Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 407. Utter defeat

"So, I guess we are done for this hunt?" Theo asked with a frown. Seeing the panther’s condition, he felt uneasy; there was no way a tamed beast should be kept in such a state.

"No, we can still let you fight more. I will stay and protect you if needed, Theo," Lucien replied as he got to his feet.

He glanced at his ape, which had picked up the panther in its hand and now stood there casually, as if nothing had happened.

"But... isn’t it hurt?" Theo asked, his frown deepening.

Lucien shook his head.

"We can head back if you want, elder brother. Your new beast’s health doesn’t look that great," Theo insisted.

"Theo, listen to me." Lucien just stopped him and spoke calmly. "Beasts are a lot hardier than we realize. I have already fed it several potions; it will be fine."

As he said that, his gaze shifted upward, and a smile soon formed on his face.

"But it looks like you have already started with the hunt huh?" he muttered.

Theo looked up and saw the mantis descending, carrying the limp body of a large eagle-like bird with it.

Everyone stared as it approached the ground. Once it landed, the mantis simply hopped forward and placed the carcass in front of Theo, proudly presenting its spoils of war.

Seeing the bird up close, Theo realized it was far bigger than he had first thought.

"That’s a Blaze Wing Eagle, young master. It’s great that the mantis hunted it already," Clara spoke with a sigh of relief.

"Why? What would it have done if we didn’t?" Theo asked.

"We don’t know for sure why these birds migrated to this forest, but they aren’t suitable for areas filled with this many dried leaves and trees like this all around. When they use their abilities, their wings get covered with fire, and the forest around them sometimes catches fire too."

"What? Then why don’t we just defeat them all? Sounds like these ones are invasive to this land," Theo asked, this time turning to Lucien, who might know about it more than Clara.

"It would be wrong if I said we haven’t tried, Theo. We have hunted them down countless times until none were left. But the benevolent artifact makes them come back out of nowhere from time to time."

Theo nodded. It seemed the artifact had already recognised them as part of the forest, just like the moss slimes and everything else. So even when every last one of them was wiped out, it brought them back.

"Don’t let your beast eat that one. If you take it to the town or the castle, Father will reward you for defeating it," Lucien explained.

But by the time he said that, one of the eagle’s taloned feet had already been completely gobbled up.

"Eat that one; it has a lot more stuff in it," Theo said, trying to lure the mantis away from the eagle by showing the half-eaten stag.

However, from one of the bushes in the opposite direction, another beast emerged.

Just when Theo had begun to feel like his luck was good enough to get his brother a beast he wished to tame, it all went downhill. A massive boar, unlike any Theo had ever seen, stepped into the clearing.

Lucien’s gaze was fixed on it, and he bit his lips.

"...We should run back, Theo, Sir Rhys," Lucien spoke.

Anyone could hear the reluctance in his voice, yet the determination in his eyes was clear.

But it was as if he was looking at the situation as a leader and not as a solo individual. For a moment, Theo felt a bit of respect return for the guy.

Theo glanced at Rhys, who responded with a faint smile.

Through that same bush, three more boars emerged. They looked a lot similar to the first one, just that they were a lot larger.

The bigger boar walked over to the stag and tore a chunk of meat from the open wound.

"KRIEEKKKK"

Before Rhys could tell them to fight and promise to help if things went wrong, the mantis rushed into the clearing, making a furious, high-pitched cry.

All the boars became alert and turned toward the approaching monster-like beast with vigilance.

The moment they saw it, the pressure in the air seemed to have increased, while the boars in the back seemed to have frozen in place.

Yet when the largest boar realized something strange was happening, it moved forward and prepared to do what the other boars needed the most.

SQUEAKKKKK!!

The boar roared in an even higher-pitched voice, as if it was trying to compete with the sound.

But before it could do anything, the mantis turned into a blinding flash of white light and slashed at the boar, who reacted at the very last moment.

THUD

Everyone stared at the two beasts... then at the thing that had dropped to the ground.

Theo felt chills run down his spine when he saw one of the boar’s tusks lying on the ground. Lucien, meanwhile, couldn’t help but feel like everything he believed was a lie.

"This level of power..." he muttered out his thought.

Even Knight Rhys nodded.

Everyone knew how notorious the Ironclad Boar Patriarch was when it came to raw strength.

Even after its roar, which was supposed to snap the other boars out of the suppression, the sudden spectacle made the rest of the boars step back instinctively.

Theo checked the level of each one of them and realized something shocking.

Not a single one of them was below level 10.

Yet the mantis, at the same level, had suppressed each and every one of them as if it were child’s play.

’Just... when did we reach this level?’

The mantis’s strength felt foreign even to Theo himself. He was almost glad that it hadn’t been this strong when the emperor had been conducting the evaluation, or it would have caused an even greater uproar.

The boar that had lost its tusk charged again, trying to hit the mantis with the remaining one, which was already coated in a reddish aura.

The mantis responded by spraying a lethal poison straight into its open mouth.

Still, the boar stubbornly went for the attack. But much to its disappointment, the mantis dodged it easily, then released its spores.

The boar collapsed to the ground, its body spasming violently.

Not a single being in that entire clearing, not even the eagles circling high above in the air, surveying them, could have predicted something like this could happen.

Not even Theo, the tamer himself.