[back at the top of the west mountain]
"Leon! Distract these damn insects for a bit, I am going to try and help out Mako!" Erin shouted as she defended herself against several regular Terra Beetles that were ganging up on her.
Erin's eyes were glowing white and she was trying her best to reach Mako but was getting blocked by a horde of Terra Beetles.
***************
[1 Hour Earlier]
At first, all of them were doing alright as they were full of energy and were able to keep up and fight the swarm of Terra Beetles, but soon their numbers were just too much for them to handle, and as the fight continued, they started fighting more conservatively in order to save as much energy as possible to try and not get wiped out.
All three of them had been fighting constantly against the other Terra Beetle King, but this one had changed the strategy completely. Using its underlings, it ordered them to strategically target and overwhelm Mako, Leon, and Erin while it fired lightning attacks from a distance.
It was a great strategy to wear out all three of them and finish them off when they won't have the energy to fight back.
Initially, there were almost 180 regular High-tier Terra Beetles that were actively engaging the three of them. At the start, all three of them had full energy and were easily able to deal with the swarm of the regular Terra Beetles with each of them killing around 20-30 each.
However, they had used a major chunk of their energy and stamina to reach this point and there were still Terra Beetles that were coming after them.
The main reason for this was that none of them had a strong area of effect skill that could kill all of the regular Terra Beetles in one go and they couldn't manage to kill them one by one because as soon as they focused on one, three more Terra Beetles would attack them from their blindspots and if they don't, the Beetle King would shoot another round of lightning attacks that would do crazy damage if they couldn't dodge.
Since these were Lightning ability users, they wouldn't be very much affected by the Electrical Impulse or any other Lightning move as they had a natural resistance against it which put Mako at a disadvantage as he couldn't use the Storm Caller staff to its true potential in the fight.
Their pace was slowing down and their precision fell as they continuously battled, which led them to make mistakes and get hurt. Even Mako was having trouble dealing with the Terra Beetles as every big move he had that would deal with the Terra Beetles required some time to charge up, time that he obviously didn't have.
With the sheer number of the Terra Beetles, he could ask for Erin or Leon's help so he could charge up because they themselves were also occupied with a group of Terra Beetles who were shooting lightning bolts and raising earth spikes at them.
Things were looking bad but then suddenly, 50 or so Terra Beetles quickly stopped attacking them and left the battlefield towards Iris and Bill's direction.
Soon they heard a loud splashing sound that shocked all of them, but since it was quite dark, they couldn't see what had happened over there. Mako thought that it sounded like something very big landing in the lake, but he wasn't completely sure and he left his thoughts at that as the Terra Beetles didn't stop attacking.
Mako and the rest were worried about Bill and Iris but right now they couldn't help but feel relieved as this significantly reduced the number of Terra Beetles making them a lot more manageable.
He just internally prayed for Iris and Bill to be alright and then resumed fighting the Terra Beetles alongside Leon and Erin.
The three of them quickly regrouped and started fighting back with newfound strength and determination, killing more of the Terra Beetles but since they had expended a lot of energy reaching this point their speed and progression were slow.
For the next 20 or so minutes, the trio actually took advantage of the Beetle King's passive nature which was that it wouldn't directly attack them and only use long-range attacks. They created a lot of distance between them and the Beetle King which made it easier to dodge the lightning attacks while they slowly dealt with the regular Terra Beetle.
Things were starting to look better for the trio as they were actually able to manage the lower number of Terra Beetles.
Mako realized that the Beetle King might not engage them as long as there were a good amount of Terra Beetles attacking them so he instructed Erin and Leon to try not to kill the Terra Beetles straight away and instead just try and dodge them while recovering their energy so that they could then quickly finish them off and deal with the Terra Beetle King alone.
Erin and Leon agreed with Mako's suggestion and switched from offensive to evasive as they barely used their abilities and just relied on their natural strength, speed, and power to dodge the Terra Beetle attacks.
It wasn't quite easy to do as they were still High-tier beasts and could do some serious damage if they weren't careful, but with all three of them working together and watching each other back, they were easily able to keep the Terra Beetles at bay and enter a stalemate where they passively recovered energy.
The plan was working for quite some time and the trio was able to recover some energy and recuperate a bit but then all of a sudden, the Terra Beetle King stopped attacking from long range and started dashing towards Mako.
The dynamic quickly shifted as all three of them were quickly reminded that this wasn't just any regular wave and that an advanced-tier beast was their opponent.
They were caught off guard by the Beetle King's sudden change in tactic which resulted in Mako getting slammed away like a bug by the Beetle King's strong legs.
However, Mako wasn't badly hurt and he was able to save himself from a harsh and painful landing by releasing his fire aura as a booster to propel him in the air. He wasn't a strong enough Fire ability user to actually propel himself in the air, but it was enough to decelerate him and allow him to land safely on the ground.
The Beetle King didn't switch targets as he rushed after Mako alone, aiming to take them out one by one.
Erin and Leon quickly jumped into action as they knew Mako wouldn't be able to deal with the Advanced-tier beast alone, but suddenly the Terra Beetles also became a lot more organized, and instead of engaging them anymore, they did everything in their power to prevent them from reaching Mako or the Terra Beetle King.
Erin's eyes began to glow white again as she was ready to go all out to quickly deal with the Terra Beetles, but they didn't engage her at all and only blocked her path by raising earth walls with spikes where ever she moved, completely preventing her from reaching Mako.
************
The reason for the sudden change in tactic was that the Beetle King had a greater sense of vision than even the regular Terra Beetles and it saw the other Terra Beetle King get killed by a human.
This prompted the Beetle King to pick up the pace and finish off the humans in front of it and not prolong the fight as initially planned.
The Beetle King senses the strength of all three humans who were currently fighting its underlings and detected Mako to be the strongest and made him its target. It instructed the Terra Beetles to switch from offense to defense and to stop the other two humans from reaching it as it dealt with Mako alone.
*************
[Present Time]
Leon sped through the swarm of Terra Beetles near Erin and stabbed them with his shiv, trying to pull their agro onto himself, but it seemed like they were robots programmed with a purpose because they didn't even react to being stabbed and continued to just defend themselves and block Erin.
"Ahhh! They aren't budging! They are bent on keeping you locked in there!" Leon shouted in frustration as he dodged the lightning strikes from the group of Terra Beetles assigned to keep him at bay.
Leon couldn't do anything to help Erin because, unlike last time, he could just dig a hole underground and escape with her as the Terra Beetles also had the Earth ability and could quickly dig to their location.
"Leon use your Fire ability! Mako said that it was their weakness!" Erin shouted from within the earth walls that continuously generated as she broke them down with her strength.
"But I am still at level 1, it won't be enough to kill them!" Leon shouted.
"Just do it! Even if it doesn't kill them, it is bound to do damage, and if they fear fire, they might disobey their orders from their so-called king and try to retreat!" Erin shouted back.
Seeing as they had no other plan of action, Leon decided to give it a shot. He stabbed the Beetles who were trying to attack him in the legs so that they wouldn't be able to chase after him and then he circled towards where the density of the Terra Beetles was the greatest.
Even though his fire ability was small and wouldn't do a lot of damage, Leon summoned as much fire aura as he could as both of his hands erupted in flames.
Since he didn't know any fire skills, he tried his best to imitate Mako's Fireball skill and created an unstable ball of fire that he quickly threw toward the Terra Beetles.
Just as Leon has released the skill from his hands, a silhouette of a familiar figure landed in front of him.
"Bill?" Leon said in confusion.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l