The four remaining Ruthless Venom Mosquitoes swooped down from the sky and then sprayed Venomous Sprays at the Mantis which had just transitioned into its weakened state after using its berserk skill.
The Alpha Beast was helpless against the ranged attacks that rained down on its body. The most it could do was raise its claws, taking on a defensive stance, covering as much of its body as it could. Its strong and sturdy exoskeleton was covered in Venomous Sprays in no time, but the Terror Mantis was mostly unaffected by the Mosquitoes’ attack.
Feeling impatient at their lack of progress, the Ruthless Venomous Mosquitoes decided to try some hit and run tactics and used their sharp and powerful needles to pierce the Mantis’ protective armor in an attempt to inject their venom directly inside the latter’s body.
Out of the four Mosquitoes, the Mantis was able to seriously injure one of them after it came close to its strike range. The other two the Mosquitoes were able to pierce its armor and inject their Venom, but the fourth barely evaded a ferocious swipe that was aimed at its head.
Seeing this scene, Lux knew that he needed to do something, or the Alpha Beast would recover from its lethargic state. He no longer cared about being the one to deal the finishing blow to the Mantis. All he cared about was that it died.
Ishtar and the Skeleton Archers fired volley after volley of arrows, while Diablo and the two remaining Skeleton Fighters stood in front of them, serving as shields and protecting them from insects whose attention had shifted to them.
Ishtar’s attack was incredibly deadly, especially when it was up against an unmoving target.
The Skeleton Hunter used her bow’s exclusive passive skill “Shot to the Heart”, which dealt double damage if it successfully hit the spot where the target’s heart was located. Although the Alpha Beast was using its claws to shield that part of its body, Ishtar didn’t care.
For her, it didn’t matter whether the Mantis was blocking her attack or not. If the Alpha Beast chose to block her attack then the Mosquitoes would be able to attack its blindspot, using their sharp needle-like mouths to pierce its body.
Ishtar activated her skill Piercing Arrow, which pushed the Alpha Beast from where it stood with its powerful impact. Just as Lux expected, the Mosquitoes used this opportunity to attack the Mantis in its blind spots, making it shriek in pain.
Ishtar didn’t relent in her attacks, and fired one Piercing Shot after the other. Soon, the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis decided that it had had enough and decided to go all out and kill as many as it could before it died.
Unfortunately for him, Ishtar’s passive ability to shoot ice arrows had greatly slowed its movement and attack speed, which made its last attempts futile.
It was also at that moment that Ishtar’s arrow pierced its chest, making it shriek in frustration. The passive skill Shot to the Heart activated, dealing great damage to the Mantis, pushing it one step closer to its death.
Two minutes later, the Alpha Beast of the Figaro Garden uttered a blood-curdling shriek before collapsing on the ground. It had breathed its last, which signaled the end of the battle.
The surviving insects hurriedly escaped because they knew that, without their leader, they no longer stood a chance against the Mosquitoes.
The Ruthless Venom Mosquitoes greedily pounced on the dead Mantis and sucked its blood. It was the reason why they had attacked its Domain, and they wouldn’t leave until they had drained all of its blood.
The lower ranking Mosquitoes, on the other hand, flew after the insects that ran away. Because they knew that there was no way that they would get a share of the Alpha Beast, they chose to settle for the other insects who were running away in every direction.
While the Ruthless Venom Mosquitoes focused their attention on the Mantis, they didn’t notice that a small team of Skeletons had already made their way to their location.
Without any warning, Diablo leapt through the air and stabbed Blood Moon on the back of the head of one of the Mosquitoes that had received a serious injury during the battle against the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis.
The Ruthless Venom Mosquito instantly lost its life, not knowing how it died. Its companions were a bit slow to react, so Diablo was able to thrust its sword to another mosquito, aiming at its left eye. At that exact moment, a whistling sound was simultaneously heard and a magic arrow pierced the mosquito’s right eye, embedding itself directly into its brain, dealing critical damage.
Diablo’s sword also pierced the Mosquito’s left eye at that exact moment, which dealt critical damage as well. The combined attack between Lux’s two Named Creatures was executed with perfection that their target had no time to react, which led to its death.
