No longer needing to keep pace with Alexx, Loran and Zed were able to intercept the two Iron Ants in a matter of seconds. It didn't take long for the ants to notice them, and according to Loran, they quickly changed their course to face the two of them. Seconds later, they were close enough for Zed to see as well, and close enough to use [ANALYSE].

[NAME]: N/A

[SPECIES]: Iron Ant Drone

[LEVEL]: 7

[STATUS]

{HP}: 390/390

{SP}: 390/390

[ARMOR]: 20

[END]: 26

[STR]: 16

[AGI]: 22

[DEX]: 14

[PER]: 23

[SKILLS]

[ANTENNAE] Lv.10

(Passive) Increase sense of smell by 200%.

[COMPOSITE IRON CARAPACE] Lv.8

(Passive) Increase Armor by 80% of END.

[IRON ANT PHEROMONES] Lv.10

(Passive) Allows for communication with members of the Iron Ant species.

[IRON JAW] Lv.7

(Passive) Biting attacks are 35% stronger and deal Crushing damage.

"I got the one on the left," Zed said to Loran.

Loran nodded.

With less than a dozen feet between them and the targets, the two hunters finally activated their [SPRINT] Skills. These ants were notably slower than the one Loran and Yang had fought. With their speed suddenly enhanced, they easily took the ants off guard and were able to land their first attacks without issue.

Zed went for an overhead swing, using the blunt side of his new spear like a hammer.

The ant buckled slightly from the force of his attack but did not seem particularly bothered by it.

At that moment, Loran landed his attack, hooking the giant insect with one of his picks and launching it into the distance.

The ant that Zed attacked moved towards him as Loran chased after the one he threw.

'Alright, one on one it is,' he thought as he stepped away from the ant's attack.

As long as [SPRINT] was active, Zed had a movement speed equal to 60 AGI compared to the Iron Ant's 22. Although this didn't actually mean that he was three times as fast, the difference was still great enough that the ant seemed to be moving casually instead of violently attacking him.

Zed went for another overhead swing, but this time the ant expected his speed and was able to evade slightly. His attack glanced off the ant's carapace before hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

Dodging another of the ant's attacks, he readied his spear and sent out a flurry of thrusts. Most of the attacks just barely grazed the Iron Ant's carapace, but the rest hammered it directly on the head, pushing it back.

As the ant retreated, Zed assessed the damage.

'Hm, only scuffed. Although it did lose a decent amount of HP.'

While the damage to the ant's carapace was minor, Zed used [ANALYSE] to see that he had dealt almost 50 damage so far, a little more than an eighth of its total HP.

However, this wasn't good enough for Zed.

'There's no way I'm losing this fight, but Sprint is burning through a decent amount of SP. I'll probably be down by half by the time I take this thing down.'

If he and the others were going to find the nest, they were going to fight many more of these ants and would be outnumbered more often than not. Zed couldn't be wasting so much of his strength fighting a single Iron Ant.

'I'll hold off on using Skills for now,' he decided, deactivating [SPRINT]. 'As long as I can get used to fighting them without my Skills, running out of SP won't be that much of a disadvantage.'

Zed attacked with a powerful thrust at the Iron Ant's head. The ant, expecting Zed's enhanced speed, misread the slower attack, causing it to connect with one of its legs instead.

Before Zed could retract his spear, the ant turned its head and bit down on the weighted block at the end.

"Oh hell no!" Zed shouted angrily. The Iron Ant should be more than strong enough to break his spear, given enough time. Even if the weapon was still mostly usable afterward, he didn't want to break his brand new spear in the first fight!

Tightening his grip, Zed swung his spear in a wide arc, pulling the ant with it. Zed then slammed the irritating insect against a nearby tree with a satisfying crash.

The ant quickly let go of the spear on reflex and fell to the ground. Still recovering from the fall, the ant had no time to dodge as Zed raised his spear and brought it down in another heavy strike. The attack connected, leaving a small dent in the bottom of the ant's carapace.

