Chapter 33

The meeting of the council had been disbanded, as a decision had been made, and now it was only up to the old one to streamline the plan before implanting it. However, the old one still needed some advice, so he decided to visit an old friend for the day, as he had heard that old dog had finally taken on a disciple, and the old one couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of that man having a disciple.

He had returned to his room to gather some provisions for lunch, and as he gazed out into the wild that stretched beyond the glades, beyond the walls of Eleanor, he was lost in thought.

He wanted to announce the success of the plan to him, as his friend had been very enthusiastic about the plan. The old one hadn’t left out any details when he had told the plan to his friend, and he had been shocked as his friend’s reaction.

Orthrus had been genuinely enthusiastic about the plan, which had surprised the old one greatly, as he hadn’t seen his friend display that kind of emotion in a long time.

The last time when he had seen his friend display any emotion, was on the day when Orthrus went to see his family. The old one remembered it very vividly, as it had been the day after he had been chosen as the representative of the great world tree.

His smile waned, as the scenes of meeting his friend in the middle of an insignificant glade on the outskirts of the forest. He remembered the conversation they had, but the thing that was burned into his mind from the whole encounter were Orthrus’ eyes, they were lifeless. His eyes lacked the usual vigour and desire for knowledge, instead they held nothing but a black void, they looked more akin to the magic he practiced than the personality he had possessed. The only thing that gave the old one any reassurance that it was Orthrus, was the fact that he was followed by his enormous monsters, as the old one would recognise those monsters anywhere.

He shook his head, and he banished those thoughts to the outskirts of his mind with that simple gesture. He knew what had happened, and he knew that there was no point in bringing it up now. He had some good news for him!

He quickly put everything in his satchel, and set out towards Orthrus’ home. He hoped to see the new ‘disciple’, as he wanted to see what had caused that change in him, and he wanted to make sure that Orthrus had really taken on a disciple and not another experiment.

As the old one set out towards Orthrus, Daelyn had already arrived.

He had taken the usual route to Orthrus’ house, but as he finally arrived he was quite surprised to see Orthrus standing in front of the house. He stood there with Gob at his side, making for quite an imposing and terrifying presence. Orthrus stood there as a sickly pale sun elf with the stereotypical blond hair being very bleak, almost as if it was made from chalk. His demeanour combined with the energy that seemed to be radiating from his eyes, and the six armed goblin with bulging muscles standing next to him with a wicked grin plastered on his face, made for a scene that would undoubtedly scare even the more veteran soldiers of the kingdom.

Daelyn however, wasn’t scared in the least, instead he was fascinated by Orthrus’ physique, as he hadn’t actually seen the old sun elf outside of his own house yet. The old sun elf seemed even more imposing when he wasn’t limited by the ceilings of his home, but he also received a new sickly pale tone as the sun seemed to drain away the colour from his whole body, and Gob seemed even more monstrous than ever, as his wicked grin only accented the already horrifying image the six bulging arms created, making him seem like an abomination which shouldn’t exist.

Daelyn did not mind any of the natural warnings that the two individuals gave off, and happily sprinted towards them. He crossed the glade within a minute before stopping in front of them with an anticipating and excited smile on his face.

He was about to ask why they were at the front door instead of inside the house, but Orthrus interrupted him with an authoritative tone: “Before you say anything, listen. I have seen you grow proficient in using your dark mana in auramancy for the last two years, and I have decided that you’re finally ready to move onto the next steps. Today, we’re going to get you your first minion. Now, we’re not going to do this the easy way where I give you something and you have to reanimate it. No, you’re going to hunt the resources for your minion first, on your own! I would recommend gaining several samples, as reanimating something for the first time can be, difficult.

Gob and I will be close by to help you, but you’re going to hunt the samples on your own, as I won’t tolerate a disciple who isn’t able to gain their own minions without help of outside forces. Understood?”

Daelyn nodded vigorously, as he hadn’t thought that he would have to hunt the resources to make his first minion on his own, but he was not surprised. Orthrus’ training methods never advocated outside help, instead it normally advocated outside force to increase the difficulty of the training, as Orthrus would rather have Daelyn face overwhelming odds instead of giving him a battle that didn’t have a fixed outcome regardless of whether he became more proficient at darkblood magic or not.

