Too Stubborn to Die

Book 3: Chapter 50

Nearing the jungle, Aaron could feel the energy signals and auras growing stronger. Wanting to confront them, he pushed himself forward with a furious burst of action, blasting his way through the final rows of ants.

They weren’t far away, standing at the edge of the jungle watching the battle take place with crossed arms. It was a little terrifying how calm and amused the two figures appeared as they watched their comrades being slaughtered by the hundreds.

And Aaron immediately understood why. They were completely different from the others. And it wasn’t just the energy pulsing off of them. They felt different. And not just different from the drones, but the reaver, too.

Perhaps more interestingly, though, neither of the two figures particularly looked like ants. One had a rhinoceros head atop an otherwise humanoid body, albeit gray-skinned with a thick, armor-like hide. It had an antenna and six limbs, but otherwise, you wouldn’t have known it was an ant.

While the other was a huge centipede that must have been ten meters long, with its upper half rising up as if it were its torso, and countless bladed arms were squirming all around.

Lord Rhino [ Level 142 ]

Titles: [ Royal Guard No.4 ]

Thousand Grand [ Level 153 ]

Titles: [ Royal Guard No.3 ] [ Always One More ]

He wasn’t alone, though, and only a second later, Talia and Zero appeared at his side, having just cut through the last of the drones between them.

A devastating path had been carved through the swarm, and there were corpses literally scattered everywhere. But the two powerful figures before them seemed not to care in the slightest.

“Aaron.”

“Yeah, I know,” Aaron replied, his gaze never leaving the royal guards.

Clenching his fists and reading fate to make sure he wasn’t about to be ambushed, Aaron stepped forward. “We don’t have much choice, it’s either them or us. Just be on your guard, okay? Do you two think you can take the big rhino fella?”

Talia looked at Zero, who howled. “You’re going to take the centipede alone?”

Aaron shrugged. “If not me, then who?”

Talia didn’t immediately answer. It wasn’t entirely clear that Aaron was stronger than both her and Zero together, but it was undoubtedly true that he was stronger than either individually.

“Maybe we should take the stronger one. Two against one, you know?” She offered as a compromise.

“Yeah, nah,” he shook his head. “Thanks, though. But I’m pretty good at not dying. And we can’t afford to lose one of our strongest.”

Aaron knew it was a risk, but he wasn’t lying. Of course, he didn’t want to see any of his friends die, but it wasn’t stubborn fear that drove his decision-making. Even if he lost, he had a chance of survival. And Dober simply couldn’t afford to lose either Talia or Zero with the threats that were around.

Sizing them up, he stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. Even if he hadn’t been able to inspect them and see their level, it was immediately obvious that these guys were completely different from the other ants, and the danger his senses were telling him of was the real reason he hesitated so. Their auras were deadly, powerful, and dripping with an intent to kill.

“So, this is the human that mother was worried about?” The centipede pulsed forward, its front antennae wiggling and many arms squirming.

“They don’t look too tough to me,” Lord Rhino crossed his muscled arms, his huge body flexing like a Mr. Universe contestant. “Looks like a bunch of weaklings in me.”

“I can’t say I disagree. But mother is never wrong. And they did kill the reaver ant.”

“Bah! Cowardly as always, and that reaver ant was an idiot! It is a disgrace that she made you number three, while I am stuck at four! How about you stand back and watch how a real warrior fights! And once I deal with these weaklings, she’ll have no choice but to make me the number one!”

“What are you talking about?” Thousand Grand hissed. “You think mother will make you number one? AHAHA!”

The rhino turned to the centipede ant with a furious glare. It looked far angrier at its companion than it had at them. “Don’t you dare interfere, or next, I might just decide we don’t need a number three anymore. Now watch and learn. I can handle these three alone.”

Aaron cocked a brow. The muscle-bound rhino ant sure looked strong, but against all three of them? Well, he wasn’t about to argue with good fortune.

Lord Rhino stepped forward, glancing at Talia and Zero, and then focusing his attention on Aaron.

“Get ready to die.”

