[Before you go mental on those fireflies, you should know that you’ve spent 10 mana points already. That’s a lot for a little guy like you, do I have to keep reminding you? Be careful with how you spend your mana, please.] The system scolded him.

Tim looked at the ‘fireflies’ in the meantime, the same ones who soared above the grass, and as he watched them approach, he couldn’t help getting nervous. He also ignored the system entirely, as this was not the time to be greedy or cautious with his points! He had to survive!

Tim then looked down at the circle of grassy ashes, the very graveyard-like pit that he had caused. It was a foot away in front of him, and as he looked at it, he couldn’t help but piece a certain puzzle together. He guessed that the intense fire that he caused was what attracted these specific fireflies!

It was a firm theory, and it made him really nervous, so he thought. “Look at them go! I’d be damned if they were here to have a picnic, those bastards want fried, spider meat in their diet! I know it!”

With that considered, as the fireflies swiftly approached, they forced his hand in exchange, or foot, in this case. In the means of self defense, he summoned a couple of bolts of thunder at the very tip of his front legs, and then he bent those legs upwards as much as he could, just to aim properly. Then, he shot the bolts forwards!

The thunderbolts beamed above the grass and hit one of the fireflies in an instant, the collision was swift! He saw the target go down and crash like a little meteor, and as the target’s lumenus body diminished, he guessed that the shot he took was effective!

However, his attacks did not repel the five other ‘fireflies’ in the vicinity, he didn’t frighten them. In fact, they flew towards him even faster now, which was very alarming!

Tim, in response, shot out several bolts of lightning against them, in complete disregard for his mana. He didn’t care if he ran out of that stuff, he had to survive!

Furthermore, he guessed. “These fuckers are gonna try to set the grass on fire, and I’ll be damned if I run across a fiery patch of grass again, that’s far more dangerous than facing these motherfuckers! I’m not fucking running, this ends here!”

With that kind of fire in his belly, he was destined to win, the enemies got overwhelmed shortly, most of them at least. He kept shooting thunderbolts at them!

Then, he shot at a single firefly who had survived the prior storm of thunder that he had opposed against them, and the battle ended there. The offensive he took was successful, at some point he could even see an x-ray version of their insides, his thunderbolts were that effective! Their bodies were complex too, but they dropped like flies nonetheless!

[Congratulations, you won.] The system said, but a sarcastic undertone hid behind her words. [Your way of fighting was very efficient, well, not really. You used up another 15 of your mana points, but you survived, so I guess your high-spender nature is okay, kind of?]

“Yes, I did survive.” He followed along, and his legs unclenched the flower which he had climbed on.

Then, he asked. “What were those fiery motherfuckers anyway?”

[Devilish ants, Timeeth.] She answered, [They’re called devilish for a reason. Fire can kill them, yes, but in the event where these ants get burned alive, they get reborn, instantly, as sub-phantom beings. They’re not immortal, as you discovered, but in that form, they’re a lot more advanced, and dangerous!]

“Oh, that’s fantastic!” He remarked, in a sarcastic tone.

Tim became sarcastic as a natural response, because he was stressed. He was stressed, because he just realized that he hadn’t even ‘re-killed’ half of the devilish ants out there, which meant that more fireflies were to rise from their ashes soon! He hadn’t expected this at all, so he had let his guard down for a couple of minutes, he hadn’t been expecting any threats.

Then, all of a sudden, he was surrounded by a bunch of fireflies. He had been in an aloof state for a couple of minutes, but now he was in a really awkward and dangerous position!

Tim couldn’t escape, as the fireflies had surrounded him and were staring him down. Since he was up on a flower, the fireflies had snuck up on him from below, and gained the aforementioned advantage!

“Youch!” He then screamed.

The flower he was on, had apparently been set ablaze already, and the fire had gotten to him. Unlike what his blue, cool-looking rump would suggest, Tim, as a spider, was very vulnerable to fire. He wasn’t fire resistant, so he jumped up a little bit just to avoid the burning sensation below him!

Then, out of desperation, he summoned the extingus breath ability. It was summonable by thought alone, and its use was fit for the situation he was in.

Tim blew this special breath of his against the fire, and extinguished a part of the said fire. He ended up falling off of the flower, and got a bit burned along the way, but he survived.

[Health, -9 points.] The system then announced.

That looked like a big loss, health-wise, but it could’ve been worse. Tim was a vulnerable spider, and if his bodily durability had been any weaker, he would’ve been dead for sure! He was lucky to drop down from that tall flower, in one piece.

Anyway, as he fell down, he pierced through all the fire with his extingus breath ability, and made a mostly safe passage for himself. This power was free for him to use, as deflective powers inherently belonged to stingrays, however, he didn’t really care about mana right now. He escaped the fireflies by a whim, but that kind of luck may not last him forever.

Nine fireflies were on the chase, and it so happens that they could shoot out some kind of fireball too. With that considered, there were waves of fireballs falling down from above him, this happened only seconds later, and this was a situation that he had specifically tried to avoid!

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Tim panicked, as he tried his best to dodge the fireballs.

The magic deflecting, extingus breath he had, had thankfully gone through an elemental upgrade before. This meant that the blue mist he unleashed was more effective against the fire, but although that may be really helpful right now, there still were nine shooters in the air. He couldn’t run away from them forever!