Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 411. Go wild, Mantis

The blade moved down toward the panther, and it tried to curve its body the same way it had before, only to realize that it wasn’t possible this time.

The pressure, and the already descending sword, made the panther slower.

Theo felt the sword strike the panther’s body and then cut down with almost no resistance.

It was the first time he had cut something with the sword since his aura manifested. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But even with its back cleanly sliced by nearly a quarter, the panther still tried to escape, blood pouring nonstop from the deep wound.

But for it, the world had never been fair to begin with.

The mantis turned into a streak of white light, and the next moment the panther’s head rolled across the ground.

The next instant, a notification popped up.

Theo let out a sigh of relief as the aura vanished from the sword. He collapsed onto his butt, exhausted due to the internal strain of pushing the sword with aura for so long.

The mantis, on the other hand, didn’t go for the head this time and went straight for the body. It began tearing into it with its mandibles, gobbling down huge chunks of flesh in a matter of seconds.

The other beasts joined in, clearing the area while Theo watched the gluttonous way the mantis devoured the corpse.

Rhys clapped a few times, making Theo look at him. Lucien simply smiled, though Theo couldn’t quite see what lay behind that smile.

"Your sword skills are still crude, but you did very well, young master," Rhys commented.

Theo was surprised to see that the sleepiness in Rhys’s eyes had completely disappeared.

"You did good. It’s just that Sir Rhys expects too much from you," Lucien added.

"I will be expecting the same for you, young master Lucien. You should be prepared," Rhys said before yawning again.

Lucien sighed with a small smile, while Theo felt a spark of curiosity.

"Sir Knight, are you going to train big brother too?" he asked.

Rhys nodded.

"I have been training him with the basics, and it’s surprising how quickly he is picking things up, young master Theo."

Theo smiled at that and nodded toward Lucien, but deep down, a small blaze ignited in his heart at that comment.

Without even realizing it, he had started competing with Lucien.

"How close is he to manifesting his aura?" Theo asked. But the moment the words left his mouth, he felt like it might have been rude; however, the cat was already out of the bag.

Lucien only seemed to smile.

"Sir Rhys says he can feel a bit of aura manifesting inside my heart. But it will still take some time."

"In a few months, I will prepare young master Lucien for the aura too," Rhys said casually. "That way you can practice with each other since you will be on the same level."

Theo’s eyes lit up with excitement at the comment, while Lucien looked embarrassed.

Being late to the party when it came to aura had its consequences, and Lucien could already see them.

Time passed, and soon the hunt became a little boring.

Lucien used his new panther to fight, but the battles were rather far too one-sided.

And it brought out one of Lucien’s bad tendencies.

Since the panther was highly experienced in solo hunts within the deeper parts of the forest, it went off and took care of beasts on its own, using techniques it had learned throughout its life.

But that also meant it didn’t always like taking orders from Lucien.

Theo felt like he could learn a lot from the way the panther was choosing its targets and attack points, but Lucien, on the other hand, was only frowning at the fact that the beast wasn’t listening to him and kept acting on its own.

Theo wanted to tell Lucien that this was a wrong way to handle it, but in the end, no matter how old he was in his mind, he was still an 11-year-old in everyone else’s eyes.

So the same madness continued until the panther finally began following Lucien’s commands completely.

Its killing speed decreased, but it still got the job done.

Theo made the mistake of asking about the favorability of Lucien’s beasts.

And the moment he did, Theo realized something else.

’He isn’t revealing anything to me... but I did tell him mine...’ Theo thought.

Their sibling dynamic suddenly wasn’t looking so good anymore.

Theo felt like he made a mistake when he previously shared things with Lucien while trying to ask for his advice.

But looking at the panther and then the ape, Theo was sure it couldn’t be more than 65%; he could clearly see they didn’t look happy.

By that time, the mantis had already dropped another Blaze Wing Eagle to the ground and came running to show it to Theo, who simply tossed it into the leather bag, with the beast’s blood still dripping from the corpse.

The bag was specially designed to seal the smell of blood while storing freshly killed beasts inside it, sometimes even humans.

By the time night came, both Theo and Lucien seemed done with each other.

Their ideals didn’t match. Their preferences were completely opposite. And all Lucien did was complain about how Theo was giving too much leeway to the mantis.

But at one point, when Lucien tried to bring up the same conversation again, Theo finally snapped, though respectfully.

"Big brother... I know you don’t like my ways. But my goals are completely different."

"I don’t have the time to give my beasts orders when I myself am fighting; they need to be self-sufficient for me to fight alongside them instead. Maybe one or two commands make sense, but controlling the whole life of the beast? No."

After Theo said that, Lucie fell silent.

He gave a single nod, but nothing more happened.

That night they slept peacefully, and Theo was sure of something now.

’My high stat in luck... and that fear of mantis’s aura.’

Theo couldn’t tell if Lucien had brought him along so that he could get used to the presence of a beast like the mantis and not freeze like he did back in the castle.

And then there was Theo’s luck stat.

Theo knew Lucien had struggled when he caused that uproar at the academy.

And that was the only reason Theo hadn’t snapped at him yet.

’If he sees me as a competition even after I told him I don’t want that Merricks’ head seat... then I guess there’s nothing left to talk about. This is how it’s supposed to be.’

Theo made up his mind.

His family had been helpful, yes. But there were always strings attached. Theo didn’t mind them entirely, yet a part of him disliked how he was being treated here.

Theo slept like a log that night, and when the morning came, he was the first to wake up.

As he looked around the quiet forest, he noticed a faint rustle at the far side of the forest clearing.

He turned his head in the direction.

There he saw a hand slowly come from behind the trees, an ape’s hand.

The creature didn’t show its body, but Theo recognized the same gesture from before.

He checked for any leftover food but found nothing, so he simply watched that hand with curiosity.

Then the ape’s head popped out, and Theo saw the beast making an incredibly creepy face.

It kept repeating the same gesture, while Theo just kept staring at it.

Rhys was the only one awake, watching the strange interaction between the two.

"You will know why young master Lucien was stopping you before," he muttered, making Theo even more curious.

He kept looking at the ape, who kept making the gesture.

With each passing minute, the creature grew more restless.

Its finger movements became rapid, and soon it was using its entire hand to make the gesture.

Until it literally started crashing out.

Theo saw madness flash in its eyes as it suddenly started roaring, sending the entire forest into an uproar.

Moments later, all the apes began emerging from the trees around.

They gathered like a gang, releasing threatening roars.

Theo stood up immediately, his sword already in hand.

The apes stopped at a distance, close enough that they could clearly see the whole group, but still far enough that the steam from the device didn’t irritate them.

Theo then saw the same ape stepping forward again...

...and it made the same gesture.

"These apes are said to possess intelligence close to humans," Rhys muttered. "But their bestial looks and tendencies make them very different from humans... well, from the average human anyway."

"That’s also why these beasts can only be tamed while they are children and never as adults."

Theo looked at Rhys, his eyes clearly asking why he was suddenly saying all that now, only for Rhys to yawn again.

"Your beasts are very different from the usual ones, young master. They listen to you when they are angry or scared. They are the epitome of ideal beasts, and you also treat them well."

"But our beasts are not like that. They need to be trained; otherwise, their wild nature takes over. Just like you, the baron doesn’t believe it either, but the number of cases of a beast killing their tamers is very high for a reason."

"So training is necessary," he said.

Theo finally realized.

"You just wanted to say I should keep my beast under control too, huh, Sir Knight?" Theo muttered with a tone he had never used before.

There was a hint of overconfidence lacing his voice.

A moment later, a beast materialized in front of him.

"Go wild, mantis."