Chapter 921: Relentless, Who's The Hunter and Who's The Prey!
Since the Ferae Adamantine Insolum Beetle was a world boss monster, there was no true limit to the distance it could chase after Izroth. If it was a truly vindictive beast, it could very well follow him all the way out of the Ferae Jungle and even the kingdom of Tempest itself!
But the chances of that happening were not high. The reason for that being Izroth figured as long as he showed the Ferae Adamantine Insolum Beetle the possibility of catching him was not worth the effort, it would willingly back off after a while.
Izroth moved through the multitude of natural obstacles that existed in the Ferae Jungle at his top base speed. However, no matter how skillful his movement, Izroth was unable to outright shake the Insolum Beetle. In fact, with each passing moment, the distance between the two was rapidly closing.
This was also in part to the monstrous strength possessed by the Insolum Beetle that allowed it to easily and effortlessly trample anything in its path.
'Its speed is faster than I expected. In that case...'
The next moment, Izroth's figure began to flicker, and, in the blink of an eye, several silhouettes flickering in and out of existence appeared as he gained a massive speed boost.
One second, the Insolum Beetle was close to catching up, and the next, Izroth managed to leave it in the dust!
After traveling for nearly ten seconds straight, Izroth could no longer see the Insolum Beetle behind the vast array of plant life.
'This should be far enough.'
Just as this thought crossed Izroth's mind, in the distance of the direction he had just come from, several trees were instantly toppled, forming in an almost perfect circular formation.
At the same time, Izroth felt a faint breeze that was not previously present, followed by the ear-ringing sound of what could only be compared to the rotating blades of a helicopter. But this noise was many times more deafening than that of a mere helicopter.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Out of nowhere, the trees behind Izroth started to swiftly drop at an unprecedented pace. In addition, the deafening sound was growing closer.
'This is...'
Izroth sensed the impending danger as his Soul Sense went off at full throttle.
Without thinking twice, Izroth immediately used a charge of his Instantaneous Movement and teleported himself as far away as possible from his last location.
Not even two seconds after Izroth performed this action, he saw a huge black streak of light blow past where he had just teleported away from!
Simultaneously, despite being fifteen meters away from that area, a strong gale of wind slammed into Izroth.
As for the path he was just on—it had been completely flattened to the point that it resembled scorched earth!
Soon after, the black streak came to a grinding halt as it landed on the ground.
This black streak was, of course, the Insolum Beetle. And, as the creature landed, its wings retracted and hid safely beneath the protective layer of its tough exoskeleton.
Click! Click! Click!
The Insolum Beetle once again locked its onto Izroth—as if it was trying to tell him that he could not escape its grasp.
'To think that it would be capable of flight, let alone at such speeds. I suppose this changes things.'
Initially, if he could not shake the Insolum Beetle off his trail, Izroth planned to use his Sky Steps to take to the air and avoid it that way. However, it turned out that not only could the creature fly, but it was able to do so several times faster than its speed on land!
'I can't afford to waste too much time here. Should I just have Astratis handle it?'
In the end, Astratis' presence in the Mortal Realm was too great of an anomaly in many ways, and Izroth was not yet prepared to deal with the aftermath that inevitably would follow.
That's why, long before they left the Land of Unity and crossed into Tempest, Izroth instructed Astratis to keep a good distance from their group and not to act unless he deemed it absolutely necessary.
'No, I'll just have to find another way. It's still too early for his existence to be known.'
Astratis' way of dealing with things was not exactly discreet. In addition, Astratis drew his power from the origin of thunder itself which overlapped with the Law of Thunder.
While the average person would not notice his existence if there were an abrupt change to the Law of Thunder from Astratis' presence, Izroth knew that, without a doubt, those old monsters would discover something was off. After that, it would not be long before Astratis' existence was made known.
'It's a shame Nomii is searching for the materials to heal her arm. Even if she used her power, it would not be as easily detected. Well, it's fine.'
