Kalle had not even made it further than down the hill before he was forced to stop and admit he was not going to make it into town to help out. Even returning up to the main house left him sweating and gasping for air.

Thankfully he was helped from feeling useless by an approaching squad of ant warriors who decided that the isolated orchard was a prime choice to target; which made Kalle somewhat regret his earlier proclamations of their attackers' obvious cowardice.

Luckily they could not get inside the building to reach him, due to a Skill of Liam’s called [Farmer's Sanctuary]–it made the place turn damn near into a fort–so unless you had magic, fire or something else to cause sustainable damage, you were not likely to drain the Skill in anything short of hours.

Kalle had used his regular old [Wailing Bolt] at first, and while it had the creatures hesitating for a while, it was not enough–not after they all seemed to suddenly get mentally whipped into charging past, despite no verbal communication taking place–as they attacked the building straight on, since they were just too large to easily pass by the doors.

Kalle gathered his meagre strength for a rush to make it up the stairs and onto the roof.

Then once he made it out to where he could safely get an angle; he charged the Spell and fired off his newer version–and the struck ant immediately acted as if it had been set on fire.

The attack was a mental one, so it wasn't even a specific part, the ant was entirely convinced it was on fire from its every tarsus and up to its head.

He managed to hit another one, and by then the first was already running away in desperate search of water, or even death.

But that was when he heard two of the warriors scrambling behind the building, trying to get on the roof to reach him. The brutish thing came across the ridge of the roof and almost snapped up his arm in its huge mandibles before Kalle figured out what to do.

He dodged over the edge, engaging for a hot second in a gut wrenching fall, but thankfully landing in the small flower bed; Kalle scrambled up quick, he’d gotten lucky and landed right in front of the main door.

The two ants he had scared off had left that portion of the house open, and he just managed to roll inside before the remaining warriors on the ground snapped him up.

Back inside and feeling like he was about to faint; Kalle was even more careful from then on, and so it still took him close to half an hour, but eventually he had gotten an angle on five of the crazed ants and sent them racing off, soundlessly screaming.

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The final one broke in fear of the seemingly unending barrage of [Wailing Bolts] and then Kalle could finally collapse in a pile to be found later.

When he passed out it was with a smile on his lips, because the System had decided to reward his efforts then and there, and hopefully he was still barely ahead of Harold.

[Power gained - level 7: Esperlock]

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Having been routed by a Human village, and with barely any spoils to show for it–it left Kcelebri, the royal Mantis, furious–It was unacceptable failure from one such as he: a Commander schooled by a truly prestigious society on the rise; known for raising promising children from the sack to Assignment.

That said, the candidates sent out were numerous, and they could not all get lucky enough to pick the right targets and progress in their careers.

Kcelebri had already failed two missions this summer… A third straight mission ending in a bust raid, with no notable victories to speak of… It was a death sentence; for his career. Near to the point he would have rather charged the line of Humans mindlessly than go back to face this fatal blow to his formerly promising professional trajectory.

Of course the stupid beasts who had failed him were no better off.

If it weren't for the circlet granted him by the Matriarchs he would not even have been able to communicate with the lesser caste. They would not be executed, nor starved; but they would remain at the very bottom of their already low caste for quite a while longer now, likely their lifetime, and such circumstances were far from an enviable existence.

When the ant foraging-party returned weeks later to Hive Mater near empty-handed it did not cause a big stir. The society knew well that each raid was a gamble, and the ones that failed made up for it in losses.

It was an alien system; but the quotas to fill were dependent on the overall number of members of the Hive that were available, after all. Deaths were a failure, but also the perfect excuse for not meeting expectations.

As for the squad who disobeyed their commander and claimed to have been set on fire; Their excuses were not accepted, since no wounds could be found. Within hours they were set for pruning.

While the royal Mantis commander was demoted and forced to find a different Hive to render his CV at.