The Shapeshifter

"Do you want to fight with us?"

"Hell yes!" Alex subconsciously blurted out.

After a seconds of mind buffering, he was shocked to see that the Big Baldie was holding his wrist whilst grinning at him showing his white teeth.

"Oh no no no! I was just joking! I'm only 17. I'm not even 18 yet." Alex protested.

"Why? You're clearly stronger than those brats and let this be a form of baptism by blood for you since you're turning 18." the Big Baldie said still not letting go of Alex's wrists and continued to drag him.

"No! That can wait til' my birthday!"

Alex was just making up excuses at this point, he knew that he messed that one up. He was only thinking that maybe, he would be exhausted after defending the tribe and he wouldn't be able to leave tomorrow.

He was also afraid that maybe the heretics would scheming behind his back for interrupting their 'thing'.

As the Big Baldie saw Alex's face, he couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"Hahaha! It seems like you're troubled by those heretics. Don't worry about them too much. They aren't even in here."

After hearing what the Big Baldie said, he calmed down by a bit.

In the end, he resigned himself to his fate and decided to fight with the tribe. However, he needed to hide his cards and keep a low profile whilst watching his surroundings.

Just when they arrived outside the village, tons of man-sized insects could be seen.

"Wait, why are we outside?"

"What? Do you want the village to become the battlefield?"

He knew he shouldn't have said that. He could only hung his head low while scratching the back of his head, feeling embarrassed.

There were hundreds of tribesmen outside the village. Some had paint on their faces while some had none.

Most of them were wielding machetes, some had axes, sticks, sickles and rakes. However, they have one similar designs. There were weirdly engraved patterns on each and every one of them.

Looking down at his sword, it was lackl.u.s.ter compared to their weapons. Seeing those engraved patterns, he was actually quite jealous and thought that his sword would look better after being engraved.

The Big Baldie made his way to the very front of the crowd, while Alex trailed behind him.

"Eh? How did you do that?" Alex asked in wonder.

"What do you mean how did I do that? Eh? Why are you here?" Upon hearing someone talking to him, the Big Baldie turned around in great surprise.

"Wasn't I supposed to fight with you?"

"Who said that? Hahahaha! It was just a joke. Who would've thought that you have the guts to fight against these insects?" In tough situations like this, the Big Baldie likes to make fun of others in order to hide his nervousness.

He was afraid that maybe one day, these insects would be the end of their tribe. Since half a year ago, the insects started attacking them for no reason. Each attack was stronger than the last and every time there would be casualties among the tribesmen.

The Big Baldie tried asking for help from the nearby tribes, but to no avail. Every single one of them has their own excuses. All he wanted was for his tribe to live peacefully. Unfortunately for him, he was born on the wrong era.

"By the way, I summoned these pair of axes with this." the Big Baldie smiled wildly and showed a ring in his hand while wiggling his fingers, as if a kid showing off his new toy. It was a ring with a purple colored gem and intricate designs.

"Anyways, since you're here, just fight to your hearts content. Actually I just wanted to show you how small-scale war looks like."

That was indeed what the Big Baldie wanted. Since everyone in the tribe has seen this scene many times, they were quite numbed to it already. So he just wanted to expand his horizon by letting him observe such war.

"My fellow tribesmen, we have to defend our tribe once more. For our brothers, we fight! For glory!"

"For glory!!!" Everyone shouted in unison.

Gazing towards the enemies, there were a bunch of insects that became gigantic. Some of them are especially eye catching. There was a two meter tall Stick Insect and a huge Stag Beetle that was as big as a rhinoceros. Aside from those two that looked to be the 'captains', the others look like weak mobs. Still, those weak mobs were as large as a normal lion.

The presence of those two weren't able to deter the hot-blooded tribesmen, as they charged towards the insects.

"Charge!"

The bloody battle against the giant insects soon ensued. The courageous men soon reached their enemies.

Alex was stunned as he saw his enemy block his sword strike. It was a Praying Mantis nearly as tall as him. He wanted to end the fight by simply chopping the neck of the mantis. Sadly, its scythe-like claws were obstructing him.

Focusing on what his peripheral vision was showing him, he noticed that he wasn't the only one whose attack was blocked. The collision of the two sides weren't as bloody as one expected it to be, as both sides were able to receive the others' attacks.

The Praying Mantis was shocked by the human's weapon. It had prided itself with its claws, it was able to kill and destroy the weapons made by the humans. The human that it was facing should be strong.

It raised both of its claws and swiftly brought it down, intending to slice off Alex's arms.

However, Alex was quick to respond and retaliated by swinging the sword as strong as he could.

When the sword hit the claws, he immediately jumped to the side and used the collision force to get himself out of danger.

It was a move that he learned when he entered [Madness] during his fight with Rezhul. Although it wasn't as fluid as back then, it at least saved his life.

Now looking at the spot where the claws of the Praying Mantis were embedded, if he didn't moved to the side then he would have to say goodbye to his left arm.

It was only on the spur of the moment that he wanted to try the move and it proved to be the right decision.

After getting out of the Praying Mantis' range, he was able to conclude that, it had better strength than him and its exoskeleton was pretty tough. It would be a pain to kill this insect.

He could only try and target its weaknesses like a joint, the eyes, neck or skull.

It was at this moment that someone or something collided against his back. He wanted to look what it was, and he was able to see the Praying Mantis, within his peripheral vision, rushing to him.

The armor wasn't able to help protect him as it was not covering the neck of the man. Blood showered the mantis and Alex who was nearby.

The Praying Mantis then proceeded to lick its claws clean of the human blood.

This scene made Alex tremble down to his core. It was a miscalculation on his part that killed the man.

Back then when his back hit the man's armor, he thought that it was the exoskeleton of an insect. Along with the well-timed rush from the Praying Mantis, Alex was forced to dodge to save himself.

Guilt. It was slowly eating Alex's heart. It was because of him that a man has died.

'I should have stayed behind. I'm still too weak. If only I used everything, he wouldn't have died. Was what I did wrong? I only intended to save my life, but it was on the price of someone's life. With my skills I should've been able to save both our lives, but, but, but what? It was me who killed him!'

'What about his family? Does he have one? They would never be able to see him again. And it was all because of me.'

Alex was having an internal conflict. It was the vety first time that he saw a human, die. And it was also his first time that he was involved in the death. He was feeling really bad.

The Praying Mantis looked at Alex who was kneeling on the ground, crying.

Looking at the Praying Mantis that was walking towards him, Alex's mind went blank and he once more returned to the land of darkness.

'Sigh. I knew this would happen', an aged voice resounded in Alex's mind but he was already unconscious and was unable to hear it.