backswimmer [https://i.imgur.com/ohKDl3J.jpg]

Daphne was surrounded by light once again. She felt her carapace split down her dorsal suture and fall away with a twist and a pull. Her body swelled and expanded in all directions. She became larger, her swimming antennae extended out further, the muscles faster and more robust. Most delightful of all, her collar of neck teeth grew even more imposing, the tip of her primary gleamed with wicked sharpness in the dim light.

Initiate Daphne - Level UP!

Diet

Detritivore, Herbivore, Omnivore

Trophic Level

2

Strength

0.3 Stamina 0.2 Agility 0.6 Vitality 1.0 Intelligence 0.002

Charisma

0.004

Spiritual Energy

1.0

Skills

Pierce LEVEL 1 NEW!

Daphne felt powerful, she sculled forwards with her swimming antennae and felt the rush of her increased power and speed. For a time she reveled in her new prowess, dashing through the gloom at speeds she had never imagined before.

Then hunger struck, molting into her second instar was hungry work! She needed to eat. The light was beginning to dim, she could now rise to the surface again and find greenfood.

The speed and distance she could travel with each pull delighted her. Quickly she ascended to the surface and began filtering the delicious greenfood from the water. Sculling along just below the surface of the pond, she traveled in an erratic, wandering spiral, moving slowly in an ever widening circuit. In this way, she could explore and find any possible thicker concentrations of the greenfood.

Eventually, her spiral brought her to the shallow water near the pond’s edge.

Here, aquatic plants grew from loose attachments in the muddy bottom and stretched their floating vegetation upwards to spread across the surface. Daphne was fascinated by this three dimensional maze, and she began to explore it.

She experimented with her own mobility. Until now, she had focussed on sculling with her swimming antennae just as a means of pulling herself forwards as fast as possible. But to travel through the maze of leaves and stems and roots, she needed to turn and twist in every direction.

She began alternating which antennae she used, first the left, then the right. Holding out a single swimming antennae rigidly while pulling hard with the other enabled her to make a sharper turn, as the rigid side acted as a rudder, levering her entire body around it.

She discovered that she also could use her phyllopods for more than just eating! Their rhythmic beating within her carapace created a flow of water. She realized that different rhythms altered the flow in different subtle directions. She could hold her swimming antennae completely still at her sides but still maneuver slowly through the maze! Not only that, but the induced current could be shifted in any direction, not just forwards. Up, down, forwards, reverse, the phylopods could pull or push her slowly in any direction. It was amazing.

She began playing amongst the tangle of plants, experimenting with combining strokes of her antennae with the jets from her phyllopods to create ever more complex maneuvers through smaller and tighter gaps.

Her antennae brushed against a thin piece of vegetation.

A massive suction pulled her forcefully to the right! Her body was violently slammed against a bulbous green mass. The water suddenly filled with the noxious odor of digestive enzymes and decay. Her instincts blared a belated warning to her, the scent of bladderwort!

Her right side antennae was grasped tightly inside the door of the bladder-trap. It was only her incredible good fortune to have already leveled up; that had saved her from being completely suctioned inside the bladder and digested. The added length of her new neck tooth and tail spine had made her body too large to fit through the door of the trap.

Now that the trap had fired, the negative pressure inside the bladder that created the suction had been equalized. It would take the bladderwort some time to pump the excess water out to rearm the trap. Daphne began lunging again and again with her free antennae while continuing to cycle her phyllopod jet in different directions. Slowly, by levering back and forth, she was able to slide her trapped antennae free from the trap door. Fortunately the edge of the door was coated in a slimy mucus to help seal the bladder closed. The mucus acted as a lubricant as she slid the antenna free.

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Finally freed from the deadly plant, Daphne looked around, she had carelessly wandered into a thicket of the bladderwort. Some of the bladders around her were more than large enough to swallow her whole, with these, she could not depend on her spines to save her. She would need all of her new maneuvering skills to escape from this maze of booby traps.

Far more cautiously that she had arrived, she began to negotiate an exit from the carnivorous maze. The bladders were triggered by tiny transparent hairs, almost impossible to notice in the dense tangle of vegetation. Daphne came to realize that looking for the hairs themselves was pointless, she needed to examine the shape of each bladder as she approached and carefully avoid the pointed end where the door was. The hairs projected out invisibly from the hinge of the bladder’s door. If she avoided that, she was safe.

This made it possible for her to move with more confidence. She still took far longer to escape the bladderwort field than it had taken her to enter it. Often she drifted along with only the current flowing from her phyllopods pushing her forwards, her antennae folded safely at her sides to avoid triggering the traps.

Finally, she worked her way free of the bladderwort and into a growth of harmless plantlife. She began sculling again cheerfully. The treacherous area behind her. She began working her way through the plants, moving carefully. She had learned a great deal here, but she wished to return to the open water and the greenfood pastures.

