Chương 129: Red Sun VS Void Energy

The swirling mist parted out to reveal a beast that was seriously impressive. Impressive in a where you instantly wish you were standing anywhere else but there. Unlike her smaller kin which were the size of my forearm, the queen wasp was literally as huge as a horse. Her jet-black carapace seemed to absorb the light around us and the air distorted around her massive stinger.

Dozens of smaller wasps orbited around her in this perfect formation where their movements were so synchronized it was almost beautiful, in a terrifying and probably-about-to-kill-us way. Their smaller stingers all pulsed with the same strange energy that their queen's did. Lin Mei took a sharp intake of breath which told me she recognized what they were before I did.

"Voidneedle Wasps," she whispered.

"Most of them are at stages three and four with only three of them at stage five. But the queen..." she trailed off while staring at the massive insect.

"Stage six," I finished the sentence for her while watching the swarm draw closer to us. Lin Mei gave a nod.

"Their stingers are infused with void energy so they drain your qi with every strike, and they can all work together to trap their prey inside a qi-blocking cocoon. Their hive mind lets them coordinate everything perfectly." Her eyes narrowed.

"The good news is they are weak against fire attacks. The bad news is none of us use any fire at all."

"Void energy at the Qi Condensation Realm?" I asked Azure.

"That seems unusual."

"It isn't unusual for species that evolved inside void-touched areas," Azure explained.

"These wasps likely originated from a region where reality had worn thin, so it allowed void energy to seep straight through. Over generations, they adapted to channel it naturally." I made a mental note to have Azure add every little piece of information he could possibly get from the beast lore section in the library after this was over. Not knowing the basic information about the local threats was an oversight that could easily get you killed in a world like this, and it was something I should have done sooner.

The queen's many eyes fixed onto me, and I felt a chill run down my spine. There was intelligence in there that went beyond normal beast instinct. She knew I was the biggest threat here and was actively evaluating how to eliminate me.

"Wei Lin and Lin Mei," I said, not taking my eyes off the huge queen, "I need you two to take turns powering up the formation."

"What are you going to do?" Lin Mei asked me, though I think she already knew what my answer was going to be. I smiled and probably looked a little bit crazier than I meant to.

"I'm going to give our royal friend over here something else to focus her attention on."

"You can't be serious," Wei Lin protested as I took a step outside of the formation's boundary line.

"That is suicide!"

"Actually, it's strategy." I made sure to keep my voice sounding light.

"The formation will last a lot longer if it isn't trying to block stage six attacks. I will lead the queen and the stage fives away from here, so you two can handle the lower-stage wasps from behind the safety of the barrier." Our little conversation was interrupted when the queen let out a piercing buzz that seemed to reverberate straight through my bones. The swarm tensed up like they were arrows nocked onto invisible bows. Which made it the perfect time for me to make a dramatic exit.

I instantly activated Blink Step, and I reappeared a moment later a few metres away, already midstride running. Behind me, I could hear the distinctive sound of dozens of wings beating in perfect synchronization, while the queen and her elite guards gave chase after me, leaving all the lesser wasps behind to deal with my friends. The Symphony Shield formation could handle taking attacks from a Stage 6 beast because I designed it to do that.

With both of them powering it and only having to face lower-stage opponents outside, they would be fine. The forest blurred around me while I pushed my physical body to its limits, weaving between trees that had trunks wider than I was tall.

"Are you certain about this, Master?" Azure asked.

"Lin Mei's water techniques are perfect for area control and Wei Lin's ability to absorb and redirect energy into different elements will let them wear down all the weaker wasps. The formation will keep them safe even if they can't manage to kill them all." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"And what is your plan then...?"

"It's simple," I replied.

"All I need to do is kill their boss." The queen was faster than I expected, she was already closing the distance down despite the headstart I had. Her stage five guards spread out into a perfect hunting formation, trying to cut off my potential escape routes. This was perfect. Pushing off a thick branch, I suddenly reversed my direction and launched myself at the nearest stage five wasp. The creature's compound eyes widened, if wasps could look surprised this one definitely did.

I activated Hawk Eye mid-leap, and the world sharpened into crystalline clarity. I could see the subtle shift in its wing position that telegraphed its next move. When it darted forward with its stinger aimed at my chest, I was already moving. A quick activation of Blink Step put me above and behind it. Before it could react, I called forth the Leaf Storm and directed a whirlwind of razor-sharp leaves to slice through its wings. The wasp dropped straight down like a stone, but I couldn't celebrate yet.

