Sun shone directly from above, glazing the surface below. It scared the shadows senseless and sent them hiding under their parent bodies. Silence and calm had the patch of dry land in its grip, but a sudden gust of wind brought along a whistling rumble which made the sleeping surrounding cry out in alarm.

The sound came quickly and went away even quicker, but the quiet didn’t return upon its leave. Instead, madness arrived. The sound of a small explosion banged the crying particles of air away and made the ground quake with emotions. A pillar of sand erupted from one of the pits situated right in the middle of this dry patch of land and turned the funnel-shaped pit into an obscure wound with a hollow bottom. Seen from afar, the explosion would appear natural to some unquestioning observer; but when looked from near, a group of small invaders would appear staring into the pit with a strange atmosphere around them- containing shock, admiration, and even bewilderment.

The biggest ant in the lot with a yellow tint to its black shade had a hammer-shaped stinger on its bottom and was haphazardly looking around at the others with its antennae’s sheepishly twirling in the air. While the ant which looked as if a fire was about to erupt from its body was standing stiff, possibly analyzing the destructive power behind the explosion. Only the ant with twin horns on its head instead of antennas was moving into the funnel-shaped pit. Using one of its shadowy tentacles as an anchor by fastening it on the other side of the ridge, the ant slid to the bottom of this ravaged slide to check upon the movement going on down there.

Right about then, an ant slowly shook its head out of the sandy bottom, and slowly dragged out another ant with a pink back and slim body from below the sandy grave. Dropping the ant on the ground it opened its mandible wide and looked passionately at the sky above where the ball of fire covered in a marvelous luster calmly admired its courage. Looking back at the horned ant which had come to stop before it, the ant nodded and pointed its antennas at its unconscious friend- resulting in a golden glow appearing over its body.

This ant was me. I was using [Heal] on Genma who had suffered minor injuries on his thorax while the horned ant was Dark.

“Get up, we need to leave.” Dark was once again being on point. He was worried about the hunter buried below us, so he wanted to leave, but I told him it was alright, and he had to stop to guess what I really meant. He was an intelligent ant, and it didn’t take him long to understand the meaning of my words.

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes, I have hunted the hunter.”

It had died surprisingly easily. I knew I could win the moment I saw its status, but I was still expecting some form of retaliation, but unlike what I had imagined, it simply succumbed to the [Air bullet] which could now deal 114% damage of my base attack and exploded into minced meat. Even though the bug had a monstrous sized body, it still wasn’t able to take even a single hit from me. Not only was I able to kill a being which none of the others ants had ever killed, but I had done it alone. It was an amazing achievement and my new title detailed more on it.

But one look at David’s current disposition, and I knew it wasn’t the time to check out my title and its effect. I needed to move.

“How? I mean… how… could… alone… how?” A bewildered Dark was too emotional. I don’t think I liked this side of him. He appeared much better when he acted calm and collected. Right now, he was trying to confirm the hunter’s death by moving the sandy blanket off its body, but David’s call made him stop. His shaking eyes turned cold upon hearing the coldness in David’s voice.

“Let me help you.” He turned to help me get Genma over the funnel, but I told him it wasn’t necessary. Genma suddenly woke up covered in the disappearing glow of heal.

“What happened? Right, the Hunters!” solving his own confusion, Genma briskly looked behind him but not even the dreadful encounters shadow could shade him from the warmth of life. Our eyes meet as he turned around. If there was something made me slightly restless, it was the sadness hiding behind the gratefulness in his eyes. I really wanted to clear his doubts or at least praise him for his quick use of that Pink globe which had saved him, but Darks urge made me hesitate. In the end, I decided to settle things between us after everything became calm again. After everything became calm…

“If you want to die then die alone!” were the first words I heard upon returning back to the ridge. “Your reckless self almost made this whole area active! It’s already a miracle that your ruckus hasn’t destroyed the little balance which keeps this place traversable! I shouldn’t have agreed with the commander. I shouldn’t have brought you with us.”

I was expecting a heartfelt welcome, a necklace of praises strung upon a thread of goodwill, but this, I wasn’t expecting being reprimanded and embarrassed because I had saved a member of this team!

“What the hell!” Maybe I shouldn’t have used [Rhythmic quake]; instead, used [Excavate] to bring the hunter out of its hidden lair and then cut its head off with [Mandible cut]. I might have exactly done that if I wasn’t in such a hurry. I wasn’t thinking straight then. I had to save vice leader-Genma’s life. Though, what about the others? What happened to the talk of watching backs and dying for one another? What changed?

I was angry. I was bewildered. In the end, I decided it was better to take care of myself rather than to put my life in their hands- especially David’s. I was no longer sure of his leading abilities. Pyro looked at us solemnly as if he was already tired of David’s methods, while, Dark seemed to be fighting with himself over something.

Quiet caged in silent barriers us as we started walking.

