The next morning the group was refreshed and ready to go explore deeper into the forest. After the conversation that Tank had with them they were all a bit more cautious in their approach to this new area. They didn"t know exactly how powerful the creatures inside would be plus they would have to deal with the fact that they could run into an abnormally powerful creature at any moment. Joshua had asked Tank a few more questions about his idea of what was going on in this territory and in the end he figured it was somewhat akin to what they had come across when confronting Cinder in the past. When they had faced Cinder she had taken up her own little territory although it was a part of a larger territory in itself. Cinder had complete control over her area and was quite the beast to come across in the wild. The major difference between the two situations is the fact that even though Cinder had her own little area it wasn"t a territory in itself like this creature seems to have. Cinder might have reached that point if she was left alone long enough and given time to mature, but this beast seemed to be a step up from what Cinder had been at the time. There"s also the fact that even Tank seems worried far more than he had been worried about Cinder at the time. That was another reason to be cautious as they adventured further into the area.
The group had a nice breakfast that gave them all a slight boost in stats for the next few hours as they dived deeper into the area. This time around they had Tank and Cinder both at full strength ready to help out at any time. Of course Joshua made sure that both Tank and Cinder kept to a small size until they came across a creature to fight. He didn"t want their ma.s.sive aura"s alerting their enemies to their presence before the fight could even start. Having them along did make the fights go much faster and things seemed to be going extremely well early on.
It was after one of the many fights they had gone through that Joshua decided to ask Lilly a question that had been at the back of his mind since they entered the forest. "Lilly how come you haven"t tried to tame any of these guys yet? Even I can feel that they have some decent potential from the amount of aura that they are giving off."
"Hmm, you are right that they do have some pretty good potential." Lilly said with a small frown that made it look more like she was pouting than anything do to her smaller figure. "I can just tell that these aren"t the ones that I should be taming. I can feel that there are much stronger ones further in the forest that I should tame if I plan on taming any of these creatures. I"ve never strayed from my gut feeling so I think I"ll stick to it once more."
"I guess that"s true. Well that probably means we"re up for quite the challenge soon." Joshua said with a small smile as they pushed forward. So far they had only been facing level sixty-six and sixty- seven praying mantises that only had two stars by their names. They were powerful, but clearly not the most powerful things in the territory if they were going based off of what they had come across in the past. It would be a ma.s.sive let down in the end if these were the strongest creatures that they could face in a territory that was supposed to have beast as powerful as level seventy.
After a few more fights it seemed like they were finally starting to enter into a new area of the forest with higher level praying mantises starting to show up, but it still didn"t seem like the leap in strength was enough just yet, but that all changed when Joshua sensed quite the powerful creature at the end of his aura pulse range. The beast was a praying mantis just like the ones they had faced earlier, but its aura was much stronger and it seemed to be larger as well. Joshua made sure to not alert the creature as the group approached and they all went up into the trees to get a good view of what they"d be facing this time around.
The new enemy was still clearly a praying mantis, but its body was bigger and a bit bulkier although it was in a similar sense to the change in size for Cinder after her evolution. Even though its body was more built it was clear that the creature still relied on its speed for combat primarily and the bulk would just make it harder to take down and make its blows pack more of a punch. When Joshua observed the creature he noticed right away that it had three stars by its name proving its increase in strength followed by a level of sixty-eight. The creature wasn"t the strongest in the territory for sure, but it was a big step up from what they had been facing so far.
When Joshua turned to look at everyone"s expression as they looked over at their new opponent he immediately noticed the glow in Lilly"s eyes which was a dead giveaway that she wanted to tame the creature. It would mean they didn"t get any experience for the battle, but at the same time having more tamed beast around that could help out at any time was always a good thing. "I guess we"re taming this thing then?" Henry asked getting Joshua"s attention. It seemed that his friend had been able to pick up on the same thing from Lilly that Joshua had.
"Yeah we"ll tame a few of these creatures to help in protection of our territories in the future. From what I can see from Lilly"s expression I"m guessing they have decent potential." Joshua explained to the rest of the group.
"Yes these praying mantises have far more potential than the ones from earlier. Even so I don"t think you should make one of these your partner in the future Adrian." Lilly said as she noticed she wasn"t the only one looking at them as more than the next opponent.
"Why not? I think they match really well with my soul beast." Adrian replied through the party chat. They were still close enough for the creature to hear them if they started talking out loud. It wouldn"t take much for it to fly up and slash them out of the trees and it seemed to have more than enough reach to do just that in a split second.
