"Symbiotic Mode," I said as soon as the program finished downloading and installing.

My goggles pressed into my face with a hiss of expelled air. Every other time until then, the process would have been done. This time I could feel as panels started to inch down the edge of my face and under my chin. After covering the perimeter of my face, the exposed areas were filled in until they eventually covered everywhere in an airtight seal.

I touched the mask to get a feel of its shape, but it was useless. I needed to find a mirror somewhere to see what it looked like. I felt a cross pattern over the front that started just under my nose and then expanded downward in a triangle to just below my mouth. My fingers lingered over the mouth for a moment.

The mask wasn't touching my lips, so I was pretty comfortable. It was even hard to tell it was on my face. The most difficult sensation to get used to was breathing. I could tell that breathing would be a little more difficult in the mask as if I had a thin cloth blocking my airway.

Everything else seemed normal. My displays were the same, and my vision didn't change. I did feel a slight rush of energy which I assumed was the increase in my abilities from being in Symbiotic Mode; the rise in power felt good.

When I looked at the horde of beetles below me, the DTA program highlighted them as usual. Although, the closest one to me seemed a little brighter. I gathered my energy, took aim and struck with all my might.

My spear sunk smoothly through the beetle. I made sure to pull it up quickly so it didn't get stuck. Yet it didn't seem as if I needed to; the beetle fell dead immediately and tumbled down the small pile.

I noticed two things besides the ease of my attack. The first was that the blue De bar at the bottom of my vision went down a sliver when I used it. The second was that I didn't feel the usual tiredness from performing the attack.

I did it a few more times to ensure I was correct in what I felt and saw. The De bar was actually separate from my internal store. Or, at the very least, it used my store without the associated fatigue. If it was the former, it would be better than I thought. I could monitor how many attacks I could perform using the De bar. Then, even if it was depleted, I could do more using my internal energy. Even if it was the latter, knowing my limits and not having the adverse effects was significant.

I started methodically killing the Rock Beetles below me. Not every attack was an instant kill, but everyone did, at the very least, inflict a lot of damage. I exhausted my De bar after about fifteen attacks. I wasn't ready to see if further uses of the ability would fail or use my internal reserves. First, I wanted to see how long it would take for the De to recover.

A few moments after I was done attacking the beetles, my De bar started slowly ticking back up. I sat there and watched, and it took about ten minutes until it was done.

Fifteen De Point attacks every ten minutes wasn't a bad deal. If I paced myself, I could keep up a steady stream. I started attacking again. I still wasn't worried about pacing, though. I decided to see if there was a difference between my De bar and the energy I used when I wasn't in Symbiotic Mode.

When the De bar was depleted entirely, I focused on the power. I could still feel the energy coursing through me. I pushed it out, around the spear and down the point. The De Point attack was successful as my spear sliced into the Rock Beetle just as smoothly as before.

A small wave of exhaustion flitted through my body, and I had my answer. It was that my robot had its own store of usable De. I still had more in my internal reservoir, but I didn't want to exhaust it. I wanted to keep my own De as an emergency resource.

Once my De bar was refilled, I would initiate some serious bug extermination. While waiting for the bar to refill, it took much longer to start than before. When the exhaustion from my internal De uses faded, the De bar started going back up. That was good information to know. If I used my internal source, I would have to wait longer before using the robot's energy.

With all my experiments out of the way, I cracked my neck and got to work. I made sure to pace myself while I was killing the beetles. I wanted minimal downtime while I continued to demolish them. After what I guessed was thirty to forty-five minutes, I was breathing hard and sweat continuously dripped from my head. However, I was making good progress in thinning their numbers.

Every strike maimed or killed one of the bugs. Their chittering squeals were beginning to be music in my ears. Suddenly, one of the beetles I attacked but didn't kill did something different.

After falling off the reduced pile of bugs, the injured beetle skittered a short distance away. It started to chitter loudly in a pattern I hadn't heard before. The noise continued, drowning out the others. There wasn't much I could do about it, so I continued my bug genocide. Less than five minutes later, I figured out what it was doing.

I was finally making progress with whittling away the bug's numbers. I was starting to contemplate and plan where I would jump down to and which way I would start running when movement heading in my direction caught my attention. The damn bug must have been calling for reinforcements.

Just how many of these things are there!

A line of Rock Beetles marched in the direction of the massacre I was creating to undo all my work of escaping.

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Well, screw that!

I was determined to kill every single one of those stupid bugs. If they wouldn't let me leave, the joke was on them because I didn't want to. I gritted my teeth and set to work. Instead of just trying to pace myself, I made sure that every one of my attacks counted.

I focused on my DTA program as it highlighted the best Rock Beetle for me to attack. Once it was highlighted, I focused more on where I needed to strike. It seemed that the DTA program could sense my intentions. After I chose from the myriad of targets and focused down, the program seemed to lock on the creature while forgetting the others.

The red outline that I could usually see lessened in intensity. Dots started to show up around the creature's body, and they were color coded. The dot right over the armored head of the beetle was green. I didn't know what the colors meant, but I assumed that green was good because a stab in the head should end it.

