TEOCH 12

With a whoosh, the bloodstained, razor-sharp foreleg tore through the air toward me. If I hadn’t leaped immediately, it would have pierced me on the spot. I steadied my stance and struggled to lift my head.

The praying mantis-like monster, its crimson body speckled with black spots, appeared to be three or four times my height. It shook its triangular head back and forth with a hissing sound, glaring at me and my companions.

“Damn it, a praying mantis…!”

We were unlucky. Or perhaps my judgment was poor. I had thought it was safe since the ant colony had left, but the real danger wasn’t the ants—it was this mantis.

It had likely been lying in wait above the canyon with patience and tenacity. Ignoring the numerous and troublesome ants, it waited silently for us—smaller but seemingly easier prey—to let our guard down.

Before I could catch my breath, the next attack came rushing in. Barely dodging the foreleg that struck down with alarming precision, I located Tristan. Fortunately, Rikiel was standing in front of him, shielding him.

As Rikiel swiftly swung his sword to deflect the foreleg, it veered away from them with a loud clang. Rikiel staggered slightly but regained his balance just in time to narrowly block the follow-up attack. The mantis’s missed foreleg slammed into the ground, shattering a rock with a booming crash.

“Draw your sword, Your Majesty!”

While dodging the third strike, I shouted to Tristan. Thankfully, even before my shout, he was already standing, drawing the short sword from his waist. Rikiel, nearly toppling backward, managed to block the next attack.

His skill in precisely parrying the rapid onslaught was impressive, but the mantis’s forelegs were far stronger and more powerful than his arm strength. Rikiel’s face twisted fiercely as he adjusted his grip on his sword. He had nearly dropped it from that last blow.

“Your Majesty! Stay still and remain behind me!”

“Damn it, don’t say stupid things! Your Majesty, get away from Sir Rikiel right now! If you stay behind him, he can’t dodge the attacks!”

I shouted while dodging another strike without looking back. It was almost an acrobatic feat, but the foreleg’s movements were so fast that I had no time to track them with my eyes. In this situation, the only thing I could rely on was the intuition honed through years of experience.

Fortunately, Tristan seemed to heed my words and immediately stepped back. Rikiel, grinding his teeth, dodged the next strike. The sharp spines lining the mantis’s foreleg narrowly grazed the edge of his cloak.

—Kiiiii—!

The missed foreleg struck the canyon’s rock wall this time. With a deafening roar, the wall collapsed, and countless pebbles rained down amid the dust. Thanks to Tristan grabbing me and tumbling backward, I narrowly avoided being buried under the rubble.

Panting, I stood up. The falling debris seemed to hinder the mantis as well, as its previously blindingly fast attacks slowed momentarily.

“Haa, haa…”

We barely managed to form something resembling a formation and faced the mantis. After several attacks without significant results, the mantis glared at us with ferocious eyes.

But this was still just a taste. I desperately scanned the surroundings for an escape route, but the grim conclusion was that there was no way out of the canyon without defeating this mantis.

“Should we retreat deeper into the canyon?”

“No. We might encounter other monsters deeper inside. If we stumble into an ant nest, it’ll be uncontrollable!”

“Then the only conclusion is that we have to defeat this monster.”

“Exactly. …Sir Rikiel, keep its left foreleg in check. With your abilities, you should be able to handle it.”

I devised a strategy with Rikiel’s skills in mind. His first skill, “Taunt,” drew a significant amount of the monster’s attention to himself. It was an incredibly useful skill for this game’s strategy, where others distracted the enemy, allowing me to land critical hits. Rikiel nodded at my words.

“And you?”

“I’ll take the right foreleg. Your Majesty, join me in attacking the right foreleg. It’s too much for me alone, but with our purification abilities, we can manage. Destroying the foreleg would be ideal, but honestly, that’s tough… Let’s hold out until it shows an opening and then attack its body.”

Whether Rikiel openly grimaced or not, I resolutely raised my sword. He nodded, acknowledging there was no better alternative, and Tristan stood beside me with a pale, tense face.

I tried to maintain a calm expression, but I was just as nervous. The strategy I proposed sounded simple, but executing it was extremely difficult.

The mantis’s attack speed was nearly impossible to follow with the eyes. Its predator-like reflexes caught even the slightest movements of its prey, and its grotesque forelegs, lined with dozens of sharp daggers, could tear flesh with a mere graze.

Dodging those attacks required luck, and landing a hit during an opening was no ordinary feat. Even with decent equipment and leveled-up stats, this monster was tough to face. In our first hunt, hoping to survive was almost greedy.

“It’s fine. I can protect this man at least.”

With that thought, I stepped slightly ahead of Tristan. He held his sword in a surprisingly steady stance, and I felt reassured seeing it. We gripped our swords tightly, took a deep breath, and as the dust barely settled, the enraged mantis’s attack surged toward us.

