Taking a worried step back he looked at the insects approaching him. Feeling his heart beginning to race, he tried convincing himself that if he had been able to beat the spider, surely he could defeat these as well. He quickly counted how many of the bugs were coming at him. Two of the insects were approaching him from the same direction with one only slightly behind the other while a third and fourth were further away approaching from his right at different angles.

  Looking at the front legs of the giant mole crickets he was able to tell that if they managed to catch him with one it would not end well for him as they looked extremely sharp. Fortunately for him while the front legs were longer and dangerous looking he would still have more reach than them with his stick. He just needed to make sure they didn’t surround him or else he was sure to get cut by one of those legs and that would be enough to cripple him and most likely lead to his quick death by the crickets.

  He could tell that he was faster than the crickets most likely due to their large bodies but he was unsure if they could hop like a real cricket could because they didn’t have the large legs generally seen on grasshoppers or regular crickets. He hoped this meant they wouldn’t be able to suddenly spring forward but he wasn’t sure so planned on being wary of just such an action happening.

  Knowing offense was sometimes the best defense, he slipped his backpack off and raised his stick hoping it would be strong enough to hurt these mole crickets if that’s what they were. He took several quick steps towards the pair in the lead and swung his stick down at one of the crickets in the lead. The stick hit its thorax and glanced off of it and struck the joint of one of the front serrated legs.

  Raising the stick a second time the creature lifted only one of its serrated front legs to attack him. Not giving it a chance to strike he quickly stepped away from the insects and continued to retreat while he took a second to assess the damage that he must have done. While the hit to the thorax didn’t seem to do much if any damage to the insect, the deflected blow to the leg seemed enough to at least damage it enough that it could no longer use the leg properly anymore.

  Knowing the legs and joints were a weakness now he planned on taking advantage of that the best he could by trying to disable first before finishing them off. It might not be the nicest way to finish them but better than any other way he currently had at the moment.

  Backing up further to allow the uninjured one to pull ahead of the other, he took a quick step forward swinging his stick down aiming for the legs. With the swing aimed at the top segment of leg this time it received the full force of his blow and with a crunch he broke one leg causing it to list to one side. As it drew close enough to attack with its remaining front leg he swung his stick quicker but with less force which was still enough to cripple its other front leg. While its main way of attacking seemed to be taken care of he was still not willing to get near its mandibles and let it get a bite of him.

  As the first cricket came limping around the now crippled cricket he swung once more. Zeke expected this to go as easy as the last had unfortunately as he swung the cricket raised its serrated leg in time to catch stick on its legs and instead of breaking as he expected the leg to do it cut clean through the stick. Luckily for him his swing still continued with the remaining stick and connected with the crickets head knocking it to the side but doing no noticeable damage to its head.

  Backing up a few steps to give himself some room from the cricket with the one working serrated leg he checked on the two crickets coming from further away. He still had a few more seconds before the third one reached him and the fourth was not far behind that.

  Taking a careful step forward he swung again making sure to avoid the serrated front leg and aimed for the joint again. Connecting and breaking the joint meant he had now disabled two crickets that while they could still chase him, they were much slower and less dangerous so long as he stayed away from their mouths

  Just because he had crippled two of them didn’t mean the battle was won yet though. Running around both the injured crickets he approached the third cricket hoping to disable the third crickets front legs before the last one reached him as well. Swinging his stick down, he wasn’t sure if this cricket was slightly smarter and had seen what had happened to its fellow crickets or was just due to this particular crickets nature. Instead of pressing towards him as the others had, this cricket stopped and took a step back causing his swing to miss. As soon as the stick hit the ground in front of the cricket it swung its front legs at the stick cutting it in half before lunging forward towards him.

  Quickly backing up he was glad that he had the edge in speed and was able to get out of the crickets reach but the cricket was still advancing on him with its legs ready to swing at him. Looking at the last of his stick, he threw it at the crickets face hoping to distract it while he retreated further.

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  Panicked now he was without a weapon he called out to Ilmarillion as he continued to retreat, circling around the injured crickets “I don’t have a weapon anymore, can you do anything to help me now?”

  “I could easily conquer this entire rift with both hands behind my back while I was sleeping. You, I am sure, will be able to manage it. But since you asked human, I will help you.” Ezekiel felt a sense of relief before she continued “you should find yourself another weapon” she said laughing.

