Not much happened while Vincent was away. Lupa glared at the ant. She held her racing heart to calm down. Lupa wanted to do what Vincent warned her not to do, which was to stay cautious at all times. But keeping a calm mind took a lot of effort for the impatient wolf girl. Koss assessed the situation to the best of his capabilities. He also kept an eye on Vincent after receiving a hit with an attack that sliced metal shields. But after seeing no arms flying in the air, Koss wanted to ask what the gauntlets were made of. 'The durability will increase the army's survivability if we had a material stronger than metal like Vincent's mysterious gauntlets.' Koss thought. Culo and Hara slowly pulled themselves up after getting thrown. They held on to each other as the hit made their head ring. It took a few seconds for their balance to return, but the numbness of their numb hands from blocking the attack remained. It became harder to hold the shield. The Royal Guard Ant was annoyed by the cold blade stuck in its lower thorax. The ant possessed no blunt or soft hands to remove Elsir. It only had sharp scythes. The ant decided to cut the sword in half and deal with removing the blade inside its body later. However, Elsir was an Artifact grade weapon with unknown runes engraved in it. The blade's toughness was unmatched, or the best word to describe its toughness was is unknown. A scythe appendage swung down at the cold hiltless sword and... *Clang* Nothing happened to Elsir. Not only the blade didn't get cut, it didn't receive a scratch as well. The swing's force drove the sword down. Like a seesaw, half of the cold blade went up, cutting the insides. The remaining half of the cold blade with the hilt went down. The Royal Guard Ant delivered a critical blow to itself. Regrettably, the ant's vital organs are at the abdomen, where the acid sack is. Blood gushed for a few seconds before no more leaked. Elsir was actually freezing the blood, so the opportunity to bleed the Royal Guard Ant to death wasn't possible. The enraged Royal Guard Ant stared at Vincent with enough bloodlust to send a shiver down his spine. It squinted its eyes in anger and fiercely rushed towards him. Lupa saw the new recruits staring at their shields in disbelieve. 'Is my hand holding a metal shield? or is it a paper shield?' the two pondered similar thoughts. Lupa became angry that Vincent was trying his best while the two new recruits remained motionless. She threw a rock at them. The clanging sound against their metal armor broke their confusion. They turned their gaze and noticed Lupa. She pointed with her finger to look at the Royal Guard Ant rushing at Vincent like a mad bull. "Understood. " Koss uttered after understanding her intention. He glanced at Culo and Hara. Then said, "You coming or what?" Lupa lowered on all fours and sprang forward like a professional sprinter, leaving a trail of mud falling behind. Koss held the piece of metal that once was a shield and ran behind the sprinting Lupa. Culo and Hara unwillingly followed Koss's order and ran behind him. Royal Guard Ant swung two scythes at Vincent. The wind whistled from the momentum of each scythe approaching Vincent. However, the human glaring at the monstrous ant made a maneuver it didn't expect. Vincent clenched his fists and extended both arms to form a guard. The intention to block the attack was in his mind, yet he wanted more. He wanted to do as Koss did and make his body heavier not to get thrown away for the second time. Vincent focused on the mana surrounding his body. He tried to reject the mana like he did many times, but a problem suddenly occurred, the mana didn't get rejected. Instead, it started to get absorbed into his blood gauntlet. The scythes reached the gauntlets, and when the sharp edges touched the hardened mutated blood gauntlets... *Boom!* [Overheat forcefully deactivated.] [Host Race returning to human.] The blood gauntlets exploded, sending Vincent flying a few meters until falling on the ground. Fragments of hardened mutated blood turned to dust after the strange unintentional deactivation. The Royal Guard Ant took the blast at point-blank. However, the ant didn't get injured by the blood gauntlet's fragments. The fragments barely penetrated its hard carapace, and soon, they turned to dust a few seconds later. Such an unplanned abrupt explosion caused the Royal Guard Ant to stagger and take a few steps back. The four running to attack from behind got the perfect opportunity to do so. Lupa heard a loud blast followed by Vincent flying away from the mysterious explosion that occurred. Enraged by what happened to her mate, such anger empowered her legs to move faster and jump higher. Lupa lunged at the staggered monstrous ant with all she had. Lupa swiftly landed on the acid sack. She extended her fingers and furiously swung her claws two times each before Koss, Culo, and Hara arrived. Koss stabbed the acid sack with the piece of metal that was once a shield. The two new recruits stabbed after Koss with their sword. Surprisingly, the acid sack, which also contains most of the Royal Guard