Jack Inspected the large insect.
Giant Armored Beetle (Basic monster, Insect), level 14
HP: 1400
The Giant Beetle continued to stab on the female Ranger with its razor sharp legs. The female Ranger was helpless as she was pinned down. She continued to suffer damages without being able to escape. In desperation, she stabbed the monster on top of her using her knife but the damage she inflicted was negligible.
Jeanny who saw her comrades was suffering immediately ran forward and stabbed at the Giant Beetle with her spear. But her damage was much reduced compared to when she was attacking the Giant Ants. The thick carapace of the Beetle served as a solid shield that soaked the damage dealt to it. Jack could not provide help as there were many Giant Ants coming from the rear, he doubled his effort to slice at them and pushed them off the edge.
Jeanny who saw that her attacks were ineffective, decided to use her skill. Her spear’s tip glowed and created a bright straight line as she drove it forward. The energy on the tip drilled into the thick carapace of the Giant Beetle.
Critical! 108 damage!
What skill was that? Jack thought in his mind when he saw Jeanny’s move.
The Giant Beetle was damaged, but it still would not budge. It continued to attack the female Ranger whose HP was already critical.
The group in front had reached the entrance to the other side, which was strangely devoid of monsters. Bluedaze and Sinreaper sent range attacks at the Beetle, but their attacks were also having little effect.
“We have to leave them behind!” Warpath said.
“What? No way! We can fight that monster,” Bluedaze said.
“We will just be wasting resources, we have each lost much HP. We still need to save our recovery potions for the Boss if we are to clear this dungeon!”
“There are three people there, we lose much manpower if we leave them!” Bluedaze countered.
“Two people,” Warparth said as he saw the female Ranger’s HP was finally depleted. The Giant Beetle now shifted its focus to Jack and Jeanny.
When Warpath saw the others were still hesitating, he added, “they won’t be able to make it here. There is no way they could push that Giant Beetle aside. Even if they tried to kill it, they will be swarmed by the Giant Ants from behind. By the time we done helping them in killing this Giant Beetle, they would have lost their life anyway. Then we will be losing time, potions, and manpower!”
“Let’s go,” Queen Magenta said as she decided that Warpath’s thinking was sound.
Silverwing and his people were still hesitating, but then they heard Jack’s shout, “go! Don’t worry about us, we will catch up.”
Pretentious prick, Warpath thought in his mind, but he chose not to said it out this time. Since Jack wanted to pretend to act tough to the end, then let him act tough. He had never met someone who was still trying to save face even when his life was in danger like this. He thought Jack must have planned to use this as an excuse when he died in this dungeon. Such a na?ve thought, he would still be able to put the blame on him if they ended up failing to clear this dungeon.
Silverwing on the other hand, did not think that Jack was just pretending to be tough. He admitted that he could not see any way out for him in this situation, but maybe the guy had some trick up his sleeves to save himself from this. With Jack’s reassurance, Silverwing finally agreed to go forward first.
“I will be waiting for you at the Boss fight, don’t die!” He shouted at Jack.
Jack didn’t reply as he was busy warding off the swarm of Giant Ants that kept on coming towards him from behind. Jack took a glance and saw them leave, while Jeanny was busy dealing with the Giant Beetle. She did not seem to be faring too well. If this place was a wide open space and there were no Giant Ants around to interfere, maybe she could take on this Giant Beetle.
Jack was just about to use his Life Burning Art when he caught a glimpse of another opening apart from the one at the end of this bridge. But this opening was located on the wall at a lower elevation from the bridge. There was a rock protrusion that came out from the cavern wall that led to that opening. If they jumped from this height, they should be able to reach that rock protrusion. The question was where will that opening led? They might end up in a worse situation if they stumbled into an insect’s nest, and be further separated from the others if they entered that opening.
Their current situation did not allow Jack to ponder too long. Jeanny was losing HP at a fast pace. He had to decide whether to use his buff skill or bet on that opening on the wall.
He used a Swing on the Giant Ants’ legs in front of him, immobilizing them. He then ran to where Jeanny was, he used Power Strike on that Giant Bettle, driving the heavy insect back a few steps.
“Come with me!” Jack said. He had decided to take the gamble on that hidden opening. If he used either his Life Burning Art or Overlimit at this place, he would not be able to use it again during the Boss fight, as those skills had very long cooldown.
Jeanny who was still amazed from seeing Jack managed to push the large Beetle back, was further dumbstruck when she saw him running to the edge of the bridge and jumped off. She saw him landed on a strange rocky platform below, she was still confused when he looked up and yelled at her, “what are you waiting for? Hurry and jump!”
She looked back and realized the Giant Beetle and swarm of Giant Ants were coming towards her. She didn’t have enough time to think of anything, she instinctively jumped off the bridge towards Jack.
Jack saw her approaching, but she had jumped without a running start. She did not have enough push to cover the distance! Jeanny seemed to have realized it as well mid-flight as her eyes widened with fear.
Jack extended his arm forward to catch her, but she was still a distance away, there was no way he could grab her. Luckily, Jeanny also instinctively put his hand forward, which was coincidentally holding her spear. The long spear covered enough distance for Jack to grab it on its shaft.
Jack held onto the spear shaft tightly as Jeanny hanged above the dark and bottomless pit. Jack wondered if they would get a normal death of one level penalty if they fell into the pit here, but he wasn’t keen to find out. Jeanny was also grabbing her spear tightly, the weapon had become her lifeline at the moment.
Good thing that Jack had high strength stat. Despite using only one hand, with his other hand grabbing part of the rock protrusion for a hand grip, he could still pull Jeanny up.
The girl fell on her back after got pulled up safely. she was panting as she tried to catch her breath. She and Jack looked at the rows of large insects staring at them from the rock bridge above. Some were so eager to get to them that they actually jumped on their own and fell to the dark abyss below.
Jack rose to his feet and said, “let’s go.”
Jeanny was confused and was just about to ask, to where? When she saw a hole opening on the wall at the end of this rock platform they were on. She was surprised that Jack managed to notice this hidden opening during the fight. She quickly got up and followed behind Jack.
“Will we be able to rejoin the others?” She asked.
“Hope so,” Jack answered vaguely as he himself was also not sure.
They then entered the dark opening on the wall.
