I take it back, this is not fun. After what feels like a million years the two of us, with minor help from the town, have mostly cleared out the thousands of ants. Corpses in various shades of browns and reds cover the wooden planks outside the town.

Azrael and I fight together, working surprisingly well as a team. We cover one another, protecting each other when we overextend. Since grouping up, the two of us haven’t been majorly wounded. That’s not to say we haven’t been hurt at all, as my torn shirt would attest to, but nothing serious.

As Azrael’s claws cut into the shell of a miner ant, I notice a sleek assault ant going for his back. I jump to intercept, my strong legs launching me into the air with ease. Just as I’m about to land on my prey, something hard hits me in the side.

I get launched sideways, eventually hitting the corpse covered ground. Tumbling end over end, my body is cut and scraped against the rough exteriors of dead ants. Eventually I come to an abrupt stop when I slam into the cave wall. My vision goes dim at the edges as the pain weakens my connection to my avatar. Whatever the system did earlier, it made me feel my avatar’s pain as well.

Once I’m able to clearly see again, my vision is filled completely by ant. And unlike up until now, it’s only one. One very big ant. The queen stands over me, looking down into the Oubliette-shaped crater I made in the wall. Her eyes flicker with intelligence, as well as amusement.

Why are all these bugs so expressive!? I’m almost certain neither ants nor spiders had this kind of intelligence on Earth. Is it the size? That doesn’t make much sense, bugs were huge plenty of times in Earth’s histo— My wandering mind gets cut off by a sudden pain.

My eyes drift down, quickly locating the source of my sudden pain. A large forelimb is buried into my stomach, piercing clean through my body. The queen clacks her mandibles excitedly before lifting me into the air like a speared fish.

The pain in my abdomen is too much. My connection to my avatar is frayed and chaotic to the point of making me unable to move. The worst part is that it hasn’t been severed, so I’m trapped inside it, in agony, until some vague limit is reached. My eyes meet the queen’s as she holds me eye level.

She’s so giddy! What a bitch. Her compound eyes reflect her mirth thousands of times over, my anguished face centered in each segment. Again she clicks her jaws together, in almost a laugh.

Someone is screaming. Screaming something horribly profane, as well. I try to look around, to find the source of the sound. Eventually I do find it, a small black haired man is yelling as he runs towards the massive insect. He jumps at her, shadows covering his hands.

Without even looking at him, she smacks him with one of her rear legs. The person goes flying, eventually slamming into the far wall so hard that pebbles on the ground shake. After a few seconds, it really doesn’t seem like he’s getting back up.

So is this royal ass gonna kill me or what? She’s just staring at me, occasionally shifting her leg so that I get hit with another dose of extreme pain. Eventually she seems to get bored, because she starts to move. Her large form starts lumbering towards the town. At no point does the feeling of her watching me go away.

As we reach the makeshift barricade, the ant doesn’t slow down at all. Instead she just pushes through it, causing it to snap apart like it was made of toothpicks. Why the hell did she even bother with all the smaller ants? She could’ve leveled this place on her own!

For some reason, she ignores every person we pass, only hitting ones that block her, sending their small forms flying into buildings. She pushes between the wooden houses, causing many to collapse as she moves past. Eventually she finds what she’s looking for, because she does the clacking thing with her mouth again.

The building in front of us has smoke rising out of it, which is unusual. Most have magic to heat things, so fires are rare in the town. The only people who use fire are… smiths. My stomach drops, there’s no way. How would she even know?

In one swift movement, the giant insect cleaves the top of the smithy off with her free forelimb. Inside is a sparkling gold pangolin. Dread fills me, my chest seizes up. If she hurts them, I can’t save them like Azrael. I start to squirm against the keratin rod in my stomach.

The queen starts clacking her mandibles rapidly. She’s for sure laughing, what else could that be? I push against her leg, desperately trying to shimmy my way off of the limb. It’s futile, I know it. Even if I could move myself enough to get away, it would take too long to shift all the way to the end of her long leg. I wouldn’t be in time to save the pangolin. But I have to try.

She looks down at me, enjoying my struggling. I guess she’s really mad about me killing all her kids, then… She raises her other spearlike leg, poising it to spear the golden scaled pangolin, and then her head explodes.

Wait… that’s not right. Before I can figure out what happened, the massive bug goes limp. The giant headless corpse falls into a nearby building, crushing it flat.

