Chapter 197: Stone Mantis
The gray streak vanished from sight. Adam’s eyes scanned the chaotic tangle of the forest, and he spotted it. The Stone Mantis was a blur of motion, leaping from one distant tree to another with a speed that was simply astounding for its size. A faint smile touched Adam’s lips. He had been getting bored.
"It seems this won’t be so easy after all," he murmured to the silent woods.
In the next instant, he was gone. Adam unleashed his own speed, becoming a shadow that flowed through the forest. He pushed off the ground, his body light, and began his own deadly dance across the treetops.
He leaped from one thick branch to the next, his movements fluid and precise, a stark contrast to the Mantis’s frantic, desperate flight. The forest became a three-dimensional chessboard, and he was closing the distance with every powerful stride.
Despite its small size, the creature’s stamina was incredible. But Adam’s was limitless. He landed silently on a branch directly behind the Mantis, his presence a sudden, suffocating pressure.
The creature sensed him. It reacted not with another burst of speed, but with an act of sheer, desperate aggression. It leaped onto the trunk of a massive tree directly ahead, its six sharp legs digging deep into the bark like pitons.
With a guttural, grinding sound, it twisted its entire body, using its anchored position to wrench the colossal tree straight from the earth.
Adam was already in mid-air, leaping from the branch he had just landed on, his trajectory aimed for where the Mantis had been. He watched, suspended in the air for a fraction of a second, as the creature held the tree aloft.
He was shocked. The raw, impossible strength was breathtaking. But the Mantis wasn’t finished. With a violent heave, it flung the tree at him.
The world seemed to slow down. The spinning missile of wood, roots, and leaves filled his vision, hurtling towards him with terrifying velocity. Adam reacted with pure instinct.
His hand snapped to his sword. The blade left its sheath with a whisper of steel, and in the same fluid motion, he swung it in a clean arc. A brilliant white flash erupted from the blade, a crescent of pure energy that shot forward. It struck the tree trunk dead center, and with a sound like a thunderclap, sliced it perfectly in two.
Adam’s feet touched down on one of the falling halves. He used its momentum as a springboard, launching himself towards the next tree and landing with perfect balance. He looked up, his eyes narrowing, searching for his target. His jaw tightened. The Mantis had used the brief moment to create more weapons. Three, no, four more trees were already airborne, tumbling through the air towards him.