Under Attack

Facts proved that the speculation about the small holes on Rowan's rear was correct.

These ant-like creatures were extremely aggressive. The ant closest to him twitched its antennae, bent its six limbs slightly, and then exerted force in unison, lunging at Rowan in an instant. It raised its hook-like mandibles slightly before snapping them downward, attempting to lock onto him.

Of course, Rowan was no pushover. Although his Compound Eyes were severely nearsighted at the moment, the fact that his tens of thousands of tiny eyes each formed their own image meant his dynamic vision was incredibly formidable.

To put it in perspective, if a human eye feels comfortable and fluid when viewing a 60Hz refresh rate, then Rowan's dynamic vision processing was ten times that of a human. To him, a 60Hz screen would look like a slideshow—and a super laggy one at that, where the next frame takes forever to appear.

However, the speed of this ant's Catapult Start was also incredibly fast, certainly exceeding the reaction limits of the human eye. Even Rowan could only track its movements normally; there was no such thing as a Bullet Time effect.

He kicked off the ground with the three slender limbs on his side, the reaction force pushing him into a roll to dodge the incoming mandibles. Yet, Rowan broke out in a cold sweat.

This insect body was nowhere near as flexible as a human's. The rolling motion that a human could perform with ease was exceptionally strenuous for him to execute right now.

He was lucky this time; after rolling twice in succession, he finally ended up belly-down, continuing to crawl on the ground.

If the force of his kick hadn't been enough, or if some other accident had occurred, leaving him belly-up and lying on his back, he would have been in deep trouble. With his current body, it would be difficult to flip over for a while, and he would truly be at the mercy of the ants.

If it were a one-on-one fight, he might have had the confidence to put up a scrap against an ant slightly smaller than himself. But they clearly didn't care about fair play, setting up a formation that suggested a gang beatdown.

A wise insect doesn't fight when the odds are against him, so Rowan stuck his rear in the air and prepared to make a run for it.

On the surface, his speed was clearly inferior to these ants, but he had his own advantages. Although he hadn't been an insect for long, he could tell from his own experience that while their forelimbs were decent enough for scraping sand and gravel, they couldn't even catch a whiff of his exhaust when it came to digging through mud.

The sand and gravel layer here wasn't deep; at his speed, he would be safe as long as he reached the mud layer.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated the speed and distance of the ants' Catapult Start. Several ants launched simultaneously, and multiple pairs of mandibles clamped onto Rowan, who was already half-buried in the soil. Two of them had even pierced his abdomen, and they all pulled together, trying to drag him out of the ground.

Being dragged out would mean certain death, so Rowan went berserk. His pair of Digging Legs dug frantically, his two pairs of middle legs gripped the surrounding sand and gravel, and his pair of hind legs kicked wildly backward.

An ant that had clamped onto Rowan's abdomen lunged forward. Besides those eye-catching hooked mandibles, it had a smaller pair of black-brown, pincer-like teeth near its mouth.

At that moment, Rowan's hind leg happened to kick right in front of it, and the ant reacted instantly, biting down on it.

Rowan didn't know if other insects felt pain, but he knew he currently didn't. Otherwise, given his current injuries, he would have long since passed out from the agony if he were in a human body.

That wasn't all. Some of the ants fixed their six limbs to stabilize their bodies, then raised their thoraxes vertically, thrusting their abdomens forward with such force that they extended past their heads, looking somewhat like scorpions preparing to sting.

Their swollen abdomens writhed, and a turbid liquid was sprayed from the emission port at the very tip. The moment the liquid touched the air, it emitted a puff of white smoke.

The liquid arched through the air, landing accurately around Rowan. His entire rear abdomen was sprayed to some extent, corroding his body and leaving behind small, pitted wounds.

Damn it, these shameless things are actually using a Fecal Spray Attack! And there's poison hidden in the feces! Rowan had never seen such an unsportsmanlike species.

At this life-or-death moment, he felt as if his entire body was exerting force, his fine hairs standing on end. After a desperate struggle, he finally broke free from their restraint, burrowed his entire body into the sand and gravel, and vanished.

Underground, he was truly in a league of his own; the ants couldn't even see his rear end.

Temporarily out of danger, Rowan stopped. He was extremely weak. Both of his hind legs had suffered varying degrees of bite wounds, and one of them had even snapped in the middle, losing a large chunk.

Fortunately, he had many legs now; even with two crippled, it didn't significantly affect his mobility.

Furthermore, his entire lower back had been corroded to some extent, but the damage from this liquid wasn't as severe as he had imagined. Perhaps because the contact time was short and the dosage insufficient, it had only caused some superficial skin damage and hadn't melted through his body.

He couldn't see his own back, but he felt it shouldn't be too serious.

However, the injury to his abdomen was far more severe.

The soft abdomen had been torn open at the third segment from the rear, with only a tiny bit of skin still connecting it to his body. He didn't know if it was his internal organs or something else that had been leaking out the whole way; by now, there was nothing left to leak.

"Good thing I'm an insect. If I were disemboweled like this, I'd definitely be dead."

Even though he wasn't dead yet, Rowan didn't know how long he could hold on with such injuries. But he was helpless; there were no bandages around, and even if there were, he couldn't perform such delicate work with his current limbs.

He really wished he had an internet connection to upload the problem he was facing, ending it with: Online now, very urgent.

But that was just wishful thinking. Rowan suspected that because he was dying, his brain was starting to drift, filling with useless thoughts.

His fine hairs sensed some vibrations, pulling Rowan back to reality. The ants were tracking him by the body fluids he had been leaking along the way; this place wasn't safe.

Sticking his rear in the air, he continued to dig. When he arrived earlier, he hadn't found any ants or their tunnels deep underground, which meant they didn't like living deep down, and their forelimbs weren't suited for digging through mud.

As long as he kept going deeper, he would surely shake them off.

Rowan didn't know how long he had been digging. He felt his consciousness blurring; although he lacked the sensation of pain, the severe trauma to his body had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

In his haze, he sensed the familiar vibration ahead. It was a White Grub gnawing on a tree root!

He crawled over with his last ounce of strength. Sure enough, a plump, white, and exceptionally fatty insect was using its mandibles to cut through the bark, enjoying the delicious sap.

Rowan skillfully stepped forward, kicked the White Grub away, and began to lick the wound on the tree root frantically.

The slightly cold sap slid down his esophagus into his body, then flowed all the way to his abdomen, finally leaking out from the wound on his belly...

Rowan felt a sense of despair.

He barely managed to scrape his way a short distance to the side before everything went black, and he lost consciousness.