Siasha fired a spell once Zig was a safe distance away from the monstrosity. A powerful stone spear instantly materialized and hurtled itself toward its target with deadly force. However, the creature’s strange movements caused the spear to miss.
It was then that Zig saw his attacker for the first time—a monstrosity with a cicada’s head and body. It had sickles for limbs. Its body was mostly a dark green color to blend in with the trees, the exception being its brilliant green scythes. They gave off an eerie gleam.
The monstrosity used its hind legs to hang from the trees and launched itself to try and decapitate Zig. It also used its hind legs to jump away from Siasha’s spell.
“A razor-bladed decapitator mantis!” Siasha recognized the monstrosity, calling it by its ominous name. Zig readied his twinblade to face it.
The razor-bladed decapitator mantis hung from the trees, swaying as it watched them, scythes held up.
Warm blood flowed from Zig’s cheek and dripped onto the ground. The mantis’s scythes were terrifyingly sharp.
A chill ran down Zig’s back, realizing that a light scratch was enough to split him open. Good thing the scimitar leopard’s arm blade was made of tough stuff. He would’ve lost his head if he had defended himself with a measly knife.
The mantis’s scythes were obviously dangerous, but what was more concerning was the fact that he hadn’t smelled any magic coming from it. The monstrosity’s stealth, ability to cling to trees, and three-dimensional movement were all its own abilities, no magic required. Although it was barely two meters in size, its full reach with the power of its legs and length of its scythes was unknown.
The mantis’s scythes made no sound, even as it swooped from above. Zig only managed to survive because he was always on alert. He knew that there were monstrosities that didn’t rely on magic, but he wasn’t counting on seeing one this powerful.
“I guess you’re not interested in seconds…”
The mantis barely looked at the scimitar leopards’ carcasses, suggesting that it was quite aggressive.
“Be careful!” Siasha yelled. “If you get decapitated, it’ll slurp your whole body with its proboscis!”
“I don’t need to know this thing’s eating habits!”
“Huh?”
“Now stop being silly and help me!”
Zig ran with twinblade in hand.
The razor-bladed decapitator mantis swayed as it hung from the trees, watching him with indecipherable compound eyes.
Siasha fired a stone spear. It whizzed past Zig as it hurtled toward the monstrosity. Its target was what it was using to cling to the trees—the monstrosity’s legs.
The mantis let go of the tree, flipped itself right-side up and landing on the ground without a sound. Its head remained static during its acrobatic maneuver, making it more unsettling in addition to its silence. But it couldn’t distance itself from the line of fire in time and therefore bent its upper body to avoid the stone spear.
The razor-bladed decapitator mantis’s compound eyes turned to Zig.
Zig closed in on it, taking advantage of the moment it was forced to avoid Siasha’s attack. He tightly squeezed the handle of his twinblade.
The razor-bladed mantis’s body didn’t seem to be particularly robust, perhaps a product of its specialization in stealth. A single solid hit when it couldn’t evade seemed like it should’ve been enough to bring it down.
One step away. The twinblade moved.
Suddenly, the green scythes disappeared.
“Ugh!”
Zig noticed the sudden movement and stopped his attack, moving his twinblade to protect his neck. A shrill clang rang out as two green scythes collided with the dark red blade.
The well-polished surface reflected Zig’s shocked face.
It’s so fast!
The exceptional speed of the blades caused a bead of sweat to form on his forehead.
The mantis was fast and long. It leaned in; combined with its scythes’ length, its reach surpassed that of the twinblade.
“But…too light!” Zig shouted as he pushed the scythes away.
The scythes’ movements were fast and snappy, as if they had been sprung by springs, but that meant a second attack would be slower. The best the mantis could do now was swing its scythes one at a time, like when it had failed its ambush earlier.
“Hnh!”
Zig slashed at the mantis’s torso after deflecting its attack. However, even though it looked like the razor-bladed decapitator mantis lost its footing, it was still able to pull away its upper body in time. Its lower body was much stronger than it looked, allowing it to effectively shift its posture.
Using its non-humanoid limbs, the razor-bladed decapitator mantis leaped backward to escape danger. It glided to put distance between itself and its would-be prey and began climbing a tree, albeit in a different manner from before. It seemed to be trying to escape after realizing it was at a disadvantage.
“I won’t let you do that.” Siasha put her fist to the ground, gathering mana as Zig chased the mantis down.
In an instant, the tree began to shake. Siasha was manipulating the earth to shake it from its roots. The razor-bladed decapitator mantis was unable to hold on, falling to the ground as Zig came closer. The mantis spread out its wings to intimidate him, swinging its scythes at Zig.
“I’m used to your speed now.”
The mantis’s attack was easy to read as long as you could see it coming; its speed didn’t matter.
He easily blocked the scythe. Well, one of them, anyway.
Another green arc came after Zig’s neck after a short delay.
“Two blades…”
Zig blocked it with his lower blade. He pushed down against the scythe that came from his left while lifting the scythe on his right.
“…is not your forte!”
There was a shout and a flash. The twinblade swung forcefully in a counterclockwise arc, shattering the razor-bladed decapitator mantis’s scythes at the base of its arms. Blue blood and scythe fragments flew as the monstrosity staggered, helplessly flailing its scytheless arms. As it shot its proboscis out at Zig in a last-ditch effort to kill him, a stone spear pierced its head.
A red slash followed, mercilessly cutting through the monstrosity’s torso.
“Th-that was close…”
Cold sweat ran down Siasha’s back as she looked at what was left of the razor-bladed decapitator mantis.
The encounter itself had gone smoothly. What worried her was the ambush that started the fight.
“I wasn’t expecting a monstrosity to be so stealthy without magic.” Zig touched the wound on his cheek with his thumb.
Siasha definitely would have noticed if something had approached them with magic. Witches were highly sensitive to mana. However, when a creature concealed itself with its physical abilities alone, her detection abilities weren’t as useful.
“Would I have died if it had gone for me instead?” Siasha said fearfully, touching her neck. It was a rare sight to see her be so subdued and vulnerable. However, Zig quickly banished the thought of what could have happened and shook his head.
“No. I’m always watching you, so I can protect you from unseen threats.”
“What?” Siasha was startled at Zig’s statement, though he himself hadn’t given much thought to it.
He made an awkward grunt, as if suggesting that he wanted to be done with the subject.
“So, you’ve been watching me this whole time?”
Siasha blinked in wonder as she looked at Zig, her blue eyes filled with emotion. He silently turned away, not wanting to make eye contact with her. He remained quiet and returned to the task of putting monster materials on the dolly.
In his silence, he caught Siasha’s stare in his peripheral vision. It had been trained on him the whole time. All he could do was scratch his head. He didn’t need to say out loud that of course protecting his client was his priority. But it was a little too late to rectify that now.
He tried to think of something to say, but all he could come up with was an awkward deflection.
“This place is profitable, but it’s best if you don’t hunt here alone,” Zig said. “Especially not with those things around. Let’s get going.” Zig walked away, not waiting around for Siasha to answer.
He didn’t turn around once.