Jack tried again to knock the one that came at him. He waited until it stuck on his body before he hit it. But his second attempt was a bit late. The Volatile Firefly Ant already exploded by the time his claw hit the bug.
He cast Time Domain. He then repeated the process. With his speed increased and his enemies slowed, he could repeat what he had achieved on several occasions. Yet, it was not perfect. Some were hit too slowly so they already exploded before they left his body. Some were hit too fast so they were knocked away but didn't explode. Those ones quickly scurried back to him.
It all came down to timing, and Jack was trying to catch that timing.
His Gold Scale Armor ended and his Lightning God Suit was about to. Before it did, Jack unleashed Lightning God Barrage right on top of himself. Since the Volatile Firefly Ants were crowding around him, they received the full brunt of the divine skill.
Countless ants were killed. This method was more efficient than letting them explode. But divine skill a had long cooldown, so it was just a one-time spike in efficiency. Additionally, the ants were too many. The Lightning God Barrage didn't get them all.
His two defensive skills were gone. He was still in beast form and his Gold Dragon Vitality was still active, but he didn't feel confident since he still couldn't catch the right timing of knocking the ants away after they triggered their kamikaze explosion.
So, he flew up to attack the ants from above. He was just about to call the others to help him wipe out this remaining horde when the ants followed him up into the air.
"F*ck! They can fly…?!" Jack uttered.
"The reason they have firefly in their name is not simply because they glowed before they explode, you know," Peniel said.
Jack didn't have much time to think as those ants flew toward him. He cast Perpetual Lightning Judgement. Countless lightning snakes blasted the horde of Volatile Firefly Ants into bloody mists.
Only a few ants remained after that last assault. Jack sent the others a mental message to approach and help take care of these surviving ants. With so few left, everyone was able to take out the ants before they came into the melee range.
After they cleaned up the ants, Jack regrouped with them. Amy and Howard had leveled up to level 36. Even though they stayed at a safe distance, they were not too far so they still receive the exp from the Volatile Firefly Ants.
"It's too dangerous dealing with these ants without my defensive skills," Jack said. "Let's go hunt those cute walruses first. We will come back here again when my defensive skills are off cooldown."
So, they went away and hunted the Sabretooth Walruses again. After six hours passed, they returned to this area with the strange hills.
As before, Jack told them to keep a sufficient distance. He then used Beast Form.
He approached until one of the strange hills burst and exposed the hordes of Volatile Firefly Ants rushed out. He then retreated a bit to avoid triggering the other hills from bursting.
This time, Jack started the fight by using Lightning God Barrage, slaughtering many of the ants that were charging toward him. He then followed up by casting Perpetual Lightning Judgement and Judgement of Past Kings, greatly reducing the ants' number so that he could better practice.
When the ants came near, he activated Asura and Gold Scale Armor. He also cast Time Domain. As before, he slapped away many of the ants but let one of them attach to his body before striking just as it was about to explode.
He still couldn't get the perfect timing, but it was better than the previous session. Even only activating one defensive skill, he could still cope with the occasional slip where the ants exploded on his body.
When his Time Domain neared its end, he was almost perfect in slapping all the ants just as it was about to explode.
By the time his Time Domain finally ended, his Gold Scale Armor ended as well. He immediately activated Lightning God Suit. As he expected, without the Time Domain, his timing was off again so many ants managed to explode on him.
But with the experience he collected during the Time Domain, he slowly adjusted himself and increased his success percentage with each passing second.
By the time his Lightning God Suit ended, he decided to not flee. He used Gold Dragon Vitality to double his total HP. Peniel also cast Healing Field and was ready to heal him at a moment's notice.
However, Jack seemed to have already gotten the hang of it. The ants that touched his body were instantly slapped away and they exploded mid-air.
Jack also used Flash Step. Using this skill, his body shifted away just as the ant was about to explode. This skill had a short 10 seconds cooldown, so he abused it any chance he got.
There was still an occasional misstep where the ants blew up on his body, but this incident had become so few and far between that his own HP recovery was enough to bring him back to safety.
By the time his beast form ended, he was too into it that he decided to continue. Peniel was tense because in that state it took only two explosions to take Jack out. When it happened, she immediately used her Fast Heal.
Jack was astoundingly calm despite having that one slip. It didn't cause him to fail in dealing with the next ant that jumped onto his body. Even if Peniel didn't use her Fast Heal, he could still survive.
The others also came closer because they saw Jack continuing without any buff skill. They started throwing attacks. This caused them to draw some aggro from the ants. Some ants turned and rushed toward them.
Seeing this, Duke Alfredo cast Earth Walls. Blocking the ants from coming near. The walls failed to block some as the ants already crossed the area before the wall came up, but they were few so it was not a problem finishing them off.
After cleaning their side of the wall, Duke Alfredo told the rest to stay put while he flew up to help Jack from above. But he didn't need to. By the time he floated past his earth wall, he saw that only a few ants were left.
Those few ants soon died after exploding themselves.
Jack looked up at him and grinned. "Let's go hunt some more," he said.
