Sera was standing in front of Nemi with her body, even though she could barely stay on her feet herself.
Nemi was terrified.
But she was still holding her short spear with both hands and trying to hide the trembling of her fingers.
Lian took a quiet breath, escaping was no longer a choice, even though he preferred to solve this matter by running away, as long as the Queen was alive, the colony would not allow any of them to leave the area.
"Then we have to cut off her head first." He touched the panel.
[Quest Accepted.]
[Time Remaining: 57:43]
At that same moment, the vertical slit on the Queen’s body opened, and a silent scream spread through the air.
Thousands of ants moved at the same time.
Lian reached his hand into his storage space, and a small blue crystal appeared between his fingers.
Emergency Mana Crystal.
The crystal was the size of a fingertip, but inside it, a luminous liquid was spinning like a compressed storm.
Lian pressed and broke it, suddenly the mana liquid entered his mouth, at the first moment, he felt nothing but sharp cold.
Then all the energy of the crystal exploded inside his body at once, and mana rushed into his almost-dried circuits like a wild flood.
The veins on his neck bulged, a burning pain ran from his chest to his shoulders and then to his fingertips.
His knees bent for a moment, he felt something inside tearing his mana channels.
He clenched his teeth and did not allow himself to fall on the ground.
Blue light passed from under his skin, a few mana veins appeared on his arms like shining cracks.
The sudden entry of a large amount of mana into the body naturally had its own side effects.
[Emergency Mana Crystal consumed.]
[520 Mana restored.]
[Current Mana: 525/650]
[Warning: Mana channels have entered an overloaded state.]
[Further excessive mana output may cause permanent damage.]
Lian let out a heavy breath, the power had returned, but the mana was flowing in his wounded channels like boiling water in cracked pipes.
However, this was enough, for now, this would have to do, besides, if it wasn’t enough, he could just increase his mana.
He opened his skill panel, his gaze fixed on Paralytic Venom.
Killing thousands of ants with fists was not impossible.
But before the end, the Queen could kill his companions or complete the assimilation process.
He needed a skill that could stop a large number of enemies at the same time.
[Would you like to consume 15 Skill Fragments to evolve Paralytic Venom?]
[Available Skill Fragments: 61]
Lian answered without pausing.
"Yes."
Fifteen Fragments were used immediately to upgrade the skill.
[Paralytic Venom has evolved.]
[New Skill Acquired.]
[Paralytic Bloodmist]
[Rank: Great]
The skill description appeared before his eyes.
[All the user’s blood and body fluids become infected with paralyzing poison.]
[The user can release a poisonous mist around himself by consuming blood and mana. The poison enters the target’s body through breathing, eyes, wounds, joints, or armor cracks and causes nervous system disruption, reduced muscle coordination, and gradual paralysis.]
[Any target hit by the poison has its power reduced by 10%, if the target is much weaker than the host, the power reduction will be 25%, and if the target is stronger than the user, the poison will work between 0% and 5%.]
[Consumes 8 mana per minute.]
[Remaining Skill Fragments: 46.]
"Good." He was satisfied with the upgrade, even if it was only at the level of weakening monsters, it would be a great help to him.
Then Lian opened his status panel.
[Power: 468]
[Spirit: 258]
[Speed: 300]
[Mana: 650]
[Resistance: 380]
[Available Status Points: 376]
Increasing only physical power was not enough, this battle needed control, speed, resistance, and more than anything, mana.
Lian distributed the points without hesitation.
[Mana +120]
[Spirit +70]
[Resistance +50]
[Speed +40]
[280 Status Points consumed.]
His stats changed before his view.
[Physical Strength: 468]
[Spirit: 328]
[Speed: 340]
[Mana: 770]
[Resistance: 430]
[Available Status Points: 96]
[Current Mana: 525/770]
The flow of mana inside his body expanded.
The increased capacity slightly reduced the pressure on his channels, but his current energy did not increase further.
Lian closed the panel.
"You... just became stronger?" Ravian, who was still standing in front of the wave of ants, looked at the change in mana pressure around him in disbelief.
His hunter’s intuition was warning him that this man had become even more dangerous than before!
But how? How could a person become stronger so quickly?
Of course, he did not understand, the reason was simple, the people of this small world did not have the same system as Lian and the other awakened ones, and their local power system was different.
Lian did not answer.
He put the tip of his index finger between his teeth and tore his skin.
