The siege lasted a little over two hours, significantly longer than normal. Ordinarily, Iron Ant Drones were being constantly trampled by the Mountain Goats, but the players’ strategy of creating the wall of bodies had made it so that only a few of the smaller ants could join the Iron Ant Warriors in battle. The plan did seem to work though. According to Alvor, there were far fewer casualties than after a regular siege.

‘Well, for the Mountain Goats at least,’ Soze thought as he watched the goats and players pick off the remaining Drones. Looking across the canyon he could see a few players gathering around what he now knew was a dead body, mourning the loss of their friend. He sighed and held his head in his hands.

“I have to say, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this,” Zed said as he sat down next to Soze. “The first time was more exciting but this whole raid thing was more enjoyable overall.”

“Can you not right now?” Soze asked, fighting back the growing urge to stab Zed in the face.

“What?” the older player asked, legitimately confused. Soze said nothing but pointed across the canyon. Zed looked up and paused, nodding in understanding a moment later. “Right, forgot about that.”

“You knew?”

“I found out not long after it happened.” Zed paused for a moment before turning to look at Soze again. “You’re blaming yourself aren’t you?”

“I made the call to stay and fight. It was my plan.” His shoulders sagged. “This is on me.”

Zed shrugged. “I guess if you want to blame yourself, go right ahead.”

Soze smiled wryly at Zed. “Not going to try and cheer me up by saying it’s just in my head?”

“I mean, I do think you’re fine, but if you were expecting me to care about something like this then you haven’t been paying attention.”

Soze chuckled at the deflection. “Sure, sure.” A moment of silence passed. “So what do you think?”

“I think…this was a large-scale battle. There’s no way to predict everything that could possibly happen without a supercomputer the size of Jupiter backing you up.” He paused. “Actually if it’s just this battle you could probably get away with a computer the size of…” he said, as if actually considering the possibility of calculating the future. He shook his head a moment later. “Not important. What I mean is that there was no way you could have predicted the Guardians could tear down the wall like that, or that the goats would react like that.”

“I know…but it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Zed pat Soze on the back and pointed down below. “Well if you want someone to give a shit about making you feel better the twins are right down there.”

“Yeah yeah…” Soze was shaking his head but still wore a small smile, feeling a little better. He opened his mouth to say something else…

“GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!”

…when a sudden shout from below made them and several other players jump in surprise.

“Was that Loran?” Zed asked.

“Sounded like it. Come on. Let’s go see what has him so worked up.”

