<h4>Chapter 319 - Knight Rank Praying Mantises!</h4>


    The 2 teams that had just been saved were both 1st-year teams. Unlike the first teams to be eliminated, the only problem they had was that they couldn''t defend long enough for their teams to rescue them.


    Both teams had selected geomancers, and they had taken the turtle shell approach and the beasts had ended up breaking through their defenses leaving thempletely surrounded.


    At the moment the teams and the special ops had returned to the wall, the attention of the spectators had returned to ke''s team. That was when they saw hundreds of thorns rising into the air.


    ''Guess I was far from being right to consider her as the weakest.'' From what he was seeing he was totally wrong about his evaluation of her.


    Her performance could be considered nothing short of perfection because as long as no beast above the Elite rank appeared, they would be unable to breach her defense.


    ''Perfect defense… For now at least.'' Major Reeves thought with a smirk.


    …


    The most of the beasts focusing on attacking Tessie, the concentration of those fighting ke''s team had reduced making it easier for them to move forward.


    In less than 5 minutes the team had made it to the edge of the Mother Tree''s range, but they had to stop because they were afraid of getting attacked by the nt vines.


    [The Mother Tree spell of a blood harvester acts based on the will of the user and not on intellectual basis. So to be on the safe side it is better to draw her attention.] The system said.


    Following the system''s advice, ke shot a fireball into the air to alert Tessier of their arrival. On seeing her waving for them toe, the team began moving on both the nts and corpse till they finally got on top of the Mother Tree.


    "2 teams… Make that 3 teams have been eliminated and it seems we are the first to get to the defender." ke said after assessing the situation of all the teams outside the wall.


    "Seems they had selected their strongest member as the defender." Castiel couldn''t help butment when they saw the attacking force of the 2nd year getting saved by Major Reeves.


    "Something is wrong here…" Luciano said causing everybody to frantically turn to him.


    "More beasts areing from the woods, but they are no longer mindlessly diving into the range of the Mother Tree." Luciano said with squinted eyes.


    "Yup something is definitely up." ke said as he saw the beasts continuously gathering but remaining at the outskirt of the Mother Tree''s range.


    Unlike the rest that was still trying to figure out what was going on, ke''s gut feeling was telling him that it was better they didn''t find out. "No wasting time, put on your floating straps."


    ke''s words brought back their attention to their main goal. After taking a few seconds to wear the floating straps, the team immediately took off but that was when the screech of insects resounded all the battlefield.


    "What the fuck!" As ke cursed when he saw 3 Knight rank armored praying mantises flying out of the woods and were heading for them at terrifying speeds.


    "We won''t make it to the wall. Brain I need you to make 3 earth pirs." ke instructed. Luckily for them they hadn''t gotten past the Mother Tree''s area of effect meaning they didn''t have to worry about the beasts attacking them, at least for now.


    The primary method of movement of the armored praying mantis was with is 4 wings. This was because they were twice as fast their speed onnd when they took flight, meaning ke''s team would be at a disadvantage if they were to battle in the air.


    "Any ns?" Brian felt pressured because to this were Knight rank beastsing their way.


    Not only did armored praying mantises have a very strong exoskeleton that made the damage they took from non-prative spells of their level negligible, but they were known for their speed and they had the perfect weapon to abuse it, their forelegs.


    The raptorial limbs of the armored praying mantises weren''t only spiked, they possessed razor-sharp des used for decapitating prey.


    "You guys can''t match up to their speed so focus on defending yourselves and Tessie." Luciano said.


    "Are you sure you will be okay?" Brian couldn''t help but ask because the attacks of the armored praying mantises were lethal and ke was the only one who could match their speed.


    "You don''t have to worry about me." Luciano said with a chuckle as a ck staff handle with inscriptions appeared in his hand.


    The handle extended into a golden staff with glowing golden des at its edges. With how shiny the golden staff was, even a retard would know that it was an epic tier weapon.


    ''This is very strange. Do you think the armored praying mantises are the one''s stopping the beasts from attacking or something higher in rank?'' Unlike the rest that were captivated by Luciano''s sword, ke was intrigued by how the once frenzied army of beasts had be dormant.


    ''Or is it the doing of the thing behind the beast tide? Either way, it means a sentient being should behind it.'' ke thought.


    It was pointless for the beasts to keep on attacking because they would die for nothing. So such amand could only be given by something smart.


    [I think you are forgetting the task at hand.] The system warned ke as the 3 armored were only seconds away from them.


    "Remember to y safe, we will be back when we are done with ours." ke said as he jumped off alongside Luciano to different earth pir while shooting out bolts of lightning at the knight rank insects.


    It took little to no effort for the armored praying mantises, but on seeing the humans split up smiled at the foolishness of humans and thanked them for making their hunting easier.