Just as Bill shouted the heads up to everyone, the ground beneath Iris began to crack and open up. Before Iris could even realize it, the cracks had gotten too big and in the next few seconds, she would become beast food.
"Iris, watch out!" Bill shouted as he used his Wind ability to propel himself forward and manage to save Iris right before the ground completely collapsed, and the mouth of the King Beetle pierced through, trying to eat its prey.
Iris had a look of terror and fear on her face as she was saved just in time and narrowly avoided death.
"You alright?" Bill asked laying Iris down some distance away from the King Beetle.
"Yeah... Thanks a lot for saving me," Iris said in an embarrassed tone.
"No worries, but this getting out of hand really quickly," Bill said as he observed the fighting from afar.
************
"Oh... that was a close one!" A patrolling officer commented as he barely stopped himself from dashing forward and saving Iris from the Beetle King.
Several patrolling officers were tasked with surrounding the entire area and making sure that none of the cadets were killed while fighting that advanced-tier beast and all of them were extremely light on their toes as they had to make split-second decisions about whether the cadets would be able to survive or not.
It was a very tough position to be in as they have to make sure the cadets give their all and fight to the very end, but also make sure that they wouldn't get killed doing that exact same thing.
When fighting an advanced-tier beast, cadets such as Mako and his friends could easily be killed in a single shot which was why all of them were unease and on high alert to make sure the blood of the most promising cadets in quite some time wouldn't be on their hands.
The patrolling officer was just about to rush in and save Iris himself, therefore eliminating her from the test, but in the last second, he observed Bill rushing towards her, and he calculated that he would be able to reach her in time, and so he backed out and it happened to be a right call.
They were lucky that a few other patrolling officers also thought the same way and so no one interfered with the fight. This was done because it could be possible that an officer made a mistake while analyzing the situation and misjudged whether a cadet would survive or not. With several officers observing the same thing, the risk of cadets accidentally being killed is reduced to almost zero.
*************
The regular Terra Beetles were small, agile, and continuously engaging, Leon, Mako, and Erin. The regular Terra Beetles were on their earth ability mode as brown light was being emitted from their plastic-like limbs. They constantly terraform the surface to shoot projectiles and spikes at them, making them have to constantly move.
Even though the First Terra King had survived the initial attacks launched by the group, it was definitely very hurt as it let out a weak and painful shriek after failing to eat Iris. It quickly dug back inside the ground but this time, it kept the hole open and exposed. A second later, every one of them heard an ear-deafening scream that was followed by regular Terra Beetles making their way down into the hole after their King.
The second Terra Beetle King stayed behind as he began to charge more amore balls of lightning to shoot at them from a distance and fry them to crisp with one attack.
"Things are looking bad," Bill commented, "These beasts are very well coordinated and we had such a hard time dealing with them the last time, and now there are two of them."
"What do you mean? Was this the same beast that we ran away from when we found you guys inside that cave?" Iris asked.
Bill only nodded yes and that was enough to make Iris shiver as she remembered back to that time when she was even weaker than she was now, and was inside the same cave as an advanced-tier beast.
"How did you guys beat it last?" Iris asked, "There are five of us here, so that should make it easier for us to take them out."
"Well... we weren't able to defeat it at all. It only took a single lightning attack from that beast that both me and Leon in that critical state when you found us, and we don't know much of what happened next, but Mako fought that beast alone." Bill explained.
"Really... A single... attack did all that?" Iris asked in disbelief and shock as looking back on the battlefield again, she didn't know how they were even supposed to compete.
*thud!* *thud!* *thud!*
Iris' heartbeat started to speed up as pure unadulterated fear started to creep inside of her as she saw the futile effort Mako, Erin, and Leon were doing as they fought against the fifth and final wave.
The Regular Terra Beetles were unrelenting and didn't even allow Mako to think for a single second as they continuously fought to defend themselves, all while dodging the lightning balls, carrying an insane amount of voltage and current, capable of burning whole trees upon impact.
"It's useless, we have no hope of surviving this..." Iris said as she gave up hope and tears started to pool up in her eyes, "We are all going to fail!"
Bill wanted to rush in and console her; tell her that it wasn't over yet and that they should keep fighting to the very end, but he didn't have the luxury of time as some of the Terra Beetles were now making their way over to the two of them.
