The plan wasn’t bad; and it actually worked quite well, at first.

As smoke slowly rose from the hole in a thin wisp, it was hard to tell just what was causing it; the venom, the smoke, just the general confusion… but the horde was advancing… slowly. Much more slowly than the ants could normally move, with many of its members barely crawling, while others were forced to push them aside, or crawl over them…. As the spells started to fly.

The two spellcasters; Shockwave and Star; were taking turns, dropping a blast of lightning that electrocuted a mass of bugs, leaving mostly intact corpses… then when the next mass crossed onto them, Star would let loose a bolt of fire, washing over them; igniting the corpses and the living ones as well.

The bugs were dying by the hundreds, and even though he was merely using Spiritual bullets instead of enhanced ones, each shot was crushing part of an ant and usually going into another… and another.

He wasn’t sure what the limit on the revolvers was; and he could always switch to the glock if need be; but if it was based on the mana in the air… all these dying ants should be releasing tons of it.

It took over a minute… and thousands of the ants were dead… before they finally started to reach Grey and Sledge… and even then, it was only a handful at a time; Grey picking off individual ants here, there… Sledge sweeping his hammer, crushing or knocking back a whole pack at once.

Grey finally got to grab a few ants, and put them in the ritual circle he’d made while the squid was carving out the trenches; but he only had the power to animate two of the three-foot long ants at a time. He definitely needed to invest more in that. Still; they stepped forward, guarding Sledge’s ankles, ensuring the powerhouse didn’t have some errant bug crawl up his body.

Ultimately, they ran into two problems; the first… even as sheer as the walls were made, the ants were excellent climbers.. And started to spread out, reducing the effectiveness of the blasts… and forcing the whole group to start retreating towards the interstate.

And then… the Queen showed up.

At least eight feet long and several hundred pounds, the monstrosity burst up from the soil just outside the trench… and with her, a sudden outpouring of more ants, and an abrupt cloud of smoke… though these ants were sluggish, barely alive.

The group was forced together, back at the entrance of the trench, about to be overwhelmed… and Grey stepped forward. “Back the fuck off!” He focused on activating the ‘Intimidating Shout’ power… and as a collective, the ants started running in every direction, directly away from him…

Sledge glanced at him, and nodded. “How are we on energy?”

Star grimaced. “Not much left. If this keeps up for more than another two minutes, I’m out. I can use… maybe six. Seven more fireballs at most.”

Shockwave shook his head. “Same. I almost regret swapping to Elf, I’d be able to keep going another hour if I hadn’t, but… my blasts wouldn’t be nearly as big, or dangerous.”

Grey hadn’t even realized the man was an elf. This… was problematic. What if Nightfire was an elf? Should he kill enough elves to get an Elf bane, and Elf-Slayer title, just in case?

Sledge looked at the retreating swarm… which was only temporarily retreating, he knew full well. “Alright, we need to regroup, back at the van. Let them settle back down… we had to have made a dent in their numbers. We can come back, do this again once they’ve clumped up.”

Grey gave a slow nod. “True enough. Honestly, the smoke bombs probably killed as many as we did. The ones that just broke free are in rough shape… as is the Queen. Which means…” He reached into his storage; he didn’t have many actual bullets left for these revolvers. He dropped six into his hand, and spat; splattering venom over them; before loading them into the Right Hand of Death.

“I think the shout loses effectiveness every time I do it in a short period of time… and if we all start running away, it stops working entirely. You guys head back to the van, but steady… keep facing them. I’m gonna try an Assassin’s Strike on the queen while she’s exposed, and then probably shout again and go stealth. See how well that works.”

Sledge glanced at him for a moment… then the others. They all nodded, after a few seconds. “Lets go. I’ll stay at the back and keep facing them, Star, lead the way.”

They started an awkward withdrawal back towards the interstate, while Grey started stalking forward, headed for the Queen; the scattered hundreds of ants seemed to be slowing down.

However long the Fear lasted, it wasn’t that big; and it didn’t seem to work on the ones around the Queen. As he approached, they lined up before him in a phalanx, defending the much larger insect.