As Zed wound up for another attack, the ant flipped itself onto its feet and dashed away.

"And where do you think you're going?" Zed used [TAUNT] on the ant, which quickly turned around and charged at him, more aggressive than ever.

Zed performed a wide sweeping attack, but the ant jumped over it and launched itself at his chest.

He tried to knock the ant away, but it easily latched onto him before biting down on his upper arm.

Zed's eyes widened as the Iron Ant's vice-like jaws sent an unbelievable amount of pain through his arm. Letting go of his spear, he quickly grabbed the ant and threw it away, ripping off a piece of his armor in the process. Disarmed, Zed began dodging the ant's relentless attacks as he assessed his damage.

'Fuck, that hurt! But, the damage doesn't seem to be that bad. Definitely not as bad as what happened to Yang,' Zed was shocked. This ant couldn't be that much weaker than the other one could it? He thought back to what Loran and Yang said about the fight. 'They said it held onto her for a few seconds, so it probably keeps doing damage after the initial bite.'

Feeling more confident, Zed broke past the Iron Ant to get his spear back. The ant tried to snap at him as he passed it, but he avoided the attack and easily made it over to where his weapon landed.

Zed winced as he picked up the spear. His arm may not be broken but it was still injured, and the weight of the spear certainly didn't help.

Still, he wouldn't let it slow him down.

As the Iron Ant charged at him he attacked with a powerful thrust. The [ENRAGED] ant jumped upwards, not very high but enough to land on Zed's spear. Before the insect had enough time to crawl up and attack him, Zed flipped the spear over his head, bringing it and the ant down for another powerful blow.

Before the ant could right itself, Zed launched into a flurry of quick thrusts against the insect's exposed underside.

Using the force from one of his attacks, the Iron Ant flipped itself over and continued its assault against Zed.

Changing his grip on the spear, Zed swiped at the ant's head with short, quick swings. The attack did little damage if any, but it kept the ant stunned for a moment.

Zed, recalling how Loran and Yang said they defeated the other ant, took advantage of the insect's stunned state to plant his foot on its back, trying to pin it down.

Although it was difficult, Zed held a slight advantage in STR, and the ant couldn't throw him off so easily.

Raising his spear up, he began pummeling the ant's head with the butt of this spear. Each hit landed on the same spot and the carapace was growing more and more damaged.

At that moment, the effect of [TAUNT] wore off. The ant, having come back to its senses, was able to slip out from under Zed's foot. Freed from its [ENRAGED] status, the ant once again tried to flee.

Before the ant could get very far, Zed caught up to it and used a wide sweeping attack.

The ant jumped to avoid the attack, but Zed expected this and changed the direction of his attack at the last moment.

Launching the ant into the air, Zed chased after it.

'This is getting annoying, time to end it.'

Aiming his next attack carefully, Zed activated [POWER ATTACK] and [CRITICAL STRIKE]. Just as the ant landed on the ground, Zed delivered a crushing blow to the center of the Iron Ant's head.

Although the ant wasn't quite dead yet, the carapace finally cracked open under the force of Zed's attack.

Zed raised his spear and brought it down one last time. The ant, too injured to evade, was killed.

"Haa haa." Zed breathed deeply as the tension left his body. "Okay, so maybe these things are harder to deal with than I thought."

Although the ant's jump had taken him off guard, he had managed fairly well against the Iron Ant. The problem was just his low damage, and what would happen if he had to fight these things while outnumbered.

Even with that said, there wasn't much he could do to fix it right now. His current weapon was the best he could ask for, and aside from teaming up with Loran and Alexx, there wasn't much he could do to change his strategy.

'All I can really do now is level up,' he decided, 'and these things will do just fine for that.'

Opening his menu showed that the ant had given him three thousand EXP. If the three of them could work together to take down larger groups, there would be a mountain of EXP for each of them.

'We're going to be so over-leveled when we get back.'

Picking up the dead ant, Zed made his way toward the campsite.