They got about an hour away from the base when they had to stop and hide near some rubble. “Blake, what are those?” Sam whispered.

In front of them were these lanky green monsters with sharp claws and fangs coming out of their mouths. They were humanoid in shape, but they also had squash heads. And thin wide eyes. Seeing them, Blake couldn’t help but frown a little. These are not monsters that would appear in Lillia’s training field. Because they were not monsters of the past. “Those are praying mantises. Well, the evolved form of them. Magic has made them smart and bigger. They are quick to a point but are very scared of fire. So use fire magic to take them down.”

The girls were about to jump out but were both quickly dragged back. “Blake?”

“Don’t just rush out! Look at your surroundings first. The praying mantis was never a solo hunter, from what I can remember. They were pack hunters of two. A female which has a bigger head, and a male which we see in front of us. The females are scheming and like to hide. They will use the males as bait to kill whatever attacks them. Even if the male is being eaten, they will not come out until they are sure they can kill their prey. Look, here comes a thorned deer.” The thorned deer Blake was talking about was a deer with spikes that came out from all sides of its body. They still had large antlers on their head, but the spikes were what gave them their name. Besides that, they grew sharp teeth and became meat eaters.

Sam and Erica watched as the thorned deer ran up and stabbed its horns at the male mantis from the side, piercing it through its thin body. The action was so quick and precise that even Blake was amazed at how accurate the thorned deer was. He remembered many people getting killed by such monsters at the start of the magic age until they learned how to fight properly.

The male mantis let out a cry of pain as yellow blood oozed out of its wound and fell to the ground. The thorned deer did not hesitate to sink its teeth into it and begin ripping the flesh off the male mantis. Even as the male mantis was being eaten alive, the female mantis never showed itself until the male mantis’s cries of pain slowly became quieter. At the moment the thorned deer was totally engrossed with its meal, did it suddenly spring out from its hiding spot and slash down at the thorned deer’s neck with its scythe like claws and slice its head right off.

The girls almost let out a scream because the attack was so sudden it actually made them jump. Luckily they kept their hands over their mouth to stop them from making too much noise. The female mantis looked at its prey and slowly dragged it to the side before moving the male mantis over, which confused the two girls. “What is it doing now?”

Blake scratched his nose as he answered: “If the male mantis’s thing is still intact, the female will mate with it to get pregnant before eating both the male and the prey it just secured. In other words, the male mantis gets one last joy ride before the female eats it.”

“That’s….” Sam’s nose scrunched up.

“Blake, don’t worry. We won’t do something like this to you.” Erica teased as she poked Blake’s side. He looked at the two girls and wanted to give them both a spanking!

They did not stay to watch the show. Blake decided to go around them since the mating process could take a while. Neither he nor the girls wanted to stick around for it. They continued on until nightfall, only fighting some human monsters and a few horned rabbits. The rabbits would become their dinner which was a nice change from the normal dragon meat they had been eating.

They had found a small house that was covered in overgrowth and broke in through one of the windows to get inside. This would be their base for the night. Blake set up a barrier and also used earth magic to cover the window. Then using a simple lighting spell, he lit the inside up to take a look around. “There doesn’t look like much in here….” Sam said as she looked around.

“It’s to be expected most people ran for their lives when the dragons showed up. We are no exception.” Erica sighed as she tried not to remember the past. She only wanted to look toward the future.

“Let’s just check the place out and make sure it’s clear before settling down for the night,” Blake said as he walked over to one of the bedrooms. When people said small house, it was truly a small house. Only one bred room, a kitchen, a living room, and a bath. Not even a basement. There were clothes and old food thrown all over the place, which showed just how quickly the person who lived here left.

“It’s clear,” Blake said as he relaxed a little. For him, houses were the most dangerous because you never know what would pop out or from where something would pop out from. So it was always good to be as careful as possible.

“Ahhh, I was hoping for maybe some better battles today, but things were quite boring….” Erica said as she cleared a spot out and casually pulled out a small bed from her bag that was only big enough for one person. Seeing this, Blake did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had asked her to bring something for them to sleep on when they found a safe place, but he never thought she would pick a small bed like this.

But when he thought about it, it really did not matter since he would be the one to keep watch. So a small bed like this was probably just right.

–AN) Don’t forget to keep voting if you want to keep these two chapters a day and get as well.—