Chapter 426: A Dishonest Fight
"This will be difficult," Jyorta frowned as he looked at the shape inscribed on the can, "There isn't even a number. We would have to scour through all the white circles to check for our goal."
He sighed, realising the plan of the military academy. If the cans had numbers placed on them, then the students would be able to track them accordingly and calculate based on the number of teams to find the Tier 3 Frenzy Beast they had to fight to reach their goal.
After all, people could easily divide the number of teams by twelve and determine the brackets within which the number on their can pointed towards. This way, they can make plans against the Tier 3 Frenzy Beast they would have to eventually fight.
Moreover, they could determine their teammates and hatch a solid plan beforehand. It would give them a lot of advantage. After all, the initiative lay in their hands.
But now, such a scene was impossible to create. After all, they only had weird star-shaped diagrams with limited variations on their respective cans. So, they were unable to determine the target Tier 3 Frenzy Beast they would have to eventually face and the teams they would join hands together.
They would have to kill the Tier 3 Frenzy Beasts one by one and hope their goal is within the area guarded by the respective Frenzy Beast. Trust, camaraderie, and leadership were all tested here. It also pitted their characters to the test by giving them such vague conditions to fulfil.
'Of course, they would always try to wring out everything from us.' Jyorta sighed, holding the can with one hand while he used the other to grab the seatbelt constricting him for extra grip. He was the only one in the Battleship with free hands. The rest of his teammates were all busy aiming and shooting at the flying Frenzy Beasts.
Jyorta fished out four Tier 1 Heart Crystals as he sent a mental cue through his aura. Immediately, all the four Spindle Bees summoned their Caterpillars. His teammates picked one per each from his hand and gave it to the Caterpillars, watching the tiny wriggling creatures of blood consume the Heart Crystal like it was the most delicious in the world.
"Let's keep their energy levels constantly at the top," Jyorta said, hearing everyone express their support. When they had the chance to replenish the energy reserves of the Spindle Bees, it was wise to do so.
After all, if they were caught in a tough situation, it wouldn't be possible to obtain enough time to finish the process, placing them at a risk the moment the Spindle Bees run out of energy.
Jyorta had already placed a mental cue in the tattoos of the Floating Spiders and the Spindle Bees. Every time their energy levels decreased by ten percent, they would tell him. In actuality, they weren't communicating actively.
When it was time, they just caused a minor fluctuation in their aura. Jyorta immediately acted upon it. After all, the five Floating spiders and the four Spindle Bees were at Tier 2. So, they were able to manipulate their aura to a certain extent.
"There's another black circle to our front, 70 metres away." Sreshta spoke, "But, there are a lot of One-Horned Rhinos surrounding it."
"Then we'll take action," Jyorta spoke, causing the Battleship to sped forward as it began to slowly rotate along its horizontal direction, "We'll be rotating once every four seconds. When it is your window to shoot, shoot at them. We'll keep up with this until either they are annihilated or run away in fear."
"What about the Floating Spiders surrounding us?" Duvic shouted, "They have already begun to damage all the spindles lodged on our outer walls."
Jyorta saw how some of the Floating Spiders had begun to weave their silk on the Battleship, numbing the sharpness of the spindles lodged in the outer wall. This way, they wouldn't have to be afraid to close in on it. Moreover, as it was made through silk, the Floating Spiders had their ways to bite through the walls.
The Spindle Bees, on the other hand, had been shooting their spindles at the Battleship from the start. Their spindles sometimes bounced off upon colliding with the spindles poking out from it. But, a significant portion of them managed to land on the silk wall behind, damaging it.
Numerous thin strands had already been severed, causing weak spots to appear all over their defences. Moreover, the damage was steadily accumulating. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before they breached the defences.
"I have a plan," Jyorta looked at Duvic, "Focus on shooting at the One-Horned Rhinos first. Focus on riling them up and agitate them as much as you can."
"Alright," His teammates nodded and aimed at the One-Horned Rhinos, beginning to shoot the spindles immediately. The spindles landed on the One-Horned Rhinos one after another, piercing their necks most of the time.
They didn't die though, for their tough skins allowed them to withstand three to four attacks even when targeted at their necks—their weak spots. The One-Horned Rhinos roared and riled up, beginning to run around as they dodged the spindle attacks.
