“Fuck me, it’s got poison too? Is that even necessary, the thing could skewer anyone from just the tip alone and those fangs look strong enough to chew through bone like tofu.”

The jokes were a response to the sinking feeling in the boy’s stomach as he looked around to find an escape route but found nothing.

The solid plain only led to another steep vertical cliff straight behind him while every other direction was a straight drop back into the dark.

He could jump but he wasn’t sure if he was fast enough to reach the edge before getting skewered like a sheesh kebab by the crab’s tail.

Not to mention the depth was deep enough to cause death or serious injury. The dark crab would just scoop him off the floor at its leisure.

Both were in the midst of a standoff.

He stands entirely still to not give away his presence while the creature’s tail looms above.

The creature also stands still, surveying the scene for any vibrations. Its tail swaying from side to side over the plain, like a deadly spear ready to strike.

A strong gust of wind blows, rattling some of the debris from the shattered boulder.

Instantaneously the tail lights up in a blood-red glow as it lunges at bullet speed toward the source of the sound.

The glowing tail blade pierces into solid rock as if it were butter but doesn’t come out as easily. The creature gives a few strong yanks to dislodge it.

The boy silently observes the scene, recognizing an opportunity.

“Maybe…..If I can get it to chase a moving rock it might overlook me….”

It did not seem like a good plan but, in this scenario, all plans seemed like bad plans.

The main problem was the countless fragments strewn around him. Avoiding them was going to be tough if he had to make a quick getaway.

His thoughts are interrupted as the creature begins to slowly creep forward, each of its eight legs moving in unnerving silence.

The distance between them was less than a couple of meters.

“No choice but to make a move, it's either that or end up as crab food.”

He quietly grabs a handful of rocks and yanks them over the edge to his east.

They raise a loud clatter attracting the crab’s attention. It moves towards the noise in a sideways skitter similar to an actual crab, its grotesque front still facing the boy.

“That’s right bitch……go chase those rocks.”

He thinks, eyeing her movements.

It approaches the edge but stops just short of stepping over, becoming eerily still. Its eyeless head facing his direction as if staring at him.

“Fuck you, just go over and find the rocks. Why are you stopping there?”

He grabs another handful of stones and throws them in the same direction, right over the creature’s head.

However, the boy had underestimated the huntress’s instincts. Although nowhere near as intelligent as a human, after observing countless thrown rocks she had realized that it was some kind of trick.

The vibrations did not necessarily mean it was this prey’s movements. She knew from experience it was still close to her and the vibrations moving away were just a distraction.

Usually, every prey she encountered had made rapid and violent vibrations to get away from her but sometimes she encountered ones that remained quiet to hide their presence.

The quiet types were harder to pin down but over the course of her long life, she had developed tricks of her own to get them to announce their positions.

The hunt is almost at an end, once she flushes out its location, it will be over.

“God damn bug isn’t moving, what? you grew a brain all of a sudden?”

The crab was no longer showing any reaction to any of his throws but instead, stood still like an ugly statue.

“Too smart for rocks now are,,,,,,,,!?”

The boy never finishes his thought because the crab suddenly scuttles forward in a short burst.

Seeing the massive figure advance erratically he reacts impulsively and involuntarily takes a step back, right on top of some stone fragments that make a loud *crunch*.

He feels his stomach sink as he realizes what has happened.

“The bug actually baited,,,”

Once more, his thought is left unfinished as his eyes observe its flaming blood-red tail zipping toward him at breakneck speed. With that size and momentum, it was going to tear him in two.

He tries to move his body out of the way but its speed is too fast.

The boy was by no means slow even compared to an adult human but against such a fast motion his movements were, in fact, too slow.

“Its over…”

This was his last-second thought as the tail was about to make contact with his torso.

The strike connects but instead of an explosion of blood and guts, there is a bright flash of light.

His suit ignites in a fiery sapphire blue color, creating a skin-tight blue barrier that clashes with the crab’s blood-red tail. The impact generates a blazing shine that blinds the boy momentarily.

The force of this clash propels him backward as he crashes into the cliff with an intensity that shatters surrounding rocks, carving an inch-deep cavity into solid rock.

