It was like the sound of waves crashing. The countless rustling movements of the bugs were overwhelming. Annoyed by the wave of buzzing, Angie burst out.
BANG!
And then a punch was swung. The collision sound of the fist thrown towards the surging and leaping swarm of bugs was not a sound a human fist could make.
With a sound akin to something massive being slammed down, the bugs shattered into pieces from the shockwave. In the center of it all, Angie closed her eyes and mouth, covered her ears, and froze as the bugs swarmed her and tore into her skin.
“GGGHHH…!”
KWAANG!
Like shaking off the bugs clinging to her body, the girl spun her legs forcefully and crouched low. Bugs caught in her mighty force were flung away and crushed.
The bugs that the girl couldn’t fend off surged past her toward the traveling party. As they approached, Dimitri’s crimson longsword flashed.
“Whoa, there’s so many. Too many!”
Even while dealing with the oncoming swarm, Dimitri grinned.
Amidst the severed bug corpses rolling on the ground, Aslan silently observed the movement of the bugs.
Though he had faced blood insects before, this was the first time he was up against ones wielding a sword that drained vitality. He was cautious for any possible changes in their patterns.
And sure enough, there was a pattern change. Without a host, the blood insects quickly returned to their group mother after being cut down. They either hurled themselves at nearby metal or dove back into the heart of the group mother.
As they smashed their bodies into the metal shards and died, the group mother discharged dozens of times more bugs from its pulsating brain and heart. The surging bugs charged at the group like a tidal wave.
Among the swarm, blood insects that had burrowed into the heart emerged intact from other veins and mixed in.
Aslan narrowed his eyes and spun the flail.
This flail, which Aslan had taken, belonged to a priest of the Poison-Spitting Dragon. It was an item imbued with poison deeply into its four heads.
It grants poison to the target it strikes. Though it had been somewhat useless due to Aslan’s high damage output until now, it could be used now.
The flail, which had been spinning slowly, suddenly accelerated. Its target was the bugs rushing past even Dimitri.
PSHHT!
The four heads of the flail split four bugs precisely and grazed a few others with a clinking sound. The flung bugs screamed and returned to the group mother.
The blood insects diving back into the metal or re-entering the heart. Aslan followed their movements with his eyes and then darted forward.
The movements of the blood insects attempting to counterattack Aslan became sluggish. The poison was starting to take effect.
As expected by Aslan, the emerging blood insects moved heavily. Some were already convulsing with their bellies exposed.
‘Using the weapon’s properties is fundamental.’
You can’t face a priest with just one or two kinds of power. Aslan, who had sunk hundreds of priests, well knew what it meant to use any means necessary.
Naturally, the movements of the blood insects trying to counter Aslan became heavily sluggish. Aslan glanced around and shouted.
“Angie, over here!”
In response to his call, Angie, surrounded by blood insects, darted out. She ran straight toward the direction Aslan’s voice came from. Along the straight path she charged, Aslan stood ahead, and beyond him lay the group mother.
The movements of the blood insects started getting busier. Some of the blood insects that were about to charge at Aslan turned toward Angie and then hesitated, unsure whether to go back to Aslan.
Aslan paused momentarily, waiting for the right moment.
The hive mind could be seen as a large collective with thinking capabilities and numerous methods. A horde of insects moving as one couldn’t help but be powerful.
However, there was a weakness. The weakness of having only one thinker.
They controlled thousands and had many means, but ultimately, the command tower was singular.
The best strategy based on this weakness was confusion.
Confuse them. Create multiple variables. The variables lead the hive mind to make mistakes.
When Angie finally surpassed Aslan and darted forward, the blood insects ultimately charged at her.
At that moment, Aslan moved along a different trajectory. His motion appeared to pierce diagonally toward the group mother.
‘As long as the life consumption continues, the group mother keeps recovering. What matters now is taking away the life consumption. Victory or defeat hinges on this.’
With the sound of chains clinking, Aslan stopped, and the group mother pulsed. The thoughts of the group mother pierced through the void among the swarm.
Vitality drains due to poison. Thus, a solution is needed.
The girl charging now is immune to the blood insect attacks. Attacking her will be futile.
But since her attack capability isn’t outstanding, the loss isn’t significant.
The real threat now is the man handling poison. His attack capability is sufficiently threatening.
That man has only one arm. One weapon. There’s a considerable gap in his defense.
Recover lost vitality through life consumption and turn the situation around.
Having made the judgment, the group mother gathered the blood insects into the shape of an arm. The arm made of insects grabbed the life-draining blade. It was elongated, longer than a human arm.
And what was thrust was a stab.
The group mother’s ultimate stab. The straight trajectory carved a clear path of death.
It was the attack Aslan was hoping for.
Aslan dodged the incoming life-draining blade by falling flat. He completely disrupted his balance, lying flat on the ground to evade. The spot where Aslan’s head had been was pierced through by the blade. A foul smell wafted from the cleaved air.
A crude-looking stone sword carved from rock. Aslan glanced at the longsword and extended the flail. The extended head of the flail meticulously wrapped around and blocked the longsword.
With a clinking sound, the longsword halted. Aslan immediately released the flail and flipped his body.
He reinforced his single hand on the ground with wild magic to the extreme. With the strengthened arm planted, he performed a handstand-like motion, extending his legs. He aimed his feet at the flail.
His goal was disarmament.
