Fated Antagonist

126. Running Amok

The first day in the third stratum was the worst. Along with Crinis, Tiny, and Invidia, I rushed about trying to put out fires and help the Colony in every way I could. We took part in the siege of a city, overrunning the defenders in spectacular style, leaping from a pillar that rose ten kilometres high. I left the duel with the city lord to our resident demon overlord, though. I don’t want to tangle with any more tier sevens if I can help it.

Bit of a silly thought, considering there’s even stronger demons running amok beneath us, but there it is.

Speaking of Brixin, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier demon. With the territory that she controls expanding by the day, her smile is just as wide as her dial. The might of the Colony is allowing her to indulge in her obsession for conquest and expansion to the fullest. It won’t last forever, or even much longer, for that matter, but for the time being, she’s happy as a clam.

All well and good. With the city conquered, we don’t rest on our laurels, rushing back down and tearing off to find something else to fight. The Colony is now targeting demon cities that border along the area claimed by the ka’armodo, which has only exacerbated tensions between us. Except not really, because the lizards were apparently intent on steadily escalating from the beginning. Either way, border skirmishes are becoming more common, and both sides are exerting more pressure every day.

My family has been busy whilst I’ve been down below grappling with the termite menace. The number of cities seized by the Colony has reached twelve. Twelve! That represents a ridiculous amount of space within the Dungeon, a huge swathe of territory, along with the resources contained within.

The industrial arm of the Colony can be seen everywhere we go. Mines are springing up. Way stations are being constructed inside the mountain-sized pillars rising from the endless plains. Vast smelting operations are being established in the major hubs, and every single city is getting its own nest constructed around the base of the pillar. None of them are quite as absurdly sized as the original around Roklu, the scale of that thing is utterly bewildering, but they are still massive.

If they actually get completed, I don’t see how anyone is ever going to remove us from the land we’ve taken. I mean, are you really going to go inside those hills and fight us? You aren’t coming out, I can guarantee you that!

No sooner do we show our faces along the border than we run into a small patrol from the ka’armodo side. Two young lizards and their attendants are marching back and forth on our side of the invisible line separating our territory.

Obviously, they dispute that, but we’ve had enough of being pushed around by them. The proxy war they’ve started on the fourth has put all of us ants on edge. We no longer are willing to tolerate their nonsense.

Despite posturing arrogantly, it doesn’t take much for us to run this small squad off with their tails between their legs. A squad of tier six monsters is no joke. When all four of us reach tier seven, it’ll take something pretty serious to prevent us from doing what we want, at least up here.

Thinking about it, will I even be able to stay up here when I evolve? I think the mana level would be fine, tier sevens are fine here, after all, but what about the Call? As it is, I can barely—not really—tolerate it, and if it gets any worse… I may never be able to come back here.

BAH!

No negative thoughts allowed! The Colony has embarked on an unprecedented campaign of buttocks-kicking and I shall channel that spirit! The Call shall be kicked, along with the ka’armodo, the termites, the Ancients, and anyone else who wants a piece of this business district!

Anthony doesn’t back down!

Except when the lizards come back with a patrol of ten ka’armodo, several of them the older type with extra arms, and almost fifty setsulah. In that case, I back all the way down and hightail it to safety.

It’s nice they want to show they take me seriously, but do they need to bring out that many? That’s overkill, dammit! Even if I tried to nuke them with a Gravity Bomb, there’s a chance they’ll be able to break it apart before it can detonate. Even if they couldn’t, with that many mages, they could shield themselves for sure.

Day one ends with me and the crew hunkering down in a still-under-construction nest to get some shuteye, something that is exceptionally difficult for me given the pain I’m in.

Eventually I manage to get a little open-eye, at least to refresh me a little.

When I shock myself awake, I take a moment to stretch out the kinks and clean my antennae. I really need to take a break at some point and look at my mutations and Skills. I’ve fallen into a poor habit of not bothering to check my status page on a regular basis, but the upgrades to my important Skills come so far apart these days, it’s hard to work up the motivation.

I can remember a time when every Skill Point, every little crumb of Biomass, felt like a milestone. Now I need to stack up hundreds of Biomass before I can achieve much, mutation-wise.

It’s depressing in a way.

But no matter! The spirit is strong and I shall overcome!

…Once I get back to the fourth. Right now, I can’t concentrate properly given the incessant yanking on my guts.

When we go out and about, it doesn’t take long to find some trouble to throw ourselves at. A scout returned to the nest whilst I was napping and reported suspicious movements from the lizards over the border. Perhaps they’re going to pull something now that they know I’m here? A show of strength of some sort?

Or maybe they just want to lure me out and kill me after the trouble I’ve caused them. I wouldn’t put it past them…

Might as well go and find out.