They were moving forward after a short rest and meal. William found it a little harder to eat than normal after the recovery of his knife.
William spotted a group of mantises ahead. There was something different about this group. Previously they had been spread out just enough to be able to help each other but now the five normal ones were surrounding a larger mantis in a circle formation.
The middle mantis was a head taller than the rest of them. But the most striking difference was the colour. There were bright red lines all over the mantis. The scythe part of its arm looked sharper than normal and was completely bright red.
Rigel stopped while speaking to Victor.
"That's one of the variants. They mostly all look like that but in different colours."
Victor stood still while staring intensely at the mantis before answering.
"Alright I think I understand what has happened. William do you want to deal with the variant?"
There was something exciting about the idea of dealing with the variant that would be stronger than the normal mantis soldier. But ultimately it would be alone and William wouldn't be able to see the full movement of the mantis as if it's behaviour was as the rest of its kind then it would just rush in without caring about anything. It could be dangerous but William wanted it to have more companions so that he could feel the full battle power of the mantis.
"Can you leave the variant and two of the normal mantises for me to deal with?"
Victor seemed like he was expecting the response while Rigel looked a little shocked and unsure, if only for a moment before hiding it. Rigel looked towards Victor for a confirmation, which he got in the form of a nod, before responding.
"Alright but be careful, the difference in ability isn't that different but they can materialized their affinity to a lesser extent."
Materializing your affinity was the advanced version of materializing your Qi. While materializing your Qi would allow you to use Qi as a physical force without moving your body. But materializing you affinity would allow someone to use their Qi outside their body to create a supernatural effect solely using their will and Qi. Someone who had fire Qi would for example would be able to create fire solely using their Qi and if they trained they would be able to throw fireballs at their target.
A cultivator would normally have to be at the mid or late stages of the Qi Purification realm to be able to materialize their Qi. To materialize their affinity they would have to be one higher realm, at the Qi Root realm.
This mantis was not at the Qi purification realm not to mention the Qi Root realm but was still able to materialize it's affinity. This was an advantage that Qi beasts and other creatures with a good connection to Qi had.
"I'll be careful."
William could be say more but he was to engrossed with the mantises.
Seeing this Victor just smiled before disappearing. Rigel seemed a bit worried so whether because he had grown bored of killing the mantises with his sword or as a warning to William he decided to kill the mantises in another way.
Rigel stood infront of William before going down on one of his knee and touching the ground. Roots shot up from the ground near the mantises a second later. The mantises had no time to react as sturdy roots pierced their heads while lifting them up. Even when they died the roots didn't disappear, instead holding them up in the air as if they were demonic banners, disturbing anyone seeing them.
William didn't know if the mantises had intelligence to be unnerved by their companions states but their anger was obvious as they all hissed and started to search for their opponent.
They shrieked as they started running towards William after spotting him. There was a bit of distance between William and the closest mantis but the variant quickly showed itself faster than normal as it passed the normal to arrive at William first.
The mantis didn't do anything special but it's strikes were faster and heavier than the normal soldier mantises. William deflected the attacks before countering with a stab. The mantis showed itself smarter and more aggressive than normal as it dodged to the left allowing itself to take a gracing blow while striking William. William was forced to back away to avoid losing his arm.
By now the two other mantises had showed up and were trying to spread out to surround William.
William dodged the combined attacks from the normal mantises which brought him into the range of the variant. William decided to stop playing as he began using proper sword techniques.
As the variant and William clashed William forced a deadlock before pushing the variant away and turning around to attack one of the normal ones.
It only took three exchanged before William had cut of one of the mantises arm. Unfortunately he was forced to disengage as the variant tried to stab him in the back.
William caught the cut of limb and threw it at the other normal mantis which hadn't found an opportunity to attack William. As the mantis raised it's arms to block the thrown limb. William slashed half of it's torso, it's thorax before retreating again as the two other mantises tried to attack him.
The mantis that was almost completely cut in half let out a weak shriek as it collapsed. It wasn't dead just yet but it wouldn't take long before its injuries killed it.
The variant let out a piercing shriek as both of its forelegs lit up in red before starting to burn.
The variant attacked again forcing William to be more careful with how he blocked the strikes to avoid being injured by the fire. This proved a bit harder as the variant attacks were also faster and more powerful compared to before their forelimbs started burning. Fortunately the only other mantis only had one if it's forelegs left making it hard for it to attack properly.
William was able to use his movement technique in succession to get behind the normal mantis as it attacked him. William cut of its head before kicking it towards the variant. The variant got pushed back by the corpse of the normal mantis giving William an opportunity to attack. William ended the variants life with a stab through its head before it could get free from its companions corpse.
William didn't know if he should be sad about how the variant was easier to kill than he first believed or happy that it managed to somewhat fight against him.
William once again ended the usual routine of searching for Victor and Rigel, which failed.
When they appeared William asked Rigel if the banners were necessary.
"Don't you think the banners were a tad much?"
