Rena

  Another two weeks of ‘hit and run’ had passed. And, within those weeks, I had been practicing in order to perfect my perfect run.

  I sidetrack my way back to the main nest.

  After attaining [Melee], I had tried out a few new techniques, from the art of knife-throwing to the mastery of karate. In fact, I’d say I’m probably a lower brown belt on a good day?

  Totally not dan levelled yet though.

  But, the thing is, right now, with a massive stat boost and offensive upgrade, I’m feeling cocky. Like, I wanna just barge into the sub-nest and yolo it!

  But obviously, that would cut the story short.

  Roaches, beware!

  Your contractor just called in an exterminator!

  And no, not the ones that just barge in and spray the house with gas. I’m talking about the types of exterminators that carefully lay traps and kill roaches with strategy. Knowing my own impulsiveness, I would probably choose the former option if I could.

  Unfortunately, I’m nowhere near the scale of power needed to pull that off.

  So, strategy it is!

  The babies don’t pose any threat to me, but the Soldiers do. Even if a Soldier is likely to be a notch below the Guard, it doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.

  Q: how do I draw the attention of these Soldiers?

  A: KILL BABY ROACHES!!

  So that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.

  I’ve already planted a few traps here and there as leverage in case I find the situation getting out of hand.

  I idly walk along the pathway before making my way back to the sub-nest.

  And, while making as much noise as possible, I throw my throwing knife with utmost precision. It cleaves through four baby roaches without a hind of delay, before slowly losing velocity and coming to a stop at eight babies. The other babies all halt their activities at once, and turn to face me.

  I materialise another knife from my inventory, and get ready to throw it in hopes of dealing as much collateral damage as possible. However, instead of all rushing me, the babies break out into frantic screeching.

  And a loud, growl-ish screech silences the yelping.

  The babies cease their screaming, and scuttle away, forming some pathway. And I can’t help but mutter—

  “—What…?”

  Erm, excuse me?

  Why does it feel like I’m getting VIP treatment? Why are they rolling out a metaphorical red carpet for me? Why?

  The babies begin to click their fangs, forming a wicked chant. More like a jeer, actually.

  A sleek roach pompously glides along the line. It cockily looks at me, and I could totally imagine the roach sneering at me while saying something like ‘Hmph! Know your place, girl!’

  They bow down.

  Well, if you count lowering their front legs, and keeping their back legs up high as bowing. It looks more like a downward dog.

  Eh, it's the thought that matters, right?

  The roaches scuttle backwards, making room for an imposing figure. A [Queen Cockroach].

  The Queen.

  Master of the nest.

  Bah! What is this, royal pride? Jokes on you I'm going to shatter that conceit and make you look up in defeat!

  Ooh, that rhymes.

  I guess I should be serious about this, but with meticulous planning backing me up, I can’t help but feel confident.

  Why, you ask?

  Tsk tsk tsk…

  Don’t underestimate the power of continual back-to-back [Appraisals]!

  I know these roaches better than they know themselves!

  Sure, it took hours of trial-and-error to get the results that I wanted, but I’ve managed to find out the battle style and general stat distribution of not only the Soldiers, but also the Queen.

  I even knew that the babies would bow—it was just the grandiose of it that took me by surprise.

  The Queen Roach. Although it’s a rank D, its stats aren’t actually that high. Purely stat-wise, the Queen still outranks me, but if you take skills, planning and spatial awareness into the equation, then I’m confident I can beat a Queen one-on-one.

  Queens are the only roach species that specialises in magic. Although, that magical expertise is still pretty crude. They use [Disease Magic] to inflict damage. [Disease Magic] is a rare skill only accessible to the Queen Cockroach species, and it will continue to feed off the target until either the Queen runs out of mana or dies. And even worse, the spell cannot be evaded. Once a target is set, dodging is impossible.

  Sounds deadly, right?

  Wrong!

  Why?

  Simple: [Disease Magic] takes an immense amount of casting time. And once cast, the spell still takes a long time to deal fatal damage. I mean, diseases are meant to be slow and painful. Not fast and concise.

  Which is where the Soldiers come into play. Their main goal is to stall for time, and their specs centre around health and defense—the inverse of Guards, who specialise in damage and speed.

  But even though speed isn’t their area of expertise, they’re still faster than me.

  Which is precisely why my speed attribute is so important—if I get significantly outspeeded, then I’m basically done for, so I have to boost my speed to match the pace of stronger opponents.

  Luckily, I had managed to brew some concoction to slow down the Soldiers.

  Although, by ‘concoction’, I just mean using the corpse of a baby roach as a mortar and pestle to make a glue-like substance. What exactly is this substance, you ask?

