Chapter 197: Just Stay Back
Chapter 197: Just Stay Back
The faint light that was coming down through the treetops was slowly changing.
The thin golden columns were replaced by a colder and greener light.
Ravian had reduced their speed.
They were now passing through an area full of red moss and plants with wide leaves.
A sweet and heavy smell was in the air, which became thicker the further they went.
Lian felt several times that something was following them from a distance.
But every time he turned back, he only saw the moss moving.
Predator’s Instincts was still warning.
Not from one direction, but from several directions, and this difference was important.
A predator usually approaches from a specific point.
But this feeling... was like an invisible circle closing around them.
Lian walked slower and checked the sounds around him.
During this time, he had realized that his intuition was very reliable, and now he also knew that something was about to happen.
The buzzing of the insects, which had been heard throughout the forest until a few moments ago, had decreased.
One by one.
Until almost no sound remained.
"Why did everything go quiet?" Nemi also noticed the silence.
Ravian also stopped, his hand went toward the spear he had made from wood he had found on the ground.
Lian looked to the right.
The wind was blowing from the left, but the moss on the right was moving against the wind.
Not with a natural order, but something was passing through them.
"We are not alone." he said quietly.
Sera immediately pulled out the knife Lian had given her, and Ravian also took the spear from his back and held it in front of his body.
They could also feel that danger was approaching.
The moss moved in several places, then the sound of something hard scraping on the ground was heard.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Two long antennae came out of the moss, then the creature’s head appeared.
It had a red and black shell that shone like dark metal under the forest’s weak light.
Two curved jaws on both sides of its head were opening and closing, and each time they hit each other, they made a sound like iron scissors.
Its body was almost the size of a large elephant, maybe even a little larger, and six thin but powerful legs were holding it on the ground.
At the end of its abdomen, a long red stinger, like a spear’s needle, had come out.
The panel appeared before Lian’s eyes.
[Crimson Needle Worker]
[ Rank: Normal ]
[Level: 18]
Before anyone could react, the moss on both sides of the path moved aside.
A second one came out.
A third.
Then a fourth.
A few seconds later, more than ten giant ants had appeared around them.
Some were smaller and thinner, but a few among them had bodies the size of tigers and their front shells were thicker.
[Crimson Needle Soldier]
[ Rank : Normal ]
[Level: 22]
[Crimson Needle Soldier]
[ Rank : Normal ]
[Level: 24]
Lian, without moving, counted their numbers.
Seventeen.
Maybe two or three more were still hidden among the moss.
"We have to run!" Ravian slowly stepped back, a hidden fear was clear in his tone.
These are not monsters they can handle!
"How dangerous are they?" Lian asked without taking his eyes off the ants.
"Not each one individually."
"But Crimson Needle Ants never move too far from the colony." Ravian clenched his jaw.
One of the Workers raised its head and its antennae trembled in the air, then it turned directly toward Sera’s wounded shoulder.
"They are following the smell of blood." Sera said quietly upon realizing it.
A few ants appeared from behind, the rear path was blocked, and Nemi raised her short spear, which she had also made from wood, but her hands were trembling slightly.
"There are too many of them. We have to fight together." Sera stood next to Lian.
"We can’t win! We have to try to break the encirclement and run!" Ravian said with seriousness and a sense of urgency.
He didn’t want to die by these ants now that they had managed to escape from that giant bird!
"It’s not necessary." Lian stepped forward, the sound of the ants’ jaws became louder.
Sera looked at him.
"You just stay back."
"This—" Ravian frowned.
"If one of them gets past me, then you intervene." Lian said with a quiet but so firm tone that it made all of them fall silent.
There was something in his tone that made Ravian not continue.
Lian looked at the enemies again.
Level 17.
Level 19.
Level 21.
Level 24.
None of the numbers he saw were even close to the danger limit.
The dark space of the forest floor was not suitable for normal eyes.
But [Night Eyes] was activated.
The colors of the world changed, the shadows became clearer, and the small movement of the antennae, the contraction of the joints, and the trembling of the ants’ legs became clear to him.
Predator’s Instincts also did the rest.
Danger from behind, slightly high, to the right, and Lian, without turning around, moved his head a few centimeters to the side.
Two metal jaws passed right by his ear.
The Crimson Needle Soldier had jumped out from behind the moss.
The creature hadn’t even had time to close its jaws again when Lian raised his hand.
Cold and dark mana gathered around his fingers, the moisture in the air froze in an instant, and an elongated claw of dark ice formed on his hand.
[Glacial Reaper Claw]
The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped, a thin layer of ice settled on the moss.
The level 22 ant tried to pull its head back, but it was too late.
Lian moved his hand only once, and the ice claw passed through the connection point between the head and the chest.
