Records of Rebirth

Chapter 39 - Bitter Comrades

I couldn't understand why it started to attack me. Of all the creatures here, we were the only two alive so, shouldn't we band together to fight off the wasps and escape since we were in a similar situation?

I only scared it a little but didn't try to attack in anyway. In its battered condition, the more logical move was for it to retreat and try to escape; yet it had chosen to attack.

I wondered if it was possible to communicate with the creature.

However the high pitched ringing of its attack was everywhere, forcing me to curl up tightly and trying to hang on, much less finding a chance to try and communicate with it.

I couldn't make any signs with my body or dance defencelessly like I had with the nestlings because any attempt of doing so was met with a blast of excruciating noise.

Defeated, I hid in my spiral cocoon where the noise was reduced as I thought about my next move. Inside, the echo of the noise was muffled and not so ear shattering, but the aftereffects were still there.

The longer I heard the shrill noise, the more needle-like stabbing pains pierced through my skin, like it were a mere water barrier. My vision blurred and my head pounded with a headache so intense I had to squint. As I felt the waves of disorientation strike through me I felt like I could faint at any time.

I couldn't ignore it anymore.

Even worse, the grasshopper-like creature didn't want to stop. I barely managed to track it through the rows of bodies through [Scent]. I'd hoped it would stay in place so I could sneak up and attack it, but it effortlessly maintained a steady blast of noise while moving around.

It created the ringing by rubbing the rough spines of its hind legs against the scales of its wings. And with six of its legs, it could simultaneously create the noise while walking with the other four, making it much harder to target.

It was on offence and defence at the same time and there was no way to interrupt its attack. I was left with no choice but to keep enduring inside my cocoon, and with each stride of its lengthy body it made its way towards my hiding place.

I was sure I was pretty well hidden, yet its almost linear approach towards me made me realise something more upsetting. It was tracking me, and very accurately at that. It was just a matter of time before it reached me.

"Any suggestions, Sensei?" I ask humorously.

«Obviously, you need to stay out of sight and mask your scent. It's a locust, it won't stop until it finds its food.»

And that food was me. You forgot to add that.

And such detailed and helpful advice too, like I didn't already know that!

But the question was, how? Coming out of my cocoon would only cause more damage and hearing impairment and there was nothing around me that could help me...

Other than a mummified corpse lying next to me.

It was that of a huge grey spider with a hole cut out in its bulbous abdomen.

Wait, that's it!

I released my coil and my head was immediately assaulted with painful jabs from the locust's infernal screech. My head swarmed with dizziness, but I forced myself to move and quickly leapt over the spider's body, slipping inside the hole in its abdomen. I crash landed in the hollow space inside, causing bits of disintegrated particles to spread all over myself.

My eyes felt irritated as I held back the urge to sneeze. Ugh… Do snakes get allergies too?

Even in a new body I could not escape those!

I slithered inside its body and I curled myself into a cocoon once again to get a brief reprieve from the locust's noise attack. However, the smell of the spider's body made it impossible to keep using [Scent] to track the pesky locust.

Out of options, I tried using my [Heat Sense] once again.

The last time I used it, I was unable to pick up the locust's presence but perhaps I had scanned the wrong place and missed it entirely. Now that it was moving, I hoped that would change things.

And it worked!

As the creature stalked towards my hiding place I was able to visualise it, but its insides were unlike anything I'd ever seen.

In the surroundings that showed the deep blue hue of cold, [Heat Sense] picked up a quickly moving blur shaped like wings surrounded by a larger red and yellow blurred mass that had be the locust's body. The radiating heat on its wings from all the friction of its sound attack, made them glow a bright white colour.

My eyes, however, were drawn towards another heat source that glowed white with radiated heat that wasn't as a result of its friction or speed. It was much smaller than the locust and what shocked me more was that it was situated inside the locust's thorax.

I was astonished. I thought we were comrades in arms! Turns out you were just a puppet.

Following the locust's movements made me realise it also relied on [Scent]. Since it couldn't see me, its path towards me wasn't direct but it was steadily gaining. I watched its antennae flicking in the air, changing its direction whenever it detected any chemical traces left behind, which gave me an idea.

I poked another hole in the spider's abdomen and crawled out of it, but not before leaving a spray of venom inside. Then I slithered over to the next corpse, entering it to do the same.

I repeated this action for five more corpses in a circular loop that would draw in the locust who relied on [Scent] to track me. My plan depended on the scent of my venom being a more potent lure than the actual scent of my body. It would lead the locust to my first mark, the spider's body, before drawing it further down my trail, sealing off its retreat from the area.

Hopefully, the locust would blindly follow the trail I left behind, not knowing which of the corpses I was residing in. There I made plans for the perfect ambush where I would attack it from my hiding place, using relentless hit-and-run tactics on it until it was dead.

I finished laying my scent trail and waited for the locust to reach me.

Nestled inside the body of a centipede monster, I observed the locust's antennae sniffing the body of the spider I'd left a spray of venom in. Failing to find me, it left the spider's corpse, moving on to follow the scent of my venom to the next corpse, bringing it further inside my scent loop and closer to my current hiding place.

As it neared, I crawled outside the dead centipede through a hole I'd made in its head which I thought was the perfect spot to launch myself off. The locust's close proximity to me caused my fangs to tremble from the sheer force if its vibrations and my body rattled as I fought to keep still.

Unfurling myself from my cocoon I was perfectly poised to strike, even with the barrage of excruciating noise. I stayed still and observed it draw closer and I hid myself with [Stealth] and [Silence].

If the locust followed my exact trail it would bring it directly to the first trap I laid, from my higher vantage point I could jump directly onto its body and finish it.

I watched with bated breath as the first flicker of the locust's antennae appeared in my sight. It had followed my scent trail, leading it to the curve of the centipede's body where I'd deposited a small puddle of my venom. The locust bent down its flicking antennae until it reached the puddle.

It was at that point that I launched myself from my hidden position to the locust's back. I'd drawn it close enough so that I wouldn't miss my mark. Its noisy wings were fearsome attack tools, but their noise were also a drawback because they allowed me to approach it undetected.

Landing softly on the locust's back I directly went for my target. I didn't bother biting its body because its exoskeleton looked far too tough, so instead I lunged at its stridulating wings, ripping off the first of its two pairs with my sharp fangs.

I started from the already damaged section, shattering the thin membranous wings that came off easily with the force of my [Bite] causing the locust to shake erratically and fall over in a bid to throw me off.

The high pitched sound attack came to a complete halt.

I revelled in the sudden silence that felt like pure bliss to my pained head until the creature lurched, raising its hind legs. It moved quickly despite its injuries and I wouldn't have been able to hold on, if not for my quick reflexes combined with my recovered sense of hearing. I immediately clamped my fangs down on the stubs of its two remaining wings, eliciting a screech from the creature's maw just as it leaped up into the air.

I felt my body go loose on the locust's sides as it jumped, and I had no choice but to hang on to its shattered wings right before it shot off into the air. I nearly got knocked down from the force of wind bearing down on my body, but I bit down hard with all my strength.

If I were to fall from such height, my injuries would be terrible, that is if I were to survive at all.

The locust jumping ability was incredibly high, so high that it cleared out of the [Scent] loop of corpses that was my trap in a single leap of its powerful legs, landing in an entirely different part of the graveyard.

Unfortunately, I was still attached to it at this time and the forceful impact of its landing jolted my body, slamming me down hard on the shell of the locust's back.