On the swamp shore, a dark mass of Poison-stinger Wasps emerged from the collapsed nest, their wings flapping with frantic agitation, clearly enraged to the extreme.
They searched everywhere for the culprit who had destroyed their nest.
After circling the tree once, their gaze finally settled on the group of Beetles that had just woken up in confusion beneath the tree roots.
What other Magical Creatures besides these Beetles could possibly attack their nest!
"Buzz buzz!"
The furious Poison-stinger Wasp swarm seemed to have lost all reason, swarming densely around the oak tree and shooting venomous stingers toward the base.
Burrowing Beetles: ?
Before they could figure out why their neighbors were so angry, the venomous stingers came pouring down upon them like a torrential rain.
This immediately infuriated the beetle group with their morning irritability. They stretched out their six limbs and shakily crawled out from underground to face the stingers head-on.
A great battle was about to erupt.
"Boom!"
A tremendous roar like a raging storm and tidal wave, as knights and dragons collided, then retreated like receding tides, only to reform their ranks and charge again. The two forces repeatedly clashed and tangled, turning the battlefield into a boiling furnace.
Of course, the battle under the tree wasn't actually that exaggerated - these scenes were all imagined by Chen Yu.
To be blunt, the fight between Poison-stinger Wasps and Beetles was more like a village brawl, exchanging blows back and forth. It looked terrifying, but in reality, neither side suffered even minor injuries.
Meanwhile, Sekashi was watching her first large-scale Magical Creatures war with much more investment than him, her eyes wide open, unwilling to even blink.
Only when Poison-stinger Wasps flew overhead would she duck her head back into the swamp.
Just as Chen Yu thought the battle would stalemate like before, with both sides pretending nothing happened...
The battlefield situation changed in an instant, and the Poison-stinger Wasps suddenly gained the upper hand.
It was a new tactic!
The Poison-stinger Wasps employed a new strategy.
They stopped obsessing over using their stingers and instead used their numerical advantage to pin down Beetles one by one, then violently flapped their wings, attempting to suffocate their opponents with body heat.
At this moment, the temperature within each wasp ball rapidly increased. The Beetles wanted to escape, but because they moved too slowly, they couldn't shake off the Poison-stinger Wasps swarming around them.
And whenever a Beetle tried to flap its shell wings to flee the spot, Poison-stinger Wasps would viciously jab their venomous stingers into their Respiratory Pores.
This caused the Beetles to struggle violently from poisoning before eventually falling still.
Casualties finally appeared in the war between the two sides.
The Beetles suffered a major defeat, ultimately unable to match the established dominance of this tree territory's veteran rulers.
"Sekashi, get ready to act."
Chen Yu wouldn't just watch the Poison-stinger Wasps win easily. He silently recited the Little Arrow Technique method.
"Oh, okay!"
Sekashi gripped her oak staff tightly, her stance looking less like spellcasting and more like she was ready to smash any approaching enemies.
"That's some good intensity."
Chen Yu slowly surfaced from the water, aiming at one of the wasp balls, with the Little Arrow Technique ready to fire.
Sekashi was still watching the Poison-stinger Wasps flying around chaotically with caution when she was drawn to the movement in front of Chen Yu.
She saw a water arrow gradually condense and stretch, like a bow drawn to full power, then shoot out with a "whoosh" sound.
"Bang!"
A thunderous explosion rang out from the ground.
The wasp ball exploded, with shredded limbs and juices of Poison-stinger Wasps splattering everywhere. The Beetle inside was blasted several meters away, staggering to its feet and standing dazedly in place, seemingly stunned by the explosion.
"Huh?"
Ancestral spirits above, what is this now?
Not only was Sekashi stunned, but even the Poison-stinger Wasps and Beetles on the battlefield were bewildered by the commotion. Then they saw a Slime covered in dark armor swimming ashore.
The warrior's aura threatened the surrounding Magical Creatures, with some Beetles even silently backing away in fear, wanting to hide back under the tree.
"Buzz buzz!!"
