VZZZ!
The Lava Ants erupted like a bomb exploding, and like wasps to a disturbed nest, they swarmed Alex, paying no heed to the other agents.
Startled, Helzar hissed. Clicking his mandibles in frustration, he listened to the static voice inside his head.
“Fuck off!” Helzar glowered at the pompous queen.
Helzar gave a snarky reply before using his mental energy around his head, blocking energies from invading his mind.
‘Having been gone from magic wars for too long, I've forgotten to keep my defenses up,’ Helzar scolded himself, before laughing in mockery.
‘The Lava Queen wants to fight Alex? Hah! Goodluck, you'll need it,’ Helzar glared at the Lava Queen. While he hated the Lava Queen ordering him around—and he was complying—he kept a cool head.
In Helzar's view, Alex was growing too rapidly. Helzar had noticed that Alex was twice as strong as he was during their last encounter!
‘I don't know if he's a genius, or if he's using other means. Either way, Alex is a dangerous opponent even for the entire Swarm,’ Helzar put a point on his thoughts.
“Zhar!” Helzar called out, catching Zhar's attention like bait to a fish.
‘Yes, my lord?’ Zhar inquired, speaking inside Helzar's mind. Unlike the Lava Queen's intrusive way of conveying her thoughts, Zhar's mental link with Helzar was forged by the latter himself.
There was no discomfort at all!
“Let's go. Reap more souls, and feast ‘till all remaining are bones!” An aura of blue rippled from Helzar's body, before turning into a thin fabric of mist.
With his laughter, a blue mist engulfed the surrounding area!
‘As you wish,’ Zhar flexed his wings, his body aching with the sudden boost of energy rejuvenating him!
‘It shall be done, my lord. All that will remain are bones!’
BUZZ!
The next second the Lava Ants took flight for Alex's skin, the Swarm bloomed into the air. As though thousands of years worth of dust was blown by a tornado, the Swarm flew high, before rocketing down toward the Agents!
Alex narrowed his eyes, “Be careful,” he warned. Brandishing his spear, he made a cut, before twisting it to a slice. Killing hundreds of Lava Ants in one motion, Alex felt no delight.
“Stay together, and protect each other,” Alex said, before jumping into the Lava Ant's embrace!
“Chief!”
Alarmed, but keeping their calm, the Elite Agents gave Alex a final glance before keeping their eyes forward.
A net, a shield, a sword, a spear, a knife, a scythe. With all sorts of weapons held in their hands, the agents recalled their training with Alex.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
‘Focus on yourself. Find the source of your strength, and pull on it. Grab whatever you can, and let it out, manifest it!’
FWOOOSH!
It was a small breeze at first, but soon turned into a powerful gale blowing against the Swarm, forcing them to halt!
Despite the weakness enveloping their bones and soul, the Agents persevered, resisting Helzar's Devouring Mist and bowering the power within their souls!
“MAGIC! IT'S FUCKING MAGIC!”
Helzar felt a shiver run down his exoskeleton. The cold air caused by the mystic energy caused him to remain wary and alert. Retracting most of the Devouring Mist back, Helzar focused it toward the twenty two Agents he was facing against.
‘They’re using Cultivation Magic. But how?’ Although confused, Helzar kept his worries to himself.
“Zhar, do not recklessly charge forward. Be agile, swift, and decisive. Losses are certain, but don't lose too much.”
Helzar focused on his soul too. The Agents found how to use Cultivation Magic, but Helzar had the Gluttony Contract too!
‘Eat everything, and take everything!’ Helzar recalled the lessons he learned prior to death.
His soul throbbed, before coming to a stop like a heart that stopped beating. Helzar's mind was energized with energy, but his soul grew noticeably weaker. His soul will return to normal, as long as Helzar took everything back and returned it to his soul!
Even if he can't, he can always eat more to regain its former luster.
Soon, the mist was no more. Thin blue strings connected to the Agents’ foreheads like a puppeteer would to his puppets, making them all tremble, feeling like throwing up their organs.
With the concentrated effects of the Devouring Mist, the Agents drowned in pain. Their eyes turned bloodshot, and blood rushed through their noses.
“Do not falter, keep your eyes sharp,” one of the Elite Agents said, and the rest followed his command. Helzar noticed this too, making that Elite Agent his first target.
