Giant Insect

Although Mr. Insect was already a ball of fire, sizzling from Edward's flames, the fireball pulsed rhythmically, as if something were brewing inside.

Edward was suddenly gripped by an inexplicable sense of dread. He quickly pulled back, but he was still a step too slow. A flash of red shot out of the fireball and straight toward his chest.

Edward's Flying Backpack had already begun spewing flames to propel him backward, but a massive, sickle-shaped insect leg struck him in the chest.

Although he had leaned back as far as he could to lessen the impact, the black armor over his chest still shattered into pieces. The blow sent him flying toward the water.

Like a stone skipping across the surface, he bounced and skidded across the river dozens of times before finally losing momentum near the southern bank of the Haer River. He splashed into the water and sank to the riverbed.

The dry branches and grass on the delta had caught fire in the strong wind, fueled by Edward's sustained barrage of flames.

The firelight reddened the river.

In the flames, a huge shadow began to writhe and roll. It looked like an enormous cocoon.

Somewhere on the opposite bank, the water rippled. A gray-black figure staggered out of the slowly flowing river and struggled up onto the shore. He painfully removed his helmet, its visor shattered.

His face was pale, his lips purple. He looked as though he could barely breathe. Then he suddenly vomited a large mouthful of blood. His throat sounded like a broken bellows as he struggled to draw breath.

Only now did Edward realize how difficult it was to challenge someone two ranks above him. He had been hitting the other guy for ages, and his health bar was still long. One hit had nearly emptied his own.

He looked across at the enormous cocoon amid the towering flames on the delta and gritted his teeth.

"Did I seriously trigger a Second Stage Transformation? What year is this, and you're still pulling the 'Heavenly Silkworm Transformation' routine? What's with the giant cocoon—are you trying to reach new heights? Kids these days don't even get your old reference. You know that?"

He clenched his teeth and struggled to remove the ruined black chestplate, then gently felt his chest and abdomen. Thank goodness, he'd only broken three ribs. None had pierced his organs or broken through the skin. His chestplate was clearly pretty well made.

He carefully set the broken ribs back in place, gritting his teeth at the pain. Then he hurriedly took a potion from his Spatial Ring. It was an Intermediate Healing Potion supplied by the Alchemist Guild, capable of rapidly healing injuries and stopping bleeding and pain.

He gulped down several mouthfuls and complained, "This tastes awful. Those Alchemists who brew potions should really add some sugar."

Then he took a scroll from his Spatial Ring. It was a Healing Scroll Pastor Elvin had given him. Supposedly, the bishop of the diocese had copied it himself. Edward tore off the seal, unfolded it, and pressed it against his chest. A warm light spread from the scroll, gradually enveloping his entire body. His pain subsided, and his strength slowly returned.

He staggered to his feet and gazed across the river at the Giant Bug Cocoon. It had already grown nearly two stories tall and was still swelling slightly. Its skin was so thin that the firelight revealed the shadow of a giant insect writhing inside.

It looked like the thing was about to break out of its cocoon. Edward knew he was running out of time, so he quickly searched his Spatial Ring for usable gear.

Fortunately, he had a habit of keeping backups. He found another helmet and put it on, then strapped on a chestplate.

His Flying Backpack was still there, but it seemed to have gotten jammed when he'd tumbled across the water. Its wings wouldn't unfold.

He fumbled around and pressed a Magic Gem from his Spatial Ring into one of the backpack's Card Slots. The Energy Crystal had already shattered and was who knew where by now. Looks like he'd have to make do with using it as a Rocket Backpack.

Edward tested the backpack. There was no time to repair it, so he made it spew flames and flew at an angle toward Lake Island.

Just then, the giant cocoon split open, and a huge Long-legged Spider crawled out.

The spider was purple all over, with a body like a giant tank. Eight thick, jointed legs, each over ten meters long, supported it, and every leg ended in a sickle-shaped foot. Its body was covered in sharp hairs, some as fine as steel needles and others as thick as steel bars. Eight compound eyes glinted coldly. It looked a little like the tarantulas from Edward's Previous Life.

Mr. Insect turned around. A ruined human face bulged from the giant spider's head, facing Edward. He roared, "Do you know how hard it is to find a suitable body?

"Do you know what I had to promise those bastards to get out of the Nether Sea?

"A hundred years! I had to serve those bastards for a hundred years!

"And now it's all gone. You, you piece of trash, ruined everything!

"Trash! You're going to die today!"

As he spoke, he raised a huge sickle-leg and swung it at Edward.

While complaining that the talking insect before him was violating the Law of Conservation of Mass, Edward climbed higher to dodge. Instead, he felt more at ease. He'd been afraid the other guy would undergo a Second Stage Transformation and turn into something that could fly. That would've been scary.

It seemed this thing couldn't fly at all. It had only grown larger. That made it much easier to deal with.

By the way, the ranks of professionals in this world were divided according to their approximate energy levels.

