Antelligent Design

90. The Third Ambush, Part 3

Exposed by the light, the scouts retreat after my order, taking advantage of their now rear-facing commercial zones to fire a few parting shots as the monsters charge toward us. I position myself between the enemy and the retreating scouts, knowing I can take more punishment than my siblings, and hoping to absorb some enemy fire.

The monsters look a touch angry. Let off the hook from their zombie control and endless walking, they’ve clearly embraced the opportunity to massacre the ants with gusto. Unfortunately for them, I don’t plan on allowing that to happen.

The worrying sign is the blazing lights in the sky. Clear evidence that the Lizard Wizard and attendants are taking a direct hand in the battle for the first time. There’s a gnawing sense of anxiety in my gut as I have to consider what else they may do. Lights in the sky are annoying but not exactly terrifying.

Not willing to get surrounded, I run at a right angle to the horde, distracting a number of monsters and forcing them to chase after me. To keep them angry, I use a Dash to charge toward the closest monster and sever it in twain with a savage Bite before Dashing away, the claws and teeth of creatures scraping on my carapace.

Gwehehehe. Can’t catch me, you slugs!

Of course, at that moment a golden fence springs into existence in front of me.

And not just me, it cut off half the retreating scouts from the woods and safety. What the hell? Where the heck did this thing come from?

Illuminated by the burning lights, two of the lizard’s servants appear on either side of the fence. How the heck they got there, I’ve no idea. Perhaps they’d been there all along, just waiting for us to move past them so they could spring this trap.

This doesn’t look good!

My heart pounds in my thorax against the danger we’re in. The scouts are trying to bite the wall or climb over it, but nothing affects it. Their mandibles and legs can’t find any purchase and the ants are left with no option but to hurl themselves in the hopes that it might break. Behind us, the horde roars with hunger, sensing the kill between their jaws.

“Dig under it! Now, now, now!” I bellow, spinning at such a high speed, my claws scratch through in the dirt.

POW! POW! POW!

The last of my acid blasts out and splatters against the magic fence line in three separate locations. Please work, you stupid acid. We need this right now!

I don’t have time to wait and see how it goes, I need to save as many of the scouts as I can. My sub-brains have been hard at work since the moment the wall sprang up, throwing themselves into action before I’d even thought to direct them. Gravity Mana is pulling out of my gland and pumping into the complex construct that is the Gravity Domain.

This is gonna hurt, dammit…

The roar of the horde is deafening. The heat rolling off the monsters, hungry for Biomass, buffets into my antennae and the future glimpses of each monster I see are enough to make me dizzy. I shut it all out. None of that is important. I breathe out slowly, and charge directly into the face of the enemy.

Leeroy would be proud.

I slam into the first monsters, my mass and momentum enough to batter them out of the way. Then more come, and even more. Claws, teeth, spikes, mandibles, all of them grasp hold of my limbs and scrape against my precious, shiny carapace, chipping into my HP. Almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees of sight, and all of it is monsters right now!

I pump my mandibles furiously, the jaws of light arcing out and severing multiple monsters into pieces. Yet no matter how many I destroy, there are thousands more behind them. Come on, mini-brains, I need that spell!

I have to endure the battering for several more seconds before the spell finally manifests. The blessed purple light expands out of my body in a delicious hemisphere that pushes down on every enemy inside it with a firm hand.

Yes!

I shake myself like a dog shaking water out of its coat and the monsters climbing over me are knocked clear, unable to hold onto me and contest with the added weight. Nice to have all that added weight roll off my back! The second I’m free, I Dash. I have to get some separation from these beasts. No matter how powerful I am, if I try and take on tens of thousands of monsters at once, I’m going to get worn down and chomped into paste. If enough of them surround me, they’ll grab onto my legs and pile on top of me until I can’t move, forced to wait to get eaten.

Speaking of being eaten, I think I’m missing part of my leg…

Activate the Regeneration Gland! I’ve only lost twelve HP, so it feels like a bit of a waste, but I don’t want to be slowed down. Relief bubbles up in me as I burst out of the horde and into the clear. I was only in there for twelve seconds or so, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stay any longer.

How is that damned fence going?

In an instant, I’m not happy with the current situation. My acid has eaten three gaps into the fence, the edges bubbling and hissing as the fluid continues to chew away at the magic, but the pace is too slow. Ants are throwing themselves through the gaps and they’ve begun digging from the other side, trying to connect with other scouts digging from this side and speed up the process.

It just isn’t happening quickly enough.

I’ve managed to buy some time, but I’m only one ant, and my domain isn’t able to cover the width of space we were attacking from. Already, some scouts are getting run down by the faster elements of the horde’s charge.

“Dig, dammit!” I scream. “They’re coming!”

“Eldest!” It was Wills, appearing on my left side like a ghost. “You need to get out of here!”

She tries to push me toward the fence line, but I throw her off with little effort.

“I’m going back in. Get your scouts under that fence and continue with the plan!” I bellow.

I don’t wait for a reply. Turning on the nearest monster not even ten metres away, I Dash, closing the distance in an instant.