“Don’t worry too much. There is a reason he’s called crazy.” Pyro tried to comfort me, but who would comfort Genma. What wrong had he done? He just didn’t have the required resistance against charm and illusion to get past this patch of land! They could have told him before accepting him. He could have then decided to not join this team. But no, they hadn’t said anything and this was the result. Who should he blame? One look at him and I knew he was definitely blaming himself. He was that kind of guy.

I walked fuming. My gait was widening. My senses were being restrained by my unusual temper. Rage leveled up in between. Vengeance wanted to show off and greed started playing with my mood. Still, my resistances weren’t for naught. It only took me a few seconds to realize something concerning.

The others were shaken and behaving out of their characters. Pyro was quiet and concentrating on his steps; Dark had his tentacles spread around us like a net. Mink though was still cheerful, yet it was David who had brought the biggest change in our circumstance; the change being our absurd and further quickening pace. Dirt was rising as we moved. We were almost running now. Our brisk movement was resulting in small landslides, yet we weren’t slowing.

“Why are we walking so fast?” I voiced my confusion but only silence answered me. Worried, I looked behind and even Dark ‘The expressionless devil’ appeared struggling and tense. A baleful feeling engulfed me as a tingling sensation swept through my body. My senses which had been confused until now because of my internal struggle opened to a world filled with madness.

Then something happened.

The ground started quaking. It wasn’t an earthquake. The sand dunes we were walking upon shook vigorously and the grains which made our path started slipping away from underneath our feet.

I noticed mana bubbling erratically around us. This bubbling mana didn’t stay hovering. It moved east of us and started falling down toward a pit. A wave of terror shook me as this concentrated mana created a sinkhole at the bottom of that pit and David yelled, “Run!” with such a terrified voice that even Dark cursed out from behind.

I was told to run, yet I couldn’t help but slow down and stare at this anomaly. Why? Because it was expanding and engulfing everything in its path: be it the sand grains or the pit hunters themselves. Their piercing shrieks cooled the fluids inside my body, but then Genma pushed me from behind and Dark urged me to run.

“RUN!” he yelled and my feet started moving.

The moment was breathtaking. It was fascinating to see the land rising slightly and then being swallowed by an expanding funnel. But the situation demanded concentration and I agreed with it mentally. At least the ridge was not narrow anymore. Because of the rumble, the sand at the bottom had already tumbled away, resulting in the expansion of our path which made it far easier for us to run. Running was not a difficult task. We now even had a wider path. The difficulty was staying ahead of the expanding funnel which was right upon us. Speed wasn’t a difficulty either. I had enough strength in my limbs and agility to outrun the expanding death, but the same couldn’t be said about the others.

How far were we? Not much. We still had three distant meters to cover. But the funnel was right upon us. And unfortunately, as if the sinkhole had understood our intent, the suction increased and the funnel which was still a bit far away from us expanding and engulfed Dark. “Shit!” I heard behind me and Genma got swallowed by the tumbling sand grains.

Would I one day forfeit my life to save the others? Was I a messiah born to protect the weak and the struggling? I wasn’t a messiah. Also, even though I had been given the title of ‘Ant Hero’, I wasn’t a hero either. I was just me. I am still me. I knew the pain which death brings. I understood the burdens which leaders shouldered, but I was still growing. I was still stubborn. I still thought I could protect everyone.

Hence, I jumped behind them.

“A team is not a band of misfits which can be abandoned during perils and struggles, David!” I screamed as the reapers dark clock swallowed the path beneath me. “A team is a machine and it only works when every unit involved helps the ones struggling. That is what it means to be a team. How can I leave someone behind because he’s in a bit of a bind, David!? Tell me how can I?” I yelled as the sea of sandy grains swallowed me.

The grating noise of tumbling sand filled my surrounding. Darkness overtook Light. But even this viscous flow wasn’t able to drown me. [Excavate] wasn’t a skill just for show. I used it to open a path in front of me. As for my movement, reflex leveled up to 25 and prompted me.

{Reflex has reached lv 25.}

{Reflex has reached its maximum level and is }

And is presenting you with the option to:

Flow or Float

If I had time I might have put some thoughts behind my reason, but I had none. The moment I saw ‘Float’, I knew what I wanted from reflex…

{Reflex has evolved into 3-D maneuver.}

[3-D maneuver]

[Tier-3][lv-1/50][Active/passive]

[Retaining the effect of reflex, it further gives you the ability to fluidly move in any medium.]

[+.3Agility/lv, +.1Dexterity/lv]

It was all I needed. I might have foolishly jumped into the jaws of the gripping sand, but now that I had the method of traversing through it, my job was made much much easier. I, who had to use [equilibrium] as a balancing pillar to move on the ground above, could now effortlessly swim through the tumbling sand like a worm or an earth pixie. It was the power of skills; the strength which I had been given as a blessing because of my unfortunate birth as an ant.

Now, with [Breathing] and [Breath control] as the auxiliary force driving me forward in this breathless dark world, I dived even deeper to find my friends.

