Two buzzing balls of red were lazily moving along through the shadows of the forest when a couple blurs whizzed through the leaves and before the flying creatures could react, hit their bulging abdomen. The two mosquitoes burst in blooms of red, painting the surroundings in a toxic bloody substance. Finlay lowered his bow and stowed the three prepared arrows, away in his quiver,tied to his waist.
Finlay had been travelling through the inner zone, towards his destination for over four hours now. From his information, he should be getting very close. He might have wasted a week learning archery instead of getting to his objective but only that week of training and learning allowed him to travel in relative safety and gave him a way to fight against his second most hated insect. He could still come across the more dangerous, intelligent, tier 1 variants but for now, he had lucked out with his cautious attitude and a careful, vigilant progress.
He kept to the areas with decent visibility to avoid any surprises from the creepy bastards. No amount of skill in archery would save him if he only had a couple of metres between him and the enemy, if he gets ambushed due to not spotting them ahead. He still couldn’t tone down his enthusiastic attitude toward culling the enemies of his race. He took out any mosquitoes he got a drop on even if they required him to go a little out of his way.
He took out an arrow from his quiver to inspect. His primary means of offence were these crudely made arrows with mundane bird feathers stuck with some tree sap at the end of evenly cut straight and tough sticks. The other end of it was just sharpened to a point. These were clearly not the most ideal for combat archery but at relatively short distances and against squishy targets, they worked well enough. Perhaps if he had been a regular commoner with a weaker draw bow, he might have had trouble.
‘Still, the archer’s paradox is a bitch to deal with, especially with these overtly flexible and only relatively straight arrows. Well, at least I’m getting good practice for when I start using the big guns in the future.’
As he kept moving, he entered a relatively open ground with only a few rocks and boulders dotted across with only shrubs and grass covering the majority of the ground. There was a small ridge to the right with dense trees marking the line. The other side was a relatively gentle hill. He could easily spot mosquitoes from a good distance, infact, he spotted a pair close to the ridge in the distance. With his mounting confidence as the journey progressed, Finlay immediately decided that he would move closer and take care of them on his way.
He slowly approached them and before he entered their sensory range, he stood up and used the archery technique he had learned, to shoot two arrows that simultaneously reached them, taken by surprise, they had little chance to evade. He approached the site, as he was celebrating his victory. Suddenly, two more came out the woods, buzzing loudly, rushing towards him.
‘Were they just behind the trees closeby? It doesn’t matter much. It’s just 3 of them.’
It wasn’t that much to worry about given his experience fighting them, so Finlay didn’t panic and shot two more arrows in quick succession. He forgo the surprise tactic since the enemy is already alert. One of them went down but the other managed to dodge it. He still did not panic. They were still a distance away and he could shoot multiple arrows in that time. He drew two more arrows from the quiver to shoot. He suddenly heard more buzzing from his back. He quickly turned to look.
*wheeee*
Toxic Mosquito Blood Bomb; Magical Beast :
Tier 1 (late stage)
He was startled to find 4 more mosquitoes and a much bigger specimen behind them that clearly was gathering Qi, A General class. Finlay froze from the sudden turn of events. He had clearly not spotted anything just a few moments ago and there wasn’t even that many obstacles to hide from his vision in the surroundings but the five flying bombs were clearly coming from his previous path.
‘No, I should keep my cool and move. Freezing is bad here!’
In the moment it took him to recover, the newcomers have taken advantage of it to rush towards him. Finlay immediately formed a quick plan of action and ran towards the two in the front, even as he pulled the bow string to shoot the arrows. Luckily, it seemed the two arrows would fly true towards their targets this time. He didn’t keep looking at them. He drew 3 more arrows from the quiver as he ran and jumped over a small boulder. He twisted his torso to aim back and shot them in quick succession towards 3 of the forward 4 targets. He could see the bigger stare at him with glinting, bloody, compound, insectoid eyes. As he landed, he could confirm two of the 4 getting hit by the arrows but the remaining mosquitoes sped up even further towards him.
