25 The Everlooming Threat of a Chaos Beast
Saiph desperately struggled to wrench himself free of the grasp of the domineering Zap Ant.
Much like a dog attack, once the ant got someone to the ground there was little one could do.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Saiph shouted as he kicked at the ant's ugly maw.
Seeing how that was not a very effective tactic, Saiph changed his game plan and started clawing at the ground, trying to pull the gargantuan insect with him over to his backpack.
Still, having only one arm to utilize here meant hardship for Saiph. He couldn't easily leverage himself forward especially not with the massive ant pulling him in the other direction.
He grasped at the base of a fern, which gave him enough leverage to lift his legs off of the ground, heaving the ant off of the ground. Saiph successfully threw the insect a few feet away. As soon as he felt it let go of his leg, he desperately scrambled over to his bag, digging through it frantically.
He found what he was looking for and pulled it out. It was his emergency potion of Minor Acid Splash. He uncapped the glass bottle as the ant started skittering back toward him. With a great exhale of exertion, Saiph chucked the glass bottle at the creature's head.
SMASH
The glass shattered easily upon impact, dosing the ant in its contents. The ant slowly stopped its charge, confused by the assault. Soon, however, it realized what had happened.
Screaming and hissing in excruciating agony, the ant fell to the ground, face melting off from the potent acid attack.
Saiph fell back to the ground, panting from complete and utter exhaustion. He barely had the energy to care about the condition of his own leg, but he did look up to check on if Enzo had been mauled by the queen yet.
To his minor surprise, it turned out that Enzo and the queen were dueling somewhat equally. The queen was clearly dominating Enzo, but it looked like he hadn't suffered a single hit yet.
Saiph then turned his gaze over to his sister, who was also laying on the ground, panting in exhaustion. There were two corpses of ants on the ground next to her.
"Damn," Saiph groaned and got up. He couldn't feel his injured leg anymore so it wasn't too much of an issue at this point. He would just worry about it once he extracted the Blood Requiem Essence from the queen.
He looked over to Velvet, who was doing the same. The two groaned and stretched for a few moments before coming together.
"Let's try and use Magic at a distance to pick her off," Saiph said.
"Yeah, I was gonna say the say," Velvet agreed.
Saiph nodded and ran over to a good position to snipe the queen ant. It had a massive abdomen so he figured it wouldn't be too tricky.
Calling forth the power of Mana in front of him, Saiph mentally drew up an array of about a hundred Runes. Then, after manipulating Mana to energize and activate these Runes, Saiph had a floating circle in front of him, lit up and ready to go: a 1-Circle Spell.
"Cut!" Saiph called verbally.
SHING
The Spell Circle collapsed and a formless ripple in the air flew toward the Zap Ant Queen at an outstanding speed.
BOOM
It collided with the queen's abdomen, aptly cutting a large hole in it. Blue blood oozed out of the gaping wound, dripping down onto the ground.
The queen recoiled from the impact and subsequent pain, giving Enzo an opportunity to strike.
He lunged forth with both of his hands overhead, preparing to deal a death blow to the massive insect.
Unfortunately, the queen noticed his attack and countered by swiping a leg at his exposed stomach, flinging him a few meters away in an instant.
"Damn!" Enzo yelled as he flew away.
The queen ant turned to face Saiph and Velvet, who were standing side by side, and rushed at them. It evidently feared the potent attack Saiph had unleashed upon it.
"Hah!" Velvet grunted as her Spell Circle collapsed, revealing another ripple in the air- this one even larger than Saiph's.
The queen tried to avoid the attack, but couldn't completely due to its momentum and size. It ducked its head down and hit the dirt, but the air blade still sliced its backside open, revealing more oozing flesh and blood.
Clearly worse for wear, the queen hissed ferociously at the teen and preteen that had caused it such grievous injuries.
"Careful, it's gonna start acting very desperate," Velvet instructed Saiph. "It also hasn't used its signature attack yet."
"I know," Saiph replied. "If it had, it would have been extremely obvious."
As if on cue, the Zap Ant Queen's mandibles started glowing and sparkling with electricity as it continued to hiss savagely.