It only took me a second to find them. Once again my skills helped me do which no ant was born to do. I proved everyone wrong. And I promised myself to change everyone’s views about us ants.

[Mana vision] lit their traces in this dark place and [Reveal] revealed their position. The ring of skills leveling was a constant motivation in regular time, but now I needed to concentrate. So I ignored the call and activated [Fast processing] to get a little edge against time. Their mana filled bodies glowed like two small suns in the middle of this sandy ocean, but they were just about to be swallowed by the sinkhole below. It was the same situation once again. I had let Genma being captured by the pit lion, but I was ready this time. I was calm and collected.

Seeing that Genma was trying to protect Dark with his pink globe was inspiring. It showed how important every life was. Dark might seem like a cold ant, but he cared. He was affectionate about the others around him. He just wasn’t social with his emotions and feeling.

I latched onto the globe with [Mana Rope] and ignored the system notification which had chimed in my mind. Using [excavate] to dig through the sand; I swam through the open pockets with my new skill [3-D maneuver]. While swimming upward, I picked up the other members of my team who had failed to reach the grassland and were drowning. Similarly, I tied their bodies with mana rope, and once I had managed to secure everyone, I used [Acceleration].

Acceleration was a skill which allowed me to instantaneously travel one meter in any distance. The hard shore was now a little over two meters away. We were about ten centimeters beneath the land.

I haphazardly chose to fly.

One second I was drowning under the swirling- tumbling sea of sand, and the next second, I was airborne and speeding toward the sky with the others screaming behind me while being bound to my body with glowing blue strings of mana. Air dragged against our bodies, slowing us. Eventually, we ran out of momentum and started dropping toward the completely expanded funnel.

“GLIDE!” I yelled and like a bird carried everyone over the wretched whirling funnel and onto the hard, dark, and wetland under the shade of tall blades of grass.

Battered and bruised, but all of us made it out of the condescending horror. Alive, yet slightly unnerved and completely horrified. The others lay on the ground behind me. The sound of grains mashing against each other was still loud and clearly obstructive. It was sound after all. Still, the nauseating affair was done. We had survived the calamity.

“What the hell just happened?” Dark was the first one to come to his senses. I was honestly expecting Pyro to be the first one to spring back to life. I guess, the saying, ‘those loudest at mouth have the shallowest of hearts’ applies to him. Pyro -belittling his intelligence and wisdom- was lying stiff and unmoving much like Genma who was gazing senselessly at the grinder now behind us.

“So, do you still think it was wrong of me to save Genma?” I asked David as our eyes meet, but he didn’t reply back.

“Let’s go.” He solemnly commanded, stood up, and started walking toward the world of plants, flowers, and tall grasses.

I felt happy like I was the winner of our quarrel, but David clearly wasn’t done yet.

“If you hadn’t created that commotion then this wouldn’t have happened. We wouldn’t have to run for our lives.”

‘This mother-‘

But before I could expand on my thoughts -and probably enter a fist fight with him- the funnel which had expanded end to end between the two grasslands exploded. Something huge, much-much-much bigger, wilder, and crazier than anything I could ever imagine, speared out from under the flimsy layer of sand and rose toward the sky in an attempt to swallow the glowing sun above. Its rocky yellow body rose until it was engulfed by the suns luminance before its body started falling back toward the hole it had just jumped out of. And then it fell- sending a tide of piercing grains of sand mixed with gravel the size of huge meteors our way.

“I think we need to start running…” Mink shiveringly volunteered by taking a step back and all of us started running toward the plants to save our miserable little lives from the tsunami of sand and falling rabble of stones.

Heck! Even bugs living under the sandy land were thrown out as an aerial assault which either completely splattered upon colliding with the ground or were cushioned by the grass blades and started running behind us. Not to catch us, but to save their lives.

Bang! A hefty stone fell just left of me as I lifted Pyro’s frozen ass and ran. One look at the punched ground left me dreary of the strength behind those falling pieces of worthless stones. But just as I had taken a step toward the cover of giant plants, I heard Genma yell behind me.

“Hold on!”I heard, “Come to me, I can protect us!” His words were still lingering in the air when the pink globe of mana once again appeared around him. It was the same spell which had saved him against the antlions severing mandibles. I didn’t hesitate. He wanted me to believe in him. I could see it in his eyes- confidence. I took Pyro with me and dived under the barriers protection, the moment I understood his intent. Dark was already inside, and Mink being Mink, followed the moment he heard his words. I was sure it would work. Be it the concentration of mana or its amount, everything about the globe or the barrier spoke of strength. I was sure; my only skill which could hold its own against this globe was my wind cannonball which was a tier-3 skill.

And if Genma’s skill truly was tier-3 then there was no safer place then under its protection. I knew it, and that’s the reason I urged David to stop running and come before it was too late.

Although David was far, he was still our captain. And being a leader he couldn’t stay away from his team. “If this doesn’t work I’ll kill you both!” he screamed as he dived into the barrier and the tide swallowed us whole.