Soze dropped down from the ledge as Zed followed.

~~~~~

Loran had just finished off the last Drone in the Canyon. It was now safe, and he was currently staring at his menu with indignant rage.

[NAME]: Loran

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 35

[EXP]: 19998/8400

‘Two… I’m two EXP away from maxing out Extreme Perception…’

Raising his Level to heal The Guardian Elder had further reduced his EXP gain. He knew that it was barely an issue and that he could probably kill anything on the way back to top it off, but for all the stress that earning this Skill had been and how hard he pushed himself to grind EXP to max it out, seeing his goal be so close yet so far was just unimaginably frustrating.

‘I don’t…I just…’ He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘...Forget it…just calm down.’

“I’ll just kill something on the way back. Literally, just two of anything will be enough. It’s fine…It’s fine…I’m fine…”

“You don’t look fine, Yang said as she approached, along with Yin, Alexx, Soze, and Zed. “Honestly you look like you’re about to have a stroke.” Loran’s expression was mostly calm, but his face was very clearly tense, and at the right angle you could see a blood vessel bulging on the side of his head.

“Seriously, are you okay?” Soze asked.

“I’m just annoyed over nothing,” Loran sighed. “I got a Unique Skill and I’m just mad I don’t have enough EXP for it.”

“Unique Skill?!” Yang and Soze said in surprise.

“Oh I’ve got to hear this,” Zed said excitedly. “Come on, how broken is it?”

Loran read to them the Skill’s description.

“Is…is that it?” Yang asked, unimpressed.

“It is quite vague.” Yin added.

“I think that's because it affects so much,” Loran explained. “It’s definitely powerful. It almost feels like time slows down when I’m using it and my magic is like five times stronger.”

Zed whistled appreciatively. “A five times magic buff? That is pretty crazy.”

Alexx nodded, imagining what it would be like to fight with that level of hyper-awareness. “First Soze with his Vengeful Spite and now you have this thing. These Unique Skills are kind of broken.”

“Though it does make one wonder…” Yin said curiously. “Why are such Skills only appearing now? Weeks have passed, why would they not introduce these Skills before now?”

“Maybe it was added with the update?” Yang suggested. “The patch notes were crazy long. Maybe it implemented Unique Skills?”

“Not likely,” Loran said. “I’ve been skimming through the notes every now and then, and it’s all minor changes to stuff that already exists in the game. Something like this would have been something the players could vote for.”

“The AI needed more time to analyze us.” Zed shrugged. Then he quickly continued. “If the Skills are meant to be unique then it would need time to compare each of us to every other player in the game, right?”

“But it goes through our memories,” Soze reminded them. “It should already know everything about us.”

“It wouldn’t know about how we would play New Eden Online,” Loran said. “It wouldn’t know how we react in a life or death environment or with the Pioneer System. That would be a lot to just ignore.” He paused for a moment. “It also merged a bunch of my Skills together when I got it, so maybe it’s also supposed to give us time for that to happen too?”

“What do you mean it merged your Skills?”

“I mean Extreme Perception replaced some of my Skills because they function similarly. Danger Sense, Mana Sense, Goat Whisperer, Sixth Sense, and even Analyse were all added to its abilities. It said it was to improve the Skill’s effects.”

“So what, all your sensory Skills got a boost from being added to this?”

“I’m…not too sure…” He wasn’t sure about the others but he knew for certain that [ANALYSE] had been improved by the merging. Even though the Skill had become a bit harder to use since the information now came to him in a more abstract way, that was technically faster than reading it off of a menu, and there wasn’t an SP cost anymore. “I’ll need to do some tests once we get back to the village.”

“Right. Well, the battle’s over now,” Yang turned to Soze. “So what’s the plan?”

Soze’s shoulders sagged slightly. “I…what do you guys think?”

“Are you feeling okay?” Alexx asked. The others also paused, feeling that something was off.

“I’m fine,” He said, a little too quickly. “I’m just… forget it. I say we should camp out here for the day, but what do you guys think?”

“Yeah, it’s still early, but we just finished a huge battle,” Yang said, watching a few players meander around the battlefield. “Everyone needs time to rest before the long trip home.”

Loran shrugged. “Sounds good to me. With so many players here we can take back a ton of bodies. We should stay until we’ve got as much iron as we can carry.”

“We should show some restraint,” Yin said. “We might not be lacking storage space at the village, but there is a limit.”

“Yeah, let’s just focus on the high-density stuff,” Yang hefted her War Pick onto her shoulder. “Loran, can you get a couple of the casters to help melt the carapace off the Guardians?”

“Nah, they’re probably busy healing. I’ve got a few ideas that should help though.”

The six players split up to rest, help the wounded, and gather the loot.

~~~~~

The Guardian Elder settled down at her usual watchpoint, heavily injured but less so than she had expected to be after such a long battle.

She had wondered what these players were for months. First, they were harmless beings that made a home for themselves in their valley. Then those three appeared and showed that they had some potential, fighting alongside them against the tide of ants. Then they left and returned in the dozens, performing miracles and changing the nature of a war that had remained stagnant for decades.

She still wasn’t sure what to make of them, but she was certain that they could help the herd, and when she saw that one with the long ears who was always with the young ones, she knew they could be friends.

The Guardian Elder ignored the players as they ran about tearing into the bodies of the slain ants, and returned to her vigil. As she stared at the entrance to their home she could sense them beyond it.

The remnants of the ant horde.

There were always a few. A handful of Drones, maybe a Warrior or a Soldier who wised up and knew that they would die if they stayed. They left and scattered in every direction, simply seeking to escape the horns and hooves that heralded their deaths.

A part of her knew it was dangerous to let them live. Those that saw hardship and survived had the potential to grow stronger, she was a living testament to that fact of this world. But hunting them would take time, and even if she knew that her kin would be safe after such a large battle, her instincts demanded she stay.

Strong ants, ones the players would recognize as named monsters, had come plenty of times in the past, and they all fell to her.

‘Let them grow,’ she thought. ‘They will break all the same. Eventually.’

Even if a few powerful ants came, even if the hordes grew larger, The Guardian Elder had seen it all before. She didn’t know about the version update, but she was certain that this time of struggle would pass.

She would endure it all, as she always had.