Too Stubborn to Die

Book 3: Chapter 51

Whatever superiority he had held over Lord Rhino, Aaron did not feel it against Thousand Grand as he clashed with the monstrous ant.

It wasn’t just powerful, though. The centipede ant was a natural contortionist, bending and wrapping around itself as its countless bladed limbs engaged him from every angle.

And that was only the beginning of his struggles. Activating some kind of Skill, Thousand Grand turned the sky blood red, and he could feel the rich mana seeping into it.

“Ahaha, come, little pinkskin. Show me what you are made of,” taunted the centipede as it flew through the ever-thickening blood-red sky, like some kind of serpent dragon.

Never one to refuse a challenge, Aaron shot up to meet it with a gust of spectral energy, and immediately regretted it.

It was as if the blood mist that filled the air was attacking him, invading his lungs and causing some kind of respiratory response, and he gasped and grabbed at his throat.

“What is this?!”

“AHAHAHA!” The centipede shot toward him, snaking through the sky as it whipped around and attacked from both left and right with all of its squirming limbs.

Aaron ducked and weaved, reading fate as he avoided the countless attacks coming his way.

The exchange was blinding, but in truth, it was the mist that was giving him the most trouble. The more he breathed in, the weaker and slower his body felt.

However, the blood mist seemed to hang only in the sky, and there was a good couple of meters between it and the ground, where there was still fresh air.

“Damn this!”

It was immediately obvious that he couldn’t keep this up, and he shot back to the ground and took a deep breath.

“That’s…”

His lungs opened up a little, and he felt the weight of the blood mist lift a little, but there was something else. It felt as if his legs were turning to stone, and every second he spent standing on the ground was making him heavier.

“What the bloody hell?

He was getting irritated now. Everywhere he went, there was another debuffing effect that was weakening him.

“Bloody bugs!” He roared and leaped back into the sky.

If this was how they were going to fight, then he’d just have to finish things quickly. Clashing with the centipede, he pulsed more and more mana from his core into his fists, pounding at the aura-coated blades coming his way.

Even regular punches empowered by a C-grade core were incredibly strong, and as their attacks collided with one another, his fists were literally blasting away bladed limbs.

There was an obvious problem, though. Thousand Grand had many, many limbs.

“AHAHA!”

The centipede just kept laughing as its relentless attack continued, wounds starting to show on Aaron’s body despite his constant pulsing of core energy into his attacks.

And all the while, the blood mist was weighing heavier on him, bearing down with increased intensity with each passing second. It seemed ending this fight quickly wasn’t going to be as easy as he had hoped.

Blasting into Thousand Grand with a powerful combination, he struck hard and then rushed out of range. Before engaging again, he glanced down at the others.

Talia’s attacks were crashing down with some gusto against Lord Rhino, but Aaron didn’t like the way things were going. Even after one of her shadowy attacks ripped a wound across the Rhino’s chest.

The problem was that the Rhino was healing too quickly, and Talia was draining mana too fast, relying on her more powerful attacks.

That doesn’t look good.

“Don’t forget about me!” Thousand Grand hissed as it snaked into range, arms bearing down on Aaron.

Bouncing back, he was forced back to the ground. He was simply getting too weak fighting the centipede in the mist.

But again, the moment he made contact with the ground, he felt his legs grow heavy like stone.

What the hell is going on? Is there no escape from these debuffs?

“DIE, WEAKLINGS!”

Lord Rhino roared so loud the jungle shook, and a massively powerful blast blew a line straight through the jungle itself.

Panicked, Aaron searched for Talia, and then sighed when he saw her to the side of it, panting. But when he spotted Lord Rhino marching out from a cloud of dust, looking almost completely healed, a hole formed in his gut.

Even while taking her strikes, he has healed that well? Not to mention his attacks. There is so much power in them. It’s like his energy is endless.

But he had little time to worry about others as the centipede shot down toward him, only stopping a second before slicing him apart as a silver beam blasted straight into its head, knocking it off course and drawing some blood.