As the ant spoke, it stepped forward, and into a Skill that sent it flying, head tilted forward, and horn aimed at Aaron. It shot toward them like a bullet, bringing with it a powerful shockwave and aura that seemed to try to push him down into the ground, as if anchoring him there.

It was an intense force, and Aaron actually struggled with it for a fraction of a second, and it was deadly close to claiming his life before the fight even began. But in the last moment, he broke free from the aura’s grasp and dodged the powerful, armored fist that came his way.

But the rhino hadn’t attacked with a single strike, and its body twisted into a combination, swinging out with a bladed polearm that came twirling out from behind its back.

The fast and elegant weapon looked somewhat juxtaposed against the rhino, which was a vision of overwhelming power and strength, but it wielded the weapon with deadly efficiency.

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He dodged the first few attacks, but the blade came close, and the aura flowing around it opened shallow wounds across Aaron’s body. But there was something else more dangerous going on.

The rhino’s mana had flooded into the ground beneath them, and Aaron’s feet felt heavy, as if glued to the ground, and with every passing second, he seemed to get slower and slower.

Noticing his master’s problem, Zero flashed to his side in a burst of silver energy and let loose on the rhino ant with a series of clawed attacks and silver energy beams.

“Zero!” Aaron shouted with fear.

He sensed something, and with a flash of spectral energy, he rushed between them and was forced to block a deadly counter, but the bladed polearm cut straight through his arms in the process.

It was a terrible wound he didn’t need, but better him than Zero.

“GOTCHA WEAKLING!”

But before the ant could follow up with more powerful strikes, a wave of darkness crashed down upon it. The rhino’s hide was incredibly hardy, and it had attempted to guard itself with a raised arm, but this was Talia’s special, and ribbons of dark energy lashed out across the rhino’s body, opening shallow wounds everywhere.

“RAAGH!” Lord Rhino roared with anger and bounced out of range to avoid the rest of the attack.

Aaron’s arms were already healing, but he had to pull on energy reserves to speed up the process.

He turned and eyed Talia and Zero. “You two just stand back and support from afar, okay?”

Zero howled softly, as if it felt bad for getting Aaron wounded, but followed his command.

“It’s alright, boy. You were only trying to help. But you’re not quite as nimble as me.”

He glanced up at Talia, who had taken up a defensive stance in her enormous armor. While she wasn’t even as fast as Zero, he had witnessed her defensive capabilities firsthand. If it came down to it, she would at least be able to hold her own for a while against the rhino. He still wouldn’t feel comfortable betting on her, though, and while that clash hadn’t gone well, he was fairly confident he could handle it himself. He had an idea on how to break the Rhino ant’s oppressive debuff Skill, at least. Plus, it was better to keep her and Zero fresh and alert in case the other Royal Guard made a move.

“Stay back,” he said. “I can handle him. Keep an eye on the other one.”

Talia gave him a look that made him think she wanted to protest, but she held her tongue and nodded curtly, stepping back.

As his wounds began to heal, Lord Rhino tilted his head down again and charged. Immediately, as the rhino charged, he felt the same oppressive aura and pressure that tried to screw him in place as before. But this time, it was somehow far stronger.

Aaron didn’t know exactly what was going on, but there could be little doubt that the fight wasn’t going to get any easier the longer it continued. Whatever Lord Rhino was doing, it was some kind of Skill that made him heavy and lethargic.

But that was the least of his problems at that moment. He was anchored to the ground and was completely unable to move. But before the horn skewered him, he let out a split second of full power from his core, flooded it into his legs, and burst free from the Skill.

The exchange was far too close, and he didn’t want to take a death this early in the fight. But it revealed one very interesting thing.

At that moment, he had realized that he could use his core in pulses of power without doing any immediate damage to his soul. It wasn’t the same as using the full power of the core, but even tiny bursts of power from a C-grade core were incredible.

Freed from the rhino’s grasp, he shot back toward it, throwing out his own attacks against the ant.

And the moment they were engaged toe-to-toe on equal footing, he noticed something else. The rhino wasn’t that fast.

