"Perfect. If Evil Bugs doesn't want to come out, then let him keep hiding in the darkness!" Mary narrowed her eyes and said pridefully, "We can take this opportunity to grow stronger. I will see what he has to fight against me once the snowball turns into a mountain."
"My lady, we must be more cautious when we act as well." Vanlier was concerned, "I am worried that Sir Evil Bugs might lure the witcher knights to our location and force us into the final fight ahead of time!"
"Mm, I understand!" Mary was no longer the reckless girl that fought without any use of her brain. She thought for a moment after hearing this, " The loss of familiars might be tremendous after this fight. However, once those two radiant knights make it through the Embrace, we will have benefitted from the exchange! I will assign another hundred men from my familiar army once the battle ends. You must keep a close eye on that bug. Do not let him come out and disrupt my plans! Do you understand?"
"Understood!" Vanlier immediately bowed.
The battle in the forest suddenly extended into the distance as the two were having their discussion. It seemed the radiant knight was no longer able to endure the attacks of two Blood Knights. He had started to break out of the surroundings.
"Let's go and take a look!"
Mary took to the skies with Vanlier. The two of them turned into a red bat and a gray one as they dove into the forest.
A few of their subordinates that had been in hiding nearby emerged from the bushes, the trees, and the grass after ensuring nothing abnormal had happened after their departure. They then flapped their wings and followed after Mary and Vanlier.
The sound of energy explosions continued to ring out, but the source of the noise was gradually getting further and further.
Finally, after seven minutes, the place where Mary had just been fell silent once again.
The silence didn't last too long. A different and equally odd sound shattered the peace.
The black earth around the tree started to swell. Once it expanded to a height of one meter, it broke, and countless horrifying bugs swarmed out of the hole.
These bugs weren't large. Each of them was only the size of a fist. However, their black shells gleamed with a faint trace of magic.
The black beetles didn't disperse once they climbed out of the hole. Instead, they gathered together and slowly formed an odd humanoid shape.
Finally, the human body made of bugs stabilized. Countless crawling beetles composed Acteon's ugly and horrifying face.
"Mary…Mary…" Acteon let out a chilling hiss from within his bug body, "Do you think you are my opponent without that brat?"
"You want to lure me out and kill me? Kehkehkeh. I too want to devour your swarm of bats and use your blood to forge my great body of bugs. It is almost complete."
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… ooh. Who knew? You already had eight adept-level vampire subordinates! Still, your power is insignificant when compared to the great Acteon, kehkehkeh…”
Acteon hissed, and several larger black beetles crawled out of the hole. They had black shells, green wings, and corpse spots on their backs. His number of carcass beetles had reached a shocking thirty-four.
These carcass beetles were not young like they used to be. After continuously feeding them blood and flesh for the past six months, all thirty-four of the carcass beetles had matured to their adult form. Every one of them could rival an adept.
Even though Acteon's own body was only at the level of a newly advanced adept, he had confidence in beating any elite adepts with the help of these subordinates. He had absolute faith even if he had to face Greem once more!
"Greem…Greem...don't you want to kill me? Well then, I'll exterminate your accomplice first. Then I'll return to the World of Adepts for you! Kehkehkeh."
Evil Bugs Acteon hissed and vented his anger before shutting his eyes to communicate with the insect spies he had placed in the distance. He was surprised to find two 'fish' that had barely escaped the web. And one of them was a prey he craved after– a radiant knight.
This discovery caused him to be extremely happy!
The tens of thousands of black beetles turned into a flood and once again entered the hole under his instructions. They followed the tunnels they had dug underground and quickly closed in on the target.
In just a few seconds, not a single beetle remained on the spot that had previously been a hell of creepy crawlies.
…………
Fifteen kilometers away, by a river in the mountains.
Two disheveled and bloody figures climbed out of the running stream. They crouched on the shore and panted in exhaustion.
Countless black shadows were weaving and circling the woods in the distance as if they were looking for something. Fear crept into their hearts. The two men immediately cast their bodies into the cold water once more, leaving only their eyes and noses above the water. They silently monitored the situation in the distance.
With the cold river water hiding their body heat, these bats that had exceptionally sensitive noses to the aura of humans had utterly lost track of their prey. They found nothing after patrolling several times and had no choice but to disappear into the horizon and search elsewhere.
"Wait a little longer! We will go out once they are far away!" The radiant knight named Soros instructed softly.
Sim could only endure the pain from the numerous wounds all over his body and continued to soak in the water.
The woods around them slowly became quiet.
It became increasingly silent, so much so that the two of them started to panic!
The disgusting and pungent smell of rotting corpses suddenly spread out throughout the silent woods.
Chapter 332 But Who is the Oriole?
The battle erupted!
The two knights were aware of the danger the moment they smelled corpse rot.
However, a black flood of bugs had already surged out of the bushes before they could get out of the river.
Soros knew what these were from his numerous encounters with Evil Bugs. These were no ordinary mutated bugs, but young carcass beetles that had been nurtured with human flesh. They might not be large, but their shells were as durable as metallic armor that was one finger thick.
