The Blaze Ant had grown to be nearly the size of Raymond. Its buddies were now the size of dogs, meaning they were at least Quotient 1. My eyes were locked on the enormous creature as it shouldered a tree out of its path. It didn't rip out of the ground, thankfully, but a significant chunk of bark instantly flamed, charbroiled and disappeared in the wind.

"Sam, can you slow it!?" I said, setting my pickaxe down on the ground. There was no sense trying to meet the creature's charge. I would've ended up the same or worse than that tree. Instead, I focused my mana on both of my hands.

"Getting ready to deal with the smaller ones!" he responded, just as vines sprouted out of the ground to pin the three smaller ants. Small gouts of flames erupted from the creatures' mouths, pivoting left and right to try to burn or bite their unexpected bindings.

To answer my call for assistance, two claps of fire splashed against the Blaze Ant's head. The strike was enough to slow it just a tad. The missed step after the strike gave me the opening I needed.

", , !"

The words ripped out of me like commands to the very earth which heaved up a mixture of sand-ash and topsoil, to meet the behemoth's charge. The outside edges of my barrier stretched higher, pointed inward to increase the catch area of my attack. The ant still forced its way through my barricade. One of the spikes impaled its abdomen before snapping off at the base. With impressive dexterity, the creature tipped its wounded body out of the way as I released another stone spike right in its trajectory. Liquid fire spilled out of it in response, eliciting a trilling chitter from the creature before it lost most of its momentum.

A net of vines tried to wrap around it, but they instantly shriveled thanks to its boiling blood. I chanced a look behind the creature to see Danny flicking her wolf fangs into one of the ants before the other two managed to get free. Then the largest ant turned back to me with hate-filled compound eyes drawing me back into the fight.

"Sam, help Danny! Then come save me!" I shouted as my war cry. Not particularly inspiring, but I wanted to kick my life mage friend into overdrive.

After all the constant casting, my mana pool was at less than 20% so I figured it was time to finally use the Trait and Attribute boost of my weapon. Brown light flickered in my hands before it was sucked up into the crystal center of my pickaxe's handle. A surge of strength filtered through me and I jumped towards the ant.

It's front leg moved impossibly fast for an injured bug. My Perception and boosted Strength gave me just enough reaction speed to put my chitin shield between me and the blow. A pulse of heat spread out from the impact, but I was still thrown off course. Worried that I would impale myself on my own weapon, I two-handed the pickaxe before tumbling on the ground.

My health flashed an angry warning as it dipped to 60% from the single blow. Something in my chest groaned as I stood, warning me that something in there was close to breaking.

"That the best you got!" I coughed out. The ant turned back my way instead of heading for my friends. A hazy line of red light formed around the Blaze Ant's antenna. A light that I distinctly recognized from Daniela's Skills, even if it lacked the crisp, yet unknown, patterns. The primal Skill unleashed a flamethrower, plain and simple.

Thankfully, I was still channeling mana into my pickaxe. When I hunkered down on the ground with my chitin shield covering my head, a thin dome of crystal sprouted from the head of it like a glass umbrella. Both of my defenses were... inadequate, to say the least. Tongues of fire licked at the rest of my body and my Limestone Skin only muted the heat slightly. I screamed in pain as my clothes smoldered.

The retort of two pistols brought a merciful end to the flames. As soon as the pain hit full on, I lost concentration and the pickaxe fell from my hand. The crystal umbrella, glowing a faint red even during the day, shattered when it lost the mana feeding it. My shield didn't last much longer either. The heat melted the adhesive on the tape which left the tape enarmes around my arm; the chitin plate fell to the ground next to where I shivered from the pain.

A pair of fingers snapped an inch in front of my eyes. I blinked and focused on Sam, who was hovering over me with another of his deep frowns. "Ronan, can you hear me?"

"Y-Yes," I chattered through grit teeth. There was so much pain. My thoughts jerked from one thing to the next as I shook. Then a blanket of relief flowed through my head and down my neck before it was stifled on my shoulders. Another surge of cooling energy flowed from my forearm up to my shoulder and down to my fingers on both hands. A last Bump hit me in the navel, and my shivering eased significantly.

