Meanwhile, the Hunter Matriarch hurled a volley of projectiles at Trese, which appeared to be a flock of bird-shaped lightning bolts, smaller but equally lethal.
Trese leaped to the side, her evasion managed to save her from death, and tried to attack the Insect Demon from behind.
However, Trese felt two of those insect bullets bite into her armor. As she tried to remove them, more high-speed projectiles flew at her, slashing and whipping her with a wind that cracked her armor. If it wasn't for the exosuit, she would've been split in two. Nevertheless, the pain was immense, making it impossible for her to find an escape route.
Trese didn't want to die, not here, but she was already being surrounded by bug bullets and the giant centipede. The giant Insect Demon was closing in on her, she could feel it looking at her like prey, or rather food.
Trese didn't want to die, not here, but she was already surrounded by more giant bugs and the giant centipede. The massive Insect Demon was closing in on her, and she could feel it was looking at her like prey, or rather food.
Is this how she would die?
"No, not today!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
All of a sudden, three shells impacted against the giant centipede, the other giant bugs, and the Hunter Matriarch, releasing unknown substances upon impact.
"SCREEEEECH!!!"
All the bugs, including the Insect Demon, screeched in agony. Trese, on the other hand, was shielded from the substances with the exosuit. She turned to find the source of the firing gas bombs and saw the two soldiers she had accompanied. One of them was manning a large cannon, while the other was busy doing something with the crates filled with chemical bombs and boxes of bug spray products.
"Really?" Trese was baffled. Nevertheless, these sons of bitches were geniuses.
"SCREEEEEEEECH!!!"
Breaking her thoughts, Trese noticed the insects were dying, but for the giant Insect Demon, she seemed to resist the substances that killed most of her children.
And that enraged her.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!"
The Hunter Matriarch roared in anger, roaring as if a dragon was roaring furiously, and the sound was growing louder and more intense, as if a cruise missile was about to fall on them.
Boom!
Trese felt the ground rumble, sending her even separate from the ground in an involuntary jump that ended with her hitting the dirt. The raised dust prevented her for a moment from seeing what had fallen right in front of her, but she knew that something had captured the giant Insect Demon's attention and the huge, dying centipede shifted its focus to a new threat that had appeared.
Then, a rumble the likes of which she had never heard before manifested itself, making her ears ringing as an explosion blew away some of the dust. At last Trese could see what had fallen, as a pair of red glowing eyes was the first thing her eyes encountered.
"...What?"
But what surprised her most was to see that the Insect Demon had been pushed and thrown to the ground. Though it hadn't killed her, to Trese's discomfort, the Insect Demon got up, but she noticed something on her, her orange armor, that thing harder than any metal or materials she knew, had cracked.
Bang!
Before the Insect Demon could fully rise, a second shot rang out. This time, the Insect Demon managed to raise her living shield in time, the one that had withstood the blow from the Hercules Exosuit. However, that shield was blown to pieces, and the insect let out a shriek of agony as it died. The Hunter Matriarch was pushed back, her defense broken by the stranger's weapon.
The Hunter Matriarch raised an arm, and hundreds of Bullet Bugs were shot toward the cybernetic soldier. The insects that until a moment ago had cornered Trese tried in vain to penetrate the soldier's armor, but it was as if they were raindrops against steel.
In the middle of the storm of projectiles, the cybernetic soldier began to walk, undeterred by a blast that would have reduced a house to ruins. That was not all, he began to run, no matter how many bullets were shot at him, he would not stop.
Seeing this, the Hunter Matriarch began to throw a thunderbird that flew straight at the warrior, but the electric current that could vaporize a human had no effect on him. Cutting winds capable of slicing steel in two were as useless as a breeze against a mountain, and the magic that had severely wounded Trese was simply ignored.
Bang!
A third shot rang out, and this time the centipede was the one who had to defend its master. Though it survived the round, the ichor flowing from its wounds and its shrieks indicated it was wounded, slower, and more predictable.
The warrior in armor kept running, faster than a Hell Mount, each step was like a leap covering up to six meters. The centipede attacked again, its jaws and claws open, razor sharp, it was fast, so fast that Trese would not have had time to react.
That's when she saw a cerulean glow, a flash of lightning and then... a dead centipede.
Its body had been split, slashed from the head, its own momentum turned into its demise. The creature that had been about to kill them had been defeated by that warrior's sword.
The Hunter Matriarch, meanwhile, felt a sense of discomfort. All her senses were focused on that armored warrior, which moved through the field faster than any human could match.
This warrior had killed her insects with his weapons, weapons that she had heard were powerful. Weapons that could hurt her.
Her insects were not weapons, they possessed no qualities beyond their natural abilities, unable to be reinforced with Skills or imbued with spells. If her shield had been one of legendary levels, it would not have been destroyed.
For the first time since she had come into this world, the Hunter Matriarch wasn't seeing a small animal she could easily kick aside, she was seeing a beast with the full capacity to kill her.
That was why her reaction was no longer pragmatic.
In a second, the air filled with millions upon millions of man-eating flies. Filthy insects designed to bring a terrible death, they burrowed into the flesh of their victims to feed and lay eggs, which would hatch and produce more flies. It was a horrible death, a fate that was too cruel for any enemy.
That was the Hunter Matriarch's trump card.
But she had stopped thinking pragmatically.
The flies worked perfectly on targets with exposed skin, and could even find openings in full body armor.
But that was not possible on this occasion.
The armor of the Archangels unit was a technological marvel, far ahead of its time. Its protection resembled that of a tank, with life support systems that could deny death on more than one occasion, auto-senses capable of detecting even the slightest change on the battlefield, and many other advanced features.
One of its key qualities was its total sealing between the wearer and the environment. The Archangel's armor could even allow its user to survive in the vacuum of space, the deepest waters, the most extreme climates, and the most aggressive toxins.
The flies swarmed around the warrior, but they found no entrance, no weakness in the suit's impenetrable seal, and struggled in vain to devour the seals of the armor. A fight they could not win. The Hunter Matriarch had been waiting for the flies to do their job, expecting to watch him fall down and writhe in pain as he was devoured from the inside. It was a mistake that almost cost her life, and her head.
The warrior's sword had nearly decapitated her. Moving inhumanly, she leaped backward to avoid the blade forged from metal of an ancient asteroid deep within the Pacific.
However, the sword did cut something. Two pieces fell to the ground, two pieces of something that had been on the Insect Demon's face. The mask insect was dead, split in two and unable to remain attached to its master.
"...Abomination..." spoke the Archangel.
It was that word that completely snapped the Hunter Matriarch. All her senses turned towards the warrior in cape, all her hatred and all her thirst for blood ignited. For this warrior had brought out her true form, her face revealed to the world, her true face. An inhuman and monstrous face, a being so terrifying it even made fearless soldiers like Trese to tremble at the sight of the monster.
But for the warrior in the cape, his hatred was only growing.