Chapter 219: Snakes And Ladders

The Creatures up ahead were disgusting and deadly looking. They looked like their legs were mantis arms or scythe blades; regardless, I was worried about Thanos, but Atom reassured me.

"Don't worry about him; out of the three of us, Thanos is best when fighting. He also will do better if the fight is unbalanced. I am sure you have noticed, but he likes to prove himself, even if only himself," Atom explained, and I smiled inwardly but kept a feeling of confidence in my heart.

Thanos was strolling towards the monsters in the cave, and the three Centi-Sects looked at him curiously. I focused on one of them and got a scan, and I relaxed a bit.

[Name]: Centi-Sect

[Class]: Carnivorous Predator 

[Abilities]: 

{Bite}: Make Bite attack to target within range. 

{Shell Resistance}: Centi-Sect's shell is resistant to Physical Damage.

[Gene]: Scythe.

They didn't even have an ability with their legs, but that didn't mean they couldn't use them. Still, Thanos should be okay, I hoped as I watched him walk up to the creatures.

Then one of the Centi-Sect got tired and struck forward with incredible speed directly at Thanos's face.

"SPEED! Slash!" Thanos roared, and as he spoke the first word, Thanos exploded with yellow light.

The second word came out from Thanos as he appeared behind the other two, and the one that was diving for him fell into bleeding sections. The pieces crumbled immediately, but a weird-looking organ was lying on the ground, but I had no time to look at it.

"REACTION!" Thanos roared and burst with blue light, dodging under the two that dove for him, and then he roared and burst with red. "POWER! Bite! Slash!"   

The other two were ripped apart before they could react and were reduced to dust and two Blood Sacs in the blink of an eye. 

"That was incredible! I can't believe that you could take them down so easily! You were so amazing!" I said as I floated over to Thanos, but he looked disappointed, and I understood why.

"Yes, but I was hoping for something that was a bit more of a challenge. Tigra had already taken down something that earned her a rank, but I got nothing from that!" Thanos complained, but I scratched between his ears and then patted his head.

"Don't worry, there is more than enough for you to sharpen your claws down here. First, I need to see what we are doing about the Blood Sacs," I said and floated over to one of them.

I reached out to touch the item, but as soon as I did, it vanished.

[1/10 Blood Sacs] Collected!

I went over and did the same as the others, but then I heard dueling slow sighs. I turned to see that they had come from the two thrulls, and I scolded myself internally. 

"The next one that we fight, I will let you kill it, and then you can drain it," I said to the two.

I had forgotten about them, and I remembered that they had been complaining about being hungry. 

"It's fine, we can't drink it until the Alpha mixes it, or we will start to get a Bloodthirst. Neither of us wants that, so we will just wait. Your pet is extremely strong; we would have needed to go get one of the progenitors to face a group like that," Maurice explained to me, and I nodded in understanding.

"Let's start moving then. I have a map routed for us to hit six other bug-type monsters, but I think we will have to go deeper to get the last one," I explained and motioned for Thanos to get moving, and he bounded forward.

We would have to go and see whatever was killing the OpsBees; that was probably the last Bug. 

The next cavern that we came to had three more of the Centi-Sects, but they were fighting with a much bigger Snake than them. The snake had many cuts in it, but the Centi-Sects were evenly matched.

"Go, Thanos, finish the Centi-Sect before that snake gets them!" I called out, and Thanos roared in delight, bursting with yellow light. 

Instantly, Thanos was at the first Centi-Sect, and he burst red as he slashed and red lines stretched from his claws. The creature exploded in gore, but then Thanos burst with blue and made a series of nimble movements.

The snake narrowly missed him, and then Thanos jumped out of the way of a bite attack, landing between them. With a burst of red, Thanos jumped and did a barrel roll, lines of red tearing the creatures apart.

Thanos was still red as he turned on the snake but then burst with green and grew four times his size. The snake pulled back, no longer looking so eager to fight; instead, an exit to escape.

"Wait! Don't kill it!" I called out.

The snake was about fifty feet long if you stretched it out, and it had strange blue, silver, and wavy gold bands like nothing that I had ever seen before. I wanted this, but I needed to be able to communicate with it.

"I can pin it down, and then you can kill it if you want? I guess I can't take all the fun," Thanos said with a loud giant tiger sigh and then started moving forward.

"No, I want to make it my pet! I just got another slot for it, and I think that this will be a good addition to our party," I said as I floated forward to the massive snake.

"Do I have to come with you? What if it doesn't want to be your pet? I mean, it's a Giant Tunnel Snake, not really the type to take home to the Hive, right?" Helaina asked, sounding worried from beside me.

"It will be fine; just stay calm. It is hurt, and I am going to help it," I said as Atom loaded up one of the twenty-five doses of BeeBliss that I had left in my index finger.

"I will activate the Gravibee Field, or the Queen System will force Thanos and me to get in front of you," Atom said as the blue sphere pulsed out from me.