The pressure encompassing the lower part of the tower was significantly more difficult to handle. Nthanda found it threw off even simple motions like walking. Unlike the upper portion, her normal senses were restricted. It wasn’t just dark, even sound didn’t work quite right. The times when she passed people on the stairs were the only time she could sense people, much in above or below and they would feel like they disappeared.

Isolation wasn’t bad, but it was worse when she found it difficult to move. The pressure bearing down on her made her feel ten times as heavy, a weight that wasn’t unmanageable but made every stair feel like jumping off a cliff with the pressure of her feet impacting. Then there was the thought of exhausting herself too much to climb back up. It was foolish to think that she would be allowed to die in the dark, but it felt like it.

When she almost stepped on something, it threw her off balance and sent her careening into a wall. For a moment she just lay on the ground, taking stock of herself. Nothing broken, it seemed, but she would be bruised. She could have cushioned her impact with natural energy, but even if she hadn’t been training to go wholly without it… it was difficult to call upon in her current location.

As for the thing that disrupted her, it was… a beetle? No, that wasn’t right. Its size would indicate that, but the shape was all wrong. It was clearly some sort of insect though, as long as her palm and two fingers wide. The thing scurried towards her, dipping over the stairs. Nthanda prepared herself to fight, though the thought was laughable. How could a simple bug harm her?

It stopped out of arm’s reach and waved its antennae and front legs. Was that some sort of threat? It was laughable, except… the fact that it seemed to be unconcerned about the looming pressure of the area. It made her feel ten times heavier, but that was as a human. It wasn’t that her weight was multiplying, but a force bearing down on her- more or less the same for everyone. An insect would crumble under that force, especially without any trace of natural energy. That was the thought, at least… but it wasn’t dead.

Nthanda shook her head. A lone ant wouldn’t matter anyway. She took a quick check to make sure it wasn’t some sort of distraction, but didn’t sense any more. “What do you want, ant?”

She wasn’t actually expecting a response, but it waved its arms more. She couldn’t interpret it as meaning something, however.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

If the ant was just randomly doing something she would have expected it to react the same way to her voice, but instead it flopped down to all legs, pacing back and forth for a moment. Then it lifted itself all the way to its hind legs, almost standing straight up, while wiggling its antennae.

“Do you want to be picked up?” Nthanda held out her finger. If it tried to bite her, she would crush it. She wasn’t sure what it was made of, but she was certain she could accomplish it. If it happened to be poisoned, she would just have to endure that as she made her way back to the surface. But if the thing was friendly, she couldn’t just not try to interact with it.

It did, in fact, crawl peacefully onto her finger, then up her arm. She tracked it warily. Her body should be able to resist the sharpness of the thing’s mandibles, but it was still awkward having it climb up to her shoulder and circle around her neck. Then it stopped on the other shoulder and pointed its limbs up the stairs.

“You want to go up?” The ant replied with something she was almost certain was a nod, though she wouldn’t have been able to sense such a precise motion much away from her body. “Well, I could use a break anyway.”

The ant seemed quite content to ride on her shoulder and do little else, though Nthanda felt weird passing the other trainees. Either nobody noticed it or they decided it wasn’t worth mentioning, because she soon found herself outside. Maybe she could ask someone about the ant. Elder Anton would be a good start.

As soon as she approached him the ant leapt from her shoulder. She wondered if she had unwittingly brought something dangerous, but the man caught it behind it back, turning towards her and the ant. “Hello there little fellow. How are you doing?”

The ant waved its antennae and front limbs enthusiastically.

“Yes, I met the Great Queen.”

More excited movements.

“You’ll have to excuse me, I couldn’t quite keep up there. I’m not that familiar with your language.”

The ant was slower after that.

“Oh, sure, I can demonstrate.” Anton held his other hand nearby, and out of seemingly nowhere an uncomfortably powerful energy filled his palm. Uncomfortable for Nthanda, anyway, as the ant jumped into it without a shred of caution and… ate it? “Yes, it works just like that. Though I’m not sure how it will be for real.”

Since the conversation seemed to be coming to an end, Nthanda spoke up. “Excuse me, Elder Anton… what do you know about that ant?”

Anton shrugged, “I don’t believe I’ve met this one in particular, but there are relatives. They’re quite intelligent… and extremely energy resistant.” He nodded, “They’re allies in the upcoming fight with the invaders.”

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“Allies…?” Nthanda asked.

“Well, I’d hardly call them anything else. They’re not pets. I’d generally not call anything intelligent enough to understand speech a pet. Except perhaps Fuzz,” Anton shook his head. “Regardless, they have also developed a sign language using their front appendages. I am relatively familiar with the ants, but I’m still learning the language. I have to say it’s much more natural than our initial attempts to have them write everything.”

“Okay,” Nthanda nodded. “Why was it here?”