A moment later, Zero flashed to his side, growling at the ant.

“Just in time. Thanks, boy!”

“Bah, you will pay for that, human!” Hissed Thousand Grand.

The centipede curled up into a disk and then shot toward him with even greater speed than before. Not only that, but it was spinning with a whirlwind of energy and a cutting aura that spun around it like a sharp blade, and worst of all, the mist followed.

Aaron flashed to the side, but the mist that now surrounded the centipede slowed him whenever it got near, like he was wading through sludge.

He had no choice; he couldn’t keep dodging this Skill. If the fight kept going as it was, it would end poorly for them. When the curled-up centipede attacked again, he countered with [ Equal and Opposite ].

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With the Skill cancelled, Thousand Grand rolled out of it, confused as to what had happened, and Aaron took advantage of that second. Immediately, he followed up with a pulse of C-grade energy from his core that he sent into a haymaker that slammed into the confused centipede and sent it flying.

“RAAARAGH!” Thousand Grand roared and moaned, blood pouring out from between its carapace segments. But it was far from dead. In fact, the rage building up within it turned the mist and even darker shade of red, and Aaron had a bad feeling about it.

But he had bought himself a little time. He had to think, though, and fast. The battle was quickly turning against them, and if they didn’t come up with a plan now, they’d soon be all dead.

The problem was that he had taken too long to notice the debuffing effects taking place and how powerful they were. And now he was well and truly weakened. And the blood mist was even stronger than before; he had no idea how he’d deal with it.

He thought back to the start of the fight. Despite being stationed together, these two royal guards didn’t seem to get along. They had almost compromised their entire mission because the Rhino one had wanted to fight them alone.

But they were both very strong, and he kind of understood where the confidence came from. Still, if the centipede hadn’t joined the fray when it did, he was pretty sure they would have killed both. For as strong as the blood mist was, if Talia was helping him, he’d have a lot more chances to go on the offense.

So then, why? Why put two warriors together that don't get along?

The answer struck him like a lightning bolt. There were two debuffing Skills in effect. One was Lord Rhino’s, and it was bound to the ground. The other was obviously the blood mist, which was bound to the sky.

These two countered each other’s weaknesses. One excelled in fighting on the ground, and the other in the sky. And suddenly, it made perfect sense to team them up together.

That’s it! We just flip the script on them!

But just as he was about to yell out to Talia and tell her what he had discovered, a staggering cramp shot through his body, and weakness not related to the debuffs came over him.

This is… not good!

He knew immediately what was going on. He had felt similar things already. His consistent pulses of C-grade energy were starting to stack up. And while he didn’t seem to have damaged his soul, this fatigue and weakness were unmistakable. Especially with his shinigami senses. His use of C-grade energy had exhausted his very soul itself.

I can’t fight in this state… Aaron looked around, panic mounting.

The situation was bad enough as it was, and it had just gotten a whole lot worse.

This wasn’t the kind of problem he could just stubbornly push himself through. His soul fatigue was simply too high, and Thousand Grand was too strong.

They needed time, and he needed a chance to recover. They needed to escape.

Stealing his attention, he heard a scream from below and looked down to catch Lord Rhino crashing straight through Talia’s shield Skill. She must have been low on mana, as he believed it could block just about anything. And the moment the shields shattered, she was flung across the jungle like a rag doll.

However, the Skill had obviously taken most of the damage, as the moment she crashed to a halt, she was back on her feet.

She wasn’t dead, but she didn’t look good, swaying from side to side as he prepared another attack.

She’s going to get herself killed!

Aaron needed time, and he immediately used [ Gorgon’s Soul Vortex ], slowing everything down and rushing to Talia’s side.

But once he had his soul vortex up and running, he noticed something else. He could feel it; it was unmistakable. Lord Rhino was drawing in massive amounts of mana from the ground itself. There was no doubt in his mind now, Lord Rhino was an earth attuned fighter, but it was more than that. This was the ant launching such powerful attacks over and over again without any signs of exhaustion. Not to mention the impressive healing.