My vision fades again when the leg that is still inside me slams into the ground. Not that I’d be able to see anyways, since a huge plume of dust filled the air when the former queen fell. Again I try to pull myself off the limb, but there’s no chance.

Then someone walks in front of me. A girl in an orange poncho. She leans down and casually snaps the giant leg off at the joint. Her bright pink eyes meet mine, and she smiles warmly at me.

“I finally found you!” She beams. “Why’d you come play with bugs without me?” She pouts as she pulls the severed limb out of me. For the too-many-th time today, my vision almost fades out, but I hold on.

Eventually I manage to croak out a word. “Wem?”

She tilts her slimy head in confusion. “Yeah?” Her expression is puzzled. “What is it?”

I just laugh, which causes me to cough up black blood. The blood splatters on the ground for a moment before evaporating into blue sparkles.

“Wem, how’d you do that?” I shakily raise my arm and point at the ant corpse.

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She scowls. “Well, when I finally found you, I saw that you were playing with that bug.” She pouts. “But then… I saw it made you cry, so I couldn’t let it live.” Her eyes darken slightly, the bright pink washing out.

What does she mean, made me cry? I touch my face, and am shocked to find that my fingers come way wet. And not from blood either. Actual tears are streaming down my face. I giggle. I… forgot that people cried when they hurt. It’s been so long…

Wem’s bubbly voice brings me back to reality. “Um… Shouldn’t you rest? Oubi?” She points at the gorey hole in my stomach. Oh… right… I lethargically nod. Now that she mentions it, sleep sounds nice.

A small bolt of panic shoots through me. “W-will you be here still when I wake up?”

Wem’s eyes go wide, cartoonishly thanks to her slime constitution. After a few stunned seconds of silence, her face cracks into a smile. The gentlest smile I’ve seen from her, devoid of the usual manic energy she has.

She nods. “Yeah, Oubi, I’ll be here.”

I smile back at her, and fall asleep.

────────────

My sense of scale is screwed. Ever since coming to this stupid dungeon, I’ve been shown how truly weak I am. I flick my wrist, whipping the blood off my blade. The ground around me is covered by dead bugs, hundreds of them. And I killed them all, on my own, and lived.

And somehow, I’m not the strongest on this battlefield, not even close. While I took hit after hit from those damn ants I was able to watch that dungeon cat go all out. He could easily wipe the floor with anyone in the small town I’ve been fostering, if not everyone.

He was beaten, he’s so strong, so powerful, compared to us normal people, and he was crushed like a fly by that giant ant. Even worse, some new person showed up and killed the ant the same way!

I never thought I was the strongest, not even close, but I really underestimated how weak I am. That won’t happen again.

I sheath my sword, and start making my way back to the town. During the battle it seems I was pushed quite far away. I glance down at my armor and am hit by a wave of disgust. The usually gleaming silver metal is covered in divots and holes, not to mention painted with green blood. This will take forever to fix.

I don’t get very far before I sense something approaching me from behind, from the direction of the tunnel leading down into the dungeon. As I turn to face it, I feel the thing rush me down. It closes the huge gap between us in almost an instant, before I can even lay my eyes on it.

Thankfully, my sword makes it in time. Something very large, or very strong, slams against the blade, pushing me back. Due to the awkward angle of my blade, and my partly turned body, I stumble.

It doesn’t miss the opportunity. As my back leg hits the ground, steadying me, my front is slashed at by the still unseen attacker. I anticipate the impact, but not the searing pain that arrives.

The surprise pain makes me look down, instead of at my opponent. The metal greaves have jagged gashes in them, revealing my bleeding bark beneath. It looks like someone’s pet cat cut through a sheet of paper. I finally look up at my opponent.

It’s… a monster. I have no idea what kind. I’ve never seen, never even heard of something like it. It’s tall, very tall, but not very bulky. Its torso and abdomen are small for its almost eight foot height. Coming out of the child sized upper body are two long arms that almost reach its ankles. Sickly pale skin covers it, taught against visible bones. Long nails grow from its fingertips into claws.

The worst part is its face. Sitting on the creature’s bald head is a horrifically beautiful face. Soft features, gentle eyes, flawless complexion. It neither leans feminine nor masculine, instead sitting in a strange spot of androgynous radiance. Placed on such a horrible looking creature, the features become otherworldly and disquieting. Red eyes stare me down, filled with amusement, and a strange hunger.