As she broke free of the last trailing fronds of the plants, she could see them stretching out over the surface of the water above her. Many plants that had narrow tubelike leaves under the water had specialized flattened ones that floated directly on the surface. If the stems connecting the two types of leaves weren’t so obvious, it would be easy to believe that the leaves came from different plants. She noticed many blunt pointed shapes moving on the surface of the water amongst the leaves. Some sort of creatures were moving there.

Suddenly, one of them dove down from the surface, arrowing straight towards her with a swimming motion very similar to her own, a pair of swimming arms sculling it swiftly downwards. A silvery shine surrounded it, an bubble of breathable air, increasing the creatures hydrodynamics. It moved with incredible speed.

A predator. It was a backswimmer bug!

Daphne flung herself forward, racing to escape from the predator. The bug was a giant compared to her, nearly three millimeters long! Its longer sculling legs propelled it forward and downwards towards her rapidly, glistening in the dim starlight that filtered into the water. She swam desperately towards the center of the pond, seeking safety in the depths, if she could break away from this pursuit she could hide in the darkness.

Quickly she realized that she had no chance of outrunning the backswimmer, its longer reach and more streamlined shape gave it an incredible advantage in speed. Still she refused to give in or admit defeat. She pulled forward for all she was worth, willing herself to outrun the bug. It gained on her in great jerking pushes, coming closer and closer. It swam beneath her, reaching up with its upper grasping legs, attempting to pull her into a deadly hug. Its sucking mouthparts twitched in anticipation of draining her carapace into a husk.

Just as the legs reached for her, Daphne executed a sharp turn upward and to the left, she wasn’t faster than the bug, but she was much more maneuverable! She swam upwards as the bug spasmed and then began turning to follow her.

They began a chase of cat and mouse, Daphne would dodge the bug at the last moment and then pull away in a different direction as the bug scrambled to slow and turn to chase her again. This happened over and over, Daphne’s abilities as a high speed maneuverer became more and more expert. While the bug began learning to anticipate her dodges, trying to block her from avenues of escape using its grasping legs. It began to force her up to the surface, reducing the directions she could dodge in, cornering her.

Daphne grew frustrated, she was unwilling to die in only her second instar! She was a fierce creature, armed with a mighty neck tooth. She chose to change her dodging strategy to a much riskier counterattack.

The next pass, instead of dodging away from the bug, Daphne dodged and moved inwards, attempting to pierce the bug's powerful rear legs. If she could cripple its ability to swim, she could escape. Her neck tooth slashed forwards, the point glistening with deadly intent. She struck home on the second hairy segment, the shock of the blow transmitted through her body all the way down to her tail spine. She went tumbling away through the water in rebound from the blow.

It hadn’t penetrated the bug’s hardened chitin armor. She needed to aim for the joints! She could fight!

The bug was shocked at its prey’s attempt to harm it. It paused a moment before resuming the chase. It dove towards her.

Daphne responded by charging directly at the oncoming bug, a deadly joust.

The bug reached towards her with its grasping legs, and she deftly maneuvered through them, her neck tooth angling for the joint between the second and segments on the leg she had attacked previously.

A hit!

Her neck tooth tore through the soft flesh at the joint, tearing a gash partway through. Hemolymph oozed out into the water, and the bug spun away in shock and pain.

Daphne was jubilant. She could fight!

The bug was enraged at the injury, it recovered its balance and rushed towards her again. Daphne charged forwards as well, it was a duel to the death.

They clashed, Daphne missed her mark, but the beetle was too slow to catch her shifting, dodging carapace.

They turned around for another pass, both pausing before rushing in once more. Daphne took aim at the bugs opposite oar-leg this time, seeking to wound both of them. So far the tiny wound she had inflicted didn’t seem to slow the bug at all.

Success! She stabbed deeply into the gap where the leg joined the bugs thorax. It was a masterfully accurate blow! She sculled hard and forced herself into a spin to pull the neck tooth free from the bug and get clear of her enemy, she could not afford to remain in range of the hook ended grasping legs.

The bug was severely injured this time, its ability to swim was completely compromised. The pierced oar-leg was hardly functioning. The path of the bugs swimming became jerky and lopsided. She could escape. It was not nearly her match in speed.

But should she? It had tried to kill her! She decided to destroy her enemy.

She began circling below the crippled bug. She took aim and began charging at the joint between the bug’s head and thorax, aiming to sever the nerve ganglions that connected its brain to the body. She missed.

Again and again she circled around and attacked while easily keeping pace with the bug as it feebly attempted to flee.

Finally, a blow struck home. The bug spasmed in agony as its nervous system was destroyed. She had killed her enemy! Victory was hers. An immense pride and satisfaction filled Daphne. She was no longer a skulking herbivorous coward. She was a warrior!

Initiate Daphne has defeated Notonecta Insect Level 0.5 Level UP !