Yang was momentarily grateful that the ant didn't jump at her again but quickly changed her mind when the huge bug easily dodged her attack as she tried to bring her ax down on it. Before she could react, the ant was able to lock its jaws around her armored shin and then it squeezed.

The instant the insect began tightening its mandibles Yang felt a painful pressure on her leg. Before she even had the thought to shake it off she heard her armor beginning to splinter, and the pain grew. Yang had a terrible certainty that the Iron Ant was holding on too tightly to be simply shaken off, and so she brought her ax down on the insect, aiming for the base of its neck where the carapace was likely to be weakest.

Although the attack landed cleanly and left a small scratch, the Iron Ant ignored it thanks to the effects of [TAUNT], continuing to crunch down on Yang's leg. The bug's jaws were digging deeper into the armor and the pain grew with every second. Recognizing that her ax was currently useless, she dropped it and grabbed the ant by the thorax, feeling a desperate need to get rid of the insect.

As Yang had leveled up and increased her total HP, her sense of pain had seemed to grow duller. Since it was now harder to damage her, percentage-wise, her body was no longer registering certain amounts of injury. The small cuts she always got from sharpening her ax were no longer painful because the damage they dealt, even if it was enough to show up in the menu, was just too insignificant for her body to care.

The Iron Ant was terrifying to her now. The ant's toughness was intimidating, but its bite was painful in a way that she hadn't felt for weeks now, not since her first fight with the Moss Wolves. If she was feeling it that much now, it meant that this bug that wasn't even a foot tall was currently tearing chunks out of her massive HP, even through her overpowered armor!

"GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!" She screamed as she pulled at the insect with all of her might, her voice filled with anger but tinged with fear.

Fortunately, while the ant's damage output was massive, that didn't fully translate to grip strength and Yang's full strength was more than enough to pull it off. She flung the bug in a random direction, instinctually wanting to put as much distance between her and it as possible.

'Fuckfuckfuck, why the hell is a damn bug so strong?!'

~~~~~

The airborne ant was thrown against a nearby tree, not bouncing off as it grabbed the tree trunk with its legs. It quickly went scampering down the tree before charging back to Yang. The Iron Ant completely ignored Loran as he ran up to it and began swinging his picks again; this time Loran focused less on hitting the ant as hard as he could and more on landing as many attacks as he could to keep the ant pinned in place. As he attacked, Loran nervously took in a quick breath. With [DANGER SENSE] at Lv.10 he was able to sense his surroundings relatively easily, and he noticed that Yang was trying to move away from him and the Iron Ant with slow jerky movements.

'She's limping?! The thing only attacked her for a few seconds, how the hell is she limping?!'

In his shock, Loran accidentally let up slightly on his attacks, giving the ant enough of an opening to go after Yang again. Loran didn't react in time and within a second the Iron Ant was once again clamping its jaws down on Yang. However, while Yang was still nervous, she was ready for the ant's attack. The instant it bit her she pulled it off with her free hand, and instead of tossing it away, she forced it to the ground, pressing her shield against its neck to make sure that it couldn't bite her hand.

The Iron Ant was certainly strong as it struggled in her grip, hissing and clicking furiously, but Yang held the advantage in STR and in weight. Keeping it pinned was difficult, but the ant would not be breaking free anytime soon.

"Loran!" She shouted, her voice steady now that the ant was mostly contained. "Get over here and squash this fucking bug!"

"Don't need to tell me twice."

Raising his picks, Loran brought down a barrage of attacks on the Iron Ant's head, focusing each attack on the same spot. With every blow landing right on top of the ant's head, the visible damage quickly piled up. Soon Loran was rewarded with the sound of a sharp crack as the carapace of the Iron Ant's head split open. Finally given an opening, Loran flipped one of his picks around and brought the sharp point down, piercing through the chink in the ant's armor and destroying the soft flesh within.

The insect went still in Yang's hand as the two of them received the EXP reward for a successful kill. It took her a moment to realize that she could let go and when she did all the tension left her body. Falling backward, Yang just barely managed to stop herself from going completely flat on the ground.

"Yang, are you alright? How's your leg?" Loran hastily asked, using [ANALYSE] almost on reflex.

[NAME]: Yang

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 11

[EXP]: 12000/1600

[STATUS]

{HP}: 475/697.5

{SP}: 38.5/232.5

[ARMOR]: 45

[END]: 31(+15.5)

[STR]: 25

[AGI]: 10(-5)

[DEX]: 10

[PER]: 10

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 3

[SKILLS]

[HP BOOSTER] Lv.10

[HUNTER] Lv.10

[STALWART] Lv.10

[SHIELD BASH] Lv.10

[STRONGER SHIELDS] Lv.10

[TAUNT] Lv.10

[TENACIOUS] Lv.10

[DEBUFFS]

[MILD BONE FRACTURE]

Remaining Duration: 3 Days, 23 Hours, 50 Minutes, 45 Seconds

Reduce AGI by 50%.

Extended exertion of the affected limb will inflict [BROKEN LEG].

"I'll be alright," she said while removing the armor on her lower leg. Rolling up her pants leg revealed an intense red bruise circling her shin and calf, her face scrunched up as she gingerly rubbed the area. Opening her menu, Yang sighed as she noticed both her HP and the new debuff, confirming her earlier suspicions. "Damn, that thing did more damage than a whole wolf pack."

"Shit, there's no way we can make it back to the village like this."

"No, I can keep going," her face flinched as she put pressure on her left leg. "It hurts like a bitch but I can still walk."

"For how long though? You can see the debuff too, your leg will break with enough stress." He gestured towards the transport sled. "Even if we decide to leave the wolves behind, it's a long way back and your armor is just going to make things worse."

He was right and Yang knew it. As strong as the Maple Wood Armor was, it was a very inefficient material to make armor out of and was nearly 200 pounds. The only way they could really expect to make it back to the village was by leaving behind the wolves, the armor, and having Loran support her to make sure the leg didn't break on the way back.

"We'll set up camp until you recover," Loran decided.

"You want us to stay out here for four days?" she asked incredulously.

"We have plenty of meat and I can gather up some berries. More importantly, if we get attacked we need to be in peak condition. If we try going back, we would need to ditch your armor, and I would end up needing to defend you more."

"I can |Tank with just my HP, and I still have these," she said pulling out a pouch. Inside was one of the new items discovered over the last month, HP Potions. They were actually dried medicine balls, about the size of a gumball, but they were NEO's basic healing item, so the name stuck.

[NAME]: HP Potion

[RARITY]: 3

[QUALITY]: Common

[TYPE]: Consumable

[EFFECT]: Restore 5% of your total HP over 10 seconds.

[DESCRIPTION]

A medicine created by mixing Wolf's Boon and Energy Berries. Mildly restores HP.

"How many?"

"Five, which for me means nearly 200 HP."

"So about as much as you lost the last time you hunted with basically no armor," he pointed out, "plus that time you ended up with some of the worst debuffs we've seen."

"But-"

"Plus there were five of us that time, also you'll be fighting with a handicap thanks to your leg."

"...."

"We have a better chance of getting back alive if we hole up here for a while."

"....Haa, okay," she conceded, sitting down against a nearby tree, "I guess we're camping then."

"Yeah, which means I'll be doing set up." Loran took a look around. "Let me borrow your ax so we can get a fire going." As he held out his hand, he tossed her one of his Bone Picks to make sure that she wasn't unarmed.

"Okay," she said, trading her weapon for his as she stood up again. "I'm going to head over to the river."

"Alright, we'll set up there."