Daelyn sighed, before he looked at up Orthrus again with an anxious look, as he expected the old dark elf to lead the way. However, he was disappointed once again, as Orthrus gave him a sneering glare before saying with an agitated tone: “What are you doing?! Get going, that creature isn’t going serve itself on a silver platter!”

Daelyn sighed, as he realized that he would be given no guidance at all during this lesson. He mumbled something about an ‘incompetent old man’ under his breath, before he steeled his heart and set off into the forest that surrounded the glade.

Daelyn had some experience tracking creatures, as he had done it multiple times prior together with Cyrus. It had been quite an adventure tracking the different animals in the forest, and while they had occasionally succeeded in getting the jump on one, they had also been ambushed by the creature they were tracking on several occasions. These occasional ambushes were mostly caused by their inexperience, and their carelessness in being stealthy.

Daelyn penetrated the foliage surrounding the glade, but quickly found that he could hardly see anything through the thick forest flora.

The sunny glade was replaced with the normal dim and overgrown forest floor, making it very hard for Daelyn to find any sign of life that’s more than five metres in front of him, and while he appreciated the usual scene of the wild overgrowth that permeated almost every part of the forest, he knew it wouldn’t help him in his hunt, so he climbed up the closest tree to get something of a vantage point.

It wasn’t normally very easy to spot animal tracks from high above, but it would aid in discovering an animal track. Daelyn specifically looked for any places that were flattened or didn’t have a lot of plants or plants that were flattened, as he knew that would indicate the occasional animal passing by.

It took several minutes before Daelyn finally reached the sufficient height to get a good vantage point, but when he finally did, he realised what kind of challenge Orthrus had set for him, and he did not like it.

Several dozens of metres below him, were multiple paths carved out by the forest critters, but one stood out, as multiple oversized ants skittered on the path towards their destination. The worker ants were about twenty centimetres in length and around thirteen centimetres in width, and the occasional soldier ant that patrolled the line seemed to be 30 centimetres in length, and fourteen in width.

The ants seemed absolutely horrifying, as the normal miniscule creatures now displayed every insectoid detail with their size. However, Daelyn wasn’t faced by these details, instead he was intrigued. He had only ever seen such ants in bestiaries with pictures in them, so seeing them in flesh and blood was very interesting.

However, despite his enthusiasm, he was sceptical towards the, as he had never seen any of these ants for the last two years, and he was sure that he would have noticed, as these ants would have gone under the tree path at least a dozen times for food.

While he was greatly interested in the ants, he knew that he could not challenge them, as they would quickly surrounded him regardless of his aura. If he attacked, they would release their pheromones, and those pheromones would call upon every soldier in the area, and seeing how much soldiers were already here, Daelyn could only imagine him drawing the short end of the stick in that battle.

However, he did need them, as their exoskeletons would make for a very nice practice product, and they would be so numerous that he would have to make multiple dozens of mistakes to run out of samples. He could hunt other animals and use them, but that would take a lot of time, and he would most likely have to skin those animals as he would mainly be using their bones. The ants were much more viable in this situation, and from his desire, a plan started to form in his head. He would use their numbers against them, and he already knew how he was going to do that.

It would take a while for him to be ready, but Orthrus hadn’t set a time limit, so Daelyn could take his sweet time in catching as many oversized bugs as he wanted.

He needed a few things for his plan to work. First, he needed a way to separate them into smaller groups and contain them in those groups, second he needed to know their feeding patterns and their hunting spots so he could more easily isolate them, and third, he needed to know what kind of queen they have.

Daelyn had his suspicions, but he needed to know for sure, as the wrong queen could mean the difference between life and death for him.

Daelyn remembered that he had been promised a safety net by Orthrus, but as he remembered his teacher’s promise, it did not calm him, instead it only riled him up, and made him more anxious.

Yeah, he had the old man’s protection, but that damned teacher always said that he would never tolerate a weak or incompetent disciple, so why wouldn’t he leave Daelyn to his fate if his plan failed?

