Janet knew that as a servant of Life she was meant to have an unwavering reverence for all life, but the 100 or so ants barreling towards her were just too ugly to love. Their carapaces looked like they were covered in what looked like warts and tumors, a sight made worse by the fact that the Brutalizers were a meter wide at the head and four times as long.
The head-sized protuberances in their carapaces were a result of their advanced age. Fire Ants consumed and accumulated minerals over time, and the decades-old ants rushing her way hosted some of the highest concentrations.
They were ugly, yet fetched the highest market price of all their brethren due to those mineral-filled prominences. Ugly yet stupendously valuable. there was a moral lesson in there, somewhere.
Due to their absurd defenses, Janet had to attack the swarming insects one by one. A shadow construct snaked past rocks and debris and through [Shadow Bind], fused to one attacker’s shadow.
A simple yank did not do it. She felt as though her core was trying to tow a mountain. Janet had to pump 70 MP into that one shadow before her efforts bore fruit and the Brutalizer Ant at the head of the formation collapsed into a heap, its mana leaking from both core and the bulbs in its carapace that served as makeshift cores.
Ding! You have slain [Brutalizer Fire Ant – LV 20]
Boost in Experience gained for killing a higher level enemy
There was no level gained despite the difference in level, but that was to be expected.
As the sound of clacking appendages intensified, Janet wisely stored her kill and stepped back. She was outmatched, so she gave ground to one that could actually do the job.
Sylthis, dressed in a comfy-looking vest and tight-fitting pants that tucked into her boots, strode confidently like a queen into the battlefield. In her hand was a dark, heavy-looking saber.
Her eye was locked onto the approaching mini-horde as her foot tapped to an easy rhythm. Just before jumping into action, she glanced once at Janet, then nodded slightly as though to say “You’ve done well, now relax as I finish the rest.”
She did not need to rely on circuitous strategies to dispatch the insects. A single slash cleft a Brutalizer in two. A thrust saw another fall, while a third horizontal sweep of her weapon robbed three of the approaching giants of their legs.
Janet’s shadow still snaked about the dropping ants’ legs, but for a very different purpose than combat.
The Slayers really loved to waste money. The Brutalizers, of all Fire Ant species, were the most valuable simply because of how packed with treasure their carapaces were. Yet Sylthis just ripped through them like a shredder, destroying most of their value.
So, as Sylthis smashed a gigantic ant to pieces while pulping another’s head with a kick, Janet collected the dead into her storage.
That she was helping Sylthis move easier by clearing up the battlefield occurred to her, but this was her last day in the treasure-canyon. She would make the most of it.
Barely sweating or breathing any faster, the Cyclopean pointed her saber forwards. She was the prime navigator for the excursion.
Janet followed in the warrior’s steps, her eyes burning with envy at the show of strength.
To her back, Darius levitated in mid-air, his feet planted firmly on a flat pane of light. In the very depths of the canyon unreached by sunlight, his pane provided illumination, not that either of the women needed it much.
Sylthis had her sight which could pierce through all even in the depths of night. As for Janet… [Mana Sight] came with a few advantages. It allowed her to see the shadow mana in the air, and thus the contours of any objects within it.
The creatures that lived down here were all big blobs of fire mana, which also lent her rudimentary night vision more clarity.
Sylthis paused. There was an approaching ant from the front. “I think we found the cohort’s leader.”
Among the Fire ants, the Second Circle Caster Ants always travelled with a posse of attendants. Casters were tiny and physically feeble, which could make life inside the tunnels a bit difficult. The gigantic Brutalizers not only protected them from threats, they also helped the tinier ants excavate the resources they required.
The casters were experts at finding the minerals, so the cooperation was a win-win for both parties.
Sylthis held up a fist as the meter-tall ant turned in their direction. Janet stood still, and the light dimmed as Darius and his platform ascended to a higher altitude.
Looking closer, Janet could see that unlike the Red Ant evolutionary line that terminated at the Brutalizer, Caster Ant variants were like an entirely different species.
Their mandibles were tiny – useful only for sifting through material and little else. Their antennae were made of red crystal, and shimmering lines crossed their carapaces from head to backside. Just like the antenna, the lines were employed in a sensory capacity. Their carapace was just like juvenile Red Ants, smooth and slightly translucent.
