Free Web NovelChapter 40: Bee Hunting & A Dangling Lord
William, along with Seabas and Imp, teleported smack right in the middle of the second-floor. In his hand, the new mana rifle glimmered under the fake moonlight dripping from the artificial sky. They scanned the surroundings, searching for the source of that relentless buzzing, but nothing was in sight.
They waited a beat. Then, a bee buzzed out of a tangle of vines, a bit smaller than the rest. William checked its stats: yeah, that’s one of the low ranks. It was still a good twenty meters away and, with its hairy ass pointed in their direction, it hadn’t spotted the platform yet.
"Now that’s a perfect practice target." Grinning like an idiot, he raised the rifle, eyes locked on that fuzzy red butt with black stinger through the scope. Shooting this rifle was pretty simple: just inject some mana, flick off the safety, and pull the trigger, and so he did.
Bzzzzzzzzzt...
BANG...
The blue mana bullet shot out of the barrel, blazing toward the clueless bee, and it missed! Yes, it fucking missed. William had never in his life even tried to shoot a rock with a slingshot, let alone a gun, so honestly, this was par for the course.
The mana bullet tore through vines and trees, leaving burned marks in its way before stopping at the fourth tree about ten meters away, cracking it clean in half. Boom Fairy, who was in William’s shirt and Seabas, expecting a spectacle, now stared at the smoking holes in the trees with their eyes wide. William scratched his head in embarrassment. "Didn’t see that coming, huh?"
Yes, they hadn’t seen that coming, but the bee sure as hell did. It darted straight at the platform, as he’d just poked its queen’s butt. A few meters in, it fired off its Lancet Launch right at the platform. Seeing the incoming stingers, both William and Seabas moved.
Seabas was up first. He pulled two knives from the sheath at his waist. They looked like ordinary butter knives, but the blades screamed: ’Touch me and get split.’ Holding both, he stepped toward the incoming lance and flicked one blade to the side of the tip, redirecting the stinger off the platform.
William handled it his own way. Thanks to his new trait, Starlit Instinct, the moment he caught sight of one coming his way, his already jacked-up agility and perception cracked up by a quarter more. The Lancet felt slow, like a paper airplane. He waited for it, then tapped it aside with his fist, sending the lance crashing into the swamp below.
Still boosted by the trait, William didn’t wait. He raised the rifle and aimed at the charging bug. This time, he had to make it count, for both his dignity and his TP. These shots weren’t cheap: six of them cost one mana stone, and that was a hundred TP at that stingy bunny’s store.
He pulled the trigger again. The mana bullet blitzed toward the angry bee and, this time, nailed it right between those glossy black eyes. Mana bullets weren’t like the regular kind; they didn’t just punch a hole; they melted everything around the impact. That’s exactly what happened to the unlucky bug.
The upper half of its head was just... gone. Molten, red-charring skin ringed what used to be its face; its eyes cracked like shattered glass. The poor bastard didn’t even get a chance to react; its half head, blown off lifeless body dropped into the swamp.
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Meanwhile, at the southern end, a completely different shitshow was unfolding. A certain lord was dangling from a tree branch like last week’s laundry, while not far off, a green-scaled brute clutched three slithering eels in his oversized mitt.
After catching his lord from a face dive into the swamp, the brute noticed the worms below were still zapping him like naked wire. Those arcs of thunder were traveling right up to the dangling lord, whose buzz was killed the moment the first shock went from his butt.
So, the brute did the only reasonable thing: he hauled the lord up and hanged him onto the nearest branch, like a rotten apple.
With that crisis (lord) solved, the Croc dunked his hand into the swamp and yanked out all three eels. He let them finish their little electric tantrum, then gripped their heads like a pro venom milker. The eels writhed and twisted in the air, trying to break free, but next to the brute’s Strength stat of 38, their efforts were like chickens in the hand of a butcher.
He lifted them to his mouth. Then,
Crunch...
Crack... Crack... Crack...
With a single bite from his jagged fangs, all three heads shattered- no blood, of course, as they were just mana constructs. He tossed the limp noodles back into the swamp.
"Damn, big dog, that shit was crazy! But yo, scoop me up real quick... I’m ’bout to drop." Christian’s voice came shaky; he’d tried to pull himself up, but when the branch started crackling like it was about to snap his sorry ass to the ground, he froze and decided not to piss off Mother Nature any further. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
The brute shot him an irritated glare that seemed to say, ’Sock it up.’ Because the shit wasn’t over yet. No sooner had the eels gone limp than the next squad of aquatic troops showed up, twelve Razor Piranhas, all nipping for a piece of the brute’s foot.
