Chapter 325: The Red Locust Bee Hive System
The system notification had barely finished announcing that the Red Locust Spirit had successfully claimed Marcus as its master when the attacks came crashing in from the Bloodthirsty Hawk King and the Boar King.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A chain of violent impacts struck almost at once. The Hawk King’s raging Blood Wind Fury Spin and the Boar King’s brutal Earth Spike Eruption hit him together.
In an instant, the wind force from the Blood Wind Fury Spin locked his body in place, leaving him unable to move. At the same moment, jagged stone pillars blasted upward from beneath him and smashed into him hard enough to launch him into the air.
He flew like a kite with its string cut.
Normally, either one of those attacks would have been more than enough to kill him. Taking both ultimate moves at the same time should have meant certain death.
But the Red Locust Spirit had already acknowledged him. His entire body was wrapped in the red glow radiating from the spirit, just as it had been when the Peach Blossom Spirit accepted him before. He was in a temporary invincible defense state.
So although the two attacks looked spectacular and sent him hurtling through the air, they dealt absolutely no damage.
’Damn.’
He had not expected those two bosses to react so quickly or attack so ruthlessly. Worse, the three Red Locust Bee Kings had not turned on the Bloodthirsty Hawk King and the Boar King at all. Instead, they had joined them and came roaring after Marcus together.
"Not fair!"
Grinding his teeth, Marcus fought to regain control of his spinning body. He reached for the Pure Mist Cloud Cluster, ready to vanish.
"I am a..."
He was just about to shout the final word and trigger the skill, but before he could steady himself, he slammed into something.
CRACK!
The sound was deafening. Marcus and his divine mount, Nightmare Dragon Steed, crashed straight into a beehive hanging from the Red Locust Tree King, striking the narrow point where the hive connected to the branch.
The hive was the size of a small house.
It snapped free instantly.
The collision was so fierce it nearly knocked him unconscious. Marcus was certain of one thing: if he had not still been protected by the spirit’s invincible state, that impact alone would have killed him.
Though unharmed, his already disastrous flight path became even worse. His hands jerked violently, and the Pure Mist Cloud Cluster slipped from his grip and tumbled away.
’Seriously?’
This was officially the most humiliating moment of his life.
As the enormous hive fell beside him, Marcus reached out with both hands and tried to brace himself against it, hoping to steady both his body and Blackie.
Then something impossible happened.
The instant his palms touched the Red Locust Bee hive, the red glow inside him spread outward like something alive. It crawled across the surface of the giant structure in streaks of crimson light, wrapping around it in seconds.
From a distance, the energy looked like a vast red net binding the falling hive.
Then the hive began to shrink fast.
A system notification appeared.
Ding!
[Player Stonehaven. The Red Locust Bee Hive, formed from Red Locust blossoms, is no longer protected by its guardians. Influenced by the red glow and energy of the Red Locust Spirit within you, you are gradually taking control of it.]
"What?"
Marcus could not stop himself from blurting it out as the hive rapidly shrank in his hands.
This was actually happening. Then he shouted again, for a very different reason.
Behind him, the Bloodthirsty Hawk King and the Boar King had already launched a second wave of attacks.
The Hawk King’s Blood Wind Fury Spin tore toward him once more. Above his head, two huge boulders dropped from the sky, the Boar King’s Flying Stone Dance.
At the same time, the three Red Locust Bee Kings lashed their venomous tails and unleashed a dense storm of poison needles. Seeing their hive under attack, every Red Locust Bee in the grove rose into the air and swarmed toward him in a black buzzing cloud.
Even knowing he was still invincible, the sheer hostility of it all made his skin crawl.
"Shrink faster!"
He could only pray. And somehow, it listened.
Under the force of his will, the hive shrank rapidly until it was no bigger than an ordinary lantern. Another notification followed at once.
Ding!
[Congratulations, player Stonehaven. Influenced by the Red Locust Spirit within you, you have successfully acquired the masterless object: Red Locust Bee Hive.]
