The Trap (2)
Floating through the air, I beat my wing-arms and climbed higher. Adhai, boasting a far faster flight speed, had already risen well ahead of me.
"Suaaaa."
Hissing, the Hellside Hornet trailed close on my tail. It had caught up in an instant, spreading both arms wide to strike.
Its limbs, shaped like a mantis's forelegs, were both razor-sharp and brutally hard — hard enough to damage my cranial carapace, one of the sturdiest parts of my body.
Even my pincers couldn't withstand those.
The pincers at the tip of my tail were equal in defensive strength to my head armor, resistant to nothing but psychic power. Deflecting its strikes or tanking them outright would only cost me.
Mid-flight, I reeled my tail in toward my body. The creature's scythes cleaved through empty air.
Using the recoil of the bent tail, I twisted myself upside down in midair. My body spun in a wide arc until my upper half faced the creature.
From that position, I drew out my erosion tentacles. Six long appendages moved to shred the creature's wings to ribbons.
At the sight of the tentacles hissing like vipers, the Hornet scrambled backward. I predicted the direction of its retreat and spat a burst of corrosive fungus straight into its path.
"Shaak!"
Green fluid splashed across its head, and the thing seethed with irritation. The Hellside Hornet could spew a terrifyingly potent digestive acid of its own, which rendered it immune to virtually every acid-based attack.
But my attack hadn't been meant to deal it a fatal blow in the first place.
I charged straight at the creature, whose vision was now smothered in fluid. Sensing the shift in the air, it frantically fluttered its wings into an evasive maneuver. Its body shot upward, my horns grazing the tips of its feet.
I felt a few of its talons shatter against my horns — a feeble blow. Dropping the fluid from its eyes with a rapid shake, it swung its arm down to hammer my back.
My bone-scythe arms on my back collided with its limb. My scythe caved in about halfway, but this time the Hornet's arm took damage too — the keen edge of the bone scythe chipped the blade on its arm slightly.
As the creature and I traded blows in midair, a mass of purple energy came hurtling from somewhere below. Had the thing not ducked its head, a hole the size of a baseball would have punched clean through the back of its skull.
Its compound eyes granted the Hellside Hornet no blind spots — at least, not until someone covered all of them at once, the way I had just done.
A shame.
"Shaaak!"
The creature, which had nearly died in a heartbeat, shrieked and tore itself away from me. Adhai immediately fired another mass of purple energy.
When the head-seeking shot came, the creature folded its arms up in front of its skull like a shield. The energy bolt struck home, but it merely left a slight scorch on those hardened limbs.
Having shielded its head with its arms, the Hornet turned to chase Adhai again — but she was already gone from that spot.
Lightning spread across the darkened sky. And that word was no metaphor. Even with my auxiliary organs heightened by the Paragon of the Hunt, tracking her movements was nearly beyond me.
She had become white lightning herself, falling back while suppressing the enemy with short, staccato bursts of Psychic Breath. The Hellside Hornet was hardly slow, but she was simply too fast to approach.
"Suaaaaak! Shaak!"
Its temper boiling over, the creature let out a grotesque howl — and a fierce heat began radiating from its body.
[Zzz Zzzzz Zzzzz (It's starting now. Be careful)]
｢Confirmed｣
Its body glowed as if it had just been pulled from a pool of lava, and then the heat began gathering toward its rear.
I sensed countless somethings churning inside its abdomen. To use an analogy, it felt like an egg sac packed full of baby spiders.
My auxiliary organs had sensed it accurately. Because a swarm of winged vermin came bursting out of the creature's rear.
"Ssu""Ssu""Ssu""Ssu""Ssu""Ssu"
The vermin were called Hornetlings — the offspring of the Hellside Hornet.
They resembled the adult in miniature, though far smaller — barely the size of a grown man's fist — and lacked its menacing scythe-arms entirely.
Even so, underestimating them would be a grave mistake.
Because the Hornetlings were one of the Hellside Hornet's most powerful weapons.
The adult preferred to implant its eggs directly into an enemy's flesh and let the Hornetlings hatch inside them, but when battling a formidable foe like this, it would expend its own energy to force the larvae to maturity within its body.
Hornetlings born this way had one defining trait: fed only the energy required for growth, they were born ravenously starving.
