Chapter 98: Swarm

Break? The entrance passageway was suddenly shut with a large rock door, locking them into the cavern.

Before Kyle could even react, a rock spider shot a small spike from its mouth at his head, forcing him to dodge as it whizzed past, smashing into the crystal outcrop before clattering on the ground.

Again, just like before, they targeted Kyle instead of Feldon. This time, however, the rock spiders did not charge mindlessly towards Kyle, but instead split up into groups and clambered all over the ceiling, forcing Kyle to dodge the rock spikes that were shot forward continuously.

Blue energy beams also began to lance across the cavern as Kyle dashed around the rocky outcrop, limiting the angles from which he could be shot as he circled back to where Feldon was.

Feldon immediately grabbed his thunder blade and was about to rush out to kill the rock spiders when Kyle grabbed him by the shoulder. “Get up to the top first!”

Feldon nodded, with him immediately scaling the rocky outcrop while Kyle sprinted towards the cavern walls, not moving as fast as he would hope with the debilitating poison still in his body. The race evolution had failed to remove both that and Agent Black, causing Kyle to not be at his peak.

Doesn’t matter; I can overcome it with Penchant for Violence when needed. Despite the cooldown reduction, Kyle only used it where needed. He also considers the trial as training to get used to the lower stats.

However, this time the rock spiders were not easy pushovers, an entire tier above the previous Trial of the Horde. Their intelligence and methods of flanking Kyle were oppressive, cornering Kyle quickly into a corner at the edge of the cavern with the spikes.

Kyle fended off a few incoming spikes with the pulveriser, but some made it through and grazed him slightly, the pain barely affecting him. With no ranged weapon, Kyle was finding it increasingly difficult to fight back against the rock spiders.

Fine. Kyle dropped the pulveriser and picked up a few of the rock spikes as he weaved around the edges of the cavern, flinging them back with the same force towards the rock spiders. The spike pierced right through the blue gem eye of a ranged rock spider, knocking it off the ceiling in an instant.

[System Message]

Killed [Blue Rock Spider], +500 EXP

However, many of the other rock spiders were able to dodge, with Kyle and the rock spiders now in some sort of a throwing match. I need to cull as many as possible first. Penchant for Violence!

Feldon glanced over his shoulder only to see a whirlwind of actions, with Kyle continuously picking up rock spikes before flinging them back, leaping along the corners of the walls like an acrobatic movement. He really is a shapeshifter.

Kyle spun as he threw the rock spikes at every angle possible, maximising the speed and rotational force by twisting and turning his body, launching them far faster than what the rock spiders could avoid.

[System Message]

Killed [Spike Rock Spider], +500 EXP

[System Message]

Killed [Spike Rock Spider], +499 EXP

[System Message]

Killed [Spike Rock Spider], +498 EXP

The EXP was diminishing again with each kill, clueing Kyle into what Soren had been doing. If I’m guessing correctly, he kills till the EXP flatlines at zero, then somehow manages to exit the trial. Kyle would love to do the same grinding, except he had no idea how to leave the trial, with the original entrance passageway already long sealed.

The clear conditions were to break – but break what? Kyle tried to figure out the trial, while hurling as many rock spikes as he could in the one minute he had.

[System Message]

[System Message]

Killed [Mineral Ant], +50 EXP

[System Message]

Killed [Mineral Ant], +50 EXP

Wait... they don’t seem to be part of the trial. Kyle was utterly confused now, trying to make sense of everything. The crystal outcrop was now completely covered in mineral ants gnawing away at the surface, the fragments of the gemstones being consumed. Some of the larger pieces of the gemstone was being hauled off by a group of large ants, who were immediately focused fire upon by the rock spiders.

They are eating the crystal outcrop, and the rock spiders are trying to protect it. The resulting scene in front of Kyle was a veritable warzone, with even more rock spiders now crawling out from the holes in the walls to fight against the tide of mineral ants.

Three large rock spiders crawled out of the hole, firing energy beams at the ants that carved sizzling holes through the shells, the edges burnt with bright yellow streaks. The mineral ants were beginning to lose ground as the rock spiders held the advantage in ranged attacks, able to tear down the mineral ants by the dozens.

Kyle still fought off a never-ending stream of ants who seemed to think he was an enemy, charging at him blindly as he smashed them with impunity.

[System Message]

Killed [Mineral Ant], +50 EXP

Surprisingly, the EXP from the mineral ants were not decreasing. With the rock spiders no longer pelting him with ranged attacks, Kyle was now free to move across the battle zone.

“KYLE, WE SHOULD GET OUT OF HERE! MAYBE CRAWL THROUGH THE HOLES!” Feldon yelled.

Instead, Kyle jumped right into the fray, unleashing a storm of swings, stabs and jabs with the pulverizer and his free hand, crushing everything he could get his hands on. The EXP began to rack up significantly, with him killing both rock spiders and mineral ants. He laid his eyes on one of the large rock spiders nearby, charging towards it while clearing a path.

As he approached the large rock spider and was about to flank it from the back, it suddenly swivelled to face him, blasting him point-blank with a large energy beam right in the chest and knocking him back. Immediately, three mineral ants swarmed Kyle as he tumbled on the floor, their maws snapping at him while he attempted to recover into a fighting posture.

The moment he stood up and hefted his pulverizer in his right hand, he dodged to the left as a large ant lunged for his neck. Nocking back his right arm and delivering a full uppercut swing of the pulverizer, he slammed the warhammer’s head into the guts of the large ant, breaking right through before crushing it down on another ant who was attacking from the left.

The final mineral ant was easily squashed with a single unavoidable horizontal swing, them having no concept of retreat or dodging. A mindless hive swarm, it seems. Kyle targeted the large rock spider again, running towards it by jumping over the corpses of fallen rock spiders with shattered glass cores and avoiding the slippery, mushy innards of pierced mineral ants.

Just before he reached the large rock spider, he braced himself once again to sidestep as it swivelled to aim at him again. Instead of firing, however, the red gem eyes began to flicker wildly while its limbs gave way, the body collapsing to the ground.

Kyle quickly took the opportunity to smash as hard as he could with the pulverizer, blowing out the armour shell of the large rock spider. He followed up with another swing, completely fragmenting the interior glass core of the large rock spider, killing it.

[System Message]

Killed [Territorial Rock Defender], +1000 EXP

Weird, why was it acting like that? The thought barely crossed Kyle’s mind before his battle instincts screamed at him like never before, prompting him to jump out of the way while a gooey slob of acid was flung right at him, dissolving right into the ground as it ate away at the floor, reacting with it to form a noxious fume.

In the air, there were what seemed to be large hornets, except they were spitting highly corrosive acid globs at the rock spiders, dissolving right through their armour shell while the mineral ants rushed forward to eat at the innards of the dying rock spiders, apparently unaffected by the same corrosive acid.

Kyle retreated as far away from the large hornets as possible, confident that the acid would have knocked him out in a single blow. He went to help Feldon fend off the mineral ants, killing a dozen before they finally had some breathing space before the next group of mineral ants tried to charge them.

“Stay as far back as possible; keep a low profile.” Kyle told Feldon, urging him to head to the back. The rock spiders hardly cared about Feldon, which only left the mineral ants as the main threat to Feldon. “If you don’t touch any of the rock spiders or mineral ants, they won’t bother you.”

“Okay, sure. But what are you going to do?”

A small smirk appeared on Kyle’s face, his eyes only seeing numbers. “I’m going to kill everything here.”