Chapter 34: Mantis’ Rampage

The Mantis screeched!

A sound that seemed to rise up from the depths of hell tore its way out of is razor like mandibles, like the anguished cry of something that had just lost its will to hold back.

Which, in fact, it had.

Beast Slayer’s punch hadn’t just cracked its armour — it had hurt the Mantis. Deeply so. A pain unimaginable spread all throughout its body. Viscera spilled from the Radiant Beast’s mangled torso, with a thick purple goo bubbling in the air like acid.

The chitin along its midsection had been crushed, not just cracked, and the wound exposed soft, vulnerable tissue that had never seen the open air before today.

And it was pissed.

The Mantis went feral.

It launched itself into a wild frenzy, wielding its sharp scythe like forelimbs up as a pair of wings unfurled from its back, flaring them so violently that the sudden pulse of air knocked over one of the Radiant Slayers foolish enough to get close while it was in such a chaotic state.

Then with a twitch of its forelimbs — no longer following the same, robotic like movements — it began its rampage.

FWISSHHH! FWISHHHHH!

Wind blades exploded out from the beast’s limbs, causing a chaotic barrage of air pressure sharp enough to carve boulders to fly directly towards any Radiant Slayer in its purview.

Nick ducked lower into the underbrush as the wind screamed above him, roaring like he’d never heard before, slicing through tree branches and sending leaves flying like confetti.

One of Beast Slayer’s cronies wasn’t so lucky though.

The man’s left leg flew off in a near spiral mid sprint, trailing blood like a ribbon before his body collapsed into the dirt at an awkward angle.

’Oh fuck me…’ Nick muttered internally, not daring to use his voice.

Another wind blade shot past, so close that he could feel it tug at the loose areas of his clothes, landing on that downed lackey, ceasing his life in that instant.

’Double fuck me!’

The other two cronies that had been trying to flank the Mantis screamed orders to each other, clearly panicking as they tried to dodge the seemingly endless torrent of attacks. But the Mantis wasn’t anywhere near done.

It was just getting started.

It leapt forward, legs pounding on the earth with such force that clumps of dirt and grass were launched like shrapnel.

Its scythes became a blur. It wasn’t even trying to attack precisely anymore — it was just attacking everything, everyone, with wild ferocity.

One Radiant Slayer tried to block an incoming attack with a summoned Beast Armament Shield.

A second later, both shield and man were bisected in two down the middle.

Beast Slayer himself was no longer trying to control the battle either. He had no choice now.

The calm, controlled aggression that had marked his earlier movements was replaced with the full, furious desperation of a man who was now fighting a creature who had nothing to lose.

“KEEP IT BUSY!” He shouted orders, smashing his fists into the Mantis’ legs to keep it from using them to leap away.

Fortunately, it seemed to not have enough energy to both fight so ferociously and take flight using its unfurled wings, only able to hover a few metres off the ground at most.

His gauntlets flared up with even more of his red aura with each attack he dealt. His blows didn’t quite pack the same punch as his first, crippling one to its midsection, but they hindered the Mantis regardless.

For every attack he landed, cracks would open in the Mantis’ chitinous legs, causing a geyser of insect blood and crushed armour to flow outward every time.

And yet, for every wound he caused, the Mantis retaliated with two more.

Another Radiant Slayer tried to jump into the fray, following Beast Slayer’s orders to keep it busy and distracted from him.

He made it exactly three steps before a stray Wind Blade took his head off so cleanly that his body didn’t even realise it for a full second, staggering another two steps forward before crumpling like a puppet that had lost its strings.

Nick crouched in his bush, completely still.

He didn’t blink, lest the minute sound it would cause alerted the Mantis. He was a statue. A rock. A slightly hunched, sweaty, murderously patient rock.

’Come on… just a little more… get it to rear up again… Come on, you psycho, do the big heroic finishing move thing…’

He wanted Beast Slayer to end the fight quickly.

But he didn’t want him to win, per se.

And right on cue, as if the god of irony blessed Nick personally, Beast Slayer surged forward in an explosive charge, pushing 50% his built up red aura down to his feet to give him a massive speed boost off the ground, leaving the other 50% in his fists to deal the final blow.

His body blurred in Nick’s vision, too fast for even his eyes to catch.

If Nick didn’t act soon, he would miss his timing!

Nick narrowed his eyes.

’That’s the cue!’

With the Mantis still in a mad frenzy, weakened from his earlier hits and focused entirely on Beast Slayer’s explosive approach, there was a brief opening to be taken advantage of.

Nick couldn’t hesitate any longer.

He summoned his Radiant Beast Spear.

Just a sudden, violent appearance of the long, silver-white scaled spear in his hand.

And then Nick threw!

All of his strength, every ounce of it, was poured into that throw.

He’d even activated his Speed boost Beast Armament too, just to give it that extra little boost.

The spear cut through the air rapidly, since the extreme sharpness at the end of its spear cut through most of the wind resistance that might have slowed it down.

It whistled past the chaos.

Past the screaming, dismembered Radiant Slayers. Past the wind blades. Past the bodies and blood and broken bits of Mantis.

And slammed directly into the crushed section of its torso!

A millisecond later, Beast Slayer’s fists were brought down onto the Mantis’ skull, crushing down to minced paste, marking the end of its chaotic reign.

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