Feliz Cumpleaños
"Wait! We need to find Chris," says Anna, for the first time since I met her, she seems genuinely concerned.
"We could hide and wait until the ants drop their guard," says Daniel.
"That could take days, and there is nowhere to hide for long periods of time," Sam rejects the idea.
"I think the best thing we can do is leave and call for help. A friend of mine is A rank and I can guarantee he will lend us a hand," I say. Despite having known Ron for less than a month, I know he is the type to help in times like these.
"A rank? How did you make friends with someone like that? No, that doesn't matter, are you sure he'll help?" Sam asks me.
"There is no doubt in my mind," I answer with confidence.
"Then, let's hurry," says Anna.
Now that we are throwing caution to the wind, someone has to carry the porter since he can't use mana and will slow us down. That someone ends up being me since I'm the one that is the least tired. Carrying the porter does slow me down, which means we still can't go at full speed, but at least this is better. As we back track towards the entrance of the dungeon, another problem arises.
"What? How did this happen?" we all share Sam's confusion. The tunnel collapsed, depending on how much dirt fell, it may take us day to clear a path.
"What now? Are we going to die?" the porter's voice is shaking; he seems to have given up already.
"So, a fight it is. Start creating obstacles in the tunnel, we need to create a narrower space so that only one or two ants can fit," says Sam.
"What should we pile up? Dirt? The ants are made to dig through it like its nothing, it will last seconds before getting destroyed," my words may sound pessimistic, but I just truly can't think of anything to use.
The group grows silent, everyone is wracking their brains to come up with a solution. 'There is no wood to create a barrier, none of us can manipulate the elements to a useful extent, what else could we do?' With a sudden movement, Anna runs deeper into the tunnels as she yells,
"The corpses! We can pile up the 6 ant corpses!"
Without hesitation, we all chase after her, except for the porter of course. The tunnel is blocked, so I doubt he is in any danger. Unrestrained, we reach the corpses quickly and start dragging them back. It takes us a couple of trips, but we successfully crate a blockade. If any other ants want to get to us, they will have to climb over these corpses one by one, allowing us to kill them. They might try and push or dig through them, in that case, we can only hope to replace the destroyed corpses with new ones. By now, the tunnels were filled by the sound of a hundred skittering legs. 'It seems the tunnels weren't as complex as we thought, they found us so quickly.'
"William, you are the most suited for killing the ants, so let us take them on first. When we tire out, you switch places with us, by then, more corpses should block the way too," Sam explains his idea.
No one complains about that arrangement, if something happens, I should be able to deal with multiple ants quickly. The sound of the ants approaching gets louder, there is not much time left before they arrive.
"Fuck. Chris better be alive after this," Anna grumbles.
The first ant climbs over the mound, Anna fires an arrow while Sam blocks its attacks with his shield. Daniel is having trouble with getting a good angle to attack, it is only thanks to Sam that he gets an opportunity. Precise attacks land on the ant's neck, this time, Daniel doesn't fail in slicing it. With that, the first of many has died, and the remaining ones don't give us time to rest. Anna, Sam, and Daniel rain down attacks non-stop, I've already lost count of how many ants have died. To the right of the blockade, one of the bodies twitches slightly. After twitching a couple more times, an ant bursts from behind the corpse, they've finally begun to try other entrances.
Without hesitation, I thrust my spear at the new intruder, killing it on the spot. Just like we planned, its body replaced the hole in the blockade, buying more time. Now, we are all swinging our weapons, the original plan has fallen apart. None of us have any opportunity to rest, as the ants continue to swarm our location. At this point, I've even lost track of time. 'Have we been fighting for minutes? Hours? Days?' The endless horde of insects makes it difficult to differentiate between one second and the next.
"AHHHH!"
Behind us, a loud scream can be heard. I'm only capable of sparing a single glance, and what I see, extinguishes my hope. The porter is being eaten by ants; they broke through the collapsed dirt. Exhausted, and with enemies at both sides, our group is doomed. Despite my feelings, I still kill the ant that is in front of me, and when I do…
'A mana stone! This isn't the time to worry about consequences!'
From the ant's head, the dim glimmer of a mana stone shines through. Without a second to spare, I don't even bother to extract it, opting to stick my hand into dying monster. As soon as my hands make contact with the stone, I focus on absorbing it entirely. The mana rushes into my body, however, it's only enough to replenish my strength. 'I need more!' Scanning my surroundings, I find a couple more stones, but those are too far.