"Not at all. It's a good warning, especially for you. Your cultivation level is too low and you know too few techniques to properly respond to unknown situations. How would you respond it you were attacked in such a way."
William imagined himself being attacked by the roots. While he wouldn't have too much of an issue dodging the first strike. If the enemy could continue attacking with them then he would be forced to use his movement technique to close the distance while also dodging. Not an impossible task, but one that would drain his Qi reserve and would allow the enemy to set the tempo of the battle.
As they continued deeper into the forest, William was busy imagining different scenarios of being attacked and how he would respond.
Night was quickly falling as William, Victor and Rigel was making camp. William was a little unsure about setting up their camp in the middle of the mantises territory, but Rigel put up a formation that would hide the camp from being found, at least from weaker and less perceptive creatures.
There had only been one more encounter after the previous one. This time there wasn't any variant so William dealt with four normal mantises, which proved easier than the previous fight with the variant.
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Rigel was once again teaching William how to dismantle a mantis. This time William was doing most of the labour with Rigel simply instructing him.
Victor soon brought a plate of food for William. There was a few different grilled vegetables with some grilled mantis meat.
"Did you have vegetables with you the whole time grandpa?"
While William didn't especially like vegetables it was still something new after several days of almost only eating stews. Even if the stews were different it still became boring after a while. So seeing something new after a while was a happy occasion, even if it was simply cooked over a open fire with minimum spices.
"Nope. You can thank Rigel for the vegetables. He foraged them while we were moving through the forest."
Rigel nodded before speaking a bit.
"Foraging for wild vegetables is a common skill among adventurers. It's also useful since its not that different from searching for helpful herbs."
William was happily eating the the overcooked meat and vegetables after successfully making Rigel talk about one of his quest that he had done while being an adventurer. Not that William himself was that interest about the quest, even if it was good entertainment while eating. He was more interested in the information because be believed that he could trade any vital information about adventurers that he could get with his brother, Adalgar who wished to become an adventurer and travel the world. Surprisingly the story had many similarities to the mission they were on right now. A village was harmed by a newly encountered pack of wolfs and had hired Rigel to go into the forest and kill the pack leader which had become a Qi beasts.
After breakfast and packing up their things they were on the move again.
Rigel stopped William and Rigel while looking at something in the distance. First William believed that they had encounter another group, but he couldn't find any mantises even after searching for a while.
William finally saw why Rigel had stopped them after they had moved forward more. There was a small clearing ahead, but this one was disturbed. There was blood splatter and small parts of the mantises exoskeleton scattered around the clearing. There were also deep marks on a handful of trees, they had clearly been struck by something strong enough to destroy the bark and leave deep impacts on the wood underneath. One of the trees was almost completely destroyed as half of it was shattered, the rest of the tree being bent enough that it could fall over at any time. These marks were obviously not done by the mantises which was worrisome as something else was powerful enough to invade this deep into the mantises seemed territory, and was also voracious enough to leave no mantis corpse behind.
Rigel was the first to speak, more to William than Victor.
"The battle was quite recent, between one and two hours. I can't recognize the the creature which did this. The only thing I can confirm is that's it's a large snake or snake-like Qi beast, powerful enough to not be harmed by six mantises and moving deeper into the mantises territory."
William was happy hearing it, this seemed like a new challenge that he could deal with.
Victor had a frown on his face before asking Rigel.
"Is there any such creature that's native to this forest?"
Rigel thought for a moment before denying the possibility that it was native.
"I've seen no traces of this creature during my stay here. I haven't heard anyone from the village describe such a beast either."
"As I thought. This is getting worrisome."
Victor didn't say why he was worried but instead urging Rigel to continue guiding them.
They saw three more sites with clear evidence of a one sided fight before encountering another group of mantises. All the sites were similar too the first, damaged trees, blood splatter from mantises and no corpses.
William started fighting another group of mantises after encountering them. This time he fought a whole group, four normal mantises and one of the fire variants. William had little problem dealing with them, even without any assistance. The most problematic thing was the amount of time it took to kill them all. The group had an easier time helping each other with so many of them, which in turn forced William do dodge and reposition frequently, dragging the fight on.
After this there was no more traces of any battle having occured. The unknown Qi beast had taken another path according to Rigel. William became a little sad that he wouldn't encounter and get the opportunity to fight the unknown Qi beast. Victor responding to Williams clear disappointment with assurance.
"Oh shouldn't we follow it?"
"Don't worry. I think I can sense why it came here and if I'm correct then it will come to us later."
"And if your wrong?"
"Then I will hunt it down."
After moving for a while with no new encounters William decided to just outright ask what Victor was sensing.
"So what are you sensing exactly?"
"I'm not sure. It's to distorted. But it has incredibly pure and dense Qi. I'm not surprised that it's attracting Qi beasts. Fortunately something is hiding it, so it shouldn't attract creatures from too far away."
Rigel stopped moving and mentioning that they were at their destination.
