Chapter 4 – Captivity

Aenon spent the next two weeks tailing different scavenging parties of the fire ants. Initially the grouping appeared random, but after observing them for so long, he finally started to see a pattern. The number of raiding parties increased gradually, till they peaked on day three before dwindling down. Aenon assumed this had something to do with the queen, maybe her gestation cycle. He couldn’t be certain, but he always noticed much smaller fire ants start to come out when the raiding parties were at their minimum. Perhaps they hatched every six days, and the colony needed all the protection they could afford.

If this was the case, there was no telling how quickly the ants could spread. He needed to come up with a strategy, and soon. At least he finally got the details on the ants after stalking them for so long.

System Notification

By studying the behavior of your target, you have obtained sufficient info to unlock more details. Identify Skill can now identify the following fire ant types – Worker, Soldier, Juvenile.

Fire Ant (Worker) – An insectoid species of System designated monsters, their collaborative effort for the betterment of their colony is unparallelled. The worker variant is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance and construction around the colony but will occasionally leave the nest to gather food and supplies. The fire in their name stems from their ability to create fire mana, which they can combine with their bodily fluid to devastating effects. When not using it in combat, they will use the ability to heat up their entire body to extreme temperatures to convert clay into a ceramic-like substance which they use for the construction of their nest. Usually docile, unless instructed by a soldier for battle.

Fire Ant (Soldier) – The soldier variant of fire ants that have a much tougher exoskeleton and can spit an extremely hot and corrosive liquid. They are responsible for calling the workers to battle and have excellent coordination and battle tactics.

Fire Ant (Juvenile) – Freshly hatched fire ants with no assigned task. Will help around the colony where they can and grow into a particular variant based on the colony’s needs. They have a softer exoskeleton, but screech extremely loudly when under threat. All variants will converge to the location when a juvenile calls for help. Have a nasty surprise for anyone careless enough to kill them in one shot.

Aenon had not seen the queen or her guards since they went down the tunnel, which meant he had no idea how they fought or behaved. The one thing he did notice though was that the ants had extremely poor eyesight, but a very sensitive sense of smell. Multiple times Aenon had managed to get within spitting distance without melding into shadows, but they had never picked up his presence. Since the cloak suppressed his scent, he had taken it off once to see how they reacted. The workers got agitated but otherwise had no significant reaction. The soldiers, however, made a mad dash towards his location once they picked up his scent. He had immediately put on his cloak, but the soldiers patrolled the area for hours after.

He had managed to kill a few workers and soldiers that had wandered too far by themselves, and except for a few close calls, were easy to take down. When the other ants found the corpses, they just carried them back to the tunnels without much fanfare. Only once did a soldier investigate, and that was because Aenon had bled onto the corpse a bit.

The juveniles though, were a massive pain in his behind to fight. Any attack was followed by an extremely obnoxious and shrill scream that alerted every ant that was close by. The first time it happened, he had barely managed to escape. So, the next time he tried killing one in a single blow. Their shells were not hardened so it was easy to sneak up and backstab one of them right in the brainstem. It had died instantly, but the little bugger had violently exploded the next instant, spraying him all over with scalding hot viscera.

The hot corrosive liquid had eaten through most of his armor, except the cloak and mask, and burnt his skin all over. If not for his mask, he would have had half his face melted off. The excruciating pain of having half his skin melt into goo had almost made him lose consciousness. Which would have been a death sentence, since around 25 soldiers and 40 workers had congregated towards the dead body of the juvenile, well what was left of it anyways. He had barely managed to escape by the skin of his teeth, literally.

If not for the self-repairing feature of his armor, Aenon would have had nothing, but his cloak and mask left. It had taken two full days for him and his armor to recover after that. He gave the juveniles a wide berth ever since. He had continued to observe them from afar while he recovered, during which time they had managed to fortify their hive well. In place of a generic hole in the ground, there now stood a massive 20-foot-wide construct with multiple holes for entrances. Aenon didn’t have the opportunity to test the material’s hardness, but he doubted it would be that easy to break.