'I need to get the porter's bag.'
By now, the porter has already been bit and split to pieces, his remains are being carried away. 'Seems like my old habit of gambling has returned.' Dropping my spear, I focus all my mana into my legs, and jump. Some ants attempt to bite me as I pass by them, but they reacted too late. My jump lands me on top of an ant's abdomen, only a couple of meters away from the one that is carrying the bag. An uncanny rodeo begins when the ant notices me on top of it. Staying on it any further wouldn't help me in any way, therefore, I use its own movement to jump again. My trajectory is far from perfect, I am not going to land on the one with the bag.
To adjust my direction, I gather some mana in my hands and forcefully eject it sideways. Without having anything to brace against, I'm slightly pushed to the opposite direction of the mana. Now, I am going straight towards the ant with the loot bag, this is my last chance at getting out alive. Again, I land on the abdomen, but the ant is holding the bag above its head. Another round of rodeo begins, except this time, I cannot bail out. In order to stay on top of the ant, I reinforce my hands and stick my fingers into its exoskeleton. 'Fuck! This is nasty as hell!'
Probably due to the pain, the ant doubles its efforts, letting go of the bag in the process. 'Now!' I pry my fingers out of the ant and dive towards the spilled loot, with a rough landing, I quickly find the 4 mana stones. Leaving the issues of distribution for a time when we aren't dying, I absorb all of them simultaneously. In an instant, the mana I spent to get here is replenished, but that is not all.
WHOOSH!
A pulse of mana, similar to the one when I awakened, travels outward form my body. The first time it happened, I was confused, but now I know better. 'I've went up to D rank.' Sadly, this is not the time to revel in excitement, I'm surrounded by ants and don't even have my spear. Even though I'm D rank, getting swarmed like this is an issue, I need to be the one attacking. An ant tries to bite me, and I welcome its attack by shoving my reinforced hand into its face. My fingers collide with something solid inside its head, another mana stone. For some reason, the sensation of absorbing the mana is much less fulfilling.
Realizing my new limits, I make the decision of jumping back to the group. With my improved reinforcement, this is a lot less risky than before. I leap back towards the blockade and spot a huddle of ants near a tunnel wall. Fearing the worst, I forgo retrieving my spear, instead opting to help the others immediately. I land on the floor near the dog pile and sprint towards it. On the way there, a couple of ants attack me, but I simply dodge, there is no time for me to fight them. As soon as I arrive at the wall, I climb onto the ants' thoraxes and start using my palm as a blade, cutting their necks.
Amidst the splashes of green blood, I spot Sam and Daniel with their backs against the wall. Anna is behind them, sprawled out on the floor. My mind fails to find a solution, without my spear I can't hold back these many ants. If I try to search for it, they'd die by the time I found it. My water slash won't help either, regardless of how much mana I use, its power refuses to increase.
"William! Catch!" Daniel yells as he throws something at me.
'My spear!'
A spear flying straight at you would usually make you uncomfortable, but right now, I couldn't be happier. Snatching it out of the air, I start swinging it around like a kid in a piñata. All of the training, all of the rules, none of it matters right now, every swing claims the life of another monster. Countless corpses pile up in front of me, this somewhat slows down the ant's assault. I lose sight of what's in front of me, my mind is occupied with a single thought. 'Keep swinging.' At some point, something catches my attention.
"Stop! William, stop. They're all dead," says Daniel.
I finally take a moment and scan my surroundings. There is not a single part of the tunnel's floor visible, a thick layer of viscera covers everything. Raising my hands in front of me, they look like an orc's, completely green. A groan from behind me catches my attention and I turn around. Sam is clutching his left arm, no, what's left of it.
"Sam? Wha-what happened to your arm?" I mumble in confusion.
"Bastards got a hold of it, ripped it right off," he answers in between ragged breaths. "It doesn't matter right now, I'll live, Anna on the other hand… We need to get her to a hospital right now."
Anna is still laying down on the floor, I approach and inspect her wounds. She is riddled with deep cuts and chunks of flesh are missing. A pool of blood is forming around her.
"Shit! I'll carry her, Daniel, you help Sam. Let's go!" I yell.
From the depths of the tunnel, past the mess of the battle, a voice speaks up,
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave."