He finished screaming his soul out and the skillbook crumbled into his hand falling through his fingers to join the bones in the ground, he fell to the side and convulsed, his mind still too hurt to process anything around him and them he went blank.

A jolt to his heart finally brought him back to reality as he took big gulps of air and tried to get up only to fall back down sprawling over the ground sending bones and items flying everywhere “Fuck… damn that hurts” putting a hand over his chest he thanked god for the inbuilt defibrillator but its charge had actually damaged the metal plate to some extent.

Finally managing to get up on his feet he stumbled away from the entrance, picking up the stalker cloak he wrapped himself up on it and used a small to float towards the ceiling, looking worriedly at his health and mana he saw both had taken a big dip he was only at [31%] and [459 / 1212]

The ants burst into the room almost like a living wave of creatures, many getting over themselves to be the first, unfortunately they didn’t stop in the ground climbing the walls and even the ceiling looking for him, he was forced to hover on the middle of the room waiting for the creatures to finish their search while watching his own mana go down fast, after five minutes he started to get desperate deciding to wait only until he hit 300 mana to make a break for it but that’s when things became complicated.

From the tunnel came some far louder clicking noises and a couple hundred black ants the size of very large dogs with mandibles twice the size of their smaller companions and small spikes in their bodies followed closely by Red ants the size of small ponies with smaller but far more sharp looking clicking mandibles and big abdomens, finally there was a single red ant with a big lumbering body and a disproportionally big head it was slightly bigger than even the other red ants and nearly dragged itself over.

Dwarf Ant Soldier – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR6END4

DEX 4SPD5

WIS 1INT1

Fire Ant Soldier – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR9END6

DEX 4SPD6

WIS 1INT1

Fire Ant Spitter – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR3END2

DEX 3SPD2

WIS 1INT1

As soon as he read the creature’s name he knew he had been made but doubted they knew exactly where he was, as the ant lifted its head and spit a red liquid far off to his right he relaxed but another 12 spitters came inside the room right behind, clearly they were not stopping and, eventually, he would get hit or run out of mana.

Lifting his rifle before they had the chance to start attacking he took the initiative and put three bullets inside the head of the first one, it had already lifted its head for another shoot so, when the head exploded in pieces of carapace and ant meat the red liquid spilled all over the smaller black ants around it eating tight through them like acid, they gave long loud screeches as their bodies seemed to be dissolved under the effects of the substance.

Congratulations you have slain Fire ant spitter x 13 + 123 XP

Seeing his chance he used the aim assist to put three bullets on the heads or bodies of each one of the remaining twelve spitters, the soldier ants started to jump from the walls or throw themselves from the ceiling trying to get to him but the place around the tunnel entrance was momentarily cleared by the acid.

Controlling his shield as best as he could he flew towards the entrance, he only got a little over ten meters inside it before he was covered in black ants, he was not adept at using his power in such wasteful way making his speed too slow, opening fire in full auto towards a part of the ground he decimated both the red and the black ants there before jumping out of the shield and instead pushing it ahead of him he started to run.

You have slain dwarf ant soldier x 14 + 15 XP

You have slain fire ant soldier x 11 + 24 XP

Using the shield open the way by bashing the ants on his front turned out to be far more effective as they were far lighter than him and he was more used to the action making it faster and wasting less of his already depleted mana, he dashed into the tunnel as an army of creatures either followed him or tried to block his way.

A single string pulled out the sword from his back, the long but light blade was ideal for the job as he swung the string in a wide ark swiping the ants on his front he managed to slay dozens of them with each swipe keeping just enough of the creatures away so he could continue dashing towards the exit, his chest was still hurting like hell and his head was killing him but he ignored them and moved on.

You have slain dwarf ant soldier x 43 + 47XP

you have slain fire ant soldier x 29 + 63XP

Half a dozen ants were still clinging to him trying to bite through his armor and one managed to get a mandible over his chest area where the defibrillator had damaged the armor, it wasn’t enough to hurt him but it actually managed to crack a small piece of it, given enough time It could be a problem.

His vision started to go white and cloudy at the edges, the physical strain right after so much pain and the shock was too much, still he struggled and managed to remain awake with pure willpower, he was near the end of tunnel, he was nearly out, bashing the last of the ants away from the entrance he looked up, and knew he wouldn’t make it.

