“Prepare for battle, they are coming from the front!” I whispered through gritted teeth.

“I know that too, we’re not completely senseless, you know?” Frank whispered back harshly.

“Shut up and focus!” Greta waved her club, which she had hastily conjured, around in a threatening manner.

I pulled the bowstring back, asking myself whether this would even be effective against these new, more powerful enemies.

It didn’t take them long to arrive at the edge of the ravine, but instead of using their antennas to probe around they simply jumped down, continuing their advance.

We started to backpedal as fast as we could, but their speed matched ours when we were sprinting, giving us only enough time to fire a single shot.

Our arrows turned into blurs, hitting their carapaces in a split second. To our disappointment they didn’t manage to do any harm. They simply bounced off their hard bodies, proving that sharp weapons wouldn’t be very effective against them.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to swap weapons as they were already upon us, their pincers widening.

My feet dug deep into the ground as I stopped my backward movement and arched my back in preparation for an overhead swing.

“Fuck!” I cursed when I saw that the others continued retreating. To add salt to the wound the ants they should have handled didn’t pursue them but turned around to face me.

I couldn’t spare any attention to them however. The threatening pinchers of my original foe were already dangerously close.

I wanted to gather fire mana to propel myself forward, but when nothing came out I realized that I had forgotten to do so yesterday.

Exploiting the brief hesitation in my movements the ant shot at me, its pinchers that were far longer than that of a normal ant suddenly emanating an extremely strong brown light.

I didn’t have any time for thinking about the origin of this sudden change in color and brightness however. The ant was far closer than I would have liked, so I did my best to jump up in hope of evading its attack.

My posture at made that quite awkward though and I ended up performing some kind of strange backflip.

Which, though it looked pretty cool, didn’t help me at all.

The pinchers suddenly blurred and in the next moment a shockwave assaulted my ears. Noticing a sinking sensation, I prayed that the shockwave had been the result of its pinchers crashing together, otherwise my survival chances will become even smaller than they already are.

Wait! I can fly, can’t I?

Gathering as much air as I was able to in that split second, I used it to propel myself upwards. I heaved a sigh when I saw that the ants were still on the ground. What was I worrying about?

They can’t follow me up here unless they happen to have wings, and ants have no wings.

“Fuck you John! You are seriously too fucking reckless!” Frank flew over and punched me lightly in the gut. We were still in mid-combat after all, so he couldn’t just beat me to a pulp.

“JOHN!” Greta and Owen arrived at the same time, and punched me at the exact same spot Frank did.

I doubled over in pain and did my best to concentrate on flying and suppressing the pain at the same time.

It didn’t work out as I had planned though and I slowly began to sink down. Fortunately, their hands grabbed my clothes in nearly the same instant, preventing me from falling down and getting into the attacking range of the ants.

“What do we-“ I started to say, but I was interrupted by a strange sound from below. It sounded like the buzzing a mosquito makes, just far louder and more annoying.

My eyes widened when I realized what this could mean and when I looked down my worst fears were confirmed: The ants had somehow pushed parts of their carapaces onto the side, revealing the pair of almost transparent wings underneath.

“Oh shit.” I muttered.

Not wasting any more time, I conjured my warhammer. Its familiar weight in my hand calmed me down somewhat, at least enough to think about the next action I should take.

I shook the bodies of Greta and Frank with my hands. “Quick! Let’s attack them while they are busy!” I shouted at them and Owen, whom I tapped on his head.

Frank recovered quicker than the others and proceeded to nod. Owen ruffled his already messy hair in annoyance, mumbling a string nearly inaudible of curses. Greta just deeply breathed in and out, but she at least nodded, signifying that she had understood me.

*ZZZZZZ*

Whipping my head around, I saw that it was nearly too late. They were already beginning to take off.

“NOW!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I reversed the direction of the airstream that previously kept me afloat, accelerating as much as I could as I brought my hammer down on the one below me.

The insect’s dangerously glowing pinchers were facing me, but I didn’t care about something as trivial as that. In midair, I had far more freedom than on ground.

