What occurred in front of me was the stuff of nightmares. The wasp's abdomen started wriggling, and something emerged from one of its crevices. Never before had I seen such a grotesque horror in my entire life. What stood out was its rather large, raspberry-looking eyes, two fan-shaped antennae, small forewings or halters, and large, membranous hind-wings. How do I even describe any of these is beyond me. What I do know is the insect in front of me is hideous looking beyond all reason.
"Sigh, you had to kill my host, didn't you?" sighed the insect in question as it shook away the fluids on its body.
"W— well, it was trying to kill me after all. There was nothing I could do," I tried to explain myself.
"Right, cause my host was a murderous wasp. Got it," it sighed once again.
I was taken aback by its response. Is it— not interested in fighting at all? Don't mind me as I would rather deal with that massive bug over there instead of a round three with— whatever this thing may be. Perhaps I can talk my way out of this. C'mon, talk no jutsu, please work.
"You cool? No hard feelings, right? I'm sure we can work things out and head our separate ways. After all, there's no reason for us to fight, right?" I smiled at the strange bug, trying to persuade it to walk away.
"Hmm, you're right. There's no reason for us to fight. It is such a pain after all," sighed the strange bug.
"Yea, what's the point? Let's just go home and call it a day. No reason to trouble ourselves any further," I smiled awkwardly at it.
"Sigh, I really wished I could. What a pain for me to kill every single one of you here," it continued to sigh.
"You sound confident. Do you think you have what it takes when I just killed your host?" I questioned the strange bug.
The strange bug vanished from my vision in an instant and in the very next moment, heard its voice behind me.
"I am Xenos Peckii, were you expecting some common chump that crawled out of host's butt? You're sorely mistaken then," said the strange bug.
I instinctively leapt away, but the bug caught my foot, preventing me from gaining much distance from it. I thought of slicing the insect's arm that was grabbing me, but the insect moved much faster; its wings seemingly sharp, attempting to slice my foot apart.
Precious milliseconds later, it suddenly released my foot and dodged backwards as an axe flung across where it was standing a second ago. Seems like John saved my life in the nick of time. Rose is not here to heal me, so I have no idea if she'll be able to mend wounds that are weeks apart. From what she is able to heal in her circle, it is mostly recurring wounds or progressive ones. She has not been able to heal any dismembered parts thus far, so I'm not taking any risk of losing any of my limbs, ever.
John showed himself among the trees as his axe flew back to him which he grabbed with ease. I won't lie, I felt jealous that he had a weapon that's similar to Thor's hammer in nature. It was a gamble whether Stein could make it work when he insisted that he wanted some sort of security for the gloves to prevent other people from using it. It was thanks to my curse again that gave Stein the idea of using fingerprints to be used as a security.
"One after the other; we got your back, Zen," said Violet as she and Noah stood by my side once again.
"No, you bless us from a distance and nothing else. You too, Noah. This is no time to argue," I waved them off as I got myself ready.
"What are you talking about? You need us, Zen. This— insect is even more powerful than before," explained Noah.
"Which is exactly why I need you two to step back. This strange bug is way out of your league. The two of you need to stay alive," I rustled through my back pouch.
"Zen, as the Supreme Commander—" I cut him short with a glare. He must be surprised with my bloodshot eyes having activated Bloodlust.
"Stop, don't say anything more. The two of you couldn't even last against the wasp earlier. This Xenos insect or whatever is even more powerful and merciless than before. I don't wish to see you two giving your lives when you're Lily's parents. Hell, you'll end up becoming mine eventually. Which is why I will not allow you two to fight. You're the closest thing to being the parents I never had," I took out the wax-coated cloth and brought out the second glass ball filled with you know what.
"I— see. We will keep an eye on the both of you from the sidelines then. We will help whatever we can," said Noah.
"You can do something better. Find out what happened to the Elementalist and the remaining army that was supposed to be coming. They should have been here right about now. The two of you can try and deal with the massive bug while John and I handle things here," I coated Tengu-kaze with the wax and smashed the glass ball with it, lighting it up with yellow flames.
"Alright. Take care, the two of you. Stay here with them, my love. You can still help them with your spells and ranged attacks," said Noah to Violet before heading off.
Now that Noah is out of the way, it's time for me to be focused on this battle. Ain't gonna fool around with this Xenos insect. Damn these insects for having three different phases. What kind of universe am I even living in? Some Dark Souls shit or something? Geez.
***
I stood way back as I kept my eyes on Zen and the Viking Lord. These two were hailed as the strongest humans of their generation, with the White Angel rumoured to be the strongest. What am I even saying? Zen is literally one of the four Great Powers. I'm sure he's the strongest if he goes all out. It's no easy feat to defeat Tom single-handedly, who had wiped out hundreds, if not thousands, of elves that had tried to eliminate him. I should keep Ekāgratā active in case I need to help them. Every millisecond counts in this battle.
Both of them took out what seems to be some kind of potion and drank it. Zen stabbed his yellow flaming sword into the ground as he raised his left hand. A sudden loud rumble of thunder could be heard before an actual lightning strike struck his hand, to which he ran it across his other blade, seemingly coating the blade with lightning.