  A mix of roach intestines, antennas and blood.

  I don’t get the science behind it, but I stumbled upon an aged corpse. Usually, the corpses disappear after a few days, and there’s really only one answer behind that: cannibalism. There are no scavengers or decomposers—only roaches.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  But for some reason, that corpse wasn’t eaten. And when I went to poke it with a throwing knife, the knife sunk into the organic matter pretty easily. But, boy, oh boy, was it a pain to take out.

  A natural adhesive! Can you believe it? I feel like the guy who stumbled across penicillin by accident!

  So, I splotched the adhesive at strategic locations, such as turnways and narrow corridors.

  One might think it would be difficult to lure the Soldiers out of the nest, but it’s actually pretty easy.

  You see, once [Disease Magic] locks onto a target, distance is no longer an issue.

  So from the roach POV, they would actually be putting me at a disadvantage by pushing me away from the Queen.

  Stupid roaches.

  As expected, the two Soldiers follow behind the Queen, before moving forwards to protect her from both sides. Actually… is the Queen an it or a her? I mean, unlike a ‘Guard roach’, I can actually assume gender when it comes to ‘Queen’ and ‘King’ roaches.

  ‘Her’ it is, then.

  I lock eyes with the Queen. The inky darkness glares back at me with ferocity. No, not ferocity… hate?

  She probably sees me as the bastard who killed her children and a loyal vassal.

  And I too, see a bastard. The mother of all bastards, in fact.

  Makes me wanna scream ‘WOMP WOMP!’, but that's gen A stuff.

  Suddenly, I feel an uneasy feeling resonate within me. Et tu, Queen? Are you giving me cancer?

  Right as I feel [Disease Magic] attack my body, the Soldiers on the Queens side lunge me.

  Soldier 1 jumps right towards me. I parry the bite with one of my daggers, and redirect the momentum back to it with a kick while leaping up, and slicing its exoskeleton to form a clean ‘X’ shaped incision.

  Soldier 1 almost recoils shock, but quickly regains composure and clicks its antennas. Soldier 2 responds with its own click, and second later, the two roaches circle me like sharks ready for a meal.

  Aw man, teamwork?

  Not happening today!

  Before they can close up any openings, I make a break for it and dart away from the sub-nest, the Soldiers following in pursuit. Unlike the Guard, these guys aren’t toying with me, and are actually fighting at full strength, so they’ll catch up to me pretty soon.

  While sprinting like a chicken caught near KFC, I notice a circle in the distance. Good. The blood landmark. I’m gaining traction!

  I glance back, and see the roaches advancing towards me, closing the gap a few centimetres at a time. They’re getting too close for comfort. I materialise a knife from my inventory, quickly spin it by the blade, before throwing. It hits Soldier 1 smack-bang in the forehead, and it screeches in pain, frantically scrubbing the blade with its stubby legs.

  Using the attack as a distraction, I dash to the O and quickly leap over a large boulder before scrambling up some rocks. Oh yeah, Soldier 2 managed to help Soldier 1 pull the blade out while I was rock climbing.

  This is the first landmark. A large overhanging boulder that leads to a wall with footholds impossible for a roach to climb but easy enough for a person. So I’ve got the high ground right now, the roaches can’t reach me, and I have a stash of throwing knives piled up, each one sharpened to perfection.

  Even an idiot would be able to read the room.

  But the roaches don’t. Maybe it’s anger blinding them?

  Aw man, I can’t help but feel so cocky!

  As the dynamic duo charge at me, it begins to rain knives. I’m prioritising quantity over quality right now. If I were to take my time to precisely aim every single shot, the Soldiers would eventually realise that they’re disadvantaged. And if they retreated, I would have to follow them back to the nest if I didn’t want [Disease Magic] to get to me.

  But if I keep on applying pressure on them?

  Sure, the stock might run out faster, but the stress won’t let the roaches think straight. Since they’re much stronger than me, any chip damage I can manage to get in here would be helpful.

  I’m not wasting my four remaining D rank throwing knives though. I’ll just use the F rank ones from the pile, since I’ll probably need the good daggers for later.

  The hail continues droning on for another two minutes. The Soldier’s hard shell protected them from most of the damage, but every now and then, I managed to hit a weak spot (like a soft membrane or something).

  Overall?

  Pretty worthwhile.

  But now I’m out of daggers. And the roaches seem more annoyed than agitated.

  I-It’s fine!

  I’ve still got the glue trap!

  Hopping down from the ledge, I throw one more knife at Soldier 1 before breaking into a short sprint.