A gust of air from my back caused my trajectory to change. I sailed past its opened pinchers with a smile on my face, which further widened when my hammer impacted the middle of its back.

Its body buckled from the sheer force that was suddenly applied to its back and I watched in glee as that part of its carapace cracked.

The world suddenly turned upside down and I felt myself being thrown through the air. I futilely tried to search for something to hold on but the smooth surface of its carapace had no such spots aside from the cracks I had already flown past.

I then realized the direction I was flung into. It’s aiming to get me to its head!

Even though I tried to expel air into the opposite direction, there was only so much I could do in the extremely short time I had to react.

A bright brown object rammed into my side, flinging me away like a ragdoll. Before I could even scream in pain my body dug a hole into the road of destruction.

All kinds of dirt and other kinds disgusting things that were in the ground filled my open mouth. In my panic I used a huge burst of air that pushed me a few meters away from the hole.

I landed on my back, but I didn’t stay in that position for more than half a second before I flipped myself around and started choking on the things in my mouth.

Tears started flowing out of my eyes as the choking became more and more intense. I was close to puking when the silver glint of my hammer, which had landed beside me, caught my eye.

Remembering that I was still in combat I did my best to suppress all of my instincts and picked it up. I spat as much dirt out as I could and looked around for any trace of my opponent.

Just in time to see Owen’s multicolored body coming dangerously close.

He missed me by a few centimeters, but the light gale that followed after him ruffled my hair and sprayed bits of dirt against my face. If he had crashed into me at that speed…we would have probably both been taken out of that fight.

Even though I wanted to see how Frank and Greta were doing, my and Frank’s ants were already quickly approaching us, leaving me no time for anything else.

I turned around and sprinted back while looking for Owen. Seeing him being busy with pulling his axe out of a small hole, I rushed at him and we hurriedly yanked it out with all our strength.

He turned around to thank me, but when he saw what was quickly approaching us he went silent. A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes, something I had never seen before.

“Let’s fight together.” He calmly said.

As that was indeed the best option I nodded. “Let’s fight in the air. I’m sure we are more mobile than them.” I suggested.

He grunted in response.

The insects were barely three meters away by now, so we took off at the same time. The insects didn’t take long to follow us though, but that brief amount of time was enough for us to determine that we would attack the one I had injured first. It had a more grievous wound, making it easier to kill.

Owen will aim for its antennas while I’ll try to get another hit at the same spot. Everything would depend on whether or not we would be able to hit it.

If we didn’t, well, things would get problematic.

We exploded into action, me using an extremely wasteful amount of air and Owen his flames to accelerate to the fastest speed possible.

The insects, obviously not expecting our sudden burst, took a moment longer to react.

We used this single moment to our full advantage, accelerating even more and arriving in that brief time.

Due to the speed I was moving in I wasn’t able to exactly determine the direction I was moving in, so I ended up missing my target by a bit. The crater on its back was just barely out of reach, but I didn’t have any time to correct my course.

I screamed as I mustered all the force I was able to in midair and swung it at the spot closest to its wound.

The following crunch and the ants scream were music in my ears. Especially when I saw that Owen had managed to cut one of its antennas off.

Our victim squirmed around in a crazed manner, the pain seeming to affect it more than I had anticipated. It gradually lost control of its wings and fell out of the sky.

All the remaining insects emitted painfully high shrieks when they saw what had happened to their comrade.

Their whole bodies lighted up in a deep brown and they seemed to have gone berserk, recklessly rushing at my and Owen’s position.

The nearest ant, which had been unexpectedly calm until we smashed its comrade out of the sky, was the first one to arrive.

Its pinchers weren’t open at all, most likely due to having noticed that it would be hard to hit us with them in the air, but its six appendages were glowing so brightly that I was sure that being hit by them wouldn’t end up well for me.

I frantically shot air into numerous directions as I did my best to evade them, all the while waiting for an opportunity to strike.

It didn’t come however as its remaining comrades also arrived at the scene.

A gust if air pushed me further up in hope of giving me more time, but they were faster.

The first thin appendage grazed me at the shoulder, but the sheer power contained in it sent me spinning.

