Chapter 31 - Ant army

His strong concentration had blinded him to the coming of another large group of ants that arose from deeper within the tunnel. He noticed them too late as his sense of safety close to the unmoving white giants had blinded him to this possibility.

The ants were now all higher graded with most being strong grey cores. He got to his feet in a flash and let the inner barrier construct crumble as he opted to use the already abundant mana in his body to strengthen himself. The first of the ant wave was upon him a second later.

He had no time to conjure any weapon and simply used his mana-infused fist to strike the closest ant in its head. He knew that his soul mana hadn’t had time to replenish yet and even if he had enough, switching would take too long while being swarmed. Adam took a step back after his first punch since the creature didn’t seem to be damaged from his attack.

He glanced behind the ant and saw a line of insects all charging towards him. They appeared to have formed a wall with their bodies that blocked his ability to sidestep them. Within another second, two more ants broke from the line and joined the attacking ants while the position they held was immediately refilled.

Adam knew that he would have trouble escaping with these three ants attacking him so he fused his muscles with all the remnant mana in his body and pushed off the ground in a rapid leap. He jumped up at the first ant who was a little taller than a human and struck its neck with his knee while grabbing an antennae on its head to swing his body onto its back. He felt something break on impact with his knee and the ant's head swung downwards, causing him to be flown to the left of the creature's body. He seized the unexpected opportunity as he used the momentum to empower his fist aimed at the second ant.

The punch was definitely powerful thanks to his mana-empowered arm, but it failed to hit a vital point and instead landed on one of the creature's front legs after it moved to the side to avoid him. It wasn’t ideal but would definitely encumber its future movement so he didn’t attack it further. He landed back on the ground and turned to the third giant ant. As he did so, he noticed a change in the wall of ants that covered the width of the tunnel.

The closest ants at the front of the formation were rushing him while maintaining their line. As a result, they resembled an arrowhead aiming straight for Adam.

Adam's mind suddenly cleared as if he had been in some sort of trance this whole time. He glanced at the fallen ant with its neck broken before turning and running in the opposite direction. He was confused about what just happened, he didn’t like fighting and always used long-ranged spells when he needed to do so. Fighting a creature much stronger than him up close had never been appealing to him, but in that moment, while taken off guard and unprepared by the ants, his blood had screamed at him and his body had moved on its own.

He was never very acrobatic but just now, he had lunged at a deadly predator without hesitation and performed a feat he would have believed himself incapable of only minutes earlier. His soul mana had proven extremely deadly at devastating mid-ranged attack so the feeling that had overcome him was strange.

He didn't think about it too hard though as he ran up the tunnel in hopes of escaping from the overwhelming number of ants on his tail. His mana-boosted legs made him about as fast as the six-legged creatures so he wasn't gaining much distance. He formed two floating mana blades as he ran and sent them flying behind him without even aiming. He heard a screech amongst the loud stampeding noises after his spell impacted the creatures.

He didn't have time to conjure any more before he was pushed to the side by a powerful leg swipe. The third attacking ant from before had caught up to him. He stumbled to the side as fear crept in, if he fell now, he would die. Adam found himself in a similar life or death situation as with the giant centipede on the beach but refused to simply run away infest. He had gotten stronger and survived so much already. He reached for his soul mana but couldn’t commit to the move as the second attack of the ant was upon him.

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He abandoned the thought of using his soul mana as he locked eyes with the attacker. Before he knew it, he was leaping to the side without really knowing why. His body reacted automatically to an unseen threat but a millisecond later, the ant's mandibles slashed with unusual speed at the spot he was standing at before his leap.

He used the opportunity of a missed strike to counterattack as the stone beneath his feet cracked from the force of his jump. He practically teleported in front of the recovering ant as his fist descended on the creature's head. Once again, a strong warning resounded in his mind as he flung himself backward into a backflip while still hurtling toward the ant.

The creature's antenna narrowly passed in front of him. The ant had obviously been better at boosting itself with mana since two mana-enhanced attacks had almost got him. He wasn’t scared at that moment but rather angry. Angry that this ant had been so close to killing him. It was just an overgrown insect, unlike the true fear he felt from the vastly stronger red demon. He forced a blast of mana out of his hand to readjust his position mid-air as he clobbered the big insect with a mana-fused punch to its eye.