I blinked again as the world snapped into sharpened focus. It was the standard amount of focus I had, but everything had had a hazy outline while the pain overwhelmed my brain. I had enough wherewithal to catch Sam's head before it hit the ground.

My body still had enough pain receptors kicking to be distracting, but not enough for me to miss the fight not thirty feet from me.

Daniela weaved around the leg strikes of the Blaze Ant, dodging them with her high Mobility. It was a close thing as I watched claw after claw barely miss my friend. I scrambled on the ground for my pickaxe and checked my mana pool. Back to 20%. Even the few seconds between getting scorched and healed hadn't afforded me much of my magic back. That, however, wasn't going to stop me.

I plastered a grimace on my face to try to distract me from the pain as much as I could. It wasn't super useful, but it got me walking. Daniela spotted me hobbling closer and darted behind one of the nearby trees, getting the ant to turn away from me as it chased after my friend. My legs churned faster as I grit my teeth. At my mental beckoning, crystalline growths crawled along the head of my pick.

When the creature was turned almost all the way around, I dropped the widened chisel end right onto the stone spike I'd lodged in its body. The Crystal Growth Trait had let me add mass to the weapon, and the strike pushed the sand-ash rock clean through the chitin. Surely some of my Attributes had something to do with that, but I didn't trust my body enough to have done more than lift and drop the tool.

The ant let out a strange insectile wail I didn't ever want to hear again before it pivoted its body away from Danny. A gout of its boiling blood sprayed the air and I resigned myself to my burning fate. Before any of the stuff could land, a gelatinous half dome of lime green materialized around me. I heard Blobby's slime bubble under the onslaught before evaporating away into nothing.

The much reduced tendril plopped to the ground and coalesced around its crystal center. I didn't think and grabbed the corrupted crystal in my free hand before the ant finished turning. A half jump stumble took me behind a tree as the ant bit down where I'd been standing. Loose tree mulch and dirt showered around me and I really wished I had enough mana to throw out a . Then I remembered it didn't need to be a super strong one or even do much damage. The damage would come from my pick.

A spell chain formed in my left arm. The mana moved as if it was threading through mud, but I still got the spell out quick enough to pin the creature's body. Two thin spikes formed a triangle over the ant's thorax. I had no doubt it would break through them if given a single chance, so I rushed in. A gout of flame similar to what the smaller ants had blazed out of its mouth, but thanks to its compromised position I ignored the attack with a jump.

My senses screamed at me. One of the ant's legs had managed to free itself enough to protect the head and work to swat me out of the way. My body wasn't in a position where I could dodge, so I tried to brace myself for the impact. It was going to be too slow. For me.

Blobby once again expanded. The slime had somehow used its senses to prepare a defense against the Blaze Ant's sudden attack. Gel flowed down my arm to brace my neck and Blobby's appendage reached out as if it was going to catch the claws careening towards me. The slime did catch them, eating through the momentum as if it was a custom made mattress of comfort. Unfortunately, as effective as the tendril's gel body was, the Ant still slapped me away like a fly. Insect irony, Ron?

With that last useless thought, I once again tumbled through the air. Thankfully, the earth was my friend. Sorta. I felt what should have been a bone breaking skip through the woods turn into a body bruising one as my Limestone Skin transferred some of the impacts into the earthy medium. Without me to distract it, the Blaze Ant shook off my stone bindings with ease. My body stopped on its back and I got a good view of the ant heading towards me to finish me off. I couldn't really blame it, considering how many of its pals we'd killed.

Both Blobby and I struggled to shift out of the way, but we were at our limit. The ant would get to us before we could get out of the way.

As the ant loomed over us, it practically licked lips it didn't have at the prospect of us as a meal. When it didn't clamp down on me, I opened my eyes to see what was the wait. My friends were the answer to that.

Two lashes of foot thick vines wrapped around the Ant's legs. With the oozing green ends, I recognized them as Sam's earlier stalks. Then, a screaming latina dropped out of the tree canopy right onto the ant's head. Daniela planted her wolf fang daggers into the creature's eyes, releasing twin gouts of boiling blood. Before any of that could get on her, she let loose two into the handle-ish roots of the fangs.

The flames portion of her attack did next to nothing against the ant's Fire Attuned body. The two daggers, however, embraced the kinetic energy and punched into the creature's brain. The Blaze Ant dropped instantly.