“Destroy their order,” Helzar said, and Zhar nodded beside him. At the same time, Zhar yanked the three centimeter Motherbug beside him and Helzar and flew faster toward the Elite Agent!
“Zhar!” Helzar’s eyes seemed to grow wide, seeing Zhar inch closer toward the Elite Agent's neck. The Elite Agent was wielding a shield, and he was primed to raise it up.
“Fuck,” Helzar swallowed his rage. The already slow moving seconds seemed to grow slower.
Helzar yelled, his wrath poking the brains of everyone who heard it. Not even the Swarm were spared from his rage, but unlike the Agents and Lava Ants—bar the Lava Queen—who were startled, the Swarm only flew quicker!
BZZZ—
Finally, arriving like a flying wall from the sky, the Swarm engulfed the Agents just as Zhar cut open his target's neck!
SHA!!!
Zhar hissed, pushing the Motherbug deep under the Elite Agent's neck before flying away—!
SLICE—SPLATTER!
“Master, are you okay?” A familiar voice entered Helzar's ears, but it was drowned out by the sight before him.
Zhar's body was cut in half, metallic blue blood leaking from both halves. Giving out one last cry, Zhar's eyes glowed brightly with his sacrifice.
‘My lord, the Swarm will continue to rise.’
Time returned to usual, seconds ticking by like droplets of water. Helzar felt his mind running cold, the chill reaching his seething rage and freezing it eternally.
“Zhar. You disappointed me,” Helzar said, his voice deep and monotone. His mind was linked with only one of his insects. Not Zhar, and not the Motherbug that Zhar worked so hard to plant inside the human's neck.
No, that Motherbug was sliced in half too, “saving” the Elite Agent's life.
“For the Swarm, everything has a price,” Helzar came to a stop. He was protected by tens of millions of Spawns all buzzing around him, daring anyone to come close. Those who did were repaid by near death in mere moments!
Helzar's voice trembled, and the insect he was linked to shook with life. It was an egg, an egg buried inside the human's neck. It wasn't a Spawn egg nor an Eater egg, it was a Motherbug egg!
SQUIRM!
The egg uncontrollably twitched, countless mouths erupting from its skin.
BITE—
Scratch…
With it biting the meat around it, the Elite Agent found his neck itchy. Scratching it sent waves of discomfort to the egg, making it squirm even more!
SQUELCH…CHH!
Eight legs sprouted out of its skin, leaking out blue blood and mixing it with the Agent's crimson blood. The itchiness grew in the Agent's neck, but he couldn't focus on it. He was being enclosed by millions of Spawn, and his fellow Agents couldn't give him any support!
PUCH!
The young Motherbug twitched, before more legs sprouted all over its body! With a final total of twenty two legs, the Motherbug matured to adulthood, the majority of its body being its abdomen.
It was five centimeters long!
Helzar pushed all his mental energy to the Motherbug, releasing his hold of the Devouring Mist. From when the Motherbug was an egg until it matured, only seven seconds passed.
The Agents let out sighs of relief seeing the strings attached to their foreheads disappearing. They all grouped up, guarding each other's backs when they found an anomaly.
“ARGHHH!!!!!”
One of them wasn't with them, he was caught by the Swarm with thousands of Spawns crawling underneath his body! The Agent's skin squirmed as though spiders were living inside him, scrambling about and devouring the entirety of his flesh!
In mere moments, the Elite Agent plopped to the ground with his skin still squirming. His eyes have lost their luster, and his body was as sloppy as a blood filled balloon.
POP! POP! BURST!!!
Bursting like the balloon he was, hundreds of spawns arose from the Elite Agent of literal skin and bones. The Spawns were accompanied with traces of blood on their exoskeletons, their glares fixed at the remaining Agents.
They were all three centimeters big, and there were dozens of thousands of them!
With the newly born Spawns joining the battlefield, Helzar watched as the hundreds of three centimeters Motherbugs ate the Agent's skin. Helzar felt his mind clearing by a bit with the scene.
Seeing the mummified, mutated Motherbug at the center of the Elite Agent's cervical spine, Helzar retracted his mental energy. Having its silver lining cut by her own creator, the Motherbug died at last, having fulfilled its life.
“For the Swarm.”