"Eo, that's a wasp, not a bee."
"B-b-but puns…"
"No, Eo. They don't even understand Standard. Also, that was cringy."
Eo pouted.
The rune formation showed off its full power, lighting up the area around the monsters with a deep purplish-red glow. The monsters looked around in confusion when their essence started getting yanked out of them. Eo was perched on a rock laughing evilly while Reya and Seraph were looking at him in disappointment.
The monsters all thrashed around while essence bound their feet to the formation. Streams of the magical substance flowed through the formation into the "battery", which was another pile of golem scrap metal Eo had brought along.
Although the essence was being sucked out of all the monsters at an alarming rate, the Phase III monsters had such a large reserve of it that they managed to break free from the bindings.
Eo synthesized his dagger-chains.
"Now this is the part where we come in."
Eo slashed at the Giant Wasp-type. Unfortunately, the giant insect managed to fly away before his daggers connected. Eo synthesized a dozen more dagger-chains and sent them all flying towards the monster. When they hit the insect's hard carapace, the daggers… bounced off.
"What?! It's literally a bug!"
The Giant Wasp flew even higher, staying wary of Eo's long reach. Eo noticed the barbs on its legs were the size of knives, and the mandibles looked fit for crushing entire vehicles, not Eos.
Eo blinked a couple times.
(Nope, I'm not going to stare at its weapons. My weapons are cooler!)
Reya ran towards Eo.
"Try attacking it again. I'll electrify your weapons."
Eo nodded. He sent another 15 dagger-chains towards the wasp. Because it was fast and agile, he was using a lot more than his regular four.
As the dagger-chains wildly cut everywhere, Reya poured a current through it, making it feel like Eo was in the middle of a lightning storm. A dagger grazed the abdomen of the monster, and a large explosion was heard. Eo looked back up to see half of the monster's body dangling, with yellow blood gushing out. It was dead.
"Hey, if you're attack is so powerful, why didn't you just smite it before?"
"I have to focus to create a sufficient enough voltage potential across two points. And that thing moves too quickly so I might miss. Your, um, thrashing, was probably going to hit the wasp more."
"Oh, thanks. By the way, where'd the Zyuhrin-type go?"
Eo and Reya looked around. The Zyuhrin-type could teleport, meaning that it had probably already escaped. Why hadn't it attacked them already?
There was another loud explosion and the two turned to see Seraph fighting the spiderlike creature. Seraph was a blur, zipping from place to place. They could literally only see her afterimage.
"Look! Seraph is so cool! Right, Eo?"
"Yeah! She's like a ninja!"
"..."
Seraph wasn't the only one teleporting, though. The Zyuhrin-type's disc constantly glowed white, allowing it to blink to another location instantly. Eo and Reya noticed that Seraph was also being targeted by the Magmus-type.
"She's pretty good!"
"See! I told you!"
Seraph quickly drew her bow and let go. The next instant a flash of light appeared, creating a loud buzzing noise while blasting the Zyuhrin-type in the face.
"Whoah! Seraph also has a laser bow! Laser archer ninjas: probably the best combination I've ever seen!"
"Eo, you're becoming annoying again."
"Oops, my bad."
A gigantic flaming rock smashed into the spot right next to Eo. He jumped.
"You scared me! Also how did you miss that, I was standing right there."
Reya started smiting the Magmus-type in retaliation. "Couldn't you at least sound more grateful that you didn't die?!"
Although the bindings were initially broken by the powerful monsters, the rune formation kept on reattaching them. Every time it did, more essence got stripped from them.
Eo slashed at the Phase IV Magmus-type with a wild look in his eyes. He was backing away slowly, luring the monster closer and closer to the heart of the formation, where it was strongest.
"Hah! I have the high ground!"
"No, you're on level ground with the monster."
Eo's daggers constantly clattered off the Magmus-type. It was basically rock, after all. Eo thought for a moment. What tool breaks rock?
That's when Eo, for the first time ever, started attacking an enemy with pickaxe-chains.