Daelyn sighed, as he knew that getting mad about Orthrus’ charade now would solve nothing. With his thought out of the way, he quickly climbed down from the tree, and started tracking the line of ants to its origin.

He scoured along the forest floor with great care as to make sure that the ants wouldn’t notice him. He had read that ants have very sensitive hearing because of their antennae’s, and Daelyn didn’t want to put that theory to the test by angering a colony of giant ants.

As Daelyn followed the ants, the small details of their insectoid bodies only became more and more apparent, as he could clearly see the small hairs on their legs and pincers, the different layers of exoskeleton the ant consisted of, and the multitude of joints that allowed it to move like it did.

He was mesmerized by the ants’ anatomy, as he pictured how everything worked together to move the body, and with his fascination for the ants slowly growing, he arrived at the source of the line, the source of all of these ants, he arrived at their lair.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t a large ant mount carved from the earth, it seemed to be a hole under a tree. It didn’t even seem like it was dug out by the ants, instead it seemed like a boar had done it earlier this year in search for truffles.

Daelyn wanted to move in closer, but an area of several dozens of metres in diameter around the tree was permeated with both soldier and worker ants.

It was quite a large number of ants, but it still seemed small in comparison to normal ants colonies. Daelyn was puzzled by the relatively small number of ants, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted as a large number of ants suddenly swarmed into the area several dozens of metres to the right of him.

The whole colony suddenly became riled up, and moved into formation. Daelyn’s expression quickly turned grim, as he realized that they might be going into formation because he had been discovered. However, his worries were put to rest as he felt the ground tremble.

The calm yet tense atmosphere was suddenly broken as a large boar charged into the lines upon lines of soldier ants standing ready to fight. Its charge cut through them like a knife through butter, making it seem like they weren’t even there. Daelyn was completely taken aback by the giant boar, as it stood at almost a metre tall, two metres in length, and at least a half a metre in width. The boar looked incredibly imposing with its muscled physique, its large protruding horns, and with its powerful hind legs, it quickly accelerated, and charged into the lines of ants.

The boar continued its charge as it ran past multiple trees, and through multiple formations of soldier ants. Each time they tried to defend their workers, they were stomped into a mushy paste by the large creature. None were spared, as it didn’t take long for the surrounding trees to be dyed with a dark green tone from the ants’ ichor.

Daelyn was watching with great anticipation as the large boar was about to strike another line of soldiers, until a silhouette dashed from the tree in the middle and stopped the boar in its tracks. The silhouette belonged to the one thing that Daelyn had hoped to see, a warrior queen.

Its enormous size, huge pincers, and the large wings on its back betrayed it all, this was a warrior queen. It towered above its own soldiers with a length of 80 centimetres, a width of at least 40 centimetres, and a height of around 30. Its large pincers grabbed the boar by its snout, and slowed its momentum as it planted its six feet firmly into the ground. It even used its large rear to cause more friction with the ground. It used every weapon in its arsenal to stop the boar, and after several metres of being dragged on by the remaining momentum, the ant queen forced the large boar to a grinding halt.

It quickly capitalized on this opportunity, as it grabbed the boar’s snout with even more strength, and shifted its centre of gravity to the left in an effort to topple the boar. It was clear that it was a losing battle, as the boar could simply use its weight to negate the queen’s efforts, as it was two and a half times as long and one and a half times as wide.

The queen had been followed by a dozen guards which were coming close to the queen’s own size, with a length of around 55 centimetres, and a width of around 25.

They charged into the boar’s left side, and with the extra force from her personal guards body slam, she was able to topple the boar.

The ants swarmed it as it was completely defenceless on its side, they ripped it to shreds under the hundreds of thumb long mandibles that penetrated its skin, and with the queen stabbing her mandibles directly into its eyes, it died. It stopped its struggle as there were only a few more gurgling sounds coming from its mouth, before it finally died. The ants raised their mandibles in celebration of their victory, before they converged on the boar once more and devoured it.

