CHAPTER 40 ANTS ll

It kicks the guard captain, breaking the soul-blessing armour he is wearing, but he grits his teeth and actually grabs a hold of the leg.

Using this opportunity, Leon swings as hard as it can on the other leg.

BAM! The ant shakes as it falls down, it starts biting Cleo's stomach, causing the latter to scream in pain.

He opens his mouth and bites the antenna hard.

AWOOO! Glutton leaps and bites the other antenna, its special ability, Hungry, causes it to slowly absorb the energy coming from the antenna to fuel itself.

"Young master!" Seeing this scene, the guard captain roars in fury as he starts punching the legs of the ant.

Leon might not know why he is doing this, but the system does.

The guard captain is assuring the clone that it will be responsible for the legs, so it should just focus on helping Cleo.

Leon grabs a broken sword nearby and stabs it in one of the eyes of the ant, the latter grabs him before using him as a hammer against the guard captain.

"Close your ears!" Cleo stops biting the antenna and screams.

The guard captain grits his teeth and looks at him with a determined look.

Upon seeing this, he nods his head.

Deactivate [malevolent tiger transformation].

[Dragon-tiger Roar]

At point blank, the ant receives the roar, causing it to freeze and stop chewing his stomach.

"B*tch! Eat this!" Cleo punches the ant's face, flings himself at the back of the ant, and resumes biting the antenna.

He has his legs locked at its neck.

Leon gets away from the grasps of the ant and grapples one of its arms.

Glutton realises that the ant's other arm is still free, it lets go of the antenna and jumps at the other arm and bites hard.

The guard captain blanked out, no matter how he prepared himself, the roar still stuns him.

A person came running towards him and swung a punch at his head.

BAM! The person who punched him held his hand in pain but still managed to scream at his ears. "Wake up!"

The guard captain snaps out of his state and realises that he cannot pass up such an opportunity.

He uses his weight to hold the leg down while punching the other leg, and the man who punched him also joins in.

It was Elcio, he had been watching the fight, and he started to worry as he saw his young master's guts being eaten right in front of him.

The ant awakens from its stunned state and quickly realises that it is in a perilous state.

It screeches loudly, causing the ants in its surroundings to surge in its direction.

"Protect the captain and the young master!"

"Avenge the fourth brother!"

"Look! The ants are going that way!"

"Quickly! Stop them!"

The guards race after the ants, and the soldiers notice the ants' strange behaviour and quickly try to stop them, even though they do not have any accurate information about the strange behaviour.

The supernatural grade ant also hears the cry, and it goes berserk, trying to bypass the supernatural gene warriors, but how could they let it go?

They even become more ruthless in their attacks.

"F*cker, just die!" Roars Cleo as his teeth start to finally sink on the antenna.

He is not going to let go of the antennas, he is going to pull them out of it's head.

The ant struggles as much as it can, but no matter what it does, the people attacking it are determined to stop its movement.

It opens its mouth and starts biting Glutton, eating it slowly.

"Bxstard!" shouts Elcio as he takes a bottle of explosive liquid that he had prepared.

He knows that the explosion will affect everyone, but he no longer cares, there is only one thing on his mind, to break at least one of the ant's mandibles.

BOOM! Elcio was blown away by his own explosion, his hands were destroyed during the explosion, the ant's face was able to endure the explosion, but it still suffered horrendous injuries, its mandibles were destroyed, and its remaining good eye was destroyed in the process.

He wants to return, but the guards stop him, seeing his pitiful appearance.

They can see that his hands are no longer able to function properly, and they cannot help but develop great respect for him. They wanted to raise him high.

Too bad, the ants are now going berserk trying to pass them in order to reach the mutant ant, they are not going to let that happen, they already failed twice, and failing once again will cause them to lose any respect they have for themselves.

Cleo grits his teeth as his feet continue to lock on the ant, even though they were also destroyed in the explosion.

The ant struggles one last time, and unfortunately for it, the explosion damaged it too greatly.

Leon and Glutton were not willing to let its hands go, the guard captain's body was affected by the explosion, but he still dares to fight back and continues to attack the legs.

"Die!" The image of both dragon and tiger appears above Cleo, and he breaks through the bottleneck of his technique as he pulls the head of the ant with one last burst of his strength.

He falls to the ground with an exhausted look, his guts are still spilling out of his stomach, but he is too exhausted to cry in pain.

[Congratulations to the host on obtaining Advanced Grade Soul Blessing "Mutated Royal Ant Armour"]

Without hesitation, he gives the armour to his clone, Leon carries him and the guard captain as he escapes, and Glutton swallows the mutant ant corpse, knowing full well that such delicacy should not be wasted.

He is barely hanging on, but he realises that his recovery rate is much faster than before, it seems that the ordeal has pushed him to his absolute limit.

This made him happy, but just as he smiles, he starts coughing up blood as his guts are still spilling out of his stomach.

He is truly in a world of pain right now, he can only rely on his passive regeneration to recover, but this would definitely take too long for his comfort.

'System, did I manage to have a breakthrough?' Trying to distract himself, he talks with the system.

[Affirmative.]

