Melany dropped the picture and jumped up, dodging a flesh tentacle with grace. She landed on the wall, disappeared into the shadows, and appeared behind the tentacles. [Shadow's step]
The tentacle swung back to hit her, but Melany swung her butterfly swords up, cutting the tentacle in half, and threw them at the ceiling in one motion. With her weapons stuck, Melany put her hands together, [Shadow's hand]
The shadows around the origin of the tentacle twisted and contorted, crushing it into a lump of flesh.
As the tentacle stopped moving it started disintegrating back into mana and Melany caught her blades that just dropped back from the ceiling. "A conjured mana monster…As I expected…a powerful spirit." She mumbled and walked out of the room, staring forward with an emotionless face as her entire mind focused on sensing and listening to her surroundings.
Since the spirit tried to sneak attack her once that means it's intelligent enough to wait for opportunities. Melany was about to exploit that… She sheathed her blades and approached the corner of the hallway, looking around to make sure she was alone.
Melany then started unbuckling her pants, pretending to be about to take care of something. At that moment, a transparent box with a crushed corpse the size of a small jukebox appeared several feet behind her.
The spirit's true form was that of a small humanoid body crushed inside a box of magic. It sat behind Melany and mana started pouring out. Flesh and bone tentacles started silently emerging from the walls, aiming to overwhelm Melany with a single swoop.
Melany had already felt the spirit's presence and attack, her hands were forming a sign, casting the shadow of two dogs on the wall. With a gust of cold wind, Melany's eyes flashed purple when she stared back. [Shadow's beast: Demon Dogs]
Two black dogs of pure darkness lunged out of her shadow at the tentacles, ripping them apart in the blink of an eye. In that short moment, Melany had already used [Shadow's Step] to teleport behind the spirit and went for a stab.
****
Outside in the garden, Alice jumped over a grass blade, barely dodging a frog's tongue. Right now the stupid frog looked to be several times her size, standing almost four times taller than her.
The frog jumped forward, sending his tongue at her in the blink of an eye, but she still dodged. "To think we'll get shrunk to this size. What kind of spirit is it?" She pointed a finger at the toad, unleashing a massive fireball with [Bugendai Sozo]
The frog jumped out of the fireball's way, his skin would dry out if he got hit, and that's pretty bad. But, his luck had run out. Alice flicked her finger, pointing in the same direction he jumped in. The fireball changed direction and blasted him the moment he landed. And before he could recover, Alice landed on his back, stabbing him directly in the spine.
"A frog is a frog." She took a deep breath, looking around with her glowing blue eyes [Hawk Eyes] she could spot the mansion in the distance, but that seemed like a day's walk away.
Liam on the other hand stood in the middle of a field of dead fire ants; he had just massacred them all. He walked around until he reached the ant's nest entrance and looked at it. "It'll be a pain to walk all the way to the house, so I need a horse." He smiled, walking inside the nest.
The fire ant guards rushed toward him in rage, but they got sliced into pieces in the blink of an eye. He grabbed their butts and poured their hormonal chemicals on himself. From that point, the poor ants who recognized things by sent couldn't tell the difference between Liam and one of their kinds.
He easily made his way to the ant's queen where he faced the royal guards. Those ants were a bit special, if an ant didn't come to the queen's room with food, they were killed on the spot. The royal guards charged at him, but they were cut to pieces like the rest.
Liam walked toward the queen and stared at her. "Fear not, your majesty. I do not seek a cow that can't even move." He looked behind her to where the newly hatched eggs were.
"What I seek is a young and fresh blood. I'm sure you have more than you need, you'll be kicking them out anyway." He walked past her and found a bunch of newly born ant queens; they still had their wings on.
Liam picked one that looked healthy and energetic, a red and black ant queen that was ready to leave the nest. He grabbed her by the antenna and started dragging her out.
She tried to resist and fighter ants rushed in to stop him.
Liam stared at the fighter ants with a smile. "I need a horse. You aren't stopping me." He slashed everyone and cut one of the queen's legs. "If you don't want me to rip all of your eggs and children to pieces, tell them to stand down."
As the ant queen shrugs down in pain and fear, the fighter ants surround her as protection, letting Liam and the ant he picked alone.
Liam turned back to the ant he chose. "Listen well. I doubt you understand my words, but this is a contract. Be my horse, and I will give you a spot to rule in my garden and set up a nest." He sat on her back and grabbed her by the antenna. "Head out!" He slapped her butt and she rushed through the tunnels, stopping by the food storage to eat before the trip. Liam didn't interrupt her as he knew they were going to fly for a long distance, for an ant.
As they went out of the nest, Liam pointed a finger at the mansion and shouted. "My mighty steed! To the battle!"
He flew on the newborn queen, buzzing through the air.
Alice walked through the grass. No wonder adventurers never made it out if they've got shrunk this much, even small bugs would look like giant monsters. I need to make it into an open space as soon as possible. Staying here is deadly… as she thought that, she heard something rustling in the bushes.
A massive green mantic pulled up, glaring at her with his large eyes.
"It won't be easy, would it?" She sighed; sheathing her sword took her large baggy robe. Now in her tight martial suit, she started stretching as the mantic approached her with caution.
"To let you know. I'm not food." She smiled, her fists engulfed in mana. [Physical Enchantment] [Martial Arts] She glared at him with glowing blue eyes as she lifted one hand in a stance. "Come at me."
Inside the mansion, Melany's blades deflected from the magic box and the spirit sent her tentacles toward her. She jumped back, dodging the tentacles with a stern face. That's hard, it felt like a rock. No, that box is made of magic, it's probably resistant to piercing magic, it might be weak to blunt attacks or magical damage, and I need to test it.
The plan was to try several small attacks first to determine the spirit's weakness and then strike at full force, this was the only way to earn enough time to explore the place.