I’m not Goblin Slayer Chapter 087

The praying mantis man was definitely the strongest enemy this team had encountered in the dungeon, and possibly even in their entire adventuring career.

In the past few days, the overly smooth dungeon exploration had inadvertently caused the team members to develop a sense of complacency and carelessness. Even Lawrence, despite his verbal reminders, felt that there wouldn’t be too many surprises on this dungeon trip due to force of habit.

Until the praying mantis man appeared and delivered a heavy blow.

Fortunately, although the team members were intimidated by the praying mantis man’s aura, they weren’t greenhorns fresh out of the woods. They quickly adjusted their mental state.

The stronger the enemy they faced, the more they needed to maintain their composure.

Adrian, the priest apprentice, helped the injured Liam to the back of the team, using a life-sustaining spell to stabilize his internal injuries, and at the same time, took out a small red potion bottle from his satchel.

This was a basic healing potion, capable of providing life energy to injured adventurers in a short amount of time, and it was also one of the important spoils of war obtained from previous dungeon explorations.

Each small bottle cost at least 30 silver coins.

Adrian poured the healing potion into Liam’s mouth. Not long after, a faint blush slowly appeared on Liam’s pale cheeks.

Adrian breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

He knew the effect of the life-sustaining spell combined with the healing potion; Liam should no longer be in life-threatening danger.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield ahead.

The praying mantis man, realizing the threat posed by Gauss, had red light flickering in its compound eyes. Its gaze locked onto Gauss from afar, and its mouthparts continuously emitted high-pitched, piercing screeches.

It ignored everyone else.

With a sudden deep squat, it gathered strength in place, its powerful lower limbs erupting with terrifying force, and then, like a cannonball, it directly pounced on Gauss, who was standing at the end of the team!

Some of the members at the front also realized the praying mantis man’s direct target.

“Gauss! Look out!”

Throk, the half-orc, who was at the very front and originally still carefully on guard, saw the praying mantis man sweep past him at high speed. He suddenly turned around and roared at Gauss, who was at the end of the praying mantis man’s direction.

And as he roared, he also tried to pounce forward to intercept the praying mantis man.

But the speed difference between the two was too great!

He could only watch helplessly as the praying mantis man’s figure, too fast for him to react to, got further and further away.

Bianca, the ranger, took a deep breath and shot an arrow, attempting to interfere with the praying mantis man’s charge.

But the praying mantis man, moving at high speed, merely shifted its body slightly, and the arrow grazed its carapace, leaving only a faint, almost imperceptible white mark.

As for the others, they were all originally guarding against the praying mantis man’s sudden attack, so caught off guard, in these few blinks of an eye, they didn’t have the ability to timely intervene in the praying mantis man’s charge.

It was truly too fast!

When the praying mantis man arrived in front of Gauss, its speed was terrifying.

Gauss’s pupils suddenly constricted. Fortunately, long before the praying mantis man arrived, he instinctively rolled to the side.

“Clang!!”

The praying mantis man’s main forelimb, raised high like a giant scythe, slammed down fiercely on the spot where Gauss had just been standing.

Gauss scrambled to his feet.

Fortunately, he had anticipated the opponent’s attack.

Although he had the protection of Mage Armor, it was best to avoid blocking the more powerful claw attacks during such high-speed charges if possible.

Mage Armor’s protection also had its limits.

The praying mantis man’s immense destructive power, carried by its super-fast impact, large size, and exaggerated claw blades, was not something the goblins it had bullied before could inflict. Ten attacks from those green-skinned imps probably wouldn’t even equal this single blow.

Gauss quickly scrambled to his feet and retreated a few steps.

At the same time, he drew his weapon and looked up at the praying mantis man.

The praying mantis man failed to hit Gauss with one blow, its compound eyes flickered, seemingly surprised, but it immediately adjusted its posture.

Its four sharp scythe-like claws crossed in front of its body, and in the next moment, its lower limbs gathered a slight amount of power.

This was a sign of its short-distance jump. Compared to a long-distance jump, the sinking motion was smaller, took less time, but the impact force was far less terrifying than the latter.

The praying mantis man took a small leap, arriving in front of Gauss, and swung its claws down again.

“Bang!!”

The praying mantis man’s claw blade struck Gauss’s rapier, which he had blocked with in advance.

Gauss then felt a huge impact force transmit through the weapon tightly gripped in his hand. After a brief stalemate, he immediately realized that his strength was at a disadvantage.

Fortunately, his 7 points of intelligence allowed him to quickly notice some details during combat.

In a moment where the world seemed to slow down and his consciousness briefly accelerated, he caught sight of the praying mantis man’s other secondary limb viciously slashing towards his abdomen.

“Thump!”

