Utopian System

Zantem watched with boredom until, finally... the first soldier emerged from the tunnel.

His elemental blade sang through the air, so fast that the human didn't even have time to register his death before his head rolled among the cores.

'Pathetic,' he thought as the body fell. 'He didn't even try to defend himself.'

The next two were equally easy. One didn't even manage to scream before his life was extinguished. At this rate, he would obtain enough kills to get the option to return and report to the Queen before recovering the core.

It was almost insulting how simple it was.

Until it wasn't.

The new soldier emerged differently from the others. His movements were cautious, measured. His eyes stopped on the bodies scattered outside the tunnel, and Zantem could see the exact moment understanding blazed in his gaze.

This human's summon was combined, and the attack Zantem launched at his neck... Only did 180 points of damage.

The human managed to deflect the blow enough that it wasn't lethal, but still, the impact managed to pierce his defenses and do significant damage. Though the system armor healed him soon...

'Interesting,' he thought while studying his new opponent.

The human's winged eel allowed him to move with impressive speed. Not as much as Zantem's 50 points, but enough to make things... entertaining.

When Zantem launched his next attack, the soldier responded with a devastating electrical discharge. The intention was clear: paralyze the artromus long enough to escape to the next section of the tunnel.

'Almost ingenious,' Zantem admitted while using his superior speed to intercept the human, crushing him against the core-covered ground.

He leaned over his prey, his chitinous jaws close to the soldier's ear as he struggled to break free. "Twenty points of damage per second?" he whispered with cruel amusement. "Is that all your best attack can achieve?"

The human kept struggling, but Zantem only increased the pressure to extract a choked cry from him. "In less than three minutes, that damage you managed to inflict will be completely regenerated. Do you understand now the difference between us?"

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The desperation in the soldier's eyes as this reality sank in was almost as satisfying as the ease with which his divine armor had absorbed the electrical attack.

"But I must admit," Zantem prepared his final blow, "at least you made me move."

♢♢♢♢

The silence that followed his fourth victim was long and boring.

At least to his accelerated perception.

Zantem rose slightly, his multifaceted eyes scanning the area. The humans had stopped emerging from the tunnel, clearly warned by the sound of the last combat.

In the distance, atop the carbon structure, he could see groups of fugitives stopped, evaluating the situation.

'At least they have enough survival instinct to recognize danger,' he reflected, his eyes glowing with power. 'But if they think hiding will save them...'

With a fluid movement, Zantem directed his power toward the tunnel's structure. The carbon fragmented under his attack, revealing the humans hidden inside. Like rats exposed to light, they emerged in disordered groups.

The fifth victim fell quickly, but after that... things became more complex.

The humans began organizing themselves with an efficiency that was almost annoying. Defensive formations arose spontaneously, the wounded were protected and supported by their companions. Their summons, though individually weak, began creating overlapping defense zones.

Zantem evaluated the situation with cold precision. He could eliminate them all, of course. His power was more than sufficient to massacre these parasites.

But each attack would consume energy, and mana... mana was crucial.

'Approximately one hundred and fifty escaped toward the city,' he calculated while disintegrating another section of the tunnel. 'And among them, the core bearer.'

The bearer was the most important, he didn't have mana to eliminate 150 humans in defensive formations, not without letting some escape at least.

Some humans took advantage of the destruction to flee. Zantem let them go, his mind focused on the main objective.

Those fugitives would die eventually, when the barrier fell. The important thing now was finding the core.

A particularly organized group attempted to counterattack. Zantem responded with a powerful wind storm, sending them falling scattered among the mass of accumulated cores.

He didn't bother trying to eliminate them separately or repeat the attack, knowing that using wind that way wouldn't damage them too much.

But it was effective for breaking their annoying formations.

'The core is the priority,' he reminded himself while continuing his systematic demolition. 'Without it, they won't be able to improve their pathetic city, and then...'

His chitinous jaws curved into something resembling a smile while imagining the massacre that would follow. First he would find the core for his queen, then they would breach the barrier, and finally, the true cleansing would begin.

The tunnel's destruction continued, methodical and relentless.

Each demolished section was one step closer to his objective, each human he let escape was one less distraction from his true mission.

After several dozens of meters of systematic destruction, Zantem found something different.

A group of soldiers, instead of fleeing like the rest when exposed, adopted a defensive formation that bordered on suicidal. Not only did they stand firm, but they began launching coordinated attacks.

'Peculiar,' he thought while dodging a series of projectiles. 'Why waste energy in a lost battle?'

The answer came with the next tunnel assault.

While the front line intensified their attacks, a group began retreating from the broken tunnel under covering fire. Several female figures among them, all protected by a ring of defenders.

'An attempt at confusion?' Zantem almost felt insulted.

The humans apparently were unaware of the superior capabilities of the Artromus. Even with limited light, his photographic memory made recognition instant and unequivocal.

Zantem's multifaceted eyes focused on the group, his photographic memory processing each detail with inhuman precision. There, among the fugitives, one figure matched perfectly with the one he had seen holding the core: Diana.

The core bearer had finally made a mistake, and now there was nowhere to hide. Zantem's jaws curved into a predatory smile while his divine armor gleamed with the goddess's power.

'Time to end this game,' he thought while preparing for the final assault. 'The core is ours.'