Ant's vital organs, wasn't very hard. It was easy to stab, unlike the other parts of the ant's body. However, Koss quickly noticed a dangerous problem and shouted, "Stop holding the swords and back away this instant!" The small piece of metal shield and the two swords started to melt quickly. The metal appeared to bend like plastic left in the sun until it became almost like melted toffee . Not only that, but acid started leaking from the wounds they inflicted. A droplet on the skin would melt their flesh in the blink of an eye. This also raised the question, why doesn't Vincent's blood gauntlets not melt in a similar fashion. *Skroarrr* The Royal Guard Ant screeched in agony as it furiously turned its body. Lupa was standing on the acid sack when the sudden twist threw her off. Koss, Culo, and Hara managed to retreat by jumping back in a hurry. Lupa tried to land on all fours like she always did, but suddenly, she felt her fingers itching in mid-air. Her assertive golden eyes noticed her claws covered with acid. The claws were melting and her white fur as well. Lupa twisted her body to spin and fling the acid on her claws off. Her plan worked, but at the cost of slamming on the ground and getting hurt. The enraged and injured Royal Guard Ant inflated its throat. Acid dripped from its mouth. Then its gaze locked on Lupa. The ant was about to shoot acid at her. [The damn ant is targeting Lupa with an acid attack! Hurry and get up.] Vincent quickly pulled himself up. "Overheat!" He uttered before sprinting to Lupa as quickly as he possibly can. [Overheat activated.] [Mutation starting to alter the host...] [Mutation process finished.] [Race altered to mutated human for its duration.] Lupa was on the ground. She was slowly trying to get up, but it seemed she landed badly and got hurt. Lupa raised her gaze at the monstrous ant and saw a ball of acid shooting from its mouth. Lupa closed her eyes as she knew she couldn't move out of the way in time. 'I wanted to be with my mate more.' She disappointedly thought with her eyes closed. *Tsss* *Swish* Vincent arrived in the nick of time and swung both his arms at the incoming deadly projectile. The acid splashed, and time slowed to a stop. [I'm using Soul Vist in this critical situation, but... why did you have to rush without thinking?] Vincent's vision turned dark. Kazumi and the patch of emerald grass appeared next. [It would've been better if you use the mudcrab shell and catch the acid ball like a baseball player.] -Thank you, but I couldn't calmly think when I was about to see Lupa melt... - [I understand, but I'm afraid for both of you. Furthermore, I also feel guilty for not mentioning this plan beforehand. Sometimes I forget we think differently.] -The chance to summon the shell is over now, but if I can move my hands... Yes, I can do that. Kazumi, I'm ready to continue. - [Then. I will do my best to support you.] Vincent closed his eye, and the view of the frozen world returned. Time started to tick slowly, and the acid splattering everywhere beginning to move. Vincent grunted and placed everything he had to reject the mana to his gauntlets to increase their resistance. He also hoped to recreate the same gauntlet exploding result. But the chance for the explosion to occur was unknown. Vincent had to act on a contingency plan. Vincent focused on his swinging arms to move where the droplets of acid headed for Lupa. As the control over his body started to return, the gauntlets began absorbing the mana and the arms moving as he wanted. However, a mysterious thing happened. The gauntlets didn't only absorb mana in order to explode, but they also absorbed the acid covering them. Suddenly, a message appeared. [Overheat has mutated to stage two.] [Mutation effect changed from 75% stat increase to 50% stat increase and 6 stat increase per every [Blessed Retainer]] [Current total stats - Strength 30, Agility 29, Perception 27, Mana 18] *Boom!* [Overheat forcefully deactivated.] [Host Race returning to human.] The blood gauntlets exploded once again, pushing all the acid away and throwing Vincent on Lupa. Vincent opened his eyes and noticed Lupa worryingly looking at his arms from above. His head rested on her lap. Vincent could see the plan worked flawlessly as Lupa wasn't injured. [Don't worry. You saved Lupa and didn't get hurt because of the exploding gauntlets. Your Overheat also leveled up.] "Vincent, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" Lupa worryingly asked. On the other side, Ester and Tula couldn't see what happened. They only heard the second loud blast. "I'm glad you are safe. Can you help me get up? Your lap pillow is making me sleepy, hehe." Vincent joked to lighten the mood and stop thinking about death. "OK. " Lupa replied with a smirk. She pulled herself up and then helped Vincent to stand. She soon noticed Vincent's injured leg was bleeding. The wound became worse after frantically running to save her life. *Skroarrr* The Royal Guard Ant suddenly screeched in agony. It was the same sound as when it got injured, so Vincent and Lupa turned their gaze and noticed why.