Fifteen minutes after the crew stepped back into the maze, it finally happened. So far, the hunters hadn’t been attacked while crossing the warren of trails connecting the clearings, but Edge had known that it was only a matter of time.

  When the ambush occurred, the monsters were on top of them before anyone knew what was happening. Even Tessa hadn’t sensed them coming. One second, the zone was silent as a tomb, and the next the buzzing of oversized wings filled the air. He cried out to warn the others, but the battle had already begun.

  The creatures were smaller than the other monsters the crew had encountered inside the Savage Garden, but they were huge compared to ordinary insects. They looked like neon yellow mosquitoes with foot and a half wingspans, glossy bodies, and glowing green eyes.

  There were at least twenty of the awful things divebombing the team from all sides. Edge started chopping as fast as he could, but none of his attacks connected. It would have been a genuine crisis if the mosquitoes were attacking as a unit. But it soon became clear that they weren’t working together—just hunting the same prey while using the others as a distraction.

  He managed to skewer one of the bugs with a thrust of his naginata while the crew struggled to defend themselves, doing their best to keep the foul creatures from landing on them. But there were at least three monsters coming for each hunter at any given moment. Whenever he turned to strike at one, two more attacked from his blind side.

  Despite his best efforts, Edge felt pain blossom along his thigh, followed by a strange sucking sensation. He slapped the winged monster away, but its abdomen was already swollen with blood, changing from gold to crimson as it took to the air.

  The late-stage-one bugs were the weakest monsters he’d seen so far, but they went to work fast. One or two bites would only impede him a little. But if he took too many, the mosquitoes were going to drain him dry. Regeneration was hard at work, coaxing his marrow to produce more red cells, but the skill restored lost blood far slower than it repaired sundered tissue.

  Making a bad situation worse, the bloodsuckers’ probosces were reinforced by a skill that effortlessly penetrated his garax-leather armor. Edge blocked several bites by Hardening his body, but since the mosquitoes were so stealthy, he had a hard time spotting them before it was too late. Fortunately, they couldn’t keep their stealth skill running while attacking, or defending would have been impossible.

  “I can’t track their positions with the foliage in the way,” Tessa reported while bisecting a monstrous insect with her silver sword. “We need to make it to a clearing or they’re going to whittle us down before we kill them all.”

  “Run,” Fox ordered. “But keep your wits about you. If we make a wrong turn, we’re going to run into something even worse. Focus on defense and if you see a bug land on the person in front of you, slap it off as fast as you can.”

  The crew sprinted for the closest clearing and darted into the open area two minutes later. By now, everyone had taken several bites—enough to feel the blood loss but not significantly weaken them. Fortunately, the mosquitoes didn’t seem to be venomous and specialized in hit and run tactics rather than mounting a direct assault.

  When the flock of buzzing bloodsuckers followed them into the glade, Edge reached into his belt pouch and withdrew one of Violet’s gas grenades. He warned everyone to hold their breath and close their eyes, then threw it at the ground by his feet. The device activated with a hiss a heartbeat later. A thick green cloud engulfed the crew, which irritated his skin but didn’t do any lasting damage. By the time the gas dissipated 30 seconds later, the monsters were gone.

  “That was unpleasant.” Snake sighed. “I doubt that we’ve seen the last of them. You don’t have any skills that see them coming, Tessa?”

  “I’ll try boosting the output of Sense Monster, but even then, it won’t give much warning. Other than their penetrating proboscis, their entire skillset is geared toward stealth. I don’t think there are many of those flocks in here, or we would have run into them already. It would be ideal if we can come up with a way to kill them, rather than having to remain on guard the entire time we are in this zone.”

  Tessa’s report made Edge’s ears prick up. There was a chance that the monsters were using some variant of Conceal, and he was still sitting on all three charges of Extraction regardless. Thus, he was the only person who was pleased when the monsters attacked the crew again, shortly after setting foot onto the path leading toward the dungeon’s entrance.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The moment that he heard the humming of wings, he reached out and snatched the closest monster out of the air. He Hardened his wrist when it turned to bite him, then drove its body into the nearest tree, crushing but not quite killing it.

