Verdantia entered through the trapdoor first and looked around with raised eyebrows. "This place has walls. It's not a dirt tunnel."
Cinderielle followed and lit up a flame to illuminate the surroundings. "What about traps? Can you summon other creatures to check?"
Verdantia asked with a frown. "Do you want me to kill more of those cuties?"
Rolling her eyes, she answered. "Can't you use non-important summons or something? You know, those that are mindless and weak."
Verdantia snorted. "Every creature has its own cuteness! Even being brainless makes them adorably dorky!"
Flor stuttered. "D-Dorky?"
Ignatia, who was entering last, commented. "What's the plan, by the way? Do we go in and check for a while?"
Flor nodded. "Let's not get too involved for now. We can send others when we map a bit of this place and return to protect-."
Verdantia quickly turned around and shouted to Ignatia as her own energy surged and vines shot forward. "IGNATIA, HOLD THE TRAPDOOR!"
The Ant Queen reacted as quickly as possible and jumped backward using her tremendous bodily strength. With more than 100 Physique stat points, the stone floor below her cracked as she became a blur.
However, on the other side of the opened trapdoor, the vines that Verdantia had previously left holding it up had been cut, and the person who had done that was slamming the trapdoor shut.
Ignatia's heart sank, knowing that she would not make it. 'I am not quick enough!'
Yet, a hot ball of pure fire flew by her shoulder, making her realize what was going to happen and what the intention was in a fraction of a second. With an incredibly swift reaction, she placed her arms in a cross before her face and used one of her skills to increase her bodily defense.
BOOOM!
The fireball exploded in the tight passage, creating incredible pressure that prevented the trapdoor from closing as the man shutting it down felt it almost being blasted open.
Nevertheless, his strength was much higher than they expected, and the trapdoor didn't stop its quick descent by more than a second. Moreover, with the explosion's strength, he was confident that the other side had been thrown flying as well. 'I got them!'
Yet, as the trapdoor was about to close…
BANG!
The man's face changed from a smug smile to a shocked one. He had relaxed in that last second, so the forceful slam threw him a few steps back, and he lost balance. 'Wait- FUCK!'
The trapdoor was blasted open but without a single dent, showing its durability. Ignatia jumped out from the entrance with a wrathful face. Her arms were burned, and her head and shoulders bruised because of the impact against it, but even when a few hundred of her Phoer Body Shard reserves were lost, her eyes and other senses were completely focused on the man who had just recovered balance.
As she fell from the sky, Ignatia heard the man shout. "Tsk. I miscalculated your strength and reaction speed, Ant Queen."
Ignatia prepared, and the second she landed, she shot forward and punched. The tremendous strength of the Ant Queen was felt by the whistling of her fist. But to her surprise, the man actually lunged forward and met her fist.
BOOM!
A shockwave spread as their fists collided, and Ignatia's face changed when his strength pushed her body back several steps. 'Strong! What level is he?'
However, before she could start analyzing, the man rushed forward and unsheathed his sword. The speed of the sword was so fast that even her complex compound eyes almost lost sight of it.
With a quick reaction after dodging the sword that passed definitely too close to her neck, Ignatia's hand ignited and created a blast of fire before her. Yet, to Ignatia's surprise, the man pushed forward while receiving around 500 damage.
Seeing the sword approaching and having no way to dodge it, Ignatia prepared to receive a lot of damage. However, from her sides, a massive torrent of wind rushed forward and blasted the man flying a few meters back.
Flor's calm voice reached her. "Ignatia, are you okay?"
However, the Ant Queen could notice the suppressed anger in Flor's tone as torrents of wind circled around the mighty Rose Fairy Queen.
Ignatia smirked. "Just a few scratch marks, nothing serious."
The human male didn't attack right away as Cinderielle and Verdantia had also come out, which gave the girls enough time to analyze him.
***
Level: 15
Aether Mana Shards: 16,897/17,172
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Phoer Body Shards: 30,749/31,084
Anima Energy Shards: 15,138/15,480
Attributes: Aether 102 (68+34), Physique 183 (135+48), Anima 92 (68+25), Willpower 145 (135+10), Destiny 60 (60)
***
The faces of all the girls changed, and Cinderielle asked. "Ignatia, are you sure you are okay?"
Ignatia's smile faltered, and she gritted her teeth while saying. "My hand is broken."
Flor didn't lose eye contact with the relaxed man for a single second while she used one of her skills called
With surprise in her eyes, Ignatia felt her hand bones realigning and healing, becoming as good as new. Then, she said with a deep and imposing tone. "Leave and protect Liu Shu. He is not the only one that has arrived and I can sense that there are combat sounds around that area."
Cinderielle wanted to protest, but Flor sent her a look that forced her words to get stuck in her throat. "I said, go. I'll deal with him."
The man sneered. "A little Level 13 Rose Fairy wants to deal with me? Well, you'll probably be a bit more of a handful to capture compared to those two."
Ignatia and the rest looked between Flor and the man a few times, but eventually, they turned around and left.
The man shook his head. "Do you think I will let you all go?"
He moved and his body shot forward, the 180 points in Physique exploding like a small bomb. However, his face changed as he quickly maneuvered and swung his sword in Flor's direction.
