Thunderwing's Desperate Stand
Time slipped by as if fast-forwarded, and the creature's growth accelerated rapidly. It repeated the cycle endlessly—eat, sleep, eat, sleep.
In the end, it reached a point where its development nearly matched mine from when we'd first met.
"Tsrit."
—Brother.
The Irregular raised its head and spoke.
"Tsrit?"
"Tsuririt."
The other ancient ant larvae lounging in the nest responded to its call.
"Tsuri-rit. Tsrit. Tsuririt."
—Me, growth, together, Dad, goal, soon, wings.
It revealed its thoughts plainly.
Then.
"Tsrit, tsuriririt!"
"Tsuririt."
Its siblings approached, extending their antennae toward it. The ants crossed antennae with one another.
"Tsuriririt!"
"Tsrit."
I couldn't fully grasp what the ritual meant, but judging from their pleased chirps, they were empathizing through their antennae.
They communicate like this too, huh.
Still.
That Irregular specimen... its ambitions were already extraordinary. Communicating intent on its own was impressive enough, and bipedal walking was a marvel. Perhaps because of that, its growth outpaced its siblings noticeably. Even at a glance, the others had only reached half its size.
Bwoooong!
Suddenly, a thunderous wingbeat roared in like a storm.
The ant—or should I say bee?—imbued with thunder's power. Since distinguishing ant from bee was tricky, I'd call it Thunderwing.
Anyway, Thunderwing flew into the nest.
...Hm?
I narrowed my eyes at it.
"Tsuriririt—."
Its low, majestic chirp was the same as always.
Injured?
A closer look revealed wounds riddling its entire body. Its three pairs of beautiful wings bore crushed marks everywhere, and its massive frame was covered in gashes from something sharp.
Pzzt, pzzzt...
Even the tail stinger, infused with an estimated million volts, wasn't intact. It sparked faintly, as if all its power had discharged, with only weak currents flickering.
Worse still, part of the stinger had been cleanly severed.
For something to slice through that... it was astonishing.
"Tsrit. Tsuririt? Tsuriririt."
—Dad, hurt, pain? Heal, needed.
The Irregular had spotted its father's injuries and conveyed its meaning in a startled chirp.
"Tsrit?"
"Tsuriririt!"
A beat later, the other ancient ants joined in with frantic cries. They'd only just noticed Thunderwing's wounds.
"Tsuriririririt—."
Thunderwing let out a ragged breath and a low keen. Its expression seemed urgent for some reason.
"Tsrit? Tsuririt."
—Move? Why.
The Irregular tilted its head quizzically. From its questioning tone, it seemed they needed to abandon the nest now.
Someone's pursuing them?
Whatever had battered Thunderwing to that state was closing in. I grasped the situation instantly.
"Hmmm, so you've nested here."
A deep, resonant baritone rumbled like an earthquake in a cave. It almost resembled Thunderwing's chirp in tone.
The problem was... this voice shouldn't have reached this place.
Because this was atop a thunderbolt tree branch, inaccessible to just anyone.
But... a regular species?
People lived in this era too? I'd heard the Paleozoic had only primal species.
Apparently not.
"Tsuriririt—."
The moment Thunderwing spotted the intruder, it unleashed savage, ferocious chirps.
To casual ears, it sounded like a mere feral beast's roar. But I detected the underlying terror in its cries.
It's afraid.
Incredibly, it feared a human far smaller than its own talons.
No way... that one inflicted all those wounds alone?
I watched the approaching unidentified figure in astonishment.
Even visible to the eye, it gave off no presence whatsoever.
The sight felt eerily familiar.
How could it not?
It resembles our kind.
A mantis trait: specialized ambush talent. Presence reduction.
I instinctively recognized the man was exploiting it fully.
A mantis?
I focused on the spot below his ear.
A pattern mimicking a mantis foreleg, green and brown intertwined. Definitely a mantis clan mark.
But which tribe? I'd never seen that emblem before, so questions arose.
And another oddity.
Scales?
Scaly integument covered the foreleg pattern. Staring at the mystical design, I tried gauging his origins, but no clue emerged.
"Tsuririririt!"
Pzztzzzt!
As the man advanced, Thunderwing gathered lightning in its tail stinger.
I figured it couldn't muster full power with the damage, but.
Flash.
Krarrr rumble—!!!
Even wounded, it lived up to "a salted fish is still a fish"—evaporating moisture across the area in an instant with overwhelming voltage.
Over a million volts.
Who could block such mighty thunder?
Yet astonishingly, the man faced Thunderwing's blast head-on.
Pzzzzzzzzzt!
A blinding flash whitened the world.