“Good question. Why were you in the tower?” More waving of limbs. “Oh, I see. I could have told you there was no food down there. It’s certainly a safe, defensible location- but it’s an awful long walk to get food.”

“It wants food?” Nthanda asked, reaching into her bag. “I’m sure I have something.”

“Well, she might be interested in eating… but I believe the point was to scout out spots for a nest. Since that area’s not claimed by humans, they can be relatively undisturbed. But it’s no good without food.” More waving. “Yes, you should have known that nothing would live down there. Few things can survive without protecting themselves with energy.” More waving. “She’s an exception, of course. She’s one of the humans who focused on that.” A final back and forth of wiggly limbs. “Well, I find natural energy quite useful personally.”

The ant did something akin to shrugging and leaped back over to Nthanda, who held out her hand like Anton had. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“She asked if you want to learn to be like her”

“What, an ant? Can I? Should I?”

“I don’t know the answer to any of those questions,” Elder Anton shrugged. “But you could try. I think they’re a fascinating object of study, though likely much more useful for a body temperer like yourself. If I suddenly had nothing to do with energy, I would just have to give up.”

“Well… sure. I’ll try. How do I start?” The ant on Nthanda’s hand was so enthusiastic that the rear limbs got involved in the communication, making it pretty much impossible to parse. Not that she knew any of it anyway. She’d probably have to learn that, if she wanted to learn from… ants.

-----

The next week Nthanda found herself back in the arena for another round of tests. She clutched her left hand tight. Her new thing would only be a secret once. She had to make it count, if it worked at all. If it didn’t… well, she had other methods to use. In her other hand she held a long polearm with a blade. She would have preferred to make use of a proper bow, but she didn’t have one to match her strength. Arrows were another problem entirely, though there was a certain point where they could be used nearly indefinitely.

The halberd was her backup weapon of choice since her less potent energy didn’t allow for extending her reach with it. And it also had a lot of leverage to make use of her strength. The weapon itself had to be specially made to be more durable than others, since she would be reinforcing it to a smaller degree than other cultivators. That was an advantage in some ways, because if her opponent had only a limited amount of damage they could do, she wouldn’t have to worry about her weapon at all.

Her opponent was a man who radiated a sense of fire. It wasn’t anything familiar. Perhaps he was from Aicenith, though Nthanda couldn’t guarantee she would recognize every style on their own continent. Especially not with the recent shifts in available techniques.

His weapon was a chain, quite a long one in fact. If he was able to properly control it then he would have the advantage of reach, but such things could be quite unwieldy. Regardless, the battle began with both opponents moving towards each other, Nthanda’s hands both gripping her halberd while her opponent had separate lengths of chain dangling from each hand.

As expected one of his chains whipped out to their full length, fire wrapping around them as links tried to circle her from the side. Nthanda’s options appeared to be best suited by trying to block it with her halberd, but she knew it would merely wrap around her weapon. That might even be what her opponent wanted- while she didn’t want it yet. Instead she dropped down low, using the weight of her outstretched halberd to balance her backwards lean. Her opponent was at least half ready for her to duck, but he had obviously not expected her to get almost parallel to the ground and immediately get back on her feet. The flame surrounding the chain were hot, but at the distance of half a meter it was nothing that could harm Nthanda.

Her body sprang forward into a lunge after the chains passed over, closing the distance between herself and her opponent. The man had more than one length of chain, however, and the second coil held in his other and leapt forward to meet her attack. She pulled back to keep her weapon from being entangled and turned her thrust into a wide sweep.

The first set of chains was already looping back towards here, and Nthanda knew she wouldn’t remain unentangled for the duration of the battle. Even so, she focused on avoiding it and trying attacks to measure her opponent. Even if she didn’t need to avoid the flames, making her opponent think she did would be a nice advantage.

Her left arm was entrapped a few moments later, followed by the halberd briefly held in just her right hand. The chain wrapped around that too, locking her weapon in place. The flames were uncomfortable… but unfortunately for her opponent they couldn’t really harm her. For the sake of expediency she gathered her natural energy to push for a deciding strike… and found that she could barely control it. Something about her opponent’s techniques weakened her control. That would have been devastating if she needed her natural energy to fight.

Both her arms yanked suddenly, forcing her opponent to decide between being pulled towards her or losing his weapons. He thought there was a third choice- anchoring himself to the ground with his natural energy- but it was a fake choice. He slowed down slightly, but still moved. Slack formed in the chains from the combined effects of his movement and his distraction, momentarily limiting his control. He managed to twist himself out of the way of Nthanda’s halberd as he moved, though she wasn’t going to actually impale him on it anyway. It would have been half an impalement at best.

Instead, she clocked him in the jaw with her left hand. She hadn’t even needed to use her special new technique. In some ways that was good, but she also didn’t know if it would work. Well, the next match might tell her that. It would almost certainly be with someone stronger… or at least more suited to fight against her.