It appeared that Lucius had won the day, as even after Flicker ended, the C-Class summoner was too weak to move, likely debilitated by a combination of its injuries and the venom from Lucius’ spear.
Lucius let out a breath as he aimed Lament of the Hornet King at the space between his opponent’s two large compound eyes. But in that moment, a loud hiss resounded across the battlefield as dozens of ants exploded out from beneath the earth all around the area.
“No!”
Lucius stabbed forward, but a massive pair of mandibles erupted from below the earth, grasping tightly to the body of the summoner and dragging the humanoid insect underground.
He wanted to follow, but if he dashed into the tunnel now, he would end up surrounded from both sides. Gritting his teeth, Lucius jumped into the air to avoid the ants swarming toward him from all directions.
Lucius tried attacking the insects as he had done before, but they seemed to have grown wise to his tactics. As soon as he rose into the air, the group of ants began to retreat, flooding back into their holes to avoid his attacks.
“Tsk. You think you can run?”
Focusing on Sense Danger, Lucius raced in the direction of the retreating C-Class threat still, luckily the creature was still apparent to his senses. He weaved in and out of the giant stalks around him as he rapidly flew along the ground through the mushroom forest.
“Father… Perhaps we should retreat for now. We no longer retain the element of surprise, and the ants seem to have discovered a way to overcome the stealth of your aspect.”
Lucius shook his head as he continued pursuing his opponent, quickly gaining on the retreating summoner.
“I won’t do that. We can’t leave a C-Class anomaly so close to the farm. Especially one with a summoner who holds a grudge against us. How many humans will die if these ants find the human community when I’m not around?”
“Very well, Father. Then let us do our best to swiftly defeat this foe before he can recuperate.”
Lucius nodded as he focused on his task, gritting his teeth as he made the choice to drop to the ground and activate Flicker for the third time, causing a wave of exhaustion to wash over him as he quickly closed the distance toward his foe.
When Lucius reached the area directly above the summoner's position, he concentrated on the ground on the path ahead of their retreat and activated the Sinkhole attribute of his armor for the first time.
A wide circle of earth seemed to instantly transform into liquid as it sank away, leaving a massive hole in the ground before him, where a wide underground tunnel could be observed at first glance.
Lucius jumped into the hole just in time to see the massive ant rushing toward him with the limp body of the summoner in its mandibles.
“Whisper!”
A flood of powerful tentacles erupted around the creature at Lucius command, holding it in place even as it struggled mightily to free itself. Lucius did not hesitate, stabbing forward with his spear and easily crushing the skull of the relatively large ant.
You have defeated Formica Sub Terra, level 26.
“That was a strong one… for an ant I guess.”
As Lucius stepped forward, the heavily wounded summoner stared up at him, anger and regret flashing across its insectile face. Not willing to allow any more accidents to occur, Lucius did not delay, shoving the tip of his spear into the wound on his enemy's broken chest to avoid its strong carapace.
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Leaning down to get a better angle, he activated Sudden Sting and watched as the weapon expanded through the inside of the creature's body, along the interior of its thin neck, all the way up to its head until the tip of his spear reached the brain.
The summoner's mandibles shot open from the sudden pain, its humanoid arms reaching up toward him helplessly for a few moments before the light faded from its eyes.
You have defeated C-Class Abyssal Summoner.
You have reached level 31. You have 24 attribute points available for distribution.
Lucius watched the life drain from his opponent, his shoulders slumping as a feeling of exhaustion began to overcome him, the adrenaline pumping through his veins slowly fading away.
“Father, do not rest now! We are far from the anomaly. We must go now!”
“I know… relax.”
The pair of large, shadowy wings spread out behind Lucius as he launched himself up out of the hole. As he glided through the air toward the anomaly, he began running across on the tops of mushrooms between glides to speed up his flight.
Like this, Lucius made his way back to the cliff face where he had entered this world. No longer needing to climb his way out, he simply flapped his large wings as he ascended to the familiar ledge.
He flew directly above the portal, the wings on his back disappearing as he allowed himself to drop down toward the anomaly. Whisper quickly retreated into the storage ring a moment before Lucius’ body entered the watery veil.
Congratulations! You have successfully defeated a Rift Summoner and closed a C-Class anomaly!
You have been awarded Multitudinous Insects Inscription Array.
The bright morning sun shone into his eyes as Lucius' feet touched down on the top of the cliff, where he had followed the ant into the anomaly the night before.
The sun felt good on his skin, and Lucius lay down without taking a single step. As he enjoyed the warmth of the sun and listened to the familiar sound of the birds, he watched the massive anomaly floating in the air beside him.
The anomaly had grown to more than double its original size, but now, without a summoner to maintain it, the portal was slowly collapsing in on itself.
Instead of forming into the shape of a ring, as it had done the last two times he closed an anomaly, this one shaped itself into a parchment scroll. Lucius caught it with his telekinesis as it started to fall, floating it carefully into the air before his eyes.
The thick roll of parchment looked rather old, with golden tassels on both ends glittering brightly in the light. Lucius flicked his finger at the parchment, causing it to unroll and allowing him to take a look.
The interior was filled with runic symbols he could not understand, laid out in strange patterns. Thankfully, the parchment was set up like a universal set of instructions, so it wasn't necessary to actual decipher it before use. Someone like Patrick would simple need to copy the symbols as they were laid out on the parchment, though with how many there were it would take a great deal of time.
It was not a task that Lucius had any motivation to attempt personally. Waving his hand, he stored the scroll in his storage ring, pulling out a bottle of water at the same time. He lay there drinking slowly until the bottle was empty. Only then did he drag himself to his feet with a sigh.
“Okay, let's get home, Whisper.”
Glancing into the storage space toward his companion, Lucius found that Whisper was already fast asleep, tucked snugly inside a large pile of clean clothes.
“You know, I really feel like a chauffeur sometimes... Enjoy your sleep.”
Shaking his head and chuckling at his own immature jealousy, Lucius began the tedious task of climbing down the cliffside. Unless he wanted to wait until night when Whisper could help, he would have to do things the old-fashioned way.
Regardless, with his increasingly impressive attributes, it didn’t take long for Lucius to make his way down. Nor did much time pass before he was walking down the long dirt driveway toward the farmhouse.
The moment his home came into sight, a smile spread across Lucius' face. An impressive amount of progress had already been made on the defenses, and dozens of men could be seen constantly moving between piles of supplies and the projects they were be used on.
Most impressively, the skeletal beginnings of what would become the archer towers had already been erected. They would need to be reinforced with strong materials to provide adequate protection from ranged attacks, but it was a great start.
Lucius suspected that some of Tiber’s engineers had already unlocked talents related to construction. It was the only explanation he could think of for so much progress in such a short time.