*BOOOOOOOOOM*
An explosion of immense power rocked the plains. Hundreds of Hercules Warrior Antlions either got ripped apart, crushed, or melted from the intense energies in the blast. A second later, a person returned to the center of the explosion with a face warped in pain.
"Fucking hell that hurt. I need to find a way to optimize [Dance of Past and Future]." Geo who drew his sword then prepared to attack the still remaining Warrior Antlions, due to the various buffs, although they weren't as durable. They could hit just as hard if not harder than the beast.
"Not to self I also need to find a way to lure them all in." At his words, something came at him at high speed. Geo brandished his bone katana and split the thing into. He got splattered by the blood of the thing though.
Extremely annoyed at getting bathed in blood, he drank a vial and refilled a bit of his calibers, when he looked up a few more objects were falling from high above. The big bloody falling pieces of meat were actually Jormoungandr's heads.
"Well, he seemed extremely pissed." All the tension of the battle evaporated when the gigantic being known as Lord of the Desert swatted Hiro around like a fly. At its departure what got left behind was a Wolfen butcher that got its pride shattered.
Suddenly a figure wrapped in Astral armor appeared near him with white hair. Geo then raised his hand for a high five which the figure ignored. "Lars come on man, why so cold?" Lars then looked at him and tried to make an awkward smile.
"Does Aurum Standar need assistance?" Geo then looked at an Aura-covered knight being smacked around by a 30-Meter Ant with a woman's torso on its chest. "Hmm, I don't think he does, the queen for one does not want him dead."
Lars nodded and looked towards the flying cultivator stabbing swords into the giant ass spiders chasing after her. "Then I shall assist Tsugumi Mitsurugi." At his announcement, the man leaped into the air using spirit footholds.
"Still can't use to that guy, I know Lars told me it's still him but it doesn't feel like it." Lars upon conquering his survivor's guilt gained a plethora of new abilities. [Astral Form: Larua] which while increases the adopted son of Kirch base abilities by a factor of 10.
In Astral form, he uses SP as fuel thus once he bottoms out the mode is forcefully canceled. This would be a problem if not for his other skill [Divided we fall]. This skill allows Lars to stock up on SP in exchange for EXP. Similar to Geo's [Rewind] their skills used EXP as payment.
Thus Lars in theory can use [Astral Form] without caliber cost except but instead use EXP. The implications of being able to use EXP for combat naturally started to shift their focus. EXP allowed one to become more powerful, but if before you become powerful you die then it is useless.
A negative of paying too much EXP is the loss of Caliber and HP refills upon leveling. If they gained more such skills in the future the focus of battle would change if leveling or getting exp to use skills.
For now, however, that wasn't an issue as Hiro's kill window allowed them to gain absurd amounts of EXP, but they need to be methodical otherwise they will not be able to raise their levels.
"Well, nothing much I can do about it now, numbers are just that numbers, we can grind it like everything else." Geo then attacked the Warrior Antlions lurking around him. With the Lord of the Desert gone and Hiro no longer using his taunting skills, the sun returned to the sky and was not about to set. "Let's get this done, so we take a long rest at Partisan."
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Aurum smashed against the ground for the nth time and got back up within the same second.
- Why do you resist me human? Come to my embrace. -
Contrary to what Aurum heard if anyone else saw him, all they would here were sounds of hissing and clattering of mandibles. The origin of the voice is the large Hercules Antlion Queen in front of the blond warrior.
Unlike normal Antlions, the queen's thorax is connected to the rest of its body vertically like a human. This raised the Queen's head above causing it to appear larger than it really was, in terms of power she outperformed even Goliath Dragoneater Spiders. However, that was not what made it so dangerous.
There lay a naked woman with a beautiful face and shapely breasts and white blemish-free skin on the insect's thorax. This appendage which actually didn't do anything for the queen allowed it to murder countless adventurers and battle harems.
Internalizing the lesson of using the beauty of the female body, even monsters started morphing themselves to have human traits. These traits garnered sympathy and drove humans wild with lust to protect them.
The number of high-level beasts with female human faces and near perfect figures and large breasts was quite high. The queen used her two scythe-like arms to strike at Aurum while using its four legs to maneuver quickly on the ground. Its abdomen which looked like a stuffed balloon grotesquely contracted every few seconds.
Even though the son of Standar had [Noble Fencer] and [Harmony Swordsmanship] the stat gap, prevented him from dominating the monster.
- Does your wife not love you handsome? She doesn't deserve you. Come to me and cover me in your fluids. -
"Your seduction game needs work monster." Luckily Hiro already shared [Husband's Loyalty] otherwise Aurum would have again been used as a puppet. Internally the San-Baka decided they should buy min guard-type skills as soon as possible.
As the queens, its honey trapped said all kinds of lewd invitations for Aurum to fuck its brains out. The main body kept circling the blond knight while prodding Aurum with quick attacks to get a feel for his defenses.
The monster actually grew annoyed the contracting of its abdomen was actually a call to its warriors. Even after numerous attempts none came about. It normally didn't hunt its own food and simply waited for its nurses to feed it. But a mating call and an incredible energy signature called all of them to leave her.
Perplex, she checked and saw only the high-level warriors remained. Thus she left to get them back. As a queen, she felt each and every one of her broods. Thus to feel them all die in extremely large quantities made her vengeful. But as she felt the energy radiating from Geo and the Spirit pressure from Lars. She opted to kill the weakest one instead.
Yet she couldn't more of her warriors died and they already grew extremely close to extinction. It's a good thing its main rivals the Five-tailed terror scorpions, the Jormungandrs, and the Goliath Dragoneaters also were all here, at least no one would hunt her eggs.
However, she needed to finish this and leave quickly. In order to refill their ranks she needs the flesh of a system user of sustenance. Without one they will not last the season.
The monster slicing off the heads of the Jormungandr terrified her. The entire Hercules Antlion colony needed to band together to fight against one of the. And here they were getting decapitated like grass. If she didn't leave she would soon follow.