‘Call Thunder.’
As his spirit waned, Aslan’s leg whitened slightly and struck the flail directly—precisely hitting the handle.
RUMBLE!
With the thunder echoing, the flail shot out. The flung flail caused the life-draining blade near Aslan’s foot to float and spin.
The blood insects holding the life-draining blade abandoned it and dived down to devour Aslan. Aslan twisted his body again in the gap.
Landing back on his feet mid-air, he snatched the life-draining blade.
The securely held life-draining blade was a unique sword.
The grayish stone sword carved from rock had its blade part finely sharpened, emitting a white glow limited to the edge. This double-edged sword resembled a broad leaf.
The thick and wide blade connects seamlessly to the hilt without a crossguard.
It’s a crude sword. If wielded without skill, it would struggle to leave even a proper wound when slashing.
But it was enough for Aslan.
From the moment Aslan heard about the life-draining blade, he thought of using it this way.
The shadow beneath the sword in his left hand disappeared.
‘Shadow Reversal.’
And in the instant the shadow returned, the life-draining blade devoured life. Dozens of flying bugs were sliced twice and vanished.
Aslan, feeling the unique sensation of vitality filling him, firmly gripped the longsword and swung it.
Minimal movements. What Aslan displayed were minimal motions of slashes, stabs, and cuts. He continuously swung the stone sword at the charging bugs.
Pouring mana into his eyes, he enhanced his vision and relied on luck to detect the charging bugs. He tilted his head to dodge, pushed away a bug aiming for his arm with newly grown flesh fueled by stolen vitality.
Vitality filled him. The vitality consumed in the harsh battle returned. Aslan kept cutting down the blood insects while retreating and pulled out a scroll from his tool pouch.
Although his arm didn’t regenerate, the rest of his limbs, torso, and head were fully restored. Amid the foul-smelling insect fluids, Aslan’s body remained pristine.
Then the magic of equalization unraveled from the scroll.
It was like rewinding the process of dust becoming nothingness; from nothingness, dust arose, forming a new right arm.
With the regenerated, albeit scarred, right arm, Aslan picked up the fallen flail.
With a clinking sound, Aslan moved.
He swung the flail, stabbed and slashed with the life-draining blade. The bugs rushing into every gap were split, cut, and crushed, scattering everywhere. Amid the chaos, Aslan remained unscathed.
The blood insects clinging to his body were repelled by the vitality-draining effect. Aslan trampled those that were flung aside and continued moving.
“GGGHHH!”
BOOM!
Angie was struggling against the bugs, Ereta and Dimitri lingered behind, posing no immediate threat. Only Aslan was threatening.
Thus, the group mother misjudged.
It decided Aslan must be dealt with first. Like a frightened predator fleeing from an inflated body, all the blood insects were directed toward Aslan. Amid the deadly flood, Aslan moved.
And upon seeing this, the group acted.
Without any prior hint of a plan, the group realized this was Aslan’s offensive.
They understood what he was doing and what he wanted.
Aslan was buying time.
Desperately buying time for the group to finish off the group mother.
Both Ereta and Dimitri charged at the group mother.
Even Angie shook off the bugs and joined the charge.
While the three members of the group rushed in, Aslan thoroughly exterminated the blood insects trying to escape from him. Every swing of his weapons splattered insect fluids as they died.
ZSHHNG!
In the midst of it, Angie charged in and rammed her body. The harmony of her Health 10 and Strength 7 manifested in sheer brute force.
When Angie’s body slam hit the group mother, its combined heart and brain violently shook.
In the middle of trying to release more bugs, it wobbled, allowing Ereta to leap out next. Armed with a firm axe and mace, she unleashed a barrage.
She swung the axe to slice, added the mace to tear apart, swung the mace to crush, and jabbed with the axe to open wounds. Amid the flowing bodily fluids, Dimitri appeared.
Dimitri’s crimson longsword flashed, adding a piercing strike to the gashes carved by Ereta.
It split. The group mother’s tender flesh was shredded, scattering everywhere.
KEEIIIIIAAAH!
The group mother screamed and fell, and all the blood insects fighting Aslan simultaneously flipped their bellies and wildly thrashed their six legs.
THOOM
The sound of the group mother’s massive body collapsing echoed as the blood insects convulsed. Despite the distant signs of annihilation, Aslan calmly returned the soaked life-draining blade and flail to his waist.
“Uh, wha-what, what is going on here?”
While Angie struggled to understand the situation, Ereta and Dimitri remained calm. They knew about the blood insects.
The lie Aslan told to the bandit leader was this:
Blood insects don’t immediately perish when their group mother dies.
Though they do eventually die, there are conditions.
They won’t vanish instantly if there are no other living creatures to serve as hosts and some time hasn’t passed after the group mother’s death.
During this period, the blood insects go berserk, forcibly mutating other hosts’ bodies and gathering nutrients to create a new group mother.
This current frenzy was for that purpose.
Likely, blood insects across the entire Randy Ravine were engaging in the same behavior.
Aslan had never intended to let the bandits live.
To draw out Phey, both the bandits and the blood insects needed to be weakened or consumed to the point where Phey could handle them.
Aslan could predict what was happening among the bandits by now. It was obvious.
Aslan realized Dimitri had noticed this from the subtle expression directed at him.
But there was no complaint. Aslan ignored the gaze directed at him and declared briefly.
“Let’s go back.”
