While the heros had most likely heard something rustling in the brush at odd intervals, semi-silently tailing them, with a... lack luster amount of stealth, the brief pause when they were helpless to resist in their so called 'loading time' in the transition between areas is when their pursuer decided to strike. It was a rather grizzly sight as an armored beetle, a normally level 30 mob lept out at them, mandibles open and light purple spittle dripping from it's mouth bits, it's chitonous armor open with a large hole on the bottom, gore sloshing around inside it showing that it was most likely undead, causing it to actually be level forty with the ability to ignore wound penalties and minor regeneration.

In reality, it was merely a dead husk, the parasite slime inside of it by the name of Rero cursing profusely under his breath as he repeatedly chanted to himself "they're going to notice" over and over again, his lack of confidence in the corpse of last years area boss he'd taken possesion of evident to any that could read minds. While his choice in armors was good, The poor little slime had forgotten that his damage was still tied to his own level as the sizable mandibles crunched down on the mage's arm, inflicting a lesser poison debuff and only dealing about 5-7 damage when the loading time ended, barely scratching his total health pool, the nameplate floating in his face reading "Infested: Armored beetle- LvL 10"