Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 132: Monkey (2)

Chapter 132: Monkey (2)

’That should be our target.’

He thought, his eyes locking onto the form of the larger maggot.

It was larger than the rest and he had also seen its stats; it possessed stats greater than all the maggots he had checked.

’If I kill it, I wonder if they’ll shift their sights onto me.’

He went back below the trees and moved quickly, regrouping with Kira and Asahi.

"Did you see anything?"

Kira asked him, the boy’s voice tinged with urgency.

"He’s surrounded by a swarm of maggots, I think they’re planning on draining him dry."

Jason said.

Kira nodded.

"Let’s go."

He was about to leap forward when Jason put an arm on his shoulder, stopping him and prompting him to look at Jason.

"What?"

He questioned, his tone annoyed.

He wanted to move in as soon as possible to save his brother.

"Once they notice you, they’ll swarm around him."

Kira removed his hand from his shoulder.

His form vanished, replaced by a brief afterimage that soon flickered out of life.

Lyra followed after him, she only observed them but never made to do anything.

"Wait, Asahi."

Jason turned his attention to the other person.

"Before you go, create a ball of fire and send it towards the ground."

He pointed at a particular place.

"Shouldn’t we be focused on-"

He was cut short before he could finish his words.

"I just have a feeling that they gathered in this particular place because of something. Kira is rushing in because of his brother, he’s not even being rational at the moment, but if you grab their attention with your fireball I might be able to save him while their focused on it."

Jason explained.

"I understand."

Asahi said.

"But right now we need to save Sean as soon as possible, we don’t have time to check if your feelings are correct."

With those words he darted after Kira.

Jason couldn’t help but sigh at their actions.

’Everyone is just being irrational today.’

Not even Asahi listened to him.

’If they want to act like this, I’ll just wait until my next plan can be put into action.’

He leaped high into the tree once more, but this time he wasn’t looking at the maggots.

He was scouting for his clones.

And when they came, he could finally put his Plan B into motion.

’Even if it means that.’

Until then, he could only rest as he waited for his clones.

...

Asahi leaped from tree to tree, relying on the buzzing of the maggots to lead him to his destination.

’I need to move faster.’

He thought.

He could sympathize with Kira.

Asahi believed that if he was even a second late, Sean would end up just like his sister and his parents had.

That was the reason he rushed in to save someone he had just met a day ago.

He considered Kira and Jason as his only companions, and thus, he was willing to risk himself to save either of them.

He took one last deep breath as he reached a section where the trees spread out even further from each other, the Frost maggots had chosen this as the perfect place for their gathering considering how spacious it was.

Compared to the other parts of the forest.

What greeted him as he darted out of the trees brought goosebumps to his skin.

Because he traveled through this side of the world, he had seen Frost Maggots before.

And against them he almost died, due to their overwhelming numbers. Numbers that seemed to never end.

There were about a thousand Frost Maggots centered around there, each of them buzzing in symphony.

And Kira had jumped into their midst.

’He was right.’

Jason’s plan to distract them with a ball of fire would prove effective right now.

He was too blinded to see that.

Now his eyes and ears had been opened.

’He’s going to die.’

Asahi could already see Kira’s skin getting pierced by the Frost maggots before he succumbed to fate, and he couldn’t even see Sean or Lyra in the swarm.

Suddenly, something surprising happened.

The maggots took shape.

They formed something crudely resembling a palm...

And swatted Kira away as he leaped towards their mist.

But from the force they mustered, some of them had died off.

Asahi couldn’t believe his eyes, but he forced himself to concentrate as he ran after the boy’s descending body.

He used his own body to catch the other person.

Both of them fell onto the ground, but he was able to reduce the impact.

"Thank you."

Kira said thankfully as he got up, the impact from the fall failed to damage it as it should have.

Asahi pushed himself to his feet, steel feeling the shock of Kira’s fall.

He found it hard to believe that the monsters had formed a palm.