'Nice! Show me the current state of my technique!' He inwardly screams as the pain is starting to sink deeper into his mind.

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Dragon-tiger body manual: A body tempering technique that combined two apex beings's natural bodies and incorporated them into a human's body, obtaining both beings' traits.

Active Power: [Dragon Flight], [Tiger Pounce], [Dragon-tiger Roar]

Dragon Flight: Increase speed for three minutes or obtain a burst of speed in an instant.

Tiger Pounce: Increase strength for three minutes or instantly gain a massive boost in physical strength for three seconds.

Dragon-Tiger Roar: A mental type attack that increases the user's overall strength by half for thirty seconds while at the same time decreasing the strength of the target; an additional effect, if the target's will is weak, will cause immobilisation.

Tiger's Cry: A sonic boom attack that scatters everywhere. (Lower damage and range, but can instantly be used.).

Dragon's Cry: A focused sonic boom attack. (higher damage and longer range, but needs to be charged to use.).

Passive Ability: [Passive Regeneration], [Overall Physical Enhancement], [Mighty Aura]

Passive Regeneration: Quickly recovers stamina and gains strength (Tiger). Regenerates injury at a constant rate (Dragon).

Overall Physical Enhancement: The physical attribute has increased by 200%.

Mighty Aura: Beast Aura (Tiger). Draconic Presence (Dragon).

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"Young master, are you going to be fine?" Elcio could see the pain in his face and was quite worried, such injuries are commonly considered fatal.

"I am going to be fine, it is you that I am worried about; we need to find someone capable for your hands, you have proven yourself in this battle, and I can honestly say that you are someone that I truly admire, and no one else working under my family does I want to work with me in reaching the peak of strength other than you."

Elcio smiles upon hearing the sincerity in his words, he knows that his young master will definitely not abandon him, even in his current state.

'I really need to obtain a pet that can use healing skills, if I have one, it will certainly increase our survival rate and probably make me a semi-immortal fighter.' He thought inwardly.

AWOO! Glutton once again levels up, and his special trait has also undergone some changes.

It seems that devouring the corpse of the mutant ant has awakened its bloodline.

[Soul Blessing: Ravenous Scaled Wolf King]

Name: Glutton

Type: Pet

Grade: Advanced (Can be upgraded by sacrificing Shadow Wolf soul blessings.)

Level: Advanced (Elite)

Speciality: Hungry (Gemstone of Life)—Able to use food as a means of strength. Can absorb the life force of targets bitten by it. (Capable of evolving naturally through consumption, can now store life force.)]

As expected, his pets thrive in this type of environment, especially with the number of ants in the area.

The two have an unlimited source of materials for their evolution.

Cleo, Elcio, and the guard captain decided to rest after their battle against the mutant ant, the latter two were shocked by Leon's display of strength and stamina.

"Okay, that is it, young master, where did you find such an individual? It is as if he does not know the word exhaustion! He surpasses everyone here in regards to the number of ants killed, and the only being that is actually capable of chasing after his kill is your pet!" The guard captain is gobsmacked.

"Hahaha! He has a special trait just like me." He chalks it up to having a special trait; he is not truly lying.

Leon might be his pet, but its special trait that makes it extremely terrifying on the battlefield.

"Special trait, huh? D*mn! I am so jealous. The young master's special trait helps him recover faster and fight longer, and the more injured he is, the greater his strength becomes. People with special traits are just too abnormal!" Elcio complains loudly.

The guards and their captain nod their heads in agreement.

Cleo does not deny that his special trait has helped him greatly in their battle against the mutant ant.

As his injuries worsen, his special trait activates on his own, boosting his already abnormal strength to a great degree.

"We need to get back to the base!" Suddenly someone from the Oriend Family arrives and starts screaming at them.

Their expressions change.

Cleo quickly orders Glutton and Leon to fall back, and the guards escort them back to their base.

With Leon guarding them, their confidence is quite high, they've seen his performance, and they cannot deny that having someone like him on their team is quite relieving.

"Cleo! What happened to you!?" Seeing him being carried by her guards, Flare was shocked.

She quickly ran towards him, her worried expression changing, and she slapped the guard captain to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? I had specifically assigned you to protect my cousin, and yet you failed the one task that I had given you!"

This is the first time for many people to see her this angry.

"Big sister Flare, it is not their fault, there was a special circumstance that caused me to be injured this badly."

Trying to calm her down, he tried to show that he was fine, but unfortunately, the wound in his stomach is still not fully healed yet, and lots of blood started to pour out of it.

"Cleo!" She is shocked by the sudden event, fortunately, Elcio quickly stops her from panicking by explaining to her about his young master's rapid regeneration.

"You mean to tell me that he just needs to eat things that contain a high amount of energy?"

"Then, I guess that everything is fine, my team has a large amount of advanced-grade flesh that we managed to secure in this battle."

She heaves a sigh of relief after hearing Elcio's explanation.

'Advanced Grade!' Cleo's eyes light up.

With this, he can increase the number of his advanced genes.

As long as he can continue to increase his gene enhancement, he can perform better, and he might even be able to participate in a battle against a supernatural-grade genetic creature.