He pointed at them again. “Didn’t you hear me? I said fuck off!” He tried it again. They withdrew… slightly. The other ants that had started to return went running again… but the Queen and her defenders, mostly the larger Soldiers… stood firm. They didn’t charge him; but they didn’t run, either.

Perhaps a different fear response? Workers ran when afraid; Soldiers fell back to defend? Regardless….

He raised the Right Hand of Death, focusing on using his Assassin’s Strike. If the ants were charging, he couldn’t have done this, but forming a defense? After a few seconds, he felt it was ready… and aimed at the Ant queen. The creature’s head was the size of his torso…

And when he pulled the trigger, there was a hole through it the size of his fist. The remaining five bullets might not have been needed… but he used them anyway, just to be sure, sending the Queen falling limp to the ground, clearly extremely dead… and the Soldiers charging at him, massive sword-like pincers clacking together in rage.

Congratulations! You have gained your sixth level!

You have 3 Free Points available to spend. If you do not use them by the time you gain your next level, they will be spent for you.

You have gained One Ability upgrade. If you do not use it by the time you gain your next level, it will be spent for you.

You have Six(6) Abilities which are at reduced effectiveness due to your class blend. You may use that ability to upgrade three of them to full effectiveness. If done on the following level as well, all six will be at full effectiveness for a starter of each class.

He blinked. Wait, what? Only five of his… He’d figured it out later.

He could tell there were too many for him to handle on his own; and while at first he backed away steadily, firing into them…. After a few parting shots, he turned, and started to sprint… making much better time than the ants, better than he ever had before, even…

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

But he could feel it… the loss of stamina. He couldn’t keep this up forever. And when he turned to take a few more shots at the now safely distant Ants… he could feel it even more. He must’ve used up enough ambient mana that the gun was taking it out of him, now.

When he reached the van, the Ants were no longer following; just watching, from the top of a hill about a quarter-mile away.

Sledge was standing outside, hammer over his shoulder, while the others were already sitting down, the engine running.

“There you are. Level six? Not bad! I take it you killed the Queen?”

Grey nodded. “Yup. She’s gone. And if the smoke killed out all the larvae….”

Sledge shook his head. “Nah. There’ll be eggs. So long as there’s an adult to feed them when they hatch, they can turn one into a Queen and get back to it. If we leave em be for a few hours, they should pile all the bodies up, clean out all the poisoned dirt, and start gathering food for a new, baby Queen. Or… they might gather all the eggs and leave.”

Star leaned out of the van. “So we’ve got a couple hours to chill. Stacktopus doesn’t get tired from flying, so he’s gonna just float, keep an eye out… and whether they swarm back into the next, or start moving, he’ll let us know.”

Sledge nodded. “Exactly.” He glanced at Grey. “Star and Shockwave both got the Intimidating Shout bit, and the Insect-Slayer Three title. I’m still only at two. That was a real life-saver back there… but now that we know how it works, and have it, you don’t have to hang around.”

Grey tilted his head for a moment. Allies abandoning him at this stage? Made sense. His abilities were no longer all that useful, considering. “Ahh. You don’t need me anymore. If you want me gone, can I have a ride back to town? I should probably look at selling a few things and buying a vehicle of my own of some sort.”

Sledge blinked. “No, no. You’re an Assassin. You leveled up from killing the Queen. I’m sure if you go hunting, you can find bigger, more dangerous, monsters you can kill solo, level faster. We don’t mind having you here at all, safety in numbers and all that, I just figured you might want to move on if we’re going to be just hanging for a few hours.”

Logical. On the other hand, helping them clear the rest of these ants would help him make progress towards level 7; and if he stuck with them, he could ensure that Sledge was between him and danger, and if things got too bad, he could still survive by abandoning him.

Not that he should unless it were needed; Sledge was still useful, for now.

“No. I’ll level up, see if my new skills are any more useful for this; when you’re ready, we can get back to it.”

