"Are those snowflakes?

No, it can't be, they look different..."

Dio said somewhat confused, he was standing in one of the main seats, and was looking directly through one of the many windows.

"...Just in case, I'll activate Destiny Gu just in case."

A dense aura surged through all his pores, extending to all surrounds.

"Huh?

It can't be, if they're devoid of living tissue their luck would be almost ethereal and transparent, so why?

Furthermore, their luck is mostly gray almost black with tiny crimson traces."

He glanced at this with suspicion, somehow he could tell that whatever were those 'snow-flakes' was actually alive!

"EVERYONE, I'll retract my Gu House on around a minute, please, go outside your rooms and go to the main hall, there you'll be safe.

We're currently being exposed to a swarm of 'Flying-tick termites.'"

Dio closed his eyes, he glanced through his memories, principally those of the books he read on the past weeks.

"Flying-tick termites, they're a chimera of both ticks and termites, they're not a natural species on any ecosystem, rather, they're a mankind creation, specially designed to attach to the Gu houses, leeching off them and crushing them from the insides.

Even though they're not 'natural' they have integrated wonderfully to the ecosystems, they normally live inside the trees, and they only go out on the following months after the 'winter' which comes each ten years."

Despite the seemingly-high threat, he remained waiting patiently on his seat.

"Swoosh."

There was a swift change on the wind's flow once Ma Shan Hu took back that Gu on his aperture.

Dio looked without a shred of anxiety at those creatures.

He simply released a continuous stream of pink aura through all his body which formed a 'cape' behind his back.

That 'cape' was the materialization of Jin Strength Gu's +´the effect of 'Transforming the fat on gains' Gu.

During the past few weeks, Dio had been gathering many materials for the Refinement of this branch of Gu's.

This branch of Strength Gu worms despite they had a relatively weak effect were simply to easy to refine and use.

With the right preparations and some luck even a mortal could refine this Gu successfully.

During this time Dio had applied over 2 hundred Jin Strength Gu's on his body.

Dio's body seemed to be a limitless barrel which could carry an infinite amount of Strength Gu worms.

He called this Killer Move 'Body coat' and 'External Strength Jin aura', and it had the mystic effect of creating an ethereal invisible shield around him, which was composed of Jin Strength Gu's.

Those Jin Strength Gu's would then redirect the energy to his back and 'red cape' which was composed of fat and muscle tissue on its interior, and which had at its edges the remaining aura of some Jin Strength Gu's.

This Killer Move was Dio's crude attempt on surpassing both the effect of that Moon barrier Gu worm, and Limitless 'Law mantle.'

"Whoever who wishes to be safe, may hide behind my back."

Dio said plainly.

Yet, even without his warning, most of the mortals or low-ranked Gu masters hid behind him or other Gu masters, whilst a few cooperated with their nearby allies to strike down those 'Flying-tick termites.'

"Pck." "Pck."

Those bugs were squashed directly upon impact, anyone who dared to attack Dio was counter-attacked by his surging Jin Strength aura.

Each time that they're killed they'd release their dark green blood, which upon their deaths would slowly heat up and burn.

Hence, a continuous 'steam' was surging through them which was completely poisonous and that was increasing by the second.

Naturally this was yet another of the 'properties' of this artificial chimera.

"Those with frail lungs must duck or lay down, if you're too paranoid you can also dig yourself for another layer of reassurance."

Dio said calmly.

His pupils expanded, he saw that from afar there was yet another swarm of those creatures.

He frowned lightly and then added.

"Even though there's another wave don't worry too much about it, those chimeras have the natural instinct of avoiding their own blood-steam poison."

Naturally this was a mechanism that they developed so there would not be any unexpected chain reactions where a single explosion of a 'Flying-tick termite' would end up with the destruction of a whole swarm of those creatures.

...

The minutes passed.

"Hey, wait a second.

Why it seems that not only the amount of those 'swarms' don't seem to decrease, but they're even being increased steadily.

Why aren't they flying away?

Is almost as if...

Wait, don't tell me."

A piece of coal was shoot directly at over a 150 km's per hour.

Even though Dio had more than enough speed of reaction and movement to dodge them, he noticed that his own 'Jin Strength aura' was getting on the way.

As he had intended his 'aura' was thin as the air when something of a low speed or force attacked him, yet, when there was a huge force, his 'thin aura' would become like a saw which would cut and slash anything into countless pieces on the blink of an eye.

Upon contact the piece of coal shattered into countless fragments, the sounds of those 'sparkles' surged on each and every stone, until one of them was ignited.

The flammable dark green steam directly reacted with the ignited coal and suddenly there was a huge explosion on all corners.

Dio turned his back, most of the mortals behind him were reduced to a pile of mashed meat and bones, whilst some of the weaker Gu masters were heavily wounded.

He turned his head to his sides, and as he expected the situation wasn't all that different on all flanks.

The more worrisome thing was that across all the directions, the trees began to tremble they released a myriad of vines which formed multiple walls which were progressively caging them all.

Upon witnessing all those events Dio couldn't help but smile bitterly.

They're under attack.

Not by a wild beast of course, but a Gu master.

A Gu master specialized on controlling 'swarms' and 'groups' with ease.

His opponent was an Enslavement path Gu master.

"Ma Shan Hu, that swarm of 'Flying tick termites' was a huge trap.

Their intent was no other than to make you take back our Gu house on your aperture, we can't fall on his trap, activate the Gu once more."

Dio said desperately, but Ma Shan Hu simply sighed and replied.

