17: Interlude 1:Villain-Looking Mantis?!
(Cont’d) 17: Interlude 1:Villain-Looking Mantis?!
(Cont’d) .
“Hey!
Scyther, who is the villain-looking mantis?” the human behind me asked, ruining the possibility of it happening.
My body further started to shake even more in fear.
‘Now he has done it,’ I looked uneasily at the princess, whose face was turning ferocious.
“Now I think about it.
Why are you alone?” he questioned.
“Where are your Mooks?” he continued to ask me.
I looked dumbfounded at his question.
‘Is it time to ask this stupid question?
I thought, looking towards the villain *ptooey* princess.
Before I could react, “Oh!
I know.
You don’t need to tell,” he assuredly said, then pointed at the princess.
‘What do you understand?’ I started sweating.
“Does this villain scheme and take your position as a leader?” he questioned.
‘He?
Who?
She…?’ I looked speechless at him, then at the princess.
“Did he slaughter your family?
Did he steal your girlfriend?
Did he exile you?” he shot a flurry of questions as everyone stood in silence.
The princess’s face can’t be looked at now.
I started sweating at the tragic stories he made up for me.
‘I can’t take this anymore.
I don’t care if you are a human.
I’m going to kill you right now,’ I decided, then glared at the human.
“Don’t worry, we will train properly and defeat him to get revenge,” I promised, not seeing the state I was in.
‘I will take revenge right now.’ I raised my leg to slash, but I fell off balance at a sudden increase in speed.
“Hey!
You bloody villain, just wait, we will come back and get his revenge,” He declared angrily at the princess.
Now my panic is back.
‘What did I try to do?
Attack a human?
I must be insane.’ I fearfully looked at him.
‘Did he notice me?
Just now?’ I didn’t know what to do and panicked.
“I will show you the power of fire,’ he yelled, taking some odd-looking thing that started to spew fire.
‘He definitely noticed me.
He is going to burn me.’ I stood frozen in fear.
‘Grandpa, help me, I will listen to you from now on,’ I pleaded, closing my eyes.
“Hahaha!
Burn baby burn!
hahaha!” he laughed maniacally, but I didn’t feel the expected pain but felt the air turning hot.
“Don’t worry, we will get revenge,” he assured me, stopping somewhere; I opened my eyes to see there was no fire around.
‘I’m alive!’ I sighed in relief.
‘He is warning me,’ I deduced.
‘He will burn me next time I rebel,’ I concluded, then decided not to go against this human.
“We will rest for a few minutes here,” he stated, giving me something that I ate subconsciously.
‘Food?
food?’ I dumbly looked at the food.
‘I finally can fill my stomach,’ I threw away unnecessary thoughts and started to fill my stomach.
I woke up from my feeding frenzy when the human touched me.
I looked at him, then decided, ‘I will help you this one time, for giving me food,’ and began to explain the inner workings of this Island using my sign language.
I was oddly satisfied by the dumb look on his face after he learned about the Insect kingdom.
But my happiness evaporated when he asked about the princess.
I started to panic, thinking about offending the Royals.
‘I will definitely be punished if they caught me,’ I thought dreadfully.
The human started to ask many questions.
I answered what I knew.
He also asked about my sign language, which I explained truthfully.
I thought about the grasshoppers we met earlier having hand-like legs, so they may also know it.
He suggested I apologize to them.
‘I would have done it earlier if you had kept your mouth shut,’ I huffed in annoyance.
He went on about some friend list or something.
He pointed something at me that flashed a light, then he fiddled with the weird thing on his wrist.
“Don’t worry, I will add you to the friend list, so I will remember you quickly,” he explained.
I stared, eyes bulging out in shock.
‘Don’t add!
I want to get away from you first,’ I protested.
‘I have met all the things I’m afraid of in half a day,’ I thought anxiously.
‘It all happened after I joined you.’ I dreaded being with him anymore.
‘And what friend?
It is Rival,’ I protested, waving my legs.
He ignored it as usual and started fiddling with the thing on his wrist.
