I didn’t wait to bask in the glow of victory, because it wasn’t a real victory yet. The speed and force with which I had ended the whatever-it-was had shocked the battlefield. I could see the lull it had created in the fight, both the defenders and the insects quickly forced to re-evaluate their circumstances.

  Well, all save Hamsik and the Anymphea still fighting off the ones trying to bombard from far above.

  I had strained my body’s ability to channel mana a lot. Unlike with the ants, I hadn’t taken any potions, and now, my mana core was connecting with all the threads within my body.

  Every single fibre of my being seemed to brim with overpowering magical energy. It felt like the threads infused with Threaded Reinforcement was on the verge of turning my physical body into mana to use. And yet, I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t.

  Not until all the fucking insects were destroyed.

  “Don’t lose heart!” I yelled. “We can still win this. We can destroy them.”

  I roared as I launched myself and my personal blenders at the monstrous army on the right. Any that didn’t get smashed and burned by my Gravity orbs got my mace instead. I was a living avalanche drowning the insects, a tsunami washing them away with a tide of violence even worse than the one they were trying to visit on everybody here.

  It took a moment, but I realized I wasn’t the only one roaring here. My heart turned into a thrumming engine of its own as everyone around me, cultist or not, permanent or temporary resident of Ring Four, everyone roared along with me.

  Beetles got crushed. Mantises were eviscerated. Large, ugly roaches were pulped, worms were steamrolled, and the air was rid of any nearby flying monstrosities, regardless of size, for a time.

  And I still didn’t relent. The Blight Swarm wasn’t going to be stopped by one momentary counter, by one little loss. These bugs were endless.

  To truly deal with them, I needed to keep pushing too. At least until my Ignition Charge ran out.

  So I kept going. I yelled a hasty command to regroup and secure the area as best as they could while giving chase to the monstrous insects. There was no time for me to waste.

  I smashed into the monsters trying to come at me. Ripped them apart. They had to be surprised at seeing a lone human crash into them with the fury of a meteor shower. I almost wanted to revel in the sheer power, at how untouchable I was. Not a single insect, big or small, not even ones that looked like I’d normally struggle against, made it anywhere even close to me.

  It took a few moments for me to realize I was done. There were no more demonic bugs nearby. I didn’t even know which direction to go and find more.

  For a second, I just stood there. My blood was still boiling. I wanted to find more of the ugly assholes to bash in. My Ignition Charge was going to run out soon though, and I needed to make the most of it before it went away.

  So, I took to the air again, angled the orbits so that I had a clear line of sight around me. New targets acquired.

  Then I fired my Gravity Orbs. With how fast I had been able to make them spin, I had no trouble launching them like they had invisible rocket boosters attached.

  I took out several of the airborne monsters far over me, then destroyed a squadron of bugs far off to my left in a different neighbourhood entirely. There were a few streams of insects heading all the way to Ring Three because of the undefended avenues through Ring Four. I didn’t focus on them. Ring Three had its own firepower to rely on.

  Instead, I targeted the smaller swarm of bugs that were trying a circuitous route towards the Sun Cult temple. The last of my Gravity Orbs shattered the column of undeterminable monsters.

  With my Ignition Charges finally spent, I floated back down to the ground. My body was singeing within. Every single hair on my skin, on my head, on my brows and everywhere else, felt like they were seconds away from burning off. I was honestly surprised I wasn’t breathing out smoke or steam.

  It was eerie just standing there without doing anything. I knew I needed to be hurrying back to the temple, but after that overwhelming charge I had just performed, I wanted to take a couple of moments to let my body just return to normal.

  Naturally, the world had determined that any form of rest was a foreign concept in the middle of the war that this Blight Swarm had brought.

  The Swarm wasn’t looking for a fair fight, that was for sure. Yet another squadron of bugs were heading in my direction. The little reprieve I had created for both me and the defenders farther behind me was about to end.

  Unless, of course, I destroyed the onrushing monsters fast.

  The possibility of that was looking more and more distant every second. I had a sneaking suspicion the Blight Swarm—or whatever directed it, rather—had witnessed the way I had annihilated the last assault it had performed. Now, it was recalibrating the effort it needed to put into conquering Ring Four.