"Danny!" I managed from the ground. The woman rode the creature down flawlessly and did a front flip worthy of a pre-Landfall gymnast. "Wha-"

"You didn't think I spent the whole time scouting without trying to pick up new skills did you? And I mean skill skill, not the magical one," she added.

"Where is Sam?" I tried to get up, but failed utterly. A look at my left leg told me my knee was either dislocated or something there was broken. As the adrenaline of the fight lessened, the cumulative pain from all my injuries flared up again and I flopped to my back. Thankfully, Blobby shifted enough to catch my short fall and prevent me from aggravating my body more than it was already.

"Are you okay?" Danny reached out towards me, but when she saw the burn marks she hesitated. She probably sees my twisted leg too.

"Answer to that is... No. However, I am okay and my health is holding at 20%-ish. How’s Sam?"

"Present, accounted for, and thoroughly enDregged. InDregged? Whatever the term for the atrocious agony of using external mana. If wasn't a constant drain Skill, I would not be doing so hot." Our blond friend stumbled from around the giant ant's bulk. He looked a bit drunk, which was a new sight. The Bunker survivors had managed to make a poor man's version of vodka many years ago and Sam had always denied trying it. It tasted like burning toilet water, but it was more about the experience.

"That would be Dreg Poisoning. What's your Dreg up to?" I asked, trying to focus on the conversation and not on my injuries.

"Oh, it's only up to 21%; boy was it a doozy though!" Samuel proceeded to sway even while standing in place. That was a bit concerning, but not the biggest problem.

"How is your mana doing? Danny, are there any more Ants coming this way?" I asked, my mind sputtering. Thoughts struggled to connect, but I at least had the presence of mind to ask about possible reinforcements.

"Holding at 10% Captain!" The blonde struck a poor salute.

"None that I can see, but I wouldn't trust hanging around after all the noise we made," she said. The brunette also moved to hold Sam up as he hiccupped and swayed dangerously close to falling.

"Okay, before all the adrenaline leaves my system. If you have enough mana to use on my leg, please do it. If not, I want you to try to find something to make a splint, Sam. Danny, start triggering as many of the ants as you can. Start with big boy over there," I pointed to the Blaze Ant. "Then do a quick run through and check for other ants that might be coming. We'll gather what loot we can after that."

"I got one left in me Cap!" Sam said as he sauntered over to me and slapped my leg. "Oops. That looks like it would hurt."

The iron taste of blood filled my mouth. I'd bit my tongue to try to stop myself from screaming. It was partly successful. Thankfully, I heard a sick pop and my leg straightened. The healing would have probably hurt as much as the initial slap. Daniela was already making her way around the open space. The Blaze Ant was disintegrating into ash before our very eyes and I saw Blobby roll away from us and vacuum up two of the small Quotient 0 ants into its body. After how much the slime had shrunk, they sat snug against the Metier Crystal core.

Instead of moving to assist Danny, Sam plopped on the ground and hit the snooze button on the whole engagement.

"Great. Just what I..." My words cut off as a veritable wave of Pith surged from our dead attackers. Each trail split in three, but we'd slain so many ants I couldn't keep track of which went to who and from where. The trail from the Blaze Ant, however, was clear as day and hit me like a spark of power. Goosebumps ran down my skin as the smaller trails of energy also filtered into me. The ones that flowed into Samuel forced the man awake. I made note that none went to Blobby; yet another oddity of the tendril.

A rush of soft warmth flowed through me as I felt my Quotient rise. Most of my burns and pain winked away in an instant. Before I got a chance to give my Status a peek, Daniela rushed into the clearing. The woman plowed right through the ash mound of the Blaze Ant and over to us.

"We've got about two dozen Q 0's coming our way," she said, already holding our gear and provisions. I tested my legs, then wobbled to my feet. Thanks to the Quotient and Sam's healing, my legs were back in travel shape.

"Start grabbing what you can. Blobby, if you can grab stuff and not eat it please help Daniela," I said as calmly as I could. "Sam, give me a status on how drunk you are."

"On a scale of 1 to 10? It was 11 and now 8," he droned. He was still on the ground, but I managed to help him to his feet.

"Start walking home. You see some loot on the way, grab it. We'll catch up."