Suddenly, a «BEEP» sound was heard.
I was startled and looked around vigilantly.
“Where Am I?” the human yelled, looking around before spotting me.
“Gaah!
An alien,” he shouted, pointing at me.
‘What happened now?’ I looked dumbfounded, then remembered the things he explained while resting.
‘Memory loss?’ I confirmed.
‘I should remind him to see that weird thing on his hands as he instructed me,’ I thought, raising my legs to remind him of the watch.
“Hey!
Don’t move, you will die a terrible death if you do,” he yelled in panic, watching it raise its foreleg.
‘Humans are scary,’ I sweated at this lame threat, ‘even if it is lame,’ and slowly pointed at his wrist.
He started fiddling with it before looking at me from time to time with respect, pity, etc., before deciding to leave.
I followed him, thinking, ‘They will probably forgive us if we apologize, right?’ unconfidently.
“We should start training and overthrow the Royal family.
There should not be a royal with an evil face,” he declared as I face-planted hard on the ground.
I scrambled up and signed, ‘What about the apologizing you proposed earlier?’ vigorously at him.
‘And why is looking like a villain your main reason?’ I signed angrily.
“Why should we apologize to those assholes?” he retorted.
“They are the ones who attacked me first so I…*ahem*…
We need to get revenge on them,” he declared righteously.
‘What have I gotten into?’ I thought, looking shocked, then we climbed on that weird thing and went away as he questioned me about the Centipede.
I replied to him as he started cursing at the centipede when a real one burst out from the nearby root and attacked us.
‘Shit!
It’s the same one whose antenna I cut earlier,’ I cursed, trying to escape from here.
“Go and kill it,” the human asked me, taking the Light gun.
‘He is threatening with the gun to kill it,’ I sweated, eyeing the centipede and the human.
“Why is this ‘Stupede’ glaring at us?” he muttered, looking at the Centipede.
‘I wish it also had memory loss,’ I sighed sadly “Who cares!
I will cover you,” he assured me.
‘As I will believe it, you will shoot me if I don’t fight it,’ I complained and went to fight the centipede.
‘I will kill you and get out of here alive,’ I flew towards it and started fighting the centipede.
Whenever I was about to be attacked, the human would shoot the centipede to warn me of my negligence.
‘My first and second fight in my life is the same centipede,’ I muttered, dodging its tail before slashing it.
As I was getting used to the rhythm, I heard a «BEEP» sound; we stopped fighting and then looked at the human.
He froze, looked at us, and said, “You guys continue to fight; I will be on my way,” he waved, then drove away quickly, leaving me behind.
‘What?
He left me?’ I looked surprised.
‘It is very simple to escape from him,’ I discovered, then became happy.
‘I’m free!’ I thought.
Then turned to see a similarly happy centipede screeching, ‘I’m so dead,’ I thought, ready to defend myself.
‘Hey bro, stop attacking,’ I yelled, dodging its attack.
‘why are we fighting?
You insect!
me insect,’ I reasoned with the centipede as it slowed down its attack.
‘I’m so sorry, I cut you accidentally earlier,’ I apologized to the centipede.
‘I just tried to kill that human, but you got in the way.’ I dodged its attack, pointing in the direction the human went.
The centipede stopped its attack and looked at me.
‘Yeah, it is real, I tried to attack him but got caught by him,’ I revealed a half-truth, ‘Didn’t you see him forcing me to fight you pointing that gun?’ I desperately pleaded as the centipede looked thoughtful.
‘How about we kill him together?’ I suggested after a while.
‘I will be free after that human dies,’ I thought happily, thinking of this awesome idea.
I raised my foreleg.
‘What do you think?
Let’s join hands,’ I offered, who thought for a while, then stretched his intact antenna to start an alliance.
‘I will eat and sleep after this,’ I thought happily before the centipede yelled in pain.
I instinctively slashed and cut his remaining antenna as it writhed in pain.
I got hit by it and fell down, before falling safely onto the thing ridden by the human.
“Let’s get out of here,” he yelled, turning away.
