An Iron Ant Warrior descended, latching onto the back of a Mountain Goat. Just before its blades could pierce its neck another, longer blade flew past and cut the ant's head clean off.

"Eleven," Zed said in a happy tune. He couldn't hear himself due to all the noise, but the strange sensation wasn't enough to dampen his good mood.

After all the distress he had been feeling over lacking a good source of EXP, this large battle was an excellent way to ease his nerves. Deciding to take a risk, Zed checked his menu and realized that he had amassed nearly 100,000 EXP since the start of this fight. Sure, the Drones would still stop giving rewards if he leveled up, but being able to form such a large stockpile would help to prevent the possibility of being underleveled later on.

And while the Drones were quickly becoming useless, the Warriors proved to be a fresh source of EXP, offering a hefty 5000 per head and more than half the EXP he gained so far. Zed glanced up to look at The Guardian Elder chasing a few Soldiers over a hundred feet in the air as about a dozen more appeared to back them up.

'I guess she'll be staying busy for a while,' he thought as he got the drop on another Warrior. He aimed to take the ant's head off, but it saw him and jumped at the last second. Unable to activate any Skills in time, the blade buried itself in the ants' carapace. The large insect was dead but now its body clung spitefully to his weapon.

'Twelve,' he thought disdainfully as the two now fell to the ground below.

Moving quickly, Zed planted his foot on the ant's back and pulled his spear. As sharp as Iron Ant Soldier Blades were, such naturally occurring weapons were not perfect and the slight roughness of the blade's spine was now catching on the Warrior's carapace.

Zed leaned out of the way of a jumping Drone as he continued to pull on his spear. He gave the weapon one final, desperate tug as he felt something crawl up his leg and the Soldier Spear came loose. Wanting to escape as quickly as possible, Zed used [LEAP] while aiming for the side of the passageway. As the Skill took control of his body, he winced as he felt the Drone on his leg clamp down with its mandibles, taking out a chunk of his HP.

'If only they would just die,' he thought as he kicked off the ground. With control of his body returned to him, Zed ripped the ant away from his leg before landing on a stone outcropping on the wall about 30 feet up. Now having a moment to breathe, Zed looked over the battlefield while recalling the abilities of the Iron Ant Warriors.

[NAME]: N/A

[SPECIES]: Iron Ant Warrior

[LEVEL]: 20

[STATUS]

{HP}: 600/600

{SP}: 600/600

[ARMOR]: 40

[END]: 40

[STR]: 49

[AGI]: 53

[DEX]: 21

[PER]: 23

[INT]: 5

[SPT]: 5

[SKILLS]

[ANTENNAE] Lv.10

[COMPOSITE IRON CARAPACE] Lv.10

[IRON ANT PHEROMONES] Lv.10

[POWER ATTACK] Lv.10

'That damn armor of theirs.'

Zed's Iron Ant Soldier Spear was powerful enough to not only break through the Warrior's carapace, destroying its soft organs and rendering that high HP all but useless. Even in terms of pure damage output, 600 HP was hardly worth mentioning.

No, the problem was that the armor was tough enough to catch the blade every time he attacked. Unless he used a Skill or managed to hit a weak point in their armor, the spear would get caught and leave him stationary for a few seconds. Seconds that were dangerously long on a battlefield as hectic as this one.

'Stabbing is a little better to recover from, but it's guaranteed to get stuck every time. Slashes are harder to recover from, but I won't get stuck if I hit them properly.'

Zed glanced at his HUD.

{HP}: 109.5/125

{SP}: 205/375

'I'm burning through too much SP, and even if I ignore the damage I'm screwed if one of those things manages to break my legs.'

As Zed tried to find a better strategy, he was pulled from his thoughts by a chittering sound next to his ear. Only now did he realize that he had neglected to throw away the Drone that had latched onto his leg moments ago, and was still holding it by its back. The large insect clicked and hissed furiously as it was unable to escape or damage him in any way.

'Oh, right,' he thought, mildly surprised by the presence of this unintentional prisoner. Setting down his spear for a moment, Zed carefully took hold of the Drone's head and casually snapped its neck. 'No point in giving up free EXP.'

*DING*

'...Even more good news!' he thought excitedly as he opened his menu. Since the [HUNTER] Skill existed for Beast-Type enemies, he knew that there had to be one for Insect-Types as well.

'Too bad it only counts kills and not damage, otherwise, I would have gotten this way sooner. Now come to...' Zed's face went slack as he read the name of the Skill, his mind struggling to process what was happening, if not rejecting his current reality entirely.

'It's worse than I ever imagined,' he thought numbly. He turned his head to look at Yang down below. Zed was filled with disappointment, but it quickly turned to dread as he imagined Yang naming more Skills like this. He picked up his spear with a tight grip.

'I need to...no...' he sighed. 'There are more important things to do right now. Although...' his eyes sparkled for a moment. 'Fighting the whole village is sounding more appealing.'

Zed thought about it for a few more seconds before shaking his head.

'Maybe later, for now, there are ants to kill,' his expression soured. 'And that means, I need to learn this piece of trash.'

Taking a moment to learn the Skill and pour in as much EXP as it needed, which turned out to be a lot because of his level, he now had a 30% damage against the Iron Ant Warriors.

'It's almost as much of an increase as Power Attack, it must be enough.'

Zed barely needed a second before he found a group of Warriors fighting below. Dropping from his outcropping, Zed raised his spear for an overhead swing, bringing the blade and all of his weight down on the head of the Iron Ant. The metal cut through the carapace like a hot knife through butter, gliding the head and chest of the Warrior before coming to a stop an inch above the ground where Zed landed in a battle-ready stance. With the front third of its body split down the middle, the Iron Ant was dead in an instant.

'Thirteen.'

Having made such a show with his entrance, one of the other Warriors nearby turned to attack him. Zed used his spear to knock the first attack aside while sidestepping the second. Hopping back to make some distance, Zed swung his spear at the Warrior's torso, but the ant blocked the attack with one of its own blades.

'Not strong enough to cut iron with iron I suppose,' Zed thought half-jokingly. He pulled back his spear before quickly thrusting forward at the ant's chest.

The Warrior managed to dodge, having enough intelligence to then close its arm around the shaft of the spear as it moved forward, attempting to cut Zed's hand.

Zed partially let go of the spear to avoid the attack while jumping forward to avoid the Drones that were getting close to his feet. Turning in the air, Zed slammed both feet into the Warrior's face in a powerful kick, activating [POWER ATTACK] for good measure. The force of the blow crumpled the ant's face, critically wounding it as it released its grip on Zed's spear.

Landing on a patch of Drones, Zed moved quickly to avoid getting bit before returning his attention to the Warrior, stumbling blindly and swinging its blades randomly.

Just as Zed was about to charge forward, he watched helplessly as a nearby Mountain Goat delivered a kick strong enough to rip the Warrior's torso away from the rest of its body.

Zed scowled as he ran past the offending goat. 'Does everyone just want to piss me off today?' Knowing that he was just feeling irritated, Zed shook his head and tried to focus on the battle raging around him. 'Just ignore it. There are plenty of Drones and Warriors to go around, and with The Guardian Elder killing the Soldiers there will even be weapons to loot afterward. Everything is...fine?'

Suddenly, Zed frowned.

'Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something...'

Then he saw them. Four giant creatures made their way through the hordes of Iron Ants. The Warriors and most of the Drones quickly moved out of the creatures' path, those that didn't were immediately crushed under a weight that competed with, or perhaps even surpassed that of the Mountain Goats.

'Oh. Right. Iron Ant Guardians.'