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He opens his eyes and sees that the blue flaming barrier encompassing him has also protected him from the collision but he has no time to observe any further as a fiery blood-red claw charges toward him like a flaming rocket.

He leaps out of the way as the claw thrusts into the cavity, burying deep inside the cliff. The power blows up rocks into fine grains of dust that lazily flow around the both of them. Large cracks extend outwards from the collision, slowly covering the cliff.

He rolls over to his feet as the dark crab quickly turns to face him but finds its claw firmly stuck inside the cliff.

It furiously attempts to yank the claw out while a cloud of dust slowly engulfs it, blocking the boy’s view.

Blood flows down the boy’s head, seeping into his left eye as he struggles to breathe. Dull pain rocks his entire body.

He didn’t know what had ignited the bluish glow but it had saved his life.

The tail strike and the collision into the cliff, both would’ve ended his life right there.

The glow had severely weakened both impacts although not completely as the pain in his chest throbbed lightly.

“ *pants*….haa cracked ribs most probably…”

He slowly backs away from the dust cloud, inside which the crab is desperately trying to dig out its claw, keeping it in his sight.

Immediately a flaming red flash bursts out from the dust in a sideways lash, aiming for his head.

This time the boy is ready. Bearing the pain in his ribs he ducks, dodging the tail lash, feeling the blurry motion whisk past his hair and back into the dust cloud.

“….I can barely follow its movements *pants* I have to get away.”

However, he doesn’t get the chance to as once again the red flaming tail tears through the dust much faster than before. A straight lunge targeting his chest.

His senses could perceive the sharp motions but his body felt inadequate, too slow and sluggish for the fast pace required to dodge.

Despite his alertness, he could only slightly shift his body to save his vital center mass.

The tail hits the boy’s shoulder, igniting a flare as it clashes with the blue energy from his suit. The two opposing red and blue flames try and repel each other.

The clash lasts for a second before the flaming blood-red tail slightly pierces through the sapphire blue shield and jabs into his shoulder.

The short delay gives the boy time and once the sharp pain penetrates his shoulder, he jumps back to disperse some of the force behind the stab, falling on his back.

His downward plunge causes the dagger-like tip to tear through the suit and shoulder skin as it flies over him, making a deep bloody gash.

The dark crab senses the impact of his body hitting the ground and redirects its tail toward him instantly.

Slithering like a snake through the air, the tail coils back and quickly wraps around his legs like a steel cord.

“The fuck happened to the blue glowy stuff now!?”

He shouts as he struggles to move his legs but it is impossible, the bulky tail is far stronger than him.

Using its tail, the dark crab begins pulling him in.

He tries to tear at it with his hands but it feels like trying to snap a metal chain so he quickly grabs one of the countless pieces of rocks around him and starts hacking at it.

The rock breaks into tinier pieces but the tail doesn’t even flinch under his blows.

The dust cloud finally settles, revealing the dark crab still clawing at the cliff with its free claw to unbind itself.

Having the boy in its grasp, its primary focus has now shifted to setting its claw loose.

The boy realizes he has a small window of time to free his legs before the crab sets loose and comes for him.

Grabbing another rock, he hits the tail with frantic desperate blows but it refuses to budge.

Again, the rock breaks but he continues hitting it using his bare hands as panic overtakes him completely.

In his blind fear, he does not notice his arms emit a faint burning red glow similar to the crab’s as he repeatedly hits its tail.

The reddish gleam seems to interact with the ring on his finger and sparks a flash of bright light that surprises him.

Something materializes in his hands as he feels his arms sink under heavy weight.

It was a sword with a straight double-edged blade that ended in a pointy tip and was black in color.

The hilt consisted of a long black grip that had enough space for two hands, a simple grayish cross guard that barely covered the hilt, and a gray pommel at the bottom.

There was an emblem engraved into the cross guard which the boy could not make out in his hurry.

Not questioning its bizarre and sudden appearance, he grabs the grip of the sword with both hands.

A blood-red flame, as fierce as the crab’s tail, flows out from the sword’s emblem and envelops the entire blade, giving it a sinister sheen.