I looked at the centipede, who showed a betrayed expression at me before his expression changed to vengeance, and he started chasing us.
“Hey!
Can you block its attack for some seconds?” the human asked.
I huffed angrily.
‘Who asked you to return?’ I stood at the back, eyeing the angry centipede.
‘Bro, it is not my fault,’ I yelled at him.
” ̷҉́͠D̢̕IE D̢̕IE ̛̛́͝DIE!̴̛͘͟,” is the word he spoke.
I looked at the approaching centipede anxiously.
‘I’m sorry, it is an accident…’ I started, ” ̷҉́͠D̢̕IE D̢̕IE ̛̛́͝DIE!̴̛͘͟,” before being cut off by it.
‘He has gone insane.’ I looked at him in horror.
He is nearing us, running on the milky dial, just as we reach the river.
“Hold on,” the human warned me as I supported myself properly before a sky lamprey jumped out from the river towards us with its countless teeth.
The human suddenly turned left and pulled a rope, which fired the Burn bazooka, boosting us away from two giant organisms.
The centipede got caught by the sky lamprey, but it quickly reacted and started fighting back, turning it into a brawl.
“That was pretty close,” the human sighed, wiping the sweat while watching the distant fight, ‘Teeth vs.
Legs’.
‘Yeah, I was pretty close to escape.’ I started sulking, standing in the back.
“Hey!
Come on, you already know I will forget randomly,” he apologized to me.
‘You should also forget me,’ I thought angrily.
“Anyway, the master returned to save you, right?
So you should stop sulking now, my student,” he said.
‘What Master?
What student?’ I looked flabbergasted at this news.
“Don’t worry, this master will train you so you can get revenge,” he proclaimed confidently, then gave me snacks.
I looked at him and the weird-looking snacks for a while, thinking, ‘First a Rival then a Training Partner, a Friend, and now an apprentice,’ I thought blankly.
‘I should clear his misunderstanding,’ I decided, then took the snacks subconsciously and ate them, and was quickly conquered by their taste.
‘It’s so good.
What was I thinking just now?
It seems to be important,’ I tried to remember.
‘Maybe this human is different,’ I thought hopefully, so as not to get killed.
I sat on that flying thing silently as the human drove away toward the Giant plant in the distance.
After some hours, we reached near it and entered a ruined building.
The human became excited and then started cutting the cloud on the ground.
‘Is he creating a grave for me?’ I shivered in fright but followed his order unwillingly.
After some hours, the human rushed out, then dragged the weird flying thing and me into the hole.
‘NO!
I don’t want to enter it, I thought before seeing the weapons in the bag, so following him under threat.
We entered the hole and fell through it.
Before the flying thing stabilized us, I looked around to find a huge city below shining brightly.
I looked dumbfounded at the city, which was surprisingly below the surface.
“Hahahaha!
I’m the first to find the golden city,” the human yelled happily.
I also got happy looking at the surroundings.’Yeah, I’m the first insect…- How the hell do those fireflies come here?’ I glared angrily at them.
We landed on the ground, and then started exploring the city.
I looked around the city, mesmerized and excited to explore this place.
‘Maybe I can live here lazily’, I thought, but the human destroyed my hope as usual.
“Scyther this place is the start of your revenge story,” he said, making me remember all the things that happened today.
‘Whatever I don’t want to happen has happened,’ I thought.
‘Let’s focus on what to do from now on,’ I decided.
‘This human is not as scary as the humans I saw as a kid,’ I concluded, seeing him clean a building.
I then started roaming the city, not understanding the nightmare waiting for me.
.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Author’s Note Scyther: “Let’s team up and kill that human.” Centipede: “Finally, an ally.” Scyther: immediately cuts off his remaining antenna.
Centipede: “D̷̛͝I̸̕E̵͠!
D̴I̸E̵!
D̷I̴E̸!” I think the poor centipede just experienced his first-ever mental breakdown.
And somehow, after all that, Scyther is starting to think this human might not be so bad.
What a wonderfully healthy friendship.