The ant managed to turn part way around as Adon struck, but the movement didn’t help it to survive.

It only put the ant’s center of mass right in the path of Adon’s mandibles.

Adon snapped down on the ant and yanked back. He tightened his grip as he pulled the ant away from the scent trail. He was able to mostly ignore the creature’s flailing. Its head couldn’t reach back far enough to bite him in turn, even if it had been close to the body rather than clutched in Adon’s mandibles. And the legs were totally harmless.

After a moment of this tightened grip, the ant’s exoskeleton buckled, and Adon felt that he’d cracked the midsection. Then he smelled a new odor in the air. Acrid and vinegary. If he’d had an expressive face, rather than his stiff exoskeleton head, he would have winced and then laughed.

This must be the ant’s defense mechanism, and it was indeed laughable.

Live by the smell, die by the smell, I guess. You really think a little vinegar is enough to, to—His train of thought cut off there. The aroma around his antennae felt more intense now. The ant was releasing every bit of this vinegary crap that it could. Now it felt like what Adon imagined swallowing a faceful of tear gas would be.

It worked on his eyes, making his vision blur slightly. It worked away at his resolve, trying to make him loosen his grip.

For a second, Adon thought, Wait, is this what hunting is going to be like? I kind of miss having food brought up to me. Is every meal I eat going to fight for its life? Maybe I should go back to eating leaves. A brief moment when he bemoaned his fate, longed for the ease of his previous life, and actually considered releasing his hold on the ant.

Then he snapped his mandibles as tightly shut as he could, and the ant fell in two halves.

Sorry, buddy. Leaves are too tasteless to be the main part of my diet.

Another smell instantly filled the air around him, but it wasn’t nearly as strong. Adon ignored it and pulled first the bottom half, and then the top half, of the ant into his mouth. He devoured it in huge, messy, savage bites. He had never eaten so aggressively before, but it felt natural. Only when he had half-swallowed the second half of the ant did he properly taste the food.

The texture was noticeably crunchy, of course. But the flavor was the first reminder of his previous life that this world had furnished. It was something between bacon and pork rinds.

I could get used to this, he thought. Then he swallowed. Looked around to make sure the coast was still clear. He saw a line of figures in the distance. The rest of the ants!

Adon returned to his prior position.

He didn’t know if that last odor the dead ant had released would scare these new enemies away, but it had only had a moment to spray it before Adon inhaled his food. And now was the moment of truth.

The line of ants advanced, and he finally had the chance to count his real enemies.

Seven of them. And they weren’t much bigger than the ants he’d seen before. Including the one he killed. I have to strike hard and fast. No hesitation. No room for weakness. I, I can do this. Look what I did to the last one.

Despite the self-talk, Adon became conscious that his legs were shaking. He tried to make them stop, but the effort was not very effective.

Damn it, he chided himself. If I can’t face a handful of ants, how will I ever find the courage I’d need to be a social butterfly?

By some miracle, that bit of self-admonition seemed to quell the quaking in his legs slightly. Just in time. The ants were almost upon him.

They trod into the area where the first ant had laid its trail, and their military formation instantly broke. As if by prior discussion, they walked in separate directions and began searching for the food that the foolish ant scout had signaled should be available.

One walked, on its own, toward Adon, who was standing as still as he could, hoping to look like a plant until he moved. The intrepid ant strolled into the area where Adon had killed his fellow colony member.

Then it came to a sudden stop. Its antennae sniffed the air. It turned around in an obvious hurry. And as it moved to flee, Adon struck!

This time, he was more decisive than he had been against the first ant. His mandibles nipped off the entire lower third of the unlucky creature, though it continued to drag itself forward slowly, leaking precious bodily fluids, until Adon’s second strike. He snipped its head off cleanly and swallowed it in a single gulp.

Instead of eating the rest of his prey, Adon braced for further combat. That same smell was in the air again, from when he’d killed the first ant. It was fresher and stronger than it had been, and he knew what that meant.

Three ants turned and charged at him, and Adon felt like he would’ve felt if he’d been charged by three pit bulls in his previous life. He wanted to run.

But if he ran now, from this tiny number of the tiniest creatures at the bottom of the insect food chain, he knew he would never stop running.

Adon lunged at the closest ant, in the middle, and snipped its neck. His mandible cutting was becoming practiced now. He severed and swallowed the head almost in one motion.

If he had expected the other ants to act in self-preservation at the sight of that, he was to be disappointed. They took advantage of his mandibles being occupied with their colleague, and they attacked his respective flanks.

The one on his left made a weak attempt to bite into one of his rather strong legs, which Adon just batted away. But the ant on his right, whether by luck or skill, landed a bite onto the gash in Adon’s side. That smarted, and more importantly it opened the cut up slightly more.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Adon threw himself onto that ant. His weight wasn’t enough to crush it, but he stunned the creature for a moment.

Long enough for Adon to snip its head from its body.

The only survivor of the attackers jumped onto his back at that point. Too late to help its comrade. Too late to help itself.

Adon thrust himself at the ground, back first. He heard a satisfying crunch as he inflicted some small damage onto this ant too. He didn’t see where the specific injury was on the creature when he turned to face it, but it was releasing that same odor that the other ants did when they were dying or badly hurt.

He chopped its head off too. Then he turned to where the other ants were walking around. He didn’t want to be taken by surprise by any threat.

