Flora Bloom chose to take a more secluded path through the school grounds. They only encountered five or six zombies along the way, all of which the three of them dispatched with practiced coordination, even harvesting two Crystal Cores in the process.
Flora Bloom kept one and put it in her space. She gave the other to Neal Wallace, telling him to save it for a quick recovery should he run out of his superpower.
In the apocalypse, Crystal Cores were essential supplies for those with superpowers. In a fight, they could be the difference between life and death.
The school grounds were eerily quiet, with not a sound to be heard. Only the occasional breeze rustled the plants on either side of the path, creating the faint whisper of leaves rubbing together.
Flora Bloom was on high alert now. Zombies were supposed to wander and attack, drawn by the scent of the living, yet the three of them had reached the edge of the athletic field without seeing any more of them besides the few at the school gate.
Suddenly, an unnatural rustling from the foliage made Flora Bloom stop in her tracks and scan her surroundings. But after looking around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, save for a patch of low bushes that trembled for a moment.
"Something feels wrong. Stay alert and be careful. There's something nearby, and it might have already spotted us!"
The moment Flora Bloom voiced her warning to Neal Wallace and Ethan Monroe, a strange gust of wind materialized behind her. She instinctively dodged to the side, dropping into a roll.
Though she reacted quickly enough to evade the brunt of the sudden attack, she touched the back of her neck after getting up and found her hand covered in blood. She'd been hit.
'It's this thing! In my last life, it was the one that chased and attacked me. I never got a clear look at what it was, even when I finally escaped with Shelton Underwood and his team.'
Flora Bloom took a quick gulp of water from the river in her dimensional space. The wound on her neck healed instantly, not even leaving a scar.
But moments later, that bizarre sensation of wind returned, once again appearing right behind Flora Bloom.
Even though Flora Bloom was mentally prepared, the creature's speed was simply too great. She had no time to react and was about to be struck again.
In the nick of time, Neal Wallace suddenly appeared behind Flora Bloom, a ball of crimson flame flaring to life in his hand.
The wind-like attack disintegrated the moment it touched Neal Wallace's flames, and a piercing shriek echoed through the air.
This shriek was nothing like the guttural roars of a zombie. It was a piercing sound, hollow and resonant as if from a vast chest cavity, mixed with the buzzing of insect wings.
But after the shriek, everything fell silent again. Even the surrounding foliage went still.
Frowning, Flora Bloom, Neal Wallace, and Ethan Monroe formed a back-to-back triangle, guarding against another sneak attack from the creature.
They waited for a long time, but nothing happened. Eventually, they began to move away, one facing forward, one watching the side, and the third walking backward to cover their rear. Their pace was slow, but it was safe.
Finally, the three of them slowly made their way to the other side of the athletic field, into an area that formed a triangle between the academic building and the girls' dormitory. They were standing right at its center.
This area was normally one of the most popular spots on campus. At its center was a fountain featuring a stone statue of "The Thinker." The fountain would spray water every day at noon and in the evening, making it a favorite dating spot for many couples.
But the scene that greeted the trio now was utterly horrifying.
The ground was blanketed with a dense layer of bodies. Blood mixed with some sort of nauseating slime, and a foul, acrid stench hung in the air, overpowering the smell of gore.
What shocked them most was that the dead included not only humans but zombies as well. Every corpse looked as if it had been dismembered by a sadistic killer, its limbs and head hacked off.
The edges of the wounds were serrated, just like the injury on Belle Bloom's arm.
"D-did we just stumble upon a massacre?"
Ethan Monroe gulped, taking deep breaths to stop himself from looking too terrified.
Just then, Neal Wallace summoned a flame in his hand and expertly sent it flying in a specific direction.
SKREE!
That familiar shriek rang out again—it seemed to be the same creature that had ambushed them earlier.
Flora Bloom looked at Neal Wallace curiously. "How did you know where it was?" she asked.
Neal Wallace frowned, unsure how to explain.
