Cloaked in darkness, a sharp blade shot forward and sliced through a chitinous shell, like a knife through butter.
-screee
The creature screeched under the blade as it split in two and died. However, a second later, the latter creature seemed to jerk as its cells expanded and grew into a new organism.
"Shit!!" Victoria sneered and pushed herself back, giving space between them.
These little critters were harder to kill than she thought, killing one was basically creating two. Though the strength was reduced, it was still another creature to kill.
"Let's try something else," Victoria muttered as she summoned several orbs of blood from her fingertips.
Amongst everyone here, the only person that didn't opt to use one of the bone weapons was Victoria. It could kill infected beasts with maximum efficiency.
But it was no use to her… simply because she was just too powerful.
-splat
The orbs of blood flew forward and expanded, enclosing several beetles and squeezing them to death in an instant, causing their blood to fly around.
"You have to destroy them in their entirety!!" Victoria cautioned.
These beetles would multiply constantly if given the chance; the only way to kill one was to crush its body and soul. Unfortunately, that was very difficult to accomplish. Even she had to pour in her utmost focus to kill even one.
Talk less of multiple.
"Damnations!!" Thane cursed as the beetles overwhelmed him from all sides. One would think the intensity with which they attacked him would be lower, since he was on their side.
But it was much worse than the rest…
He instantly shot a cold glance at Kara, vexation in his eyes. This little bitch couldn't control her pets.
Yesterday, when they met, he was able to learn a few things. First, unlike the Skeleton King, the sentient blood was still under the control of the Legion. Apparently, the others, having gotten here first, had used the words and gained control over it.
So the war with the Skeleton King? It was them trying to retake control to further their goal of stopping Victoria.
This was a good thing, because they weren't the only ones facing Victoria now. They had the help of all the infected.
"Damn it!!" Using a bone shield and all his strength, Thane collapsed on one of the bugs, crushing it in its entirety.
'I can't keep doing this.'
Thane thought, making up his mind, as he quickly created distance between himself and the group.
However, he wasn't running away, because as soon as the beetles followed…
A mist of corrosive particles invaded the air, creating a perimeter.
The first few beetles to enter felt nothing, but soon their shells began to erode, corrosion seeping into their very being.
[Zombie Corrosion]
Thane wasn't one with a lot of abilities. In fact, aside from his regenerative abilities, he mainly relied on his fighting skills.
But Zombie Corrosion was one of his few abilities, one that allowed him to run from the worst possible scenarios.
This was one such scenario.
"Big guy, are you going to do the thing or not?" Kara, atop Nibbleskin's head, said as she looked down at him from the side of her eyes.
"But they look so disgusting," Nibbleskin responded with a look of annoyance. He really didn't like this suggestion, but… this situation.
Even with Victoria taking a large chunk of the attacks and killing off the beetles in droves, the number was somehow still increasing.
If they continued like this, sooner or later they would get overwhelmed.
"Hehe, you've changed. I swear when I first met you… you would eat anything," Kara mocked, a skewed smile on her face. She was, of course, forcing this smile.
She had no idea this would get out of hand this quick!! It was just meant to slow them down a bit while more preparations happened in front.
These things couldn't realistically kill Victoria; they would just keep fighting forever. This was not efficient, they had to end this now.
"God forbid a cat has tastes," Nibbleskin grumbled, then suddenly his fur darkened.
Whitehole Devourer—that was the name of his species, and it was not without merit.
At the peak stage of their evolution, they needed to swallow stars to evolve.
Naturally, he wasn't quite there yet, but he could eat other things.
Victoria first felt a subtle pulling force on her clothes, then it took one of the beetle corpses she had crushed, forcing her to look back.
"Shit!!" Victoria cursed as she swiftly rushed out of the way.
Behind her, a bright light shone in front of Nibbleskin, as a strange suction force drew the beetles and everything in its way into his maw.
One after the other, they were devoured, crushed into fine particles, and converted into energy that filled Nibbleskin up and caused his skin to glow.
"Burb!!"
Moments later, a comical burp resounded and Nibbleskin sat on the ground and spat out.
"Cursed bugs!!"
This was one of the innate abilities of the Whitehole Devourer.
[White Matter Hole]