Chapter 5 – Soul Master
Aenon hid in the shadow of the massive structure the ants had constructed. It looked like an anthill, with glossy ceramic white walls, and multiple streams of gigantic ants entering and leaving from the numerous entrances. He melded into the shadow whenever an ant passed him but remained outside most of the time. The ant’s weak eyesight, and his cloak’s ability to hide his scent, meant he didn’t need to stay within the shadow all the time. Just out of sight. It reminded him of the rogue-style games he used to play with his sister as a kid. Sneaking about while trying to stay in the blind spots of the enemies. The only difference was the ants didn’t have a particular pattern like the games. Thankfully, his soul sense gave him 360 degrees of vision around him, so he could stay one step ahead.
Now that he was in position, he waited. He had eroded one of the dam’s walls till it was barely holding back the water and set up a trap that was rigged to blow the weakened structure when an ant passed by it. The spot he had chosen would send water gushing towards the anthill, which he hoped would make the worker ants head over in a panic to seal. He had left a few false scent trails leading up to the trap from different directions, and now he just needed one of the ants to pick up on it. And soon enough…
BOOM
A loud explosion sent shockwaves along the ground, followed by a low rumbling, as a tsunami of water started leaking out of the dam. The initial wave washed away all the ants in the vicinity, and the water flowed towards Aenon’s location unabated. For a moment Aenon wondered if he had miscalculated, but then he had to duck into the shadows as another wave started heading his way from the opposite direction. Hundreds of workers, soldiers, and even juvenile ants started filing out from the anthill and rushed towards the oncoming water. The two colossal waves met at the exact location Aenon was at, and the entire area was engulfed in steam the next moment.
Aenon watched in fascination as the ants made an impromptu dam with their own bodies and diverted the flow away from their home. The water sizzled and boiled, as their bodies superheated to keep the water at bay. Finding his chance, he quickly navigated the shadow all the way to one of the entrances. His soul sense showed the area was clear of any ants, so he emerged to conserve his mana. Before any of the ants could turn around and see the interloper in their midst, he ran into the tunnels.
The insides were more impressive than what he expected. Smooth walls broke into multiple tunnels as the pathways bifurcated and converged to form a seemingly random patterned maze. He realized that this must be the second line of defense for the ants. Any intruder that used his diversion tactic would be hard pressed to navigate without getting lost. At least till the distraction ended and the ants poured back in from all sides. It was a good strategy and would work against most parties. But unfortunately, it had a major flaw. The ants obviously needed to navigate this maze themselves, which meant they had some way of reading the layout. The answer, Aenon realized was mana sense. More specifically, the ability to read the faint trails left by fire wisps.
There were some tunnels that had more of the stuff, while some had less or none. To test his theory, he went down a trail with no fire wisps, only to meet a dead end. He backtracked and started following the tunnel with the densest fire wisp trail. It went on and on, deeper into the ground. He considered giving up and backing off since it was going in too deep, when he finally detected some activity at the edges of his soul sense. But what he observed made him stop in his tracks.
There were thousands of soul signatures somewhere down the tunnel. They were all stationary except a group of five that were huddled close together and were moving like one. Aenon melded into the shadows, and creeped closer to the opening at the end of the tunnel. And the view was breathtaking. Eggs, too many to count, were scattered all over a large cavern. Each one was about 2 feet in diameter and was completely transparent. He could clearly see the baby fire ant wriggling within its confines.
Amidst the sea of neatly laid eggs, the queen was treading along while laying down more. She was still white in color, but was dragging a bulging sack behind that wasn’t there the last time Aenon saw her. The four queen’s guards had her boxed in and were walking in step with her. Aenon cast identify to check the levels of the group.
They were much higher level than the other fire ants, who averaged about 35, and the guards were powerhouses. Things could get dicey real fast if he was not careful. This raid of his was more of a covert assassination than a full-frontal assault. He couldn’t afford to get trapped on his way out, so he had to avoid a prolonged confrontation. The goblins were an exception, since they were generally weak, but the same tactic against a cohesive unit like the fire ants would be a disaster.
He kept a close eye on the five ants, hoping to get a glimpse of what their capabilities were. But unfortunately, they didn’t use any of their abilities as they went about their business. He could detect a faint ground vibration from above, meaning the dam was not fixed yet, but he was running out of time. He needed to move fast, and get away faster before reinforcement came in. He moved into the cavern cautiously, keeping as far away from the eggs as he could. He had learned his lesson with the juveniles, and didn’t want the possibility of an exploding egg to ruin his assassination attempt.
He probably could have used an earth spike spell, or something long ranged to attack, but he had a hunch it would not work. He needed to get as close to his target to make sure his chances were higher. He started gathering mana in his twin daggers, and creeped closer at a snail’s pace. He needed to make the first blow count, and ideally finish it in one shot. If he failed to that, he would be up against 4 over-leveled opponents of unknown abilities to contend against. He made sure to keep his hands tucked inside his cloak to hide the mana signature. The entire cavern was filled with fire wisps, with only trace amounts of other types. Sadly, there were no water wisps at all, meaning he couldn’t create any ice here. But if his plan worked, he didn’t need any other wisp type. Since fire was good at one thing: explosions.