Fire Ant Queen – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR11END7

DEX 6SPD9

WIS 2INT2

Dwarf Ant Queen – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR7END4

DEX 4SPD10

WIS 2INT2

Titan Ant Queen – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR21END12

DEX 4SPD6

WIS 1INT2

Burst Ant Queen – Level 1

HEALTH100%

STR8END3

DEX 5SPD10

WIS 2INT1

The opening was filled with hundreds of flying queens from four different races preparing for a nuptial flight “oh fuck me they’re gonna spread!” a hit from behind his back drove him forwards to slip into the precipice but he managed to turn around and attach a string to the edge and see a fire ant spitter had hit him, he put two rounds on its head before running out of bullets, chancing the magazine for one of the incendiary ones.

you have slain a fire ant spitter + 11XP

From his back a thin amount of smoke floated up and his system flashed with a red symbol on his upper right back, the spit actually did some damage “Control I need help!” “Loki what’s happening!” “I fucked it up and need someone to clear the entrance to the hole” jumping out of the tunnel he extended his hand and grabbed the string that was still hanging from the top hoping the virgin queens were too busy to come after him.

“Loki Beta team is still 34 minutes away from your position but one of the army helicopters can drop some soldiers in your location in 4 minutes!” “Control there is a few thousand queens here ready to start new colonies, with how fast those things breed we can’t let them” one of the Titan ant queens finally noticed him, it was a huge thing nearly 10 meters long and 4 meters high with wicked sharp mandibles and powerful wings.

When the ant started to fly his way many of the other followed it and he knew whatever plans he had of escaping were screwed, 21 strength was more than enough to crush his armor fuck he was gonna die “Forget it control just blow this hole up, can’t let those ants leave here!” releasing his string he let his body fall down for a second before materializing a shield in the air and pushing of off it “What about you?” “I will fucking find a way do it!”

Hitting the floor in a roll he managed to get inside another of the smaller tunnels, looking back he saw the titan ant give up but the others smaller queens continued towards him, the walls of the anthill seemed to be alive as nearly all the millions of ants started to run after him covering the walls and the floor walking over each other, now that he was out of the tunnel he could see a few titan ants and burst ants among the fire and dwarf ones, he was so gonna die.

Thankfully the tunnel he chose had very few ants inside, only a few dwarf ant workers that were easily kicked aside as he ran through them his chest and head killing him as they ached and burned, he didn’t pay enough attention when crossing an intersecting tunnel and got a spit on his neck that nearly made him fall and started to smoke immediately with a hissing sound.

More out of desperation than anything he turned around and filled the tunnel walls with bullets, the stick substance ignited but the flames did not spread as fast as he hoped taking time to spread the flames, none of the queens were in sight but the soldiers were quickly gaining on him.

As he was looking back another two fire spits flew over his shoulders but a third hit his left leg, turning he shoot the three fire ant spitters ahead as well as quite a few of the soldiers around them but the number of ants coming on from ahead started to increase so he took another turn towards the left.

A round brown ant jumped on his shoulders and started to bite at his neck, scrapping off pieces of his armor where the spit had hit him, worried he stabbed the thing in the belly, like it’s name the ant exploded sending him flying to the side and allowing the mass of ants to gain on him, he couldn’t escape.

you have slain a burst ant soldier + 5XP

Turning around he used his string to pull the five grenades he had separated for the mission, putting one on his riffle’s launcher he shoot towards the ceiling then recharged and shoot again ending up shooting all five the last grenade being an incendiary one, as he took the shoots he was left wide open and a fire spit hit his chest making him fall back on his ass.

The already damaged chest armor hissed loudly, a few of the faster ants managed to get through before the ceiling completely fell down but the others were either crushed or blocked from advancing, out of breath and hurting all over he tried to shoot the remaining ants but they were just too close managing to climb over him and trying to bite his body, manifesting his strings he pulled his four knives out and stabbed the creatures while he grabbed the burst ants with his own hands and threw them in the walls.

You have slain Burst ant soldier x 12 + 66XP

You have slain fire ant soldier x 19 + 41XP

You have slain dwarf ant soldier x 29 + 31XP

Knowing the ants wouldn’t take long to clear the way or find another path towards his location he started to walk away, too tired to even run anymore his helmet was blinking red all over indicating damage on five to six parts of his armor, the chest and neck were particularly damaged and many of their systems were no longer working, a white fog started to creep up on the edge of his vision but this time he was just too tired, too hurt and his mana was barely at 120, he just didn’t care enough to recover when he fell down he stayed that way and passed out.