"The activation of a rank 4 Gu would take a bit more than a 40% of Primeval Essence from a rank 3 peak stage aperture, are you sure you want me to activate its effect?"

The two glanced at each other.

"Sigh, let's call the others."

Ma Yan Luy you'll take control of the Water Gu masters and support Gu masters, your role will be to treat the wounded and to support the frontlines."

"Ma Xu Zhen you'll be the general who will command the Fire, Sword and Strength Gu masters."

"As for me, I'll guide the attacks on all flanks and I'll try to track them, as I am the strongest or at least second strongest on this group."

"And I Dio, will crush all those vines and destroy all those swarms before they approach, with my 'Ripple Phantoms.'

Thanks to my almost limitless resistance I can remain on the frontlines and overwhelm my opponents with my strength.

But, if for some reason this is not enough I'll either go with Ma Shan Hu to support him on his search or I'll go with Ma Yan Luy to treat the wounded with my special Blood path Gu's..."

Ma Shan Hu and Dio spoke one after the other.

During those last weeks, those two had been cooperating closely, those two were the two main leaders of this group.

In all this time, those two had gotten a comprehensive understanding on the other's side trump cards.

Dio took a long breath.

A lot of his flesh began to burn into a crisp with tiny sparkles of green, red, yellow flames.

Those flames of all colors looked almost like fireworks.

"Charcoal Speedy Fireworks."

Dio's feet became blurry his speed rose sharpy and he moved at an unbelievably speed.

Such a speed was only possible for him after combining so many of his techniques into one.

He used multiple Gu's such as 'Transforming the fat into gains' and 'Lifting the load off' to rip his own flesh, which he then burn into a 'crisp.'

The explosions of his own burnt flesh were concentrated into a certain space by Dio, he managed to do this by controlling the airflow precisely.

To prevent any loss of energy through friction or through an explosion on a 'wrong' direction he used yet another technique to isolate the air completely, extinguishing all the flames that were useless to him.

And now?

Even now he was aiming to improve even further his technique, as he was activating constantly his Killer Move 'Aggressive Learning.'

As he moved, a swarm of poisonous insects flew around him.

Even though he was crushing them with ease, Dio's expression was ugly.

"This...

It lines with the records, this must be a rank 4 Blood Guillotine Gu.

Those insects...

They leech off human's flesh and other living creatures, the more they eat the stronger they become.

The more of us they kill the stronger they'll become."

Dio gritted his teeth.

"8-directional Ripple Phantoms."

"Charcoal Explosive Fireworks."

A pink aura surged around him, he threw multiple Strength phantoms at all directions, with all his strength he was purging those insects and was cleaning the land with pure, brute force.

He had his two arms extended, which were now burning again.

His burnt flesh flew at all directions, then, with a swift movement Dio ignited one of those pieces of his flesh, which started a new chain reaction.

"Boom!" "Boom!"

Multiple explosions with red, green and blue sparks surged at all directions.

Due to Dio's proficient control he redirected those sparkles of light towards those poisonous insects, which exploded in succession upon starting contact.

This was the true ingenuity of his special technique.

After starting this chain reaction, Dio then began to attack those poisonous insects, and those enslaved beasts he saw.

"Weakling, weakling, weakling!"

A golden porcupine tilted its body towards Dio and threw all its quills directly towards him.

A rain of golden needles were shoot towards him, but, he used 'External Jin Strength aura' to destroy all the projectiles with ease.

"Useless, Useless, useless."

Dio's aura expanded even further, he slashed everything he saw.

After fighting for a few minutes Dio's violent nature came to light, he couldn't resist his urge to laugh heartily upon the pile of corpses and opponents he was beheading, cutting in half, slashing piercing or directly smashing.

The rest of the group looked at Dio with enthusiasm, at this point they're unfazed by those violent tendencies of Dio.

"Come on, show yourself.

Die with a shred of dignity and face me, hah, whether you like it or not you'll be found sooner or later.

Hah, before that you may try to escape, but those desperate efforts will only reveal your location and prove how cowardly and meek you truly are.

...

So, show yourself.

...

You're really starting to annoy me.

...

BASTARD WHERE YOU ARE?"

Dio slashed madly, at this point he was really starting to get tired of this little 'game.'

He glanced coldly at multiple seeds and sprouts which were surging from beneath the dirt.

"Go on, exhaust all your resources and die of hunger in the stress, at this pace, this is the only thing you'll achieve."

Multiple pines appeared from the ground, and multiple saplings appeared at all directions.

Those sapplings held at their core multiple rank 1 Gu's, among them there were a dozen of Pine Needless Gu's which shoot a rafage of branches and leaf's towards Dio.

Their quantity was as high as the drops of water on the rain, it was such amount that Dio was overwhelmed by this sheer amount and he simply didn't had the time to dodge nor activate his external Jin Strength aura.

But that didn't matter, Dio remained still on the ground and took all those impacts directly.

And then, he simply began to walk slowly towards those saplings, then, he directly smashed them with his fists.

If those Gu's survived, he'd take them to his aperture, otherwise he'd left the scattered fragments on the ground.

"You see?

The only one who is benefiting from all of this is me, Dio.

All your efforts are pointless."

"You're right, so I guess is about time I reveal one of my trump cards."

A voice said from seemingly nowhere.

Multiple wooden statues appeared at all directions from the ground.

Dio's eyelids twitched upon noticing that those 'statues' were the corpses of those he killed during all this fight.

Another thing that amazed him is the fact that those wooden statues were all activating Gu worms.

"How many?

How many Gu's do you have, bastard!"