From his understanding of the monsters they didn’t have that level of intelligence; only instincts guided them, he would know since he survived an encounter with them.

They behaved different from what he remembered.

"Do you know what they just did?"

Asahi questioned as he got to his feet, still feeling the pain.

"No."

He admitted his lack of understanding.

"These ones are different, they aren’t able to move like this..."

His voice trailed off.

Kira refused to speak up.

He began to concentrate, in his mind he began constructing something.

In a violent motion he suddenly back flipped.

"Release!"

Something abruptly formed at his palms.

Solidified lava.

A rock of moderate size.

By simultaneously using and combining Earth magic and Fire magic he was able to create lava.

It required great mastery over both of the types of magic to use, and even then that wasn’t enough to create one of this size.

And by adding Water Magic to the mix.

With those three types of magic used altogether, he was able to create lava and solidify it.

And the heat it emanated was undeniable.

His hand made contact with the rock.

And Asahi hurled it forward as he landed, towards the crude hand that had been formed.

The Frost Maggots moved with an intelligence that seemed to be light years ahead of their species.

They reverted back to their gathering.

Instead of gathering in one place, they were loosened.

Despite the heat the rock emanated, it was barely able to take out anything more than a dozen of the maggots.

The ones that were unfortunate enough instantly deformed, their forms melting into puddles.

"Impossible."

Asahi couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

It was strange that the monsters didn’t even bother flocking towards him and Kira, but they were also intelligent.

Even now, the monsters didn’t even bother to swarm towards them.

It was obvious that they were focused on something else.

"...Don’t do that again."

Even Kira seemed to be confused by the creatures.

They weren’t acting the way they were supposed to, it was as if something was relaying them with instructions.

Asahi turned towards him.

"You could hit him."

He explained.

"We should try coming at them from two different sides."

"Alright."

The reply came quickly.

They both spread out going in different directions.

’Where is she?’

Asahi couldn’t help but think as he leaped.

’That girl that was with him.’

His hand went to his waist, procuring his weapon as he moved towards them.

’Could she have met her end?’

The Frost Maggots noticed their movements.

They separated into two groups, both forming a crude hand meant to slap him away.

He did not deter.

He focused Wind magic to his soles, using it as a platform mid-air to boost his speed.

Asahi slammed into it, but he was not hit off path.

Immediately, he began using his weapon to slash at the monsters trying to break through them while airborne.

Left, right, up down, at every direction, everything he could feel was the Frost Maggots.

They brushed against his whole body.

Some were fast to react to his presence in their group.

The monsters latched onto him, trying to bite into his skin from all sides. But the armor covered most sides, all except his face and joints.

Some of the monsters bit into him from those parts.

Pain.

He twisted mid-air, rotating his weapon in a circular motion.

Finally, he broke out of them, his vision morphing from the endless amounts of maggots.

He landed pathetically on the ground, unable to catch himself as he fell.

Asahi staggered to his feet.

His hand went to his face, and he ripped off the monsters that were leeching off him.

One by one.

He crushed them with his hand and threw whatever remained from them on the ground.

"Disgusting."

He murmured.

The skill of the Frost Maggots came into effect.

Frost Bite, slows down his brain and body.

He cursed as he saw Kira land as well, not too far away from him but also in the same condition as him.

Maggots were attached to his skin.

Asahi extended his hand and crushed the maggots, before helping Kira rise.

The boy wore no armor, meaning that the amount of maggots that leeched onto his skin far exceeded his.

And the worst part was that Sean wasn’t with him.

’Should I run?’

If he ran away he doubted if the maggots would come after him. But, his pride refused to allow him run.

Not when he could at least try to avert the same tragedy that came to him from happening to someone else.

Suddenly, a chilling thought crept into his mind.

"Where is Jason?"

He questioned, his eyes darting around.

Kira too, seemed to notice that someone was missing. Though, his movements were quite slower than they were before.

"Did he run?!"

Asahi couldn’t believe it.