The elite
Henry shook his head "We can't, I don't know what is happening to me but I choose to trust my intuition on this. At least one of us has to become strong or one monster may end us all."
Josh said, "Uh, guys? if you want to fight there is your chance, a huge red insect coming straight for us, its bigger than the ones from before.", pointing outside the door.
Henry quickly turned around and saw the huge red praying mantis, almost twice the size of the others and a darker red, anger begun building up inside him when his incredible eyes saw the human blood in its blade arms.
Richard said "Henry lets run, this one looks much stronger."
"It already saw us, this things are two fast for us to out run it." Henry didn't say anything else, his blue eyes glowed, a blade of blue light grew on his knife and wind spun around him, boosting his speed.
Without fear he walked outside, looking at the chest of the mantis, where he saw a glowing red stone inside the body of the mantis, his instincts telling him it was something dangerous.
Unlike the others, the elite red praying mantis did not screech for backup, it was very confident on taking down this small prey, just like it had done a minute ago.
Taking the initiative Henry created an Hellflame on his empty hand and threw it towards the mantis, who easily dodged with a leap to the side.
Not planing to leave his son Richard had also walked outside, Having hunted for many years he didn't miss the chance to take a shot at the giant mantis head.
Completely against his expectations the elite mantis had put his blade arm in front of his head an instant before Richard shot, defending his head with this swift movement.
Following his combat instincts Henry took the chance and leaped towards it, swinging his sword at its chest. But once again the giant mantis defended with its blade arm, but even still it suffered three shallow cuts on its body from Henry new multiple strikes skill.
Seeing that Henry had taken its full attention Richard aimed again and took another shot, hitting and destroying the mantis big left eye this time.
Henry immediately leaped back, seeing the glow of red core increase in intensity his instincts screaming for him to retreat.
His instincts did not fail, as the mantis screeched loudly, inputting in it a paralyzing magic that affected even Barbara and Josh who where hiding inside the store.
It lasted for less than a second but it was enough break Richard and Henry offense. Henry immediately put his sword in front of him like a shield, defending the swift repeated attacks of the raging mantis.
Henry found himself at the other end of the multiple strikes, shallow cuts appearing all over his arms and chest.
Even with its incredible speed and intuition the loss of its left eyes proved to be critical, impeding him from seeing Richard shoot the bullet that created a hole in his neck.
The mantis stopped attacking, staggering backwards, as it rapidly lost its vitality. Angered by the pain he was feeling Henry slashed his sword at it, cutting the head of its neck.
He breathed heavily, his arms and chest covered in blood, his shirt a rag, as watched the elite giant red praying mantis fall on the ground, lifeless.
Two blue screen appeared in front of Henry, one telling him he had leveled up twice, and gained quite a lot of stats due to a skill, another telling him he completed a hidden challenge.
Richard, which had also leveled up twice, closed the screen and ran beside Henry and asked "Are you hurt? You are bleeding, come lets get inside and patch you up."
"I am fine, they are just superficial cuts. But yeah lets go inside, wait first." Henry walked beside mantis and looked at its blade arms, not seeing any mark from the bullet that hit it.
His kitchen knife turned into a sword again, he cut both of the arms off and opened a hole in its chest, taking the red core and the blade arms with him hoping he could make some form o sword with them.
Seeing Henry entering the store Barbara ran to him extremely worried, she said, "My god you are bleeding so much, come sit down. Take this shirt off".
Stopping his mother from taking his shirt off, Henry tried to calm her down saying "I am fine, I am fine, the cuts are superficial, the muscles of my arm is hurting more than them, that thing hit like a truck."
As soon as she heard he was fine she went into scolding mode "What has gotten into you?! Are you trying to kill yourself! Don't ever try this again, we are staying inside here until the army shows up, and I don't care what you think of the army.
And you, why didn't you stop him?! He could have been killed, what if you shot him, what if…"
Letting his mother scold his father Henry picked a bottle of water from the store freezer, and drank it as he read the achievement screen he got
"Challenge: The first elite hunter completed!
This hidden challenge was set up by the god of challenges.
Some gods have took a little interest in you.
Rewards: Healing light (Rare) and one stat point.
Do you accept your rewards Y/N."
"Of course I accept it" Henry thought, pressing on the Y button. In front of him a sheet of old paper appeared, floating in the air, written in it was an extremely complex magic circle that gave Henry a headache just from looking at it.
When he picked the scroll a description screen instantly appeared in front of him, which he read
"Skill scroll: Healing light (Rare)
A powerful healing magic capable of healing even a mortal wound in second.
Effects: Will heal the wounds of the target.
Rank increases: none.
Requirements: Caster must have at least 1,5 mind.
Consumption: 2 mana per second at a normal intensity, 5 mana per second at full intensity.
Tear to acquire the skill."
Josh, who was curiously looking at the red mantis core and army Henry left at the counter, saw him staring at the scroll and asked "Hey Henry right? What is that?"
"This? Its a skill scroll I got from killing the mantis. Hey mom!"
Barbara who was still scolding Richard, which just took it quietly, turned to Henry and snapped at him "What is it?"
"Eh, what is your mind stat?"
"My mind? It is… 1.8, why do you want to know?"
"Hehe, since you are so worried about me then you can be our healer. Take this." Josh heard Henry and really wanted to take the scroll, but he was not crazy enough to be in his bad spot after seeing him fight.
Barbara took the page a bit suspicious and read the skill description. she asked "This, is this real? Heal a mortal wound in second, This sounds fake."
"It should be real, my magical skills are real."
"Wouldn't it be better if you or."
"No, I spend my mana fighting, if I use all of it and need to be healed I will be in trouble. Beside you won't be getting in any fight, so you can just stay in the back and heal us if needed.
What, are you getting cold feat? Weren't you that kept saying you wanted to be a doctor instead of veterinarian?"
Barbara still hesitated even with Henry remark, she thought for a little while then tore the page slightly. The little tear rapidly grew into a full tear by itself and the page turning into green light that entered Barbara head.
She opened her eyes and looked at her hands, not feeling any different whatsoever. She looked at Henry and said "I think something went wrong, I don't feel any power."
Henry said "Look at your stat screen, see if the skill is there."
"Oh its here, its a spell. But how do I use it?"
"You just." Henry tried to remember how he used his skills, but he just followed the weird instincts that came with his transformation. "Well you just use it, its almost lie flexing a muscle you just do when you want to do it.
Hmm, try trying thinking of a light that heals, or wish for it like you do with the stat window, wish to heal me."
Not very confident Barbara closed her eyes and tried wishing to use the healing spell. After a few seconds her hand begun glowing in yellow light that traveled to Henry and covered him.
A soothing feeling traveled thru his body, his cuts and aching muscles quickly became better. But it ended quickly, after five seconds Barbara started felling weak, Richard caught her when he almost fell.
"Honey, are you okay? What happened?" exclaimed Richard.
"Ugh, fell weak, my head hurt."
Josh who had being quiet the whole time said "I know what it is, you must have run out of mana."
Henry nodded "That is quite a deduction."
Josh smiled "Hehe, there was a manga where this happened when someone run out of man. My anime and game knowledge is finally useful."
Having recovered a little, she looked at her stat window and said "He is right, my mana is at 0,1."
Henry said "This is very useful to know, we have to be careful while using magic.
But this healing magic is incredible, it even healed my sore muscles. Just be careful while using it, don't use it for more than four seconds.
Anyway, I feel tired, and you need to rest too, is there somewhere in this store for that" Henry yawned right after saying that, his body feeling tired after the Adrenalin went off.