Targeted by Six SS ranks

*Swish*

The moment the monster opened its eyes, it didn't even care about either Ren or Whitebeard.

Though the presence it brought with it, had both turn 100% vigilant. This was the real deal.

Ren especially had to focus even more. He felt an instinctive feeling that he would be flattened immediately if the monster chose to attack him first.

'Damn it,' And it was something that had him grit his teeth. As, despite everything he did so far, he was always meeting opponents which brings him the feeling as if he couldn't do anything.

But he would never wallow in place and wait to die. He would always give 100%.

Similar to his vigilance, as he held his spear tightly and coated it in haki, the old man also griped his bisento.

The old man also used Haki on his hands and weapon as he eyed the monster both visually and with his observation.

This boss monster wasn't like any other monster now…

It had entered a new realm of strength.

"Stand back, Ren… this guy has become more stronger than just a newly SSS rank," Whitebeard issued a warning and had even forgone calling Ren as their leader due to the dire situation, and the old man even briefly had the thought that he had inconvenienced Ren this time and might have put him in a tight spot.

All due to the strength he could feel from this monster.

It was almost the same as him. In fact, it was the same, and he felt he could only beat it in terms of destructive power due to his rather unique and powerful trait.

But even if the monster lost in terms of firepower, it wouldn't lose in durability.

They stayed vigilant as Ren was about to do as the old man suggested. It was good to know when to retreat.

But then the monster moved.

The first thing the monster did as the two Highly alert heroes noticed, was attack… one of its own kind.

At that moment Ren knew something was wrong with that, as his very instinct warned him of that.

So, he attacked immediately. Attack first, think later.

*Fouish*

He joined his palms after putting his spear aside, and then he started to gather his mana and use his wind ability.

The wind churned and started spinning around his form before soon a raging massive tornado started to surround him. Rising from the ground and circling around his form, hiding him inside of it.

It spun and increased in height more and more as he supplied it with power before finally, he threw his hands forward, and the tornado immediately followed the movement and went attacking the monster like a hungry dragon searching for food that it can shred apart with its fangs. The tornado shot from the ground like a nocked arrow on a bow being released.

*Swish*

But he wasn't the only one to attack.

If Ren had noticed this and acted so quickly, there was no chance the old man beside him couldn't also do the same.

He had sent his own attack even before Ren had moved.

He had taken a deep breath and then used his quake powers to surround his naginata with a white bubble.

Then instead of swinging his weapon or something, his whole body flashed and reached near the monster ready to swing his weapon and split it apart.

It happened so fast, Ren had just blinked his eyes and the old man was gone.

He had reached the monster at such a speed one wouldn't expect from his hulking physique. Even the ground he stepped on before taking off was completely broken down. A shockwave exploded at that moment.

But even so… it was already too late.

The monster hadn't even bothered to burrow under the ground. Instead, it slithered with its giant limbs on the ground boldly and even ignored both of the heroes attacking it, as both of its stingers aimed for the head of its scorpion kin nearby.

*Shiing*

One swift movement and the attack had already landed. The stingers penetrated the head and body of the lesser scorpion as the boss monster gazed at it in disdain.

It considered itself the strongest member of their specie and felt embarrassment at its weaker brethren.

They didn't deserve to be from the same roots, as such it went and attacked first. It wanted to erase them, as their mere existence would remind it of its weakness before.

But that wasn't the whole and sole reason.

There was another matter, and it became apparent once the dead scorpion suddenly turned into red energy that started being absorbed through the stingers that were still attached to the dead body.

*Frrrrr*

The boss issued a sound akin to being satisfied at that moment as it was absorbing the energy, and only then did the attacks of Whitebeard and Ren come.

Ren's wind cyclone attack that would shred most S ranks and heavily if not outright kill SS ranks was taken directly by the monster.

Yet, surprisingly, it dealt no damage whatsoever.

*Boom*

The sharp winds exploded on its armor and tried to rip it apart, but all that happened was the sound of metal on metal clashing as if the wind blades inside of the cyclone couldn't do anything and penetrate the armor.

Ren was flabbergasted, but then he saw the old man attacking personally and he felt that would work.

'It should, right?'

But then, as the monster had its back to the old man all of a sudden, it turned and clashed head-on with the old man using its own pincers.

Which were seemingly very sturdy.

It first tanked his attack by crossing its hands and then used both stingers which had finished absorbing the red energy, to attack Whitebeard.

