Barry tried to think through the rising panic. A disturbance in the dirty water he'd poured around him drew his eye and he backed away, waving a stolen mantis claw around threateningly, as if to ward off the potential attacker. When he didn't detect any clicking sounds getting closer, he concluded it must have been passing by, but it didn't do much to quell his fear.

He was surrounded by giant, invisible mantises and desperately needed to find a way out. Perhaps there would be some Ability to see infrared light, that would break through their invisibility? No, not likely to work, and he didn't have the time it would take to browse the System Interface anyway. He had to work with the tools he had.

Barry closed his eyes for a moment, trying once again to make sense of the cacophony of echolocation signals. There were simply too many sounds to split them apart and guess at the source, but he did notice subtle differences between the soundwaves as they reached his tendrils. If the waves felt like running his fingers over a fine-toothed comb, then for some of them, the teeth were slightly longer and further apart. Could it be different frequencies, to avoid interference? Didn't bats do something like that?

If they were able to emit and detect different frequencies, it might also be a way for them to recognize and communicate with other mantises. His eyes opened as he considered a mad idea: could he get away by pretending to be one of them?

He looked around again in jerking motions, breaths coming fast. He swallowed as he saw the mantis corpse being violently shaken by its feeding brethren. There was no sign that any were coming closer, but he couldn't be completely certain. Forcing his eyes closed again despite his fear, he put his entire focus on [Direct Manipulation - Sound]. As he studied the shape of the sounds in an attempt to recreate them, he realized something else.

He was looking at this the wrong way. If he was going through all this trouble to mimic the clicks they sent out and used for echolocation, why wouldn't he just make use of it instead? If they were making themselves invisible by manipulating light, he could just use soundwaves as a workaround.

Afraid that sending out clicks would immediately draw them to him, he kept his first attempts isolated in his soundproof bubble. It would stop him from hearing any of the creatures coming closer, but he was keeping his eyes on the circle of muddy water around him.

After a few tries, he managed to produce something that approached the clicks he'd felt from the beasts. The trick was to focus not on making a single, longer sound, but a series of tiny clicks.

At first, the wave felt too flat and round, not at all like a comb, which changed when he increased the frequency. With a few adjustments, the clicks were quickly improving, but then he noticed a ripple in the water and quietly moved away, eyes wide as his heart beat in his throat.

Not knowing where the invisible mantis was moving, he decided to cast some soundwaves into the ground about twenty yards to his left to draw it away. When it seemed to move away, he went back to producing clicks with a burning sense of urgency.

Despite some more adjustments he wasn't yet fully satisfied, but also unwilling to risk waiting any longer. Taking a deep breath, Barry then deactivated [Halt Waves - Sphere] and sent out a series of clicks. The frequency was too high for his ears to pick up, so he was left feeling them out with his imagined tendrils, comparing his own to the countless other clicks that were bouncing around. They were easy to separate since they originated from him and he tracked them as they moved out into the air.

Immediately, he felt how they bounced back from the ground around him. It helped that he could use his eyes to confirm what he was feeling, seeing that a reflection of sound he felt a few paces behind was simply a large rock. It gave him confidence that he wasn't just imagining things.

It was less confusing and complicated than expected. In reality, the echolocation was as simple as paying attention only to places that clicks bounced back from. There was the ground, then an empty void where nothing came back, unless there was some kind of object. If a click took longer to return and felt weaker, that told him the object was further away.

As he focused on those weaker returning clicks, larger, moving shapes began to form in his mind's eyes. That had to be the mantises. He could just barely feel the cluster that were feeding on the corpse at the edge of his range. A few others felt closer and he thought they were moving in his direction.

Of course, he thought with a sinking feeling, they can sense me just like I can sense them. Pretending to be one of them never could have worked as soon as he turned off his soundproof bubble. He took a single step and immediately felt the two closest shapes react, speeding up as they moved in his direction.

With his soundproof sphere deactivated, he could hear the tapping of their legs on the rocky ground. His head kept snapping around, eyes darting left and right on instinct, driven by fear, looking for something to focus on, but finding nothing. It was a useless distraction, so with an effort of will, he pushed them closed.

With his eyes closed, he could only focus on his echolocation and the image in his mind quickly became clearer. There was the boulder, the ground was even around him. Then right in front of him, two approaching mantises, large claws held out in front. He almost opened his eyes again with shock when he realized they were almost on him, but then he squeezed them shut as he tightened his grip on the claws in his hands.