*Weeeeei!!!!*
‘Fuck! That piece of shit is ordering them to rush me!’
He kept his body turned toward the enemies even as he landed and kept jumping backwards. He had already heard the explosions of the first 2 and was already anticipating some splash liquid hurting him, so when he felt half a dozen tiny specks of intense burning sensation, he ignored them momentarily to reach for his arrows. That is when all his plans fell apart. The quiver, if it can be labelled as such, was an animal skin sack that he tied to his waist with a relatively sturdy tree vine. Some of the splashing toxic liquid coincidentally fell on it, burning through the thin vines and undoing it. The loose quiver made contact with his leg and went flying. The good news is that it is still in the same direction of his escape, so he might still be able to pick it up if he manages to escape. But seeing the rushing enemy in the front made it clear that he might not have that chance without some suppressing fire at the one controlling the others.
Finlay was truly terrified at that moment in his mid air posture. He couldn’t help imagine how his skin and flesh would melt off from the toxic substance he now grew so familiar with.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
‘Wait, the spear! I still have that!’
With a usable weapon still at hand, Finlay brought his spear forward as he just landed back from one of his backward hops. He timed the throw with his next hop and launched it with all his might. Not expecting a more than 2 metre projectile to pop up from behind the enemy, the mosquito faltered and couldn’t dodge out of the way entirely, even though the spear was much slower than any arrow. It might have lacked speed but was superior in sharpness and force, so the spear left a bloody gash on the side of its abdomen.
*Screech!!!!!!*
The Mosquito cried out in pain and panic, disrupting its control over its 2 minions. With the temporary disarray, the enemy almost completely halted in confusion. FInlay didn’t waste the opportunity, albeit an expensive one, he turned around and ran as he collected the quiver, even before it landed on the ground.
----------------------------------------
Finlay escaped the range of the mosquitoes without turning back. He only stopped to turn and look back after running for 5 minutes. He panted as he thought back onto the harrowing experience.
‘Fuck, fuck. I need to fucking calm down first.’
He found a large boulder to rest upon so that he could spot the enemies much better if any tried the same trick again. After a few minutes of gathering his thoughts, he couldn’t help but curse at his own stupidity for panicking like that. He actually hadn’t been in that much of a danger. Worse case scenario, he could have chucked things at the mosquitoes as he ran. As far as he could observe, as deadly as the insects were, they were relatively slow in a straight line, definitely slower than his top speed. He wasn’t sure about the bigger specimen but worst case, he could have done the same as he had done earlier. Hurt or scare the general mosquito to get away.
The other mistake was being overconfident and not anticipating the splashes to hit his quiver or worse, his face or eyes. He could have probably paid more attention to it or changed his running direction to avoid the splashes altogether. Having said all that, he did survive the encounter and now, he is more experienced to deal with the situation next time. But the feeling he was experiencing wasn’t relief though. Instead, it was heartache. He had to sacrifice the spear he spent so much time and effort in acquiring. He hadn’t even tested it fully on account of being occupied with his archery so much and only occasionally encountering the deer/antelope type beasts when he could actually use it.
‘The big one definitely was a little hurt and clearly, it did not follow me much, if at all. Maybe I have a chance at retrieving the spear. Best case, it wandered off from the area and I can just pick it up from the ground.’
After catching his breath, Finlay slowly made his way back on the same path he ran along.
----------------------------------------
Only after a short while, Finlay made it back but the situation was obviously not as optimistic as the ‘best case scenario’ he had imagined earlier. The big mosquito was injured as he had suspected but not bad enough to die from it, made obvious by how it was slowly moving around, commanding 8 other minions. Curiously enough, it hadn’t moved away from the battle site, relatively close to the spear, that he could spot the butt of, tall above the grass.
‘Huuuh! Nothing goes easy. Although, it is a bit weird how it is staying in the area instead of following my trail. Is it expecting me to come back for some reason?’
Finlay felt that possibility might not be that high. Regardless of the reason, the best way to do this is to ambush the group and hopefully injure or take down the one in charge and then leisurely kite the other mosquitoes till he has a clear shot to the spear or cleared the enemy.