I thrust down with extra force from my anger. The attack, coupled with the De Point strike, sent the blade of my spear clean through the creature. I smiled maliciously at the advanced function and kept the process up.

I stopped keeping track of the time as I continued to kill the beetles. Before I knew it, their numbers dwindled. I was once again thinking of where to drop down, but that time I wasn't thinking of running away.

I saw my moment to jump down, and I took it. There was an open space where I could turn to fight beetles, and the placement of the trees would keep them from flanking me. I had already cleared out enough of them that the rest wouldn't be able to surround me before I killed them.

I flew down from the tree with a preternatural grace that felt amazing. As soon as my feet hit the ground, the earth seemed to shake with the impact. Something else must have changed with my increase in compatibility. I would have checked too, if it wasn't for the threat of the Rock Beetles, which were all behind my landing position.

I turned around, ready to strike. The remaining bugs were already converging on my position. When I did, I almost tried to jump back into another tree.

At the edge of the crater was a Rock Beetle that was at least four times the size of all the others. Next to the behemoth beetle was a fallen tree with the dirt settling around it from falling. It appeared that I wasn't the cause of the earth rumbling; it had been from the falling tree caused by the beetle.

The only reason I didn't jump back into a tree was that it was clear that the trees were no longer safe. The giant beetle was heading in my direction, but it was lumbering along slowly. It clearly didn't have the maneuverability of its smaller brethren.

I could only think of killing as many smaller ones as I could before the larger one arrived. I had already decided to kill all of them, and the large one was included. My father taught me to never go back on my word.

I thrust forward with my spear and ended the life of the closest approaching beetle. I sidestepped to the right and killed another. I was planning on holding my ground while I killed the rest of the creatures, but I had to adjust my plan with the arrival of the large one.

I dodged and moved as I continued to ensure every attack killed a beetle. I worked my way backward and around in a large circle. I tried to move faster than the giant beetle was. I also needed to stay away from it because trees were felled in its path as it progressed.

In the time it took to work my way around to an advantageous position, the Behemoth Rock Beetle managed to take down three more trees. They weren't the largest trees, but it was still a mighty feat. However, the oversized bug's penchant for destroying the forest was working against it. It slowed its progress in making it to wherever I was, and when the trees fell and the ground was disturbed, it gave me a few moments of concealment.

There were barely any smaller beetles remaining when I made it to the larger one's side. I was as good of a time as any to attempt an attack. I sprinted forward to get closer. I bounded off a downed tree between us to soar in the air. My DTA program lit up green over the creature's head, right where I was aiming and flying toward.

I struck down on its head precisely where I meant to with my De Point strike. Even with the extra power, my attack barely chipped the hardened rock exterior of the beetle. I landed on its head and tried again while I had the chance.

Another stab. Another small chip.

The creature didn't like me perched on its head, and I found that it could move much faster if it wanted. Its head jerked around erratically, and I was flung off of it. I grabbed a low-hanging branch and swung myself to a safe speed and direction. When I hit the ground, I stayed low in a crouch while it continued to flail for a moment longer. I wanted to be able to spring away at any moment.

It paused its thrashing, and I jumped forward again. I aimed at the same spot one more time. I would slowly chip away at its tough hide if that was my only recourse. I thrust my spear in its direction, my goggles lighting up green.

Before my spear hit, the beetle's back split down the middle and opened up. I was struck by a bulging piece of its rocky shell. The part that hit me wasn't sharp, but it struck me with enough force to send me tumbling twenty feet away and into a tree.

I managed to keep my head from hitting the tree at the additional expense of my already bruised abs. That was still better than being knocked unconscious. A smaller beetle appeared from around the tree. I was forced to roll sideways to keep its mouth from biting my face off.

The beetle skittered hurriedly toward me. I wasn't in a position to use my De Point attack even if I had the time. I pushed off the ground and executed a vicious kick like it was a pinecone. The kick connected right under the creature's head.

I expected its head to move a little and it to be stunned for a moment so I could make my De Point attack. I was also expecting my foot to erupt in pain from the impact. None of those things happened.

When my foot hit the Rock Beetle, it was flipped entirely over from the force. Additionally, I barely felt the impact on my foot. I didn't waste any time or energy as I stabbed the beetle in its unprotected underside.

If only I could do that to the larger one.

The cracking of wood echoed through the trees, and I looked at its source. The giant beetle's jaws crunched through the base of another tree. The tree collapsed in my direction. I jumped and rolled to the side to escape the impact area.

I rolled in the dirt and detritus of the forest. I managed to get far enough away that the tree didn't land on me, but I was showered with the displaced ground from where it landed. Branches laced with leaves whipped me across the back and neck, surely leaving marks I would have to suffer with later.

I rose from the ground and peeked out of the branches and leaves like a gopher from his hole. I like to think that it looked more majestic than that, but I don't like fooling myself. What was important was that I was alive and still had my weapon. I dusted the remaining leaves and random foliage off my shoulder, then focused on my opponent.

The Behemoth Rock Beetle was standing in an almost wholly cleared area. I would have thought it was done by accident, but as I came up from the tree and looked at the bug, it stared right back. The beetle seemed more intelligent than I gave it credit for. With it in the center of the cleared area, I was at a considerable disadvantage.