He stepped into the van… and sat down in one of the comfortable chairs, closing his eyes, focusing… the others started talking about the fight, and tactics they could use next time, as he willed the system to show him his options.

Ability Upgrade Available!

The following Abilities are at reduced effectiveness due to your class split, and a single Ability upgrade can improve three of them:

Undead Animation 0.5, Undead Control 0.5, Curse 0.5, Venom Magic 1, Stealth 0.5, Assassin’s Strike 0.5

You may also select a new ability, unrelated to your class, at reduced effectiveness. Warning; while versatility is often beneficial, each ability gets dramatically more effective with each upgrade, and an individual with 4 grade-5 powers will have an enormous advantage over an individual with 20 grade-1 powers.

…Venom was already at 1. Why did it have that listed as reduced effectiveness? Ahh. He was a Serpentfolk. Even if he weren’t an Assassin, he would have had a weak version of Venom magic; and a Serpentfolk Assassin should normally have an augmented version.

While the Assassin’s Strike and Venom Magic were what he’d used on the Ant Queen, a pack of Undead would be much more useful for the mopping up action to come; and he hadn’t even bothered to use Curse yet. For now…

Ability Upgrade Used!

Undead Animation 1: Ability to take a corpse and shape it into an Undead form of at most the user’s level(Current: 6). Extremely mana intensive. Permanent until destroyed. Can also, temporarily animate a corpse far more cheaply; which will collapse as soon as energy is no longer fed into it. Can animate multiple corpses at once which total below the level threshold.

Undead Control 1: Ability to control Undead, whose total level cannot exceed double the user’s whether those created by the Hand of Death, by others, or formed naturally by Mana infesting corpses. Intelligent undead can resist this power. Low mana cost unless resisted. Undead not actively under control will tend to continue to obey the last order given if control is released, but are mindless and hostile; caution must be used if attempting to manage a ‘horde’ by selectively controlling groups. (Max 12 levels)

Stealth 1: For a minor mana cost, become invisible while standing perfectly still, very difficult to perceive while moving, or somewhat less difficult to perceive while moving swiftly.

He blinked. That…. Was potentially extremely useful. This was what he’d wanted the Undead ability for; creating an essentially endless swarm to overwhelm someone, even if he wasn’t still in control of all of them… and it might be a bit dangerous, both for himself and anyone else in the area.

He could animate a pack of ants, send them after the living ones…and then just keep going. If the undead ants lasted long enough, they might reach a point where they could overwhelm the regular ones. And going from 2 worker ants at a time to 12? Or maybe even a handful of the larger Soldier ants? Part of it was from going from level 5 to level 6, yes, but the way powers improved with each upgrade was phenomenal.

…He would need to be extremely, thoroughly ready before engaging Nightfire. She likely had at least one ability at grade 5. And if each upgrade was at least twice as good as the first one…

He shook his head. He still had a ways to go. Now that he knew Stamina also impacted how much mana you could hold onto, he was even more committed to getting it back to its previous heights, and invested the free points back into it; before he checked his status, not expecting much difference.

Nathan Grey

Serpentfolk(Human)

Hand of Death(Hybrid)

6

Strength

13

Endurance

17

Stamina

21

Agility

22

Mind

21

Power

17

Abilities

Intimidating Shout(Insects), Undead Animation 1, Undead Control 1, Curse 0.5, Venom Magic 1, Stealth 1, Assassin’s Strike 0.5

Skills

Minor(Melee Weapons, Persuasion, Automotive Repair, Examine, Mana Manipulation) Moderate(Survival, Sales, Ranged Weapons)

Titles

Insect Slayer III, Ranged Slayer, Vehicle Slayer(Front-Runner)

Boons

1 x Vehicle Upgrade

There we go. He could help these people cleanse the rest of the Ants… and then go get himself a car to upgrade. If an item could be upgraded twice, he could actually kill someone else and take their vehicle, then upgrade that to be even better; though it wasn’t the same sort of upgrade, of course. He’d need to keep an eye out for good targets of opportunity on that score.