The secondary limb struck his lower abdomen, and Mage Armor released a powerful protective field, with ripple-like fluctuations rapidly spreading across the surface of the Mage Armor.

So heavy!!

He used the force transmitted through his hand to fly backward, barely stabilizing himself in the air, rolling twice, and then standing up from the ground.

Following the praying mantis man’s force, he didn’t try to take its next hidden attack head-on.

One could only say that having multiple weapons was a good thing.

Before the praying mantis man could further attack Gauss.

Behind it, Throk charged over, his eyes bloodshot, and his pair of beast fangs grew even thicker.

For an enemy to bypass him, a warrior, and wantonly attack his teammates in the back, this was a humiliation to him!

At this moment, his already muscular upper arms swelled up as if engorged with blood, as if awakening the latent bloodline power within his body.

His thighs stomped heavily on the ground, his soles pressing tightly like springs, and his entire body leaped high into the air with the rebound force!

“Leaping Slash!”

His spine bent backward like a fully drawn stiff bow, his neck, chest, and waist tensed into a taut arc, forming an inverted crescent shape in the air.

The greatsword, raised high, brought forth a tearing roar as it cleaved fiercely towards the target ahead.

This powerful, all-out attack, even a life-for-life move, forced the praying mantis man to temporarily abandon the distant Gauss, twisting its body to block Throk’s cleave with its secondary limb.

“Clang!!”

After the loud clang of metal, sparks flew out.

Throk’s combined strike, utilizing the momentum of the impact, the skill, the gravitational potential energy of the leaping slash, and the forcibly activated bloodline power, almost reached the limit of his current attack power!

However, the physical disparity between Throk and the praying mantis man was still too great.

The praying mantis man, caught off guard, only retreated half a step after initially turning around, without enough time to fully exert its strength.

Once it stabilized its stance, its entire body’s power once again erupted through its upper limbs.

“Bang!!”

Throk’s weapon was knocked away, and he himself staggered back two steps from the immense recoil, his numb, trembling arms propped on the ground to prevent himself from falling.

“Touch of Frost.”

To the side, Lawrence’s cantrip finally hit the praying mantis man for the first time.

The blue bone hand touched the praying mantis man’s body, and a chilling undead aura continuously seeped into the praying mantis man’s body through the bone hand.

This chilling energy made it tremble a few times, and its body fell into an extremely brief state of sluggishness, preventing it from further attacking the wide-open Throk.

Gauss, who had climbed up from the ground, also seized this rare opportunity to attack, once again gripping his bone staff and casting Magic Missile.

“Magic Missile!”

Not one, but two missiles were fired in quick succession.

“Whoosh!!”

Unfortunately, perhaps the praying mantis man’s senses were too keen, or perhaps the target area of its head was too small. The first missile, on which Gauss had placed high hopes and aimed at its head, was dodged by a tilt of its head, grazing its cheek.

Fortunately, the second one, also aimed at another weak point on its abdomen, successfully hit.

Like most shelled creatures, its abdomen and respiratory spiracles were concentrated there, and to ensure body flexibility, the carapace strength was relatively lower.

Moreover, the abdominal area was larger and harder to dodge.

In addition, the praying mantis man seemed to have experienced a brief stiffness just now.

“Bang!!!”

The Magic Missile, which successfully hit the praying mantis man’s abdomen, burst forth with brilliant light.

A huge force spread out from the center of the explosion, and the resulting impact sent the two-meter-tall praying mantis man tumbling backward.

“Thump, thump, thump!”

The praying mantis man stumbled forward a few steps, barely steadying itself. On its back, in the waist area, the originally light brown waist carapace was now charred black, with yellowish-green viscous liquid oozing out. Although it hadn’t completely pierced its armor, it clearly caused it some damage.

Gauss, who had cast Magic Missiles continuously in a short time, was panting heavily.

He still had magic power, but the rapid consumption in a short period made him a little tired, and sweat kept secreting from his forehead.

Fortunately, it was all worth it; he finally inflicted some decent damage on the praying mantis man.

And just now, Gauss noticed a detail.

Just as Gauss was briefly recovering.

The praying mantis man, having regained its balance, was once again hit by an arrow shot by Bianca, the ranger, not far away.

“Thud!”

The metal arrow struck the praying mantis man’s chest plate, leaving a white mark at the point of impact.

Seeing the attack successfully hit, Bianca’s face also showed a smile.

Although it did not penetrate the enemy’s armor, as long as it could cause damage, it indicated that the battlefield situation was continuously shifting in their favor.

With their numerical advantage, they would eventually be able to slowly wear down the opponent.

Especially after Gauss successfully landed a powerful Magic Missile just now, leaving a clear wound, it directly rekindled the hope of victory in them, who had originally been somewhat disheartened.

They could win!

The praying mantis man was already approaching Bianca’s direction due to the Magic Missile.