All of these little bastards were low rank, barely able to scratch Croc’s scaly hide, but a couple of overachievers went chomping right on his Achilles. Their razor-sharp teeth just grazed the scaleless skin.
The Croc groaned, then started ripping the pests off one by one. Each time he yanked a piranha free, he crushed it in his fist. With that much strength, the piranhas didn’t even get to struggle; they just turned into fish paste, splattering between his fingers.
BANG...
Another loud bang echoed from the same direction. After crushing the last of the piranhas into fish paste, Croc shot a glare toward the sound and growled. Without a word, he stomped over to the dangling lord and snatched him by the waist, "Yo, easy! I ain’t no damn fish." Christian tried to whimper, but Croc just slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Without missing a beat, Croc turned toward the noise and took off running. He didn’t give a damn what or who was in his path. He barreled through trees and vines, ripping them apart. Christian clung to those jagged bony scales, screaming, "A-A-Ay n-n-o, P-P-Pump the f-f-fucking b-b-brakes!" But the scaled-ass bastard didn’t give a single shit; he just kept charging ahead.
⟡
Meanwhile, at the center platform of the floor, William had just blasted another big-dick bee out of the air while Seabas stood in front of him, flicking away three incoming stingers with his butter knives.
After the first bee got blasted, five more buzzed in, drawn by the loud sound. William and Seabas could already hear even more on the way. This new batch had one low-tier, three intermediate, and one high-class Rezzbees. The one that got dropped just now was another tier-one, who got smoked in a single mana bullet.
Seabas was showing his A-rank reflexes. He redirected one stinger into the swamp and knocked the other two into each other, sending both tumbling down after it.
Four left now. William locked onto the high-tier bastard, knowing its stingers would be hell if they landed. But before he could even pull the trigger, that target ass fucker fired first as the two front stingers were directed straight at the platform.
William didn’t flinch. He shot two bullets in succession: one mana bullet towards the left stinger, the other aimed square at the hairy bastard that shot them.
He let the right stinger come for him and waited until it was almost kissing distance, then he just used his Star Leap trait and blinked out of the way. The black, lance-like stinger rammed into the platform, missing him by a couple of feet.
While William dodged a hole the size of an elephant’s asshole in his guts, his shots had found their marks. The first bullet blasted the stinger to bits. The second smacked the bee right below its right wing.
The thing tried to dodge, but it was too damn slow; neither could it outpace a mana bullet, nor it had blinking ability to teleport away like William.
The bullet didn’t kill it instantly, but both right wings were blown clean off, and the oversized bug plummeted into the swamp like a shot-up duck.
William didn’t wait; he fired off two more rounds at the bastard, who was still flopping around, trying and failing to take off with its lopsided wings. Both shots nailed its thorax dead center. Muddy water exploded with a bang as a 300-pounder had belly-flopped into the swamp. That was all it took: muck, water, and chunks of bug flesh splattered across the nearby trees.
While William was busy blasting the high-ranked bee, Seabas had his own battle going on right beside him: Seabas vs. three intermediate bees.
The moment William’s red-marked target fired off its stinger, all three of Seabas’s opponents unleashed theirs as well. In response, he flicked the first two away just like before, but as he went for the third, he noticed one of them was getting bolder, ass raised, stinger glowing red coming right at him.
This one was using its Elemental Stinger skill, channeling fire affinity down its needle.
Seabas barely spared it a glance, standing his ground, face blank, no expression at all. He had been the same since he came here, except for when William missed his first shot.
He was getting bored out of his mind fighting these bugs and wasn’t even trying hard. He sighed, "Lord gets the fun, and I’m stuck with these pests. Would’ve been nice to take a swing at the big green one instead." He said in an ’under the sigh’ low voice.
First, he flicked one stinger into the swamp. But when the last one came, Seabas just caught it between the hilts of his butter knives in a clapping position. The impact pushed him back a step, but he held on. Now the stinger was his.
He slid his knives back into their sheath, gripped that stolen stinger, and pointed it right at the incoming bee, who was now only a meter away. As it lunged, Seabas ducked under its attack at the last second and rammed the stinger up, releasing it as it punched into the bee’s abdomen. The poor bastard, now sporting an extra dick, went skidding across the platform, screeching like a banshee.
Now there were only two left in front of them, each hovering at some distance, hesitating to come with their stingers after watching the way one of them went down. William was also done with his own kill, moved beside Seabas to clear out the last of this batch before the next wave crashed in.
He raised his rifle, but before he could squeeze the trigger, he spotted the rest of the hive barreling in. They were just a few meters away and closing fast.
But it wasn’t just bees anymore. The trees ahead were shaking, and a loud splash thundered through the swamp. William lowered his rifle and shot Seabas a sly grin. "Looks like it’s time for our final performance here, partner."
