The ant-like creature wasn’t naked. It actually wore a light-blue dress suit, buttoned up, with a white undershirt and a black tie tucked under the jacket. If the feet weren’t giant hairy ant claws covered in spikes, it would probably be wearing dress shoes as well!

“Ugly?! How am I ugly?!” Jade clenched her glowing orange fists, “Ollie! Am I ugly?!”

“Are you serious right now?!” Oliver conjured up a pointy metal stick and threw it like a javelin, but it was easily avoided by the agile movements of the strange creature. The pole disappeared before it could be embedded in the wall and a mining pick quickly clashed against the bug’s upper right forearm.

“I’m very serious!” Jade practically teleported over and punched her fist straight through that ant-like head, causing it to explode violently and shake the whole house! Oliver created an angled barrier made of Uranium, while she just took the blast straight to the face with only a few small skin injuries. Which ‘healed’ within moments.

“Ouch! Damn Brats!” Another short ant-headed creature appeared behind Oliver and plunged its claws into his back, “Aren’t you even going to ask who I am?! Why am I attacking you?! Nothing?! I had a whole speech prepared! Assholes!”

“Ow…” Oliver groaned as his helmet, air tank and face mask all vanished simultaneously.

“Ollie!” Jade reached out and caused the solid stone ground to warp, wrapping around the bug’s body and quickly encasing it completely like concrete! Oliver moved the thin wall of Uranium behind his back and blocked the shards of stone that blasted outwards as shrapnel! 

“I’m fine! Probably!” His face was already turning purplish-red and tiny black ants started crawling out of his skin, “Okay, maybe I’m not fine! Shit!”

However, instead of exploding, they just fell out onto the floor, curled up and died. As they disappeared, they left behind tiny pieces of silver metal that glowed bright green in the eyes of Oliver and Jade.

“Ew~! Miners always taste so disgusting!” Another ant-person emerged from another room, coughing and gagging, with acidic green liquid spurting out of its mouth, “How are you even still alive?!”

“I wanna ask you that! Bastard!” Oliver got rid of the Uranium barrier and conjured a silvery-gray sledge hammer instead. He darted over and slammed the hammer down towards the ant-like head but, this time the strange creature dodged and quickly avoided the dozens of tiny stones that were wheezing around its body.

“I think he’s running outta energy, Ollie!”

“Even if he doesn’t wanna explode-” The bloody man grinned and conjured up a stick of dynamite, which he lit by touching the fuse to Jade’s outstretched palm. The whole ground warped around the three of them. Pretty soon the bug was trapped within a layer of stone with a stick of dynamite. But then they just pulled out the fuse…

“What kind of lunatic conjures dynamite in their own home?!”

“If it breaks, we’ll just build a new one!” Jade snickered and shot out a scorching hot stone fragment through the wall that rippled like liquid. The dynamite detonated the moment it was hit! Fortunately, she hardened the stone and then Oliver also created a concave ‘wall’ of Uranium which focused the blast away from the two of them. Their poor house was still devastated though!

“Stupid Kids! I’m not even really here!” Another bug-person rapidly formed in the dusty room, which was rapidly recovering under Jade’s precise control. He stood near the doorway of the ‘house’ and clicked his pincers in irritation, “I’m a Legendary Entomologist! You think I have enough free time to come assassinate little brats in person?!”

“Bullshit! You’re just saying that to trick us!” Oliver rushed over and smashed the ant’s head open with a sledge hammer, then he conjured up a whirlwind of green crystal fragments that tore apart all the little tiny insects that made up the small body. Even the clothes were made of black bugs like centipedes, ants, flies, wasps and beetles. Not all of them were explosive though. Only those special click beetles.

“Hehehehe~! Go ahead! Kill as many avatars as you want! Maybe I’ll get bored and just wait till you’re sleeping…”

“That would make a lot more sense.” Jade nodded seriously, “Why would you bother attacking us like this now?”

“Uh… Obviously I didn’t expect it to be so hard to deal with you kids!”

“Shit! Peri’s in danger!” Oliver ignored the newly spawned ‘avatar’ that was smashed into paste by two huge stone blocks and pushed open the heavy stone door. A bloody hole opened on his abdomen!

*Boom!* A moment later, he could hear the sound coming from across the wide-open room. There was a tall and slender shadowy figure in the distance, holding a black sniper rifle in their hands. After pulling a bolt back to clear the chamber, they fired another shot, but this time at the man’s forehead!

“Ollie!” Peridot was covered in blood and bruises, with her hands locked behind her back by silver handcuffs. Barilo was also handcuffed on the ground next to her, unconscious but not visibly injured. There was a tall ‘cowboy’ Sheriff smoking a green cigar and holding a revolver in his right hand, while next to him was a young female Deputy holding a lever-action rifle.

*Ting~!* The impact of the bullet against a thick piece of uranium made a pretty loud noise, but before it could hit Oliver in the face, it vanished into thin air. The horrible wound on his abdomen was also quickly ‘repaired’ by simply plugging the hole with the least dangerous form of uranium that he could conjure. Fortunately, it didn’t damage his spine or arteries, but his intestines… Well, it wouldn’t kill him instantly at least.

“Hold your horses, Boy!” Sheriff Saul pointed his revolver at the back of the struggling girl’s blonde head and shouted, “Surrender yourselves ‘peacefully’, or your little friends might have an accident!”

“Sir, if you murder a suspect in custody so blatantly, I will have to arrest you!” The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Deputy pointed her rifle at the old man’s head from a meter away.

“Yarkona, Dear, never point your weapon at a superior officer!” The gun in Saul’s hand was pointed towards his own Deputy’s head, while he was still holding Peridot by her hair with his other hand.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!* While the two of them were having a standoff, Oliver was shot at several more times. He created a shield big enough to cover his entire body, then threw a big metal spike close to the speed of sound! Instead of the sniper, he aimed at the young Deputy!

“Shet!” The old man had to let go of Peridot and fanned his revolver six times. Just barely deflecting the metal pole enough that the Rank 4 Deputy could avoid it. The girl on the ground suddenly uncuffed herself with a Uranium key, then stabbed straight through the old man’s right cowboy boot with a knife that materialized in her hand! The uranium knife went straight through his foot and into the ground.

“Aah!”

“Sir!” The Deputy aimed her rifle at Peridot, but the girl fell straight through the stone floor and disappeared! Barilo also vanished at the same time…

*Rumble~!* The ceiling suddenly started sinking! The shadowy sniper near the entrance tried to escape, but they quickly discovered that the whole entrance was already sealed up! The ceiling was at least a dozen meters below the surface and the only ‘escape route’ was down the tunnel in the middle of the room, which was already sealed up as well.

“Saul, Yarkona, and… Well, I don’t know or care who the hell you are!” Oliver spat some blood onto the ground and shouted from behind the protective uranium barrier, “Give us a reason not to kill you! Better make it convincing! You only got a few seconds left!”