Daelyn was both mesmerized and sickened by the scene that was displayed in front of him, but he was abruptly pulled back to reality as the scene became too gruesome, causing him to gag. He was able to hold his breakfast in, and he quickly turned back to the large amount of ants, as he still had a mission to accomplish.

He moved towards the nearest dead ants as inconspicuously as possible, and started gathering as much as he could. He thanked Eleanor that he was smart enough to bring a bag, as he wouldn’t have been able to carry as much corpses as he did by far.

He filled the bag as quickly as he could, but when he was halfway through, a sound resounded through the forest.

“AH!”

A surprised yelp resounded through the trees, gaining both Daelyn’s and the ants’ attention.

The yelp had gained the full attention of every being in a large radius as it had completely disturbed the serenity of the forest. The ants had been completely taken by surprise and were dazed as they were pulled from their bloodlust induced state, and Daelyn looked on in surprise, as the tension in his muscles left him and a sheepish expression formed on his face.

He continued his dazed state for a few more seconds, only to be pulled back to reality by a high pitched shriek. He quickly directed his gaze towards the origin of the shriek, and his face paled as he locked eyes with the entire ant colony. One of the smaller worker ants had set his eyes on him, and it had alerted the others.

As one, they directed their gazes towards Daelyn, and he felt their glares penetrate his very being as they were pulled from their daze, and their bloodlust was renewed. They released a cacophony of shrieks, before they charged him.

Daelyn wasn’t going to serve himself on a silver platter, so he quickly ran away. However, with one look behind it him it was clear that his fate was sealed, as the ants were catching up, especially the ant queen. He estimated that she would cross the distance between them in less than a minute, and with her guards following closely behind her, she sealed Daelyn’s fate.

As the ant queen and her guard were covering the last few metres between her and Daelyn, he created an aura to suppress the minds of the incoming insects, as he didn’t have enough time nor concentration to make anything but the most basic aura. Despite its weakness, the aura did affect the queen and her guards, causing them to flinch and slow their pace for a second. This allowed Daelyn to create a few more metres between them and him. He desperately tried to create more and more distance between them, as he only had one goal in mind, survive at all costs.

He knew that if he could make it back to the glade in front of Orthrus’ house he might be saved, but he heard the chittering behind him grow closer and closer as the queen and her guards had recovered from Daelyn’s aura, and were steadily bridging the distance between them once again.

He didn’t know if either Gob or Orthrus would save him, but he knew that the animals actively avoided Orthrus’ house and the glade in front of it.

He didn’t have plan in place to escape, so this was his best bet. He cursed himself for being so naïve, as he should have prepared something of an escape plan. He could have made a trap for his pursuers, an escape route through the trees, he could have done anything yet he still didn’t prepare anything.

The hairs on his body curdled up as the chittering was only a few metres behind him. He increased the force of his aura in a last ditch attempt to reach the glade, only to find the queen and her guards shriek from anger and increase their pace as they fuelled their rage from the aura, and entered a berserk like state.

Daelyn tried his absolute best as he pulled everything he could from his five year old body, but he knew that it wasn’t enough, and as the chittering traversed the last few metres, he looked behind him, only to see the warrior queen leaping at him with great force.

He was smacked to the ground as the ant queen impacted his body, and they slid several metres before finally coming to a stop.

Daelyn put the bag filled with the corpses of the giant ants between him and the queen in a last ditch effort to keep those giant pincers away from his face, but as he looked into the queen’s eyes, he felt himself weaken. He felt his psyche fall into complete despair as fear clouded his mind, and it only grew stronger as he continued his futile struggle against the queen.

Daelyn saw that the guards were only mere metres away from him, and as he looked back at the queen, he noticed the abundant amount of sunlight shining on her backside, and he realised where he was.

He was in the glade in front of Orthrus’ house, he had made it, yet his plan had failed. He had failed to make any kind of preparation, and instead he had dashed right in completely unprepared and uninformed. He had been naïve, and he would get punished in form of the queen’s pincers cracking his skull open like a walnut.

Through pain, he had learned that power comes at a price, and through despair, he realized that the same was true for stupidity.