A wet sound could be heard as his arm went straight through the ant's bulging black eye with no resistance. He once more blasted himself backward with a mana burst from inside the ant's eye which caused him to be blasted backward but also the ant's head to suddenly inflate as its body suddenly tensed before the creature collapsed.

Adam landed on the ground and heard the ever-closer sound of the wall of ants charging at him. He once more reached for his soul mana but stopped short of switching his core to the ethereal mana. Instead, he conjured a blade of mana in his right hand and faced the coming charge, fear had all but vanished as a fire burnt in his chest. He had just discovered something fascinating and needed to test it further.

If someone had been watching the following scene, they would likely be extremely confused, as Adam's actions seemed completely out of left field. Ever since arriving on this world, he had been running and cowering from any direct confrontations, he appeared to be a lost human desperate for survival, and he of course was to a certain extent but what he was doing now upended all those trends.

He ran head-first into the small army of giant ants with only a simple mana blade in his hand. One would assume that he had lost his mind and that a horrible death was the only thing that awaited him. But as Adam reached the line of ants barring him access to the path further into the nest, he spun and dodged seemingly at random as no attack was aimed at him, or at least, the dodge wasn’t a response to an attack, it was an anticipation.

From an outsider's perspective, it would look like Adam could see a second into the future as his evolved body jumped and twisted from and to the different ants as his blade stabbed and slashed the creature's necks and other vital points. He looked like he had been possessed by the spirit of a ninja.

Adam's mind was working overtime processing information at a dizzying speed, it would have caused him a migraine if not for his magically enhanced mind. He could sense the ant's intentions and planned attacks before they happened. It was like reading the body's movement to anticipate their actions but scaled to eleven.

He felt a strong feeling from the giant ants, a familiar sensation that he had once desperately tried to suppress. No longer, he embraced the sensation and listened to its warnings as he used his superhuman strength and agility to outmaneuver the large insects. Each movement of his foes revealed more about their intentions than any person should be able to deduce.

The ant wall had been broken as he evaded and counterattacked. The insects no longer stayed in formation but rather all lunged at him in hopes of crushing him with numbers. Adam wasn't even thinking about techniques or tactics as he fatally injured ant after ant. Despite the seemingly overwhelming numbers encircling him, he couldn't help but smile.

The ants had powerful limbs, their mana infused strikes would definitely break a bone or two if they landed. He used his main advantage to avoid being encircled, he leaped into the air and jumped from back to back since the ant's couldn't do much to him other than attempt to grab him with their mandibles. His mind warned him of their every intended movement before a single muscle on the creatures had even moved.

A clarity that he hadn't felt since a child had filled his mind as he moved through the air. Several ants had died and their formation had been broken but yet they continued to rush at him with no consideration for their own safety. The ant he was currently clinging to was stabbed in the back by its neighbors in a failed attempt to kill Adam.

Twenty minutes passed as Adam picked off the large insects one by one until all of them were dead. He was low on stamina and breathing heavily but otherwise perfectly fine. An unpleasant yellow liquid covered most of his body and the ground as it leaked from the corpses. He had to conjure a couple different mana blades after they shattered or weakened but mainly he used his mana for constant strengthening. However, simple mana enhancement of his mind and body wasn't the reason for the event that had just unfolded, the real reason was the faint buzzing feeling in the very back of his mind, a feeling not too dissimilar to the one he gets when his status screen changes.

He stayed crouched down while catching his breath but wasn't really paying much attention to his breathing, instead, memories of his childhood flashed in his mind. The words of the God and his new understanding all merged together into a single truth that changed everything about his life. A single truth that he had always known in the back of his mind but done everything to suppress.

“It was my fault, It was all my fault…”

For the first time in decades, he slumped over and began to cry. He didn't cry for himself or his situation, nor did he do it for his mother specifically. He cried at what could have been, the life he could have lived with his family, if his mother hadn't died and his father had not changed. He internally cursed himself before screaming aloud into the dark tunnel.

He had spent so long burying his memory, his mind had buried this feeling so deep and that now that the floodgates had opened, the simple truth of what happened that fateful day threatened to destroy his mind with guilt and sorrow.