Right before they could strike, he paused his clicks to pump energy into a soundblast instead, activating his sphere for a split second to shield himself from it.

BANG!

He lunged for the closest one. A low slash to crush one of its legs bounced off the carapace, so he moved along its side instead as it turned, keeping it between him and the other attacker. More were coming now. Must be due to the soundblast. I need to calm down, Barry thought as his heart pounded in his ears, the fear is throwing me off.

Just like with a high-stakes performance in front of an audience, he needed to get in the right mindset.

Keeping his eyes closed the whole time, he was feeling more confident in the information from his clicks by now. He ran a short distance to get clear of the attackers, reactivating [Halt Waves - Sphere] to keep them off his trail. He took a moment to practice his movements, first going through the motions slowly, then building speed and momentum before striking out.

Forget the surroundings, forget the stakes, focus only on the movements. Just like dancing.

It didn't take long for one of the mantises to wander close. Barry took a deep breath before engaging it, dodging its snapping claws to dance around its right flank. This time he turned, pivoting into an additional spin down its side to deliver a powerful strike to its back leg, slicing clean through. It buckled, unable to turn in time to avoid another cut to its side.

He leapt right over its back as it struggled to turn, spinning his body while cutting down in a windmill slash. He landed gracefully, then spun twice to cut through its other back leg before backing away, leaving the bleeding mantis to thrash on the ground. He nodded to himself as he firmed his grip on the white claws. You can do this. Just focus on the movements.

Three more were closing in now and he retreated, hoping he was clear in that direction, until he felt two shapes coming in from behind. When the three in front got close enough, he activated [Halt Waves - Sphere] for a moment to hide himself and cast fake footsteps to the left, then dropped it again as he moved.

They took the bait. He twirled again as he lifted his weapons, quickly taking out the closest one's right legs, then danced around its side, using its body as a shield. A dodge to the right transitioned into a downward cut, disabling the right claw of the next attacker. He moved in, expecting it to falter, but it snapped out its other claw without hesitation. Caught off guard, he raised his left arm to catch the blow but it was too heavy, pushing both arm and makeshift blade down to carve into his shoulder.

He backed away with a hiss of pain, a quick test showing the arm could still be moved. More clicks told him that new attackers were coming in fast.

He wasn't moving like he should. It was just like last time - what he needed was a rhythm to steer the timing. No time to think or prepare, he started tapping his foot to the first upbeat song that came to his mind.

The sound drew them in even faster, two monstrous insects coming in right next to each other and he tumbled to the left, narrowly dodging its predictable lunge. His roll transitioned seamlessly into a series of low pirouettes, taking out its front leg with his first spin, then continuing to cut through its back leg too.

Another was right next to it so he made use of its wounded flank to jump onto its back, waiting for a beat to sense what-

The attacking mantis struck viciously, uncaring about its brother, so he backflipped off as two claws cut deep into the wounded mantis's back. Two more of the creatures rushed in from his rear so he was forced to immediately roll to the side as he landed, stumbling against the wounded insect as it thrashed and turned on its attacker. One of its sharp legs scraped against his thigh, opening his skin.

He ducked another attack and scrambled away, off balance and having lost his momentum. Still, he wasn't moving right, unable to keep to the rhythm. He kept losing track of his movements and reacting on instinct or in panic instead of flowing through his moves.

In the chaos of the fight, it simply wasn't enough for the tapping of his foot or the nodding of his head to keep him on track and in rhythm. Instead, he gave in to a crazy impulse, starting to sing in a breathy whisper as he nodded his head to the beat.

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"...Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time."

It felt awkward and he was hesitant, but his echolocation told him another mantis was coming in, ready to cut down with its claws. So he moved, sliding right past its claws, keeping to the rhythm as he flowed through the elegant footwork. One foot took his weight and twisted, lifting right as his next followed with another pivot. In a few quick steps he was out of its reach and building up momentum in a series of spinning slashes.

"I'm a shooting star leaping through the skyy-"

Every step was a turning pivot followed by a cut, each time pushing the blade off the carapace to further increase his momentum, until he was driven by centrifugal force and the strength of his arms instead of his legs. Barry sped up through a series of slashes, every rotation taking off a leg or opening the creature's abdomen as he flashed like a spinning top across its side.

"Defying the laws of gravity-"

It collapsed and he stepped on top of it, leaping for the next attacker in another windmill slash, cleaving straight through its head before it could even react. He landed with an elegant flourish, his feet barely making a sound as he flowed seamlessly into the next movement, a parry that smoothly redirected an attack, followed by a jumping corkscrew slash that took a mantis head clean off.

