Mysticism was often where things turned when they hit a developmental bottleneck.
As a result, it often had a considerable effect on reshaping one's worldview.
Take Ess, whose drive had been unwavering all this time. Even she was now experiencing an emotion called self-doubt, clearly shaken to a considerable degree.
Fortunately, she didn't have much time to question her life.
As she warily watched Fu Qian, a strange sound suddenly came from the corpse grub's direction.
To be sure, Ess was alert enough to keep the other two in the corner of her eye, even with Fu Qian as her main concern. But the change happened far too quickly.
The corpse grub, which had been crawling slowly, was still inching forward with determination. It hadn't suddenly leaped at her.
Instead, the part that might loosely have been called its head suddenly split open into several petals.
A twisted, gnarled spear, seemingly assembled from countless bone fragments, shot across the remaining distance and stabbed straight into her chest.
Caught off guard by the surprise attack and already distracted, Ess was finally too slow to dodge and took the hit squarely.
Although she wore the Golden Breastplate on her chest as her bonded equipment,
as Fu Qian had complained earlier about the Amazon Warrior, this breastplate, supposedly suited to her temperament, only covered one side, from her left shoulder to her right hip.
The attack had struck the unprotected side.
Blood sprayed as the pale bone spear pierced straight through her right breast.
The tremendous force slammed Ess against the wall behind her.
Crack!
But she was quick to react. Almost the instant she was hit, her right hand, clad in an arm guard, slashed down hard on the bone spear.
With a sharp crack, the spear snapped in two, and she