  I was sure of it because the monsters rushing at me looked way too similar to the one that had fought the Councillor the other day. Its aura was already evident even before it reached me.

  Just like the last one I had seen, this creature had the appearance of an armoured mantis, just red instead of green and possessing metallic looking claws at the end of its arms. Its aura grew even more intense with how close it was now. Beady, navy blue eyes regarded me with a cold but somehow knowing glance. The most telling aspect was the faint presence of black threads around it.

  Ah, right. My mana core thrummed. Just like with the ant, this thing was targeting me specifically.

  I wasn’t looking at just the monster that had come to a stop. There were more of its kind, buzzing low over Ring Four as the monsters headed towards the temple with the inevitability of a hurricane.

  Dealing with just one of them was going to be a pain. How were we going to stop a couple dozen of them?

  A question I’d have to ponder later as the monster hissed out a roar, clicked its metallic claws, then rushed me down. Just the speed of the charge was enough to prove my assumptions about its strength correct. I barely raised my mace high enough to block the claw that could have easily crushed my chest.

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  My feet still achieved liftoff though. Damn monster was way too strong.

  I was channelling Field Manipulation already. As my feet touched back down, an artificial field of heavy gravity emerged in front of me. Stupid bug rushed on top of it.

  And continued rushing. The added weight thanks to Infusion made it stutter and slow down just a bit.

  But it continued its charge with little trouble.

  Alright, so plain old gravity traps were out. I blocked more of its blurring, hammering blows, where it was using the closed claws like iron clubs. Every blow hurt my arms despite blocking because the mace wasn’t exactly supposed to be used to block anything. The reverberations from the impacts made my whole body judder.

  It was only a matter of time before something like Zoltan happened. Where I managed to hold my own until I was inevitably overpowered. And killed.

  But I didn’t need to keep blocking. It was just a way to deceive the monster, to make the moment I actually dodged a surprise. Reflexive Mana flared, and when the next blurring blow came at me, I dodged forward. My mace lashed out as I did so, connecting against the bug’s abdomen.

  It didn’t leave much of a mark, but it was better than nothing. I couldn’t depend on ending this with an overpowering blow. Bit by bit—that was how I’d take this thing down.

  The same trick repeated a few more times. When the monster slammed its claws in, I continued dodging with the aid of Reflexive Mana, quickly countering with my own strikes. I left small wounds on its leg, its body, even on its claws.

  At one point, when the clawed mantis struck low, I jumped up with the help of Siphon and Reflexive Mana. Then I brought my mace down while increasing its weight with Infusion.

  Despite the sheer force behind a strike like that, I had only managed to leave a dent on the claw. This monster was crazy durable.

  We disengaged for a moment. I got a weird feeling like my opponent was re-evaluating its battle plan.

  That gave me a little bit of time to take stock of the situation. It was taking me some time to kill this big bug. I was having trouble. And if this was my state after all this while, then it was hard to hold out hope for the defenders with how many of them had gone there.

  Pointless considerations. I’d deal with this enemy, then head over there myself. Nagging worries be damned.

  The monster screeched out an insectoid battle cry. It rushed me once more. Same trick as before, so I was left wondering what it was getting at. Especially since I wasn’t relying on what I had already shown myself to be capable of.

  I just blasted the monster with heat energy. In the little reprieve we had gotten, I had constantly brought out Flare with Manifestation, before using my Capacitor Affix to store it all around the area, especially behind me. So, as the monster lunged in to attack, controlled releases turned the gathered energy into flash bombs.

  The clawed mantis roared out a chittering cry as its carapace scorched under the heated pressure. I didn’t waste a second to lunge in and slam my mace into it, trying to carve out an even deeper wound right in the livid burn on its thorax.

  Granular Control also left chunks of the mace inside the monster’s cracked chitin and flesh, which I then tried to weigh down to make my opponent stumble.

  It leaped back too fast. I cursed. There went my chance.

  Then it countered too. I wasn’t prepared for the sudden ranged lunge of its claw. For a crazed second, I wondered if it could extend its arm like Doc Ock or something. What actually happened was its claw turning dark before unleashing a storm of black threads at me.

  Reflexive Mana saved me, but only partially. The dark energy still whipped in with incredible speed, managing to lash me even with my Agility Augmentation firing on all cylinders.