With my friend shambling home, I looted the three Q1 ants before sifting through the ashes for the Blaze Ant's loot. The chitin plates clacked where I'd stuffed them in my armored vest. The echoes from the forest made me want to twitch as if the ants were right behind me, but I focused on my task. It was a truly astounding mound of ash. After a few tense seconds, my fingers brushed against a scalding hot object that forced me to draw my hand back. After another unfortunate second of hesitation, I snagged the burning thing and braced for the pain.

Surprisingly, the object was cool to the touch. It gave me a start as I realized it was the ant's stinger. Pushing that out of mind for the moment, I scrounged the Infusion from the ash mount and started to head towards Sam. Neither Danny nor Blobby were anywhere in view. Just as I trudged through where the Ant's head once was, I tripped.

Had I had the coordination and senses of my pre-Attuned body, I would have fallen flat on my face. Instead, I managed to catch myself on my injured leg. The motion sent a shot of pain through me, but at least I didn't fall. What laid on the ground at my feet made the whole embarrassing near-tumble worth it. Daniela's two fangs and a Metier Crystal the size of my fist. Without thinking, I stuffed them in my waistband and tucked the crystal under my shoulder. My pickaxe was the last thing I needed and I swung that over my shoulder as I hobbled away from the ashen territory of the Fire Ants.

It didn't take me long to catch up to a wobbly Samuel. The man held the chitin plate I'd made my shield from like a baby. He was doing a poor job of not stumbling into thick oaks that were nowhere near his intended destination.

"Hold these, Sam," I called from behind him. In a swift movement, I passed him the crystal and the stinger. Then I slipped my pickaxe into my belt and threw his arm over my shoulders. The two of us kicked it into high gear as much as we could. The forest chittered with angry sounds as the ants pursued.

My legs burned as I fought against exhaustion and the lingering pain of my injuries. Sam's and my breaths were ragged by the time Daniela came into view. She was holding a duffle that looked to be stuffed full, and had her gun trained behind us. It clapped twice before the empty click told us she was out. She huffed in frustration and tried to cast one of her Skills, but it fizzled in her hands.

"For...get it! Get...to the clearing!" I shouted between gulped breaths.

The woman turned and sprinted. If I hadn't been watching her, I would have said she just vanished, but a brief second later my Perception highlighted her form traipsing through the trees. Trusting that she would be able to get help I soldiered on. At some point during the endeavor, Sam got enough of his bearings to hit us both with a . With the slightest bit of stamina restoring us, the sounds of the pursuing ants quieted. Not gone, but muted by the surrounding trees between us.

The minutes ticked and we managed to make it into the clearing. Daniela, with what looked to be a fresh weapon in hand helped take Samuel from my shoulders. Dale and Ben grabbed a hold of us and dragged me back a ways. Our entire group retreated slowly towards the vestibule where I spotted Ava holding a rifle. As professional as ever, the woman didn't even flinch as we collapsed on the ground. Alan rushed over to us with a series of bandages and water.

He gave Sam a look over, noting his drunken demeanor, before focusing his efforts on me. He didn't comment on my injuries, or the lack thereof on my friends, as he cleaned the burns that remained and bandaged them. His eyes burned intensely as he hesitated slightly. He'd felt the slight change to my flesh thanks to Limestone Skin. Regardless, he finished me off, handed me a canteen with water and trained a pistol on the woods.

"Incoming!" Ava called. "Focus on the backline, leave the closest ones to me."

The five members of our group still standing started to alternate shots into the woods. Ava and Danny took a life with each shot, while Ben, Alan and my uncle took a few to hit their speedy marks. One of the larger ants hesitated in the edge of the woods. It was just outside of my Perception range, but judging by its size it was one of the Q2 variants or possibly a Q3. If insects could glare, I was sure that one was doing it. It tried to take a step forward, but it touched something it very much didn't like. A ripple of energy passed through me and I turned just in time to see the Entity Crystal's dimming light. It must’ve been trying to cross into its area of influence.

Chittering angrily, the ant looked at the dead bodies in our clearing before retreating back into the woods. Everyone held their breath for several seconds until the Entity broke the silence.

"How kind of you to bring friends. Maybe next time, do not anger them quite as much?"