What he saw sent a cold shiver through his guts. The ants that had been exploring the area, looking for food, were marching quickly away.

He immediately knew why. The scent of dead and dying ants still hung heavy in the air. They must have been scared off.

But were they running off to safety? Or seeking reinforcements?

Adon had an inkling that it was the latter. He moved to chase after them—since he’d had a few bits of ant to eat, his energy levels felt higher than they’d been since just after he ate his egg shell.

As he moved forward, the smell hit him. It was that same odor Adon had noticed all of the ants he killed releasing when they died. Not like the vinegary self-defense gas they released. He finally really took it in and realized immediately what it reminded him of.

Citrus. Smells just like citrus. His mind jumped back to his mother from his last life. She poured him a glass of orange juice to go with his chocolate chip cookies. That was what he’d liked as a little kid. I was such a little weirdo, he thought self-consciously. No wonder the other kids didn’t like me. But she didn’t care.

For the first time since he’d died, he missed his mother. No, not even that just yet. He anticipated that he would miss her. Then he pushed the thought off.

No time to tunnel into his feelings right now. He had to chase down those ants. He propelled his body into motion again. With a bigger body and longer legs than the ants had, he thought he should be able to catch up to them before they could reach the colony.

Why was he remembering random moments from his last childhood, anyway?

It was a memory that had no distinct significance, but somehow, for some reason, he’d held onto it, jumped to it, anyway. There were probably a lot of memories like that one stuck in his head. Wasted space, maybe. In this life, unlike every other, he had held onto a number of past life recollections. They didn’t seem to be fading. Not even the ones he hadn’t singled out for preservation.

I really wonder what that’s about. Maybe when he finished going over his Status, he’d get some answers.

For now, he reached the back ant in the fleeing group. Adon reared up on his back legs and prepared to bring his mandibles down on the unfortunate creature with all the force of his body weight. As he swung into close range, the ant hit him with another one of their dirty chemical attacks. It irritated Adon’s antennae and eyes, but the noxious gas couldn’t stop him. His sheer momentum carried him through, and his mandibles severed the offending section of the ant from the main body.

The crippled ant abandoned its lower body and continued to crawl forward, but Adon ignored it. He chased after the next ant. The other two had gotten a little distance from him while he focused on the one in the back.

As he tried to close that gap, the two ants began to diverge.

Is one of them going to turn and fight me? he wondered for a moment. But no. Their paths were just forking. They were almost going at right angles to one another.

He smelled an unfamiliar odor in the air. The ants were communicating something via this scent. What would this one mean? It smelled like nothing else he could easily bring to mind. Sort of oily?

One of them must have told the other to split off, Adon decided. At least one of these two is smart. Maybe not as intelligent as someone who remembers his whole past life, plus others… But there was definitely a certain animal cunning at work here.

Adon realized he wasn’t going to catch both of them. That was what their going off at right angles to each other had accomplished. On top of the fact that he’d had to fight that other ant. And that he would surely have to fight whichever ant he chased first.

He had to waste a precious moment deciding on one to pursue. But it didn’t matter, he realized quickly. Either one getting back to the hill for reinforcements was a low-level disaster. He chose left, just to make a choice.

That ant did the same song and dance as the last one. It sprayed him with its strong vinegary gas, and he chopped it in half. He turned away from the writhing front half of the ant’s body to look for the surviving fellow, but it was already hopeless.

The remaining ant was too far away for him to catch. Or rather, Adon could see that it was now too close to home. The ant hill was visible now. The shape hadn’t been properly distinct before, but now he could tell that what had seemed only a slight elevation that loomed in the distance was actually a hive of insects. On the top, he detected frequent, furtive movements.

A guard of ants, constantly patrolling the outside. If they hadn’t been there, maybe he could have caught the last ant before it could tell someone what had happened. And those sentries looked, to Adon’s poorly formed eyes, beefier than the ants he’d encountered thus far.

Total gym rats, he thought dismally. Probably ‘roided out and everything.

He looked down at the wriggling ant he’d just bisected. Then he used his mandibles to pull its struggling body into his mouth.

Waste not, want not, after all. He’d gone and metaphorically poked this anthill because he was hungry, after all. It still had that nice pork flavor, even if there was a bitterness in knowing that he was about to get himself into a world of trouble.

He went back to the other ant that was still feebly moving, and he ate both halves of that creature. Then he returned to his starting point and ate the leftover ants from his ambush.

I’m cleaning up after myself, he thought. Making it less likely other insects are attracted to this area by the smell of dead bugs.

No matter how he phrased it, he didn’t like that he was being dragged around by his appetite. That felt like something that he’d intended to resist in this new life. Especially when he ought to be getting some distance from the army of ants.

But at least I’m getting exercise! he told himself. Maybe I can take a minute and see if I can afford some sort of Adaptation that will help me run faster or for longer.

As he had that thought, however, he saw three columns of ants marching out of the hill. These weren’t the puny little ants he’d been fighting so far. They were the ‘roided out soldier ants he’d seen guarding the entrance to the hill. They were obviously moving in his direction.

And was it just his awful eyes, or was the one standing at the front of the central column staring right at him? That couldn’t be true, right?

As for the troops behind that leader, there were too many of them for him to easily count.

Holy crap!

Adon began to run.