Universal Power System
Chapter 102 Battling The King (Part 1)

The ground started to shake more violently and it made Mako lose his balance and fall on the ground. Leon was still holding on with his two feet planted firmly on the ground. Just from the shaking alone, they were able to deduce that the origin of all this was the hole they had just discovered.

The tremors kept increasing in intensity and before they could even move back to a safer position, A gigantic pair of glowing yellow eyes presented themselves through the darkness of the hole.

Seeing the giant beast approaching them, Leon instantly used his Speed ability to create distance between them and the hole. He grabbed Mako as he quickly sprinted away from the hole and just as he did, a giant beast broke through the wall and made an even bigger hole than what it was originally.

The giant beast turned out to be a Terra beetle as well, but this one was many times bigger than the regular Terra beetles and many times more fierce as well.

The giant Terra beetle towered at a height of ten feet tall. Its exoskeleton was a stunning mix of black and gold, with the black coloration covering most of its body and the gold accents shimmering in the light, giving it an almost otherworldly appearance.

This was the Terra Beetle King!

The Beetle King's body was broad and muscular, featuring a massive thorax and abdomen. The thorax was adorned with intricate gold patterns that seem to glow with a bright yellow aura. The beetle's legs are equally impressive, with each leg spanning several feet and ending in razor-sharp claws that had the same glow to them.

Its mandibles were long, curved, and gleaming gold and the beetle's mouth was lined with sharp, pointed teeth, giving it the ability to rend flesh and crush bone with ease.

It seemed that the Beetle King had the same feature as the regular Terra beetles as they glowed the color of their aura which represented which ability they were using. Only the Beetle King had evolved this feature from just small muscles lighting up to its whole body covered in the intricate lining of the same hard plastic-like material that currently gave off a golden glow.

The beetle King wasted no time as it screeched toward the two boys and dashed forward while electricity started to build up around its body. The king was too quick for Mako to react and before he could even understand what was going he was pushed toward one corner of the cave.

Leon used one of his speed ability skills that allowed him to raise his perception at the cost of moving fast. By using this skill, Leon was able to predict and dodge the king's wild and brutal attacks. He conjured earth spikes below his and Mako's feet to launch them away from the king's line of attack.

Once out of danger, Leon conjured an earth pillar in front of the Beetle King's path to stop it right in its tracks and let its own momentum deal damage to it. However, the Beetle King opened its gigantic pincers as it neared the earth pillar and chomped down on it like a piece of candy.

As the king bit into the pillar, completely crushing it into small pieces, all the electricity that it had generated around its body released as an outward wave that spread in every direction at super high speeds.

Even Leon's perception wasn't high enough to dodge the lightning wave and both he and Mako were hit by it. The wave was exceptionally strong as it blasted both of them into the air. They were only stopped when they hit the cave wall and created a small indent of their bodies on the cave wall.

The attack; however, wasn't done as if the lightning wave wasn't strong enough, Mako received the following notification.

[-40 HP]

[User has become paralyzed]

[Paralysis will wear off in 5 seconds]

Mako was getting that taste of his own medicine as this time, he was the one who got paralyzed by another lightning attack. It was quite impossible for Mako to become paralyzed because he had a level 4 Lightning ability which provided decent resistance.

With not being able to move for a couple of seconds, Mako used Analyze on the Beetle King to see just how big of a monster were they dealing with.

[Analyze]

[Advanced-level Terra Beetle]

[Ability: Earth (Level 3), Lightning (Level 5)]

[Weakness: Fire, Penetrating attacks]

Mako's eyes trembled with fear as he read the information that was being displayed in front of his eyes.

Soon the five seconds were up and Mako could move again. Both Leon and Mako were stuck up in the wall where they had crashed and couldn't get down cause they were paralyzed. Mako quickly jumped off the wall and landed on his two feet. Leon; however, was still paralyzed as he didn't have the Lightning ability which gave some resistance against Lightning attacks.

The dust created by the Beetle King completely obliterating the earth pillar was distracting it was it couldn't make out where Mako and Leon had landed. The distraction had bought Mako enough time to recover from the paralysis and escape before the beetle could target him.

