Chương 131: Out of Energy

I frowned hard because that... well that was a massive problem for me. Without having any red sun energy left, I couldn't activate any of my runes. That meant no more enhanced strength, no more instant movement, and definitely no more leaf storms. I was stuck with using my good old-fashioned qi enhancements and whatever stuff I could manage to do with the Primordial Wood Arts.

I glanced back at the grey wasteland her huge void attack had created, and then I looked at the ring of withering trees around us, before finally looking at the healthy forest past them. The living trees were barely visible from where I was standing, and an injured Peak Qi Condensation Stage 6 beast that knew how to fly would easily catch up to me before I could get over there. All those trees might as well have been on the other side of the sect for all the good it was doing me now.

The queen hovered in the air between me and the closest living tree. With all her injuries, her compound eyes were still gleaming with malice. The dark void energy leaking out of her cracked wounds began to coalesce around her stinger, so she could gather up more power to do another attack. This thing was no accident, I realized. She deliberately positioned herself between me and the living forest on purpose. Her attacks seemed too precise thinking about it.

All this time, she had been systematically cutting my options off, creating this massive dead zone where my most reliable technique ended up being almost useless. It was a smart tactical move for a bug. I desperately needed to change the dynamic of this fight, except how was I going to do it? My remaining red sun energy was barely enough to do a few more minor rune activations, and my actual qi reserves were...

"At fifty percent," Azure supplied as I narrowly managed to avoid taking a stinger strike to the heart. That was not great at all. Trying to fight the queen head-on now would be suicide for me. I needed to come up with a new plan fast. An idea started forming in my head, and it wasn't a particularly heroic one to do, but I preferred focusing on my survival instead of trying to win any style points.

"Azure," I said, while I rolled under another sweeping slash from her stinger, "how much red sun energy do I have left in me?"

"You have enough left for two more activations of your Blink Step rune," he replied.

"Why are you asking?"

"You'll see," I answered, and then I immediately started sprinting toward the queen. Her eyes widened at what probably looked like a suicidal charge from me. She quickly gathered void energy around her stinger, ready to strike me down which was what I was hoping she would try to do. The second she finally committed to her attack, I activated Blink Step.

But instead of trying to get behind her or moving over to her blind spot like she expected me to do, I blinked past her, adding all that momentum directly into my run. The queen's heavy strike ended up hitting empty air as I emerged out from the blink running at a full sprint, heading directly for the living forest. I could hear her letting out this furious buzz when she finally realized what my true intention was, which was quickly followed by the loud sound of her wings beating hard in pursuit of me.

But I had the advantage now. The queen was heavily injured from our earlier exchange, and her cracked wing joints were damaged enough to seriously slow her flight down. By the time she managed to turn around to chase after me, I had reached the first line of healthy trees, but she was quickly gaining on me, though none of that mattered anymore. I reached out and grabbed a low-hanging branch, using all my running momentum to swing myself up into the thick canopy. Now this was something I could work with.

The queen violently burst through the canopy after me, with void energy gathering up around her stinger again. But she had officially followed me into my own element. I immediately reached out using the Primordial Wood Arts and connected myself to the incredibly dense network of branches all around us. The queen's stinger came stabbing down at me, and a remarkably thick branch suddenly swung upwards to meet it, so it caught her strike perfectly.

All that void energy ended up eating through the wood almost instantly, but that was fine because I never expected it to last anyway. More branches started moving around at my command, which forced the queen to constantly keep adjusting her position. Every time she tried to line up a killing strike on me, the forest itself seemed to interfere with her. I didn't have enough control over the branches to manipulate them into actively hurting her, but doing this was more than enough to disrupt her rhythm.

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"Your qi reserves are at thirty-five percent now," Azure warned. I gave a nod while making sure I kept my focus on the living wood around us. This wasn't a sustainable strategy for me to keep doing because moving branches that were this size took a ridiculous amount of qi, and the queen's void energy kept steadily eating its way through all my impromptu defenses. But I didn't need to win this way, I needed to survive long enough so I could... A horribly familiar buzzing sound managed to reach my ears.

More wasps were rapidly approaching us, she must have called for some backup. That was not good at all, I needed to end this battle, and I had to do it fast. I instantly let go of my control over the branches and let myself fall down. The queen immediately pushed her advantage and dove after me while keeping her massive stinger extended.

