IMPERIUM INSECTUM

“You're getting better.”

Flame boiled in my throat as a burst of fire was hurled towards her. Her eyes glanced at the flame immediately, and on cue, a small pulse of Null mana appeared, erasing it from existence.

“No thanks to you....” the insect queen snapped.

A small chuckle bubbled in me. Always proud, as I should expect. Even when your nearly dead mother, your judgment is still spot on; however, are you certain she can do it? Can she deal with those 3, including THAT ONE? The potential is there, no doubt, but it's still such an enormous task. To bet it all on one person is- My eyes snapped towards her just in time to see 3 arrows made of Null mana flying towards me.

“Cheeky little fly, aren't you?” Null mana drenched my wings as I turned to the side and swatted the arrows away.

“A spell that weak won't help you against me”, the fly grunted as she gently landed on the ground. Her form had improved tremendously. Before, her bow was a crude shape that shot off mana wildly, but now. It was a neat, ornate black bow that fit nicely in her hands. She even made a quiver that rests on her back. All this and everything else she's learned in such a short time. I guess all she was missing was a good teacher. Though she probably doesn’t see it that way……

“Hey dragon! Are you done posturing yet? What's next? If we're done, let me outta here already!” I glared down at her in silence. She rolled her eyes and sat down cross-legged. Moments later, a thick black miasma enveloped her body. Even now, she's improving. One more test. Can she bring it all together?

Diva pov:

Dammit, I thought that would get him. But I guess something like that would be too easy for him. I need to get out of here soon. I don’t know how long it's been, but I can't stay here any longer. Though I can't say being here was a waste of time. My understanding of my magic and mana has expanded significantly. There are things I can do now that I couldn’t even think about doing not that long ago. Annoyingly, the person I have to thank for that is this stupid dragon.

I glared up at the dragon, who did the same to me.

“You’ve done well”, its voice boomed. I paused at the dragon's sudden praise.

“What's with the praise. You don’t seem like the sort to do such a thing,”  I replied. The dragon huffed as it turned its head away.

“I think we move on to the second stage of your training.” The dragon said glating into the distance.

“And what would that be?”

“You'll see….”

Suddenly, the same weakness as before wafted over me again. Dammit, what's he up to now?! And does he have to knock me out every ti-

Some time later….

I snapped awake. My body ached as I found myself standing in an unfamiliar forest.

“Where am I?”

“in the same training space. I've just changed the scenery a little bit,” The dragon's voice echoed. I looked around but couldn’t see any signs of him anywhere.

“This is the next stage of your training. Look to the right,” I sighed as I turned. Suddenly, a bright blue beacon shot out from the ground.

“Your goal is to arrive at the beacon alive. It's around 2 miles from your location.”

“Let me guess, this isn’t as simple as it looks.”

“Of course…. You'll find out on the way. However, there is one ground rule. No flying. If you fly, it's an instant fail.”

I rolled my eyes and started moving towards the beacon. In no time, I was enveloped in dense, thick foliage. Nothing new there, I guess. Thankfully, my passive night vision allows me to see perfectly well in the dark. So navigating the woodland isn't a problem. Seriously, what does that oaf of a dragon hope to achieve with this exercise?

I leapt over a small rock and kept walking. What does he hope to achieve with this exercise anyway? What? Does he think my navigational skills are terrible now? How annoying. If he insists on wasting my time, the least I can do is practice what I've learnt. I closed my eyes and started to channel my mana. A technique the stupid dragon taught me was a way to use my mana as a 6^th sense. By channelling and forcing mana out of my body, I can use it to sense things around me and use it like some magical Radar. This, mixed with my already heightened senses, makes it easy to find anything or anyone near me, for example, the 3 creatures approaching me from the right.

I stopped. Now what do we do? Do I ignore them and power on to the objective? Set up an ambush or-

*gruarghhhh*

A guttural moan hit my ears. They're here. That was quicker than it thought. I turned to face them and was met with 3 writhing black masses. Their bodies imitated those of humans, but I assure you, they didn’t look anything but. Thick tendrils of black matter undulated and moved. Their bodies oozed and dripped black fluid onto the ground and the sound. The creatures made a slimy, grotesque sound that even made me want to vomit.

