A God in a Xianxia world

Chapter 58 - Marauder Wasps (1)

Everyone dismounted from their horses and tightened the grips on their weapons, prepared for battle as what started as a low hum in the distance built into loud buzzing sounds. Of course, they were already somewhat prepared for the possibility of qi beasts showing up, but nevertheless, such an event was not welcomed and not being able to see what was approaching brought about a slight feeling of trepidation in some of the guards.

Tom cast his eyes over his surroundings, trying to discern the direction in which the harsh buzzing sounds were coming from, when Ray suddenly shouted out.

"Over there" said Ray, pointing to a series of trees not too far off.

Everyone looked in the direction Ray was pointing at and although they could not yet see the approaching qi beasts, Tom became sure that Ray's claim was correct when he focused his hearing and was able to determine it as the source of the buzzing sounds, though even if he hadn't, he would have ascertained the veracity of Ray's claim in the next moment, when the qi beasts finally rounded the trees and came into view.

Not panicking in the slightest, Tom immediately noted what appeared to be a small horde of large wasps, each one being about 1 ½' in length.

"Oh, those are some mean looking wasps" commented Lance upon seeing them. Tom couldn't help but also agree with this statement. The wasps did indeed have mean looking faces, a product of their biology rather than a reflection their personal feelings or efforts as wasps were not particularly known for their facial expressions.

At the same time, on Methis' celestial viewing platform, where 4 Gods were sitting together in a gazebo and watching a projection of what was happening, one of them, a giant wasp itself, started excitedly making some high pitched noises which roughly translated as "Ah, look, look, some of my people. I can't believe some of my people are here", while moving about animatedly. Jacob couldn't help but let out a wry smile as he thought to himself [they're not going to be there much longer].

Back on the planet, several of the more experienced members of the group started cursing.

"Shit, Marauder wasps. I bloody hate the things" cursed Pike.

"Same here" replied Avery, and with good reason too. Marauder wasps were venomous and although a single sting wasn't enough to kill a body strengthening cultivators like them, it would still hurt to high heaven, a fact that both Pike and Avery could testify to due to previous misadventures in the Tainted Forest. Right now however, there weren't just one or two Marauder wasps, there looked to be around 50, which meant it would be easy for a single person in their group to get swamped by them and stung multiple times. If this happened, that person would definitely be at risk of dying.

"Marcus" Adam called out.

"Yeah, I know" replied Marcus as he moved to the front of the group and a half formed golden gauntlet formed at the bottom of his right arm.

"Alright, someone will need to lead the horses awa–" Adam began to say, knowing full well that the Marauder wasps would pose a far more significant threat to the horses than any of them, before he was abruptly cut off by Ray.

"I'm on it" cut in Ray, already moving to grab the reins of several horses before retreating away from the group and the incoming Marauder wasps, an action which garnered the ire of the other guards who felt like he was running off with soft duty while they had to do the heavy lifting. I mean, it would have been fair enough if one of them was personally selected or they'd decided between themselves but Adam hadn't even finished his sentence before Ray had stolen their opportuni- *cough cough* cut and run. Wasn't that just shamelessness to the extreme?