Loopshard

Beck and Adam looked up at the towering mantis. Her body looked like it was made from green leaves, and it was clear she was quite adept at camouflage, especially since she had some way of making her blood melody barely audible to Adam’s ears.

“I knew there had to be a Mantis vendor!” Beck exclaimed. “The Wandering Forest has a lot of these guys, so I was confused why there weren’t any on the island. It all makes sense now.”

The Wandering Forest was the twelfth Stage according to what Emelia had told Adam. It had a lot of insect humanoids and they were supposedly quite difficult to defeat, even for her. She’d especially warned him about the Weaponmasters, and said they could be identified by the badge they wore.

The kind of badge that was pinned to the chest of the mantis in front of them.

“Are you a Weaponmaster?” Adam asked her, his eyes locked on the bronze symbol of a blade on top of a circle fastened to her green carapace.

“Not many respect that title anymore,” she replied. “But you are correct. My name is Tisa and my duty on Interim Island is to reward those who obtain Victory Pearls. I would much prefer to bring my own blades to bear on those who visit me, in order to test their mettle, but I was told that this is not accepted. It is a shame. I believe it might be entertaining to take on both of you at once. You might even last a couple of minutes.”

“Have you fought a Weaponmaster in the Wandering Forest?” Adam asked Beck, trying to ignore the fact that Tisa had openly said she’d be able to take them both on and win.

He nodded. “Sort of, I managed to hit one during a duel, then it congratulated me and vanished.”

“To strike one of our order during a duel is no small feat,” Tisa commented. Her triangular head tilted and she chittered in irritation. “It seems the ruler of this floating land does not like me to comment about our order and places you have yet to visit.”