Jacob felt it in his very veins. The creatures inside the warehouse were at least at the 6th level of the Cockroach realm.
They must have dragged the bodies there alive before fertilizing them with the eggs. And those people were at least at the 1st or even 2nd level of the Cockroach realm, I think.
The stronger the body they fertilized, the stronger the spawn they would generate.
Jacob was still quite surprised that Charybdes had appeared in the region, but at this point, everything seemed fair game. His presence had disrupted the space-time continuum and the future as a whole. He also saw weird changes like Helena’s mighty talent and some slight personality variations. Even though he could justify the latter with some weird psychology stuff, he could not understand how Helena could have become so strong.
It was linked to Time itself, of which he was a master. But even so, it would be extremely hard to piece everything together. So, even though he had so much knowledge now, a good chunk of it had become useless.
They slowly surrounded the building while dawn was finally shedding more light than before.
He made a sign with his hands, and the Fireballs started flying from Helena, Aunt Linda, and Lucius. In front of Helena, Marcus was fidgeting with the spear he was wielding. Jacob had taught him a very good Martial Style, but the man was clearly quite scared of the Charybdes. That was the reason Jacob had decided at the last minute, also considering the strength of the Charybdes inside, to just roam the battlefield and help.
Aunt Linda had Geneva in front of her. The two had become quite the partners during the previous days, seemingly matching each other craziness.
Marina was in front of a resting Juliet, with hands firm on her own spear. Even though she had shown a decent Martial prowess, her biggest quality seemed to be the coldness she faced new obstacles with. But, unlike Marcus, she always listened to Jacob and was able to keep her gears running under pressure.
Both her and Marcus had reached the 7th level of the Cockroach realm thanks to the Alchemic Tagliatelle. Their Mana cultivation was severely lagging behind, but given that their Magical Aptitude was lower than the Qi one, Jacob had gone for a full-physical build for them; at least until everyone was out of immediate mortal danger.
This time, the Charybdes burst out after only ten seconds of bombarding their building.
There must be many unevolved ones too.
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They looked particularly aggressive, and it usually signaled that there were many egg sacs not ready yet.
Good news. It means that there are still at least two days before they attack. So they went for a longer evolution cycle, thinking that no one would challenge them in this region.
Well, they were fu**ing wrong.
Jacob moved swiftly toward one abomination the size of a big dog.
6th level of the Cockroach realm.
Jacob released his aura and saw the hellish creature spasm and halt for half a second. But, as he thought, it barely had any effect on higher-level Charybdes.
But half a second was plenty of time for Jacob.
Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 1st stance – Cut
Even though he was only at the 3rd stage of Qi cultivation in the Cockroach realm, Jacob’s true potential lay in his personal Martial Style.
The creature died without knowing what had hit it. In the last seconds of its terrorizing life, it looked with its last functioning eyes inside the pupils of its executioner, and the Charybdis saw its very own pandemonic inferno.
Jacob looked toward Marcus and saw him impale a 4th level Charybdis and retreat immediately after, removing the spear in one swift move. The Charybdis appeared to struggle for a second but jumped forward in the next one.
Marcus stabbed again toward the head, this time with a slight swishing motion, and severed most of the insectile neck.
Come on, Marcus. Show me that you have learned what I taught you.
Thankfully, Marcus did not underestimate the creature and still jumped back in advance.
Even with three-fourths of his head severed, the Charybdis still managed the last jump forward, hoping to sting its prey.
As soon as the Charybdis started retracting the poisonous sting, confused, Marcus immediately stabbed the neck again, beheading the creature.
The mages were taking care of the smaller ones, frying them with Fireballs. Jacob went back and forth on the battlefield to kill the Charybdes he thought were organizing a more complex attack.
After a minute, the warehouse collapsed, and Jacob gave Juliet the signal.
The girl started dousing the debris with Phoenix’s Fire. Jacob began to walk around, unearthing the hidden Charybdes that were waiting to ambush the victors.
Another clean victory.
He looked toward Joseph, Geneva, and Marina. Thanks to the covering fire of their mages, they had fared all good. No one had been struck, and they had held their position, only retreating back and never advancing. That was how you fought the monsters.
Jacob nodded along to everyone and started gathering the necessary corpses for the Devilish Essence Distortion Formation.
Everyone was more shaken after this battle. They had all seen the two giant monsters Jacob had killed on his own, and they had feared having to face such monstrosities themselves.
As soon as he was done with the Formation, he spent a couple of words on the topic.
“You are probably afraid, and that’s okay. Fear should help us avoid stupid mistakes. We are going to have dozens of fights like this one. If we do not slip, we will kill off every single Charybdis without a problem. But, one mistake and you could possibly die. Once we start getting tired, we will need to improvise. And from the next battle, you will have to face stronger monsters on your own. I can barely go for another three minutes after this performance. And I need to stay fresh in case something truly dangerous appears.”
No one liked what Jacob had just said, but everyone accepted it nonetheless.