Records of Rebirth

After seeing the commotion, the wasps were rushing ahead and some had already reached the entrance. If I flew out now I would meet them head on.

Suddenly the hunter wasp following me, crashed through an opening in the battle, brandishing its stinger toward me.

But, before it could reach me, it was torn from the air by a creature who caught its head in its jaws, in an attack that nearly ripped its head off. 

As I looked at its attacker, I was surprised at the sight of a familiar creature. It was my cellmate, the lizard who had been following me all through the chase. It had somehow gotten through the battles unscathed and appeared in front of me now. 

With the wasp restrained, I immediately stung it and its struggle ceased between the lizard's jaws where Its head was promptly crushed, leaving behind a bleeding mess. But then the second wasp that had been supporting it in its chase appeared. 

On seeing the other wasp's death, it screeched an alarm towards the wasp squadron, alerting two hunter wasps nearby who immediately moved towards us, and I knew I couldn't pretend anymore.

Rather than risk attacking in full view of the squadron, I turned and retreated towards the ongoing battles, hoping to lose the wasps in their midst. 

The lizard, following my example, also made itself scarce. It melded into the battle between some creatures and the wasps, and quickly got lost in the crowd. Unfortunately, it left me with three unforgiving wasps on my trail that made me want to curse at the lizard's sneaking ability. What a wonderful comrade I had!

I was back into the hive but following behind me was the squadron of numerous wasps and their deadly leader. I really wanted to cry. 

I gave the hunter wasps closest to me a challenging chase by weaving through the crowd and drawing close to large monsters, in hopes that the two got taken down by stray attacks from others and it went well too. One got hit by an attack that damaged its carapace and it fell while the others still pursued but were greatly slowed down. 

But at that moment, that terrifying wasp made an move and reversed the situation in one deft stroke. 

I felt the threatening aura of danger and my instincts set in. I already knew from experience it used a ranged attack, so I immediately started flying upwards to get away from its reach. 

And as soon as I did, the bodies of monsters started falling everywhere. Ahead of me, body parts cleaved cleanly in half began to rain down. Flying projectiles darted in and out of the air, glinting like water on the surface of a lake as they spun. 

Impossibly sharp blades that severed the head of an ape monster mid leap - its face stuck in permanent grimace, shot into the path of my flight in a glittering rain of blood.

I nearly collided with it because I was speeding away so fast, but I was lucky enough to divert my path before the ape's head hit me head on, so the blood only splattered across my wings.

The chaos of the battle stilled as life left clusters of my fighting force in rapid succession. Everywhere I looked, there was a glint of a blade before blood rained down.

I didn't catch a glimpse of the terrifying wasp, but I knew it was somewhere within its squadron delving attack after attack, decimating everything I carefully set up, like it was nothing. 

It was a sobering reality. 

Once I was a safe distance away, I turned around and watched the battle with awe. 

I came to realise that even in the face of carefully laid out plans and perfect odds, absolute strength would always triumph.  Because power was potential itself, and that had the capacity to surpass anything.

But, on a brighter note. I'd finally lost my tails.

I watched the wasp squadron push back my rebel forces with disastrous consequences.

The large crocodilian monster with tough skin charged towards the centre, towards the terrifying wasp, with six other monsters in tow. Several wasps were killed as they made their way, and the members of the wasp squadron had to stay clear or risk getting mangled in its jaws. 

The creature soon came face to face, and the two creatures stared at each other. The terrifying wasp caught its long claws that returned, now brandished them in its arms like blades. Its aura and presence didn't diminish although it was much smaller than the crocodilian monster in comparison. 

Suddenly there was a shimmering blur and I lost sight of the scary wasp. 

Dust, rubble, and blood rose up in the aftermath, yet I missed the moment the two actually collided. The next moment, the wasp reappeared on the other side of the monster, leaving a large wound along its midsection which bled copiously. The crocodilian monster stayed still for a few seconds before falling over on its side. 

But the wasp did not stop there and continued to move towards the other creatures, slaughtering them one by one, uninterrupted, unrivalled and unmatched.

As if dancing with the wind, its movements were fluid and graceful. It wreaked havoc among the creatures, wielding blade-like claws in each arm like a harbinger of doom. 

None of the attacks aimed at it managed to land, because it moved too quickly and disappeared with blinding speed. Wherever its blades went, body parts and blood followed, and I could feel a chill slowly enveloping me at the gruesome scene. 

I hadn't expected to meet this freak so soon after our previous encounter, and now my carefully laid out plans were crumbling to pieces. With a single appearance it had killed off more than a quarter of my forces and I was just as furious, as I was scared and in awe of it. 

My mind ran with thoughts on how to defeat it, and my eyes fell on the tentacled monster that was still going strong. It was further away from this chaotic scene, dealing attacks on its own enemies.

In the turmoil created by it, all of the hunting wasps and a large portion of the builder wasps that attacked it had been defeated, leading to the collapse of whole sections of the hives structure.

None could match it and the wasps surrounding it were yet to do it any serious harm due to its attacking tentacles, so I flew into battle after it. 

I was curious what the outcome would be in a fight between two creatures that dealt damage on a large scale.

At this moment, the creature was adhered to the walls by its tentacles, looking very harmless. However, as soon as anything moved close, its tentacles spread out, stabbing everything indiscriminately like a harpoon.

Although it was blind, it could attack things accurately by following noises and vibrations, much like my snake self. 

Some wasps were hovering out of reach of it, intent on attacking, so I blended in among them, pretending to be there to assist.

For this creature I devised a simple plan, I just had to make it attack itself. And to do so, I needed to be difficult to hit. To start out, I lifted a fragment of fallen hive matter, shaped like a boulder and tossed this at it. 

The creature's tentacles immediately shot out, smashing the fragment to bits. I continued to throw more at it, aiming for the spots where its tentacles adhered to the walls. It was so keen on attacking, its tentacles would smash the tossed debris and also the walls they struck. 

The attacking wasps nearby watched on, puzzled by my actions.

I got closer to the creature, barely coming into its attacking range, but close enough that it could detect my movements. I then began to flutter my wings, quickly in intermittent bursts to create an annoying whirring sound similar to the locust's stridulating attack.

Almost immediately, all the creatures free tentacles lunged forward to attack, pulling hard on the wall that it were already weakened. 

I was safely out of its reach, so its tentacles stopped short, some inches away from me. Then, I began to move across from it as I continued to make the irritating sound. 

The creature had such an adverse reaction to it, that it forced its tentacles to move and follow me. Soon the force it exerted on the walls from its pull could no longer hold its own weight.

The wall shattered and it fell down into a pile of rubble.

Flying over to the site of its collapse, I tauntingly hovered just out of its reach, angering the creature even more by creating the sounds over and over, until it burst out in roaring fury. 

Its needle filled hole of a mouth let out an eerie scream, and its tentacles jutted out everywhere attacking everything indiscriminately. The wasps that had come closer to watch were swept up by its tentacles and impaled. 

Not satisfied with that, the creature proceeded to destroy everything within reach before resurfacing from the rubble, fully intent on chasing me.