Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 398. Predator Suppression

Theo immediately got up from the chair, his hand tightening instinctively as if he were holding his sword, only to realize that his sword wasn’t with him.

Across the room, near the entrance of the closed terrarium, he saw Clara.

A large creature that looked like a mantis was slowly moving toward her, making faint clicking noises.

"Mantis!" Theo shouted in panic.

The shout made the creature look at him. Its body didn’t move, but its head bent back with eerie flexibility.

Then it moved briskly toward Theo.

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat. Its legs weren’t big enough to make sounds against the stone floor. Instead, they produced a hollow clacking noise, like a hollow bone hitting stone.

In moments, the creature was right in front of him, looking at him up close.

The mantis placed one of its large forelegs on Theo’s abdomen, trying to latch onto him before climbing upward, only to realize that the spot it was trying to stand on was far too small now. There was no way it could get there.

While the mantis stared intently at Theo’s shoulder, Theo focused on the space between the mantis’s eyes.

’Maybe...’

He slowly moved his hand forward, and the mantis’s eyes followed the approaching hand.

Theo paused for a moment and looked at it carefully. What if it bit his hand off?

The fear had lingered in his mind only because the mantis had changed so much. Since its transformation, only a few of its behavior still resembled its former self.

But while Theo was hesitating and was lost in those thoughts, the mantis simply leaned its face closer, letting Theo rest his hand on the space above its eyes.

Then, it made another strange, alien-like noise.

That was when Theo looked into his eyes again and gently caressed the mantis’s head. The mantis stayed still, enjoying the patting until Theo finally stood up.

Only then did he see the actual difference in their size.

Theo was now six feet tall, yet the mantis reached nearly halfway to his waist. That meant it was already around four feet tall.

Theo didn’t know what to say about that. He remained silent for a moment while the mantis continued staring at him.

’Does the ’Tyrant’ in its name actually made a difference?’ Theo couldn’t help but wonder.

He had seen that title many times in the names of the beasts that came from the gates. Whenever a creature had "Tyrant" in its name, the beast was always far larger than the usual versions of their species.

Suddenly, the bond opened again, and the mantis sent a wave of emotions.

When Theo debunked them, he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

"You’re already hungry, you glutton?" he said aloud.

The mantis bobbed its head in an oddly human manner, the only habit it had picked up after spending so much time with humans.

"Clara, it was coming to you because you usually feed it in the morning. Isn’t that cute?" Theo said as he crouched and patted the mantis’s back, right where the moss grew.

For the first time ever, Theo had touched the moss and felt a calming sensation. It had a soft, brush-like texture that somehow soothed him.

While Theo continued patting the moss, Clara stood in the corner, staring with a mixture of shock and pure horror.

Theo didn’t notice her fraction at first. But after a while, when he felt like it had been some time since he had told Clara to bring food for the mantis, he glanced back at her, only to see her still standing there.

That was when he finally understood and let out a sigh.

"Clara, you know it’s still the mantis, right? It’s just... grown a bit bigger in size..." Theo said.

His words made Clara look at him briefly, but her eyes quickly returned to the mantis, not willing to let it out of her sight.

Theo didn’t know what to do.

"I will go get his food then," he said, hoping to get some reaction.

Clara bit her lip and slowly stood up instead.

She went through the lining of the wall and slipped out of the room with a type of brisk pace that looked like she was walking, but it almost looked like she was running.

The mantis made another sound and then, through the bond, asked for food again. Theo patted its back a few more times before standing up.

"Let’s go get some fresh food," he said with a grin, only for the mantis to stay silent for a few seconds.

Then its forelegs rose into the air as it shifted back into its fighting stance that was much larger and more imposing now.

Seeing that, Theo couldn’t help but feel proud. For a moment, he even wanted to hug the mantis but refrained for now.

"Do you want to go back inside the beast space for now, or walk with me?" Theo asked, though in his heart, he already knew the answer.

He opened the room’s door and stepped out, the mantis moving beside his right leg as they made their way toward the baron’s study with a smile.

A knight came approaching from another corridor. At first, he noticed the young master walking with a smile.

Then he saw the abomination moving alongside him... and froze.

The aggressive-looking wolf patrolling with the knight stopped as well and lowered its head.

Theo smiled at the knight, who remained frozen in place, while the wolf began whimpering when the mantis moved a little closer and glanced at it.

Seeing the situation, Theo quickened his pace. If things kept going this way, the wolf might end up getting traumatized.

’It’s that skill... what was it again?’ he thought and looked up his status again.

’Predator Suppression, huh... Can’t say I don’t like it.’ He thought as he made his way forward.

But just before he could get inside the baron’s study, when Theo moved to the corridor where it was, he saw one of the heirs standing there waiting for entry.

When he saw Theo, he too, froze.