A carefree smile formed on Izroth's face as a dagger with a gorgeous black blade appeared in his left hand.
This dagger had a slight white hue around him that was barely discernible. There was also a strange coldness filled with a sharp blade intent that flowed throughout the weapon. This was the Obsconis Hunting Dagger Izroth recently picked up from the Ferae Obsconis Mantis.
Weapon Name: Obsconis Hunting Dagger
Weapon Rank: Rare
Weapon Level: 58
Requirements: 1,400 Agility, Rogue-Type Class(2nd Advancement or higher)
Attack Damage: 520
Agility: 1,650
Attack Speed: 62%
Stalking The Cicada(Passive) - Every attack has an 8% chance to erase the presence of the user's next strike.
«Dark Ambush» - For the next 1 minute, your presence will be greatly reduced. During this time, the user's physical attacks with a weapon will deal 100% bonus damage as dark damage.
Cooldown: 10 minutes
〈System Alert: You have equipped «Obsconis Hunting Dagger».〉
〈System Alert: Attack Damage for the item «Obsconis Hunting Dagger» has been reduced by 376 points due to the effect of «Dual Wielding»!〉
〈System Alert: Agility for the item «Obsconis Hunting Dagger» has been reduced by 1,192 points due to the effect of «Dual Wielding»!〉
〈System Alert: Attack Speed for the item «Obsconis Hunting Dagger» has been reduced by 45% due to the effect of «Dual Wielding»!〉
'The stat loss is a shame, but...'
〈System Alert: You have activated the «Obsconis Hunting Dagger» weapon skill «Dark Ambush»!〉
'I'll just have to make do.'
All of a sudden, Izroth's presence seemed to be abruptly erased from the surroundings. It even caused the Insolum Beetle to be at a momentary loss as to where he disappeared to.
If Izroth had just used the Dark Ambush, there was a good chance that the Insolum Beetle would have still been able to locate him. After all, it had no trouble hunting down the Ferae Obsconis Mantis, who likely had the same or a similar skill.
However, Izroth did not just use Dark Ambush. He also activated the skill Shadow Blending as he concealed himself in the shadows of the Ferae Jungle.
Shadow Blending was only a B-ranked skill, but it was also capable of greatly reducing one's presence. Because of this, when it was used in tandem with a skill like Dark Ambush, it worked to amplify the overall effects of both skills.
Using Dark Ambush and Shadow Blending in this manner allowed Izroth to imitate the presence-hiding effects of a high-ranked stealth skill that was at least S-ranked!
Click! Click! Click!
The Insolum Beetle's body language grew increasingly agitated as it appeared frustrated by the fact that it had lost track of its prey not once but twice in one day! How could it not be infuriated?!
Bang!
Out of nowhere, the Insolum Beetle began to smash the ground in front of itself with its mighty horn.
Each time its horn struck the earth, it caused the ground to tremble and generated terrifying shockwaves that spread out in every direction.
As a result, the nearby trees and plant life could not hold up under the immense pressure and, in less than a breath of time, the surrounding fifty meters of the Insolum Beetle was entirely flattened.
This created a giant cloud of dust that lifted into the sky and could be seen from far away.
As for Izroth, his Heavenly Golden Body made it easier to endure the shockwaves of the Insolum Beetle, but there was no longer a shadow for him to move through. This effectively rendered his Shadow Blending skill useless! And, with his Shadow Blending losing its effect, Izroth could once again feel the vicious stare of the Insolum Beetle.
Although it was not direct right at him, Izroth had a feeling that the Insolum Beetle roughly knew his position.
'As I thought, even with Dark Ambush activated, it has an easier time locking down my rough position.'
"This thing is too relentless. Does it think that I'm its prey?" Izroth said to himself as he brandished his weapons.
He then continued, "Since it's not giving me a choice, I might as well make it clear who's the hunter and who's the prey."