Did that finish him?
The moment I thought that, watching the man engulfed in lightning.
Wooong!
As the light faded, a pentagram barrier glowed before him.
...Sorcery!
Incredibly, the man—presumed mantis—had wielded sorcery.
I wasn't deeply versed in it, but it surpassed even Kun's spells, I vaguely guessed.
The ether resonance from the pentagram was unprecedented.
"Such fierce resistance. Those below are the offspring? Tsk, I don't want to do this in front of the young ones."
The man sighed reluctantly and raised his right hand toward Thunderwing.
"Storm Talon."
With his incantation.
Whoosh!
Fierce wind blades tore toward Thunderwing, ripping space itself.
"Tsuririt!"
"Tsirit!"
"Tsuririririt."
—Danger, typhoon, home, destruction.
The man's wind blades shredded the nest where Thunderwing and its young sheltered, sweeping through.
"Tsuririt!"
—Fall, panic, fear.
The Irregular and Thunderwing's offspring plummeted amid the nest's wreckage.
"Ts, riririt!"
Thunderwing's body was further mangled by the recent attack, yet it hurled itself to catch the falling young.
"Tsuriririt!"
—Fall, fall, fall, fall, fall.
Regrettably, Thunderwing wasn't at full strength.
It couldn't save them all.
In the chaos, the Irregular and two others seemed doomed to crash into the ground.
Damn it.
Had I grown attached through its memories? Seeing the Irregular fall made my heart sink.
Earth ants survive high falls thanks to tiny size and low mass.
These dropping from such height would shatter.
Get it together—!
I drew alongside the plummeting Irregular and yelled at it, though it couldn't hear.
Perhaps my will reached it.
"Tsuririt!"
—Danger, danger, danger.
It snapped alert, twisting toward the thunderbolt tree's broad leaves.
As a result.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, splat—!
It collided repeatedly with leaves mid-fall, slowing enough to hit ground less fatally.
"Ts... riririt."
—Pain, agony, siblings, Dad, worry.
Even so, the impact had pulverized half its body.
Yet it fretted over its siblings and father.
"Tsrit......"
—Siblings, siblings, siblings.
It painfully turned its head, spotting a crashed sibling nearby, and crawled arduously toward it.
Reaching the embedded forms, but.
"Ts... rit?"
—Ah, ah, ah.
It could only emit a silent wail at the sight.
Unlike the Irregular, the others hadn't slowed their descent.
They splattered into mush upon impact.
"Tsuriririt—!"
—Dad, Dad, Dad.
Tears welled in its eyes.
Damn...
The heartbreaking scene left me speechless.
Clutching its crushed sibling's remains, weeping pitifully, desperately calling for Dad—it was utterly heartrending.
Fwoooong— KABOOOM!
As the Irregular wailed for its father.
A massive something plummeted from the sky near it.
Dirt clouds from the impact blocked all vision.
Shhhk— Thud.
The landing figure swept its hand, dispersing the dust.
Whoosh—.
The revealed sight.
......
I was at a loss for words.
The one that had crashed was none other than Thunderwing.
"Forcing me to partial primalize. Not an empty title after all."
The man's appearance had changed.
A pair of antennae sprouted from his head, four pairs of wings from his back, and scaly integument covered his arms and upper torso.
I narrowed my eyes.
Partial primalization, yet strikingly mantis-like.
The difference: those reptilian scales on arms and torso, like Earth snakes or lizards.
"It's done."
The man noted the light fading from Thunderwing's eyes and spoke.
"I never like doing this."
Muttering, he snapped his fingers.
Then.
Wooong.
Light gathered before him into a triangular star, flying into the corpse.
Fwaaaah!
White light erupted from Thunderwing, splitting into three orbs that shrank to fist-size.
Those are...
I swallowed a sharp breath at the objects inside.
As the man reached to claim them.
"Ts... rit......"
—Bad, guy, Dad, give back.
The Irregular crawled to his feet, desperately clutching his ankle.
Refusing to yield its father.
It's gonna get killed instantly.
I couldn't bear watching; I wanted to look away.
A finger snap would burst it apart.
Just play dead...
There'd be a slim survival chance.
As pity made me click my tongue.
The man's reaction defied expectation.
"......"
He silently gazed down at the desperately clinging creature.
"Tsrit...... Ts... riririt."
—Dad, siblings, family, protect, me, protect.
Damn...
"Hm......"
Sighs escaped both me and the man simultaneously.
Anyone with a shred of empathy would pity the Irregular's desperate stand.
"......"
Watching silently, the man extended his right hand toward it.
Stop—!
Realizing he meant to cast, I blocked his path and shouted.