The other two stage fives were already moving around to flank me while the massive queen descended down from above me. I released Hawk Eye before the mental strain could build up too much; I trusted my normal senses to track the multiple threats. My leaves swirled around me into a defensive sphere as I landed onto a thick branch, so I could buy some time to assess the situation. The first stage five was down, but it wasn't dead yet. I could see it struggling to right itself on the forest floor.

The remaining two circled around me warily because they probably realized I wasn't going to be easy prey for them. The huge queen hovered above me, and I swear she looked annoyed that her perfect hunting formation had been disrupted by me.

"The queen is gathering up energy," Azure warned.

"A lot of it." I barely had enough time to reinforce my leaf barrier before a wave of void energy slammed into it. The leaves managed to hold on for a tiny fraction of a second, before disintegrating into nothing, but that tiny moment was enough for me to Blink Step over to another tree. The giant blast continued past the spot where I had been standing, and it carved a perfectly circular hole straight through three massive trees before it finally dissipated. I swallowed hard.

Getting hit directly by that was out of the question for me. The stage fives took advantage of my little distraction, and they attacked me from opposite sides. Their coordination was seriously impressive, with one of them aiming high while the other one went low, which forced me to choose which threat I needed to address first. I chose neither of them. Instead, I dropped down while using my Vine Whip to snag onto a lower branch, so I could swing myself away from both of their attacks.

Just as I released the vine, I conjured more leaves and sent them flying into tight spirals around each of the stage five wasps. The wasps were faster than I thought, and darted through the gaps in my leaf patterns, but that was fine with me. I hadn't expected to hit them, I needed them to focus on defense, so I could activate my Vine Whip again. Three glowing vines shot out of my hand and weaved through the air like snakes.

The first two vines wrapped around one of the stage five wasps before it could react and pinned its wings down. The third vine I used to anchor myself onto a nearby branch. The wasp's stinger plunged into my vine construct while it attempted to drain the qi out of it, but since I powered the technique using my red sun energy, it might as well have been trying to drink water out of an empty cup. A small glowing seed materialized off my index finger and shot towards the trapped wasp.

The queen chose that moment to dive down at me with her massive form casting a huge shadow over me. I used my anchoring vine to pull myself away as her giant stinger struck the branch where I had been standing. The bark around the impact point instantly turned grey and lifeless as its qi was drained away. The seed I had launched detonated with a thunderous crack that caught the previously trapped stage five in the blast. It spiraled away with its flight looking erratic, but it was still technically airborne.

A loud warning buzz coming from behind me was my only warning as the free stage five attacked me. I twisted my body around in mid-air with my leaves swirling to intercept its strike, but I wasn't quite fast enough. The stinger grazed across my left arm, and I felt a chunk of my qi simply... vanish. It was a disconcerting sensation that felt like someone had suddenly drained all the blood out of that limb.

The wasps seemed confused when I didn't immediately show any signs of weakness, because they didn't know I powered my techniques using the red sun's energy instead of my actual qi.

"You lost ten percent of qi from that glancing hit," Azure reported.

"Your runes might run on the red sun energy but—""But I still need my qi for enhanced movement," I finished as my eyes narrowed onto my target. The injured stage five recovered from the explosion, although its movements were slightly sluggish now. Either the big blast had damaged something important on it, or the concussive force had rattled its connection with the hive mind. Either way, I would take any advantage I could possibly get my hands on.

I manipulated another wave of leaves but this time I added a lethal surprise in them, half of them were my conjured blades and half were natural leaves, and then scattered throughout them were several explosive seeds masquerading around as normal foliage. The swarm scattered like I expected, and their perfect formation broke apart while they frantically tried to figure out which leaves were the dangerous ones. The moment their formation fractured apart, I focused on the injured stage five.

Activating my Hawk Eye again, I could see every detail of its erratic flight, like the way its good wing was beating harder to compensate, how it had to constantly keep adjusting its balance, and the specific moment when it would need to bank left so it could maintain its altitude. The other wasps were already moving to regroup, but they wouldn't make it in time. The moment the injured wasp began its banking turn, I struck. Blink Step put me directly in its path as my prepared explosive seeds detonated behind me.

The shockwave disrupted all the other wasps' attempts to interfere with me. The injured wasp's compound eyes registered my presence too late, its attempt to pull itself up was hampered by its damaged wing, which left it exposed to me. All my leaves condensed around my hands into razor-sharp blades as I struck. The impact sent vibrations running up my arms as the edges met the hard chitin, but since it was enhanced by Titan's Crest, my strike cleaved through the wasp's armored carapace like it was paper.

The wasp's body convulsed violently as its link to the queen was severed. Then like a puppet with its strings cut off, it plummeted straight toward the forest floor. Its remaining wing twitched once and then stilled as the last traces of void energy flickered and died out. One down, two stage fives, and a queen left.