’Nice.’
According to the system, the hive now belonged to him. Then, without warning, the lantern-sized hive in his palms began devouring the red glow around his body.
He saw it clearly. Streams of crimson energy poured from his hands into the hive like water rushing into a drain. The hive brightened at once, glowing like a blood-red lantern and pulsing with fierce light.
’What the hell was this thing doing?’
He had no time to think. The Hawk King and Boar King’s attacks were almost on top of him now. All he could do was hope the strange hive was not about to get him killed.
Then everything changed again.
Just before the attacks landed, a thin red mist appeared around him, like the haze released by Red Locust flowers. Carried on swirling crimson petals, the mist condensed into a red energy barrier that spread outward from his body and enclosed him in an instant.
The barrier expanded at terrifying speed. The moment it met the incoming attacks, the results were immediate.
The two giant boulders from the Golden Boar King struck the barrier and bounced away like rubber balls, flying clear out of the grove.
The red cyclone of the Bloodthirsty Hawk King touched the smooth surface, spun violently for a second, then broke apart into nothing.
The barrier did not stop there. Still expanding, it slammed into both bosses.
BAM! BAM!
Heavy impacts rang out one after another as the Hawk King and Boar King were hurled backward like toys, sent flying against their will.
Marcus stared. That barrier was absurdly powerful. Of course, it was not his doing.
Less than five meters away, the Thousand-Year Blood Spirit Cicada and its swarm were producing it through their piercing sonic chants.
Through the Red Locust Spirit inside him, Marcus could sense the process clearly. The cicadas were using sound waves to stir and resonate with the vast energy accumulated in the Red Locust flowers throughout the grove, power that had built up over a thousand years.
Because the Red Locust Spirit now resided within him, the barrier did not reject Marcus the way it had the Hawk King and Boar King.
’Amazing.’
The Thousand-Year Blood Spirit Cicada truly deserved its name. And more importantly, it had not fled.
Marcus’s heart began to race. He was less than five meters from the creature, yet it remained in place.
Maybe the Red Locust Spirit inside him was masking his presence. Maybe the cicada was too focused on maintaining the sealing barrier to notice him.
Either way, it was still there. Greed flashed through his mind, he wanted to capture it.
But there was one serious problem.
The red glow in his hands continued pouring into the hive, and his body remained locked in place, unable to move.
’This is bad.’
Then the poison needles arrived.
BAM BAM BAM BAM!
A barrage of impacts hammered into him as every needle struck true. Marcus froze for half a heartbeat.
Then realized he was still alive.
Even though the red glow around his body was being drained into the hive, the protective aura around him had not weakened at all. He was still inside the invincible defense state.
So the Bee Kings’ attacks had done nothing.
Because of the Red Locust Spirit within him, the red sealing barrier also ignored Marcus entirely. Strangely enough, it ignored the Red Locust Bees as well.
The barrier had repelled the Hawk King and Boar King’s attacks, yet the poison needles from the Bee Kings passed through it without resistance. The bees themselves could also move through it freely as they charged straight toward him.
The three Bee Kings were already preparing another volley, then Marcus noticed something else.
The rabbit.
That bizarre rabbit monster was inside the barrier too. It had not been repelled in the slightest.
Now it was less than thirty meters away. After shaking off the outer swarm of bees and seeing no immediate threat, it quickly stuffed the half-meter-long white flower in its paws into the white pouch on its chest.
Then it accelerated sharply and bounded straight toward Marcus.
No mystery there. He had stolen the Red Locust Spirit, and the rabbit wanted payback.
’Great.’
The rabbit was coming. The bees were coming. The Bee Kings were charging another attack. And Marcus, trapped in the middle of it all, still could not move.
’This is infuriating.’
If he could not break free, then in three seconds, when the invincible defense state ended, the rabbit and the Bee Kings were going to tear him apart.