He was currently watching over from a vantage point on a boulder from the side of the gentle hill. He is much farther away than the mosquitoes’ range of detection. The safest way is to make a long distance shot on the weaker ones to thin them and then find a chance to take the general down with less interference from the others.
He pulled out 2 arrows and intensely stared at them, frowning. The crude arrows would easily bend and wobble as they flew each time, making them stray from the target. At the same time, they are only aerodynamic in a general sense, not perfectly symmetric. On top of that, he would have to account for a significant drop and wind. He still had the dozen or so good arrows that can fly true and deliver an even better punch, but they are limited and using them so early would leave the rest of his time here uncertain. He wanted to save them for the general.
He took out 3 arrows after carefully checking for the best ones amongst his 25 or so remaining crude arrows. He intensely studied them, trying to predict how they might react in the air, waited till the winds were the calmest before he nocked the arrows in his bow. He would use all his skill to shoot 3 arrows that should in theory, arrive almost simultaneously, hopefully killing and sowing panic in the group. He intensely stared at his targets before firing at them. He took a deep breath and pulled the first arrow, he was ready to exhale and shoot but caught himself.
‘Wait I’m going about this wrong! Even if I successfully pull off these 3 miraculous shots, the plan is a stretch with 5 normal and 1 big ones chasing me. What I should be doing is not prolonging the fight but deciding it in one shot.’
Cursing at himself for not thinking through his plans properly, Finlay stored the crude arrows, now knowing what he must do. Instead of going for the normal ones, likely missing all 3 of his shots, he would bet it all on a single shot and try to take out the big one with the special arrows. The fact that it was right now moving a lot less than the smaller ones as it commanded them was another factor that will help with that approach. Moreover, instead of having to concentrate on hitting different targets simultaneously, he would just shoot all the arrows at the same one, significantly increasing his chances.
With his plan clear, he pulled out 4 of the good quality arrows. Similarly, he made sure there were no major imperfections with the arrows, then concentrated on his target and waited for the breeze to calm down. He had already decided on how he would shoot the 4 arrows. The first would be a very high arch shot with Qi imbibed in it to prolong it’s flight time, it would have little correction for wind since he wouldn’t be able to predict how it would change due to the longest flight time. The second would be with the wind correction and some Qi, the third would be with the symmetrically opposite of the previous arrow’s correction to account for any mistake and the last would be the shot with the shallowest trajectory, shortest flight time and qi imbibed to boost it further. He would leave the aim of the last one upto his instinct. If things go as he had planned, even if the insect nemesis managed to survive the first 3, the 3rd would have the best chance of taking its life.
After waiting for a while, he found an almost perfect opportunity when he could perceive only a negligible amount of movement in the air through his Qi sensing ability and the big insect was very still. He took a deep breath and released his first shot, then a second, the third and the final in quick succession. He made sure to utilise the extra time he had for the last one to aim according to the reactions of the target.
The revolting creature did not notice anything until the first arrow was almost two thirds of the way through its flight. Even then, it didn’t realise it’s impending doom. It merely cast a glance toward the whooshing sound out of curiosity. Predictably, the first arrow missed and harmlessly embedded itself beside it in the dirt. Before it could register what had just transpired, the second arrow narrowly missed it to its left and the third, similar to the right but even closer. It finally seemed to register the situation but before it even finished reacting to the situation–
*Splat!!*
The body of the insect streaked backwards in a trail of bloody gore, even as it exploded in the signature red bloom of toxic mess. With a thunk, insect or whatever remained of it, was nailed against the ground, followed by the rest of the gooey bits.
With the death of the controlling mob boss, most of the rest of the insects scattered in a panic. Finlay quickly took care of the remaining ones as he climbed down from his vantage point and quickly reached the location of his property. As he finally picked it up, he looked at the setting sun and had to sigh at how his arduous evening fights with mosquitoes hadn’t gotten any less annoying despite moving entire galaxies.
To be continued.