As Edward understood it, an official Knight's combat power was roughly equivalent to an infantry fighting vehicle, while a Great Knight was like a main battle tank. Whether it was an "Apocalypse" or a "Prism Tank" depended on the Knight's attributes.

Of course, Edward meant destructive and defensive power, not ranged attack capability. Knights were close-combat units.

At the Sky Knight level, as the name suggested, they could take to the skies. Sky Knights had limited flight capabilities and impressive ranged attacks. At that point, the gap between them and Magicians of the same rank wasn't so obvious.

As for beings of the Fifth Stage, Edward had never encountered one. Every country treated those old monsters like nuclear warheads, keeping them highly venerated and rarely letting them take action.

The thing before him couldn't be compared to a human combat professional. It was more like a magical beast. At the Fourth Rank, magical beasts tended to split into two categories: some became extremely agile, while others grew huge, with slower reflexes and reduced speed. Worse, they couldn't fly. They made excellent sitting targets.

Edward drove the backpack upward with all his might until he reached five hundred meters, then hovered there. He looked down leisurely at Mr. Insect, who was swinging his sickle-legs and sending out blades of wind. No, calling him a monster or magical beast was more appropriate now. This monster's defense wasn't as strong as a true Sky Knight's, but its bizarre regenerative ability was what worried Edward.

He rummaged through his ring and pulled out an amber Glass Jar about the size of a keg of draught beer. As soon as it appeared, he immediately let go, and it dropped straight down. He said, "I didn't make much of this stuff to begin with. Guess you can have it."

After growing larger, Mr. Insect seemed to have gotten a lot stupider, too. Seeing something fall from the sky, he didn't bother to take a closer look before slashing it to pieces with one of his sickle-legs.

The Glass Jar shattered, and the thick, pale-yellow wax inside burst out like a cloud, drenching Mr. Insect. The wind had died down by then, so it coated him evenly.

Mr. Insect was already annoyed by the wax's intensely unpleasant smell when sparks from the burning plants floating in the air ignited it.

A crackling sound filled the air, and the ground lit up like a brilliant yellow fireworks display. It was the dead of night, and the intense light made Edward squint in a hurry.

The thing he had dropped was called a White Phosphorus Bomb in his Previous Life. I'll spare you the details of its effects. The bright yellow wax was white phosphorus. Once it stuck to you, it clung like a leech and wouldn't stop burning until it was completely consumed. White phosphorus burned at temperatures of up to a thousand degrees Celsius. It was a weapon banned by the Geneva Conventions.

In his Previous Life, Edward had once asked a military enthusiast on a forum, "If I got transported to another world, what weapon would be the most powerful? A Gauss Rifle or a laser weapon?" His friend had replied:

"Why are you worrying about that? People have already done the research. All the really nasty stuff is listed in the Geneva Conventions! You just need to figure out how to make it. Besides, you're a normal person. Would you really have the heart to use something that cruel?"

Now Edward had used it, and he felt absolutely no guilt. In fact, it felt great.

Mr. Insect, on the other hand, wasn't enjoying himself at all. The intense flames temporarily robbed him of all perception of the outside world. He felt nothing but agonizing pain, and quickly used his bizarre Red Light to shield his body from the raging fire. He tried to crawl toward the river to put out the flames.

Just then, a violent explosion struck him in the back. Edward had fired an RPG from the sky, and it had hit its mark. The RPG's shaped-charge Warhead focused the explosive force forward, creating a jet of superheated gas at nearly three thousand degrees.

Even the bizarre Red Light couldn't withstand that heat. It was instantly overwhelmed, and the neural center controlling his body was destroyed. His eight long legs went limp all at once.

He had lost his chance to escape. All he could do was struggle to hold out with the Red Light and hope he could endure the flames and repair his body as soon as they burned out. His encounter with Edward had been thoroughly miserable.

He'd meant to put on a show and then eat Edward. Instead, he'd kept getting bested in the fight against that bizarre Alchemist, while all he'd managed was one glancing hit. Was this really an Alchemist two ranks below him?

Could that old saying be true? "An Alchemist with enough preparation can even take down a dragon"?

For a brief moment, Mr. Insect felt each passing second stretch into an eternity as he desperately hoped the bright yellow flames would burn out soon!

Edward naturally wasn't about to let him have his way. He'd planned to take advantage of the insect's immobility and set off another block of TNT, blowing him to bits. But there wasn't another block of explosives in his Spatial Ring.

He took another RPG from his Spatial Ring and loaded it into the launcher. This warhead, though, was different from the last one.

He muttered, "Leon Kennedy once said that no monster can survive a single RPG. And if that doesn't work, try a Red Warhead!"

Sorry, work's been too busy these past couple of days. I've been working overtime every night. I wrote this after my wife and kid had gone to sleep, so the time you see it posted is when I finished writing.

Thanks for all your support. I'll put up a separate post to thank everyone another day. I'm going to bed now.