“What the hell are these?”

“What they are isn't important. How you defeat it is” The dragon's voice boomed again. I guess I'm not getting much from him.

“No matter. Whatever they are, I'll cut them down.”

My legs tensed and my tail poised as I lunged forward. The Faceless (a name I've just given them now) didn’t even have time to react as I charged straight into the centre of the group and launched my pincers and tails into their chests with a decisive move. The three faceless went numb as they fell easily to the ground.

“Is this the so-called threat I'm gonna have to deal with? I'm not impressed, dragon”

I turned and headed towards the beacon. I took several steps before a weird noise made me pause. I looked back towards the bodies. Black strands of matter moved and twisted around the wound I made. In a moment, the wound was gone, and life surged into the creature once again.

“tenacious aren’t we….” Before the creatures could fully stand, I moved and quickly closed the gap.

“I guess I'll just have to shred you to pieces, won't I?” My claws lashed out violently, severing limbs with ease. I grabbed the arm of one of the faceless and, with one swift pull, dismembered it from its main body. And threw it to the side as the arm flew in, undulated, and pulsed out of nowhere, several black strands shot back towards the faceless, and the arm zipped back towards it.

<that’s interesting…..>

I swiftly spun my body. My claws easily arving through their necks and sending their heads spinning.

<Now then….Can you regrow from that?> As soon as the words left my mouth, black tendrils shot out from there, still airborne, heads back towards their bodies. Dammit.

I shot backwards away from the group of faceless.

“Okay, I'll admit it, dragon. There is more to these guys than what appears.”

*gruarghhhh*

My head snapped around to see 5 more faceless approaching me.

“Ahhh….I see. So that’s what it's gonna be like”

An unrelenting horde of unkillable monsters hounded me. Fairplay dragon, unoriginal, but fairplay. But he has forgotten one thing. I felt my hind legs tense as I turned to face the beacon. There may be more of them than me, but I have one thing on my side that they don’t…. SPEED!

I shot forward like a bullet, crossing several meters in a matter of moments.

“Very cowardly insect queen”, the dragon boomed.

“My goal is to reach the beacon, not waste my time fighting fodder”

“You underestimate the fodder.” The dragon replied. Suddenly, I felt my feet start to get heavy. I looked down towards see black strands crawling their way up my legs.

“How bothersome….”

I ground to a half. Something feels off. I  focused on the ground; gone was the grass and mud. Instead, the ground pulsed and undulated similarly to the faceless.

“I see. So the entire ground is faceless.”

The faceless goop slowly wormed its way up my body. I guess staying on land isn't an option. I shot off the ground and onto a nearby tree branch. This is bothersome. I can't use the ground, and I can't fly. And to add to my other problems.....

I looked down towards my feet, the black goop of the faceless stuck to my body like glue, slowly but surely crawling up my body.

“troublesome.”

I looked down towards the ground and noticed the black goop latch onto the tree I was standing on and slowly started climbing it. How persistent.

“So I can't outrun it. I can't slow it down, and no matter how hard I hit or how fast I slice it, it won't ever go away. This is a very iron-clad enemy you're making me fight.”

The black goo had crawled past my knees and was making its way past my thighs at this rate; I'll be covered in the stuff.

I quickly stood up. “This is very-“ My vision went blurry, and weakness washed over my body as I dropped to my knees. What the hell was that? I looked back towards the goop. Its speed had increased quickly, reaching my pelvis in record time. As it moved, I felt my body get weaker and weaker. Is it draining my stamina???

“Hahaha, dragon, you’ve really put me in a serious position, haven't you. Dammit….”

I looked around, hoping for a solution, but nothing came to mind except one. But annoyingly, it means playing the dragon's stupid game.

“Fine dragon…. I'll play this stupid game your way….”

I closed my eyes and focused mana on my legs. “Purge” The air shuddered for a moment before suddenly the black goop burst from my body in tiny fragments. Tiny fragments that slowly disappeared into nothing.

“I wondered how long you were gonna play dumb for.”

“I wasn’t playing dumb. I  just didn’t want to play your game.”

“Yet here you are….”

“Shut up, dragon and watch. You wanna see how much I've learned, let me show you…..”

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