Although insect-made weapons were powerful, they had many weaknesses. One was that the weapon summoning consumed a large amount of time.
“「Shadow Clone」.”
Just as Tia’s ninjutsu skill activated, her image shimmered and another ‘Tia’ appeared in the original spot.
All this time Entoma had been wary of Tia. Clones from the ‘Shadow Clone’ skill had roughly one quarter of the original body’s battle power, but only the shadow’s evading ability was determined by the amount of magic power granted to it by the main body, nothing more. This shadow might be a strong opponent for the talisman spider, but for Entoma it was a piece of cake.
However, the real problem was how well the original body was capable of fighting. Entoma summoned her killer weapon— steel projectile insects. At the same time, she attached a talisman to herself and began to strengthen her ability.
Steel projectile insects flew out from an unknown spot and densely covered her left wrist.
These were three centimetre long insects that had a metallic shine, with a triangle-shaped body and razor sharp tip. Its appearance was very similar to that of a bullet. As for this insect’s use, of course, was consistent with its bullet-like form.
In order to avoid the talisman spider’s attacks, the shadow clone had to use its full strength, and the main body had to join the fight alongside the clone. After a long while of battling like this, they only managed to kill one talisman spider, so it seemed that her level was not any higher than Entoma’s. If this was the case, even if the battle against Gagaran were to resume, victory would still be certain.
— Looks like it’s all as I had predicted.
No mercy. Using overwhelming strength to bring about a speedy victory.
The heaviness on her left hand brought satisfaction to Entoma and she pointed directly at Tia.
Entoma’s left wrist was several times thicker than normal because of the bugs covering it. Following her movement, all of the insects began to move in unison from her wrist, rushing into the sky. Gathering into groups, the insects’ wings gave off a sound similar to an automatic gun. Even the ally talisman spider which was within firing range was ruthlessly mowed down, and within a moment, a total of one hundred and fifty insects made their way towards Tia.
A single insect was enough to puncture steel, and these one hundred and fifty insects could even pierce through a gigantic tree. In the face of this deadly barrage of bullets, Tia activated her ninjutsu.
“「Immovable Adamantine Shield」!”
A large shield radiating with multiple colours appeared in front of Tia. This radiance was enough to split apart the large dark hexagonal shield, creating a collision with the insect swarm. In an instant, the shield shattered with a crisp sound, but also at this moment the insect bulletstorm stagnated, and Tia who was standing behind was uninjured.
Entoma couldn’t resist but metaphorically click her tongue even though she didn’t actually possess one. Forcing her opponents to reveal their hidden trump cards one by one would eventually illuminate the path to victory. Although her current attacks were being dealt with for now, the moment her attack pierces through, they would be swept away like a flood from a broken dyke.
She used the blade insect to deflect the incoming kunai and the insect shield was then used to defend against Gagaran’s blow which came from above. It was an exceptionally mighty blow which descended from above, causing significant damage to the armored bug which screeched out in pain.
Her eyes should have been blinded because of the dazzling light given off by the adamantite shield, and therefore it should have been impossible to defend against Gagaran’s surprise attack. However Entoma’s eyes were not affected by something of this degree. Her field of vision was wider than that of humans, and was able to cover the direction of this attack.
At the same moment that she determined this pursuing attack to be incredibly dangerous, her body glided away as if she was on top of a lake — seemingly without even moving her feet, her body had already pulled a considerable distance away from Gagaran. Although Gagaran possessed a large physique, her movements were lithe and she had almost completely recovered from her wounds. She stood beside Tia, crushing the steel bullet insects which made bursting sounds, as she spoke in a cold voice:
“This isn’t good; I’m not sure if we can win against her. What was that just now? Wasn’t our timing perfect? She was obviously unable to see in this direction, yet was still able to block.”
“A wide field of vision perhaps?”
“Rather than that, it seems more plausible that there are other reasons though. She has insect abilities, so it seems more likely that she used some kind of special sensory magic… Speaking of which, she possesses an overwhelming advantage. Why didn’t she attack us while we were talking?
“Only a true predator would go for the kill after determining the opponent’s true strength.”
“So that’s it. She’s waiting to see the true extent of our strength, very different to our chibi-chan. This cautious fellow really is a troublesome.”
“To be made light of by mere humans to such an extent is really distasteful. Well, there are other reasons but… Hora, come forth. In that case these insects aren’t needed anymore.”
The insects attached to Entoma’s right wrist dropped to the ground one after another, and disappeared into the darkness with a rustling noise.
“In place of that… Come forth.”
An insect as long as a centipede slowly wrapped around her wrist. Its body length was over ten metres long, the front end had abnormally sharp teeth and its eyes were still closed.
This was the strongest insect that she, an entomomancer, could summon — the thousand whips insect.
Entoma put strength in both her legs. She had already figured out the attack speed, offensive ability, defensive ability, evasive ability and movement speed of the two humans before her. Although she was not too certain about Tia’s ability to adapt to new situations, it was not enough to frighten her.
“Ah.”
Entoma used her hand to touch her chin, which was covered in transparent sticky fluid.
“Earlier, my stomach was definitely full. After a bit of exercise, it’s beginning to squeeze in hunger.”
Stuck on her hand was her saliva. This was the clearest evidence that she craved humans as her prey.
Humans were her favourite food. Until this moment, she had only been able to feast on vegetable fritters in order to satisfy her desires, but of course she did not come to hate the Supreme Being because of this. Furthermore, she was given permission to eat one of the human wrists which had been severed during the healing experiments, taken from a man who had been nabbed from a random village. She thought of this as a personal sign of great kindness from Ainz-sama.
For Entoma who had been restraining herself all along, the elite humans in front of her were food of the highest quality. She could not simply discard them without taking a single bite first!
The two persons who were bathed in Entoma’s ravenous gaze could not help but shudder. This was not the timid reaction of facing a powerful enemy’s murderous intent, but rather the naturally-occurring psychological aversion of being seen as a living creature’s predatorial target. And this made them shiver involuntarily.
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!”
Her high-pitched screech was as fast as the sound of a snapping styrofoam board. This was the first time that Entoma had initiated an attack since the beginning of the battle. As a predator in the act of capturing her prey, she charged directly at an incredibly fast speed.
She used the insect shield to block six consecutively launched kunai, and drew close to her targets.