"I"ve got a feeling that these ones are still not the best outcome of this type of creature on our planet, in fact it feels like something much more powerful lives in this area. Besides it"s not even mutated like Cinder is. At least go for a mutated version of a creature that is plentiful. You only get one beast partner after all unlike me." Lilly finished her explanation. Her advice was spot on and it applied to everyone in the group. They all knew that in the future they"d have to select a beast partner to try and tame and there was no one better to ask for advice on the subject than Lilly.
"Since we"re going in this trying to tame the creature and not kill it then you all know not to do too much damage. The goal will be to restrain the creature long enough for Lilly to get a chance to tame it." Joshua explained and everyone agreed. "Alright then I"m going in first to get its attention."
Joshua leaped from the branch in the trees above and dived down towards the large creature. He knew that it would notice him the moment he activated his aura just like the other ones had before so he didn"t plan on activating it until after his first surprise attack. Of course this meant that the blow wouldn"t do too much damage, but it would still be better than getting completely blocked or worse if this creature was leagues above the other ones. This time he aimed for the creature"s blind point at the back of its head and smashed his scale blade into it as he pa.s.sed by. The blow rattled the creatures head heavily, but it didn"t do too much more than that.
The confusion created from the little interaction was more than enough for the rest of the group to come in and do some damage though. Amy followed up Joshua"s blow by hitting from the other side of the back of its head with a powerful strike as it was still in its confused state. Adrian on the other hand just glided down past the creatures main body and then landed on the ground and slashed at its back legs. The blows weren"t nearly strong enough to cut them off since they were thicker than the other praying mantises they had faced earlier, but it was enough to make the creature lose its balance and start to fall forward. It had to use its front legs to hold itself up for a moment, which meant its greatest weapons were currently out of commission.
Even though they had the creature on the ropes they knew that they weren"t trying to kill the thing so instead of trying to damage it more the rest of the group started going through the steps of restraining it. Aito chunked a flash bang in front of its face that temporarily blinded it. That was enough of a distraction for Henry to control vines made of energy to come out of the ground and wrap around the beast"s legs and restrain it a bit. Cinder and Tank were the final piece to the quick a.s.sault as Cinder covered the beast in ice cold webs that not only restrained the praying mantis even more, but the coldness of them made its body stiff and hard to move. Insects had a tough time when it came to cold and it was clear that this one also had a pretty big weakness to it as well.
Tank then finished off the confrontation by growing to full size and pinning the stuck creature down beneath him. All of this happened so fast that the praying mantis didn"t have any time to recover or retaliate and when it finally tried to struggle it was too late as Amy landed in front of it and started merging her own aura with the creatures. Seconds later the large insect was docile and Tank let it up. It used its large front legs to cut off the webs restricting it before moving over to stand beside Lilly. The four story tall insect was quite intimidating to see standing at its full height, but it was still smaller than both Tank by a lot and Cinder by a little. At this point Tank could get nearly six stories tall when at his full size and had a body as wide as a school building. He didn"t usually stay in that form in most situations since it was considered too big for most areas, but against larger creatures it was perfect. Cinder on the other hand was about the same height as the praying mantis, but her body was much larger making her seem more intimidating.
"This guy"s pretty great, but it"s a shame that it"s not all that intelligent. I don"t think it will ever get to the point where it can communicate as well as Tank or Cinder." Lilly said before sending over the stats of the creature for everyone to see. The praying mantis had incredibly high speed that was only out shined by Cinder and it also had high strength with decent vitality. Its other stats were on the lower side though with its will being the only one being slightly above average. When it came to skills it had the resize ability that Tank and Cinder both had along with shrieking ability that could disorient its opponents. Other than that it relied on its body and physical abilities to fight.
"It"s not bad, but still on the rather plain side. It will be helpful when it comes to territory wars though and for protecting the town." Joshua said as the giant creature disappeared. When he looked up he could see a smile spread across Lilly"s face as she gave him the puppy eyes. At first Joshua tried to resist, but when his little sister decided to join in he knew it wasn"t going to end up going his way. "Fine let"s go tame some more of these things, but after we get ten we"re moving one."
The two girls cheered before doing a high five at their success. When Joshua turned to look at the other guys in the group he could see Henry and Aito chuckling a bit while Adrian lifted his hand a made a whipping motion.