Mortas

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Mortas grew up in the Fungal Wastes as the son of the previous Mantis Lord. His father began teaching him to wield a blade before he could crawl and passed down the Twelve Methods of Life-Severing Hunt, an art required of a future lord. Mortas later underwent the hunting trial and succeeded to leadership according to the tribe's ancient traditions 16 20 50.

As chief, he inherited knowledge withheld from ordinary mantises: their homeland occupied only a small part of a fallen civilization, and the calamity that destroyed it would return. An enormous ancient map had already shaken him as a child by revealing how little of the wider world his tribe controlled 16 21.

His experience led him to reject the idea that hunting was an inherently noble destiny. He saw it as a necessity imposed by the tribe's limited circumstances and sought a future in which his people could choose another way of life 50.

Appearance

Mortas is a dark-green mantis with a powerful build, towering over his kin in both height and bulk 16.

• Scarred carapace: Initially bears scars from encounters with the cavern's most terrifying giant centipedes. His old wounds disappear after the Sunfire God's healing 16 21.
• Bladed arms: Sharp bone armor extends the reach of his close-range slashes 18.
• Eyes: Described as carrying both a warrior's ferocity and an unusual depth of wisdom 16.

Personality

Mortas is an extreme pragmatist who judges traditions and alliances by their usefulness. He accepts service to the Sunfire God because it offers protection and a better future for the mantises, abandoning customary independence when it no longer serves them. His apparent humility toward Gron conceals a shrewd awareness of factional interests 21 24 25.

Despite his authority and reputation as the cavern's strongest hunter, he is not blindly confident. He investigates unfamiliar threats, avoids uncertain fights, and insists on reliable intelligence before risking troops. Even anger does not erase his habit of setting traps and preserving options 16 18 27 48.

His concern for his people can make him authoritarian: when they resist allegiance to the Sunfire God, he considers forcing compliance. Yet his ultimate goal is to give them greater freedom, not merely preserve his own position. During the Royal City battle, he suppresses grief over fallen clansmen to concentrate on defeating the machine killing them 22 50.

Abilities & Skills

Hunting and Weapon Combat

Mortas combines experienced weapon handling with speed, precision, and attacks on exposed weaknesses 18 24.

• Uses hit-and-run attacks against unprotected joints to overcome an armored opponent 18.
• Handles spears, twin blades, and throwing knives; his Nail-Spear supports fluid lunges and downward thrusts 18 24.
• Throws knives into gaps in beast armor to disrupt a herd, or into delicate machine gears to immobilize a target 24 48.
• Recognizes dangerous energy buildup instinctively. His retreat from Flame Burst prevents an otherwise fatal direct hit 20.
• Relies on evasion rather than durability; a sufficiently fast opponent can negate his principal advantage 46 50.

Falling Kill

A descending attack Mortas developed over years, using the acceleration of his fall to maximize killing power 24.

• Leaps high before plunging toward his target with his Nail-Spear.
• Kills the targeted black-shelled beast and an entire surrounding circle of beasts at the impact point 24.

Hunter's Way

Mortas creates the hunter's way by choosing charms to reinforce a predetermined fighting style rather than allowing charms to dictate it. Its emblem resembles two crossed hunting knives 48.

All configuration details are documented in 48.

• Supports rapid leaps between walls and elevated platforms, keeping ordinary machines from tracking his movements 48.
• Focuses every preparation on creating an opportunity to kill with one strike 48.
• Proves vulnerable to Number Four, whose superior speed and killing power directly counter Mortas's style 48 50.

Twelve Methods of Life-Severing Hunt

An ancient secret art taught by Mortas's father and required of those who would become Mantis Lord 50.

• Delivers successive lethal thrusts at joints, eyes, skull, throat, and finally the heart, following an insect anatomical chart 50.
• Mortas uses his Nail-Spear to entangle Number Four's blades and knocks her off balance before executing the combination 50.
• The final thrust strikes the machine's power core, jamming its precision gears and ending the fight 50.
• He masters the art despite severe blood loss and retaliatory blades driven into his body 50.