  I had to bite down from crying out. Just those brief touches had set lances of agony writhing down my arm.

  The wound made me want to hurl. Where the black threads had touched my arm, my skin and flesh had ruptured entirely, blood literally boiling away through the wounds. What in the world was this black energy? Were they really supposed to be Netherthreads? I hadn’t felt anything like this when I had been submerged in the Nether Vein’s frothing darkness.

  Seeing the effectiveness of the black threads, the monster screeched out in triumph and came after me with more. The next dark whips were thicker, lashing out with even more wild ferocity.

  I had to skip away to avoid any contact. Even a single touch was devastating.

  My evasions just made the bug even more aggressive. It screeched, cried out, lashed at me harder and faster. I was trying to see if I could find openings, my mind desperately wondering how I’d protect myself against a barrage of those dark threads.

  I was again on the back foot and I hated it.

  Just as I was about to try my Illumination Aspect, the monster jumped. I hurtled backwards out of its diving range. A cloud of dirt and dust went up at its crashing impact with the ground, the whole area shaking. Then the storm of black whips lashed out.

  I did not react in time. The dust cloud had obscured the monster, so I hadn’t even seen the dark threads come alive.

  Raging pain scoured through my arm again as the threads latched onto me. I cried out, smashing my mace into the nearest black strands. They broke, but there was a whole web of them anchoring onto my legs, my chest, other areas I couldn’t even begin to reach.

  The bastard mantis dragged me in again before I could react. I slammed into the dust cloud, coughing and squinting and swinging my mace wildly.

  It wasn’t surprising at all that heavy, metallic claws crashed into my chest.

  I scream-coughed as I was sent flying back the way I had been dragged in. A terrific pain burst in my chest. It felt like my torso had caved in, and I hardly felt my thumping contact with the ground at the sheer torture clenching around my heart and lungs.

  It took a couple of heartbeats for me to accept that I wasn’t dead, though. I wasn’t even losing consciousness. Forced to cry, shaking all over, feeling destroyed, but still alive and aware.

  Enough to see that I would be dying if I didn’t get up and get going.

  With a triumphant screech, the clawed mantis leaped at me again.? I barely managed to kick myself out of the way of being crushed entirely, though I still bounced away as the impact unleashed a little wave of force.

  It felt as though I had been kicked like a football. At least it got my body rolling and moving, and despite the pain, I could use the momentum to get back on my feet.

  I finally noticed that there was a strange thread connecting me to the monster. My tear-blurred vision had made it hard to see. It looked like one of the threads that had attacked me, except a lot more solid and unwavering. My mana core was stuttering for some reason, losing energy as the solid black line thickened even further.

  I couldn’t even begin to register my growing alarm at whatever was going on. The monster was rushing me down, almost seeming to drag itself along the dark line.

  But this time, I had just enough time to react. Just enough time to call on my Reflection Affix at another storm of black threads.

  It hurt terribly yet again. I was positive I’d be seeing flesh slough right off my arm any moment now.

  But Reflection worked.

  The threads of black energy were magic. As such, my Illumination Aspect’s second Affix could send them right back to their wielder. I ignored the terrific agony lashing my arm and the new wave of pain in my chest. Instead, I grinned wide as the threads now attacked the monster back.

  Lines of black, now edged with golden-white, shot back at the monster in my own reflected storm. Where my mace had significant trouble getting past its armoured chitin, the threads had no such issue.

  They pierced through with ease, drawing out a shriek from my enemy. Its thorax was perforated, one of its claws fell off entirely, and I had even taken out an eye.

  All with an instantaneous use of Reflection.

  Even the black connection between me and the bug had severed. My mana core whirred faster than ever, almost glowing in triumph, making me feel so sparky in my chest that I could almost ignore the terrible wounds there.

  My enemy wasn’t dead yet. Far from it, with the way its screeching had turned from annoyance to raging fury. It was hellbent on taking its revenge on me.

  But I hefted my mace and charged in. Momentum was on my side now. Plus, I had a plan. A stupid, simple, ugly plan, but I knew it was going to work. It just would. Because I’d be brute forcing it to make it work.

  The monster was as good as dead.