"Shaaaaa."
At the creature's cry, the swarm of Hornetlings streamed toward Adhai. Individually small, yes — but they numbered in the hundreds. The swarm launching itself at her all at once looked like a small, dark cloud on the move.
Aside from the fact that no cloud in the world moved that fast.
Hornetlings flew nearly as fast as the adult. The living cloud of vermin closed in on Adhai.
Knowing she was far faster than they were, the swarm reshaped itself into an encircling formation. And whenever she tried to slip through the gaps, the Hellside Hornet drove her back in.
[Zzzzz Zz (Use that technique)]
｢Understood!｣
Understanding my intent, Adhai gathered her strength and then unleashed it. Psychic power erupted from the tips of her tendrils like water from a fountain.
Purple Lightning — the technique she had wielded back in her Green Galagon days.
"Ssu!""Ssuk!""Ssu!""Ssu!""Ssuk!"
The vast psychic net she wove crashed down over the Hornetlings. Dozens of them dropped like moths caught in an electric bug zapper.
Her destructive power and precision have both improved, haven't they?
In its base form, Purple Lightning carried less than half the destructive force of Psychic Breath, with far shorter range. In exchange, it spread out in a wide net — a technique meant for holding crowds, effective only against large numbers of enemies.
Yet Adhai was bending it to her will, maximizing its raw power and accuracy all at once.
Just as No. 26 suppressed enemies by scattering her psychic power, Adhai was wielding it in much the same way. The Purple Lightning that had once been a single fired bolt now moved as though it possessed a will of its own, hunting the Hornetlings down to the last.
She weaved through evasive maneuvers while tearing the swarm apart — and on top of that, mixed in bursts of Psychic Breath to keep the adult at bay.
She's doing well.
And I worked myself in between, actively harassing the adult as well. Whenever it tried to spray digestive acid toward Adhai, I interrupted — either firing a Psychic Breath of my own or charging straight in to break its aim.
"Ssu!""Ssu!""Ssu!"
"Suaaaa!"
When the mother shrieked from behind them, her brood's movements shifted.
The true horror of the Hornetling swarm lay not simply in their numbers. Their real weapon was digestive acid.
A Hornetling's acid was equal in potency to the adult's. The adult's acid could melt my carapace — now imagine thousands of them spraying it all at once. If it landed, Adhai wouldn't leave so much as a trace behind.
I can't just leave them be.
This hunt had two aims: hunting an APEX, yes, but also letting Adhai grow comfortable with her own strength. A serious injury during training would defeat the purpose.
Once I confirmed the Hornetlings repositioning into ideal spots to spray their acid, I brought out my hidden weapon.
There's a perfect antidote for vermin that swarm like that.
I readied my Psychic Breath and, at the same time, activated Color of the Abyss.
The carapace and scales covering my body began to glow with unearthly hues. Purple, green, and every color imaginable writhed as if alive. Those sinister lights crawled along my body toward the cluster of tentacles dangling from my throat, the back of my skull, and my jaws.
The grotesquely contaminated psychic power converged upon my Monster's Tentacles. Bubbles came to a seething boil before my maw — countless droplets blossoming open like flowers in full bloom. Fantastical to look at, but in truth they were vampires of a kind, forever craving the lives of other beings.
The Psychic Breath, refracted through the Color of the Abyss, was fired.
Like soap bubbles from a bubble gun, the breath scattered across the sky. And one of them touched the Hornetling swarm.
"Ssu?!"
One unlucky larva was sucked into the sphere of chaos in an instant. That was the beginning. The sphere of madness, which knew nothing of satisfaction, began devouring the swarm whole.
With over several hundred Hornetlings in the cloud, the loss barely registered at first. But before long, the swarm visibly sagged inward, as though someone had stuffed a vacuum cleaner inside it — the Psychic Breath within was swallowing them up.
Only then did the creatures realize what an abomination was in their midst. They scattered in a panic, but it was far too late.
What could a creature do when its body was being erased by a bubble? Starving to the extreme, its flesh dissolving all the while, each of them seized the nearest kin in a desperate bid to survive.
As if competing over which was the greedier predator, the Psychic Breath and the Hornetlings devoured their own kind alike. And the process only accelerated as time went on.