Fuck this. Seriously, Eight damn this creature. I’ve never met something that rustles my leaves so badly. Its eyes twinkle in delight, somehow noticing my discomfort. Its perfect lips part, revealing a jaw full of razor sharp needle teeth. It crouches down, its long legs getting ready to launch it towards me.

“Oh, stop it, you stupid thing!” an angry woman’s voice calls out from behind the creature. Gods dammit! I have to protect someone on top of fighting this thing?

To my absolute shock, the creature heeds the woman’s command, standing up. All hints of aggression leave its body as it steps to the side. Its glowing red eyes stay locked on me, somehow passing on their owner’s desire for a rematch.

A taller woman walks past the creature, not a hint of fear on her features. She has blue skin, and is wearing a much too tight outfit. Four huge horns sit on her head, and a pair of wings follow behind her. At one point a thick tail swings into view.

“Hello, Bella.” She smiles at me.

I’m momentarily taken aback. How does she know me? “Uh… who are you?”

She looks confused for a moment, before breaking into another smile. “Right, we’ve yet to meet.” She giggles to herself. “I’ve seen you from afar, when renovating the dungeon, so I forgot you’ve never seen me.” Oh, is she another one of the dungeon’s underlings?

She folds her arm under her chest and takes a deep bow. “I am Maddi, one of Oubliette’s demon generals. I am her personal aide.” Rising from the bow, she flashes a set of fangs. “And I have much to thank you for.”

Alright, I’m lost again. “Wait… who’s Oubliette?”

Maddi giggles again. “That’s the name of the consciousness of the dungeon you're in.”

Oh… Wait, the dungeon’s a girl? That’s… news to me. Oubliette, what an odd name, too, is that why she never told me it?

“So, she’s a girl, then?” My brows furrow. “She said she had no name, either, was she embarrassed by it?” I look over at the demon.

Her face is the same as before, giving nothing away besides a pleasant smile. “That is for her to tell you, if she wishes. I hope you understand.”

I nod. I guess it would be rude to ask someone besides her. Where is she, though?

“Where is the dungeon, anyway? I figured she’d at least help us during the battle somewhat.” A small flicker of anger starts to burn in my core.

Annoyance passes through the demon’s eyes, so quickly I barely notice it. “She is resting, after finishing her battle with the ant queen.”

I snort, which makes the demon openly scowl. “Hardly, I only saw some half-monster chick and that cat fighting the ant. I never saw the dungeon.” I fold my arms in front of me.

Maddi smiles at me, the kind that doesn’t reach the eyes. “That ‘half-monster’ was Oubliette.”

“Oh…” Then… she helped a lot, wiped out a good portion of the ants, actually. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that was her.” I rub the back of my helmet.

The malice drains from the demon’s expression. “No harm done, you didn’t say it to her. Even if she hadn’t been there herself we could’ve crushed everything by raising the floor.” She scowls. “It just would’ve put Oubi close to death to do.” She sighs with a pause, eventually turning to look me over. “I need to… thank you, for helping Oubliette before I was around.”

Unsure how to take her thanks, I just shrug. “It wasn’t much, did it for the people with me more than anything.”

Maddi’s expression says she’s not buying it. “Sure, Miss Knight, if you say so.” Yep, not buying it. Whatever.

Suddenly I realize something, at some point, while Maddi and I were talking, the horrible creature snuck away. Without me noticing. That’s… impressive. And frightening.

Maddi seems to read my mind. “That… creature is very hardy.” She makes a disgusted face. “Oubliette made it when your group first arrived, and it's still around somehow.” She shakes her head. “It started barely stronger than a spider, too, and now it’s… that.”

My eyes drift down the dark tunnel it escaped into. That thing was that weak, and not that long ago? What is with the growth of this dungeon? Whatever, I’ll warn the others about it. Warn them to run, that is.

“So much for that deal we had then?” My voice has a hint of anger.

Maddi winces. “Y-yes, you’d be right that it’s breaking the deal…” She glances at the dark tunnel. “That thing won’t listen to us, not enough to stop it from hunting past the red ore, at least.” Her voice is annoyed.

So… monsters can misbehave, then. Good to know.

“Well, Ms. Maddi, since you look people enough, how about a round of drinks? I’m sure the whole town is boozing it up after that battle.” I push the thoughts of the cleanup that will be needed in the coming days far away.

Her eyes widen, but she eventually breaks into a huge grin.

“Sure, the boss is taking a break. I guess I can too.”