The monster’s hard shell was split open.
The sound of armor cracking echoed with a muffled noise in the forest, the ant’s head did not separate from the body.
But the cut was so deep that it had almost severed its entire neck.
Dark blood was about to gush from the wound, but before even a single drop reached the ground, the edges of the wound froze.
The corpse fell a few steps ahead.
The three Lacerians remained motionless, the whole event had taken less than a second.
One of the Soldiers had been killed, without a scream and without a fight, without even being able to land a second strike.
"How is this possible?" Sera whispered in disbelief, and her siblings’ reaction was not much different.
The other ants paused for a moment, their antennae turned toward the corpse with quick movements.
Then they all moved at the same time, six creatures charged from three directions, and the veins on Lian’s neck and arms darkened for a moment.
Blood flowed through his body with more pressure, the muscles in his legs contracted.
The world slowed down for him.
Not literally in the sense of the word, but his body’s speed increased so much that the movements around him seemed heavy and predictable.
For Ravian and the others, Lian suddenly vanished from his spot.
A Worker turned its head toward him, it hadn’t even completed half of its movement when Lian landed on its back.
He brought down his ice claw, the connection point between the head and body was split open.
The ant collapsed.
Lian jumped to the left before the corpse hit the ground.
The second ant had opened its jaws, he struck the inner part of the jaw with his knee.
The creature’s head was deflected, and then the Glacial Reaper Claw went straight into one of its eyes.
The ice spread from inside its head, the movement of its legs stopped at that very moment.
The third ant raised its abdomen, the red stinger shot out from the end of its body.
Lian saw it, he could dodge, but he didn’t.
The tip of the stinger hit his shoulder with all its force.
The sound of the impact was like a steel nail hitting a rock, a small spark jumped from the contact point, and the skin on Lian’s shoulder became transparent and dark for a moment.
[Diamond Skin]
The stinger could not even scratch the surface of his skin.
The ant remained motionless for a moment, as if even the monster was shocked.
As if they had doubted whether they were prey or predators.
Lian turned his head toward it.
The creature might not be able to feel fear, but its antennae suddenly moved with agitation.
He wrapped his hand around the end part of its abdomen, planted his feet firmly on the ground.
Then he lifted the entire several-hundred-kilogram body of the ant off the ground.
Ravian was watching in disbelief.
The muscles of Lian’s arm and shoulder contracted under his clothes, he swung the ant’s body in the air and violently slammed it into one of its kind.
The sound of shells breaking echoed in the space, both creatures fell to the ground.
One of them was still moving.
Lian landed on its head and with one kick, crushed the front part of its shell.
The remaining ants did not attack directly this time.
Instead, they tightened the circle.
Six Workers and four Soldiers came out from the moss.
Their legs moved on the ground with strange order, their antennae went up and down at the same time.
They had seen the previous attacks, now they wanted to apply pressure from all sides.
Lian took a calm breath, the ice claw on his hand cracked.
But it was still not destroyed.
He looked around, the distance between the enemies, the slope of the ground, the thickness of the moss, and the positions of Ravian, Sera, and Nemi.
Everything came together in his mind in an instant.
Then he knelt down, placed his free palm on the ground.
Mana moved under his skin.
It went down from his shoulder, passed through his arm, gathered in his palm, and for a moment, the soil beneath his fingers sank.
[Cataclysm Pulse]
The explosion had no sound.
First, only a heavy impact came from within the ground, then a compressed wave spread in all directions.
The moss was uprooted, and the soil rose in a ring around Lian.
The shell on the underside of the ants’ abdomen, where their armor was thinner, cracked under the wave’s pressure.
A few Workers were thrown into the air, one of the Soldiers fell on its side and its legs kicked aimlessly in the air.
The encirclement formation was broken in an instant, and Lian jumped out from the dust of the soil.
The first ant was still trying to turn around when Glacial Reaper Claw passed under its jaw.
The second one lost its balance with a direct hit to the front leg joint.
Lian stepped on its shell, climbed up, and sank the claw into the back of its head.
The third one prepared its stinger.
Lian grabbed it, pulled the creature’s body toward himself, and crushed its forehead with a knee strike.
The fourth and fifth attacked at the same time.
Lian spun between them, one’s jaw passed by his side, his claw passed through the other’s chest.
Then with a short kick, he threw the first ant into a small crack between two roots.
The sound of its body hitting the rock was heard, it did not move anymore.
The battle had turned into a slaughter, not one of those fights where the result was uncertain.
A one-sided massacre of giant monsters.
And Ravian, Sera, and Nemi were watching in shock, and were slowly becoming sure that Lian might be more powerful than all the hunters of their tribe.
What kind of monster were they bringing to their tribe?