After he had fully recovered, he started thinking of his next steps. He could use magic to take on the inevitable horde, but he doubted he had enough mana to take them all on. Not to mention their utter disregard for their own safety when it came to defending their nest and their queen, rendered his soul magic moot. There was no way he could make any of them retreat. Thus, the only viable option was to create a diversion to keep most of the colony occupied, while he snuck in and faced the queen. But that too had its risks, since he didn’t know what the guards were capable of.

He glanced at the dam the ants had constructed, a rudimentary plan forming in his head. But first he needed some practice fighting the ants. He was sure to face numerous enemies once he entered the anthill, even if his half-baked plan worked. Therefore, he needed some close quarter fighting experience against multiple of them. He decided to trail a raid party and face them in open combat when they were sufficiently far away from the colony. His daggers had not seen much action lately, and he needed to balance out his Void Stalker class too.

His gaze fixated on the group of 3 workers and 2 soldiers that just left the anthill from one of its numerous entrances. They were heading straight north, towards the spot that was filled with those crab creatures they liked to hunt. He kept pace with them, keeping an eye out for any possible reinforcements. When he was certain there were none, he went around them to set up an ambush along their path.

The first thing he did was to use a physical barrier spell for some added protection from their projectile vomiting attack. The soldiers sometimes started the fight with it. The next issue he had to deal with was their fire nature and hard carapace. He started gathering mana in his hands while holding his twin daggers. He mixed in air and water mana wisps to form a thin layer of ice around them. He needed to somehow upgrade his daggers to face opponents other than goblins, but for now this would do. He maintained a steady stream of mana to maintain the frost at his blade’s edge.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

He waited patiently for the group to reach a chokepoint between two boulders. Once the group was in range, he descended on them like a demon from hell. He went for the two soldiers first, aiming for the joints where their natural armor was weakest. His slashing attack did some damage, but the main point wasn’t that. It left a thin layer of ice that restricted their joint movement. It would melt quickly, but that was all the time he needed to keep hounding them with more slashes.

The soldiers predictably spewed their viscous projectiles, but Aenon dodged them with ease. One of them managed to predict his movements and land a hit, but the barrier glanced off the blow like it was nothing. As the fight progressed, their movements kept getting slower. Each slash he managed to land added a thicker layer of ice around their joints. He weaved through their ranks like an untouchable shadow, avoiding their jaws by a hair’s breadth. If they caught him, he would be ripped apart within seconds. But eventually he managed to freeze at least two legs on each ant.

They tried moving around, but their movements were severely restricted. Even so, he probably had 5 minutes at most before their naturally hot bodies thawed the ice. Which is why he moved on to phase two. He unequipped his daggers and flexed his fingers, making a fist and getting into a fighting stance. Hard armor like theirs was very good against slashing damage, but not blunt force. And thanks to his ridiculous STR stat, and the unarmed component of his weapons skill, his fists were literally like battering rams.

He smiled at his prey, who were desperately trying to melt or shake off the ice from their joints. They tried spewing more hot liquid at him, but his barrier blocked it entirely. When he reached his first target, one of the soldiers, he aimed his punch at one of the legs that was not locked down with ice. With a sharp snap, it broke apart and fell to the ground. The ant shrieked in pain and tried biting his head off, but Aenon was already behind the other soldier.

With a boxer’s precision, he surgically aimed at their leg joints one by one. Either breaking them off entirely or shattering them. Within two minutes, all the ants were handicapped and struggling to maintain their weight on their remaining good legs. The entire area was a steaming hot mess by this point, and Aenon had to dodge the boiling pools of liquid on the ground from their wounds. He finally put them out of their misery by aiming for their heads, popping them like a balloon filled with steaming hot lava.

He stopped to look around at the carnage, assessing his upcoming plan. It essentially boiled down to three stages – distract the hive, engage the queen’s guard, kill the queen. He was sure the queen’s guard would have more tricks up their sleeves, and there was a strong possibility the queen may recall the entire colony from whatever distraction he created. But this was the best plan he had at the moment. It would rely heavily on how fast he could dispatch the queen, failing which he needed an exit strategy. But if he succeeded, then the threat level from the hive would fall considerably. Without a queen they wouldn’t be able to multiple endlessly, giving him enough time to whittle down their numbers. They may raise a new queen, but he hoped it would take time to do so.

