【Host! Danger!】
The system was also startled by the horrifying scene before it, transforming into a metal sphere to shield Carlos.
Carlos was almost amused by the system’s foolishness. This little iron ball system blocking him would only be swallowed in one bite, utterly useless—it was downright idiotic.
No need for the system’s warning; his body reacted first.
【Host—】!!
Before the scream in the system’s mouth could finish, it felt its body lightened.
【Eh?!】 Eh!!
The system was kicked squarely by Carlos and sent flying to a safe area.
After kicking the system away and scooping up Zelan, Carlos rolled sideways.
Carlos completed this entire series of actions at a speed far exceeding his physical limits.
The male insect’s body simply couldn’t perform such anti-insect movements. Just picking up Zelan and rolling had nearly exhausted all his strength.
Carlos’s adrenaline surged sharply, his heartbeat accelerated in his chest, and his heart felt like it was about to leap out of his throat.
“Whew, hah. Looks like we’ve welcomed a big friend.”
Holding Zelan, he crouched in the spider’s blind spot, finally able to catch a breath.
Due to the overload, Carlos gasped heavily as he assessed the colossal creature before him, his throat emitting wheezing airflow sounds.
The giant spider was as tall as a floor, blue-bodied, blue-eyed, with eight robust legs and a belly as swollen as a sack, like an inflated pouch filled with venom—a nightmare straight from hell.
Carlos’s mind was unusually clear at this moment, but he truly felt his vision darkening, wanting to give himself a manual farewell.
He had thought about facing insects after crossing into the insect race, but never imagined confronting monsters like aliens or Godzilla. He wasn’t some Ultraman, nor could he perform weird transformations. The system must have found the wrong person!
Carlos only wanted to light a candle right now, mourning himself for a second, lamenting his tragic past and his disastrous present.
Suddenly, his hands felt heavier.
The female insect under his arm gradually stirred. The female insect’s originally tightly closed eyelashes trembled lightly, seeming to have overcome the fir tree’s paralyzing effect.
Zelan gradually began to sense the existence of his limbs, and his rational mind started to return.
He realized he was currently in the arms of that black-robed insect.
The familiar lemon scent filled his entire nasal cavity, scent molecules penetrating every pore of his skin. The tactile sensations transmitted from his body were also ones he knew intimately.
At this point, Zelan understood everything.
The black-robed insect was the disciplinary insect.
The insect always carrying the lemon scent was him.
At this moment, the one “opposing” him was him.
The “strange insect” bringing him a glimmer of hope was also him.
“Rumble rumble—”
The spider monster had reacted, its massive body emitting earth-shaking sounds as it turned.
Its target was precisely aimed at Carlos and Zelan. Once hit, it was almost certain death.
Carlos had exhausted his strength and was no longer capable of dodging.
“I owe you nothing.”
The female insect in his arms left a light, fleeting sentence in Carlos’s ear, grabbed his arm, and then flashed away.
The next moment.
Carlos’s vision blurred, everything spinning.
He was pulled backward by the female insect.
Zelan firmly shielded him from the front.
Crunch—
A sound of chewing that made one’s flesh ache echoed before Carlos.
The blue spider’s massive jaws clamped tightly onto Zelan’s forearm, its insectoid mouth possessing a bite force strong enough to sever steel and concrete.
Even as a female insect, though physically more robust, his arm could not withstand such an attack.
The spider’s venomous jaws snapped shut violently, turning the flesh on Zelan’s arm into a bloody, mangled pulp, hanging precariously from the bone like a lump of mud, with even the forearm bone itself in peril.
“Run!!”
Under the spider’s forceful push, its two front limbs had already plunged deep into Zelan’s shoulders. The female insect was forced backward step by step, blood gushing out like an opened floodgate, dripping onto Carlos’s face.
There was no time left for him to stand there stunned!
Carlos knew his own combat capabilities perfectly well. Staying here would only make him a burden. He struggled to rise from the ground, trying to locate the nearest passageway.
But in the vast arena, all four passages were sealed shut. Even the passage the blue spider had first charged through was already locked.
The fallen doors firmly blocked their escape route.
The referee might have wanted to say something, but that palm-sized flying chess piece had already been torn apart by the spider. The shouts and screams from the surrounding spectator stands gradually faded and grew distant, everything beginning to be isolated.
A massive torrent in his mind nearly overwhelmed Carlos, a suffocating sensation rising step by step.
This was a deliberately orchestrated slaughterhouse.
Not far away, the female insect had already broken free from the spider’s restraint and was now entangled in a fierce struggle with it.
Carlos gasped for breath, forcing his mind to gradually calm down, rationally observing the battle.
If such a colossal blue spider had appeared in the arena before, he couldn’t possibly have no impression of it. Yet, one of its limbs bore a small black ring—such a delicate object appearing on a giant beast felt utterly incongruous.
Carlos focused his gaze.
It was—a slave collar, a blood-stained black collar engraved with the familiar number 1349.
It belonged to Heiga’s insect slave, one he had just seen earlier.
