Chapter 23: Sergio's Backstory
Sergio Von Croy and his Team members also reached the forested wetland. They walked down the lane, flooded with shallow freshwater.
"The water is getting deeper, Captain," Erika said.
"Keep moving forward!" Sergio commanded them.
"Yes, Captain!" They answered in chorus.
Sergio, standing with half of his body underwater, observed the place as they went along and said, "There are floating plants over there!" He pointed at the plants.
They swam to get to the top of the plants and switched from various floating plants to pursue their task. After a moment, they halted on a single large water lily.
"Enemies are coming," Mario warned them. They sensed a huge monster so they prepared for an attack. No one panicked, and they all stood in their formation surrounding Sergio Von Croy in the middle.
They tried too hard, but they can't pinpoint the beast's precise position when it varies every second.
"Captain, something dull our senses. It's giving inaccurate information." Angela said while gripping her sword in front of Sergio.
"Same here, Captain. The enemies are giving faint presences and are unstable." Marco followed up.
Sergio looked at them one by one and they all nod, agreeing to Dina's statement.
It's unlikely for them to see something change place so suddenly. That's why they felt that a lot of enemies surrounded them in different directions.
They saw a huge bug floating on the water with four distinct legs and two small legs in front, not far away from their location.
"Am I seeing this right? The insect is floating on the water." Mario stated with wide eyes.
"Are you stupid Mario? An insect floating in the water? That's probably dead. It's not even moving even a bit." Sergio Von Croy yelled at Mario.
They were all in agreement with their captain and thought it was dead. They're all looking in other ways to look for threats, apart from Mario. The huge bug was disappearing in a blink of an eye that even Mario couldn't see where it went.
"Captain! It vanished." Mario announced, and they all looked at the insect, but they only saw the water ripples moving.
'What's going on?' Sergio narrowed his eyes, standing in the middle of his squad.
They saw another one far away in the opposite direction and prepared to attack.
"T-that's the same insect earlier." Mario's mumbled.
"It's not the same bug, alright! Calm down, Mario. Your senses are just tricking you." Sergio patted Mario while laughing. But Mario didn't believe him as the presence is too identical even for an insect in the same species.
'I hope Sergio was right. My senses are just dulled. That's not possible, right? It's not possible to move and travel that long distance in just a second.' Mario tried to convince himself.
Sergio started their organized assault by leaping to Angela's back, flying too high in the sky. His Squadmates are waiting for him to descend, to succeed after his assault reaches the enemy. Yet the colossal bug leaped up and used the water surface like a trampoline to push itself upward and reach the peak of its jump in just a second. The insect smashed Sergio to an abandoned building, using its short front legs.
The bug fell and stood on top of the stream, not moving a muscle.
Sergio hit his head on the floor of the building, and his vision started to dwindle.
"C-Captain!?" Mario muttered.
"The insect killed Captain," Erika whispered.
Sergio anchored his forearms to the ground, mustering his remaining strength, but he fell to the ground before fully standing up. It took him quite some time to crawl to the edge of the building to see his squad. He saw Marco move from the floating plant, jumping to another. But in just a second, the giant insect creepily appeared in front of him, cleaning its long proboscis. Before he could flee, its straw-like long mouth pierced Marco's nape and raised him from the floating plant.
"Help m—" Marco tried to ask for help, but the insect liquefied his innards before he could finish his sentence. His dried body futilely fell into the abysmal waters.
The incident that transpired in front of them shocked everyone, causing them to panic. It has been so long since they saw someone die, and it's a first since they started their mission. Fear of death made them quit their right reasoning and tremble before the giant insect.
They all froze off their feet, thinking of a way to escape with a grim look on their faces. The Insect faced them after sucking the life out of Marco. Sergio tried to warn his Squad members below not to move, but no voice came out.
"AHHHH!!!" They all shouted before they all moved, trying to escape death.
Some of them jumped into the water, and the others tried to swim to enter the buildings. The insect appeared in front of Erika, swimming to enter a building. Erika looked up to see the insect floating on top of the water in front of her.
"KYAAA—" Her mouth was pierced by the insect's giant proboscis. Her intestines came out to her mouth while the insect slurped her guts out.
The insect quickly moved to feed on the remaining members. Angela dove in the water earlier to avoid the insect, but she went to the water surface to breathe for a second, not expecting the insect to appear as soon as she emerged from the water. The insect stood atop playfully cleaning its long proboscis with its two short front legs, covered with Marco and Erika's blood.
No words came out from Angela's mouth as she spookily accepted her faith. The insect pierced her neck to insert its long proboscis into her body, as her head fell off into cold water.
The same thing happened to the others that jumped in the water. When they go to the surface to breathe, the Insect will appear above them and pierce their faces and suck them dry.
Sergio Von Croy can see Mario, his closest friend since childhood, who doesn't know how to give up and won't go to the surface yet because he is sure that he'll die after seeing the others' dried remnants sinking in the water.
'There's no other option. I'll rather fight hopelessly than to die without giving a fight.' Mario clenched his fist and prepared his blessing to confront the insect. However, he was bitten by a giant mosquito's larvae, thinking he's food and pulled him underwater.
'Sorry, Sergio. I know you're alive somewhere in there. Please survive.' Mario thought to himself before he closed his eyes and died from drowning.
Sergio saw everything on the edge of the building he fell into with one of his eyes closed, bleeding badly and on the brink of death.
"No!" Sergio silently cried before he lost consciousness. When he woke up, the Giant Water Strider was gone.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Nocturnal_Dreamer
Nocturnal_Dreamer Welcome to my weird novel. I know I'll lose a lot of readers after this lol.
Comment down below your guess on what's the insect, please. Thank you ^_^
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