Divide and Conquer(3)

Loran ran forward, chasing after the Iron Ant that he had sent flying with [PULL]. Once he caught up he swung his Bone Pick upwards, knocking the insect higher into the air. Repositioning himself and deactivating [SPRINT], he waited for the ant to come back down before attacking with another heavy swing.

Thanks to his high DEX, Loran was able to aim his attacks well enough to repeatedly launch the dazed and confused Iron Ant into the air.

'Landing any clean hits will be difficult once it has the ability to dodge again,' he thought. 'I may as well take advantage of this while I can.'

Unfortunately, although the ant wasn't that large, the iron in its carapace gave it a decent amount of weight, and Loran needed to swing as hard as he could to keep it in the air. It wasn't long before his arms were too tired for the precise movements, and the ant fell to the ground.

When it landed the ant's movements were rather sluggish. Although it was only fifteen seconds or so, tumbling through the air and being repeatedly struck left it disorientated.

Loran didn't have the strength to recreate that situation, but he wasn't going to miss an easy opportunity to attack. Throwing his backpack to the side, he closed in on the Iron Ant.

Activating [CRITICAL STRIKE], Loran struck at one of the Iron Ant's legs, hoping that they might be a bit more fragile than the rest of the insect's carapace.

He was wrong. Although the ant let out what Loran assumed was a shriek of pain, the carapace itself appeared to suffer minimal damage.

As if the pain cleared its head, the Iron Ant went on the offensive, charging straight for Loran's leg.

Loran kicked off the ground, evading the attack with a flip before dashing forward to create some distance. Although it needed a moment to turn around, the ant was not far behind him.

Loran quickly turned around to check how much damage the ant took.

{HP}: 304/390

'Not bad,' he felt, 'but not much considering how many times I've already hit the damn thing.'

Looking at the ant's Armor stat and doing some quick calculations, Loran realized that his attacks couldn't be doing much more than 10 damage per hit, or perhaps a little less.

'This is going to take forever if I fight it normally, I need to break through that carapace.'

During his previous fight, Loran had noticed that even though the Iron Ant's Armor stat could be high enough that he couldn't damage it without Skills, he was still able to reduce the carapace's durability. As long as he could focus his attacks on a single spot, he would be able to pierce the shell and cause critical damage to the Iron Ant's internal organs.

The only problem was that he didn't have Yang to hold it down for him. He was going to have to continuously land hits on a target that was nearly as fast as him and even more evasive.

"Heh, oh well," he said to himself, "I needed the target practice anyway."

As the ant went for another bite, Loran sidestepped it and aimed an attack at a damaged spot on the ant's thorax.

The ant hardly flinched from the blow, quickly turning to attack him again. Loran evaded while going for another attack, but missed.

As Loran's attack glanced harmlessly off the side of the Iron Ant's carapace, the insect turned its head and bit at his arm.

Loran took in a quick breath and pulled his arm away reflexively. Unlike Yang or Zed, Loran's STR was lower than that of the Iron Ant. If it managed to latch onto him it was most likely that he wouldn't be able to pull it off.

As one arm pulled away the other went for another attack, landing accurately on the damaged part of the ant.

The ant dashed between Loran's legs before turning to attack. Perhaps the ant thought it was attacking from Loran's blindspot, but [DANGER SENSE] told him exactly where the large insect was and what it was trying to do.

Before the ant could attack, Loran spun around while swinging one of his picks downward. Using [PULL], Loran sent the ant flying towards a nearby Maple tree. He chased after the airborne ant, hoping to land another attack just as it hit the tree.

Unfortunately, the Iron Ant landed feet first against the tree trunk and, in less than a second, launched itself at Loran.

Panicking, Loran tried to roll under the jumping ant, but it managed to cling to his arm. Loran came to a stop and reached for the ant, but his hands weren't quick enough. The giant insect clamped its jaws onto his arm and he felt the pressure on his wrist. It didn't feel too bad now, thanks to his improved armor and this ant being weaker than the other, but he knew that should change soon.

He tried to yank it off, but sure enough, the ant's grip was too strong. Time seemed to slow down as the pain increased and he started running through his options.

He thought about trying to break through the ant's carapace and kill it but quickly discarded the idea. With his low HP, the ant would snap his hand off entirely before he could ever hope to deal any real damage to it.

He considered slamming it against a tree, hoping to dislodge the ant with the impact.

'Probably won't work, but that still seems like my only chance.'

Loran winced and looked at the Iron Ant as the pressure increased again. Despite his panic, he noticed a small gap between his arm and the base of the ant's jaw. The gap was about an inch wide, but the sight of it made an idea form in Loran's head.

Activating [SPRINT] to move more quickly, Loran took his Bone Pick and shoved the pointed end into the gap. Pulling on the handle, Loran used his weapon as a crowbar to pry the Insect's jaws away from his wrist.

*CRUNCH*

As the Iron Ant was pulled away from Loran, he felt as much as he heard a sickening noise come from his wrist.

"Gaaahh!" He screamed as he clutched his arm to his chest, dropping his remaining weapon.

Suddenly his mind went blank.

He couldn't feel his hand, but that made perfect sense.

The Iron Ant still had it, hanging from its blood-covered mandibles.

Loran didn't look down, whatever it looked like was going to distract him.

The fight wasn't anywhere near over.

The ant shook its head, its mandibles were caught on Loran's bracers. Once the distraction was removed, it charged at Loran again.

Loran, keeping [SPRINT] active, was now fast enough to dodge the Iron Ant's attacks without too much focus. He didn't like the idea of spending too much SP to defeat a single ant, but he was desperate and needed to assess the situation.

Creating some distance, Loran checked his menu.

{HP}: 75.2/100(-10)

{SP}: 231/300

'Only twenty-five points of damage?' A part of Loran felt that amount of damage couldn't be right, but he didn't have time to think about that. He noticed the reduction on his HP and looking down the page, he saw what he knew was coming.

[SEVERED HAND]

Remaining Duration: N/A

Reduce Maximum HP by 10%

Reduce DEX by 10%

[BLEEDING]

Remaining Duration: 5 seconds

Lose 2 HP per second

[SEVERE WOUND]

Remaining Duration: 6 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 55 Seconds.

Taking damage to the afflicted area will impose a [MINOR BLEEDING] debuff.

"Shit!" he spat through gritted teeth. "I did not come out here to die to a fucking ant."

Quickly picking up one of his dropped weapons, Loran went back on the attack, furiously striking at the damaged point on the Iron Ant's carapace.

With the boost from [SPRINT], Loran landed hit after hit while easily evading the ant's attacks. The pain from his injuries was gone now, his anger and frustration making him hyper-fixated on fighting and killing the Iron Ant.

As the battle continued, more and more damage accumulated on the ant's back. Soon enough, the Iron Ant shrieked as the carapace split open.

Loran flipped his pick around for the final blow, but when he swung the ant began moving to retreat, causing his attack to miss the hole and bounce harmlessly off the carapace. Having avoided death, the Iron Ant fled between Loran's legs.

Turning around quickly, he brought the pick down too fast for the ant to avoid.

The Bone Pick buried itself in the Iron Ant's wounded thorax. The insect wasn't quite dead yet, using the last of its strength to make one last attack at Loran's leg.

Loran stepped back to evade the attack, pulling his weapon from the ant's back. Loran struck the Iron Ant's head with the blunt side of the pick, knocking it back and finally killing it.