BANG!
A massive windslash blasted his arms backward while the rest of his body followed the combined momentum, being thrown diagonally and tumbling on the ground.
He was utterly stunned, and when he looked at Flor again, he observed how Flor's aura suddenly skyrocketed.
WHOOSH!
Everything around Flor began spinning as a whirlwind was spawned by her presence. "Filthy creature that wants to desecrate Liu Shu's domain."
BOOM!
With her aura skyrocketing, the man's face changed to one of horror. "You attacking us means I am defending."
Those words that looked obvious had a powerful underlying message.
Now that Flor was defending Liu Shu's territory, her buffing titles and Liu Shu's Defender title activated.
A total of a 40% increase left her own stats looking like such.
***
Race: Rose Fairy Queen
Level: 13
Aether Mana Shards: 30,014/31,974
Phoer Body Shards: 11,929/11,929
Anima Energy Shards: 16,890/16,890
Attributes: Aether 202 (160+42), Physique 83 (53+30), Anima 112 (80+32), Willpower 132 (107+25), Destiny 104 (104)
***
The human male's face became severe, not expecting a creature two levels below him to be this strong. "You are dangerous."
Flor sneered. "Dangerous? Wrong. The dangerous ones are the ones you've let go. I am just a protector." Then, her face became extremely murderous, she stated. "Now, face the wrath of Tianlian Liu Shu's Protector."
The Rose Fairy Queen lifted one of her arms, and the air before her was ripped apart as torrents of sharp wind blades flew forward, mincing everything in their way to pieces.
The man's body surged with energy, his muscles under his tight clothes tensing, and he quickly rushed forward while trying to dodge the barrage of wind blades. However, the utterly devastating torrents were too fast and numerous to dodge, and he received three consecutive hits.
BANG!
[-1265]!
BANG!
[-1650]!
BANG!
[-2135]!
The man's face changed when he felt the pain and saw his Phoer Body Shards being sliced away by such a large chunk. One attack dealt more than 10% of his total vitality pool. 'I feel as if I'm being hit by metal bars instead of air! Thankfully, my armor is powerful against cutting attacks, or I would be in danger.'
"You think too much."
The man realized that he had lost sight of Flor when looking at his system page, and by the time he refocused, Flor was surprisingly at a melee distance. 'She actually dared to close the gap when our physical strength is so different!?'
He instantly swung his sword, using a skill to double the swinging speed. The sword created a whistling sound as it split the air, but to his surprise, Flor barely dodged.
[-6481]!
A massive gash spread from side to side on Flor's body as the sword sliced through her chest diagonally. However, because of the angle at which he had to hit her, instead of blasting Flor backward, she was just briefly stopped.
"What?"
Flor's face was utterly emotionless as blood burst from her chest. She raised her hand and used
SLASH!
[-21,545]!
Blood burst from his neck and upper chest area as he ate the attack face first. Moreover, the raw strength behind the wind attack sent his body flying, which, in turn, was what saved him from an instantaneous death.
Flor had learned previously from her fight with Cinderielle, so instead of relaxing, her Wind Aether Mana swirled around her with increased strength.
The man was seeing white because of the horrendous pain of having his upper chest and neck being minced by the sharp winds. His mind was confused as to what happened. At one moment, he thought that he had gotten the pesky Rose Fairy Queen, but then his vision became blurred, and a tremendous pain assaulted his mind. A quick side look at his Phoer Body Shards made his body turn cold.
Phoer Body Shards: 4089/31,084
'W-What? H-How did she-.'
A sense of pure danger assaulted his body, and he tried to jump in a random direction. 'ARGH!'
[-1404]
Phoer Body Shards: 2,685/31,084
"W-Wait! COUGH!" The man instantly started begging for his life as he spat blood when he felt death approaching. "I-I can tell you where COUGH! COUGH! the Rose Fairies we captured are!"
During this time that he was speaking, he managed to recover his dizzy vision and looked around, trying to find the Rose Fairy Queen. However, he couldn't find her.
A drop of blood fell from above him, landing on his arm and forcing him to look up. There, floating majestically, even when a horrible slash had almost divided her body diagonally, the Rose Fairy Queen was looking down at him while pointing with her finger. "You have no legs, so you can't run. Do you want to live? Sure, then tell me who you are, why are you here, and where did my Rose Fairies go."
The man remembered the pain he felt a moment ago and looked backward with a terrified expression. As the Rose Fairy Queen said, his legs had been cleanly cut, making him lose even more blood.
Flor saw it and commented. "Oh, too early to die. You still have some use."
Then, he was force-fed three fruits while the juice of another two fruits was splashed on the injured leg stumps.
The man felt a healing effect and was stunned.
[+1250]
[
Phoer Body Shards: 3,473/31,084
Flor looked at his Phoer Body Shards, and seeing how they stopped dropping so quickly, she nodded and ate ten berries herself.
[+2500]
[
Phoer Body Shards: 7987/11,929
Then, Flor punched the man on the jaw, making him faint, and carried him back together with his amputated legs. 'Those legs are good fertilizer for Liu Shu. A Level 15's body is quite valuable, after all.'