Now, feeling that this annoying “mosquito” it had been unwilling to bother with had actually managed to attack it, it seemed to feel humiliated.

Its attention finally shifted from Gauss.

“Whoosh!”

Although it was hit in the abdomen by the Magic Missile, it didn’t lose its ability to move. Rather, its movement speed only slowed down slightly.

But for these people, it probably didn’t make much difference.

“Watch out!” Gauss, who had just regulated his breathing, saw this scene and suddenly had a bad premonition.

But he had barely spoken.

The praying mantis man had already leaped in front of Bianca.

A tall shadow enveloped his body.

Before he could react.

Its sharp, scythe-like forelimbs tore through the air, leaving a white streak, and finally slashed diagonally across Bianca’s neck.

“Slash!”

Its sharp forelimbs cut through him like a blade through tofu, meeting little resistance, creating a clean, bowl-sized wound. Blood splattered!

“Thump!”

A head, still unaware of what had happened, its eyes filled with confusion, landed heavily on the ground.

Gauss’s eyes widened, and he swallowed.

Bianca, dead?

He was no stranger to decapitation.

He had decapitated at least dozens of monsters.

But the absurd contrast of a teammate, who had been laughing and sharing food just the night before, now dismembered, flashed repeatedly before his eyes, leaving his heart unsettled for a long time.

He didn’t have much emotional attachment to Bianca; a few days had only allowed them to get to know each other initially.

But the shock of this life-and-death moment plunged him into an inexplicable surge of heart palpitations.

Life, it turned out, was so fragile.

Swallowing, he patted his cheeks, forcing himself to regain sobriety.

At the same time, he took out some jerky from his pocket.

Now was not the time for sentimentality.

“Everyone, be careful of the praying mantis man! It might be even more dangerous when injured!”

Gauss loudly reminded his teammates, then quickly stuffed food into his mouth, chewing vigorously, using his rapid digestion ability to restore magic and stamina.

His premonition was correct; the injured praying mantis man became more aggressive, deciding to first deal with some annoying weak humans present.

And its next target was Edith, the rogue apprentice.

Edith’s face was pale. Although shocked by her comrade’s death, she quickly adjusted her state.

Facing the pouncing praying mantis man, she pulled the trigger on her hand, aiming her crossbow at the praying mantis man’s abdomen and firing.

The praying mantis man noticed this and had to change its course of action midway, veering to the side, then pouncing on Edith again.

However, this brief moment was enough for Edith to react.

She took out a “spore bomb” from her pocket.

This item was the first reward they had received.

They had already used one during their exploration, and now two remained.

If it successfully hit the praying mantis man, its power would be enough to cause significant damage to the opponent.

As a rogue apprentice, Edith’s perception was also very keen.

She also used the crossbow bolt to adjust the praying mantis man’s trajectory, then threw the spore bomb in advance along its path.

The plan was good.

But she overlooked the most important point, which was that the praying mantis man’s perception was also excellent.

Almost the instant she threw the spore bomb and it hit the ground, it sensed a strong threat.

And this time, it wasn’t like when Gauss launched Magic Missile just now, where it was caught between a stalemate with Throk’s leaping slash, the instantaneous erosion of Touch of Frost, and continuous Magic Missiles, which prevented the praying mantis man from effectively evading.

The instant the spore bomb hit the ground in front of the praying mantis man, its lower limbs immediately burst with powerful force, propelling its body to jump several meters to the side.

“Boom!!!”

The strong shockwave released by the spore bomb stirred up smoke and dust.

“Did it work?”

Edith squinted her eyes.

The next moment, a large figure stepped out of the dust.

Not dead!

Edith’s legs gave out, and she fell to the ground, but a strong will to survive made her scramble to turn and run, even if it meant stumbling blindly, using both hands and feet.

But behind her, a tall shadow already loomed.

“Magic Missile!!”

Gauss, jogging closer, his staff tip glowing brightly!

A condensed and high-speed azure blue missile shot out, aimed directly at its compound eyes.

The praying mantis man had to stop its attack and tilt its head to dodge this Magic Missile.

The intense light brought by the missile as it grazed its head momentarily caused its compound eyes to go blind.

Yes, this was what Gauss had discovered during the battle.

Its eyes couldn’t tolerate ultra-close range light exposure; for a brief moment of sudden brightness, its body would experience a short period of rigidity.

Now, the praying mantis man, having lost its sight, stood motionless.

The second missile followed closely!

However, this time the missile’s target was not the praying mantis man.

Instead, it was the package containing the spore bomb that Edith had dropped, not far from its feet.

“Bang!!!”

The Magic Missile pierced the package, and the spore bomb instantly exploded with a roar!

A huge roar spread out from the center.

Countless tiny spores instantly expanded, releasing continuously escalating, intense waves of fire in the air!