled, barely avoiding a crushing claw that pulverized the spot where his head had been.

He struggled to rise, his legs shook, and his vision blurred. The beast loomed over him now, wounded but far from dead. Its eyes burned with focused malice, its killing intent gushing at Sel like a broken dam.

It was prepared to kill him.

Sel wiped blood from his mouth and laughed.

"So this is it," he muttered, forcing himself upright. His Circle of Mind burned so fiercely it felt like it might tear free from his soul. "Guess I’ll make you remember me."

The Eliminator surged forward again, and the world seemed to hold its breath.

In the Elders’ meeting hall, the elders leaned forward in expectancy and anticipation of the result.

Sel raised his broken weapon, eyes blazing wildly, as a sharp aura burst from him.

The Eliminator lunged, but Sel didn’t retreat. He stepped into it.

The broken arrow shaft in his hand flared with a thing, unstable sheen as he poured everything into it... mind, will, and defiance. The Circle of Mind howled, spinning so fast it felt like it was about to tear free of his spine.

He slashed... The air screamed.

A tear opened along the arrow’s path, no wider than a finger, but real. Space bent inward, its edges shuddering like wounded glass. The scorpion’s claw passed through that line and came out wrong, its trajectory skewed, its armor splitting as if cut by something far sharper than wood and metal.

Black blood sprayed as the Eliminator recoiled, screeching in fury. Sel didn’t stop, though...

He moved like a man possessed, his every step precise, brutal, and almost reckless. Each swing of the broken arrow carved shallow distortions into the air... tiny spatial ruptures that snapped shut moments later, leaving ripples behind.

He drove forward, slashing at its joints, its eyes, and at the base of its stinger. One strike tore open the air and bit into the beast’s torso, leaving a gash that refused to close cleanly. The Eliminator shrieked again, its body spasming as its regeneration struggled against wounds that didn’t obey normal rules.

For a moment, it faltered. Sel was grinning, blood running down his chin, eyes wild.

"I knew it," he rasped. "I was close."

The tears in space began to recoil against him. The arrow in his hand cracked, his Circle of Mind stuttered, the rotation slipping as backlash slammed into his skull. His eyes switched, turning back to their initial blue. Pain detonated behind his eyes, sharp and blinding.

The Eliminator didn’t hesitate... its stinger flashed.

Sel tried to dodge, but he was a fraction too slow.

The stinger punched clean through his side, lifting him off the ground. His breath left him in a wet gasp as blood sprayed, his grip loosening as the broken arrow fell from his hand.

The scorpion slammed him into the earth...

Once, twice.

The world went white... When the Eliminator finally withdrew its stinger, Sel lay broken in the grass, his chest barely moving, eyes dim but still conscious.

He coughed, blood bubbling at his lips.

"...worth it," he murmured.

The Dark Phantom Scorpio regarded him for a heartbeat long and turned away.

It had completed its mission... at a severe cost. As Sel was teleported away, the beast was also teleported away.

...

A/N: You might have your thoughts and suspicions on Sel’s background. Any close guess and I will release his character reference ahead of the scheduled time.

Also, thanks for the gifts, golden tickets, and powerstones.