He turned towards the ant colony, his plan coalescing with a firm resolve. It was going to be risky, but he had no other choice. At the rate the colony was growing, it would soon be out of his hands completely. It was now or never.

………………

Eskad

Eskad lay on the cold hard floor, while staring at the dark ceiling above. When he had killed Mave, their elf healer, he knew things were about to get messy. But he underestimated how bad it would get. That little rat was more devious than he ever imagined. He sighed in regret and anger, clenching his fists hard. A groan from somewhere to his right made him sit up in a hurry. He dashed forward on all fours, till he reached the bars of his prison cell.

“Are you alright, dear?” he asked in a worried tone.

“Ye… yes. I am ok. A little sore from sleeping on the ground, but nothing too bad, my love. What about you and the twins?” Elara’s voice replied from the cell across from his.

Eskad looked back towards the unconscious forms of his teammates. Much like himself, they were covered in bloodied wounds all over. The iron collar around their necks restricting their regeneration. But thankfully they were still breathing. He was just glad his wife hadn’t been at the receiving end of the beating.

“They are passed out, but otherwise ok,” he said in a reassuring tone.

“And you?”

“Bah. Gonna take a lot more than those wimps to injure me,” he said humorously to calm her down. He sat back down in relief, knowing that Elara was ok.

Things had turned bad fast when they turned in their report. Unfortunately, the guild leader and Lady Agatha weren’t present, being on some mission elsewhere. And so, the report was first received by the sniveling leader of the town. Eskad had not anticipated any backlash, since this was a guild matter, but what he didn’t know was that Mave had some under the table dealings with the town mayor. And so, he was surprised when the city guard showed up to arrest him and his team for murder.

At first, the entire guild was up in arms to protect one of their own and things were looking grim. Eskad had no choice but to surrender peacefully to avoid unnecessary bloodshed on the streets. He knew the mayor couldn’t do much till their trial, which couldn’t take place till the guild leaders were back. What he didn’t expect though, was being held captive in the mansion’s dungeon, and being interrogated for information. They had suppression collars placed on them, sealing off their abilities, and were repeatedly taken for questioning. Questions they refused to answer, earning them thorough beatdowns by the mayor’s henchmen. They had tried taking Elara for questioning, but Eskad had torn down the cell’s bars with a vicious punch. They never attempted that again.

“How much longer do you think the Lady would take to return?” Elara asked.

“Not sure. But I am hoping soon. The cowards are getting desperate, no telling what they would do when they know their time is up,” Eskad replied calmly.

“But what do they even want to know? You have given them an accurate report, except the parts which aren’t relevant to the mission,” Elara asked in confusion.

“It’s not about the mission. They are fishing for answers. They want to know how much we pieced together about Mave’s abilities and who else we mentioned it to. Much of their questioning is focused on that. I have a hunch the mayor has some sort of secret he wants to bury with us. If the guild leaders aren’t back, I think he might push for an expedited execution. These damned powers, I hope someone burns them all to the ground,” Eskad replied with fury.

“My, oh my. A perceptive one, aren’t you? And people say you are nothing but a brute,” an annoying nasal voice spoke from the darkness in a corner. Eskad jumped to his feet, ready for a fight.

“Oh, come now. No need for such hostilities. I am merely here for a casual chat,” a man with an impressive belly spoke while stepping forward into the light.

“What do you want, vermin,” Eskad said with gritted teeth. But he collapsed to the floor in pain, as the man retrieved a wand from his belt and pointed it at him.

“This is the problem with uncultured races. You never learn how to treat your betters. Did no one teach you how to address the mayor of a town you live in?” The chubby man said while gloating over Eskad as he struggled on the ground.

“Stop it,” Elara shrieked from her cell. But the man continued enjoying his work. He abruptly stopped after ten minutes.

“What… do… you… want?” Eskad asked laboriously.

“Hmmm? Oh, glad you asked. I want to know everything,” he said with a vicious smile and glee in his eyes.

Eskad stared back in defiance, but he knew that every man could be broken. He just hoped Lady Elara would return before he reached his limit.