The story he heard filled him with more dread. From what he was told, this new group of people was a definite enemy. The description narrated by Cyrus of men dressed in Chivon Elk hide, and Damere Lion fur only narrowed down to one tribe of people. They were the people living in the Dread Woods, even more of a northerner than Weisebraun who governed the northern lands. A tribe of barbaric humans with culture and morality far different than the people of Brittania. One of the clear opposites was the one most disgusted by Zach. ‘Why it had to be the fucking cannibals,’ Zach thought.

At first, he opted to leave those two to fend for themselves as he reckoned they could handle it even against other humans, but after hearing about ‘that’ tribe, Zach had no other choice. He ran his hardest underneath the canopies of trees, following the vague directions given by Cyrus. The cuts on his forearm were still fresh as Zach boosted his stats, quickening his feet across the forest floor. But the darkness of the forest was too much.

He couldn’t see a thing. Even the moonlight could not help aid his vision as the leaves were thick, barely letting any of the moonlight to sieve through. It was the most infuriating not being able to see, and he wished he just stayed back on top of the battlements. But he didn’t have a choice. From what he read, the tribe of Saultix was a persistent bunch of people, especially regarding their hunting, and of course, what they hunted were humans. Their very favorite.

Zach stopped on his track. The knit between his eyebrows grew deeper as he swore he heard something. It was a buzz. Subtle, but reminded him of summer. Then screams overlapped against the buzz as the sound of humans grew closer. Zach quickly moved. Running up the trunk of a tree, and landing softly on top of a tree branch. He strained his eyes, trying to see under the darkness. Vague silhouettes emerged in his sight as they ran with their panicking voices that did not stop.

As they grew close, he vaguely saw their appearances. Matching with the description Cyrus told him. An urge to kill these monsters in human flesh gurgled in his heart, but he stopped himself. There was another monster lurking in the darkness, something he should be far more worried about.

The buzzing noise grew louder, and he swore he felt the tree start to shake underneath his foot. He balanced himself, waiting for whatever might appear, and his anticipation was not betrayed. Even with the slightest vision he had, he saw the ground blanketed by a skittering swarm of dog-sized insects. Zach immediately jumped higher to another branch, further hiding from whatever this swarm was. Seeing this bone-chilling spectacle got him thinking. ‘It’s either those cannibals poke the swarm’s nest or this got something to do with the fortress daytime impenetrable effect,’ Zach thought.

The swarm could be chasing those cannibals, and coincidentally the direction they were heading was right toward the fort. His assumption frightened him as he wasn’t sure whether he could deal with this swarm even with his Living with the Pain skill, and the thought of those people back at the fort who was still injured and not prepared left him in a dilemma. It was either he choose the two ladies who were out here in the wilderness or go back to defend the fort.

‘Wait,’ Zach thought. There was something odd. ‘Am I bugging or is my vision starting to slant?’

He wasn’t wrong. The tree he was on started leaning to the side. Soon he heard it. The tree barks started to crack and snap, and he felt the branch leave the sole of his boots. Before gravity took over, Zach kicked the branch under him and leaped to another tree. His hands grabbed a tree branch like it was a monkey bar as he swung himself onto the new tree branch like an expert gymnast.

Zach squatted there, looking at the ones that chopped his tree down. Those ant-like creatures were near the base of the chopped trees with a few pieces of the tree stuck in between its mandibles. One of them buzzed louder, alerting the rest of this group of the swarm that Zach had moved location. Their eyes landed on the human on the tree, and Zach could feel the hair on the back of his neck rose. These many insects stared at him like he was a piece of meat.

The disbelief grin he had showed that things had escalated. Zach turned and jumped to another tree, trying to flee. But this smaller swarm chased after him, axing down tree after tree, like a hunter chasing after a fleeing monkey. His speed fell by a chunk and before he could cut himself to gain those boosted stats back again, his feet slipped. Zach fell as his hand helplessly reached out for the branch, but it was futile.

Zach dropped to the ground and felt it right at his back. He groaned, and yet he got up. Enemies were on his tail, and yet before he could run, he was surrounded. He cursed. Things went south pretty fast as his attempt of being a knight in shining armor went down the drain. He cut himself on the palm as blood dripped. His eyes were on these huge ants as he looked for a way out. But then they moved. It caught him off guard and before he could make another cut, these ants pounced at him like torpedoes. He dodged the first, and then the second. A slight cut was made, and he felt his speed rose, then the third came, and he slipped past it by a hairbreadth. But the fourth came from his blind spot. His perception stat rang the alarm and he dodged it at the last second, but he wasn’t fast enough.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He groaned, enduring the pain. The horn of the ant managed to graze him on the flank. Zach found his new strength and speed and leaped at a nearby tree. He jumped to another tree immediately and it was the right move. The tree from before toppled down immediately, and Zach found his footing on another tree. He felt the wound on his flank and he winced. A subtle touch and it was enough to tell him that a chunk of his flesh was missing. Whatever these ants were, they were definitely a dangerous bunch.

