Fearsome red ants started crawling down from the gaping holes in the building walls in a big scary swarm.
These beast ants were as tall as half the height of the shortest female member, and that was when they were crawling from afar just like any other insects.
*KYaahh!! Bugs, I hate bugs!!!"
A scared female went ahead to stick with a more composed one.
The composed one drew out her sword from its shield and took a fighting stance, every other member also formed a battle formation, waiting for the dreadful beast insects which were still crawling from afar.
"Whoa! This much insect-type mutant beast and the association kept it from the squad? Well, it is an area where a high number of loots would be found, imagine gaining thousands of gene cores from these beast insects, this place is like a gold mine for the Huang clan"
Marcus stood at a far distance from the squad, just some distance from the border of the beast zone.
Even though the scary swarm of beast insects was flooding from every gaping hole of the building walls, none came his way.
Every one of the swarm was approaching the squad at a steady pace, not even glancing at Marcus.
"Fire ants are venomous, but it seemed these beast insects are lacking in speed, as far as I can see, their speed is just like that of a regular red ant but since they are bigger, their speed will mostly rival that of an average human, and considering the fact that the regular ones can inflict a harsh sting, not to talk of mutated ones"
Marcus gazed afar, in a few more moments, the fire ants would descend upon the squad.
"It seemed their battle formation is quite good, Ming is an experienced Awakened, I'm sure those with armor would be okay, but the question is, what other ace do these mutant ants have aside from their stinger?"
Marcus could remember the beast hawk that brought his school to ruins, aside from its superhuman strength, it could also use its wings into a terrifying weapon like creating a whirlwind and shooting out its quills as powerful projectiles capable of penetrating walls and helicopter fuselage.
"It seemed the mutant beasts are innovative in using their powers"
"I can't, I can't take this, from statistics, the average number of people escaping from insect-type areas is not up to one percent"
"So at least none will escape here today, this is a cruel thing to do, as expected of Huang clan Awakened independent association, the richest association"
Deep down, Marcus was starting to get nervous, he gripped his dagger grimly, he could somehow hear what one of the horrified members said, even in her battle stance, her legs and hands had begun to shake.
"Dianne, get hold of yourself!"
Ming shifted to her back, their backs were now touching each other and with this, Dianne seemed to calm down.
"Quite dependable, but how long can that last, even the battle is yet to sta.."
Before Marcus finished what he was saying, he noticed that one of the fire ants was already behind him.
"What?!! When did it sneak behind —"
Marcus twirled and used his shark teeth blade dagger to parry the stinger of this fire ant.
This one was way smaller than the rest, just about half the other sizes.
"Did it just hatched?"
[Stinger will penetrate host exoskeleton defense!]
Marcus wanted to look over to see how the squad was doing but he felt there was no time, he had to protect himself first, not when the system had notified him about his exoskeleton defense.
"Apart from the venomous and penetrating power of their stingers, they can also sneak behind someone?"
Even with his perception, Marcus found it hard to deal with the mutant fire ant's incredible stealth.
WHOOSH!!
"It disappeared?!"
Marcus could no longer see the mutant fire ant and his breathing was starting to get ragged, in short, he was getting super nervous.
[Rogue Ant has used Venom dance skill!]
The system notified Marcus, was that venom dance? For a moment, Marcus no longer felt the presence of this monster, it was like it disappeared from his perception.
'As expected of a rogue ant, it is using assassination skill'
"At my back!"
Without turning to look at his enemy, Marcus reflexively parried the stinger with his dagger.
"My dexterity is making up for my perception"
He started to breathe heavily.
"I'm weak, a baby mutant fire ant is giving me this much pressure, how the hell am I supposed to defeat the Area Boss, no wonder the reward was a ridiculous amount of XP"
"Perhaps, I should run"
Well, that was another safe option, in a battle of speed, it seemed both rivaled each other so Marcus would just have to run a bit faster in order to escape, it was because of the close-quarter battle that made Marcus to be pressured by the mutant fire ant skill—Venom dance.
"Perhaps a dagger is a bad idea, I should have got a crossbow for long range attack"
Even though his agility and dexterity were making up for his perception, in short, he now responded to attacks at a much faster rate due to increased reflexes.
He could only parry the stinger of the mutant baby fire ant, he couldn't attack, which means, he was locked up in a battle of defense.
"If I keep this on, I will be the first to get exhausted"
It seemed this mutant fire ant also excelled in stamina, it was even thanks to Marcus' constitution stat that enabled him to hold out for this long.
"The first teeth edge has been consumed, and the second teeth edge has been exposed"
Marcus gave a quick look to his dagger, the first jagged edge had chipped off from parrying the stinger of the mutant fire ant.
"The stinger is strong enough to chip off the first blade edge of my dagger or am I scammed in the first place?"
Marcus couldn't help but wonder, this was the first battle, and although it had drawn long enough to start to exhaust him, he couldn't help but think that the dagger was a rip-off, he had four more blade edges to go.
"I have no choice, I will have to take the attack head-on without parrying, system, how many more stings can I take before my death"
[Five stings, the sixth will paralyze host, the seventh will bring death!]
"That is fine, I will take the pleasure of being a masochist for a while"