The main difference, however, was the mana density of the Casters. While Red Ants ate minerals that increased their size and grew them to ridiculous sizes, Casters only fed on that which would improve their capacity for mana. Their cores were thus magnitudes more robust, as were the skills with the Affinity which was hinted at in their name.
Janet felt the mana gather at the ant’s mandibles. She expected the bolt to be tiny. After all, an ant was just an ant, regardless of genealogy. She was wrong.
From that diminutive form, a fireball roared forth. Its diameter was thrice the ant’s size.
For Sylthis, a skilled and experienced hunter of magical things, a fireball was child’s play. A transparent pane of pure force manifested in the spell’s path. The barrier was angled in such a way that the spell was deflected upwards.
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Following its path with awe in her eyes, Janet saw as Darius waved his hand… and the spell winked out of existence. He had utterly negated the spell.
Before another fireball could coalesce, Sylthis zoomed towards the tiny Fire ant and pierced its brain. She then lifted the tiny body like a lamb and handed it to a gawking Janet.
“Not as valuable as a Brutalizer, but there are a few glands in its abdomen that are used in alchemy.”
“…thanks,” Janet nodded and bowed her head as she stored the present. Shock was written all over her face. “What was that?”
“Teamwork,” Sylthis stated simply.
“No, not the spell deflection. The movement technique!” Janet wildly gesticulated at the spot Sylthis had just zipped to and from with speed that defied sense. The woman had turned into a streak of light, yet there had been no displacement of air, or more crucially, any sign of exertion on her features.
Janet had her [Mana Sight] on. Sylthis had not expended any mana.
“Oh, that’s a martial technique Pireus once taught me when I was about your age.” She paused for a moment, her eye searching through Janet’s insides in a way Janet no longer found creepy. “I’m not certain that your constitution can handle it, but we could give it a try.”
Before Janet could accept the offer of tutelage, Darius cleared his throat, urging them to break it up.
“We’ll try once we’re out of colony grounds,” the Cyclopean promised, and Janet’s face split into a smile. There was a dangerous glint of malicious glee in Sylthis’ eye that she missed completely.
“Wait…are you not going to eat that soul? I bet it’s powerful, considering the potency of the Caster Ant’s magic.”
Janet scowled into the darkness. She really wanted to gorge herself on the souls, especially since she knew more would be dropping along the way. It was her nature, after all.
And yet, “I don’t want to risk filling myself up on soul matter.”
“That can happen?”
“Yeah, especially with more potent souls,” she sullenly explained. “I can’t just devour an entire city, you know?”
And the rest of their incursion into the tunnels really was just like invading a city. Cohort after cohort of Brutalizers and their Caster came after them, and each time, Sylthis dispatched of them with the ease of a toddler squashing ants under their boot.
With a bitter taste in her mouth, Janet palmed [Void], cursing inwardly at her inability to activate its power to take and store souls.
Constructs of shadow cleared up the battlefield. Anything in contact with her mana could be shifted into her storage. Her mana extended to her shadow, so only a touch was needed.
As she played the enterprising miser, Sylthis showcased to her the sublimation of martial arts and magic. Barriers, piercing bolts of force, the occasional mana-clad blade, and even one instance of an accelerated ball of spit that cut through a Brutalizer like a bullet of water, were paired with sublime movement and precise strikes of her saber.
It was akin to watching a party of mages and warriors in action, their best qualities distilled into one impeccable avatar of war.
For the first time in her life, Janet found herself yearning for martial perfection. The movements, the arcs of the blade, the placement of Sylthis feet… it was a symphony in tune with nature’s heartbeat.
Janet felt herself take hold of her dagger, fully intent on trying to replicate even a fraction of a percentage of what she saw on display.
Darius cleared his throat and Sylthis stopped in her tracks after slashing through a Brutalizer’s thorax. “Could you stop imbuing your every movement with Mystery? The poor girl is getting drawn in.”
Janet felt as the fog of Insight cleared from her mind. Suddenly, the symphony disappeared, to be replaced by the reality of the battlefield. The ground was littered with pulverized Brutalizers and dissected Casters.