The pincers shot through the air at a fast speed.

*Swish*

'It got stronger…'

The old man had this thought as he saw its counterattack. He had noticed the red energy was already absorbed by it.

'It can absorb them to get stronger…'

He then remembered the other six SS ranks remaining and he knew that if it swallowed their energy too, it would definitely reach a stronger state and he wasn't willing to find out by how much the increase was.

As his bisento clashed with the armored hands of the monster he was shocked to see he was struggling to fully land the attack.

The two kept pushing against each other before Whitebeard saw the incoming stingers attack and then detonated the quake bubble on his weapon which threw the monster a bit backward, and the old man ended up dodging the poisonous stingers.

The monster saw this and realized something.

Before it kills this guy, which seemingly was as strong as it, it wouldn't be able to consume the other scorpions and get stronger.

So, it was decided. It would deal with him first.

But it also didn't forget about Ren who attacked it earlier. Even though the attack wasn't anything harmful to it, an ant still had tried to damage it. Unforgivable.

*Eiiiiiiii*

It suddenly shrieked as loud as possible.

Then silence ensued, as the old man and Ren wondered what was going on, before all of a sudden, all SS ranks started to converge on Ren's position where he had stepped a bit backward from the old man and boss monster.

The boss monster felt that its weaker embarrassing brethren should at least do this before it kills them with honor.

The order it gave was to kill Ren. While it dealt with Whitebeard in the meanwhile.

And they couldn't refuse their king's order. Even after witnessing the death of one of their own. They were just wired that way.

Ren's eyes sharpened as he felt threatened by that immediately.

'Crap…'

One of them was fine. Two were manageable, three were barely tolerable. But more than that… he wasn't sure he could come out of that alive.

Nearby, Whitebeard naturedly noticed this, but he was also helpless.

"You're on your own young Ren, I can't afford to look away…"

He wasn't afraid of the monster, rather he was afraid the moment he'd look away or drop his guard, the monster would take that chance to attack Ren and the other monsters to increase its strength.

And that would be all on him.

No, he wasn't ready to make such a mistake.

So, he chose to have some trust in Ren.

'If Ren survives this, I'll make sure he becomes my son,'

Ren though didn't mind.

"Old man, focus on your own things first before worrying about me," He had a grind as he replied.

He knew what was at stake since he first came here.

'I can do this…'

So, even though the chatroom was getting heated with a discussion about coming to save him, he didn't care and immersed himself on this side.

He knew Iris Heart wouldn't come as she knew him by now, and unless he was going to die, she wasn't moving.

*Fouish*

He then raised his body to the sky as he created some wind and destroyed the ground with his jump and flew away leading the monsters away from the fighting place of the old man and the boss monster.

But it wasn't easy.

As he was trying to escape, the scorpions followed his form tightly and kept attacking him. Their speed wasn't slow at all, and they could keep up easily.

But Ren only grinned.

He wasn't just taking them from this area where the boss monster can at anytime sneak attack him. No, he also had some plans regarding that.

He was changing the terrain to someplace he could fight them all in without getting overwhelmed by their numbers.

But, as all can use acid to attack, and their long stingers too, it wasn't easy for him to keep dodging.

The stingers whooshed through the air as they wanted to puncture a hole through him, but as his observation was quite high, it was a bit manageable to dodge a few attacks.

'But I can't keep it up forever…'

He knew he couldn't keep that up.

And it was evidenced when the scorpions used their tails.

The stingers passed him by a hair's breadth as he dodged hastily, and they impacted the earth leaving deep craters inside of it when their stingers landed.

Seeing the damage, Ren certainly didn't want to take on one of those attacks.

That wasn't even mentioning that they had poison packed inside. Which he was sure was enough to incapacitate even him.

'Faster…'

He kept flying through the air and increased his speed even more as the attacks followed him closely.

*******************

-Thank you ---Rajesh Bettaswamy--- for once again becoming my patron 🎉

-Please vote. The voting can help the fanfic grow up and reach more audiences.

-Special thanks to *"Arun"* ; *"ShadowFangus"* ; *"Coby"* ; *"John Dunkley"* ; *"Heitor Prado Bortoletto"* ; *"Ahmed"* and *"ThatEpicTragedy"*

-Read advanced chapters ahead of the public release:

https://www.p.atreon.com/ThighsSeeker