  “THAT IS NOT HELPFUL!” I yelled running further away.

  “Well you do need another weapon do you not? I would say that was very helpful advice.” she responded fluttering several metres above him as he ran “just remember they are bugs, deal with them how you would any other bug.”

  Seeing the faerie wasn’t going to help him he quickly started scanning the area around him looking for another easy to grab stick or large rock he might be able to scoop up and throw at the crickets.

  Frantically scanning his surroundings he couldn’t see any branches or rocks large enough to easily grab and use as a weapon. Seeing a low hanging branch he jumped as ran past another tree and grabbed onto it and using both his momentum and weight pulled the branch off with a crack. Looking at his new…weapon he wasn’t sure how effective this was going to be as one end was a mess of smaller branches and leaves. He would be lucky if he was able to get one good swing with this.

  Not having more time to consider his options he swung the branch at the cricket closest to him. As expected he couldn’t swing it accurately or with enough strength to hit the leg or joint hard enough to damage it. Quickly he pulled the stick back before swinging it again, this time with the leafy end, hoping to entangle or blind the leading cricket. Dropping his branch he continued circling the small clearing making some space between him and the crickets hoping to find something better to use. Looking back he saw that the cricket wasn’t slowed much as it used its serrated forelimbs to make short work of his stick cutting all the foliage in its face down quickly.

  Seeing the cricket cut off most of the leaves and smaller branches that had been in its way gave him an idea. Luring the insects away from the stick was not hard as they were only interested in him. He anxiously evaded the two uninjured ones while waiting for the injured ones to move far enough away, as he lured them all into the trees around the outside of the clearing. This gave him the space to circle around them and grab the branch he had just discarded and used as a distraction.

  Scooping up the branch he quickly inspected it and seeing that it was almost usable as a weapon against the crickets he pointed the end with the extra branches and leaves into the lead crickets face again watching as it sliced through them with ease. Leaving him with a not very straight stick he could once again use to attack them with. Seeing that the end of the branch had been sliced at an angle by the crickets it had left him with a pointed end. He hoped he might be able to use it as a spear to stab the crickets with.

  Timing his attack so as not to have his new weapon halved straight away, he attacked on the side that the cricket had just placed one of its front legs down to step with. Knowing the exoskeleton would probably be too hard to pierce with his makeshift spear he targeted what he hoped would be another weak point. Aiming at the creature's eye the stick pierced it with minimal resistance causing the creature to collapse and its legs to twitch randomly.

  Seeing that it worked once he backed up pulling the branch out of the cricket as he went. As the next cricket approached he once more tried to spear the eye to kill it in one shot. Because of the unwieldiness of his makeshift spear it was not a clean hit and as it hit the cricket, the spear twisted in his grip causing it to not go half as the strike on the last cricket. This caused the creature to release another chittering screech before it again tried to attack him.

  Due to the damaged eye, the pain, damaging some part of its brain or possibly all three things, the creature started to walk in a circle lashing out with its front limbs repeatedly. Seeing that the three crickets left were all injured and the most recent one had some sort of damage to its brain, he let the two he injured first approach him slowly. Taking more time with his next thrust so that he hit it cleanly making sure his grip on the spear was firm so that it wouldn’t shift unexpectedly as he hit the eye he made another clean strike on one of the crickets killing it.

  Backing up to give himself more time to prepare properly for the next cricket he once more lunged forward with his spear catching the cricket just below the eye watching as it slid across the exoskeleton on its face before slipping along its side leaving him over extended and his hand to close to the creature's mouth as it lunged forward trying to bite him.

  Dropping his spear he avoided catching his hand though it was a little too close for comfort as he felt the wind from its mandibles closing centimetres from his fingers. Circling the clearing again making sure to avoid the cricket with the damaged eye that seemed to be stuck going in a circle he once more collected his spear before attacking the injured cricket still following him. This time his aim was true and he killed it with no more problems leaving one more cricket to go.

  As he approached the last cricket he saw its unpredictable swings of its front legs and with the circle it was going around in made it hard for him to get in front of it. Using his spear more like a club he swung it at the creature's legs as it passed, disabling first the legs on one side and then the other side. Wanting to end this quickly and put the cricket out of its misery, he started to go around its damaged legs when a sudden blow from behind, knocked him in the forwards causing him to fall onto the cricket.