"Damn!" Saiph shouted and bolted for the nearest tree. If that struck him, he would most likely die without fuss.
HISS
KABOOM
The tree that Saiph had dove behind exploded into millions of splinters, some catching him in the face.
"Ahh!" he shouted, grasping his face. He could feel a copious amount of oozing blood completely coat his face already, along with a plethora of splinters embedded in his skin. Luckily, Saiph could open his eyes somewhat okay, save for the blood dripping into them; he wasn't blind yet, at least.
Groaning and gritting his teeth from the pain of a few hundred wooden needles stabbing into his face, Saiph got back up to his feet to inspect the situation.
His ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything, but he could see the vast figure of the queen ant fending off Enzo's brutal assault as Velvet was preparing another Cut Spell, it seemed.
Trying to walk over to them, Saiph realized that he was suddenly on the ground again.
Damn, was he that dizzy? He needed to get up and help them kill that overgrown insect.
Before he even knew it, Saiph was up again and walking over to the two figures brutally cutting and biting at each other.
The ant queen was far more desperate, ruthlessly biting and clawing at Enzo at every opportunity, not caring much for its personal safety. Enzo was clearly on the losing side of the exchange this time around, with many cuts and gashes easily visible.
Saiph didn't really know where his sword was, so he sufficed by once again calling forth a hundred Runes to use the Cut Spell.
He successfully mentally drew up all of the required Runes despite his dizziness- the result of hundreds of hours of training.
By the time he was done, Velvet had already unleashed her Cut Spell. It slammed into the side of the vast insect's thorax, almost completely taking it down. This time, Enzo didn't make a desperate lunge at the ant but instead took a safe swing at one of its forelegs, severing it off in one clean blow.
HISS
The ant roared in its agony and helplessness, but Saiph wasn't going to let it off on pity points. It was a dog-eat-dog world; Saiph wanted his arm recovered- this ant's life was the price that needed to be paid.
"Cut," he murmured as the Spell Circle collapsed into nothingness.
The blade made of air flew straight into the side of the severely distracted ant queen's head, knocking it to the ground.
"Ah," Saiph exclaimed softly. "I got it."
He haphazardly stumbled over to his companions and the fallen Chaos Beast.
"We Are the Reasons why such a powerful beast is now dead like a dog, smeared into the dirt," Saiph muttered, feeling slight enlightenment.
"Damn, Saiph, are you okay?!" Velvet rushed over to Saiph, hugging him tightly.
"Oh, yeah… I'm just fine…" Saiph lightly murmured.
"Hey, don't pass out now. You're the only one who can process the Blood Requiem Essence out of all of us," Enzo warned.
"Ugh," Saiph groaned and slowly stumbled over to the fallen queen. "Is it dead?"
"Yeah, I finished it off," replied Enzo.
"Good, good."
"Are you sure you're all right?" Velvet asked.
"Who cares? I got crap to do," he murmured back.
Saiph once again groaned and got down to his knees, inspecting the state of the ant.
"Get my bag," he ordered.
The two obliged and Saiph quickly had his backpack in front of him.
"Well, we'll see how this goes," Saiph said to no one in particular.
He pulled out an Alchemical Incantata that looked a bit like a hand mirror and held it up to the dead beast for a few seconds. The scanner read that its soul was still intact. Saiph nodded and moved onto the next step of extracting the soul.
He reached into his bag and pulled out another Incantata, this one looking like a fancy metal jar of some sort. Saiph held it up and started to lapse into the world of Mana.
The physical world around him collapsed into nothingness as vibrant lights replaced matter and space. Saiph looked down, gazing at the luminescent ball of lightning the size of his fist below him.
In this world, one couldn't move. Saiph had to mentally coax the everflowing Mana around him to bring this ball of lightning over to the cup in his physical hand.
The Mana dutifully obliged and Saiph backed out of the world of Mana, matter and reality reforming around him posthaste.
Saiph looked down to the jar in his hand. There was a faint illusion of electric sparks pulsating around it, but Saiph knew that it wouldn't hurt him.
Now, for the refining of the soul into Blood Requiem Essence.
