Chapter 31: Guard Rank (2/2)

It’s too late to chicken out now. Guess one of us has to die. Bring it on, you ugly green piece of sh*t!

Luo Yuan remained focused, fuelled by an unknown fit of determination. Everything around him slowed into temporal suspension. His vision cleared to the point where he could see nothing but himself and the charging guard beetle. He felt a gust rushing right at him, and he dug his heels into the ground and sprinted head-on towards his opponent. Their momentums gradually closed up the distance to an inevitable point of collision.

When Luo Yuan was nearly eye-to-eye with the guard beetle, he turned slightly, sprung almost three feet in the air, and landed smoothly on the back of his opponent, his sword piercing through its exoskeleton.

Luo Yuan pushed with all his strength, but an inch was the furthest his sword would go into the body of the guard beetle. He still considered it a successful execution of his plan. As a trained martial artist with high sword mastery, Luo Yuan was able to adapt to most battle situations. He carefully jumped from the back of the beetle and wrenched the sword from its back. He proceeded to lower his centre of gravity while he hang onto the back of the guard beetle and positioned his upper body on the same ground level. Then he bent his knees and took small steps while he stretched his toes on the smooth surface of the beetle’s exoskeleton. It only took him a few steps to reach the beetle’s head. Then all he had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity to cut it off. However, the guard beetle had exceptional senses, and was already aware of its unwanted passenger, which made it stop right in its tracks.

Basic physics and gravity did not allow Luo Yuan to hold his position on the back of the guard beetle. Instead, he was thrown head first into the ground. However, thanks to his quick reflexes, Luo Yuan was able to grab hold of the beetle’s horns, which were about one or two metres long. His body swung all over and he could feel his heart thumping in his chest. The beetle guard stared right at him with its obelisk eyes and opened its intricate mouth structure to exhale an awful stench. Luo Yuan could not catch his breath. He realized that his vision was starting to blur and that he was breaking into cold sweat. He held onto the beetle’s horns tightly and forced himself to swing his way back onto its head.

Luo Yuan was flipping mid-air when he suddenly heard a loud breaking sound. He could not see clearly what was happening, but he caught a glimpse of the beetle’s limbs breaking and retracting in a lightning-quick motion. Dust particles were scattered all around him until he realized, almost too late, that the beetle was digging into the ground. In a short span of time, it had managed to dig a hole about a metre wide and half a metre deep.

When Luo Yuan landed on the beetle’s head, he felt a burning sensation on his feet. However, he couldn’t afford to be distracted by the pain. He remained focused and lifted the sword high before he forced it down on the beetle’s skull. Unfortunately, it was a common truth among the animal kingdom that the head is the most vital part of the body, so it came as no surprise that the beetle’s skull had a hard, slippery structure. The tip of the sword failed to achieve what Luo Yuan had intended it to and kept slipping off when it came into contact with the beetle.

Agitated by the unwanted passenger, the guard beetle shook in a vigorous motion. Luo Yuan laid himself flat on the beetle’s back, trying to stay as still as possible by holding onto the spikes on the beetle’s shoulders. When he had steadied himself, he went back to hacking at the beetle’s head with his sword, leaving only light white scratches on the deep green surface. The sword was only light blue; it would take something with a much higher rating to cause some serious damage on a monster as tough as the guard beetle. The two were equally frustrated by their opponent and this seemingly endless dance; the guard beetle spread its wings in alarm, getting ready to take off. Luo Yuan was caught unawares and put into a sudden state of despair by what was happening. Cold sweat dripped down his head. He knew that if the beetle took flight, his only option would be to get off its back. When he noticed that the wing structure below the beetle’s exoskeleton was significantly softer though, an idea occurred to him.

“THAT’S IT!”

He lowered his stance and leapt to the back of the guard beetle, which was already starting to fly off. Luo Yuan almost slipped due to the current caused by the beetle’s flight, but he held on, lowered his centre of gravity, and struggled to make his way back to its wings. Gripping the hilt of the sword with his sweaty hands, he carefully positioned his weapon near the hidden flesh under the beetle’s wings. Without any hesitation, he grabbed and cut the beetle’s right wing right from the root.