They bumped into their brethren, tumbled and even crashed onto the ground after which they were stepped on by their brethren. All of them were only focused on evading the spindles. The Battleship was 20 metres before them, positioned ten metres above the ground.
"Hold tight," Jyorta shouted as he sent a mental cue to the five Tier 2 Floating Spiders, causing them to push the Battleship forward with all their might. The Battleship accelerated to its maximum speed as it made a beeline towards the One-Horned Rhinos.
Aura Personification—Hallucination!
Jyorta unleashed his hallucination, making the One-Horned Rhinos hallucinate the appearance of a metre-wide wall in between them. It wasn't straight, rather zig-zagged through the crowd. Moreover, a faint aura was instilled in it that caused them to evade it unconsciously.
Jyorta had imbued in the wall properties—such as light, heat, smell, and sound—that the One-Horned Rhinos disliked. This way, they didn't try to touch the wall, creating the exact enough gap for the Battleship to pass through.
This time, it wasn't flying high, rather was barely ten centimetres above the ground. There was just one reason, it was to ditch the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees that stuck to them like glue and continuously damaged their hull.
The path was only wide enough for the Battleship to pass through. As the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees were busy chasing the Battleship with unabated hatred, they didn't realise the trap he was setting up.
After all, Jyorta had subtly overlaid another hallucination, one that prevented them from sensing the One-Horned Rhinos. The ones that hadn't yet fallen prey to the hallucination swiftly moved up and evaded the chaos.
But unfortunately for the rest, they crashed into the trashing One-Horned Rhinos, getting either flattened or stomped to death. A significant portion among them managed to survive but were riddled with injuries.
The Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees had their pride. After all, among the Frenzy Beasts, they were a cut above the rest, having an Ancestor to guard their homes while they possessed a Trait, one that gave them a significant advantage over others.
So, the moment the One-Horned Rhinos injured them, they retaliated without hesitation. They engaged in a battle immediately. The battleship didn't escape. Jyorta continued to make imaginary paths in the hallucination that the One-Horned Rhinos avoided.
He made the Battleship fly through the routes, always ensuring to be within the detectable range of the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees. After all, the hatred between them was the maximum. The moment the Battleship flew beyond a certain range, all the Floating Spiders and Spindle bees would return to focus their attention on them, jointly planning to deal with the One-Horned Rhinos later.
The One-Horned Rhinos were land-based creatures, unable to escape from flight-based creatures such as them. So, in the eyes of the Floating Spiders, they weren't a threat. As for the Spindle Bees, they could easily spam attacks and kill all the One-Horned Rhinos without suffering a single causality. So, they only treated the One-Horned Rhinos as food.
"This is great!" Bilena laughed as she saw their enemies fight and kill each other. Her task was simple; it was to meddle when the tension between the two parties was about to die down. She would launch the spindle either on the Floating Spiders or the One-Horned Rhinos, always keeping the Spindle Bees as the instigators.
As the Spindle Bees were the dominant race this time, there was no shortage of strong Spindle Bees. So, even when they were ganged up, they wouldn't be annihilated, for reinforcements would come to their rescue immediately.
Jyorta felt mildly suffocated; his eyes felt heavy. His aura reserves were down to an all-time low. He used his weaker psychic arm to heal himself, noting that his psychic energy reserves were about to run out soon enough.
Considering the current rate of expenditure, he would be able to last for ten more minutes at most. Jyorta shouted, "Bilena, how's the status of the two teams following us?"
"They are keeping up with us," Bilena replied as she shot a spindle and reaped the life of a Floating Spider, "They are killing the severely injured Frenzy Beasts."
Jyorta looked around, noticing that the total number of Frenzy Beasts hadn't decreased. More Frenzy Beasts were being lured over. Duvic shouted, saying he spotted five Life Leeches that sprung up from the ground and latched onto the legs of a One-Horned Rhino.
Some Ring Worms were also mixed into the bunch that coiled around the bodies of the One-Horned Rhinos and targeted the Floating Spiders that came close.
"Tell them to retreat for the moment," Jyorta said, hearing Sreshta shout and relay the message to the two teams. The Battleship had reached the black circle now as his psychic arm shot forth and grabbed the can. Without any hesitation, the Battleship shot towards the sky, rapidly increasing its altitude as it headed towards the top.