The mantis chittered angrily, swaying back and forth in rhythm with the trees. It exploded towards Kyle once again, appearing eager to kill the intruder in its space. Kyle was prepared, activating STORM SHELTER. The orange barrier of light sprang up in a sphere around him, the mantis’ forelimbs bouncing off the barrier ineffectively. The large insect seemed startled as its forward momentum was arrested, and its legs scrabbled against the shield as it tried to reposition itself.

Kyle deactivated his skill as he closed on the creature, landing a palm strike with his left hand. RESONANCE was active, and he felt the beginning of the connection form as the mantis jumped back, aided by another flutter of its wings. Somehow, without turning its head, the bug landed with legs spread on four different branches.

Kyle didn’t continue his pursuit of the creature. Instead, he observed it, measuring its reactions. No doubt it was powerful, and Kyle had the impression that it was around the same level as the Wall. While he had defeated the colossal beetle with relative ease, Kyle understood his victory owed largely to a favorable matchup. In this case, many of those advantages were neutralized.

The mantis was quick, with Perception to match. It had instantly reacted to Kyle’s attempted kill with RESONANCE, and beyond that managed to land with surprising grace considering its sheer size. It didn’t have the raw destructive potential the Wall demonstrated, but the precise and swift strikes were nothing to scoff at. If it weren’t for the power of his defensive skill, Kyle knew he would have taken serious injuries.

Despite all this, Kyle wasn’t too worried. He would have to take the fight seriously if he wanted to win, however he was confident in his victory.

“C.H.A.D.D., can you do a highlighted overlay on the branches the mantis steps on?”

[YES, DR. MAYHEW.]

The mantis seemed to treat their quick exchange as a signal to attack, and once again it lunged for Kyle. This time, he didn’t activate STORM SHELTER, instead opting to simply jump to a different set of branches nearby. The sharp scythes easily bit through the tree limbs Kyle was standing on, and it readjusted and turned to strike at him again. Once more, Kyle was able to dodge out of the way with HASTE, staying one step ahead of the mantis with relative ease. This dance continued for a while, with neatly sliced logs falling like rain onto the forest floor beneath.

Satisfied he’d figured out the pattern, Kyle jumped to one of the branches that C.H.A.D.D. had highlighted. The mantis lunged for him as expected, then seemed to pause mid leap. It didn’t immediately slash the branch Kyle was standing on, and its movements became frantic for a moment as it tried to get its footing. Given the creature’s unnaturally graceful landing, Kyle had an inkling that it had spent enough time in the under canopy to have established some preferred footholds.

It had gotten used to stepping on only certain tree branches that it knew could support its bulk, which were far less numerous than those that could support Kyle’s. As it had slashed away many of the smaller branches, Kyle was now forcing the mantis to make a choice – destroy its own “floor” to try to get to its prey, or use different attacks to avoid damaging its home.

Apparently, the mantis decided that it would rather lose its security deposit than continue to have an unwelcome roommate. Kyle figured that was the most likely outcome – after all, while the creature possessed sharp instincts, it was still an insect at the end of the day. True tactical planning was, he hoped, beyond it. It sliced through the foothold Kyle was using, then another in short order. It was then that the mantis seemed to realize its mistake. As it leaped to try to slice Kyle, he activated STORM SHELTER. With only a couple of branches in the area large enough to support it, the overgrown insect didn’t have enough footholds to grab on to as it frantically scrabbled to keep itself from falling.

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Kyle didn’t give it the chance, as he deactivated the shield and jumped to a lower branch, lashing out with his baton. He knew it wouldn’t do much damage against the creature’s chitinous body, so he aimed for the wings while the forelimbs were occupied trying to pull itself up. Focusing the energy from HASTE into his arm, he lashed out nearly a dozen times in less than three seconds, battering the wings beyond use.

The mantis tried to clamber back up onto the tree limb, but Kyle wasn’t going to give it the opportunity. He rested his hand on the center of its thorax and activated RESONANCE. Mana flowed through his hand, and with a focused surge he ended the creature’s life. It fell limply to the rainforest floor with a loud thump.

Focusing his Auric Perception, Kyle didn’t detect any indications that the mantis contained any of the red essence. That made sense to him – it was powerful by virtue of exposure to the mana, but it didn’t have the unique abilities of the other creature’s he’d fought. It was simply a really dangerous insect. He was still hoping to get C.H.A.D.D. another essence or two, it just wasn’t going to be today.

Satisfied he wasn’t leaving anything on the table, he turned back to the glowing sphere, still nestled into the hollow of a nearby tree. It was much more precarious than before to make his way over, though as he did he couldn’t keep himself from breaking out into a smile. The mana contained within the sphere was intense, though at the same time it felt gentle and soothing.

Without really thinking about it, Kyle reached out with his hand with RESONANCE active and touched the orb. It felt like he was touching a hard rubber ball that was warm to the touch, odd as he saw a drop of what looked like liquid enter it before his fight. His mana flowed into it and connected, and he felt a sense of timelessness from the ball, as if it was as enduring as the forest itself. If you knew you were on a timer you might think differently, Kyle chuckled to himself. He drew a little bit of the mana from it, feeling a gentle sense of rejuvenation through his body. It wasn’t physical healing, rather imparting a sense of relaxation through his body.

[DR. MAYHEW, IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO CONNECT TO THE ORB? THE MANA IS INTERESTING TO ME.]

“I don’t know that there’s much room left in the pack for it, do you need to touch the ball?”

[I DON’T BELIEVE SO, DR. MAYHEW. IF YOU CAN CONNECT ME USING YOUR SKILL IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED.]

Shrugging, Kyle unslung the pack and opened the top, resting one hand on top of the drone while the other continued to hold the sphere. Activating RESONANCE, he connected himself to C.H.A.D.D. as well. Almost immediately, he felt mana from the orb being drawn through his body and into the drone. He was startled at the suddenness of the flow of energy, and his surprise was only intensified as he realized that he couldn’t easily deactivate RESONANCE with the constant stream of mana pouring through. Kyle grunted as he brought the full force of his Willpower to bear, finally deactivating the skill. Not before the greedy drone had absorbed nearly a third of the mana contained inside the sphere. He estimated the treasure only had about half of its initial energy still present within, which meant…. Kyle had absorbed a good chunk of it as well.

He frowned as he considered the implication, as he didn’t feel much different at all. Kyle expected he would have had significantly recovered mana reserves, or at a minimum felt extremely relaxed. Instead, it was if the energy was just… gone. When he focused, he could feel vestiges of it in his body. He was tempted to enter meditation to try and pin it down, but decided against it. Even with the mantis down, it was generally a poor choice to meditate when danger could be afoot. That left him with just one item of business as he counted down the last few minutes until extraction.

“What the hell, C.H.A.D.D.?”