'The Arc of light that came at me was strong enough to knock down several trees at once. Although I'm pretty sure that, that light attack can't kill me, I felt that if I'm careless, then it could gravely injure me.' I thought as I looked over cautiously over to the cave. 

"Clank" "Clank" "Clank"

Heavy metal footsteps rang from inside the cave. Something was slowly coming out of the cave. I was on my guard and was ready for any sneak attacks.

I knew I was strong. My claws and teeth were very sharp. Maybe I could even cut through steel!. Who knows!? However, even knowing the fact that I could most probably cut such strong materials as steel, I knew that the battle between me and the creature that was coming outside was going to be a fierce one.

I was a normal human not too long ago, so I should have run away long ago, or at least I should have felt fear.

However, instead of fear, my body was itching for this fight. I wanted to test out my newfound strength and wanted to see how strong am I exactly! My thinking was strange right now. If I was the same 17-year-old boy then I most probably would have run away by now, however, instead of running away, all I want to do is fight this dangerous opponent that is about to come out. Maybe I'm going crazy or I'm being influenced by my dragon body!? 

However, I did have time to think about this any longer, because the creature that shot me the light attack slowly came into view from inside the dark cave.

As soon as the creature came out, my mouth was wide open at the shock. It was a Giant Praying Mantis. It was almost as tall as me while having a fat translucent abdomen from which I could see blood vessels and nerves faintly.

It had 2 huge scythes as its weapon that dimly glowed with white light. Its eyes were eyeing me warily and were slowly sizing me up. 

Someone doesn't have to be a genius to figure out where the light attacks came from. I knew that I had to be very careful while dealing with those two scythes.

When I was a human, I sometimes used to watch some insect documentaries. I knew that on Earth, the praying mantises were very fast and cunning. If the same logic applied to this world, then this mantis in front of me should be very agile.

Suddenly, the mantis disappeared from where it was standing. It was so fast that I couldn't even follow where the mantis disappeared to.

"WHOOOSH"

I felt the wind cut from my left side. Feeling danger, I instinctively ducked my head down and jumped backward.

The scythe of the mantis swung over me at a very fast pace and streaks of white light were left behind by the scythe.

 

Although I dodged the first strike, the mantis didn't let me rest. It disappeared again and appeared in front of me. It swung its scythe towards me again just as fast as before. Feeling the danger, I turned my whole body and barely dodged the 2nd strike. However, this time I didn't back off. I tightened my muscles and swung my claw horizontally with my full power at the mantis. 

I felt my claws hit and tear the flesh of the mantis. I put pressure on my muscles and flung it back towards a big tree. The Giant Mantis flew back from the impact and smashed into a tree. 

"BANGG!!"

A loud sound echoed throughout the forest.

The mantis got up and began to wobble. Blood started pouring out of its wound profusely.

From this exchange, I could easily tell that the main forte of the mantis was speed. Its attacks were sharp, accurate, and very fast. However, on the other hand, it didn't have much strength and defense. I could easily overpower it if there was a battle of only raw strength. Its exoskeleton is also not too strong like that of some beetles or other insects.

Seeing the mantis's condition, I knew that this was my chance to finish it. Without giving it a chance to recuperate, I dashed toward the mantis at my full speed. My legs tensed up as I ran towards it 

The mantis seeing me coming towards it shrieked in pain and anger. The scythes of the mantis suddenly glowed in white light. It swung its claws vertically. The same arc of white light rushed towards me from its claws. 

I turned my body again to dodge the light attack, however, I was not so lucky this time. 

I managed to dodge to avoid the white light hitting the vital parts, but, the light grazed and cut my chest area a little. 

Even after feeling the pain of my chest being cut, I didn't stop my charge. The mantis panicked when it did not see me stop. It fired light after  light attack and I managed to dodge all of them with only light injuries to my body, like some small scratches and cuts.

Seeing its light attacks not working, I could see various emotions in the eyes of the mantis. Fear, Anger, Confusion, Pain, everything.

When I got closer to the mantis. I turned and swung my heavy tail on one of the legs of the mantis. The leg which I hit, tore and flew away from my strong hit. It lost its balance and grabbing that opportunity of unbalance in the mantis, I grabbed the dull side of the scythes of the mantis, and held them down with my raw strength and power. The mantis tried to free its scythes and vigorously tried to break free from my grasp. 

However, I knew that if I let go now, it would not end well for me. I held on to the mantis's scythes and opened my maws as large as I could. My sharp teeth were on full display for the mantis to see.

'Some great person once said, "Never and Never show mercy to your opponents."' 

I lunged and grabbed the head of the mantis with my maws. Putting strength, I tore its head off its body. Blood started spraying all over me and the smell of iron entered my nose and blood trickled down my tongue from the mantis head. 

The headless corpse of the mantis went limp and fell to the ground. The head of the mantis was still in my mouth. 

If someone saw this scene of a dragon covered in blood while holding the head of a Giant mantis in its jaws which had enormous teeth, they would surely call it a devil and an enemy of God.

'Heh! No mercy indeed.' I smirked as I slowly let go of the dangling head with no body.

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