Blood ran down from his finger, but before it could reach the ground, it evaporated, and a red and dark mist spread from around his hand.
[Paralytic Bloodmist]
The mist spread across the ground like a low cloud.
The first Workers entered it, at first nothing happened.
A few ants ran forward at the same speed.
Ravian looked at them with anxiety, Sera pulled Nemi further behind her.
Then one of the Worker’s legs trembled, its front joint locked up.
Its body turned to one side and fell on the ground, the second ant took two steps and suddenly all six of its legs folded.
The third tried to pass over them, but its movements slowed down, and its antennae moved irregularly.
The mist was working.
But the Soldiers were still coming forward, their thick armor would not let the poison enter the body quickly.
Lian slammed his sole on the ground and sent mana from his shin into the soil.
[Cataclysm Pulse]
The second wave exploded under the ants, this time the goal was not to kill, but the shell under the bodies of dozens of Soldiers cracked.
The joints opened, and fine cracks formed on their armor.
The red mist penetrated into them, and the first Soldier’s movement slowed down, its stinger stopped in the middle of being raised.
The second stumbled a few steps and fell on its side, the third was still resisting, but one of its back legs no longer obeyed.
Lian charged into the wave.
His right fist hit the first Worker’s head, the shell broke like a clay bowl.
Before the creature could hit the ground, Lian’s elbow sank into the joint of the nearby Soldier.
The leg separated from the body.
The ant opened its jaw, and Lian raised his knee, the strike hit the creature’s jaw from below and dislocated the metal jaw.
Another Soldier shot its stinger toward his chest.
Lian grabbed the dead ant’s body and held it like a shield in front of himself.
The stinger passed through the shell of its own kind.
Lian pushed the corpse forward, slammed it into the enemy, and then with a straight punch, crushed the front part of its head.
Dark blood and shell fragments scattered in the air.
Sera was staring at him.
The more she watched this scene, the more she realized the depth of this Otherworldly’s terrifying power...
And something in his fighting had changed.
He was no longer just fast, every movement was more calculated, more brutal, and more direct, his fists landed to break the hard points.
His elbows and knees hit the weak joints, he used the bodies of enemies to block the next stingers.
He was not fighting among them, he was turning them into tools to kill each other, and yet, their numbers were still increasing.
Lian took a few steps.
Electrical energy gathered in his legs, every movement stored more lightning in the muscles of his calves and thighs.
[Thunder Step activated.]
Sparks formed around his ankles, the next moment, his body disappeared, and an electrical explosion occurred at his previous location.
The nearby Workers trembled at the same time and fell on the ground.
Lian appeared a hundred meters ahead, a second explosion formed at his landing point, and the weaker ants were paralyzed for a moment.
But the level 23 and 24 Soldiers only slowed down for a fraction of a second.
That fraction of a second was enough, he crushed one Soldier with two punches.
He grabbed the second one by the abdomen and slammed it onto the third, then moved again.
Thunder Step was moving him through the army.
Every Dash brought the sound of air breaking and a thunderous explosion.
But the skill was not without cost, after the third Dash, the skin on his right calf cracked.
After the fourth, his muscles burned like hot threads.
Electrical energy was passing through his bones and creating a deep pressure in his knees.
Lian ignored the pain, his goal was to get close to the Queen, to kill that Queen, he had to get close to her first!
But the colony was ready for him every time before he appeared.
When the energy gathered in his legs, dozens of ants would predict the direction of his movement.
At the end of the Dash, Soldiers were already waiting for him, after the fifth movement, three stingers landed at the same time where he appeared.
Lian took the hits with Diamond Skin, but the impact force pushed him back a few steps.
His hardened skin did not scratch, but the muscles beneath it ached from the intensity of the hits.
The Queen was reading the path of Thunder Step, of course, this was what happened when you had thousands of eyes.
Hive Mind Dominion was analyzing all his movements.
Lian stepped back.
His gaze fell on Ravian and his sisters for a moment, another wave was approaching them, he could not both reach the Queen and protect those three at the same time.
He immediately took out one of the defensive Scrolls he had bought from his storage space and activated it by tearing it immediately.
A golden ring appeared under Ravian, Sera, and Nemi’s feet.
The light rose from the ground and closed around them in the form of a semi-transparent dome.
The first Worker hit the shield, the golden surface trembled, and the creature was thrown back, the front part of its shell burnt.
A few other ants hit the dome at the same time, and golden sparks spread across its entire surface.
But none of them could break the dome’s defensive line!