I was very nervous. This emotion came very suddenly. It was an innate instinct warning me. We are predators and sometimes prey, and this is based on the survival instinct of the prey.
The German cockroach had no idea that it was almost attacked by me just now, and was still eating grass seeds slowly.
And I, as well as the queen ant behind me, remained motionless, only turning my head slightly to take in the surrounding scenery as much as possible.
There were cyan, green and withered yellow grass blades everywhere, mottled and messy, completely covering the field of vision. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
The queen ant was a little confused. She didn't dare to move after seeing my appearance, and she couldn't reach my tentacles, so she tapped my abdomen a few times with her tentacles.
I didn't dare to respond to it. Being invisible doesn't mean there is no danger. Danger often comes from being lax.
Just like the prey I once killed, their fate was already decided before they even saw me. When they see me, there is no way to escape.
I continued to look around, as slowly and as lightly as possible. Everything around seemed to be still, except for the swaying of the vegetation and the slight movement of the German cockroach eating.
A good hunter needs patience, and if you want to save your life, you also need patience. I have seen too many members of the same race with outstanding physical fitness fail to hunt or even die because of lack of patience.
Patience saved me once again.
Not far away, a blade of grass shook, and a huge figure appeared.
It was an insect several times larger than me. If you just looked at its flat shape, you might mistakenly think it was a cockroach, similar to the American cockroach.
But it is far scarier than a cockroach. It has a body color with messy dark brown spots, and its texture is like rough tree bark. Its body is flat and its chest is stubby, almost square. But its carapace is very strong, with many sharp knob-like protrusions on it.
Its triangular head, huge compound eyes, terrifying mouthparts, and a pair of eye-catching, huge, ferocious saw-like predatory legs can clearly identify its identity.
This is a bark mantis, a mantis that looks like a cockroach. But it is much scarier than the cockroach. It is the most ferocious insect in this area, and even the most heroic hunter is unwilling to provoke it.
I didn't dare to move. Today's hunting was really terrible. If it weren't for my alertness, the two hunters would have become prey.
Behind me, the queen ant didn't dare to move. Compared to the smelly German cockroach, her fat belly was more attractive to predators, and she knew it.
We are hunters blessed by God, but a single hunter is simply no match for this level of predators. We can only wait and hope it doesn't find us.
We both lowered ourselves and tried to get our bodies close to the grass blades, using the blades to block our bodies. As long as we don't move, it's not easy for the bark mantis to spot us.
The bark mantis got closer to the German cockroach, which was its target. The German cockroach thought it would be safe hiding on the back of the grass blades, chewing the grass seeds. Little did he know that it had been attacked twice in a short period of time. The hunter is on the lookout.
The bark mantis seems to move slowly but is actually very fast. It only uses its rear four limbs to walk, but it is very steady and approaches the German cockroach from the blind spot of its sight.
Soon, the bark mantis climbed up the grass stem and reached the attack position. It is still a body length away from the prey, but it is enough.
Only then did the slow German cockroach become alert. I can only say that the approach of this bark mantis was too hidden. Its protective color made it difficult for distant targets to detect it. I had never seen it hiding before. In that mottled grass. And its movements were also very light. When it climbed up the stem of the grass where the German cockroach was, the grass didn't even move.
The German cockroach turned around, but as soon as it turned halfway, the bark mantis suddenly struck. It leaned forward and stretched out its long predatory legs. When it was retracted, the German cockroach was already firmly clamped.
The German cockroach struggled violently, its six jointed limbs shaking continuously, but its body was firmly hooked by the bark mantis's serrated predatory legs and remained motionless.
The bark mantis brought its prey to its mouth, and the German cockroach's butt was inserted into the terrifying chewing mouthparts and disappeared quickly.
The German cockroach struggled violently, and I felt a tightening in my abdomen as I watched its abdomen disappear. If we hadn't stopped taking action, we would have been the ones to suffer this fate.
We still didn't dare to move, because in order to ambush the German cockroach, we also arrived at the attack position, which was very close to the current location of the bark mantis, only separated by a few blades of grass.
Once we move, we will definitely be discovered by this cruel hunter. It can jump and fly, and even the best hunters who are good at jumping and running will have a hard time getting rid of it.
We can only hope that it will leave on its own after it is full and dare not move.
The lower body of the German cockroach was quickly chewed up and eaten. Then the bark mantis discarded the upper body of the German cockroach, which had a thicker carapace and less meat, and wiped its mouth with its predatory feet, as if it was still not satisfied.
The German cockroach is really tenacious, and it is still alive. It uses its only three remaining limbs to hook onto the blades of grass, trying to crawl away. From behind its broken body, large streams of tissue fluid mixed with internal organ fragments flowed out.
It can't live much longer, and the tenacious vitality endowed by the race only makes it more painful.
The bark mantis licks its predatory feet, then wipes its mouthparts, doing the cleaning work meticulously. The queen ant and I could only continue to lie down, not daring to move.
Finally, the bark mantis cleaned up and quickly crawled away, crawling as disgustingly as a cockroach. It didn't detect us and we were safe.
After waiting patiently for a while, I finally moved my limbs and antennae, and the queen ant behind me, which had been silent for a long time, also moved.
The two of us touched each other and had a brief exchange.
I told the queen ant that there was half a German cockroach left over there that could be eaten, but the queen ant refused in disgust. This smelly prey only had a soft belly with some head left, and now only a small amount of chewy meat was left. The upper part of the body is really not tasty and nutritious.
The queen ant during the egg-laying period is as picky as the bark mantis.
I had no choice but to take her with me and continue to look for new prey in the hunting ground at the foot of the hills. This time, knowing that bark mantises were nearby, we acted more cautiously.
I don’t know if it was bad luck or because the activity of the bark mantis scared away the prey. Until noon we found nothing.
She might be hungry today, and the queen ant was very dissatisfied. She indicated that she wanted to go to the valley, where there were many prey.
I refused. Those neighbors of the same race were not easy to mess with. They could easily kill both of us when they got angry!