CRACK!

The guard beetle instantly lost its balance and its ability to fly. Its body tilted to one side and it quickly fell towards the ground. BOOM! It crashed from a distance of 20 feet above the ground. Luo Yuan was flung off in the process, rolling across the ground and only stopping when he hit a wall. His vision was blurred and there was not a single part of his body that was not aching. The battle, however, was far from over.

He saw the beetle wobbling, trying to stand up again after its fall; he tasted metal in his throat and spat out the blood, standing up from the dusty ground all around him. He started to walk slowly towards the beetle, gradually going faster before breaking into a run. Then he furiously jumped onto its back, thrust his sword into its broken wing, and dragged it from the bottom up with an awful flesh-tearing sound. The wound expanded, the beetle’s gooey blood and guts spilling from within and splashing around like an exploding soda can. The beetle screeched in agony. It was in a state of painful trance, flipping and turning as if it could shake the pain off. Then it stretched its uninjured wing and started to flap it in motion, creating a blast of wind.

Luo Yuan held his ground against the wind and continued to drag his weapon all the way to the beetle’s head. He suddenly thought of alchemy, and as he did, the blade started to glow red and radiate heat. He wasn’t sure if it was the contact between the sword and the exoskeleton, or the sword being sharpened by the alchemy, but the weapon managed to tear open a separate wound in the guard beetle. He was excited at the success of his strategy, so he kept using alchemy. The sword seemed to get sharper and sharper as it effortlessly sliced and diced through the beetle’s exoskeleton, even when the alchemy’s effect was over.

The guard beetle struggled less and less, until it finally collapsed. Luo Yuan removed the sword from the beetle, and was about to deliver the death blow, when he noticed something peculiar. The color of the blade had changed from white-silver to a glistening jade-green; he checked to see if it was the temporary coat of the beetle’s fluid. He attempted to wipe the color off, but there was no liquid. The blade was dry.

“Could it be a side-effect of the alchemy I used?”

He couldn’t think of any logical reason, and there seemed to be no other kinds of reasons. He held the sword with one hand and effortlessly plunged it into the beetle’s skull. Its body trembled and it seemed to want to stand up for a moment, but it eventually fell back to the ground.

Several system messages buzzed into Luo Yuan’s mind.

“E-Level Mission: Annihilate Guard Rank Green Beetles. Mission Accomplished. Time: 8 minutes. Mission Score: S”

“Experience Earned: 1,600”

“Bonus S Score Experience: 1,600”

Luo Yuan was very surprised that he had achieved an S score on this mission. It seemed to him that it had all come down to luck as it was the most challenging mission he’d ever taken on. If he hadn’t misjudged it, he would have not accepted an E-Level Mission at all – it had been completely out of his league. But he was glad that he had managed to complete it and had gained the extra experience. He was on the EXP range of 4,100 – 4,800 now. That was about 700 EXP before his next level up, which he would achieve if he scored a perfect F+ Level Mission or completed a tougher E-Level one.

It then occurred to him that the more dangerous a zone, the higher the chances of triggering a mission would be. Hopefully, it would happen as often as it did during the good old days – when he used to trigger a mission once every two or three months. At times it could be as bad as one mission every six months. But since the unprecedented changes in the environment, the frequency of the missions had been increasing exponentially. Luo Yuan had already completed two within the same day, which used to be unheard of.

He collected his thoughts and jumped off the body of the slayed guard beetle, almost tripping on his landing. He spat the blood that was still in his mouth and started to become aware of the pain all over his body. His legs felt particularly bad. He looked down and realized that half his pants had been shredded from his thighs down, and that the skin on his calves had been completely obliterated, exposing the red threads of his muscles.

“So that’s why it hurts so much.”

He could recall how it had happened. When the beetle had shot its limbs out, his calves had been torn by the intensity of the particles breaking from its digging motion.

Soon, Huang Jiahui and Zhao Qianqian were running towards him, an extra group of men and women following closely behind them.