  He turned his back to the other hunters, who were busy dealing with their own opponents, then willed Extraction to activate. Since the black chains only had to extend a few inches to reach their target, it should be safe enough to use under the circumstances.

  His mind followed the living links as they entered the mosquito’s core. This was his third time viewing a monster’s central chamber, and he was curious to discover what it held. Just like what had happened with the cancerous blightlings, Edge cast his gaze across a bizarre alien landscape that didn’t seem to be anywhere on Ord.

  He was standing in a field of black grass. Or am I? When he took a closer look, he decided that grass wasn’t really the right word. Each stalk was writhing and grasping, like tiny versions of the tentacle trees he had seen before.

  The terrain was interspersed with shallow pools of murky green water—perfect breeding grounds for mosquito-like creatures. Although the air was free of the strange ashfall that had permeated the blightlings’ cores, there was still a pervasive sense of wrongness. An unsettling otherness he instinctively understood was dangerous to non-monstrous life. He was already starting to feel ill, so he decided to steal a skill as quickly as possible and get out before it grew worse.

  One of the skills was the power that strengthened the monster’s proboscis. It was only Common and barely rank two, so it was out of the running. But he was pleasantly surprised by his other options. Although he couldn’t see it, the black chains were telling him that there was a stealth skill in here. Better still, it was a copy of one that Edge already had, Conceal. The mosquito’s version was rank three and specialized to work while flying, but it was perfect fuel for his own advancement.

  The other skill that he was interested in was an Uncommon rank one, and it was perfectly-suited for a jungle environment. He could only get a vague sense of the details without acquiring a taste, but he was certain that it was what had let the bloodsuckers find the crew so easily. Since he was hoping to Extract three skills from the winged monsters and spotting them coming would help him do it, he decided to steal it first.

  The power took the form of a floating eyeball with a penetrating stare. It wasn’t geared toward combat, and the chains had no problem pulling it free from the monster’s core. Edge snapped back into his own skin a few seconds later, and the animate links tossed the eye into his mouth.

  Like many of the skills he’d stolen, the taste conveyed concepts more than flavor. He had an impression of gazing across the jungle, without the prolific plants blocking his view. Of unerringly finding his prey, no matter where they were hiding.

  When he swallowed the pureed power and it entered his core, he obtained a complete understanding of what it did. It was a skill that would let him see through plants like they were made of clear crystal, rather than opaque matter.

  You have extracted the skill: Penetrate Foliage

  (Uncommon, Rank 1).

  Digestion is complete.

  Would you like to slot Penetrate Foliage now?

  Since the skill seemed perfect for hunting in the Savage Garden, but would have limited utility in other environments, Edge decided to place it in his Auxiliary Skill Slot, which took the form a terrarium sitting in his skill garden. It was empty right now, since he had Absorbed Sense Fruit while ranking up Regeneration. After he confirmed his intentions, the eyeball floated into the glass box and entered a dormant state—ready to use when he filtered mana through it.

  When he left his core, he went ahead and gave his new skill a try while the crew ran for the nearest glade. The instant that Penetrate Foliage was active, all the trees and ferns faded away. He could still see a vague impression of their borders, but he could peer straight through the overgrowth like he had X-ray vision. The effect reminded him of a sophisticated AR overlay, and just as he had hoped, it was ideal for fighting in this environment.

  Penetrate Foliage didn’t let Edge directly counter the mosquitoes’ Conceal. But since they only activated the skill during their final approach, he could spot them coming before they turned it on, helping him anticipate their strikes. He could also see small animals and more stage-one monsters hiding in the verdant growth, which were too weak to claim even the smallest glade.

  When they reached the next clearing, Jumo used a poison-gas grenade to drive the mosquitoes back, leaving the man with one more in his kit. I’ll have to take Violet out on the town when we get back to thank her. These things are really coming in handy.

  By now, the crew was about halfway through the maze. The hunters had taken less bites this time around, but the winged monsters were annoying and dangerous. In addition to draining their blood, the bugs were a massive distraction, leaving the team vulnerable to threats from other quarters.

  Although the others were frustrated by the buzzing bloodsuckers, Edge didn’t mind. He needed to steal two more skills, and they were about to be delivered to his door.