In the distance William saw a hole in the ground. Around the hole stood seven mantises which looked like bulkier soldier mantises. There were five light brown ones. If they were inside the hole then they might have blended in well but with them standing amongst the green grass they stood out enough to be immediately spotted. There were two mantises which looked like variants as they had lines all over themselves. Unlike the fire variant which was red these ones were, dark brown and forest green.
"These are guardians. As the name suggest, they guard the Mother mantises the Queen and the nest itself. They are pretty much just stronger soldier mantises with a much stronger defense."
Rigel informed William what kind of mantises they were before asking how many he wanted to deal with.
Rigel didn't have to wait for long before William responded with his usual confidence and a smile.
"I want the two variants and three normal ones."
William wanted to deal with all of them but dealing with two new variants and a new type of mantis was enough fun for now. He didn't want to become to overconfident and lose the battle and make his future teacher or his grandfather help him. That would be too embarrassing.
The guardians might have been stronger than the soldier type but that meant little to Rigel as he dealt with them in his usual way. Appearing in front of them, cutting off their heads and then disappearing.
The mantises went closer to the hole in the ground while also getting closer to each other. Unlike the soldier types which rushed any target they spotted. The guardians truly were more focused on guarding.
There was some hissing from the mantises as the stared down William. William didn't know if this was meant to intimidate him or if the were calling for help from any mantis close to the hole entrance. If it was meant to signal that they needed assistance then he couldn't stand still.
He ran towards them which simply made them get even closer to each other. It didn't look like they would leave their position for anything which could prove to be a problem.
William attacked the left most with a slash that was deflected by it while another one immediately took the opportunity to attack William. He was forced to dodge while trying to get behind the mantis. It proved less difficult than he thought as their speed was the same wasn't any better than the soldier type.
A single stab through the back of its head was enough to kill it. William did sense that their exoskeleton gave of more resistance than the the soldier type, but not enough to stop the Qi filled artifact.
With that done, he attacked the one that he had previously attacked after throwing the dead mantis to the other normal one. He only got in a few light blows before the variants were on him.
The two variant mantises attacked from each side forcing him to dodge. Neither mantis had materialized their attribute yet.
William took this chance to dodge towards the green variant before blocking it's attack and countering, drawing some blood from the upper part of the mantis's forelimb.
Another dodge to avoid the attack of the other variant brought him close to the normal guardian, the previous light injures being enough to give him the opportunity to cut of one of the mantis's forelimb. All he needed now was one more clash with it to kill it.
The two mantises materialized their Qi at the same time as the last normal guardian type of the group lost its head.
The green mantis was the first to attack. William couldn't tell any difference in its ability as they attacked each other. At least not initially. The green mantis had it's wounds heal as it grew more aggressive, trying to make William dodge towards it's ally.
William dodged forward instead. The way to deal with a constantly healing enemy was usually to deal one critically fatal injury instead of trying to wear them down.
It proved difficult to find an opportunity but eventually William made one. William deflected the mantises strike before slashing upwards, drawing a deep injury which split it vertically.
The leftover mantis shrieked before becoming more active as a large amount of Qi flowed along it's body. It's attacks had become much more heavy after it became alone. William tried to slash along its legs to lower its mobility. But the Qi strengthen exoskeleton was strong enough to protect with only a scratch along its leg.
William jumped back before analyzing the situation. If the Qi infused artifact wasn't enough to pierce it's exoskeleton than he would need to use proper techniques instead of free styling it.
William found himself able to push back the mantis while using the sword techniques. As the mantis was about to fall into the hole it stopped before shrieking loudly. A mistake which cost it's life as a sword pierced it's open mouth.
The fight hadn't lasted very long, mainly because William had become more used to fighting groups of opponents as well as the mantises group tactics over all of his fights. The guardians might had been more defensive but the way they tried to attack while another of their kind defended wasn't any different from the soldier types tactics.
Rigel appeared before even giving William the opportunity to look for him.
"Do you want to wait out here for any mantis that might have heard the call for help or do you want to enter the nest immediately."
From what William could see the hole led into a tunnel that while somewhat large was only wide enough to allow one on one fights. So while William was curious about the heart of the colony he still decided to wait.
"Let's wait for them to come out."
Rigel simply nodded before disappearing as the scratching from mantises running on rock and dirt entered Williams ears.
There had come a total of three different groups of mantises from the hole. Sadly they were all small group of guardians. The first group being only three mantises, no variant. The second group had one mantis but they were only two. The last group was the largest but didn't have any variants in it.
There hadn't been any new arrivals for a quarter of an hour now.
William simply sighed sadly before standing up and approaching the hole.
"I guess we should go in. I should go first right"
William had asked in a vain hope to get Rigel and Victor to agree to allow him to go first so that he would be the first to encounter any hostiles. Surprisingly Rigel simply agreed.
"There aren't really any branching pathways nor is there any traps. Besides I haven't been in this nest before so I can't guide even if it was necessary."
Williams step became a little lighter as he entered the nest while thinking about meeting and fighting the queen mantis.