Even a powerful D-grade should have shown some signs of slowing down with such incredible output. And now Aaron understood why it wasn’t.

There was another Skill involved, one that was likely enhanced by the Rhino’s earth attunement. And it was giving the ant the ability to absorb massive amounts of energy from the ground.

“I’m fine,” Talia spat. “You worry about your fight, and I’ll worry about mine.”

Aaron looked at her. She wasn’t fine. She was banged up bad, and Lord Rhino was in almost perfect condition. Not that he was doing much better, and the only reason they hadn’t immediately been attacked again was that Zero flashed past the two royal guards, blasting silver beams before flashing back behind the two of them.

His wolf companion wasn’t the sturdiest of fighters, but Zero was pretty damn fast.

“This isn’t good, Talia. I’m weakening, and you…”

“What choice do we have?!”

He was about to tell her what he had discovered, thinking that maybe they could turn the tide if they could fight the royal guards on preferable ground, but just as he was about to, a barrage of attacks slammed down onto the two ants.

A cascading series of explosions and Skills erupted across the two royal guards in quick succession.

“Over here!” A voice called from the plains. “Now’s your chance! Retreat now!”

Aaron didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed Talia and shot toward the plains, with Zero gliding beside him.

But his eyes widened as he glanced over his shoulder and saw the two royal guards unbothered by the attacks that had crushed down against them. But the moment the royal guards attempted to take chase, a series of traps exploded around them.

Aaron doubted they would get themselves killed by such attacks, but even the D-grade royal guards couldn’t mindlessly tank attacks without weakening themselves.

He was exhausted, but he pulsed another blast of C-grade energy into himself as he used [ Spectral Rush ]. There was no choice now; they needed to escape these two and recover.

But the moment the two royal guards appeared from the dust of the trap explosions, a half dozen warriors descended upon.

“Wait, what the hell are they doing?” Aaron cried out.

“Don’t worry about that!” The scout said, now only a hundred or so meters away, and fired another arrow. “We’ve got to leave! Now!”

He was right, and Aaron kept moving, ignoring Talia’s protests, but a ball was forming in his gut.

As he flew out into the plains, he could tell that the swarm had mostly been destroyed during their fight, although that too was regrouping in the jungle.

“They don’t stand a chance. They’ll die!” Aaron shouted as he reached the scout.

“They know that! They’re doing it for Dober.”

The thought of people sacrificing themselves for their escape didn’t sit well with Aaron, but he slowly nodded nonetheless. This was the reality of their situation. If they stayed, they’d all die, and Dober didn’t stand a chance against the ants without its strongest warriors.

But to so selflessly throw their lives away… It was a heavy burden to bear. Made worse knowing that they weren’t aware that he had been forming a plan to deal with the royal guards. They’d just done it because they knew it needed to be done.

Aaron tensed his body, a shiver of stubbornness rushing through him. There was an undeniable part of him that wanted to rush back into the battle, but his soul wasn’t up for it.

We got a plan, we can do this, he reminded himself with a bent brow.

All they had to do was separate the two royal guards and fight them on their own terms. Lord Rhino in the air, and Thousand Grand on the ground. If they could pull that off, he knew they could beat them.

They still had to escape, though, and half a dozen brave but underleveled warriors wouldn’t hold the royal guards for long.

But when he glanced back, there was only one warrior left standing—one wearing armor very similar to Talia’s—and as Aaron watched, Lord Rhino’s fist passed straight through him, turning his body into red mist, leaving behind nothing but a pair of steel boots, still planted firmly in the ground. The royal guards both stepped forward, but while Aaron braced himself to turn and continue the fight, they surprised him by not continuing the chase; instead, they stopped right at the edge of the jungle.

Odd… Perhaps they have orders?

It didn’t really matter why they weren’t following, though. Aaron knew what needed to be done, and a furious scowl bent across his face as he glared back at his enemy.

“I’ll return the favor. Don’t you bloody worry about that, you damn bugs!”