Insectaur Backstory

Viraemia Mors (Insectaur Fighter) Backstory

I used to be a normal mantis, walking around fields and forests with my fellows. We don’t have an exact good relationship with humans, so we tend to just walk our own ways.
At least, that’s what I thought and hoped.
People are crazy. They want to know everything, and they want to be able to make anything. The world should be predictable, they say. Humans are perfect and all other animals have to obey to us, they say.
One day, a crazy scientist and his men walked through the forest that I was situated in, capturing all kinds of animals in cages and other things. Our kind had to run away or hide. I tried my best as well, but got ambushed and taken. Luckily for the others, they only wanted to find one specimen of all animals habitated in the forest, so I was the only one caught.
They brought me to an ugly facility, where they started doing peculiar tests on me. Usually I got hurt in the progress, and almost always would I be left hoping it couldn’t get any worse.
Until one experiment, where they injected me with an ominous concoction. They didn’t have a clue what it would do, only that it would make me into a weapon.
Soon after the injection, the effects started kicking in. I grew, not only in size, but also in intellect. I grew to about the size of a horse, with my claws extending forward. The effects were underestimated by the scientist, and he stood there in euphoria, but also in fear. Which was justly. Without a single doubt in my head, I took my revenge and started amputating body part after body part with my sharp claws. Needless to say, I broke out of the containment facility and fled back to the forest where I was captured.
My mind had never been clearer. I could ponder about everything, even in words. But my size was still terrifying, but it served me well in being able to take down humans I came across. I don’t need to run from them anymore, I can take them on myself!
But the other mantises apparently thought the same. They didn’t want me back, I would just attract unnecessary attention due to my sheer size. Mantises have always survived by running and hiding, they don’t have a need to change that.
Even though I was derelict by my kind, I did agree with them. If only I could find the perfect place to hide, I would be fine to live the way I am now. So, I started wandering around, looking for the perfect place where I won’t be interrupted.
I traveled far, but everywhere I came, humans would too. That doesn’t mean I was in a bad position; I cleaved a couple of dozen of their heads off, and kept some
body parts for myself. Here’s a hot take for you; human meat is surprisingly tasty.
I also noticed that the humans almost never fought with their hands; they use weapons, and I kinda got into using weapons myself. They feel like an extension for my arms, and I’ve grown to actually really like fighting with it.
There have been people that have actually accepted me to travel with them, but in the end I couldn’t trust them and decapitated them as well. I might want to try that out another time though, if I find people who I can trust (which isn’t very likely, I’m guessing).
Recently, I’ve been finding some decent loot from my pray, but they also seem to know me and have given me a name. ‘Viraemia Mors’ is what I hear them call me. ‘I’m a thorn in the side of mankind and I do nothing more than kill’, or at least, that’s what they have to say about me.
Well, finding a place to hide has been difficult. I think I’ll try hiding in plain sight next, and this lovely hat I found might help with that...