Book 5 Chapter 15.5 - Exploring the Dream
What it was curious about was its that own needs for food wasn't that great, and the acquiring of genes even more so only needed a bit of blood, at most some important tissues. Regardless, the creature in front of it was already enough for it to eat for an entire day. However, why did this place display such a great reaction to its arrival, to the extent where an entire population took action?! It suddenly developed interest in the mother body of this community hidden deep beneath the frozen earth. Thus, it inwardly remembered this place. Its brain's volume was extremely small, yet it possessed intelligence that definitely didn't match its size. It fetched a map from its memory region, and then placed an important marking on its current location. The map was extremely strange, and it was extremely detailed, moreover easily zoomed into or out of. When it was zoomed in to its max, even a small grain of sand would become as large as a boulder. In addition, the regions this map displayed were extremely irregular, displaying large arcs, recording the route it had taken after its birth.
The little creature extended its forelimbs, producing two blades from their ends. It grinded them together, producing an ear-splitting sound. In the world of creatures, this was a hundred percent a demonstration of power and provocation. It seemed like both parties had similar offensive methods. The problem laid in the fact that its two blades that were less than three centimeters long were completely different from its opponent's enormous blades that exceeded a meter in length.
When faced with this type of provocation, the enormous wolf insect merged body finally couldn't hold back any longer. The enormous cocoons that appeared one after another gave it confidence once again, making its innately savage nature dominate its hesitation.
Following a loud and clear roar, the wolf and insect hybrid suddenly jumped! The four claws that supported its body were extremely forceful, propelling its body that was over a hundred kilograms in weight close to ten meters, and with a few more jumps, it already arrived before the little fella, its blades fiercely piercing downwards! The enormous blades, if they landed, could easy slice it in half.
However, its opponent possessed immeasurable flexibility and nimbleness. It rolled on the snowy ground, dodging the blade that pierced downwards, and then moved between the wolf claws, thus disappearing from its line of sight.
Suddenly losing track of the opponent's whereabouts made the enormous wolf howl impatiently. Its head looked all around, flinging the mucus and viscous blood in its mouth everywhere. It didn't have to wait at all, immediately feeling a powerful stinging pain from its tail bottom area. The enemy that had just disappeared had already made its way around its body, climbing onto its body along its extremely damaged tail, moreover proceeding along its back towards the upright insect upper body! When it turned its head around to look towards its back, only then did it seem that apart from a pair of forelimbs, the little fella also had six long, jointed limbs, currently crawling along its body in a fast and nimble manner. The six jointed limbs' ends were extremely sharp, every single time they descended piercing deeply into the thick wolf skin, producing narrow but deep injuries.
The insect upper body on its enormous wolf base was covered in a thick and sturdy exoskeleton, so it had confidence that it wouldn't receive more serious injuries. When that little fella crawled to its shoulder area, it would discover that it made a huge miscalculation. It not only had a wolf head; this wolf head's angle of movement exceeded 200 degrees! This was true for the blades as well. In addition, the hair and skin covering the wolf head were to a large degree purely for decoration, the bones underneath were what truly possessed great defensive strength. Its material similar to the exoskeleton of insects, toughness perhaps not enough to stop the direct chop from a heavy hatchet, but it definitely didn't fear a shot from an ordinary pistol at close range.
The little fella's six jointed limbs produced sparks along the insect exoskeleton, the plates of exoskeleton comparable to steel having shallow traces carved on their surface. It couldn't pierce through the enemy's exoskeleton, but it reached its objective: it now approached its prey's head.
When hunting normal creatures, the head wasn't the most important target. The neck, vertebra, or perhaps the anus were the most vital areas. However, the little creature's hunting instincts told it that the head was the only true weak point of the enemy before it, attacking any other part not enough to paralyze its combat strength. Its seven pairs of eyes were all equipped with different functions, and the functions weren't assigned to pairs. Its fourteen compound eyes had 12 different scouting functions. In the little creature's eyes, even the parts more than ten centimeters below its prey's fur were faintly discernible. It could be said that its extraordinary perception ability was what made it the most terrifying hunter.
The wolf head turned around as fast as lightning, its head viciously chomping down, but it didn't land on anything.
The little creature already jumped off its body, unknowingly when producing two pairs of insect-like transparent short wings on its back. They moved about quickly with vibrating sounds, allowing it to float in midair.
The little creature's unexpected flight left the enormous wolf head momentarily startled. However, those that could fly were many in number, so this wasn't enough to make it hesitate for a long time. Two enormous blades whistled past, hacking down in a crisscrossed manner! This was both an offensive and defensive action. The enormous wolf wanted to force back the little thing. With its size, having a small and nimble enemy behind its body clearly left it in a disadvantaged position. As long as it struggled for a few more seconds, its companions would be born, emerging from the enormous cocoons. The several dozen enormous cocoons didn't all carry a wolf mantis, but rather up to seven different breeds, each able to complement the different parts of their combat strength. There was one type of soldier that could restrict nimble, small size creatures.
However, the little creature's speed exceeded the wolf mantis' expectations. It retreated with lightning speed, avoiding the intersecting blades, and then it shot forward again, its six jointed limbs and two blades nailing onto the enormous wolf at the same time! However, the sharp edges only pierced in a centimeter, and then they couldn't proceed any further. The wolf mantis roared complacently. It had quite the confidence in its own skull's toughness. As for the damage to its skin, it didn't mind at all, because it only felt a trivial sensation of pain. It was to the extent where when it brandished its blades towards the little thing nailed to its head, it wasn't scared that the blades, after cutting through its opponent, would definitely cut into its own head.
It knew that its own blades couldn't cut through its own head at all. Moreover, its instincts told it that from the moment it was born, its greatest weakness was hidden within this toughest skull.
However, the little creature also knew this fact.