  The roaches follow in pursuit, yelling curses or whatever in their language. I get that I’m not exactly taking this seriously, but with preparation, no opponent is too strong.

  I kick a pebble upwards. It hits a roach corpse, causing the limp body to slightly loll to the side. And with the weight shifted, the mechanism activates, and a pseudo catapult fires sticky gunk at the roaches.

  A bit crude, but with all due respect, I only had access to two materials: slabs of stone and roach bodies. So I’m actually impressed with my handiwork.

  Sure, I didn’t create a semiconductor or anything, but hey, a glue trap is pretty neat, no?

  Soldier 1 pulls its legs violently, only for the sticky, elastic substance to tang! back. The sudden tug causes the roach to stumble and fall even deeper into the glue.

  Heh. Idiot.

  And so, I immobilise my opponents and win.

  The end.

  Or so I would say. Unfortunately, miracles like those don’t always occur. The glue wasn’t even that sticky anyway. Only when the glue accumulates, goes it get unbearably adhesive.

  Soldier 1 does get caught in the trap, but the glue really only lowers the roach’s speed and nothing else. Soldier 2—the smarter one—however, dodges the incoming volley, and makes a beeline for me while howling in rage. Its antenna’s even twitch to match its roars.

  Maybe it can somehow sense that the glue is made of its brethren.

  Oh well.

  Anger, though a good method for boosting raw power, severely hinders one’s logistical processing. There’s a reason why taunts are so effective and considered dirty play. Because it baits out the enemy's irrationality.

  Sure, this provocation was accidental, but it works in my favour, no?

  Soldier 2 charges at me, and I barely dodge by swinging to the side. The roach becomes a blur in my vision, and I parry a strike in the nick of time. The echoes from the impact reverberate around the cavern. Then; silence. Before the storm. Soldier 2 uses some sort of skill, and its strikes become noticeably more accurate and well timed afterwards. It takes all my effort to dodge.

  The roach, seeing by right wide open, lunges at me, only for its legs to get restrained by an invisible force. It was only a matter of due time.

  If I came unprepared, I probably would’ve lost by now. But I had considered the worst-case scenario and prepared accordingly.

  What, you think I’m an impulsive idiot?

  …Okay, maybe I am slightly impulsive, but I’m not an idiot!

  You see, the glue bomb from before was actually a distraction. The synthetic glue was actually a weaker, more diluted variant.

  I had the whole floor laced in glue. And everytime Soldier 2 darts around, the existing glue only sticks harder to the pre-prepared glue. There was a reason why I was staying on the defensive and moving as little as possible.

  So I wouldn’t get super-glued to the damn floor!

  Maybe ‘clumsy’ Soldier 1 was actually the smarter one?

  I mean, Roach 1 isn’t really incapacitated.

  Retracting would be a smart move for it.

  Buuut, this Soldier 1 we’re talking about! The buffon that always got the brunt of my attacks! The fool! The clown! The circus! That one asylum member who paid way too much for placebo therapy!

  Predictably, it just charges at me. However, even in its paralysed state, Soldier 2 manages to growl/screech/click something out, causing Soldier 1 to freeze in place. Soldier 1 weakly counters with something, but Soldier 2 barks out the same sound as before, Soldier 1 visibly flinching in response. Sulkily, Soldier 1 scampers away from the fight, while Soldier 2 resigns to its fate.

  Aw man, why does this seem like a sibling talk? You guys are gonna make my cry!

  “Stand back, lil’ bro! Go tell the Queen! I’ll stall time for you!”

  “N-no! Brother, I can—”

  “SHUT UP!! Do it, Soldier 1!”

  “Don’t you think Queen Roach sucks at naming?”

  “SHUT UP!! Don’t go off script, even if this is all wholesome(?) dialogue is in that crazy glue girl’s head!”

  “Okay. Bye bye, now I get the TV remote and legos all for myself!”

  (Soldier 1 happily skips away from the scene while whistling catchy tunes.)

  Something like that?

  Except Soldier 1 clearly has fear engraved in its eyes.

  Does Soldier 2 think it can stall for time? Well, I’m not stupid. Since Soldier 2 is already immobile, I can just hunt down Soldier 1 and get Soldier 2 later.

  I should be able to catch up. Although the soldier roaches have higher raw stats, the glue should hinder Soldier 1’s movement. But what if Soldier 1 also goes berserk? I don’t have any convenient glue traps anywhere else, and the other traps only extend down the corridor. Since Soldier 1 is running back to the sub-nest, I don’t have any more traps to back me up.

  Oh well, Soldier 1 was already damaged from prior attacks.

  I’ll probably be able to win.

  Probably.

  Maybe.

  Likely.

  Definitely.