Another came at him but he was too fast, dodging and cutting as he spun around. The song kept him going, always on the move without a single pause or missed step, singing faster and faster, the words stringing together to match the rhythm of his frantic dance.

"I'mgonnagogogothere'snostoppingmee-"

BANG!

Another soundblast to disorient a group of attackers. The second it gave him was plenty to mow through their thin legs. Limbs flew and ichor sprayed as Barry whirled between the mantises. He didn't stop for a single beat, using their bodies as shields as he kept cutting the legs out from under them like they were nothing more than blades of grass. When he found himself out of position, he used a quick blast of sound or misdirection through fake footsteps to get himself back out.

His volume increased as he got lost in the movements, singing from the top of his lungs as he carved through the insects, oblivious to the increasingly frantic screeching sounds they were making.

"I'mburningthroughtheskyy-yeah!Twohundreddegrees-"

He lost himself in the brutal dance, carapace cracking and heads flying until he finally found himself standing there, chest heaving, turning around to look for the next target, but there were none to be seen.

Barry blinked for a moment, then finally sat down and surveyed the carnage. Only the dead mantises were visible, but there were plenty, yellow blood standing out on their broken white carapace. Some of the corpses moved as they were pushed by their still invisible, squirming brothers.

"Wow," he breathed.

He could hardly believe that he'd done all this. This dancing fighting style he'd borrowed from the Lamna worked surprisingly well once he had a beat to follow, though it would have been impossible to move like this without his Stats. These creatures were strong and deadly, but they were also predictable and he was simply faster.

He shook his head as he gaped at his hands, covered in yellow blood and small splinters of chitin. While he was moving, it had been just like a performance, caught up in the flow with barely any awareness of his surroundings. That could be dangerous, but for now, there was no doubt it was working.

Checking his Quest log, he saw that he'd gotten up to 8 out of 12. Now that he was that close, he might as well finish the task. There were at least two that he hadn't finished off yet, so then he just had to go out and hunt a few more.

After killing the final ones, he took some time to eat, heal his shoulder and recharge his PE. He made his way towards the mountain, moving faster than before while keeping his tendrils out to find more of the mantises.

Killing single ones was almost too easy now that he'd gotten used to their predictable movements. A soundblast to disorient them followed by fast, incapacitating strikes to the legs was a winning tactic which he didn't hesitate to repeat. Once they were down, all that was left was to take off their heads.

By the time he finally finished his quest, he was already most of the way through the zone, the ground sloping up toward snow-tipped mountain tops.

Congratulations! You have gained 1 x Cardinal Weaponry Token!

It took a while to find the right section in the System Interface as it had been hidden before, but he eagerly began to browse through the options once he found it. To his dismay, he saw that the Token itself was not enough to get the weapons. He would still need to spend the Value and these weapons did not come cheap.

Valerian Arginium Halberd - 3000 Value

Flexibility: Very High

Conductivity: Very High

Hardness Rating: 15

Comments: Suitable for Ulm opponents up to Hesperidium rating. Weight: 50Kg.

Durite Mace - 2500 Value

Flexibility: None

Conductivity: None

Hardness Rating: 20

Comments: Suitable for Ulm opponents up to Hesperidium rating. Weight: 2000Kg

He had no idea what 'hesperidium' meant, but he assumed it would be around Tier 7 or 8. Anyway, he knew that he wanted blades and preferably something lightweight. Also, since he didn't use electricity or heat himself, it would be best for them to be non-conductive. Neither of the above materials would be suitable, so he kept looking.

After some more time spent scrolling through the available weapons, he finally found a suitable option.

Ferrux Curved Blade - 2000 Value

Flexibility: Low

Conductivity: Very Low

Hardness Rating: 17

Comments: Suitable for Ulm opponents up to Hesperidium rating. Weight: 15Kg

The only problem was that he needed two of them. This would set him back 4000 Value. He opened his Stat sheet to look at this balance.

Tier 7 (Next: 8000)

Stats

Strength: 20

Durability: 36

Speed: 57

Senses: 23

Intelligence: 10

PE Capacity: 1300 KJ

Abilities

[Halt Wave - Sphere]

[Cast Wave]

Direct Manipulation - Waves

[Blur Image]

[Camouflage]

Direct Manipulation - Light

[Reflect Momentum]

[Project Image]

[Charge Muscles]

[Infuse Momentum]

Unallocated Value: 4250

Value allocated to Stats: 2790

Value allocated to Abilities: 1580

Value spent on items: 2160

He could afford two scimitars, but little else. It would take away the flexibility of getting new Abilities to solve problems he ran into. On the other hand, with those blades, he could go out and kill more mantises. At 160 Value per kill, they'd already netted him 1920 so far.