The insect, originally intact, now bore no semblance of a “human form.”
“Careful!”
Carlos couldn’t spare time to think, shouting out in alarm.
Zelan’s participation in the duel was already at his limit. He was struck by the spider, then retaliated by thrusting toward its head, now faintly outmatched by the blue spider.
Just as the blue spider was about to engulf the female insect.
At the critical moment, the female insect suddenly turned his head, looking at Carlos.
“You must stop me.”
As soon as the words fell, the female insect’s body began to transform.
Five pairs of wings unfurled behind him, spreading overwhelmingly.
Zelan’s blood-covered arm gradually became covered with white fur. Following his neck, the white fur climbed up toward his face, his pale gray eyes turning nearly transparent, his originally slender fingers morphing into sharp blades.
Zelan underwent his third incomplete form of insect transformation.
And also… insect transformation in a state of frenzy.
He would face complete loss of reason.
The female insect’s white form once again wrestled with the spider.
Zelan’s white wings transformed into god-slaying weapons of astonishing lethality, each feather serving as his weapon. Feathers like a storm of pear blossoms flew toward the blue spider numbered 1394, stripping away countless flesh and blood.
In the midst of the fierce fighting and collisions, the entire arena was being destroyed, flying dust and blood resembling a nightmare.
After transforming, Zelan gradually gained the upper hand.
But as the battle dragged on, the female insect began to bleed from its mouth and nose.
This couldn’t go on any longer. The female insect’s current frenzied, transformed state was consuming its life force. He had to do something to end this fight!
Insect Slave No. 1349—the Blue Sapphire Ornate Rainforest Spider.
He remembered! Carlo’s mind raced.
The typical weaknesses of spiders are their eyes and abdomen. However, as one of the most lethal insect species, the Blue Sapphire Spider’s body had long since evolved. Attacking its abdomen would cause it to spew venom, and losing one or two of its eight eyes wouldn’t hinder it in the slightest. It might even provoke a counterattack.
On the contrary, the Blue Spider’s weakness lay in the silk-spinning organ at its tail!
“Zelan! Zelan! The tail! Attack the spider’s tail!”
But by now, the female insect had long lost its sanity in the transformation, launching indiscriminate attacks without distinguishing friend from foe.
Carlo was still within the range of both insects’ attacks, yet Zelan showed not the slightest intention of targeting him. This was nothing short of a miracle.
He had to find something to capture Zelan’s attention, but the entire arena was barren. What could he possibly find?
【Host, I won’t be harmed. You use me.】
The system, which had been offline for a long time, flew over at that moment. Its voice trembled, yet it managed to squeeze out these words.
【I… I can also glow. It’ll be fine.】
As soon as it finished speaking, the metallic sphere system lit up and settled in Carlo’s palm. It resembled a giant spherical lightbulb, so dazzlingly bright it was impossible to ignore.
“Good little ball, I’ll remember this! Go! System Ball.”
Carlo mustered his last ounce of strength, grabbed the system, and hurled it straight at the spider’s rear.
【AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!】 The system’s scream echoed throughout the entire arena.
Just as it landed, Zelan’s feather-like attack struck the Blue Spider’s tail.
BOOM—
Insect Slave No. 1349, the Blue Sapphire Ornate Rainforest Spider, collapsed with a thunderous crash.
A cloud of dust erupted, making Carlo feel as if he had been caught in a sandstorm head-on, his entire body covered in grime.
The entire arena fell silent. A haze of gray dust drifted down, allowing the insects to see the full scene.
Zelan stood at the center of the arena, drenched in blood.
It was only through unimaginable willpower that he could maintain a form that barely resembled a “person.”
The tortures of the Sweet Home had already inflicted irreparable damage on him, and the attacks he had just endured only added fuel to the fire. His muscles were on the verge of tearing apart, with dislocations, lacerations, and fractures making it almost impossible for him to stand.
He looked like the loneliest being in the world.
After the Blue Spider fell, Carlo was the only insect left in the arena.
The female insect’s eyes, now so pale they were almost indistinguishable, shifted slightly, fixing on Carlo.
In a frenzied, transformed state, a female insect retained no trace of rationality—only the most primal instincts of the insect race: slaughter and mating.
Fight!
Tear apart!
Kill!
These singular impulses flooded his mind.
The only insect before him was his enemy. He should tear this weak insect to shreds.
Yet, in that fleeting moment, an inexplicable thought arose from the depths of Zelan’s heart.
He must not harm this insect. He must not harm this strange, peculiar creature, this lemon-scented enigma, this bizarre insect he simply could not fathom.
The female insect’s wing feathers spread open once more behind her, and in an instant, the feathers shot toward Carlos like arrows.
Yet each sharp feather merely grazed Carlos’s skin.
Under the force of the impact, the black robe disintegrated into tattered strips and fell away, and even the shirt and trousers Carlos had been wearing properly were left in ruins.
That small tail hook was now fully exposed.
“Look! It’s a male insect!”
The insects in the stands erupted in loud exclamations, as if they had just witnessed a resurrection.