He can use both fire and lightning? How is the Elementalist not envious of him? He's not even in the Elemental guild, yet he's seemingly capable of using both elements that are exclusive to them. It's no wonder Zen is such an accomplished human. I mean, how is he able to use both Dhāraṇāand Bloodlust? There is no being in this world that has ever displayed the capabilities of using both paths before. It just— doesn't make sense as both paths oppose each other constantly from within. Not even Ivy Moonshine was able to achieve such a feat, and she's the most powerful being in our realm. I'm sure my husband was shocked that Zen had made that glare at him earlier. Even I was shocked myself. He is definitely going to be even more famous than Jack for sure. Can't believe I'm saying this, I'm a little jealous of my daughter for having managed to capture his heart.
Both of them got ready as the insect literally stood still as it stared at both of them. The Viking Lord struck first and threw his axe at the insect. The insect vanished before the axe even reaches it and the next thing I knew, it was choking the Viking Lord by the neck. By this point, Zen had vanished from my sight and the Viking Lord instantly teleported to where his axe was. Zen appeared behind the insect and attempted to swing both of his blades toward the insect. However, before the blades even touches its body, it instantly moved and choked Zen by the neck this time. I thought of throwing my needles at it but an axe sliced through the arm that was choking Zen, which made the Viking Lord to teleport to his axe once again and attempted to decapitate the insect, but not before getting kicked away by the insect.
Dear Goddess, what can I even expect to do here when I can barely understand what is going on. Everything is happening so fast even with Ekāgratā active. I should focus on casting Light Blessings or Accelerate during the most crucial moment. I believe that is all I can do for them in this battle as my eyes just couldn't match their movement speed.
***
Damn it, this Xenos insect is definitely more powerful than the wasp. That choke earlier still hurts like crap. I need to react as fast as I can if I wish to survive this fight.
John took point once again. I tried moving to a blind spot, but that large raspberry-looking eyes seems to have vision from all angles. John threw his axe once again, but instead of teleporting to it, he seems to be controlling his axe from a distance. Since when did John get so efficient in controlling his axe in this manner? Not bad, John. Colour me impressed.
I casted Conceal once more and rushed towards the Xenos insect. John was keeping the insect at bay with his axe, but it posed no threat to it whatsoever as it nonchalantly avoided the axe with ease. As I made my way towards the Xenos insect, it turned its glare towards me as it continued to dodge the axe. Is it able to see me when I'm using Conceal at night? With Focused Meditation active?
I halted my tracks and began moving more slowly, quietly and changing direction towards the insect. But no matter what I did, its glare was somehow constantly on me. Feeling that it was pointless to continue using Conceal, I deactivated it and sighed. Those giant raspberry eyes are certainly not just for show. Must be able to see heat, UV or something to be able to track my position while Conceal is active.
The insect used a beckoning gesture with its index finger to provoke me into attacking it. This insect definitely knew what the host had been through, but I am not so easily triggered by such a simple gesture. Either way, I still need to kill it before it kills both of us instead.
I decided it wasn't worth holding back against this opponent and summoned my spectral cloak with Rend before getting close to the insect. The insect focused its attention on me as I approached it, but John took advantage of the situation and teleported to his axe, attempting to swing his rather enlarged axe towards the insect from behind. The insect stopped the axe casually without even looking, but I was unfazed by it as I attacked it from the front. Both of my weapons were powered up, and it somehow knew that as it changed its movements from attempting to block the blades to grabbing my arms instead with its remaining arms.
It chuckled with a smirk at its correct decision to grab my arms instead, but from the corner of my vision, I noticed that needles were flying closer towards its eyes. Time slowed down for me at this point as the Xenos insect noticed the needles approaching it and tried to leap away. I was not about to let this opportunity escape, and so did John.
Despite not having high agility, John somehow managed to grab hold of one of the insect's legs, preventing it from escaping. I was already in my mid-swing to use both Kirin's Thunderbolt and TSOB, ready to unleash both attacks towards the insect. To my surprise, the insect sliced off the leg that John was holding to escape my twin attacks. The insect spread its wings and started flying, seemingly pissed at what had just happened.
But little did it know that it was far from danger. Violet had cast Accelerate at the very moment the insect tried to escape, giving me an opportunity to smoothly catch the needles that Violet had thrown and toss them towards the insect's eye. It swatted away the needles before they reached its eye, only to find that Violet had thrown more of her own. Alas, it also swatted those away with ease; but our plan had worked well enough.
Silently approaching from behind due to its relatively small size, John's axe, which he had thrown earlier ahead, came from behind and sliced through one of the wings of the Xenos insect. John is definitely the MVP of this fight, as his ability to teleport and recall his axe is invaluable.
The insect fell straight to the ground as it could no longer keep itself aloft. However, upon crashing onto the ground, the whole earth rumbled as the landscape began to rupture, causing the entire ground we were standing to become uneven.
"Insolent humans. Removing so many of my limbs. How am I to search for a mate looking like this?" It sighed as it somehow managed to stand despite missing a leg.
This Xenos insect is strong enough to actually ruin the entire landscape with a single punch? I'm amazed that it had not gone batshit crazy with us yet. I took a quick glance at John, who was smirking. He better not get cocky; this insect is still powerful despite losing some of its limbs.