“Your opponent is right here, you vile monster!”

As if understanding Rikiel’s taunting shout, the trajectory of the mantis’s left foreleg, aimed at me and Tristan, twisted in an odd direction. Rikiel immediately leaped to dodge the attack. Tristan and I tried to target the mantis’s body in that gap, but the swiftly swung right foreleg forced us to retreat.

Still, the roles seemed roughly assigned. Rikiel consistently taunted to draw its attention while blocking the left foreleg’s attacks, and Tristan and I struggled to break through the right foreleg’s defense to strike the body.

“Ugh…!”

Of course, those attempts repeatedly failed. The right foreleg’s attack, which I couldn’t dodge in time, grazed my left arm, and before I could feel the burning pain, the impact staggered me.

I quickly pulled holy water from my pack to stop the bleeding, but the searing pain in my arm didn’t subside. Tristan, who had been drawing the mantis’s attention in my place, shouted with a grimace.

“Are you alright, Rohan?!”

“I’m fine! This kind of injury is…!”

“Recklessly targeting the body is too dangerous! Can’t we do something about that foreleg instead?”

“The monster’s attacks are too fast for that!”

“But at this rate, we’ll be the ones taken down first!”

Tristan was right. During the ten-minute skirmish, neither he nor I managed a single proper attack on the monster’s body. All we could do was retreat from the relentless right foreleg’s assaults. At this rate, we’d tire out before the mantis did. Swallowing the pain and standing, I made a decision.

“Alright, let’s try to do something about the right foreleg first! If one foreleg is gone, its movements will slow!”

I recalled the maneuver Rikiel had pulled off earlier. He had deflected its attacks multiple times, but with my current strength, I could only attempt such a feat once at best. If I missed, it wouldn’t be the monster’s foreleg but my body torn to shreds—but I had no choice now.

“Your Majesty, aim for the moment I deflect its attack! You’ll be able to strike then!”

“Got it!”

I shouted at the top of my lungs and charged at the monster’s body again. Though the foreleg’s swing was too fast to track, it was still just an insect. The mantis’s attack patterns were relatively simple. I could deflect it at least once.

Infusing my sword with purification energy, I swung with all my might. As expected, the mantis swung its foreleg at me. With a clang like metal striking metal, I felt something shatter at the tip of my sword. My blade had broken through the mantis’s foreleg shell.

Realizing my strategy had worked, I felt a fleeting surge of triumph. If Tristan could land another attack now…! But that triumph turned to excruciating pain in an instant.

“…What?!”

With a flash of light, my body was flung into the air. Before I could process the pain of being struck squarely in the stomach, my body slammed into the ground with tremendous force.

It felt like every bone in my body was breaking. Coughing violently, I tried to stand, but the paralyzing pain made it impossible, and I collapsed, rolling on the ground.

“What the hell?!”

Coughing frantically, I looked up. A few spines on the foreleg were broken, proving my attack had landed, but the mantis seemed unaffected, continuing its assault unscathed.

“My attack definitely hit. So why…?!”

As I groaned in confusion, I noticed a fierce red aura emanating from the mantis’s right foreleg—something that hadn’t been there before. Then it hit me. Why my attack hadn’t worked, and what caused the excruciating pain that struck me.

“Damn it, even with the increased difficulty, this is too much!”

“Rohan, are you alright?! What happened?!”

“Your Majesty! Don’t attack its right foreleg! It’s hosting a ‘counterattack’ parasite!”

“A parasite, what does that…?”

Before Tristan could finish, the mantis swung its right foreleg at him again, with undiminished force. He barely dodged, but as soon as he did, the mantis’s left foreleg targeted him.

In a panic, Tristan swung his sword. He managed to deflect the attack, but the tremendous impact sent him flying backward. I wanted to check on him immediately, but a thought struck me first.

“Sir Rikiel?!”

“Cough, cough…!”

I called out to Rikiel, who should have been handling the left foreleg. But instead of a reply, I heard violent coughing. Enduring mind-numbing pain, I scrambled up and saw Rikiel, his face purple, coughing as if he were about to choke.

“Damn it, I forgot to infuse purification energy!”

It was my mistake for overlooking the fact that the atmosphere’s toxicity had intensified with the increased difficulty. Normally, we could endure for about forty minutes, but with the higher difficulty, it seemed even twenty minutes of fighting caused adverse effects. At this rate, leaving him unattended for over thirty minutes could lead to death by poisoning!

I hurriedly infused purification energy into Rikiel. Fortunately, he steadied himself, though shakily, but the monster’s attacks didn’t wait for us to regroup.

—Kiiiiii—!

With a ferocious cry, the mantis swung its right foreleg at me.

I tried to dodge, but it was already too late.