"Poison beams!" Hope immediately attacked with one of her strongest attacks. Beams of concentrated poison that worked faster than clouds of poison. Not to mention they travelled at a much faster speed than clouds.
"Tsk, as expected" Hope spoke in frustration as her beams failed to penetrate the ant’s hard exoskeleton. Which was their weakness, they lacked penetrating strength when the enemy’s defence was relatively strong, not to mention the ant’s hard exoskeleton.
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"Whatever, explode!" She used an ability she had copied from the old Emily of making her attacks explode on impact. Which she did after the first beam failed to do anything. So the remaining beam, as there were two exploded on impact on the ant’s head. Creating a green poison cloud around the head.
Which she had targeted for obvious reasons. The gas under her control immediately seeped into its mouth before disappearing into its body. She didn’t use the purple poison as, after a study, she realised that it couldn’t give the enemy an emotion it did not have.
So the ant which was a soldier ant, wouldn’t have fear to magnify. As for making it angry, that would be a dumb decision. This was because they wanted to finish the battle quickly. While making it go berserk would likely only drag out the battle more.
"Skrrr!" The ant screeched in pain as it felt its internal organs getting attacked by the poison. Slowly eating away at them. It started to dizzily lash around, completely forgetting about attacking the girls.
"Woah, that worked better than I thought it would..." Hope spoke to herself. She didn’t think it would be so effective. After all, that was the first time she had fought with her current strength against such a strong opponent. A crazy plan immediately formed in her head...
"I guess now it’s my turn" Jade spoke as her hands and feet were covered by Beast Aura. The more she converted, the more of her strength she got back. What she got back was even stronger than what she had previously even.
She then sped toward the ant with a wild smile on her face. She had gotten into her battle state. Even if she couldn’t transform. She still could make the ant feel some pain.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
She then ran around the ant, avoiding its flailing body as she punched it anywhere she could. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn’t notice that Hope had sneaked away.
.....
On the other battlefield...
"What are you doing here?...hey!" Chloe asked Hope after she came to them leaving Jade behind. But instead of answering her, Hope seemed to be getting ready to attack.
"Poison beams!...barrage!" Hope screamed as she threw attacks at all the MR2 ants targeting their heads. And then the attacks exploded then, like the first ant, entered their bodies. Also like the first ant, they were weakened and started flailing all over the place.
She didn’t do the same for the remaining two. They had some kind of mana barrier that would block off her poison, so she saw no point in it.
"With this, you can all attack more freely and kill them faster" Hope said before walking to the back. Signalling them to continue what they were doing.
"What a crafty little girl..." Layla spoke to herself in a low voice. She had realised that while Hope helped them by making the battle easier, she would also get some KP from every ant after it was killed. But it was acceptable as only her poison could attack the ant’s body internally like that.
As for Layla and the others. If they tried such an approach. Their abilities would damage the mouth at best, if they tried it. That is if they were even strong enough to get through the defence as it wasn’t like the ant would have its mouth widely open, ready to receive their attacks.
Which was why despite her words. She was actually impressed by Hope. Without further delay, she, along with Emily, immediately attacked the ants intensely.
"Frost Drill!" Layla created a large ice drill above one ant. The drill spun at high speeds. Yet surprisingly it also couldn’t break through the ant’s defence like her prior attacks.
"Burning storm!" On the side, Emily targeted another ant. They were both competing for the remaining ants so she used a rather strong spell. Even though they had not discussed it, they knew that whoever killed their target first would definitely get more KP. Which was because they would move to the next target before the other.
So Emily immediately engulfed the ant’s body. She realised that even if she couldn’t break through its defence in a short time. She should be able to suffocate it right?
After all, the flames would burn away all the oxygen around the ant... But did the ants even breathe oxygen though? Well, whatever they breathed would be burned away.
The ant started screeching in even more pain. Now the poison was wrecking its body while the flames were also cooking it alive. It was definitely having the worst time. Yet unlike what Emily expected, it didn’t seem like it was affected by the lack of air at all.
What she didn’t know was that R1 ants could all go at least a day without breathing. Let alone a MR2. It probably didn’t even notice the absence of breathable air. Its spiracles were closed even before the battle began.
