Mantis Stalks the Cicada…

"Search around these parts." A Merit Priest from the Garobu Faith muttered at the group of Priests following him. They were a team of six that had exited Garobu City in search of Dullip and Iota.

The one in the lead was a man named Yuddu, sporting an androgynous face and body structure. He was the most resourceful among the group of six and hence took charge of leading them through the mission.

"Let's move in pairs and be within the sight of each other." Yuddu said in all seriousness, "This region is frequented by the Kjallar, so stay on your guards."

"Got it," The rest nodded as they divided themselves into groups of two and set to search along the banks of the river.

Kaack!

It hadn't even been a minute before a Kjallar began to approach a pair of Priests from their back, stealthily. Upon noticing its arrival, one of the Priests searching farther away made a bird's cry. This way, they didn't alert the Kjallar but notified the targeted group.

The targeted Priests calmed down as they eyed each other before suddenly sprinting in opposite directions, for a moment stunning the Kjallar.

But immediately after that, the Kjallar targeted the Priest named Vuruna, the woman among the duo with the shortest stature. So, it assumed her to be easier prey.

'As expected, it's after me.' Even though her heart thumped in tension, Vuruna maintained her cool, watching the Kjallar rapidly close in on her. She rushed towards a palm tree and leapt into the air, condensing a sickle with a blunt-bladed end.

She extended it and hooked the sickle around the palm tree trunk, using it as a lever as she converted her straight jump into a rotary motion, curving around the tree sharply as she leapt forward and continued to run.

The Kjallar rushed past the palm tree and slowed down. By then, Vuruna managed to successfully increase the distance between the two.

The feline eyes of the Kjallar stared at Vuruna's escaping figure as its arm flashed past, severing a tree branch.

Unlike the one Dullip faced, this Kjallar's arm had a shell shaped into a blade, sharp enough to sever a thick branch easily. The arm then coiled around the branch as the Kjallar lifted it and took a step forward, craning its body backwards before arching it forward with force.

By raising the tension, it cranked the tensile stress within its arm, causing it to lash forth like a whip as the branch was thrown with force.

Swoosh!

"Watch out!" One of the Priests shouted in alarm as Vuruna condensed a Sickle and threw it back with force, causing it to expand in size and slam into the tree branch, thereby slowing it down. This allowed her to barely dodge the branch and avoid injuries.

But in the short few seconds she rolled on the ground, the Kjallar almost caught up to her as its arm flashed out, intending to sever her into two.

Boom!

A rice grain slammed into its shoulder, jerking its body from the impact, tilting its arm as a result. The bladed end barely missed Vuruna.

The Kjallar stared in the direction of the attack, glaring at the figure of a woman who had calmly poised herself atop a tree. She inhaled slowly and held the air in her chest, compressing her chest despite not exhaling the air.

And then, she exhaled with force through her mouth, spitting out sharply as a rice grain shot out like a bullet and slammed into the Kjallar, poking a small hole.

"Tch!" The Priest that had attacked with the rice grain snorted, "My attacks barely get under its skin. it's too tough and I lack the necessary firepower."

"Just maintain the attacks. You're still able to injure it, albeit shallowly. It's enough to serve as a distraction." Her teammate stood on the ground and commented, ready to face the Kjallar the moment it came their way.

In the meantime, Yuddu rushed towards the Kjallar as he condensed his sickle and faced it head-on. Though, the moment his sickle met the Kjallar's blade, he was sent skidding back by a couple of metres.

His sickle sported a large nick while the opponent's shell blade was barely damaged. "It's way stronger than us."

"Well, it makes sense, since even a Spirit would struggle to kill a Kjallar." He muttered, not losing focus as he bought time for the other Priests to get into position.

A Merit Priest only had a tenth of a Spirit's power. So, even when combined, the strength of the six Priests paled in comparison to a Spirit. Moreover, they were from the Garobu Faith, and not suited to extreme combat.

"Farraiha, keep up with the attacks." He muttered and threw his sickle, watching the Kjallar flick its arm like a whip and lash it away. Farraiha was the one shooting rice grains at the Kjallar.

"Now!" Another Priest, named Tebula, shouted upon approaching close enough to the Kjallar as she spat out, almost vomiting out a litre of a toxic substance. It was a pesticide that sprayed upon the Kjallar's face, causing it to grimace in pain.

At this moment, Vuruna's brother, named Vurunul rushed close to the Kjallar, dodging the whip-like thrashing as he touched its thigh and rolled away.

In a matter of seconds, the touched part turned into soft mud and fell off.

"Retreat!" Yuddu shouted, "Let the pesticide take its effect. That'll weaken it."

'Hmm, they coordinate their attacks well, despite being vastly weaker than a Kjallar.' Thinking as such while hidden within the river water was Iota, watching their fight. Right as they began to retreat, Iota stealthily inched his right hand forth, out of the water and aimed it at Farraiha, shooting a syringe—with fish blood—at her right at the moment she landed on the ground.

Kya!

Farraiha gasped for breath all of a sudden as she collapsed to the ground, unable to move as gills formed on her neck.

"What the heck is that?" Tebula was shocked upon seeing the gills. She became alert, wondering if another Rave Beast was nearby.

"It's your time to act, buddy. Just don't kill them." Iota smiled as he patted a certain figure with his left hand.

A second later, the Kjallar with a hammer shell arm exited the river water and rushed towards the figure of Yuddu that was the closest, hammering an attack at him.