There was no sound in any of it. The massacre unfolding in total silence was not long. Within minutes, the Hornetling swarm had vanished without a trace, and the Psychic Breath, robbed of its prey, simply dissipated into the empty air.
｢Just now｣ ｢what was that?｣
"Sh-shak!"
The Hornetlings had vanished in the blink of an eye, and the shock on every face was plain. Adhai tilted her head, while the Hellside Hornet screamed in mingled fury and disbelief.
The Color of the Abyss had brought the battle to a lull. Whatever it had felt from my attack, the creature stayed back now — posturing, but unwilling to commit.
With the enemy's assault paused, Adhai flew over to my side.
｢Me｣ ｢learn｣ ｢possible?｣
[Zzz Zzzzz (Probably not)]
｢Disappointed｣
[Zzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz (We're in the middle of a hunt. Later.)]
｢Agree｣
Once I became a Black Galagon I could produce something very similar to what I had just shown, but I put off explaining that part until later.
And so, while the battle hung in a brief pause, the sky was steadily growing noisier. As if an enormous storm was bearing down on us, the wind whipped up violently and the temperature plunged.
[Zzzzz Zzzzz (Is the cold all right?)]
｢White｣ ｢scales｣ ｢good｣ ｢problem｣ ｢none｣
Her body hadn't grown all that much, but — well, that was a White Galagon for you. She looked completely unbothered.
Good. Now, what comes next is….
The Hellside Hornet, for all its cunning, was strongly opportunistic. Faced with a situation tilted against it, it had two options.
The first was to call up another brood of Hornetlings and attack in coordination. Having just witnessed what had happened, it would almost certainly deploy them differently this time.
It'll probably spread them wide for hit-and-run harassment, or use them as bait.
It would toss its brood at me and try to force a decisive clash with Adhai in the gap. Not that I intended to let it.
Or else, it runs.
Most other APEX creatures displayed extremely aggressive temperaments. Barring exceptional circumstances, they never avoided a fight.
With one exception standing right in front of us.
"Shaaa."
The creature let out a short cry, and its body began heating up rapidly — waking the Hornetling eggs stored inside it.
Before long, another swarm burst from its abdomen. Perhaps because it had birthed twice in so short a span, their numbers had fallen to roughly half of the last brood.
Still no small number, though.
[Zzzzz (Brace yourselves)]
A creature defined by rapid learning would come at us far more cunningly this time. I was warning Adhai and preparing for the clash when —
The maker of the Hornetling swarm began descending straight toward the ground below.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me!
Fight, or flee? The creature had chosen both options at once. Its brood would buy time while it escaped.
｢Situation｣ ｢different｣
[Zzz Zzzzzzz Zzz Zzz Zzzzz (We'll do as we planned — with a small change)]
｢How?｣
[Zzz Zzz Zzzzz Zzzzz (I'll hold the adult down)]
｢Agree｣ ｢fast｣ ｢going｣
Having swiftly amended the plan, Adhai and I split toward our separate targets. She dove at the Hornetling swarm; I dove at the adult.
A storm of purple lightning surged in behind me. While she tore into the vermin, I folded my wing-arms tight and closed the distance to the Hellside Hornet.
And as I fell, I fired a Psychic Breath at it. This time the plain version, unenhanced by the Color of the Abyss.
The violet heat-ray grazed past the creature's lower body. A direct hit would have been a mortal wound, but it twisted aside at the last instant and the shot flew wide.
"Shaaaaa!"
Enraged, it spat its digestive acid, aimed at the point where I would land. I, descending with wings folded, snapped my wing-arms partially open. My rate of fall dropped sharply, and its attack only grazed the flesh along the underside of my tail.
The pain of raw meat searing rushed in, but since Pain Mitigation hadn't triggered, it clearly wasn't a serious wound. Having evaded its strike, I folded my wings again and let gravity take me faster.
By the time I could make out the individual trees blanketing the mountain, I had closed the gap dramatically. It sprayed acid at me several more times as I closed in, but I endured it on the strength of my carapace alone.
"Shak! Suaaaa!"
When I kept pressing in despite taking hit after hit, the creature seemed to change its mind as well. The one that had offered only passive resistance while falling suddenly beat its wings and flew straight at me.
Closing the distance in a breath, it swung its scythe-like arm to cut through my neck.