"Tsk, so selfish. They left me to deal with these two alone!" Chloe complained as she kept running around the two PR2s while distracting them. While it made sense for her to be the one to do it because of her high speed. That didn’t mean that she would like it.
"Right... Why don’t you all just let me kill the MR2, and you four kill the two PR2s, two on each? That will save time. And I’m sure the rewards would be quite substantial still," Hope spoke from beside Chloe, almost making her jump from being startled.
She didn’t even sense her approach. Not to mention that she had been running all over the place, so for Hope, who wasn’t that great physically, would appear so suddenly, it was quite surprising indeed.
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"What do you mean?" Chloe asked for clarification. She had a bit of time since she had lured the two PR2s a bit of distance away.
"Nothing much. Just that I’m sure you can all see that the current plan won’t work out too well. Your abilities are all getting countered by the ants’ hard defence. While you all can bring out the big guns. You can only do it once, which would leave you powerless at the mercy of the other ants," Hope spoke with an innocent look on her face as if she was just trying to help. Her words were so measured that it seemed like they were rehearsed.
"Hmm... You’re right. But why are you so sure that you can kill them all?" While she could easily tell that Hope was trying to lead her on. Chloe still played along, after all, what she was saying made sense. They didn’t have all day to worst on the ants. So a change of plans was good.
"Why not let me try and you’ll see. There’s no harm in that right?" Hope replied still looking innocent. Eerily so at that point.
"I’ll only agree on three conditions. First, the others agree as well. Second, you won’t participate in the next beast battle if there are a few of them and lastly, you will stop acting like that right now. It’s so weird, like I’m talking to a manipulative villain or something" Chloe gave her answer.
"Okay, done! The others have already agreed and they also mentioned the other two reasons which I agreed to. But is my mastermind mode really that bad?" Hope, who had already talked to the others, agreed to Chloe’s demands. She was just trying the "mastermind Hope" persona for fun. But to receive such negative feedback really hit her hard.
"Yeah, it’s that bad. I kinda wanted to punch you in the face for a moment there" Chloe replied, not mincing her words.
"Okay, I get it. I won’t do it again. Now step back" Hope replied annoyedly at how she didn’t even hold back. Then she released all her aura.
Boom!
A vague purple energy spread from her covering twenty metres around her. It was still nowhere close to being as visible as Muku’s grey aura or Jade’s Beast Aura, but it was definitely among the best most people could do in the current world.
"Baneful serpent!" She then cast one of her stronger and more costly spells. A giant dark green serpent made completely from poison appeared in front of her. The poison body then struck at the dizzied ant closest to to Hope.
A weird scene to the untrained eye then took place. The serpent, which was about the same size as the ant, disappeared into its body through its mouth. The ant immediately fell dead, acidic juices coming out of its mouth.
The fight ended so quickly that Chloe and the other two, who were looking on from a distance, were surprised. Hell, even Muku and Audrey, who stood far away, were surprised. They never knew that Hope already could one-shot a MR2 beast.
It would have been quite understandable if it was the others who had explosive abilities, but her? They did not see it coming. It was at that moment they all realised that poison shouldn’t only be feared for its ability to kill one slowly while remaining unnoticed if Hope willed it. But it was also just as deadly as the other elements even in normal settings.
Not to mention that Hope wasn’t even using her strongest spell. Which was obvious by how she seemed to still have a lot of mana left. Which wouldn’t have been the case if she used the best she had. None of them were sure of what it was.
Without waiting for the others to react she could see the two PR2s getting closer. She immediately sent out "Baneful serpents" at the other MR2s. Killing them all in less than thirty seconds while the others struggled to even hurt them. This greatly showcased the hidden factor of "natural advantages" which they had not considered before.
"Hehe...I guess you can all get to work now" Hope spoke with a silly smile on her pale face from expending most of her mana. She was happy because of the significant amount of mana she got from the kills that got her one step closer to the peak of Rank Two.
"Yeah, it’s our turn now..." Instead of Chloe replying to her. It was Emily from behind them that was walking toward them with Layla. Battle intent blazing in her eyes. Layla also had the same look. They refused to be upstaged by a junior.
The approaching PR2s paused for a bit feeling like the air around them had changed for some reason...