Suddenly, a shower of arrows poured like rain on the location where the two other Mosquitoes were about to take flight. The Grand Skeleton Archers had activated their team attack, Crippling Volley, which had a high chance to paralyze their enemies.
The two mosquitoes’ bodies stiffened as the paralyzing effects of the attack activated. Diablo kicked one of the Ruthless Venom Mosquitoes, sending its body flying into the air before targeting the other Mosquito which was struggling to move on the ground.
A magical arrow flew straight and true, piercing a spot on the back of the mosquito’s body where its heart was located. Ishtar and the Grand Skeletal Archers focused fire on the fallen mosquito, while Diablo and the two remaining Skeletal Fighters gangbanged the other one.
The Mosquitoes looked at the Skeletons in anger because they thought that they were on the same side. What they didn’t know was Lux and his team weren’t on anyone’s side.
Their goal was to take advantage of the situation and collect as many Beast Cores and Monster parts as possible. After a few minutes of one-sided beating, the two Rank 3 Mosquitoes finally died.
Diablo hurriedly activated the Enchanted Beast Ring and stored the body of the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis, as well as the bodies of the four Mosquitoes had just been slain. Ishtar and the other Grand Archer Skeletons regrouped with Diablo and began the tedious process of Beast Core Collection.
Lux’s Skeletons had acquired an inventory after they got upgraded. Although it wasn’t big, it was more than enough to store a hundred Beast Cores per Skeleton Monster.
The fun part about this item inventory skill was that Lux could directly transfer those items from the skeletons’ inventory into his through the Soul Book!
This was something that was never heard before in Elysium, and the Half-Elf felt that Eriol had “tweaked” his Soul Book to allow such things to happen. It was the only explanation Lux could think of, and he was more than happy to abuse this feature.
“It’s too bad that the Monster Storage Ring has a limit,” Lux muttered. “If possible I’d like a few more of those.”
The Half-Elf knew that storage items that could store the Monsters’ entire bodies cost a lot. However, he understood well that buying those would be worth it. If he happened to kill a rare monster in the future, bringing it back, instead of dismantling its body and only taking the most important part of its body, would be more profitable.
While Lux’s Skeletons were busy prying the Beast Cores from the dead insects on the ground, the sound of buzzing once again permeated the air. The red-headed teenager knew that their time was up.
Although he wanted to get as many cores as possible at this time, he couldn’t allow his cover to be blown at this point in time. The Mosquitoes thought of Diablo and the others as allies, so it would be a shame to not take advantage of it.
In the end, Lux unsummoned his skeletons to make sure that no traces would be left behind. This was a safer option than letting the mosquitoes discover what they had been doing while they were going after the fleeting insects that had escaped the battlefield.
‘Five of my Skeletal Fighters are already on their way to that location,’ Lux thought. ‘It will be more than enough time to let the Mosquitoes drink their fill before I order them to resume the collection of Beast Cores.’
Lux grinned evilly as he summoned Diablo, Ishtar, and the rest of his skeletons one by one. They would return to the Leaf Village and dispose of the Monster Parts in his Master’s smithy, so that they could free up some space for the second round of looting.
He was sure that Randolph wouldn’t mind if he left those monster bodies behind. In fact, he believed thay the Dwarf would be more than happy to take the monster’s bodies off his hands, especially the body of the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis.
They made a deal earlier that Randolph would take the Mantis’ parts, except for the claws, as compensation for letting Lux use Blood Moon. ʀᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀᴛ N(o)vl(ꜰ)ire.nt
Lux didn’t mind sharing those things with his Master because this would not be the first and last time that he would be fighting the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis. He was planning on collecting enough Mantis Claws until he had enough to forge his own Blood Moon.
This way, he would no longer need to borrow his Master’s Mythical Weapon. Lux believed that with hard work, he would be able to craft a Mythical Weapon of his own.
All he needed to do was patiently collect the items that were needed before leaving the Beginner’s Area, the Dwarven Kingdom of Gweliven.