The giant wasp hidden in the collapsed nest let out a screech, and all Poison-stinger Wasps instantly abandoned their siege on the Beetles, turning to surround Chen Yu instead.
"Swamp Stealth!"
Worried he would be attacked, Sekashi couldn't help but raise her staff to cast the spell.
The oak staff flowed with natural light, which then transformed into specks of light that merged into Chen Yu's body.
He only felt as if swamp water was welling up beneath his feet, lifting him up. With just a thought, he quickly moved away from his original position, evading the Poison-stinger Wasps' encirclement.
"Whoosh—!"
Several venomous stingers shot out from his gel, instantly hitting the Poison-stinger Wasps closest to him.
"Taste my Myriad Swords Return to Origin technique!"
He kept collecting the scattered stingers around him, firing them wildly as if they cost nothing.
Dark corpses fell like rain from the sky, and the Poison-stinger Wasps suffered heavy losses.
However, his target wasn't these scattered wasps, but the queen in the nest!
He resolutely crawled toward the nest. With "Swamp Stealth" enhancement, his speed was astonishingly fast, clearly frightening the one in the nest, who frantically organized the swarm to launch suicide attacks.
"I'm coming!"
Sekashi mustered her courage and revealed herself. For some reason, she felt an urge to swing her cherished oak staff.
And in fact, that's exactly what she did.
Yes, just like swinging a club.
She knocked down a large swarm of Poison-stinger Wasps.
This oak staff ultimately failed to maintain its elegance and became a melee weapon.
The moment she saw swaths of Poison-stinger Wasps falling, Sekashi felt as if some switch had been triggered inside her - she actually felt incredibly exhilarated.
As if the staff was meant to be used this way.
Even seeing her new staff stained with Magical Creatures' juices didn't distress her as much anymore.
Could it be that she shared warrior bloodlines with her sister?
Just as this thought occurred to her, she saw groups of Poison-stinger Wasps charging toward her, so she quickly conceded defeat and ducked back into the swamp.
On the other side, the wasp swarm was cleared by the staff swings, giving Chen Yu an opportunity. He had already reached the front of the Rotting Meat Nest, with the Little Arrow Technique aimed threateningly at the nest, his intent unmistakable.
"Come out, stop hiding."
The nest remained quiet for a few seconds, then a queen wasp with an enormous tail was carried out by the Poison-stinger Wasps.
Before Chen Yu could use the Sound Transmission Technique, the queen wasp tremblingly raised a piece of rotting meat above her head, as if signaling surrender.
Huh?
These Magical Creatures were smarter than he thought, actually taking the initiative to surrender.
But it would indeed be a pity to eliminate them completely.
Magical Creatures like Poison-stinger Wasps that work diligently aren't common - if he got rid of them, who would prepare his breakfast in the future?
Moreover, with Poison-stinger Wasps guarding the oak tree, even if wild beasts or Demi-humans accidentally wandered in, they wouldn't dare approach, making them excellent home guardians.
He lifted his soft gel, accepted the rotting meat coronation, then pressed it onto the queen wasp's head.
"From now on, I'm the boss, understand?"
The queen wasp nodded, prostrating on the ground, using her limbs to clean the debris stuck to his gel.
"You, repair the nest."
The queen wasp froze for a moment, seemingly understanding, then directed the swarm to abandon their defensive posture and start collecting the scattered fragments of the nest.
Sekashi came ashore.
"Is it over?"
Having just experienced a Magical Creatures war, the excitement hadn't completely faded from her face.
Looking at the messy tree territory, she never imagined that wars between Magical Creatures could be so brutal, but at least they had defeated the dominant force here.
If someone had told her before that a Slime could defeat a Poison-stinger Wasp swarm, even as a follower of Putu, she would have thought they were joking.
But after witnessing it with her own eyes, she accepted it as a matter of course.
Probably because she had seen too many strange things since coming here, and had already gotten used to it.
"There's still one more neighbor here."
Chen Yu hopped around and turned to look under the tree.
The Beetles hiding inside sensed his gaze and actually began trembling, as if they had seen some great demon king.