12 The Giant Commander Beetle

Nicole cut down a small tree that stood in the way with just a swing of her alloy sword. The sword was an auxiliary gear that came with Eric's Arsenal body armor. It was not only extremely sharp but also highly tensile, making it the perfect tool for clearing paths and for combat.

"Wait a second!" Qin Hao suddenly called out to Nicole, who was leading at the front.

"What?" She looked back.

"Something's wrong!" Qin Hao knitted his brows together.

"What's wrong?" Nicole did not look too happy. She was a special forces soldier, and sneaking through the jungle was her expertise. In comparison, Qin Hao was only a freaking mess cook. Now, it sounded like he was questioning her judgment, which made her extremely pissed.

"I can't tell what it is…" Qin Hao just had a strong uneasy feeling, but he did not know what it was about.

"Then stop the crap and follow quietly. Don't cause trouble here!" Nicole was losing her patience with Qin Hao; he was a burden.

After Nicole shot Qin Hao a disdainful look, she continued to move forward carefully. Qin Hao and Lucia trailed after her again.

"You found something, Qin Hao?" Lucia asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, but I can't tell what." He was still frowning. Ever since his severed arm grew back, he had been feeling different.

His vision was better than it was the last time; not only could he see in the dark, but he could also adjust his focus length. He could spot targets that only low-power telescopes could pick up.

Apart from his vision, his auditory perception had also been enhanced. Minor sounds in his surroundings could not escape his ear. Besides, he could track the source of a specific sound in a noisy environment.

On top of that, he had also sensed a tremendous increase in his bodily strength. Nicole had her infantry body armor, and Lucia her powered exoskeleton. However, all he possessed was his physical strength. Trudging through the dense tropical forests was not a walk in the park since the high humidity and rough terrains were real challenges to one's physical stamina. Strangely, after traveling half a day in the jungle, Qin Hao did not feel tired at all.

It looks like the insectoid has not only given me the badass regeneration ability but also enhanced my overall physical strength! Qin Hao thought to himself. He was not ready to tell anyone about it because he did not want to become a lab rat.

As Qin Hao followed Nicole and continued on, his uneasiness got worse.

Damn it! What the heck is going on? The bad feeling irritated Qin Hao, but he still did not trust his intuition.

Previously, he never had any intuition when it came to danger, so he trusted Nicole to make better judgments than him. After all, she was a special forces soldier. Therefore, he fought back the uneasiness and chose to trust Nicole.

Nicole wielded her sword and cleared a path in front. Just as she was ready to move ahead, Qin Hao did something without warning.

"Watch out!" Qin Hao lunged forward to grab Nicole by the armor on her waist and pulled her back forcefully.

Nicole jolted and flew backward. Startled, she instinctively swung her sword to the back.

Qin Hao caught her wrist in a split second. "It's me! Calm down!"

"What the heck are you doing?!" Nicole could not help but raise her voice, and they were both oblivious of something.

Nicole was a special forces soldier and by no means weak. Standing at 1.7 meters, she weighed 50 kilograms. With 200 kilograms of infantry body armor and a sword, she was carrying over 250 kilograms in weight. Yet, Qin Hao could pull her back with just one hand despite not wearing a powered exoskeleton.

Nicole had used all of her strength in her reflexive response. That, coupled with the help of her powered body armor, enabled her to cut down a giant tree with just one sword strike. But Qin Hao had neutralized all that energy with extreme speed, strength, and reflexes.

"I—" Qin Hao tried to explain that he had pulled her back because his intuition told him there was danger.

Just as he was about to speak, the ground where Nicole stood on a second ago, burst open all of a sudden.

A loud screech echoed as a giant beetle burst out of the ground.

Lucia screamed with her heart in her mouth.

"Fall back!" It was not the time to ask questions. As a special forces soldier, Nicole's first reaction was to aim her electromagnetic rifle at the giant beetle and shoot.

The bullets hit the giant beetle as if they were hitting some high-density alloy; they did not cause any harm to the bug.

"Look at its head!" Lucia screamed.

Qin Hao and Nicole looked up and saw a bronze-colored horn on the head of the two-meter-tall giant beetle.

"Damn it! This thing is a commander!" Nicole's face collapsed, knowing that a commander giant beetle was far tougher than an ordinary giant beetle. Her electromagnetic rifle was not powerful enough to penetrate its shell. If she wanted to kill the thing, she would have to use the energy grenade.

"Get back! Get back!" Nicole shouted as she took out an energy grenade. She was wearing body armor, so detonating an energy grenade at a relatively close distance was not going to cause her harm; perhaps a minor concussion at most.

"Okay!" Qin Hao had experienced how lethal and terrible the energy grenade was. He grabbed Lucia, and they threw themselves behind a mound.

"Go to hell!" Nicole pulled out the safety pin and threw the grenade out. As strong as her body armor was, she was not so stupid to detonate the grenade too close to her.

However, that giant beetle was apparently not stupid either. When Nicole threw the grenade, it parried with its front leg and kicked the grenade away.

The energy grenade exploded with an ear-shattering boom, but because it was far away, it did not inflict any harm on the giant beetle. Instead, the shock wave and flying dirt hit Nicole. She was bedraggled from head to toe.

"Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!" Nicole threw out all three remaining energy grenades she had. Unfortunately, it seemed that the giant beetle had seen it coming. It hit the incoming grenades away, and they were the only weapons Nicole had that posed a threat to the giant beetle.