Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Da Doofus]

His ears would hear the clacking legs of the wasp once more as they clampered on the wooden surface of the boxes. The largest one before him rattled as the creature crawled the backside of it.
On the top surface, a single leg crept over followed by a second and third. Kairo would blink, and the Pouncer Wasp would be standing atop the wooden crate rattling its stubby wings together. The sound it made was like a demented cricket, and its back legs were longer and barbed like a grasshopper.
It wouldn't look like anything like a wasp were it not for the stinger protruding from its abdomen. Its exoskeleton was a metallic blue-green color and its eyes were a piercing yellow as it threatened Kairo. This thing would be hunting cats or animals of similar size if it were around before the Emergences.

 

[Chai_T3a]

This.....now this was absolutely terrifying.

Kairo new that this creature was going to be more threatening then Bom mentioned when he saw one of its big legs pop out of the brush. But he didn't expect to see this....thing! This was the culmination of all the scariest parts of a big combined! What's worse, it didn't seem the size constraint of past insects even seemed to matter. Nature really was cruel.

Kairo's legs trembled. He wondered if this thing was going to kill him. He wouldn't be surprised if it did. He wanted nothing more than to back out of this, but he wasn't going to be useless again. If Bom had brushed away such a creature as if it was nothing but a little pest, than he shouldn't have a problem dealing with it.

His grip on the net grew stronger as he began taking tentative steps towards the wasp.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp's reply was to intensify it's skin crawling wing scraping and snap it's mandibles. The horrid mouth was black on the inside and had bristles on the underside of its sideways opening jaws.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo stopped in his path, letting out an embarrassing high pitches shrill. He was absolutely freaked out. The noises that the thing made were breaking his ears, and that wasn’t even the worse part. That things mouth, it looked like something out of a nightmare.

He took a deep breathes to control his fear, before shuffling ever closer to it. Hopefully his slow movements wouldn’t provoke the creature to much.

 

[Da Doofus]

The six legged hunter flashed its wings in a threat display, and then leapt at Kairo with its black stinger aimed at him. Its legs were spread open to grasp the human and deliver the venomous injection.

 

[Chai_T3a]

“FUCK!” Kairo yelled as the disgusting creature leapt at him. Instinctively, he slides to the side. The underbrush underneath felt rough as he did so, and something definitely scratched his leg, but he was pretty sure that a small cut would be much less painful than being paralyzed.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp zipped past Kairo and landed in the knee-high canopy of plants. Unfortunately, the relief of dodging the venomous stinger was short-lived, as the leaves shifted in a fashion displaying the wasp's forward pursuit back toward Kairo by going for his legs.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo instinctively lifted up his leg, though with a bit too much force. He stumbled back a bit before regaining his footing, hopefully that would be enough to dodge the Pouncer Wasp.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp squealed and darted underneath his lifted foot only to circle back around and latch onto Kairo's other leg.
Through the cloth pants, he could feel the wasp's pointed legs crawl up his leg until its arrow-head shaped head and glassy yellow eyes glared up at him with twitching antennae.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo's panic had reached a new level of intensity. He'd had bugs on him before, but never had it been one the size of a damn dog. It felt like a needle pierced his skin, every single time the insects appendages made contact with his leg. Kairo could barely think as he started to use the bucket to whack the damned thing. At this moment he didn't care if the damned bug died, as long as it wasn't on his leg anymore.

 

[Da Doofus]

The bucket impacted against the giant insect and his leg with a hollow clang. The wasp's armored body protected it from most of the damage, but it did let out a pained chitter and almost lose grip on Kairo's shin.
It looked directly upward to Kairo's face with aimed eyes and leapt upward to his chest. The legs would have pierced his skin if Kairo were not wearing the thicker layer of clothing around his shoulders. Prepping to strike, the wasp raised its stinger to stab Kairo in the stomach.

 

[Chai_T3a]

For one hopeful second, the grip of the wasp seemed to loosen. In that moment Kairo had convinced himself that the strike would be enough to get the damned thing off of him, but nothing would ever be that easy. Just as soon as he felt the grip loosen, it tightened again. Then, within the blink of the eye, the wasps strong, sharp legs made heavy impact on his chest. The air was literally pushed out of him. Something like that was definitely going to bruise.

That though, was the least of his concerns. Right now, with the pouncer wasps face almost at eye level, he could see that the wasp was attempting to sting him in the stomach. That thing looked infinitesimally sharp. A few layers weren’t going to save him from this.

He’d felt close to death before, but this? Being killed by something that was seen as just a pest? That wasn’t the way he’d like to go. He couldn’t be that useless. If he was, than maybe he deserved to die now. But at that moment, face to face with this disgusting creature, he knew he couldn’t let that happen.

In a split second, he calmed himself enough to focus and weigh his options. His mind worked a thousand miles a minute as he tried to think of what to do. Something

The bucket! He could use it to protect himself!