Before the blow could land, I wrenched my upper body backward. Its arm sheared off the blade-tipped bones at my jaw — auxiliary organs transformed into blades by the Paragon of the Hunt. By a hair's breadth, the nerves had escaped unharmed.
Even as I recoiled, the erosion tentacles burst from my back once more and seized the creature. The appendages at their tips wound tight around the six legs of its lower body.
My intent — to hold it in place — succeeded. But the creature, too, had intended to be caught. Its arm flew like a lightning strike and skewered me through the abdomen.
Ghhk!
Physical agony dampened. Psychic shock suppressed.
I nearly blacked out from the pain of my innards being torn apart. Had I not been Amorph — had I lacked the Pain Mitigation trait — that blow would have finished me. Even as my mind screamed, my body refused to let go, gripping the creature in an iron hold.
I'll pay you back for that. In full.
"Shaaa!"
I spread my jaws wide and tried to bite down on the thing. It hastily folded its other arm to jam my mouth shut. And so, locked in each other's grasp, we plummeted from the sky together.
"Shaaaaaaa."
Its abdomen began to move, as if fortune had smiled upon it at last. No doubt it meant to implant grubs into the carapace its acid had melted away.
But there was something it didn't know.
While every scrap of its attention burned on killing me, my auxiliary organs delivered a crucial report:
Directly above us, a hyperfast projectile was closing in.
And from that projectile, a purple energy bolt was launched. This one was refined into a shape far thinner than the bolts Adhai usually fired.
As if to hide it from someone's eyes.
Exactly as Adhai intended, the creature noticed far too late. Seeing the energy bolt streaking toward its own skull, it tried to twist free — but it couldn't. Because my body was locked tight against its own.
"Shak!"
With superb judgment, it tore off its own arms and legs. Nothing but wings remaining, it pulled away from me. I lunged with my combat arms to seize its wings — but it was a split second faster.
But!
As the purple energy bolt reached a point just above my head, I tilted my skull slightly askew.
The result: the Psychic Breath Adhai had fired slammed squarely into my cranial carapace. Compressed with everything she had to finish it in one shot, the impact detonated through my entire head.
In the instant the Psychic Breath struck me, the latent trait sleeping in my body — Psychic Reflection Carapace — activated on its own. Most of the psychic power dissipated shattering my head armor, but a portion of it survived.
And that energy rebounded in a direction no one — least of all me — had predicted.
Precisely toward the Hellside Hornet's wings.
"Suak?!"
Having lost one wing, the creature careened, unable to steady itself. A second energy bolt came screaming in as if to confirm the kill.
｢Big Adult｣ ｢attack｣ ｢forgiveness｣ ｢impossible｣
The bolt burned away the creature's wing along with a wave of psychic malice carrying her cold, undying grudge.
Stripped of both wings, the creature could no longer stay airborne. It fell.
And this time it was no strategic retreat — it was a true fall.
"Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!"
A creature that had lived its whole life far from death by falling no longer was. Its shriek dwindled as its body shrank toward the ground below.
And then it passed out of sight entirely.
Phew.
｢Big Adult｣ ｢not hurt?｣
[Zzzzz Zzz Zzzzz (I'm fine. You did wonderfully)]
｢Head｣ ｢hit｣
[Zzzzzzzz (Don't worry)]
She flew to me, worry plain in her thought-waves.
Truth be told, my body was an utter wreck — carapace melted by digestive acid, a puncture wound through my abdomen, severed horns, and a crater bashed into my skull by the Psychic Breath. Answering that I felt nothing would have been a lie, but I told her I was fine.
So long as my brain and heart kept functioning, Amorph did not die. Injuries like these were more than recoverable, given enough meat to eat.
Together with Adhai, I descended slowly toward the ground.
The place where the creature had fallen was smeared wall to wall in viscous fluid. At the center of the crash site, now a sea of blood, lay the Hornet itself.
"S… s… ssuh…."
Nothing of its upper body remained but the head, gasping out breaths by sheer will. Its lower half was obliterated, and dead grubs drifted like flotsam across the pool of blood.
This ends it.
I approached and drove the bone-scythe arms on my back straight through the Hellside Hornet's skull.
Its upper body shuddered once — and went still.