As the cockroach monsters entered Rocky's senses, he could easily tell that the smallest of the swarm was the size of an adult cat.
Rocky couldn't be sure what the maximum size was, but what his senses picked up was that some of them were as big as a full-grown cow.
Lylah stared with a pale face as both hands pointed her small stick at the crowd of cockroach monsters.
"Yes... don't come any closer! Master, how is this?" she shouted.
On the other side, the Master Sage remained calm and began to cast a spell. As soon as he finished, a magic circle appeared and immediately disintegrated into tiny balls of light surrounding them.
Rocky knelt down and hugged the frightened Lylah. I don't know if it worked, but in the midst of what seemed to be a dangerous panic, the hug provided a sense of security.
Lylah, being hugged by Rocky, immediately returned the hug and buried her face in it. Even though the hug felt tight, she didn't seem to care; at times like this, a tight hug was the only protection she felt.
Meanwhile, the cockroach monsters flew towards Master Sage's garden, and the creatures called golems that guarded the garden also ran over.
An immediate battle ensued until the two met; the golems attacked fiercely and destroyed the attacking cockroach monsters, while the cockroach monsters bit the golems to pieces, but in vain as the golems continued to regenerate.
Rocky turned to Master Sage, who was watching the battle. Rocky's senses picked up that the cockroach monsters - the smallest of which was the size of a full-grown cat - were racing to take the vegetables grown in Master Sage's garden. Master Sage himself, though Rocky had no eyes, seemed to sense their gaze and turned his head.
When he saw Rocky kneeling down to hug Lylah, Master Sage could only feel disappointment in himself and said, "Lylah... calm down. You won't be able to improve unless you go beyond your limits."
Hearing that, Lylah slowly peered out from behind Rocky's body, "Ba-well, Master Sage! I-I'll try," she said with a shaking voice.
Although Rocky could not see Lylah's expression for sure, he was sure that Lylah's fear was not mere disgust, but a deep trauma stored in her heart.
Gradually, Lylah let go of his embrace and quickly grabbed her stick. Suddenly there was a sound:
"Snap!... boom!"
Master Sage's magical armor shattered and something hit Rocky, sending him flying. Suddenly, Lylah yelled, "Rocky!"
The scream immediately made several cockroach monsters aware of her existence. Meanwhile, Master Sage, realizing that his protection and distraction magic had broken, immediately cast an attack spell.
As soon as the spell was completed, hundreds of magic circles appeared in all directions, shooting elemental orbs at the cockroach monsters at an abnormal speed.
"Stay by my side, Lylah!" Master Sage shouted sternly.
Lylah, who was about to run towards Rocky, fell silent at the command. She raised her wand to her forehead and began to cast spells.
The same thing happened again; many magic circles, though not as many as Master Sage's, appeared with smaller diameters and emitted spears and arrows that shot out in all directions.
Unlike Master Sage's elemental orbs, which were always on target, Lylah's magic was fired randomly, sometimes allowing the cockroach monsters to dodge.
Things got worse when one of the golems bounced off and landed not far from them. Quickly, the Master Sage pulled out several pieces of paper with a complete magic circle drawn on them. He threw the sheets of paper, and the circle glowed vividly as it unleashed several powerful magical attacks that caused the golems to bounce.
"Damn! I'm underprepared!" muttered Master Sage.
Meanwhile, Rocky sensed from afar that they were now cornered. He did not know what to do next.
When he tried to get up, Rocky found that most of his body was now loose around his abdomen and legs, and his right hand was destroyed.
Although their bodies began to regenerate, Lylah and Master Sage's condition didn't give them much time.
Almost simultaneously, several goat-sized cockroach monsters, each with two claws in their mouths, came at him.
Rocky had goose bumps all over his body; he wanted to scream, but he was unable to make a sound other than the scraping of stones.
"Crawl..." an insect screeched, drawing more insects closer. Rocky was resigned, but suddenly the insects began eating the vegetables beneath him. Not long after, a cat-sized insect approached Rocky and immediately burrowed into his glowing chest.
Panicked, Rocky quickly chased the insect away. At a glance, he also sensed that there was a golem surrounded by similar insects.
The golem kept digging, until one day an insect picked up a crystal decorated with many carvings. As soon as the crystal was released, the golem was instantly destroyed.
Rocky panicked even more, afraid that the insects in his chest would do the same. He tried to chase away the insect that was digging into his chest, but the insect's legs had attached themselves to his body and were digging freely into his chest. In a panic, Rocky punched one of the insects hard in the head.
"Breck... dak!"
Immediately, a strange viscous liquid splashed everywhere, and Rocky's chest showed large cracks from the overpowering blow, not from the insects' scratches.
Rocky then looked at the insect carcass on his chest and found a purple crystal, similar to the mana stone he had eaten. The crystal appeared to be about the size of Lylah's little finger.
Driven by curiosity, Rocky quickly ate the crystal.
"Crack... crack..."
Without waiting long, a miracle happened; the boulder rolling towards him accelerated and instantly merged with his body.
Though confused by his new condition, Rocky's now-recovered right hand gave him the courage to fight the bugs again while he waited for his legs to recover. (He now looks like a character from Getting Over It.) Master Sage, on the other hand, is overwhelmed by the insects and golems. He had to constantly rack his brain to kill the agile insects while keeping the golems away from him.
The main reason he can't destroy the guardian golems is because he fears that there will be no replacement for them in the future. So far, the golems have been controlling the insects in the underground dungeon where he lives.
Note that the golems cannot reproduce; they are humanoid creatures that move and work according to what is hardwired into their bodies. Don't think of them as Korg or The Thing - they're more like robots.
Master Sage didn't want this golem-filled dungeon to turn into a nest of insects that would plague him in the future; even though he had lived there for a long time, he still hadn't discovered the origin of the creation of the golems and other creatures there, due to his limited time in the palace-like dungeon whose parts could move on their own.
Concentrating too much on the enemy, the master wizard realized too late that an insect monster had penetrated his defenses.
Desperately, he took out a piece of magic paper from his robe and created a shock wave that caused the insect monster to jump away.
"Master!"
Lylah's cry startled Master Sage, who turned to see that his student had also been thrown several meters out of the magic circle dome he had created. He tried to get over, but several golems blocked his path.
Before Master Sage could deal with the menacing creatures, an elephant-sized insect monster suddenly appeared out of nowhere, its claws wide open, ready to devour anything in its path.
Master Sage didn't have time to cast another spell, and right in front of his eyes, the insect began to turn its mouth on Lylah.