The wasp's enraged shrieks rebounded through the cavern walls but the sounds were dull in my ears as I blinked the sleepiness from my eyes.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Faint Resistance LV 1』has become『Faint Resistance LV 2』〛

Gathering my aching body I struggled to get up, my vision blurry, but luckily the wasps outline in [Heat Sense] remained stunningly clear. Its figure turned towards the collapsed wall, bleeding eyes affixed on me with a glare.

«Congratulations, you have its full attention now. But you might want to start running.»

Sensei's calm voice sounded in my head, just as the wasp's outline vanished from my vision and the wall in front of me collapsed in a cloud of dust as it blasted through.

The wasp scuttled towards me, closing the gap with frightening speed. Without an inch of grace, its bleeding face was filled with unbridled wrath, and still full of energy after bashing through two hexagonal walls in a row.

It showed no signs of slowing down, even with piles of broken fragments of wall and dust falling everywhere, it was already close to me before I could clear my head.

Its surprisingly speedy legs scuttled forward like a man on stilts, stomping down with its barbed feet like it intended to run me over.

The wasp seemed to have been truly angered. No longer conserving its energy, it attacked everything in its vicinity without regard.

I immediately made a break for it, slithering away quickly to widen the gap between us, but soon the walls opened up to an unwelcome sight.

I had reached the cavern's centre with the large hole in the ceiling. What if the noise from our battle attracted an even stronger opponent?

I immediately regretted coming out of the maze of walls and veered away from the centre, to enter into it once more. But I soon realized I'd lost sight of my pursuer.

I scanned around repeatedly with [Heat Sense] before proceeding further towards the walls. Rows and rows of crumbling partitions spread out in blue as far as [Heat Sense] could reach and then I caught a glimpse of the lone red figure, just as a crescent shaped hole blasted open the space in front of me.

Embedded in the floor was the wasp's arm that missed me by a margin, but it soon pulled itself from the hole, forcefully breaking off shards. It shrunk in length to that of a normal arm as its sinew was pulled in.

The debris had yet to settle and the wasp's spear like arms already made a reappearance, whirring through the air with the intent to cut everything in its path.

The wasp had halted its evolution to focus on attacking me, but since it was in the middle of shaping its new form, its strength was still unstable. Its energy was being consumed for the wrong thing and even though that was good for me I didn't know how long I could keep up with it.

I quickly retreated in a sidewinding motion, weaving irregular patterns through the walls in hopes to get out of its sight. Our speeds were almost at the same level but the wasp's large body unexpectedly gave it the advantage over me with the distance it could cover with a single sprint.

As it chased, Its arms kept being shot forward like projectiles, breaking up the wall ahead of me before I could reach them. Wall shards rained down like sand dunes trying to bury me in their rubble but I managed to swerve out of the way with my agility and flexible body.

But the fallen wall knocked into the next and kept going, causing a row of walls to collapse into each other like dominoes, blocking my path ahead.

I steeled myself with [Rugged Scales] as fast claws came down. With the path of retreat obstructed, it wasn't long before the wasp reached me, cutting and slashing through the floor, but I kept moving, darting left and right to avoid its attacks.

I shot through a gap in the walls as its claws came down, barely missing me by a hair as I weaved through the gouges in the floor to the other side.

I climbed over the rubble and pivoting with [Leap], I shot towards the wasp with a single bound. If I came close to it, its long arms would lose effect, so I focused on closing the distance. But the wasp was alert for ambushes from above, the memory of what happened to its body still fresh in its mind, it swiftly retreated when I came close, using its arm to deflect.

It was so fast and ferocious I could barely keep up, and in a moment of carelessness I was suddenly flung into the air. Caught by one of its arms I refused to be sent flying and immediately bit into the exposed sinew of its segmented arm.

My fangs sunk deep, ripping out a mouthful, severing the sinewy connection in half. The wasps arm cut out mid swing, lolling limply with a section loose as it retracted its wounded arm on reflex to get away, just as I was hoping for.

I instantly latched on, tightening my grip around it until I was pulled closer to the wasp's body then I sped up its arm as fast as I could, preparing to leap onto its body.

But halfway there the wasp controlled its other arm to intercept my path. I almost got struck by its swinging sharp claws and I barely managed to dodge.

To let it hit me would be too dangerous so I released my grip and let the momentum carry me off its body. Landing on the ground I retreated away from it and put a wall between us. If it had to crash though that to get to me, it would lose more energy.

Like an unstoppable force, the wasp followed, bashing through every wall single-mindedly to get to me. All I wanted was to stop the wasp's evolution and I'd managed to do that, but who told it to chase after me so determinedly?

The vibrations of its feet drawing closer told me I didn't have much time and I didn't know what else to do than to move towards the hidden entrance of the hive core. I stood a better chance of dealing with it if I lost it in one of the tunnels, rather than out here where too much was exposed.

But I felt the vibrations reach me before I got there and its arm struck ahead at the wall. Causing another rubble avalanche that blocked my path. I braced myself for the hit and shielding myself with [Rugged Scales], but I was knocked off my intended path.

Catching up to me in the blink of an eye, the wasp closed in viciously, stomping down with its barbed feet. I slithered quickly through them, moving strategically to align myself with the blind spot of its injured eye.

It stabbed down with its claws, arms swinging wildly at me, but they only scraped the ground. I struck at its legs, injuring where its sinews and shell were exposed.

It swept its claws close by in retaliation but its aim was off. The strike on its legs caused its balance to teether and it shrieked, arms swinging blindly in a wide attack. One of its sinew arms was half broken and limp but the other didn't lose speed but it had lost its accuracy.

I deliberately made it crash into things, taking the long path towards the hive's core. This way it kept injuring itself and expending more energy.

I moved within its blind spot until I spotted a gap through the shattered wall. I quickly crawled through to the other side, leaving the tumultuous sounds of crashing behind me.

The wasp came crashing through the walls soon after, creating more clouds of debris. I used this as camouflage to continuously weave through the open path, making just enough of an appearance as a lure to get it to follow.

The area around my bite was particularly sickening to look at. With its evolution stalled, its body wasn't healing and it kept bleeding. There were purple markings of its blood all over the floor like an abstract painting and its movements were no longer as agile as before.

It moved in quick bursts like it had started to conserve its energy so now I was able to evade it without much difficulty.

In full view of it, I slithered through the crack leading to the hive core.

Once inside, I moved far away from the entrance towards a specific tunnel and predictably the wasp crashed through after me. The wall of collapsed rubble was brushed away like nothing and for a second I considered how much damage the tunnel could endure before it all came down.

But if I could bring down a section of the hive along with the wasp, it wasn't a bad compromise.

I quickly selected my tunnel and I was immediately met with a wall of rubble. But the wasp was following and I couldn't afford to stop so I continued forth anyway. The wasp followed in pursuit and I wasn't even half way in when I heard the sounds of collapsing rubble all around.