Swarm's Embrace: Ossa's Perilous Struggle

Swiftly, he dashed towards the nearest core, picked it up, and swallowed it quickly as the wasp was still after him, unrelenting.

They had been up in the sky and had not noticed the massacre, and thus their instincts didn't kick in as they could not sense the strength of a creature unless they witnessed a massacre.

"Mors, how many have I killed so far?" Ossa inquired, as the number of wasps did not seem to decrease.

[ Host has killed about ten mid-tier normal wasps and six tier three wasps ]

"Only 16, how come?" he exclaimed, surprised by the meager number.

The sun was still high in the sky, showing time had barely passed. In battle, a second felt like hours.

[...]

"Ok, let's continue," he said as he had a long way to go to reach the 180 mark.

Buzz!! BUZZ!!

The wasps swarmed him again, but this time he did not fall, holding his ground as he slashed. Most of his strikes hit their mark—the wasp's abdomen—with a few missing.

As a skeleton, he did not feel fatigued, slashing away, their numbers reducing as their instincts kicked in, staying clear of the skeletal abomination.

"Hey, come here," Ossa exclaimed as he noticed that the wasps were staying clear of him.

Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!!

They flew a few meters away from him, backing away as he got closer.

"Huh... Why are they behaving like this?" Ossa inquired, perplexed by their strange behavior.

[ You are massacring them, what do you expect ]

"Oh, is that so..." Ossa said, looking around him. Wasps' corpses littered the ground, golden-yellow cores by their side.

"If they won't attack, then I can get time to absorb the mana cores," he said, approaching a mana core.

"How many have I killed? I have lost count," Ossa said as he swallowed core after core.

[Host has killed 51 mid-tier normal wasps and 18 tier three normal wasps]

[In total, the host has accumulated 80 mid-tier normal life forces]

"80?!... 120 more to go," he said as he looked at the sky; the sun was close to the horizon, indicating the pending sunset.

"Bel?!" he thought as he realized she would be worried if she woke up and he was not around.

[Don't worry, the contractor is still asleep. Her body is slowly adjusting to the large amount of mana she is receiving and will be asleep for quite a while.]

"That's a relief... Then please let me know when she is about to wake up. I don't want to worry her when she wakes and I'm not around," Ossa requested.

[ Will do ]

At ease, Ossa continued to pick up cores, swallowing them.

After half an hour he had cleared the field of its cores.

" The ware bats?! He said as he noticed their corpses, their cores peering out.

He walked towards one of them, plunged his strengthened fingers into it, and dug out the core. He went to the other and did the same.

" How can they be the same color as these weak wasps " He exclaimed as he stared at the two golden yellow cores in his hands.

[ They might be the same tier but their species make them different ]

[ A giant wasp could kill a sonic ware bat if they were to fight one on one, you were at a disadvantage in number and skill ]

The hard exoskeleton of a wasp could defend against the blunt sonic attack of a sonic bat. Due to Ossa's hollow bones, he was easily destroyed by the sonic blast.

" So if I fight them, as I am now, would I win?" He inquired

[ No, you would at least need to be a skeleton knight to win against them ]

" I thought so," He said feeling down.

He took one last look at the cores and gobbled it down, increasing his mana pool.

[ Host mana pool has increased ]

[ Host will undergo a rank up from tier one mystic to a tier two mystic ]

" Ah, almost forgot about that "

[ Process begin ]

[ ... ]

[ Process complete ]

" Is that it, I don't feel any different, what has changed " Ossa checked his body but couldn't find anything new.

[ Your regeneration speed has increased ]

" What about strength or bone mass? " Ossa wanted an increase in bone density to stand a chance against the sonic ware bats.

[ Basic skeleton warriors are naturally weak, even if you reach the dragonic stage, the only thing that will change is your regeneration ]

" Oh okay, but I become stronger after continuous regeneration, right? " He said expecting a positive reply.

[ Yes, that's the silver lining ]

" Great, then let the hunt continue " With determination, he strolled towards the nest of the giant wasps, his axe in hand, yellowish liquid dripping from its tip.

Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!!

The wasps felt agitated as the skeleton neared their nest, where their queen resided.

Throwing caution to the wind, they swarmed him, releasing pheromones to call more of their comrades.

Numbering in hundreds, they flew out of their nest. Their instincts screamed at them to run, but for the same reason, they had to protect their queen. Allowing this abomination into their nest would be dangerous.

"I don't think this weapon would hold," he said, looking at the colony of wasps before him.

The axe was but a rusted antique from the past. No matter how sturdy it seemed, it would collapse after not too long due to the passage of time.

"Well, if it breaks, then so be it," Ossa thought to himself, his eyes burning with resolution.

He wanted strength, a feeling that stemmed far deeper than the imprint of necromancy, perhaps from when he once had flesh and blood.

"Ahh!!!" he screamed internally, his opened jaws mimicking the scream of a warrior.

Buzz!! Unrelenting, the wasps swarmed him.

Swish!! Swish!!

He slashed, each movement precisely aimed at their abdomen. With each slash, a notification sounded, reaping the life force.

Surrounded by the swarm, he fell, as they overwhelmed him.

Crack!! His bones cracked as they slammed him, biting and piercing.

His bones healed, a few seconds faster than before, but it seemed useless as his bones would once again crack.

Overwhelmed by their sheer number, unable to move, unable to counterattack.

"Maybe this was a bad idea."