With a combination of precision, fate reading, and footwork, he wasn’t just keeping up with the royal guard, but he was outplaying it, dodging attacks and then landing his own quick counters.

Testing out his new technique, he also used pulses of core energy in his punches, and even without using Skills to power the attacks, he was landing hard, and within seconds, he had the rhino staggering.

“Stand still, you maggot!”

Aaron did not stand still. The back and forth continued for a while, and while the rhino was incredibly strong, its infuriated attacks blowing away sections of the jungle as it missed attack after attack, it was clearly not as fast as the reaver. And despite calling the reaver dumb, the rhino appeared dumber, wasting far more energy with each of its enormous, sweeping blows.

The reality was, against most, Aaron's combat skill was supreme. But he had been pushed to his limits against such an incredibly fast opponent as the reaver. And so even though the rhino was stronger and more powerful, when the fight became a pure contest of melee technique, it was painfully clear to see who was the better of the two.

In fact, as he got into the rhythm, he actually had enough mental capacity to let his mind wander a bit. Not enough to compromise his fighting ability, but enough to keep an eye out for the other Royal Guard. Even if not for the difference in level and ranking, it was obvious just from aura and demeanor who was the stronger of the two, and he wanted to be prepared for the worst.

“Is dodging all you can do?” asked Lord Rhino, swinging wildly and missing for the hundredth time.

“Big talk,” Aaron smiled between strikes. “For a guy who ain’t that strong!”

Outrage bent the Lord Rhino’s face, and he flushed so much that red even managed to show on its gray, hide face.

And that’s when it fucked up and provided Aaron with the perfect opening. Without pause, he unleashed with his signature combo, empowering his attacks with pulses of C-grade energy from his true core.

The results were undeniable. His gauntlets pounded against the rhino’s thick hide, causing serious damage and drawing blood, and blasting the powerful D-grade away.

Lord Rhino literally tumbled along the ground, bouncing until he slammed into a huge tree, causing it to shatter and fall behind him.

“Bah!” Lord Rhino coughed blood as he got back up, panting and glaring at Aaron.

But he didn’t even get a second to consider how he was going to attack, as immediately a rain of silver beams and dark energy slammed down upon the recovering rhino. Talia and Zero had joined in to help Aaron finish the fight as quickly as possible.

Stumbling backward, wounds all over its body, the rhino blinked, and Aaron was upon it, releasing another flurry of deadly attacks that beat up its already damaged body.

But just as he was about to throw an extraordinarily powerful haymaker into the rhino’s face, he felt another aura burst into action, and it surpassed Lord Rhino’s.

“Watch out!”

Zero flashed away immediately, feeling the aura as it lit up. And just in the last moment, Talia just barely managed to raise her shield Skill, blocking the centipede’s powerful attack.

The many-bladed arms of the centipede glowed blood red, and when they slammed down against the impenetrable shield, a fear-inducing power was released, and it sent Talia and her shields flying away, like a billiard ball being struck.

Aaron immediately realized his assumption of the greater threat was correct, and he broke away from Lord Rhino.

Thousand Grand was simply too strong to let loose against his friends, even if he were close to beating Lord Rhino. And with a gust of spectral energy, he moved to intercept.

The centipede turned to him, and he sent his fists flying with the same pulses of C-grade energy that had been used to beat down the other royal guard, but this foe wasn’t the same.

The bladed limbs of the centipede sang out with deadly intent, and a whirlwind of sanguine power enveloped them as they filled the air with power.

“Shit!”

He had no choice but to take a defensive pose against the oncoming attacks that had nullified his own, and thanks to fate weaving and quick evasive action, he barely managed to save himself from death.

This had screwed everything up, and despite almost beating Lord Rhino, he felt that same power weighing on him as before. He was slowing down; it was undeniable, and this fight was already bad enough as it was. But at least Zero and Talia were still alive, and had managed to create some distance thanks to his interception.

“What are you doing, brother!” Roared Lord Rhino. “I had it under control! Leave this to me!”

“Shh, you insolent fool!” Thousand Grand hissed. “If you die, mother will blame me. Now shut up and help me deal with the humans!”