It proved difficult to find mantises after their little rampage over the mantis sanctuary. The population was scarcer, hence the added difficulty of the hunt. It seemed that dwindling their numbers made the monsters more cautious as they now traveled in greater packs. Adrian separated from the group to do a little scouting. Benefits of beings faster. Now it was impossible to see mantis loners, the smallest group he found was of three mantises. Although it wasn’t mathematically rational to affirm that was the lowest size of a group as he did only find two trios.

That presented Adrian with one question. Were the mantis monsters like in videogames or animals? A creature that spawned from the darkness and miasma or an insect that needed to reproduce to sustain the species. Adrian wanted to believe it was the second one, not because it was difficult to fight an ever-respawning enemy, but as humans were professionals on eradicating species. They had a shtick for insects, too.

It was painful for Adrian to couldn’t stop asking questions he was unable to answer. He decided to put them apart like the others. In the end, he wasn’t a Greek philosopher that had all the time in the world to think so hard that things became true, but a human that wanted to live. Specifically, he wanted to stop surviving and just live.

Adrian reunited with the party after tracking the two groups of mantises. As the monster’s patrols were slow and cautious, that permitted Adrian to localize them and bring the hounds, also known as their party members. Now Adrian thought the rest to be dogs, and to be honest, Axel would be a pretty scary bulldog. He stopped his inner distractions and casted [Time Dilation II], giving a decent speed boost to the party.

“Follow me.” Adrian said briefly as he walked into the woods.

As the party scout had observed, three mantises were marching before them. The creatures were unbeknownst of the earthlings. Adrian did notice that [Shadow Mantle] proved useful for scouting missions, at least in the woods. The tree’s shadows were enough to activate the [Title] passive. It seemed overpowered to Adrian, but he then remembered it would be useful in a flat. Like Spider-Man in the Low Countries.

Dale was going to shoot one of the mantises, but his sister stopped him. “Hey! I almost shot you.” Dale told her.

“No, you won’t. I grabbed the pipe by the middle.” Kayle told as she set free Dale’s blowpipe. “I and Aby want to try our new [Skills] and [Titles].”

Dale looked at Adrian like a son who wanted his father to punish her unruly sister, but Adrian just shrugged his shoulders. “I want to see that too.” In the end, Dale was the only one who was bloodthirsty.

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“[Smite]!” Kayle casted her offensive light spell to one of the mantises. She didn’t need to cry the name, but it was more spectacular that way. Also, stealth wasn’t an option. Once that light projectile that resembled a blade was noticed by the monsters, they would be detected.

“[Mind Tick I].” Aby casted her spell right after Kayle.

Aby’s magic – for the moment being – wasn’t offensive. Her [Forgotten Horror] could be used to attack, but the spell was only a debuff. Not that mattered as the mantis which she had casted the [Mind Tick I] failed its [Voluntat] stat check and became affected by [Madness]. The next seconds were worthy of a thriller movie. The deranged mantis commenced attacking its companions, without any objectives at mind. It swept the air as it was trying to kill it, or the inverse. The maddened mantis decapitated one of the others, the remaining one attacked at the crazy one and managed to cut one of its arms, only to be decapitated by the other one. The last mantis, still under the effects of [Madness], knelt and started banging its head on the ground. Each knock accompanied by a louder thud, that was until the mantis fell dead on the ground.

Everyone stood there, silent, watching the suicidal insect. And then Adrian talked. “What the fuck, Aby?” His voice contained more doubt than inquietude.

“To be fair,” Aby started. “I did not know what the [Madness] effect did.”

“I know, I know…” Adrian told in affirmation. “It’s just that… wow. It was brutal.”

And it indeed was. That creature, monster or not, had murdered his companions and then killed itself. Kayle was saved from puking on the ground thanks to her aura of comfort that was provided by [The Priestess’ Star]. Mike bypassed that directly and felt that if he hadn’t obtained the [Title] for maxing out [Voluntat] at the tutorial, he would have fainted. Dale, the last minor, stood there watching. It was gruesome, but he had seen worst in movies. Plus, they weren’t human, just insects.

“Thank god that we already had breakfast, because I lost all appetite.” Kayle commented while looking at the mantis’ rampage.

“Look at the bright side.” Adrian told her.

“What bright side could be at... this.” Kayle signalized the scene with her arms.

“I have one arm less to cut out of three.” As Adrian spoke, Kayle grunted. She couldn’t have expected anything serious to come out of Adrian’s mouth.

Kayle and Aby walked back to the campsite. They weren’t proud of the scene. Axel and Mike were the next ones to follow the pair. Dale stood with Adrian and then whispered to him.

“Was that a Monty Python reference?” The boy asked.

“What? No.” He told. “Oh, you say it for the bright side. Nah, I haven’t thought about it. But now it seems like a wasted opportunity.”

“Yeah, they should always look on the light side of life.” Adrian rolled his eyes after Dale’s words.

“Do you still wanna hunt?” Adrian asked the blond sibling. “There’s a group of three out there.”

“Sure,” Dale responded. “Free experience is good experience.”

Adrian cut the two remaining mantis’ arms and put them in the old food bag, now the arm sack. Then, Adrian and Dale went on a short hunt.