He opened his stats and his health points were trickling down slowly. Seeing how he was and where he was. Zach made his final decision. He abandoned the thought of saving those two and headed back to the fort. If his assumption wasn’t wrong then this swarm must have faced those two first before encountering Zach, and sorry for being pessimistic, he doubted those two could survive this.

Zach made his way back to the fort. But he stopped. This time he didn’t slip as Zach stood there witnessing something that wasn’t there before. It was a clearing right in front of him with the moon shining its light on the vast view of trees on the ground with ants roaming around like a moving blackish sea. He didn’t know what happened, but these ants must be the cause of it. For some reason, he had a hunch that these big ants might be smarter than he thought. The tree underneath him started to shake. Again, they were chopping the tree down like it was nothing.

Zach eyed to the side and the trees around him were also in the process of being toppled. They had cornered him as if telling him there was no way to run. He felt vexed being treated like this by a bunch of ants. He glared at them from above as the tree started to lean to the side. Gripping his sword as he prepared for the inevitable. His blade slithered over his skin, inflicting minor pain until he pierced his sword right through his palm. The pain was excruciating, but he had no choice. He drew his blade off from his palm as the pain stack reached the sixth. Zach curled his fingers into a fist, restraining the blood from leaking as his feet finally touched the ground.

There were no more trees to escape to, and rather than being cornered he was encircled by a bunch of fucking giant ants. Then it began. They hurled at him like missiles. Shooting off from the ground at an incredible speed. Zach met it straight on. His sword slashed cleanly right at the center, splitting it apart into two. Its viscous goo splashed over Zach and he didn’t even blink.

The second came and he dodged. Again, he hacked it vertically, sending another to its grave. Then came the third, then the fourth. He killed them off brilliantly without a shred of remorse, ending them all with one strike. But the swarm didn’t stop. They came at him one after another nonstop, and by the eighth kill, he was struck in the back. A horn went right through his abdomen. The rage he felt exploded at that moment, and Zach hacked it off right at the head.

Its body went limp with the ant’s head still hanging on his back by the horn. It started to slip, but Zach held it on. He cut the head off by the horn, and let the horn stay in his body. He knew well that taking it out would incur a nightmarish ongoing blood loss, and dying wasn’t in his plan for the evening.

Zach ducked as another ant went flying above him. He changed his stance and went for the attack. His feet pushed off the ground as he made a beeline towards the swarm, and right before the ant could jet off from the ground, he killed it first.

[You have leveled up.]

The sweet ding of the new message was like a light of salvation. Zach immediately dumped it all to defense, bumping his health points and defensive capability. While at the same time hoping that it also affected his regeneration rate.

Zach mowed down these ants one after another, killing them like mad while at the same time dodging them if he could. But it was inevitable. The speed of these pouncing ants was frightening.

“Ah!” a scream he could not deny. A giant horn-ant managed to strike him by the thigh. Quickly, he hacked it and leaped to the side. Another ant went flying at the spot where he was before, killing its own kin as it was total chaos. They were jumping at him like mad, grazing him as he dodged, and before he knew it the pain stack reached the seventh.

His speed went up a notch, and the killing hastened by the second. Zach went on a killing spree, leaving dead giant ants in his wake. But it was not without pain. His whole body was riddled with cuts and bruises and his clothes were torn to shreds. Blood decorated his skin as his breath was ragged, and the pain was all over his body. Yet his eyes were still alive.

Along the way, he earned two more levels with all of the stats dumped right into defense. Thankfully, the defense stat showed its worth, keeping him alive after all those assaults that had been done to him. But kill one, many more took their place. The swarm he fought felt endless and looking at his health points it was down to thirty percent.

Zach dodged another and killed it in one swoop. He acted it in reflex like it was second nature to him. His concentration was at the fullest as if anything that entered his range would die under the wrath of his sword.

But he knew that the reality of it was that he could not survive this. Not in the long run. Sooner or later, these ants would grind his health points down to zero, and feast on whatever was left of his body by then. His pessimism started to show as hopelessness started to invade the back of his mind.

Yet something jolted him back, and it wasn’t another flying torpedo ant. He glanced in a direction as he heard a scream, not of his own voice. Straining his eyes, he saw something close to the still intact tree line in the distance. It looked like a huge turtle, but it wasn’t.

“Close the gap! Close the fucking gap!” he heard the faint shouts coming from that turtle shell-like structure, and then it clicked. It was a modified phalanx formation to suit the small circular shield which also covered the top making it appear like a turtle shell from afar.

Finally, Zach carved a grin. Hope had come to him.

Zach dodged and killed another. Paving his way under the moonlight in hope of getting out of this mess alive.