Roaring in anger and fear, he lifted the bucket with the opening facing up. He slid it to his stomach with as much speed as he can. It partially engulfed the wasp up to its first set of legs, abruptly stopping there since Kairo couldn’t really separate the thing from its chest. Thankfully, the stinger would now have to pierce a layer of bucket in order to get to him.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp thrust downward and pierced the rusted metal of the bucket which successfully shielded Kairo from its sting. Chittering madly now, the wasp flailed and tried to free its stinger from the entrapment. Its legs dug deeper in Kairo's chest as it tried again and again to break away.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo was genuinely surprised that this gave him the upper hand, but his victory was short lived. As the razor-like legs anchored themselves with more force onto his chest, Kairo found it increasingly difficult to grit past the pain. He needed to get this done now.

The only way for him to get this thing trapped was if he could get it’s damned legs off of him. Those terrifying, long legs.

He shivered as he realized the only way he could do that was to pry the damn things off. He took a deep breathe, putting the wooden handle of the net in between his teeth. If any of the legs were to clench any harder, he’d probably need something to bite into anyway.

Now with his hand free, he quickly used it to grip the lower leg of the wasp, mustering all his strength to push it away from his chest.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp chittered angrily and bit is mandibles into Kairo's upper right arm once he touched it. His grip on barbed back legs of the insect was firm, but the spiked limbs dug into his hands and if they were to come free and kick, the sharp tips would do some damage on Kairo's hands.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo made a sharp, muffled cry as the mandibles made contact with his arm, only to be followed by another yelp from the barbed leg digging into his hand. He kept a solid grip for only a few seconds before the pain became to much to handle. He pulled back, relenting to hopefully find a better method to deal with this.

That didn’t take long to find, as he realized the wasps stinger had been lodged into the bucket. It frightened him to know what would had happened if that thing dig into his stomach if it had enough force to pierce the metal. But the things monstrous strength came as an advantage to him right now. He only needed to pry the damn thing off of him, instead of having to worry about it escaping.

This time, he wasn’t going to use his arm anymore. Grabbing the net, he used it to push against the wasps torso away from him.

 

[Da Doofus]

The wasp had a torn piece of Kairo's shirt in its jaws once it was pried off. Its legs flexed and clacked together in sounds like cracking knuckles as it was pushed away from the human.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He tried his best to not think about the sounds as he pushed away the wasp. The moment all its legs had unattached from his body, Kairo quickly stopped pushing the thing and used the net instead to try and trap the insect within the bucket.

 

[Da Doofus]

More chitters and clacking appendages came as the wasp's entrapment seemed more and more certain. The pointed tips of its legs hooked through the loops of the net as it tried to resist being caged in the bucket.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo could only relax when the base of the net made full contact with the bucket. Even then, the sight of the wasps strong yet wiry legs poking out through the net kept him slightly uneasy. But in the end, it seemed he’d succeeded. He was beaten and bloody, but victorious, and that filled in with a sense of pride he didn’t know he could muster.

His eyes squeezed shut in a soundless half as he revelled in the moment. This was something he could finally be truly proud of.

“TARLIM!” He called out. “I got it!! The poynca wappa!”

 

[Da Doofus]

"Tzii?" Tarlim responded from above. The old Vindav poked his wrinkled head down the hatch and saw Kairo with the thrashing wasp in his possession.
"Oh! Ama, ama! Tuka'ma alipka Poynca Wappa tulak." He waved Kairo back up the ladder.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He paid little heed to what Tarlim was saying, savouring the moment. He couldn’t believe it. Here we had, absolutely wreaked and exhausted catching a pest, and yet he felt like this achievement was far more rewarding than anything he’d done since then. For once, he felt like he wasn’t a liability, like he could actually be valuable to Rufus, to the camp, and himself.

It was a feeling he wouldn’t dare let go off.

“coming.” He said, after finally noticing that Tarlim had been calling out for him. He carefully made his way back upstairs, the metal and fiber prison held firmly to keep the wasp in.

 

[Da Doofus]

Once he was back in the upper level of the house, Tarlim gripped the bucket and pulled the wasp away from Kairo.

"Azim. Azim. Umlin." He spoke in thankfulness to the human as he carried the pest to a corner of his house.
"Zuli tu avarakip? Uhhhh . . . Pay-ment?" He asked from across the room.

 

[Chai_T3a]

It was surprising to hear the Vindav saying a word he actually understood. He bounced up a bit. He was so caught up in his moment that he forgot that he still needed to be paid for this.

“oh yeah payment!” He perked. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was supposed to name a price or if Tarlim would just give him something, but he held out his palm as if to receive something.

 

[Da Doofus]

The Vindav returned and inspected Kairo's open palm. Unsure of what to give him, Tarlim returned to the piles of clutter that made up the majority of his home.
After tossing away empty bowls, scraps of metal and wood, and a dinnerplate; he returned to Kairo with an ornately crafted lockbox. About the size of a shoebox, the faded paint of the wood still was an impressive feat of Rithian craftsmanship. The runic styles carved along the lid were appealing to the eye.
Tarlim thought so too evidently, since he dropped it in Kairo's hand with a sure grin that the antique was just the sort of payment he was expecting.