The toughness of their shells was still insufficient to protect them from death. Soros could kill every one of them with a single slash of his sword. However, there were just way too many of them. Even Soros, with his crushing strength and power, had no means of enduring the surging flood of bugs.
The young carcass beetles had no extraordinary means of attack. They only needed to use their venomous fangs.
They fed on rotten meat. It was natural that the bugs' fangs also possessed venom. Toxins would cling to the wound where they bit the victim. The flesh would rot and stop the injury from healing.
That was why even a radiant knight had trouble protecting himself when faced with a swarm of these tiny, yet sturdy, bugs.
The already injured spellbreaker knight Sim had already been drowned in bugs after killing a dozen of them. Only a human-shaped pile of bugs remained on the spot.
Sla…
A brilliant and blinding light emerged from within Soros' body. The explosion of energy blasted away all the beetles that had gathered around him.
A monstrous storm of energy gathered about his runic sword. However, he hesitated right as the powerful sword technique was on the verge of launching.
This one slash might cause tremendous damage to the bug swarm, but Sim had no chance of surviving the impact either.
Just one moment of hesitation and an intense pain shot up his legs. The carcass beetles had once again closed in on him. They had bitten through his steel boots and dug their claws into his limbs.
At the same time, a small energy storm erupted in the middle of the pile of bugs.
Bugs were sent flying in every direction, along with broken bug limbs and disgusting fluids.
Spellbreaker Knight Sim roared as he char
ged out of the mountain of bugs.
Savage energy flowed around him as he let out a battle cry. He grabbed a beetle with each hand and forcefully crushed them to paste with his bare hands!
Soros was surprised but happy to see this turn of events. He shouted at his companion, "Quick! Come over, and we will break out of this together!"
"Leave me," a severe expression appeared on Sim's rough face, "Sir! Attack now! Leave me, I… I can't go on…"
Soros paused, but he quickly understood when his gaze shifted to Sim's body.
Several bulges had appeared underneath Sim's muscular body and were quickly moving.
Some beetles had dug into his body and were wildly feasting away at his flesh.
Sim looked at the unwilling Soros as more and more violent energy rose within him.
"Sir, I'll be going ahead!"
Sim yelled and self-destructed!
The incomparably destructive wave of energy instantly destroyed an area of twenty meters, bringing with it pieces of bone and flesh.
Countless bugs were hit by the bones and gore as they shot away from the center of the explosion. They were riddled with holes and died.
The debris didn't hit the beetles that stayed at a distance, but the ferocious shockwave still sent tremors through their bodies. Their organs and brains were crushed to paste in the impact. They too were dead.
A single blast and nearly a hundred young carcass beetles had died along with Sim!
"Sim……"
Radiant Knight Soros opened his eyes wide in anger at this scene. His eyelids nearly split from the strength he exerted. He no longer hesitated with the violent blow that had been gathering in his hands.
An even wilder and more powerful storm of energy exploded within the swarm of bugs!
The dome-shaped shockwave unfurled outwards, blowing away all the beetles. Nothing could resist wherever the shockwave went. It destroyed everything.
This attack visibly demonstrated the power of a Second Grade knight.
Knights, as a profession, might not have the agile long-ranged attacks of casters. However, they better trained at gathering and concentrating energy at close range. Adepts could never hope to rival the sheer destructiveness of knights at that distance.
After all, most of the adepts' energy came from the wandering elementium energies. These were powerful but unconcentrated. In comparison, every ounce of a knight's energy came from within their bodies. They had complete control over this energy.
It was why elementium adepts were doomed to death if the knights were able to close the distance. The reason bloodline adepts were respected and hailed as the most powerful was due to their expertise in both close and long range. Their ability to engage in bloody melees was no weaker than their ability to sling spells at a distance.
This left them with no obvious weakness!
Even Soros couldn't easily fire an attack as powerful as this.
If it had been in the past, he would only have needed to swap out the energy crystal in his sword. He would have been able to fire plenty of such attacks with the supply of energy from crystals. But now, they were dogs without homes. Where were they to go and find new magical crystals for this purpose?
Thus, Soros' legs gave way after firing this shocking blast using only the energy reserves within his body. He almost fell to his knees.
At that moment, odd rustling sounds came from the bushes in the distance.
Several gigantic beetles with black shells, green wings, and corpse spots slowly flew towards him.
Dammit! The real carcass beetles were here!
Slash. Slash.
Two bright energy blades shot out of his sword. The two carcass beetles leading the charge were blown away, somersaulting through the air as they received the impact. However, no visible mark seemed to have marred their shells. They beat their wings, readjusted their positions, and continued to fly towards the radiant knight.
Dammit! These beetles were even tenacious than before!
Soros was a radiant knight. Those two blows contained at least fifty points of damage. However, these beetles were able to endure the strike without any noticeable injury. His face couldn't help but sour at the sight of this.
