Jacob was rapidly running around, trying to hide his presence with his aura.
He could feel the screams of his own sword in his mind.
THIS GREAT ONE IS DISGUSTED WITH THE KIND OF FORMATION YOU KID JUST CREATED! HOW CAN YOU MIX THAT SACRED ANCIENT BLOOD WITH THE DESPICABLE—
He silenced the voice once again and wondered if the sword would ever start speaking normally to him. It had threatened never to let him use the other abilities of the sword, but he had already taken a peek at them; and, surprise-surprise, he didn't need them. His own Martial Style was better than any ability a low-level sword could employ.
LOW-LEVEL?! YOU DARE CALL THIS GREAT WEAPON A LOW-LEVEL—
For a second there, the sword had managed to get to his soul again.
Jacob was conducting a recon stealth mission to prepare the battlefield. He already had roused a couple of nests, from what he could tell, but no one was chasing him at the moment.
Not in the open, at least.
He could feel some movement from the houses and deposited the last inscribed carcass of the big Formation. It had taken him almost an hour to arrange everything, and that had been extremely fast by his own standards. Any other person would have taken half a day to set it up.
Jacob started running back to the others, who were waiting right in front of Fort Mountain.
As soon as they saw him, they charged inside the city, following his lead. He had told them that he would locate the main nest in the city and sprinkle around some Formation that would guarantee that no Charybdes would get away from them.
When they had asked why he had not done so before, he just replied that it would have killed many of the others and cut their retreat options to zero.
Jacob tightened his grip on the sword, hoping he wouldn't have to intervene against the Mantis realm Charybdis.
Wait, we still don't know if there is one. So let's try and not jinx it.
Jacob heard a soul-shattering scream the second after as they were rapidly approaching the main nest.
Jinxed it, he thought as the roof of a house exploded upward and a creature as big as a tiger landed barely twenty meters from them.
He immediately recognized the pressure of a Cultivation one whole realm higher than his and started to struggle to breathe. Then, using his own aura, he cut off the effects of the Mantis realm Charybdis.
Juliet immediately fell back while Helena and Frederick split in front of the monster.
"NOW!" Jacob shouted.
Both Frederick and Helena emanated a strong aura ripple, and the Mantis realm Charybdis screamed so strong that Jacob felt his eardrums almost pop.
The Mantis realm Charybdis was much bigger than any 9th stage of the Cockroach realm one. It had a huge stinger at the end of its tail and more than twenty insectile legs that were as sharp as swords on their tips. Its maw was something out of an alien's nightmare, with teeth all over, some bending to penetrate its own skin. And the skin—God, the skin of the monster was not just a normal exoskeleton. No, there was live flesh on it intermixed with an aforementioned shattered exoskeleton.
The evolution of the Charybdis needed to accommodate the greater number of organs and muscles by simply shattering the exoskeleton and using it as partial armor. The flesh itself was actually even more resistant than the outer shell they grew at the Cockroach realm.
The most disgusting thing was how the flesh looked melted together with the exoskeleton in some points and, in general, looked like a patchwork of muscle, organs, and thin membranes all over the body. In certain parts, you could indeed see the organs under a layer of weird translucid flesh.
Couple this hideous vision with the liquids the creature was dripping on the ground at every twist and turn, and you had a nightmare not ever the human mind was capable of imagining.
The same moment Frederick and Helena used the Forbidden Technique, he felt a huge wave of Charybdes move toward them from every other intact building in the city. He looked at the Mantis realm Charybdis and felt like it was smiling toward him.
This is going to hurt so much.
The Charybdis pounced on him since he was the weakest link of their group in its eyes.
Jacob kept his stance firm, knowing that the first strike wouldn't be full-strength. The Charybdis wouldn't want to pulverize him but simply eviscerate him.
Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 3rd stance – Deflect
He felt the maw coming close to its abdomen and used his Martial Style to know the monster out of balance.
Sh*t.
Jacob felt his bones creak and threaten to bend. Even though the Charybdis had used a fraction of its strength, the difference between them was the same between heaven and earth.
Helena and Frederick were on top of the monster in the next second.
Helena used the might of her temporary cultivation base at the Mantis realm and threw multiple Heaven's Palm toward the monster.
Instead, Frederick conjured a Void Spear bigger and thicker than usual, even more, defined than the semi-translucid one he could make.
Helena's attacks instantly hit the off-balance monster, and Frederick threw the Void Spear at his head.
The Heaven's Palms obstructed Jacob's vision, but he backed off nonetheless.
In the meantime, Juliet had engaged the horde of monsters with unparalleled savagery. She was using her flames to kill them en masse, managing to fry even the 9th stage of the Cockroach realm in a few seconds. After using the Forbidden Technique 43, she was stronger than ever, bringing out the true power of her previous level-up.
The dust settled around the Mantis realm Charybdis…
The monster had emerged almost unscathed from the first barrage of attacks. It was holding in its mouth the huge Void Spear that Frederick had thrown at it.
The Mantis realm Charybdis bit down and shattered Frederick's strongest attack.
"Oh f*ck," Jacob swore.