Insect Tamer's Ascension

Theo saw Clara and the pup land gracefully on the ground. She rolled on the tall grass while the pup just landed on his forelegs and started running.

Theo flinched when that happened, but when he saw her unharmed, he sighed in relief.

'What do I do now?' he asked himself and frowned. Against a level 7 ape, he could do nothing to defeat it. His mantis was level 3, and even if the level difference was ignored, the ape was thirty times bigger than the praying mantis, if not more.

Clara quickly stood up, and the pup came close to her legs like a trained canine.

The boar's skill was still active, and it did all it could to push the ape back. Yet, the ape had dug its feet into the ground and didn't seem to budge even by a centimeter. Its core was stable, and a few snarky snarls came out of its mouth.

"Take this!" Clara rushed toward the ape, which was stuck because of the boar, and kicked the back of its knee.

The ape screamed loudly and bent its knee with a painful grunt. The boar gained a slight advantage as its grip on the ground loosened for a moment.

Clara quickly moved to the side, and the pup followed. The boar then pushed the ape, driving its tusks forward with all its strength.

THUD!

The ape crashed onto its back against a tree and let out another painful scream.

The boar's skill finally deactivated, and that was when the glowing eyes of the ape turned bloodshot.

KHYAAAAA!!

It started screaming so loudly that the ground trembled. As the ape tried to create some distance, it thrashed its long arms against its head with all its might.

Theo watched the scene, his eyes twitching. Each hit on its head felt like a fatal one, with every impact producing a loud BANG! that echoed around them.

Yet the boar kept enduring the punches, and Theo couldn't tell if it was alright or not.

Seeing Theo still standing in the same spot where she had thrown him, Clara shouted angrily, "Why have you not gone yet, young master?! It's not going to stop with just that!"

"I—" Theo tried to respond, wanting to say that he wanted to fight, yet even he could tell how bad of a decision that would be.

There were only two options in front of him: either run away, take Clara's sacrifice to heart, and pray for her safe return, or stay and fight with everything he had to defeat the ape.

Clara turned her focus back to the ape. Near her waist was a short dagger, which she swiftly pulled from its hilt.

With a strong throwing motion, Clara sent the dagger flying straight at the ape, hitting it right in the small forehead.

The ape's face shook as it snapped back to awareness. Its anger had built up so much that it had been blindly thrashing the boar even after exhausting itself.

Multiple huffs left its mouth, and Clara's strategy had worked.

The slight hesitation the ape showed for a few seconds gave the boar just enough time to get out of its range while staying close.

Theo's heart pounded as he saw the ape glare at Clara with bloodthirsty eyes, as if recognizing that she was the one who had thrown the dagger.

For a second, Theo realized just how close she was to the beast. With its speed, reaching her and snapping her neck would be as easy as breaking a small branch from a tree.

His breath caught in his throat, and Theo clenched his fists in dismay. He knew he should run—it was the most logical choice—but his legs refused to move. Not just because of fear, but because it didn't feel right to do so.

He looked toward his mantis—on his shoulder or in his pocket—and froze.

'Where?' A simple question flashed through his mind as he frantically searched around.

Yet there was no time to look for it now.

The ape was beyond furious. To say it was fuming with anger would be an understatement. What Theo saw was a primal, bloodthirsty beast.

The ape's chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. Its brown fur near the neck, chest, and stomach was covered in a dirty crimson color, as if its wounds had worsened.

Yet, for some reason, it hadn't fled. Theo knew it was strong, but even so, why take such a risk of sudden death? Trying to understand the ape's mentality was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

His mind was all over the place, but it only came down to one question: What should he do?

The ape grunted with a hoarse voice. Then, in an instant, it lunged.

The sheer force of its movement sent a shockwave through the ground, dirt and leaves flying for a second.

Clara barely had time to react. She twisted her body, dodging just as the ape's claws slashed through the air where she had been a moment ago. But the beast was fast—too fast for her own good.

Theo already knew that Clara was not human like him. She had surpassed the level 5 cap, making her stronger and faster than an average human such as himself.

The disappearance of the mantis wasn't even on his mind at this point.

The ape pivoted on its back foot, its long arms swinging in a wide arc toward Clara's exposed side.

"Clara!" Theo shouted instinctively.

Clara's eyes flicked to the incoming attack, and in one swift motion, she ducked low, rolling across the grass.

Her movements were fluid, as if she had been in situations like this countless times before.

The moment she regained her footing, she reached into her belt and pulled out a small, cylindrical object.

Before the ape could get near, she moved the cylindrical wooden tube-like object toward her lips and blew into it without any aiming.

The gap between them was not that wide, and Theo didn't know what came out of the tube.

Suddenly, the ape went on its knee yet again, its head down.

'Was that a dart?' Theo questioned. It looked like a dart blower of some sort.

The speed at which she had blown it baffled Theo. The quick thinking in such a crucial and dangerous moment felt unreal to him.

Clara's eyes went to the boar, which lunged forward again as if it had been waiting all this time for this moment. It didn't activate its skill—or couldn't. Theo didn't know—but it smacked the ape right at the rib area with all it had again.

The ape reacted with a growl of pain.

"Just die already, you fucker!" Clara screamed and threw yet another dagger from the other side of her belt. It seemed to be the last one now.

The dagger was swift enough to reach its shoulder yet didn't have enough strength or cutting power to pierce the ape in any way.

Even that dagger fell to the ground, and the ape looked panicked at this point.

It went to attack the one thing it saw in front of it again—the boar.

And for the first time, the pup started moving at the same time. Theo was watching the battle with intense focus, something he had never experienced before. This was a matter of life and death, something he had never even realized he would be facing.

Reality was hitting quite hard at this point—he was helpless and useless against such creatures. If not for the beasts, his feeble human body could not withstand anything.

While the ape attacked the boar, which took the thrashing like a shield, the pup moved swiftly and swiped its claws right at the back of its ankle before quickly moving away.

The ape's left hand moved almost instantly, but the pup was already gone, leaving a small slash at the location.

The ape hesitated to move back, yet the boar didn't let it. All it could do was scream like a maniac and keep thrashing at every chance while the pup attempted similar attacks.

Theo could tell that a single hit on the pup would mean instant death. It seemed to be the only reason why it hadn't attacked until now.

Theo observed the aggressively moving ape, which was only operating with the help of adrenaline at this point.

Yet, Theo's gaze quickly shifted to what seemed like a green spot on the ape's left shoulder.

Theo focused and realized what it was. A shiver of current ran from the back of his neck to the end of his spine.

It was none other than the mantis, latched onto the ape silently like a camouflaged hunter.

Theo didn't know what to think anymore, but he knew one thing—the ape either didn't care about the small creature or hadn't realized that something this tiny was even sitting on its shoulder while it moved around so violently.

'… S-Spore lash'