Mind boost!
'How did it know this trick? Are they connected by a hive mind or did he watch my battle with his creepy neck?'
'Void shift or explosion… or let Tyrant armor take the damage. Can it handle the damage? Of course, it can.' Immediately he activated mind boost, Blake's thoughts went rampant and although it seemed like he was having a long monologue, not even a second had gone by.
'The armor should take the damage, it rarely does anything… Or I could just combine two plans.' Blake finally made a decision and immediately released a wave of both fire and mana explosion from his body.
BOOM!
The double explosion had managed to push back the Knight rank insect a few meters away, freeing him from such precarious position, but the tenacious armored praying mantis recovered quicker than he had expected and lunged back at him.
'I swear, I will make sure I have a buffet with your kind after this!' Blake cursed the armored praying mantis as it abused its aerial advantage to once again bridge the gap before he could do anything.
'I guess it is back to the drawing board… what if…' At that moment, Blake and the armored praying mantis sensed Luciano's sickle coming their way.
The head of the armored praying mantis turned to look at the incoming attack and immediately, its body spun out of the way leaving Blake to deal with it but that marked the beginning of its end.
Just as Blake was about to get hit, a spatial tear opened, causing the sickle to pass through and appear behind the armored praying mantis.
By the opening of a spatial tear, the armored praying mantis which was still spinning knew what was coming. It immediately spread its wings to regain its ability to fly before moving out of the way.
'Knight rank beasts are really smart, but not smart enough.' Blake said with an evil smirk on his face as he cast another void shift in the path of the golden sickle causing it to once again behind the armored praying mantis.
"Even I would have fallen for that." Brian who had taken down the earth dome knew that he would be as shocked as the armored praying mantis if it were in the same position.
With the hive mind connecting 3 of the knight rank armored praying mantis, the last standing knight rank insect knew how each and every one of its comrades had died. This was how it knew how to counter void shift and that Blake would be easier to deal with in aerial combat compared to the other human.
What it hadn't expected was for Blake to be able to consecutively cast multiple void shifts at the same time and to use it in such a way.
Failing to react on time, the golden metal cable that connected the sickle to the sword coiled round the body and wings of the knight rank insect before the tip of the sickle dug through the armor and into its skin.
Ignoring the pain, the armored praying mantis tried to free itself, but before it could make any progress, Luciano tugged on the rope forcefully pulling it into the spatial tear.
'I must have a hand in its death!' Blake swore on his unborn children as he closed the spatial before all of the insect's body passed. With space mending itself, it was impossible for something to be in both the void and normal realm at the same time.
This caused one of the insect's legs to get amputated, but Blake wasn't done yet. With every spatial tear it got through, the armored praying mantis continued losing body parts.
By the time it had gotten to Luciano, it was missing 2 and a half legs with part of 2 of its wings. At this point, it was only alive due to the high vitality of a knight rank beast.
Blake had gone from wanting to injure it to almost doing the entire job. Now all Luciano had to do was put the knight rank insect out of its misery.
[The hive mind allows them to learn what every one of them sees, but because they have no mind of their own, they are unable to improve on what they have learned.] The system stated as Blake made a silent note of what it had said.
'I have a lot of questions for you.' Blake said to the system.
[First, you should get out of here. you don't know how the beasts would react after the death of the armored praying mantises. Besides, it isn't like I am running away from your mind.] The system said.
Looking around and seeing that the remaining beasts were still standing outside the Mother Tree's range, Blake gave out the order for his team to return to the wall.
'Are they still following the orders the armored praying mantises gave them?' Blake was confused when he saw that the beasts were not making effort to stop them from returning to the wall.
[This just confirms the theory that something else apart from the praying mantises was controlling the beasts.] The system stated.
If the commanders of the beasts were to be killed, there was no doubt that they would return to their frenzied nature, meaning what gave them the command was still alive.
'So is it a high-ranking beast or something related to the beast tide being sentient?' Blake asked.
[For what and how the beasts are being controlled, I am not sure but I think it is a combination of both.] The words of the system left Blake confused.
[For the armored praying mantises to have been connected by a hive mind, it means the queen which established the connection must be close by.
If I am correct, it further reinforces the theory that a high-ranking beast can control weaker ones, but that raises a question. How is it possible for high-ranking beasts to control beasts of totally different species?]