Leadership and Tactical Judgment

• Commands the mantises in battle and drills them to prioritize speed and effective killing blows 23 48.
• Identifies factional tension within the expedition and maneuvers to secure opportunities for his clan 23 25 27.
• Uses inherited geographical knowledge to challenge expedition plans based on uncertain intelligence 27.
• Coordinates with Gron against stronger enemies, including a large Royal City machine neither could safely withstand alone 47.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Tempered-steel Nail-Spear — Gifted by Lin Jin for killing the most enemies during the Black Shell Plains battle. Mortas prefers it to the weapon inherited by successive Mantis Lords; it later penetrates a large war machine's chest armor 25 47.
• Inherited Nail-Spear — His true primary armament before receiving the divine gift; used in the assault on the black-shelled beasts 24 25.
• Twin blades — Worn at his waist and used during his duel with the expedition captain; destroyed by Flame Burst 18 20 24.
• Throwing knives — Used to strike exposed flesh and jam machine gears 24 48.
• Ancient map — A clan treasure depicting twenty-five regions of the former civilization. Age limits its accuracy, but it remains useful for planning 27.
• Hidden ancestral reserves — Weapons from the Previous Civilization and poisons accumulated by generations of Mantis Lords. Mortas releases them for the tribe's first expedition battle 22.
• Secret medicines — Treasured remedies used during his fight with Number Four. His bandages and hemostatic treatment cannot stop the bleeding caused by her blades 50.

Relationships

• Lin Jin / Sunfire God — Patron and sovereign. Mortas initially pledges allegiance out of necessity and calculation; tangible blessings strengthen his loyalty, and the survival of his wounded clansmen inspires sincere gratitude 21 25 50.
• Gron — Expedition commander, rival clan leader, and battlefield ally. Their competition over prestige and campaign routes gradually coexists with effective cooperation against common enemies 25 27 28 47.
• Quyin — Scout and subordinate who introduces him to the outsiders. Quyin persuades the village to accept change when Mortas's arguments fail, earning his approval; he later greets Mortas after the fight with Number Four 16 22 50.
• His father — Deceased predecessor and teacher. Passed down the lord's hunting traditions and secret combat art, which Mortas finally masters while fighting for his people's freedom 50.
• Expedition squad captain — Initial opponent who defeats him with divinely taught Flame Burst, then carries him to the healing bonfire and explains the expedition's arrangements 18 20 21.
• Number Four — Four-armed war machine deployed to counter the hunters. Mortas fights her to prevent further deaths among his clansmen and destroys her core at the cost of near-fatal injuries 48 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Contact with the Outsiders

• Stops the village's rush toward a preemptive attack and questions Quyin about the underground warriors. Concluding that the mantises would lose a war, he goes to meet them himself 16.
• Challenges the expedition captain after learning that the outsiders intend to claim the land for their god. His speed gives him the advantage until Lin Jin intervenes with Flame Burst 18 20.
• Receives healing and pledges the mantises' allegiance after weighing the threat of the returning calamity against the opportunities offered by the expedition 21.

Joining the Sunrise Expedition

• Faces challenges to his leadership over the decision to serve a god. Quyin's intervention resolves the villagers' resistance without the harsher coercion Mortas was considering 22.
• Leads reinforcements onto the Black Shell Plains and routs the beasts besieging Gron's camp 23 24.
• Receives divine rewards as Lin Jin formally names the mantises the Hunter Clan 25.
• Disputes campaign routes with Gron, then immediately obeys the divine order to advance toward the Sacrificial Grounds 27 28.
• Holds defensive lines alongside Gron against swarms emerging from the Upper Layer's dark caves 32.

Royal City Campaign

• Leads hunters in shadow attacks against isolated machines, supporting the Ashen Clan's frontal fighting. Together, he and Gron destroy a larger machine by exposing and striking its core 47.
• Demonstrates the hunter's way before Number Four ambushes and kills several mantises 48.
• Defeats Number Four through the Twelve Methods of Life-Severing Hunt, then collapses. After a vision of flame tells him that duties remain, he awakens among other recovering mantises and thanks the Sunfire God 50.

Notable Quotes

“Hunters, we have reached a new hunting ground! Let this world witness our rise!” 23

“Still not fast enough! Remember, speed is power, and power is everything!” 48

“Let us be free! Let us truly choose our own fate!” 50