He started stuffing as much fire, air, and space wisps into his daggers as possible. He wasn’t particularly focused on the ratio, since all he wanted was a gigantic explosion. But he didn’t want to be anywhere near the place when the thing went off. As he got within 5 feet of the group, one of the guards sensed something was off. It started chittering angrily, making the other guards make a defensive wall around the queen. The reaction time was truly impressive, and Aenon was glad he didn’t try a longer ranged attack. Their formation was airtight and had no openings.
Too bad for them, Aenon was much closer than they expected. Aenon cast Kingdom of Darkness and released his soul presence simultaneously. The guards saw their opponent for a mere fraction of a second, before darkness engulfed them, along with a feeling of utter dread. The feeling didn’t send them running away in fear, but it did disorient them massively. Which made them move a fraction of an inch out of sync, thus giving a minute gap in their formation. A gap that Aenon used to devastating effect.
Two daggers flew into the small opening before the guards could close it. They did manage to seal the gap, but after the daggers went in. Aenon didn’t wait to see how effective the attack was, as he hightailed out of the area like his life depended on it. And he was so glad he did.
BOOM
A truly massive explosion occurred behind him, but he didn’t feel any shockwave, making him turn back in confusion. His eyes went wide at what he saw. The sealed enclosure the guards had created had completely contained the blast, and none of the guards had moved an inch despite the force behind it. But that also meant the queen was subjected to the entire concussive force within a very small space. He got a kill notification, along with a series of title prompts which he absolutely ignored for now.
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The guards moved away from their queen, at least what was left of her. When they stepped forward to check on their monarch, all they found was a pile of viscous goo and some shattered carapace parts. They stared blankly for a second before letting out a massive shriek.
Skrreeeeeeeeeek
“Uh oh,” Aenon said in a worried tone as the guards turned in his direction with red in their eyes. They looked exactly like Eskad’s eyes when he went berserk. And in their maddened state one of the guards stepped on an egg. What followed was why Aenon was glad he had retreated right after the attack, and that he had stayed away from the eggs.
BANG
The egg exploded into a shower of bright red sparks and a liquid, which Aenon was pretty sure would have burned through his skin if he was anywhere close by. The liquid splashed over the guards but had no effect on them as they continued charging at him. The rampaging ants stomped through the room, setting of a chain reaction of minor blasts that slowly radiated outwards.
Aenon was already down to a quarter of his mana pool, but he still decided to dive into the nearest shadow quickly. In the nick of time too, since the guards crashed into the wall a second later. His mission complete, he started navigating through the shadows as quickly as he could and started moving upwards towards the exit. The furious ants started pounding into the walls, sending shockwaves along the entire anthill structure.
Aenon didn’t have enough mana to move all the way to the top while being melded into the shadows, so once he was out of sight, he emerged and started running at max speed. Thankfully his INT stat was high enough that he remembered the way he came from. After several twists and turns, he finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. He sensed an avalanche of soul signatures heading in, which meant his window to escape was shrinking fast. He ran ahead with new vigor and dove into a shadow as the first of the ants entered the tunnel he was in.
He moved through the shadow and finally exited the anthill. What lay ahead was absolute chaos. The water from the dam was still not plugged and there was a wall of ants trying to keep the water out. Only a few of the ants had retreated into the tunnels, perhaps due to the vibrations from the guard’s attacks that even Aenon could sense.
Aenon paused in confusion for a moment. He hadn’t anticipated the damage to the dam to be this massive. And he had expected them to close it by now. Shaking his head, he decided to retreat to a safer location first. He was running low on mana, and this wasn’t the place to figure out what was going on. He started running around the large ant wall towards the dam. He needed to get to the other side and hide somewhere to recover his strength.
But he skidded to a halt when he reached close to the dam. It finally made sense what was keeping the leak from being plugged, and why the ants had not retreated earlier. There was a party of adventurers who were keeping the ants at bay, ensuring the water kept flowing out and flooding the area around the anthill. Aenon detected at least 9 people of varying strengths, with the strongest one being far above Eskad’s level.
Aenon snuck closer to get a better look, and cast identify on the massive man who was singlehandedly keeping the ants at bay using his tower shield. He wasn’t as big as Eskad, but his ferocity as he wielded that shield, and a massive hammer spoke volumes about his expertise.
None of the ants could get around him towards his party members, who were dishing out massive amounts of damage using ranged spells and attacks. Aenon found a hiding spot and kept observing the fight from as close as he dared, without giving away his location. He was so focused on the fight that he jumped back in alarm when a female voice spoke from behind him.
“Your assassination mission was a success, I assume?” said the green haired woman who had snuck up on him without a sound. What worried him the most was she had completely bypassed his soul sense.