At the very back was a circle of Casters, the lines through their carapaces glowing like stars in intermittent yet synchronized bursts of light. Janet realized that not only had she not been clearing up the battlefield, she had been daydreaming while Casters gathered their efforts for a joint spell.
“What the hell, Syl?” she glared at the Cyclopean, fire in her eyes.
“You will be in fights where people go all out, Janet. Thousands of fights.” Her voice was flat, educating. “If this keeps happening, someone will take advantage of it.”
“So, you’re helping me build up a tolerance?”
“And show you how cool the wonders of the path of the warrior.” Sylthis smiled, totally ignoring the vitriol in Janet’s tone.
Seeing the futility of her argument, Janet sent constructs of shadow to collect the felled insects. Some Casters dispelled some of the shadows by blasting them apart with fire, but Janet just multiplied their number and focused on her duty.
Casters could utilize the mana stored in their subordinates’ shells to cast spells, so storing the Brutalizers deprived them of resources. Not that it helped much in the long run since they could also bend ambient fire into spells, but Janet wanted to do her part.
The Caster’s spell was completed. It was a sphere of roaring conflagration, its color straddling the divide between eye-searing vermillion and terror-inducing blue. Before Janet could revel in the Mysteries of the spell, it was launched towards the biggest threat in the chamber – Darius.
The man did not even flinch as yet another spell was picked apart with a simple gesture, its mana returning into the ambient flows before singeing a single hair. The dominance on display reminded Janet of Amurag and how her bolts had sizzled out of existence, utterly overwhelmed by the sheer might of his presence.
‘I’ll get there too. It’s just a mater of time, and making sure I don’t die.’
Like a well-oiled machine, Sylthis leapt back into action as the spell winked out. She zoomed into the midst of the Casters, her saber covered in a gyrating film of mana that simply cut through all resistance.
In a mere 10 seconds, the Caster Ants had transformed into lifeless bodies leaking hemolymph into the ground. That too was a precious ingredient and flavorant, so Janet quickly collected them.
As for Darius, he took position beside Janet after transforming his platform into a miniature sun and bathing the cavern in luminous white.
“Our target is just about to arrive,” he stated. “How do you suggest we proceed?”
“What do you mean?” Janet was honestly surprised she was allowed an opinion, especially right in the middle of combat.
“I assume you would like us to keep the target intact?” he gestured towards the meatgrinder that was Sylthis let loose.
“Yeah, don’t attack the target,” she said. “I need the soul perfectly intact.”
“That means you’ll have to overwhelm it yourself,” Darius stated as he lifted the three of them into the air.
From that vantage, they saw as a cohort made entirely of Casters entered the subterranean cavern from an adjoining tunnel.
The casters looked a lot different than any other ant Janet had seen so far. To begin with, their carapaces were covered entirely in the shimmery sensory lines Janet had seen in others of their kind. They were also about 20% bigger in size.
If her [Mana Sight] was correct, the ants could link perfectly with each other. Their shells twinkled in tandem like the neurons of a single brain, churning and shaping the mana around them into fantastic fractals and patterns.
And yet… they were not the biggest threat. Right in their middle, a tiny ant the size of a small dog levitated in the air. Janet’s target.
Almost immediately after their arrival, the reason Darius had lifted them into the air was made evident as the floor liquefied into lava in one go. In most places, the ground erupted in miniature volcanoes while in others, the lava gathered into long, snaking limbs that reminded Janet of her own shadow constructs.
The target had arrived, a uniquely potent variant of Fire Ant known simply as a Lava Spewer. According to Sylthis, less than 10 existed in the entire Havenhurst.
“Its [Talent] dominates all fire Affinity around it. Spells, Skills, ambient mana… even the mana inside the cores of those Casters.” Sylthis expounded, a hint of reverence in her voice. “When it comes to fire, Spewers are basically lesser versions of your owl.”
There were stars in Janet’s eyes. Her smile grew wider with every twinkle of the carapaces, every reorientation of the dense patterns in the ambient flows of mana, and the limitless effects she felt could be realized through those patterns.
Without needing to injure herself first, Janet felt her hunger awaken. The beauty on display called to her. She had to have that soul.
“It’s perfect.” Sylthis would reveal that Janet had not opened her mouth to speak.