“Copy that. Retreat and signal if you find something you can’t handle, we have a bird on standby to get you.” A voice clipped over a radio Lucian and Annabelle held between them.

  “Alrighty.” Annabelle hummed, before clipping the radio back to her belt. She looked up at Lucian, “Yeah, I know you want to fight whatever it is. If it isn’t way stronger than us we can try.”

  He chuckled, “Guilty as charged.”

  “Of course you are.” She rolled her eyes and smirked, “Alright, great hunter, shall we continue?”

  “Totally, just gimmie one second here…” Lucian crouched down by one of the beetles and activated [Manifest Weapon]. Instead of appearing as a longsword, a hunting knife made of the same blue energy shimmered into being in his grip. He slid the knife against an exposed edge of the beetle’s armored chitin, where he had cut the insect in half initially, then pushed.

  “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” Annabelle watched him as he removed a segment of the material from the beetle before scraping it clean.

  “Who knows what kind of applications or weird properties this stuff has.” He dismissed his knife and stored the chitin plate in his bag.

  “True, might make good armor. If it retains the general property of being resistant to conventional weaponry like the monsters are, that would be neat but not necessarily useful for magical armor.” She mused.

  “I suppose we’ll see won’t we?” Lucian stood up stretched a bit.

  The pair decided to follow what tracks they could identify that the beetles had left. After about half an hour, they encountered more activity. A group of slightly larger beetles with much more pronounced mandibles were chewing away at a rock poking up from the ground amid some trees. Nearby, a single much larger beetle about the size of a car was keeping watch.

  Lucian fired off [Analyze] twice as they watched from behind a few trees further away. The Spirit cost started charging [Spirit Barrier] as the skill activated.

  The one Worker he had [Analyze]d was level 19, and he assumed all of the workers were around the same level but he wasn’t going to burn through more Spirit to double check.

  When he [Analyze]d the Soldier, it actually reacted, its body shifting as though it sensed the skill being used on it. It began to turn towards the trees where they watched.

  Lucian nodded to Annabelle and shot forward towards the Soldier, summoning his longsword as he moved. Annabelle stepped around the tree and turned her attention to the group of Workers.

  The Soldier fully turned itself to face Lucian as he reached it and swung. The Soldier jerked its head, parrying his sword with one of its large blade-like mandibles. Lucian noted they had a more polished sheen than the rest of its carapace as he stepped to the side and brought his sword up to his chest before cutting downwards with [Penetrating Strike].

  He assumed that its armor would be even tougher than the Scout’s armor had been - and he was right. Despite his skill, his sword didn’t cut very deep, slicing about half a foot in before getting stuck. He tightened his grip on his weapon and tugged hard, wrenching the blade free and stumbling a few steps back before the beetle bucked, raking its mandibles through the air beside its body where he had been a moment before.

  Lucian’s tail helped him recover from the stumble quickly, “Tough cookie, huh?” He grinned and adjusted his stance before activating [Heightened Manifestation]. His blade thrummed with Spirit as shimmered and enlarged, tip dipping towards the ground slightly as its weight increased.

  Lucian pushed forwards, bringing his oversized blade upwards and cleaving it down while again activating [Penetrating Strike]. The blade’s edge shone white and it cut through the air.

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  The beetle tried to parry the strike as it had before. Lucian felt his blade meet resistance, then felt that resistance give as he cut clean through the metallic mandible and into the ground as the beetle moved slightly to avoid the upper portion of the strike.

  Lucian flowed into the next move, pulling the sword from the ground at the same time as he made an upwards cut, using both [Penetrating Strike] and [Slash]. The sword flung soil aside as it cleaved upwards from the ground, striking against the side of the beetle and cutting deep. It let out a loud hiss and jerked its head sideways.

  Lucian had cut the mandible closer to him off, but it did still have one left. It stabbed it towards him, and with his sword buried in the monster’s side he didn’t have many options. So naturally, he chose the one no sane person would have.

  He pulled his left hand from the hilt of his blade and it shot out towards the incoming mandible, wreathed in the blue aura of [Spirit Barrier]. The sharp edge of the pincer slowed slightly as it contacted the skill, encountering resistance where it shouldn’t have. Lucian’s hand moved faster than the mandible did, grabbing the dull edge of the appendage and directing the mandible’s point away from his chest, causing the desperate attack to miss. He deactivated [Heightened Manifestation], and easily pulled the blade free with one hand as it shrunk back down to normal size before leaping back away from the soldier as it regarded him with something between caution and fear.

  He took a breath, his left arm was rapidly starting to ache from the exertion, but he couldn’t be more pleased with himself.

  “You’re insane. [Poison Bolt].” Annabelle laughed and sent a green bolt streaking into the soldier’s side, the energy washing into its carapace.

  “I’m having fun! Leave me be.” Lucian fake pouted, glancing over towards her to find the Workers all dead, a green mist lingering on the ground around them. He looked back to the larger beetle and chuckled, “Well, I felt some of my skills level up, so you can’t say it wasn’t for nothing.”

  Working together, the two made short work of the soldier, especially since it was heavily injured by Lucian’s attack to its side. He felt himself level up as well as it died, and then took a moment to review his gains.

  Lucian laughed, “Damn.”

  “Something good?” Annabelle leaned into him curiously.

  “Just a lot of progress, 3 skill levels, and I’m level 33 now.” He said, smiling and glancing down at her.

  “Oh, very nice. I leveled [Banecloud] and [Poison Bolt], and I also got a level up - 32 now.” She said with a smile, “That was impressive, by the way.”

  “The redirect thing?” Lucian asked.

  She scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Obviously.”

  Lucian laughed then took a moment to collect the Soldier’s mandibles, and they spent a bit looking around.

  “Looks like this rock over here is high in iron.” Annabelle noted, gesturing to the rock the Worker beetles were breaking apart.

  “Do you think they were feeding, or collecting?” Lucian walked over and gave it a look.

  “No way to know for sure. I’d be interested in seeing their nest.” She mused.

  Lucian grinned, “Then let’s keep following the tracks.”

  “You know what? Lets.” Annabelle nodded, and they were off once again.