BXBX NOVEL Chapter 51 Guardian Pathway
"Monster attack!" A scream resounded in the dead of the night as the sounds of metal hitting something resounded.
"Danger…" Xuna woke up with a start, leaping out through the window as she rolled on the ground, summoning her rocket to blast off towards the source of the sound.
Suddenly, followed by a buzzing sound, a scorpion tail lashed at her, intending to pierce her neck with its stinger.
Of course, Xuna sensed the attack, causing her rocket to unleash a stronger thrust to keep the tail at bay as she glared at the Hoil Bee hovering nearby, "So, you\'re Luncress\' creation."
She began to fall, having turned her rocket into the assault state as she sprayed dozens of bullets into the opponent, poking holes easily through its hide, targeting the locations that weren\'t protected by the exoskeleton.
Some of the bullets that landed on the exoskeleton only formed dents but didn\'t draw out any blood, causing Xuna to be surprised, \'My bullets pack a punch. But even they failed to fully penetrate its armour?\'
Her assault mode was to deal with multiple enemies, so its fire power wasn\'t concentrated enough. But even they were able to penetrate trees that were at least a couple of feet thick, relaying the sturdiness of the Hoil Bee\'s exoskeleton armour.
And they were still in the development phase as Xuna observed that the layer of exoskeleton on the Hoil Bee before her was somewhat greater than that on the corpse that she checked before.
This meant that in due time, the Hoil Bees would finish evolving completely, covered completely by the exoskeleton armour, turning them into frightening creatures.
"Hmph!" Snorting in response, Xuna used the rocket to appear behind the injured Hoil Bee, using her rocket as a spear to pierce through the opponent\'s hide as the thrust it produced spiked rapidly, slamming the Hoil Bee into the ground.
Boom!
Its body was crushed by the impact, forming a large crater as the impact sound was akin to a thunder, waking up all the villagers.
As they rushed out of their homes in a hurry, Xuna had already killed the second Hoil Bee, having sniped it from afar.
\'Where\'s the third?\' She frowned, looking around for she had heard the buzzing sounds of three at the start when she woke up from her sleep.
"Xuna! It\'s here!" Chief Yubak\'s shouts resounded through the village as he rushed out of his home, pointing at their shed, "It\'s eating one of our horses."
"What? The horses? Why?" Xuna wasn\'t able to understand. After all, it seemed the objective of the scouts this time seemed to be capturing the villagers, for that was why the first two had targeted people to kill and transport.
But, Xuna had intervened, killing them before they succeeded.
Surprisingly, the third Hoil Bee entered the shed of the Village Head to gorge on the horses instead?
\'No, this isn\'t good.\' Xuna thought, hurrying as she noticed the luck of the third Hoil Bee gradually condensing into a brick as the number of bricks split from one to two and two to four, increasing in number as they seemed to be constructing a pillar.
\'Its Luck is building up at an alarming pace…\' It was just now that a thought hit her, causing her to realise that she had stored her bag of supplies in the shed, including the five eyed scorpion.
Of course, the Hoil Bee wasn\'t just eating the horses. Its first target had been the five eyed scorpion. And since it too possessed the powers of the scorpion, it was able to actually devour the scorpion and digest its gains.
The scorpion\'s poison was pretty potent, capable of killing the victims in a matter of minutes. But unfortunately for Xuna, the supplies in the bag also contained the leaves that turned the scorpion venom into a beneficial serum that reinforced her body and strengthened her.
And now, after the Hoil Bee devoured the five eyed scorpion, including all the supplies in her bag, it had obtained all the benefits that she had procured for future use, allowing its strength to grow rapidly as it was evolving.
At first, Xuna was about to snipe it. Considering the power her sniper rifle had, shattering the Hoil Bee\'s head was an easy feat.
But upon observing the changes to its luck, Xuna changed her mind, whispering, "Master, is that…?"
"Yep, it\'s harnessing this world\'s essence into itself to evolve rapidly. I\'m curious to see how this would develop too." Rhizen\'s voice resounded in her ear.
"Master, I have a plan." Xuna said, observing that the Hoil Bee seemed to have forgotten about everything else as it continued to munch on a horse, providing its body the much-needed nutrients to sate the evolution that it was experiencing currently.
Upon hearing what she had to say, Rhizen was shocked before chuckling in response, "I\'ll leave it to you. Do what you feel is right."
"As your master, I\'ll support you. After all, you have a better understanding of your world than an outsider like me."