Fortunately, these carcass beetles weren't exactly the fastest things in the world. It was hard for them to surround and kill a Second Grade radiant knight unless their numbers reached a critical mass.
Soros didn't dare stick around. Energy surged to his back and transformed into a brilliant pair of wings. With the help of the wings of lights, he dashed forward. His speed increased again and again. His feet had started to leave the ground. It seemed he was about to take to the skies.
The wings were a battle technique the radiant knights had researched and developed themselves after long periods of contact with runic energy.
In the end, this was just another unique way of utilizing runic energies!
A black shadow saw Soros take the sky and leave the bugs behind. It quickly flew into the sky, like a blast of lightning, and crashed with Soros.
Dong.
A muffled crash and a minor shockwave blew apart the two figures. Soros' wings of lights extinguished and he crashed toward the ground.
The mysterious black shadow fell along with him.
Soros' body had been enveloped in thick armor and surging energy waves when they crashed. Moreover, the speed at which he flew was swift. It wasn't hard to imagine the impact that the black figure had to endure himself.
The dark figure fell onto a bush.
Countless black spots fell off the body made of black beetles as 'he' scrambled to get on his feet.
Those weren't black spots, but dead beetles.
Even Acteon couldn't remain unharmed after the crash earlier!
The stunned Soros shouted in anger when he finally saw the mastermind behind the black bug swarm before him. One after another, threatening energy blades sliced towards Acteon's body of bugs.
Three carcass beetles flapped their wings and moved in front of Acteon. They used their armor-like shells to endure all the blows.
However, Soros had already lunged forward before they could recover from the attacks. His sword of light pierced forth several times in a row, instantly stabbing the beetles through their mouths and crushing their innards to pieces.
The carcass beetles might have had durable shells, but their insides weren't quite as resilient. All three of them died with a single stab of the focused sword of energy.
The stumbling Acteon hissed at Soros when he saw three of the carcass beetles, that he had so carefully cultivated, die. He spewed forth countless scorpions out of his mouth and lunged at the knight.
Soros waved his blade. The energy blades no longer fired at the enemy but gathered along the runic longsword. The consecutive slashes protected him from the scorpions.
All the scorpions that crashed into the storm of swords disintegrated and were minced to pieces. Pungent purple fluid splashed everywhere.
Soros continued to deflect the bugs with his sword as he closed in on Acteon.
His only weakness as a knight was his lack of mobility. There was no way to escape a siege other than to carve his way out!
As Acteon suppressed the knight's speed, the numerous carcass beetles had already caught up. It was far harder to break the enclosure now!
"Don't even dream of escaping now! Stay here and became part of my bug body."
Acteon shrieked in what was supposed to be a maniacal laugh. The ear-piercing hiss was painful to the ears.
The battle was quickly approaching its climax!
Yet at this very same moment, a gray-furred, red-eyed bat was crouching upon a tree branch two hundred meters away. It gazed upon this intense battlefield.
Chapter 333 Battle of Bugs and Vampires
The battle in the woods had reached a climax in a matter of minutes.
On the one hand, you had the merciless hunter, and on the other, you had the fearless prey.
Th
ere was absolutely no room for negotiation between the two. It was why this had turned into a battle of life and death in an instant!
No one present could stop the radiant knight with his indomitable power. Even Acteon, with his strange arts and magic, was slashed again and again by Soros. Corpses of bugs were sent flying everywhere. His body of bugs had already been crippled and severely damaged.
However, Acteon seemed to have turned into an immortal after completely turning his body into bugs. It didn't matter how frantically the enemy ravaged his body. He was always able to recover with an endless swarm of scorpions within a second.
Moreover, more and more carcass beetles gathered around Soros as the knight was distracted by Acteon. They had gradually sealed all paths of escape.
Five carcass beetles might not have been able to do anything to a Second Grade knight. In fact, they were at risk of being killed if they showed even a momentary weakness. However, when two or three dozen of them gathered together and formed a wall of bugs, Soros could no longer slaughter them, even if he wanted.
The carcass beetles opened and shut their pincers continuously. Their pincers could sever a thick piece of lumber in two with a single cut. If Soros hadn't formed a resilient energy armor with the use of his runic energy and runic equipment, he would have been dissected already.
However, there was a limit to the runic energy within his body. He couldn't endure long periods of wasteful exhaustion. Breaking out of the siege was his only option.
The battle quickly became increasingly intense!
…………
An odd army was quickly closing in on the river as the fight progressed.
Several large gray bats were silently gliding between the trees and their branches.
With the help of the scouts to guide their way, they hurried towards the battlefield without hesitation.
Mary stood on top of a tall tree along with her eight Blood Knights. They were almost three hundred kilometers away from the fight.
The sly Vanlier was bending his body beside Mary and gesturing at the battlefield as if he was talking about something.
It was thanks to Vanlier's scheme to set out this elaborate bait that the vampires intentionally let Soros go. It was only the allure of a radiant knight that could draw Acteon out of hiding.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 214