The boy slowly lifts the heavy glowing blade and brings it down upon the tail in a sharp downward slash.

There is a brief flicker of blue and then green as the dark flaming sword slices through the crab’s tail, severing it cleanly.

A deep rumble erupts from the dark crab’s mouth. A guttural noise that sounded like someone drilling wood.

It stomps its legs in pain, furiously yanking at its stuck claw.

Not wasting the opportunity, the boy swiftly rises to his feet, gritting his teeth from the pain. He quickly turns and dashes toward the edge, dragging the heavy sword behind him.

Reaching the edge, he sits down to let his legs scale down the cliff’s edge as he begins his descent but a loud boom makes him lose his balance.

Almost falling down, he grabs onto the ledge of the cliff with one hand while struggling with the sword in his other hand.

Finding a ridge to position his feet, he pushes up to observe the dark crab and finds it punching into the cliff with its free glowing red claw.

Each blow sends out large shockwaves as the cliff crumbles under the heavy impacts.

Large boulders break off the cliff, starting a chain of collapse as the rest of the cliff buckles under the pressure.

“STOP THAT, THE WHOLE THING IS GONNA BREAK DOWN YOU STUPID BUG!!” He shouts but it is already too late.

The section of the ledge the boy is holding on to breaks apart and he falls down along with the tumbling debris, yelling obscenities the whole way down.

The crab finally frees its claw but is quickly buried beneath large rocks toppling down from above.

The entire cliff collapses, its form crumbling into a giant pile of rubble. Large swathes of dust rise up in the air and cover the rubble in a blinding fog.

By this point, the dark had almost entirely faded and given way to a breaking dawn.

Feeling dull pain rock throughout his body, the boy coughs loudly, expelling the dust coating the inside of his mouth and lungs.

He tries to open his eyes but finds dust coating the outside of his eyelids as well.

Rubbing his eyes, he tries to sit up but his body lights up with pain in response.

While falling he had felt huge boulders knock into his frame, some had even landed on him after he fell down.

He dimly remembered the blue shine from his suit covering his body, protecting him from the falling debris although from the pain he was experiencing at the moment, it hadn’t been entirely successful.

Giving in to pain and dizziness, he lays back down.

Having cleared the dust from his eyes, he opens them.

He was on the ground and large boulders lay all around him. The entire scene was covered with a strong dusty fog that was blocking the daylight above.

He raises his neck to peer ahead and sees that the entire cliff has been reduced to a giant pile of rocks, columns of dust ascending out of the spaces between the piled rocks.

The strain from raising his neck causes his vision to dim.

His body was exhausted and he could feel drowsiness overtake him.

Suddenly, there is an explosion of rocks in front of him and the dark crab emerges from beneath the wreckage unscathed.

The boy’s eyes pop wide as the crab shakes off the dust, bringing its freshly cut tail to its mouth to groom the open wound.

He hopelessly tries to squirm to his feet but his body barely moves. The struggle causes his vision to fade completely and he passes out from fatigue.

The huntress surveys her changed surroundings. Rage courses through her veins.

She had the prey in her grasp but it had cut through her tail, an invaluable tool she had relied upon heavily.

It will grow back but it would take days, months even. Not a very long time, but her hunting capability would suffer during this period.

It will be hard to track prey just by relying on sounds and vibrations, without being able to mark them.

However, there was a silver lining to this seeming setback.

She had successfully marked this evasive prey using her sting.

Even now she can sense the pheromones from her mark, telling her the prey was nearby.

It was lying still, either dead or injured.

She advances toward it, intending to nab it quickly but her instincts and biological clock start ringing alarm bells.

She feels the familiar unbearable warmth envelop her exoskeleton, burning the tissue underneath.

Scorching pain consumes her as she scrambles to escape the accursed warmth.

This accursed warmth was her glaring weakness; Even a brief exposure could burn her from the inside, killing or seriously wounding her.

She bitterly abandons her hard-fought prey as she scrounges for shade, however, this is only temporary.

As long as the mark was upon it, she would always find it, and she will as soon as this oppressive warmth sets.