"Thank you," Xuna smiled in response as she transformed into her Klock, turning small as she crawled on the ground, moving awkwardly as after ten minutes, it had appeared behind the Hoil Bee, watching its evolution.
The exoskeleton armour covering its body had shattered into pieces, collapsing to the ground as a new armour was growing underneath. Its scythe-like hands had moved over to the side, elongating further as the joints morphed, now becoming similar to chain blades.
Its wings shifted further back, resulting in short burst of flight that was faster as compared to before, sacrificing long time flight in response. But thanks to its body modifications, its stamina was less wasted, allowing to travel efficiently now as compared to before.
The essence of the world seeped into it as the corruption mixed with it, changing nonstop as the Hoil Bee even seemed to have gained some sentience in response.
The villagers were about to converge upon the shed when Rhizen appeared in his human form, erecting a cage of feathers to prevent any outside interference, watching the Hoil Bee\'s luck take the shape of a pillar connecting heaven and earth.
\'As I suspected, it\'s the natives that are able to shape the world the best. No matter how much we appear to be saviours, to the native worlds, we are no different to Apocalypse. The only reason we gained support in the first three worlds was to use our power to resist Apocalypse better.\' Rhizen nodded, gaining an enlightenment, \'It\'s like all the worlds are alive.\'
The Hoil Bee finally finished its evolution after two hours. But, just when it was about to break its state of reverie thanks to nonstop evolution, the Klock manifested behind it, growing in size to fill up the entire shed.
All ten heads surrounded it, facing it as their mouths opened, unleashing the greyish-blue petrifying beam that slammed into the Hoil Bee.
The Hoil Bee shrieked in response as its body turned into stone immediately. But shockingly, it wasn\'t dead, evident by the pillar of luck that had yet to dissipate.
The Klock continued to unleash its petrifying beam for a good couple of minutes, stopping only when Xuna noticed a greyish-blue layer covering the luck pillar too.
"Master, it\'s done." Xuna reverted to her human form, smiling contently as she felt a tad weak, observing that a majority of her Coincidental Luck had been expended in the short two minutes.
Boom!
Only Rhizen and Xuna that were able to observe the world of luck noticed an ethereal bubble forming at the tip of the luck pillar as a mysterious blob of energy appeared there.
At first, it was the corruption, but gradually, it transformed into Nacre, resulting in the blob transforming into the Hoil Bee. But unlike before, it now grew a horn, signifying that it had become a Mutated Beast.
Rhizen observed the statue, noticing that the corruption within had been transformed into Nacre by the essence of the world thanks to Xuna\'s interference. After all, she had been modified first by the world essence.
So, she used that signature to affect the internal mechanism of the Hoil Bee, turning it from a monster into the first Mutated Beast of her world.
And strangely, she opened a new pathway for the power system that relied upon Nacre as Xuna patted the Hoil Bee statue that spanned a height of two metres, closing her eyes as she felt the changes, "Master, can you feel this?"
"Yeah, but not as clearly as you. Thanks to the world\'s essence in you, the connection you share with them is stronger." Rhizen said.
"Is this the Beast Armoury that you talked about?" She asked next.
"It doesn\'t feel like that." Rhizen frowned as he stared at the bubble that appeared at the top of the luck pillar, "There\'s just one here. But it doesn\'t seem like it could be brought out from there."
Xuna thought for a moment, using uprooting a large enough tree from nearby that she planted in the centre of the village, startling the villagers. She then cut off its foliage, watching tree sap ooze out from the exposed trunk.
She then took the Hoil Bee statue and stabbed it in the centre of the tree trunk, watching the tree sap touch the statue before it was surprisingly absorbed into it.
Xuna smiled as she observed the essence of the world flowing into the roots before converging from the cut section of the trunk, seeping into the statue embedded in its centre.
After thinking for a moment, Xuna unleashed her petrifying beam onto the tree trunk, covering it with a greyish-blue layer, stopping only after the entire tree, including its roots had been turned the same.
And, this actually hastened the rate of the world\'s essence seeping into the statue, causing the Hoil Bee within the bubble at the top of the luck tower to grow stronger.
Xuna then stared at the crowd of villagers, pointing at Yihan, "Come here. There\'s something I wish to experiment with."
"Sure," Yihan smiled, walking towards her when his father, Chief Yubak held him back.
"Son, it\'s dangerous."
"I\'ll be fine, dad." Yihan extricated himself from his father\'s hold, muttering as he walked towards the statue, following her orders as he pricked his finger and dripped a drop of his blood on the statue, "To believe in something, one must take a leap of faith."
"And, I\'ll be that foolish individual."