Chapter 139 139 Iron Mantises



He was definitely not disappointed by the outcome since Diana began to carry out his orders dutifully as if there wasn't an ounce of problem with them.

Diana gathered her soldiers who frantically obeyed her every order. She had established prestige among the soldiers after she fought with them and led them through the battle with the panther. Therefore, their respect towards her wasn't at all unfounded.

It didn't take long before all the troops had been rallied were ready to depart for the rescue of the people being hunted by the Iron Mantises.

The sound of galloping horses entered his ears as Zach watched Diana lead her troops away. He wished them luck in his heart as he stayed put and continued to observe the battle through the lens of his binoculars.

It didn't take long before Diana took control of the battlefield and spread her people in a circle to surround the mantises. Zach watched as she ordered the troops to shoot their rifles from a distance. She couldn't risk getting close as the beasts were exceptionally agile and difficult to deal with in close combat.

Therefore, she ordered her men to shoot and disrupt their movement so as to create an opportunity that she could exploit.

Diana kept an eye on the battle like an experienced commander and took in every detail and habit of the beasts along with the terrain around her. She needed to be aware of everything so she could make the best decision for her troops in such a critical situation.

eαglesnᴏνel Diana signaled her people to retreat in advance as soon as she felt that the mantises intended to attack her men. This was the most typical guerilla warfare tactic taught to them by Zach which proved to be quite effective in dealing with the beasts that appeared to be quite frustrated after not being able to deal with Diana's men.

It wasn't that Diana's troops were weaker compared to the beasts or they couldn't handle the beasts. But rather that her mission had been to save the people being hunted by the beasts. She wasn't interested in doing something that might result in potential casualties amongst her people. Therefore, she bought time for the small force being hunted by the Iron Mantises through her guerilla tactics which allowed them to retreat successfully after the attention of the Iron Mantises was no longer on them.

As soon as the rescue targets got out of danger, Diana signaled her men to follow her and joined up with the small force in retreat.

Diana followed the same path as she wanted to meet up with Zach who was also heading towards them in a hurry. 

Zach had witnessed the battle that Diana had taken part in earlier. He was dismayed to find that the bullets had no effects whatsoever on the Iron Mantises. They were either repelled altogether or ricocheted off the outer shells of the Iron Mantis as if the body was really made out of iron. This made him doubt the power of the technology and he felt that he had sent Diana and the rest into a troublesome situation.

As such he could only follow after the group at his greatest speed to avoid suffering from any casualties. Thankfully, Diana knew her limits as well and handled the situation perfectly from a commander's point of view.

When Zach peered at the group that was following Diana from afar, he was surprised to find that the leader of the other group seemed to be a kingdom toppling beauty. The girl had an exceptionally seductive body figure. Her hourglass figure and aesthetically pleasing proportions were a direct indication to how hot she must be. His gut instinct screamed at him that the female leader of the other party would prove to be a very special person.

But since Zach had to yet to take a close look at her, he could only speculate about the girl.

When he was finally close enough to judge with his own eyes he was slightly disappointed as the girl with the hot figure turned out to be just a child based on her immature face that still reeked of her mother's milk and her short stature that looked like her growth spurt hadn't yet arrived.

They had only stopped for a moment but the short statured girl suddenly spoke up to Diana whom she thought was the leader of the group with worry clouding her mind. 

"We don't have the time to be idling around here. If we fool around any longer, that horde of Iron Mantises would catch up with us. If you think that this is enough to stop them from chasing after us than you have severely underestimated the persistence of those beasts. They have an extremely vindictive nature and wouldn't let us escape easily. We need to keep moving forward to increase the distance between us."

Even though the people in front of her had saved her group, she knew that they didn't have the ability to rid them of the pursuit of the Iron Mantises. Otherwise, they wouldn't have run away like that earlier.

A system notification prompted in front of Zach out of nowhere and brought him out of his thoughts. He had been contemplating his decision on whether to fight the Mantises or to escape as per the suggestion of the girl leader. But the system message seemed to have made the decision for him.

It turned out that there were two notifications in total and since the time difference between the two was so low, he had heard it as a single message.

[Conditions have been fulfilled to trigger the sudden quest, 'Breaching the Iron'. The quest details can be viewed in the quest menu.]

He didn't bother to looking at the quest details since he could already guess the contents of the quest. Therefore, he proceeded to check the second message first.

[You have encountered a girl who hides a special power inside her body. If you can absorb the unknown power inside of her, it could open the door to many new possibilities.]

Zach found the message to be quite familiar. A similar notification had appeared when he had come across Luna for the first time. Zach had managed to unlock Flame Gloves at the time thanks to the energy inside of her. Therefore, he was sure that this was a similar situation as that and the girl leader of the other group really was somewhat special.

Zach ignored the urgency in the girl's voice and pretended as if he hadn't heard her warning at all. There was another plan brewing in his mind at the moment that didn't involve running away from the Iron Mantises that would soon emerge after following around the group that they had been chasing after.

Zach didn't even register the girl's existence. Being a leader, the girl obviously found it deeply insulting but since she wasn't in a position to convey her grievances, she had to hold it in and look at the ignorant leader of the other group with a hint of hostility in her eyes.

"Tell me more about these beasts. I want to know everything. But hurry up because we might not have much time before they follow you here. I don't want to hear what you have heard from others. Tell me what you know from when you engaged these creatures in combat. Did you find any weakness or a habit pattern? Creatures like these usually one." 

Zach asked Diana with a slight urgency in his expressions. He knew that he was being impulsive but he had already received a system quest that required this information. Before engaging in conversation with Diana, Zach had already checked the quest window to learn the details of the sudden quest that he had managed to trigger. 

[Quest: Breaching the Iron]

[Description: You have found a group of warriors surrounded by a dozen Iron Mantises who are known for their formidable defense, metallic skin, and the extreme agility and vengeful nature. You can choose to either fight the Iron Mantises to get rid of the threat to the source of that energy or you can run away from the situation altogether. But in doing so, you should understand that the lives of the group that the beasts are chasing after will be forfeit once you make the choice to steer clear of them. Because the beasts won't rest until they have killed every last one of them.]

[Quest Clear Condition: Eradicate the Iron Mantises from existence so that they can't pose any threat to any human ever again. The quest would be deemed a failure if any of the beasts successfully escapes your hunt. If you choose to run away from the situation entirely, the quest would automatically be marked as a failure.]

[Quest Failure Penalty: Unknown]

[Quest Reward: A slight chance of gaining a new source of energy.]

[Would you like to accept this quest?]

[Y/N]

He was in dire need of quest reward at the moment which was why he needed to complete the quest as soon as possible. Since he had given all of the energy he had absorbed from Luna back to her, there was nothing he could use to gain access to all the weapons that had been locked as a result. He needed to unlock those weapons and more for the sake of his future. Otherwise he would end up in a passive position in front of his enemies in the future. He didn't want to relive that experience especially after what Luna was going through due to his inability to settle the situation on his own.