Chapter 67: I Love my Arrows
If Silas and his girls thought that the rift was going to give them a breather, then they were dreaming, because it didn’t plan to do that. In fact, it planned on ending them for real this time. The moment they crossed the one-kilometer mark, the world around them seemed to go silent. The wind died, and the crunch of snow beneath their boots faded. Even the birds vanished.
Silas stopped walking, his eyes glowing as countless threads spread around him, and he felt something.
"So..." he muttered.
"Something bad?" Gromda asked.
"Something very bad."
Chloe’s icy blue eyes narrowed. The next second, the ground exploded, and a massive creature burst from under the snow, showering the surroundings in ice and dirt. It looked like a giant praying mantis, except this thing was nearly twelve feet tall. Its body was covered in black crystal armor, its forearms were enormous serrated scythes, with crimson veins pulsing beneath its exoskeleton. But it wasn’t the only one. Within seconds, over thirty of them surrounded the trio.
[Monster Identified!]
[Crimson Reaper Mantis]
[Rank: C]
[Traits:]
- Extreme Speed
- Reinforced Exoskeleton
- Pack Hunters
[Leader Detected!]
It seemed that the system had gotten an upgrade, but it wasn’t time for that. A deafening screech, echoing, making the snow-covered hill behind the swarm explode apart. A giant emerged. It was fifteen feet tall, with dark crimson armor instead of black. Its scythes were twice as large, with its body radiating visible pressure.
[B-Rank Crimson Reaper Queen]
[Recommendation: Good luck.]
"..."
Silas looked at the system notification and commented.
’You’re becoming less helpful.’
[And you’re becoming more suicidal.]
The Queen screeched, causing the swarm to attack. Everything exploded into motion. Thirty C-Rank monsters rushed forward simultaneously, making the snowfield a blur. Silas reacted first. A gigantic pink circle appeared behind him, with thousands of glowing runes rotating within it.
"Piercing Arrows."
Twenty arrows materialized and vanished, and the world lit up pink. Entire sections of the battlefield disappeared, bodies exploded, snow evaporated, and trees shattered. Seven mantises died instantly, with three more losing limbs. One got erased from existence so completely that even the system seemed confused.
[Target status: ...]
[Target status: Dead.]
[Target status: Extremely dead.]
"Nice."
The remaining monsters didn’t care. They kept coming. Gromda roared, green light erupting around her fists. Her muscles swelled while the ground shattered under her as she prepared to attack. A mantis lunged at her, and she met it with a punch. The monster exploded after their clash, causing green shockwaves to rip through three more behind it.
A second mantis swung a scythe, but Gromda caught it barehanded and ripped the entire arm off, causing the monster to scream. She used the detached limb as a club and attacked three more, sending them flying. One vanished over a hill... nobody knew where it landed. It wasn’t like anybody cared.
Meanwhile, Chloe had become death itself. Her expression remained cold and emotionless, but beautiful and terrifying. Around her, the temperature dropped instantly. The battlefield froze as ice spread across hundreds of meters. Several mantises became statues before they even realized what happened. Chloe raised one hand, and the statues shattered, scattering thousands of frozen fragments through the air with so much ease that it didn’t seem like she was fighting monsters that could take down towns. Her power was overwhelming.
And that made the Queen notice her. Its instincts screamed danger. Meanwhile, Silas continued firing arrow after arrow, explosion after explosion. The battlefield was chaotic as the swarm was rapidly thinning. His vision suddenly blurred.
"Huh?"
Another arrow formed, but it flickered out of existence. His head suddenly felt heavy while his breathing became ragged.
"What?" he frowned in confusion.
[Congratulations. You finally found your limit.]
"Oh."
[You’re forcing an S-Rank weapon skill repeatedly against dozens of C-Ranks. Did you expect infinite stamina?]
"Honestly?"
[Yes.]
"Kind of."
[Idiot.]
Silas dismissed the circle, his chest rising heavily. This was new. This was the first real drain he had felt since awakening. This wasn’t physical or mental, but something deeper. The cost of power. Unfortunately for the monsters, he wasn’t done.
A mantis suddenly appeared before him, its scythe descending with lethality and speed, but he just grinned. He had seen it from miles away.
"Perfect."
Two daggers appeared in his hands as his eyes glowed a deep pink, almost red. The Blitzing Wolf Fangs. Lightning exploded around him as the scythe collided with one dagger. Electricity surged through the mantis, freezing it instantly and stunning it.
Silas disappeared from in front of it, and the second dagger flashed. Its head rolled through the snow. Another appeared instantly. He didn’t buckle. He twisted one dagger in his hand, curled his hand back like he was about to throw a javelin, and threw it straight at the creature. The mantis tried blocking with its scythes, but a C-Rank against an S-Rank, the outcome was evident. It died with the dagger piercing its head and a hole in its limbs.
The second dagger vibrated, and the first dagger ripped itself free and flew back while the dead mantis collapsed.
"Okay. I like these."
The Queen finally entered the battle. The giant monster charged directly toward Chloe, its scythes tearing through the frozen terrain. Every step it took cracked the earth. Chloe narrowed her eyes.
This one was different. The Queen crossed fifty meters in a second and was pushing very close to her when a massive figure intercepted it. Gromda. She collided into it with her shoulder. The collision created a shockwave that flattened nearby trees.
The Queen screeched, and Gromda smiled. They charged again, but Silas arrived beside them, his gauntlets covering his fists: Boulder Smashers. The Queen swung first, and Silas blocked, but the impact launched him backward.
Snow erupted everywhere while his arms vibrated and his eyes widened.
"That hurt."
[It’s a B-Rank. What did you expect?]
"Fair point."
The Queen attacked again, but this time, Silas punched. The gauntlets detonated with force, causing the Queen to stagger, its armored face cracking. It looked shocked, and Gromda didn’t waste the opportunity. Her glowing fist slammed into its side, shattering its ribs.
It screamed, but that wasn’t the end of it. Chloe raised her hand, and the world froze. She activated her ability: Absolute Zero, causing an iceberg to explode upward from under the Queen, and trapping its lower body.
"There we go," Silas grinned. If anyone were to see them facing a fifteen-foot-tall monster... He pulled back his fist, and the gauntlets glowed. He had activated Rebound, and the Queen sensed danger, but it was too late. Five stored impacts, five times the force, followed Silas’s punch.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The entire mountainside shook while the Queen’s head exploded. Its body remained standing for two seconds before it collapsed. The snowfield became silent. Thirty-one monsters were dead. The trio stood amidst a battlefield of shattered ice, broken earth, and monster corpses. Silas sat down immediately.
"Okay. I need five minutes."
Gromda sat beside him while Chloe remained standing, cold wind blowing through her white hair.
[Good news.]
"What?"
[You survived.]
"..."
[Bad news.]
"What now?"
[Something stronger probably heard that fight.]
Silas stared at the sky.
"..."
"Of course it did."