"I don't know its exact position either. It's just that when it gets within a certain range, the Fire Element inside me seems to flare up. Once I summon my flames, I can feel where it is."
A hint of excitement in his voice, Neal Wallace continued, "I gave it a shot, and I actually hit it."
Flora Bloom nodded. 'So it's true,' she thought. 'No wonder people in my past life said that those who awakened elemental superpowers gained enhanced senses.'
Flora Bloom had been racking her brain for a way to deal with the creature. They couldn't even see its physical form, let alone fight it. Having an unknown monster lurking in the shadows, ready to ambush them, was far too dangerous.
But now, things were different. With Neal Wallace's new sensory ability, they could pinpoint the monster's location, which made things much easier to handle.
She whispered to Neal Wallace, "Next time you locate it, don't attack. Just tell me where it is. I'll circle around from behind."
Ethan Monroe shuffled his portly frame closer. "What about me?" he asked curiously. "What do I do?"
Flora Bloom scanned their surroundings, worried that zombies or other creatures might be drawn to the fight. "You stand guard," she said. "If you see anything approaching, yell for us right away. If you can't fight it, just run. Got it?"
Ethan Monroe thumped his chest and agreed, then found a fairly thick tree to hide behind.
He had barely hidden himself when he suddenly let out a yelp.
"Whoa, holy crap! What is this thing?! It's huge! Get off me! It's crawling on my face!"
Hearing him cry out, Flora Bloom and Neal Wallace rushed over. What they saw made them both jump.
"This big? Is that... a cicada?"
Flora Bloom coated her hand with her superpower and lifted the creature by its wings. It was heavy, with a swollen abdomen, and it let out a series of bizarre chirps.
Then, she suddenly broke into a smile.
"Flora Bloom, what's on your mind?"
"Tell me about it! That thing almost bit me," Ethan Monroe complained. "Good thing I'm so thick-skinned."
Flora Bloom gave Ethan Monroe an amused look. 'This guy's really one of a kind,' she thought, 'to so proudly twist 'thick-skinned' into a compliment.'
Her eyes darted playfully. Looking down at the struggling golden cicada in her hand, she smiled at the others. "I think I know what's been ambushing us," she said.
"What is it? Now's not the time to be coy! And what kind of world is this, where cicadas get this huge? Good thing they're not aggressive. Can you imagine if bees or hornets got this big? A swarm would eat a person alive!"
Flora Bloom laughed to herself. She didn't have the heart to tell them that in the future, bees, wasps, and even ants would indeed grow that large, and their swarms would be terrifyingly dense.
"This isn't just a bug. It's a cicada."
Realization dawned on Neal Wallace's face as he looked at the giant golden cicada in Flora Bloom's hand. At the exact same moment, both he and Flora Bloom said:
"The mantis stalks the cicada?"
Flora Bloom nodded. "And it looks like we get to be the oriole."
"What's the plan?"
Flora Bloom held up the large cicada. With her bare hands, she tore off its two pairs of wings and snapped off its legs. Then she tossed it into the nearby fountain.
Maimed by Flora Bloom, the giant golden cicada didn't die. Instead, it let out an agonized shriek that echoed across the entire plaza.
The three of them slipped into a small equipment shed at the edge of the field, secretly watching the fountain.
Ethan Monroe found it hard to believe. According to Flora Bloom and Neal Wallace, their attacker was a mantis? The culprit behind the fountain massacre, the creature responsible for the deaths of so many people and zombies… was just a mantis?
"Hey, Flora Bloom, are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked. "How could a single mantis be that strong? All those people and zombies were torn to pieces!"
"I don't think so," she replied. "In the apocalypse, anything can mutate—plants, trees... Look at that cicada. It's bigger than your head, isn't it?"
"But to cause that much carnage... just how big would that mantis have to be?!"
Before Ethan Monroe could finish speaking, a sudden movement near the fountain proved Flora Bloom's theory correct—and sent a cold sweat trickling down his back.
"Th-that big?"
Seeing its sheer size, Ethan Monroe couldn't stop his legs from trembling.