He wanted to still bring up his Strength to thirty and ideally his Senses up to thirty-five or even forty. It would also be best to take that final step and bring his Intelligence higher as well. From the last battle, it had become clear that quick and clear thinking could make all the difference in combat situations.

Another look at his map revealed that the next zones would all be in de-escalating levels of danger. After a final light orange zone across the mountain, it would be a series of yellows and greens before his path would eventually take him back through an orange zone. The risk that he wouldn't be able to handle those creatures without new Abilities was low.

It would place him in a position where he'd be forced to kill more of the beasts, but that was the world he lived in now. This was true not just for him, he realized with a grimace, but for everyone else as well. If you couldn't get resources through Value, you'd be left to survive only with what you could forage and build with your own hands.

Barry brought out his MAFT and confirmed the purchase. Without any fanfare, two lustrous white blades suddenly appeared, looking beautifully sleek, almost as if they'd been cut from marble. The blades felt cold as he ran his fingers over one's surface, the smooth haft somehow settling perfectly in his hand. He gave it a few testing swings, noting that it felt perfectly balanced, but slightly too heavy, so he decided to add five more points in Strength for a total Value cost of 100.

Carefully brushing his fingertip to the edge easily parted his skin, despite his high Durability. The cut was so fine that he barely even felt it. After feeling no resistance when he began slicing branches off a pine tree, Barry then threw up a rock and cut horizontally, neatly cleaving it in two.

He then moved through some of his fighting choreography, but only slowly, with a healthy dose of respect for the sharp blades. It would take a bit of time to get used to these. A single mistake could take off one of his limbs.

Soon, it was time to get moving again, and it didn't take long for him to find an unsuspecting mantis to test his blades on. Its carapace was strong enough that the blades didn't quite cut through it as easily as the rock, but it wasn't more than a tug on his blade if he put enough force in the strike. Where he'd previously needed to build up momentum and use all his strength to take off a limb, he could now do that almost casually, with a one-handed slash. Holding a scimitar up to block a swipe of its claw resulted in the claw parting against the sleek white edge, sometimes even shaving a piece off.

On his way up the slope to the mountain, he kept his soundproof bubble deactivated, focusing instead on practicing [Camouflage] as he walked. This way, he would draw in more of the giant insects but that was fine by him. He could put the Value to good use.

Barry took out five more mantises before reaching the next zone. 240 of that Value was spent on bringing up his Senses and Intelligence, while he used another 400 Value to further increase his PE Capacity by 200 KJ.

He found himself checking the map again as he stared up at an unforgiving granite wall, all sharp edges and crumbling rock. There was not enough detail to help find a path across; it just showed that he could move ahead or go around.

"Up and onwards it is then," Barry said, stowing his blades in his MAFT storage and starting the climb.

After a few hours of climbing, he was relieved to reach a plateau where a winding path started. When he walked past one of the bends in the path, he suddenly came eye to eye with a massive gorilla. They both stared at each other for a short moment, when Barry suddenly disappeared.

With his increased prowess with [Camouflage], he was able to get it activated after only a few seconds instead of the original minute or so. The gorilla cocked its head, initially making confused noises, but quickly growing agitated, growling as it pounded its fists on the ground. It moved forward on hands and feet, baring its teeth as it sniffed at the air.

After a few steps, its head came off, rolling over the cliff to tumble down the mountain as its body slumped lifelessly to the ground. Barry had reappeared as he finished the cut to its neck, now taking a step back to avoid a spray of blood that pumped out of the stump of its neck.

He sighed as he observed the headless corpse, a look of contrition on his face. Killing animals was not something that would ever give him pleasure. He had far less trouble with it when they were an actual threat to his life, but this had almost been too easy. In a straight-up fight without Abilities, the huge gorilla may have had a chance, especially on this narrow path. But as it was, it would just be a slaughter.

But unfortunately, he had bigger problems than concerns around the ethics of killing animals, and he couldn't afford to be wasting time here. He pushed ahead, picking up his pace as he activated [Blur Image] and [Halt Waves - Sphere].

If a few more heads had to roll for him to get to his family, he would find a way to cope.

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