There was not a single moment of hesitation.

The Collector opened its maw and withdrew the biotrigger for its pyrocatalytic glands. It extended its snake-like tongue in front of its face, the faceted, spherical bulb of the biotrigger aligning like a scope sight right at the insectoid.

The insectoid paused for a moment in palpable surprise.

Evidently, this approach had worked for it many times before against humans.

But the Collector was far, far from a human.

The tubular pyrocatalytic glands at the roof of the Collector's mouth flexed and unleashed its combustible chemicals in a full force and full power spray. The jet stream of white, steaming hot chemicals slammed against the friction-inducing, reactant coated bulb of the biotrigger.

In a burst of light so intense that even the Darkwood trees, heralds of shadow and devourers of light as they were, struggled to contain the shine of white.

A stream of white, blue-tinted fire spiraled out, washing over the insectoid in a massive, conical wave that utterly wreathed the entirety of its body.

At this range, spurts of the reactant chemicals from the Collector's mouth also drenched the insectoid, ensuring continuous burning.

The insectoid let loose a piercing cry as it writhed from side to side, its body twisting and turning as it processed enormous damage to itself.

Under the purging aura of white flames gracing its body, the humanoid corpses it wore so confidently melted away in mere seconds, and soon, the arakka corpses followed, curling up at first with the heat before melting and disintegrating.

The insectoid's own carapace began to crack and melt, and its two cloudy white compound eyes were the first to go, shriveling up into charred cinders. The ends of two long antennae sprouting from its face blackened, melting away at their tips.

The insectoid scrambled back to the water.

The Collector had predicted this utterly foolish course of action from it. It did not stop the insectoid.

Instead, it turned around to ascertain the purple skinned variant's location. She was hidden behind one of the large Darkwood trees, peering her pale face out to watch the battle in open mouthed surprise.

The Collector pointed to the specimen and commanded her. "Stay fully behind the tree lest you desire risk of significant damage to your face."

The variant quickly nodded before her face disappeared behind the black bark.

The Collector heard a large splash as the insectoid dove with zero hesitation into the water.

Then, immediately after, an explosion.

The Collector felt burning chemicals patter against the back of its carapace, but the chemical fires of the pyrocatalytic glands were designed specifically by the genius of the Collective Hivemind such that they would not burn against hyperalloy carapace.

The Collector turned to see the insectoid creature now scrambling out of the water.

Much of its carapace had been blown off, revealing raw, charred white flesh underneath. Two of its thin back legs were significantly damaged, heavily compromising its movements.

And still, the flames continued to burn atop it.

Drops of water upraised from the initial steam explosion showered all around the pond and clearing in a miniature rainfall, pittering and pattering in applause at the Collector for its inevitable victory.

The Collector clicked its mandibles, stretching its arms out to the rain to bathe in its success.

The reactive chemicals creating the Collector's flames were less dense than water and at the same time hydrophobic.

This meant that when the insectoid naturally fled to water to drench its flames, the reactive chemicals dousing its body pushed the denser water surrounding it underneath it.

The water then superheated from the intensely hot chemical layer above, causing an explosion as the water immediately turned to steam, spreading the fire even further around the insectoid in a roaring pillar of white flame.

At the staggering temperatures of flame that the Collector could output, the heat energy of the resultant steam explosion was also immense enough to inflict significant trauma upon the insectoid.

Still, the Collector could not take the risk free option to let the insectoid to burn away. It could begin to move out of this clearing and into the Darkwoods in its desperation, starting an uncontrollable forest fire.

Until the creature expired, the Collector would have to pin it in place.

A shame, almost.

Had this creature simply been more knowledgeable, it would have provided an admirable challenge to the Collector. In pure physical specs, it was the Collector's equal, even an outright superior in the boundaries of water.

But it had left its aquatic habitat – its first mistake – and it had mistakenly identified the Collector as a humanoid – its second, final, and fatal mistake.

Now, this creature, likely the apex predator of this small water habitat in the Darkwoods, far superior even to the jumping arakka in this area, merely awaited its inevitable death.

The Collector sprinted towards the insectoid, circling to its back where its larger front legs could not retaliate against it. The insectoid sensed the Collector's approach even with its antennae and eyes melted away, but its burned and broken back legs would not let it turn fast enough.

The Collector leaped into the air and crashed into the insectoid's abdomen, right at a blind spot spot where its front legs could never reach. It did not unsheathe its monomolecular claws for though its carapace could resist its own flames, the claws could not both possess its atom-razing edge and the necessary compositional addons to make it flame resistant.

Instead, the Collector balled its carapace armored hands into fists. Its entire body, plated in white carapace as it was, shone under the light of the white flame like a miniature star standing firm against the ever encroaching shadow of the Darkwoods.

The Collector's arms swelled up in size as the dense ultrafiber muscles lining them flexed, engaging into their coilbooster structures.

Like hydraulic pumps, the coilboosted muscles tensed up, storing immense amounts of energy, and then released it in explosive instants.

A thunderous crash.

The remnants of the insectoid's sturdy abdomen carapace shattered, red shards flying every which way, some of them digging into the surrounding trunks of the Darkwood trees.

Another blow.

This time, there was no harsh echo of hardened carapace splitting against carapace. Instead, there was simply the squelch of flesh splattering as the Collector's fist slammed into the insectoid's abdomen.

The insectoid writhed and wriggled under the Collector, but the Collector's weight prevented it from squirming away.

Another blow, and the insectoid ceased moving.

The Collector's arm was shoulder deep inside the insectoid's abdomen. It extracted its arm out with a squishing pop. Spurts of green hemolymph leaped out from the hole before instantly vaporizing in the heat of the Collector's flames.

The Collector clicked its mandibles in satisfaction before it leaped up from the abdomen and landed with both feet down on the insectoid's small head, crushing it entirely underfoot to ensure it was truly dead.

Now, it was time to feast.

The Collector tore into the insectoid, using its hands to rip off savage, flaming chunks before crushing them into balls to devour.

Savoring this specimen would have been optimal, but the flames would melt away its biomass soon.

The saliva coating the Collector's mouth and throat naturally doused the chemical blaze alighting the chunks it devoured, and it worked its way down from head to bottom.

When the Collector reached the insectoid's now headless and thorax-less abdomen, it raised the flaming body part over its head and split it apart into two with a squelching tear.

It bathed in a shower of green hemolymph, opening its maw wide for take in white flesh and organs.

>>>

*Biomass Gained (+30)*

Biomass Level: 120/100

*Genetic Material Gained*

Stored Genetic Material:

-Black Ant

-Black Hobgoblin

-Human

-Lesser Oni

-Frostborn Hobgoblin

-Horse

-Daemon

-Dullscale Rohu

-Lesser Greatcentipede

-Lesser Greatbeetle

-Spitting Greatbeetle

-Leafblade Insect

-Assassin Bugbrute *NEW*

>>>

As expected, the insectoid specimen known as the Assassin Bugbrute provided an enormous amount of biomass, and yet, not as much as a challenging fight would have in prior metamorphosis levels.

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it assessed the wounds it had sustained so far.

A loss of a wing. Loss of a tail. Loss of three arakka legs. Minor damage to the structural integrity of carapace covering left arm.

Approximately a thirty five percent loss in combat capacity.

These wounds did not matter much now when the Collector was soon to evolve anyway and repair them, but it did indicate that in the future, battles would become more and more dangerous, wounds deeper and more frequent and metamorphosis levels to heal them farther and farther away.

For now, the Collector would evolve, and to do so, it would have to leave the Darkwoods.