As soon as the dust cleared, The Beetle King instantly turned toward Leon who was still stuck up in the wall and started rushing toward it at high speed.

[Dash has been activated]

Mako activated his speed skill to try and catch up to the beetle but it was still making headway as it would reach Leon before Mako. Luckily, Mako could keep up just enough to throw a projectile that would land in front of the Beetle King.

[Fireball has been activated]

[Fireball has been activated]

[Fireball has been activated]

[...]

Mako spammed fireballs as they traveled over the body of the king and landed in front of him. The fireball splashed on the ground and created a small puddle of fire that acted as a barrier for the king. With multiple fireballs being spammed in quick succession, a small barrier of fire was put up in front of the king Beetle causing it to halt.

The fire was the beast's weakness after all and just the sight of fire was able to make it stop dead in its tracks.

Mako could believe what a big jump there was between the different classes of beasts. He had only faced medium-tier beasts up to this point and they were a huge pain to deal with when they were in numbers and this was when they just had a single ability which was low level.

Then there were the high-tier beasts who could possess a decent level ability or 2 low leveled abilities and they rose a lot higher in terms of difficulty as it was quite difficult to deal with a decent fighter who had two abilities let alone a beast who had other gifts from nature and savage survival instincts that helped them survive in the wild.

Moving on from there comes advanced-tier beasts. These beasts were on whole another level as the Beetle King that they were facing right now had two abilities and once was a level 5. Its natural body and instincts were so strong that Mako and Leon were tossed around like a ragdoll during the first minute of their battle starting with this beast.

It was clear that even though Mako now had two level 4 abilities, he still wasn't able to match up the strength of a Terra Beetle King. However, he had now seen just how much this thing hated fire and he knew that the only way to have a chance against this beast was to use as many fire-related skills on it as possible.

As the Beetle King tried to maneuver around the flames to reach Leon, Mako had gotten close to it and he jumped into the air where he was on the same level as its head and spun around 360 degrees while extending his hand out. His hands busted into flames as he utilized another skill.

[Flame Wheel had been activated]

A ring of fire erupted from Mako and it quickly traveled outward and hit the Beetle King right on target. The king screeched in pain as the flames scorched its exoskeleton but that was just about it. The flames were able to deal a little bit of visible damage on the Beetle King; however, it still stood strong and now it had a new target.

Mako was still in mid-air after performing his flame wheel skill when one of the Beetle King's legs suddenly lifted off the ground and smacked Mako right in the abdomen with full force using the razor-sharp claw that was at the end of its leg.

Mako spat out blood from his mouth as his body was launched at very high speeds back from where he had come from. From the level speed that Mako's body was traveling as it zoomed back toward the cave wall after receiving that massive hit, it was clear that Mako's fortitude wasn't high enough to protect him and he will most certainly get several broken bones and fraction from colliding with the wall.

With no way to decelerate himself or cushion the blow, Mako braced himself completely and focused all his willpower on not passing out from the crash. If he passed out, the beast would easily get Leon and he would be next. He was the only one who had the ability that effective against the beast so it was crucial for him to remain conscious.

*ZOOM!*

Mako was mere inches away from colliding against the cave wall when suddenly a very strong gust of wind started to blow and it made him change his trajectory completely. Instead of colliding against the solid cave wall, Mako's body was blown away to the left by a strong gust of wind which allowed Mako to decelerate a lot.

Mako eventually landed on the ground and still skidded a bit but didn't suffer any big injuries other than the big cut he received on his stomach from the Beetle King's sharp claw.

"It seems I woke up just in time!" Bill announced as he glided over to Mako using his Wind ability.

Bill had been able to create a wind wall between the wall and Mako just in the nick of time as it made it so that Mako was deflected in a different direction.

Mako was so glad to see Bill, but not as much as the Beetle King himself. Bill was still covered in blue blood and had that horrible smell lingering on him. The king recognized the smell almost immediately as it had finally identified the person who had slaughtered the other Terra Beetles.

Thirsting for revenge, the Terra Beetle King let out its mightiest screech yet as it charged toward Bill at full speed intending to give him the same fate he gave those beetles.