Bill let out a war cry as he dashed forward, ready to kill all those beetles, one by one.
"I killed you bastards once, I can do it again! Try me!" Bill shouted as he conjured an earth club and launched himself into the air with his wind ability.
While in midair, Bill began to encase the earth club with sand that he had on him. The sand molded into the club, increasing its size and transforming it into a sharp and spiky mace.
"HHHIYAAHHHH!" Bill screamed as he descended onto the Terra Beetles which had switched from Earth to Lightning mode.
*THUD!*
A massive collision took place as Bill hit the ground, kicking up a lot of dirt and dust into the air. The two beetles who were unfortunate enough to be on his landing area were now squished flat and spewing out lots of blue blood.
The dust cloud provided the Terra Beetles with cover as they hid within it pretty well and concealed themselves from Bull's vision. Bill quickly got back up and assessed the situation.
"HA HA HA! Do you think the duct that I created would help you!?" Bill shouted at the hidden Beetles within the dust cloud who were preparing their lightning attacks.
They didn't have to charge for too long as they soon started shooting mini bolts of lightning at Bill. Since Bill couldn't see where the beetles were, they could easily target him with their good eyesight and electrocute him from a safe distance, or at least that was what they intended.
The first mini lightning bolt was aimed at Bill's back; however, before he would get hit by it, he jumped up into the air dodging the bolt completely. After he landed back down, several more bolts came at him from different directions but he was able to dodge them all with ease.
"You idiots! No matter where you hide, as long as you are connected to the ground, I can sense your position and your shivers when you launch an attack." Bill yelled at the beast who didn't understand a word he said.
It was quite precise and unnoticeable but whenever the Beetles launched a lightning bolt, they jolted back a tiny bit as in recoil, and the small vibration was picked up by Bill's Earth Sensing ability and he could move accordingly after he had sensed where an attack was coming from.
The beetles were poorly coordinated and only launched a few attacks at once which was manageable for Bill. He continued to dodge more lightning bolts while marking the location of each and every Beetle in the vicinity.
Since it was dark and barely visible, what Mako and the rest had seen as an army of 20 or 30 Terra Beetles was actually close to a hundred and they were really giving them a tough time as they piled on them and attacked.
After Bill had locked on the location of every single Terra Beetle in the vicinity, he finally was ready to make his move.
"ENOUGH!" Bill yelled as he released a burst of wind from himself, blowing away the dust cloud entirely, and leaving the Terra Beetles exposed.
The sudden burst of wind caused a bit of confusion amongst the Terra Beetles, but that was all Bill needed as he planted his hands firmly on the ground and released his sand aura.
Sharp sand spikes erupted from beneath every single Terra Beetle simultaneously, piercing right through their chest cavity and killing all of them in an instant.
Iris watched in awe as she witnessed Bill's bravery and fighting spirit, but that emotion was quickly overshadowed as she noticed something quite bone-chilling.
Meanwhile, Bill looked back and Iris and smiled. Even though he couldn't have the luxury to console her through words, he was going to prove to her through actions that they weren't going to go down without a fight.
Bill expected a sign of relief on Iris' face, but all he saw was pure panic and fear. Iris tried to get up and yell at the top of her lungs for Bill to look out but... it was too late!
Bill was still confused as to why she was acting this way, but before he could even understand what was happening, he felt a sharp shooting pain on his left arm before he knew it, he was launched into the air and crashed through several trees at high speed.
The second Beetle King had emerged right behind Bill while he was bust dealing with the underlings and with one clean swipe he was tossed away into the forest like a plastic doll.
Iris watched as the Beetle King shrieked and started advancing toward her with murderous intent.
Iris couldn't believe what had just happened. She had given up hope so easily and Bill showed her that there was no need to panic or fear as he fought all of the Terra Beetles by himself, and then when he was in trouble, she couldn't do anything to help.
Many emotions started welling up inside Iris, with the strong being anger, sadness, and guilt. She couldn't help but feel this... this... feeling of being powerless!
"FIGHT!" A voice sounded from within Iris that compelled her to stop her winning and to stand up and face the beast in front of her.
Suddenly, Iris' eyes began glowing blue again, and a sudden wave of confidence flowed through her. She was no longer afraid of the beast approaching her and wanted to take revenge for what it had done to Bill no matter what!
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