Aenon drew his daggers from his inventory, where they had returned after he left the anthill. But he was aghast at what he saw. His daggers were horribly twisted and warped. He immediately switched them out for a much cheaper quality set he had salvaged from the village. He would worry about fixing his daggers later, he had a much bigger threat in front of him.
“You are a cautious one. I like that,” the lady said with an amused smile. She looked him over, studying him. So Aenon did the same.
Aenon tightened his grip on the daggers. She was as strong as the tank, if not stronger. But his soul sense still didn’t detect her, even when he saw her standing right before him. Her eyes went wide as she seemed to have realized something, a spark lighting up within them.
“A fledgling soul mage, huh? Now isn’t that a rare treat. But why can’t I see your level or class details? A rare artifact perhaps?” she said, her smile widening.
Aenon didn’t like where this was going. He needed to get away from her. In desperation, he unleashed his full soul presence, trying to disorient her so he could make his escape. The area of effect was much larger than he wanted, affecting even the ants and the adventurers who were fighting. The sounds of battle ceased, as every fighter on the field froze in their tracks for a moment. Everyone, except the mage and the tank, who was looking around in confusion.
The ants were the first to recover, as they continued their onslaught. Since the other eight members were frozen in fear, the tank struggled to hold back the tide of ants. But he did manage it somehow. Unfortunately for Aenon, except for stumbling back in surprise, the mage had no other reaction to his presence. Her smile had vanished though, and she had a deep frown on her face.
“Calling you a fledgling would be wrong. I have never seen someone so green about soul attacks, have such a strong presence before. Do you mind pulling back your aura? You are paralyzing my team, and making it impossible for them to fight,” she asked with a deep thoughtful look.
Aenon didn’t sense any hostile actions from her, but without his soul sense, he couldn’t read her emotions either. He did pull back his soul presence though, as the tank was losing ground bit by bit. The moment he leashed his presence, the adventurers collapsed to the ground in relief. But soon they stood back up and continued supporting the tank.
“Thank you,” the female mage said with a bow. She assessed the battlefield but kept a close eye on Aenon. He considered making a run for it, but doubted he could go far. Not to mention, now that the shock had worn off, he was starting to piece together who the person opposite him might be.
He relaxed considerably and sat cross legged on the ground, entering a meditative state to recover his mana faster. He didn’t know what direction the upcoming conversation would go in, but he needed to be at his best in case he needed to run.
After about thirty minutes, the ants finally started pulling back towards their nest. The adventurers standing behind the tank started cheering. Within minutes, the ants filed away and went down their tunnel, before collapsing them. There was no way into the anthill anymore. Aenon sensed the tank approach, so her ended his meditation and stood up. His mana wasn’t back to full, but it would have to do.
“What do we have here, Agatha?” the man asked in a loud voice as he stopped before Aenon. He gave Aenon a cursory glance, making eye contact for a brief second. He flinched back but had no other outward response. Even the mage, Agatha, had minimal reaction to his mask’s passive. Although she did avoid eye contact as much as possible.
“Ashryn,” Aenon said in a polite tone while extending a hand. He had come up with this fake name to match the ashy grey color of his eyes. He had deduced who these people were and had to approach with caution. He didn’t want to create more enemies, especially from the leaders of his neighboring city.
The tank looked at his hand before shaking it vigorously. He had a very firm grip, and if not for his STR stat being what it was, would have bruised his hand. The man raised an eyebrow in appreciation, probably not expecting him to shake his hand without flinching.
“Guild Leader Eryndor Stormrune,” he responded before adding, “Mind taking off that mask. It’s annoying not making eye contact. Gives me an itch every time I try looking at you.”
Aenon hesitated before turning to the mage. He could clearly feel the man’s soul, and it gave no warning bells. But the mage on other hand…
“Sigh. He will not remove it till I uncloak my soul,” the mage said with an eyeroll. “We have a soul mage on our hands Eryndor.”
The tank took a step back and clutched his hammer in a battle stance. Aenon sensed fear and caution flooding out from the tank’s soul.
“Identify yourself,” he barked in a commanding tone.
“I already did,” Aenon responded with narrowed eyes. He too stood at the ready with his daggers.
“Lower your weapon, Eryndor. You don’t want to provoke him,” Lady Agatha said in a warning tone.
“What? You don’t think I can take this guy on?” the tank replied furiously.
“Oh, you absolutely can, you big buffoon. But not without taking heavy losses,” she said while pointing at the other party members who had come over to see what the commotion was about.
“Its 10 against 1, Agatha. What can he even do?” the tank replied defiantly.
Agatha was about to speak up but suddenly froze. Aenon couldn’t read her emotions, but he didn’t need to. The terror was quite clear in her eyes. Aenon turned to the tank, a cold look in his eyes.
“Wrong. It is 8 against 10,” he said in a cold tone.
A roiling black mass converged towards them from the horizon at blistering speeds. The next moment, seven hulking figures with cold grey eyes stood behind Aenon. The biggest of them took a step forward, and barked once making the entire adventuring party, including the tank and the mage take a step back.
“And numbers mean nothing when fighting shadows”, Aenon added while unleashing his soul presence again.