Up above her, all the lesser wasps started emerging out of the canopy, and their wings were beating in erratic patterns while they desperately tried to coordinate themselves without having their queen's full attention. I landed hard into a roll and came back up already running. The queen's stinger ended up striking the ground behind me, and the void energy carved this massive trench into the dirt, but I wasn't trying to escape her anymore. Instead of running away, I sprinted toward the largest tree - in the area.

The queen naturally followed me, which was what I planned for. Before I managed to reach the tree, I activated my final Blink Step. The queen's strike ended up passing through the space where my body used to be, and all her momentum carried her forward directly underneath the massive branches where her lesser wasps were struggling to coordinate with each other.

I reappeared standing on a remarkably sturdy branch near the top of the giant oak tree, and I was already reaching my senses out using the Primordial Wood Arts. Every branch above the queen suddenly moved at the same time, I avoided trying to attack her directly because I desperately needed to separate her from her swarm. All the lesser wasps scattered around in confusion when their flight paths were suddenly blocked off.

Without having their queen giving them direct guidance, their normally perfect formation instantly dissolved into chaos. Several of them ended up crashing into the branches or slamming into each other because their hive-mind coordination was disrupted now. The queen finally realized the mistake she made but it was too late. She frantically tried to pull herself up so she could reconnect with her swarm and use them as meat shields, but her damaged wing joints ended up betraying her.

While she was struggling to gain any altitude, I made my final move. The largest branch on the ancient oak tree, which was as thick as the queen herself, let out a loud creak when I forced it to start moving. It didn't move quickly because something sitting at that size obviously couldn't move quickly, but it didn't need to. The queen was so focused on trying to regain her altitude that she didn't notice the massive branch descending down from above her until it was too late.

The impact ended up catching her squarely between her wings, and it drove her violently downwards using the full crushing weight of centuries-old wood. Her exoskeleton was already severely damaged from our exchange earlier, so it couldn't withstand the crushing force. There was a horrific sound that sounded like breaking glass when her carapace finally gave way, and dark fluid started spraying out everywhere from the multiple fractures. The queen slammed into the ground with enough raw force to shake the tree.

Before she could recover from that, I commanded every branch within reach to pin her down. With my rapidly dwindling qi reserves, they wouldn't hold her down for long, especially since her void energy was already eating its way through the wood, but they didn't need to.

The ancient oak's largest branch violently struck her thorax with a sickening crunch that caused her to let out a ridiculously loud screech, and her many eyes instantly dulled, and the glow coming from the void energy faded away while her life ebbed away. Up above us, all the lesser wasps were flying around in these confused circles since their connection to the hive-mind was officially severed.

Without having their queen's guidance anymore, they reverted to their basic instincts, and those instincts were trying to figure out if I was supposed to be prey or a predator. I slowly straightened up and made a show of letting my qi flow visibly through my meridians. To their eyes I probably looked fresh and ready to start another fight, even though in reality all my muscles were screaming in pain, and my qi reserves were dangerously close to being depleted.

One of the larger wasps, which was probably at stage four, dove down slightly lower so it could test my response out. I merely turned my head to calmly track its movement while making sure my posture looked relaxed but ready. The message I was sending it was clear, I had managed to kill their queen, so did they really want to try testing their luck with me? The wasp ended up pulling back quickly so it could rejoin its brethren.

After spending a few more moments doing some uncertain circling, the swarm seemed to finally reach a collective decision. They all turned around as one giant group and quickly retreated off into the distance, they were likely heading back to whatever nest they originally emerged out from. I only allowed my shoulders to finally slump down when they had disappeared from my view. I collapsed against the giant trunk of the tree while every ache and strain from the battle decided to make itself known to me at once.

"Well," I whispered, "that was unpleasant."

"But it was very good for experience," Azure added.

"You've managed to learn quite a bit about fighting without having to rely on the red sun energy."

"And I learned a lot about the importance of battlefield selection too. Because if she had managed to keep me trapped inside that dead zone..." I shook my head, thinking about it.

"I seriously need to work on making some backup strategies for whenever I can't access any plant life. There are only so many plants I can practically keep on my person anyway."

"We should go check on Wei Lin and Lin Mei," I continued. My legs honestly felt like jelly, and my qi reserves were dangerously low, but at least I was still alive.

"Maybe," Azure suggested, "you should consider resting for a moment first."

"Yeah, that's... that's probably a good idea. The formation will keep them safe for a few more minutes."