Before I could stabilize myself another one hit my right arm, nearly breaking it.

I was barraged by hit after hit, every single one more painful than the last. They came from nearly angle with no discernable rhythm.

I curled up and let myself fall in hopes of escaping the pain.

Thankfully I was quickly smashed out of the sky by a hit and landed on the ground safely. If I had suffered wounds from the fall, I didn’t notice them due to the already omnipresent pain.

A pair of warm hands pulled me up, causing even more pain to erupt from every part of my body. I gasped, accidentally swallowing some of the dirt that was still in my mouth in the process.

“No time for that John! We got more pressing things to do!” Greta hissed.

Finally paying attention to my surroundings again, I noticed that Greta was standing right next to me, her originally long hair far shorter at some points than others.

Her hand was pointing up, to be precise at the scene of Owen and Frank doing their best to dodge the insects’ attacks.

Searching around for my hammer, I noticed that it was somehow still in my hands. I smiled at the unexpected occurrence, but quickly shoved the thought that were coursing through my head into the back of my mind.

Let’s hope that this will be the last time we and these fucked up insects clash.

I wanted to jump up, but the pain that suddenly intensified in my legs due to that made me fall down instead.

Greta had already taken off and joined the others in their hectic fight, moving through the air as if she hadn’t sustained any injuries.

I grit my teeth and used my hammer as a support to stand up. Pumping even more mana into my body than I already had, I was finally able to ignore most of the pain.

In exchange for that though my channels were near the point of bursting and I knew that I had already strained them more than enough.

If I were to continue like this for more than a few minutes my fighting ability will be dramatically decreased.

Still, I couldn’t just let them fight while I lie on the ground like a damned deadweight. For fucks sake, I have the strongest body and the highest amount of mana!

If there’s anyone who should be fighting up there, it should be me!

I took off with a blast, my already injured body groaning under the sudden force. The mana and adrenaline pumping through my body somehow suppressed the pain to the point where I could barely feel a stinging pain with every heartbeat.

I saw Frank keeping an insect at bay with his superior range, his spear threatening to stab another hole into it every time it came close.

Having determined my first target, I aimed my hammer at its vulnerable looking third segment that didn’t seem to fulfill any real purpose except being a good target.

The blow unexpectedly didn’t crack its carapace but completely burst it into pieces, spraying some strange bright pink liquid at my whole body.

The insect immediately fell out of the sky and I saw an astonished Frank who was staring at me with wide eyes.

I didn’t acknowledge him, immediately rushing towards the nearest one, which happened to give Owen quite a hard time.

It’s six appendages weren’t moving particularly fast, but their sheer number was quite hard to defend against. Especially because they could potentially come from every direction.

Owen’s axe required him to get close to it, disadvantaging him even further.

I shot towards it, fully intent on crushing its vulnerable segment again.

What I didn’t expect though was that it would send an appendage at me while the rest of its body was still focused on Owen.

I shot a gust to the side, causing it to only rip another hole into my already ruined clothes.

Before it could send another appendage at me I smashed my hammer down with the help of air accelerating it.

Just like the previous time, it broke into pieces, and the same strange liquid showered my lower body.

Owen thanked me and when we wanted to fly towards the last one I noticed that the fight was already over.

Frank was standing right next to Greta, his spearhead and a part of its shaft filled with the strange liquid.

What is this stuff? It’s definitely not blood, its consistency is far too tough for that. It also clings to my clothes as if it were glue, not even letting go after I sprayed it with a bit of water.

Deciding that I had more important things to worry about, I looked around, wanting to confirm that it was truly over.

I only saw some ants in the distance. It was strangely calm in our surroundings, and no ants had come here to assist their kin either, which, now that I think about it, was quite strange.

All the pain that I had ignored up to this point suddenly hit me like a spaceship. I started to plummet towards the ground. Every shred of control I used to have over my body vanished, and I could only helplessly watch as the ground quickly got closer.

Owen caught me before I could impact it, and we slowly descended to the ground, where both of us collapsed.

“Fuck! That was far too close” I shouted, the never ending pain being a constant reminder that I was too reckless, again.