Fated Antagonist

32. Assault on Orpule, Part 7

The Immortals thundered through the wide streets of Roklu, a tidal wave of chitin and steel that seemed to rattle the foundations of the world itself as they ran. How many tons massed in their combined charge? Who could say? Certainly not Leeroy, who ran deliriously at the head of their flying wedge formation.

“This is it, my sisters!” she roared, blasting her pheromones wide. “We run in the darkest hour! We run to bring glory! Immortal no more! WHY DO YOU RUN?”

“WE SEEK!”

“SEEK NO LONGER! LAY DOWN YOUR SEARCH! WE HAVE BEEN TORMENTED BY A QUESTION, AND I TELL YOU THAT THE ANSWER IS HERE AND NOW! THIS IS THE MOMENT! THIS IS OUR TIME!”

Within each and every carapace-covered abdomen, the hearts of Leeroy and her loyal adherents beat with wild abandon. Before them lay the mightiest foes the Colony had ever faced. Dreadful in their power, fell in their purpose, the demons would slaughter thousands should they be left unchallenged. Each and every one of the Immortals knew they would pay any price to prevent that from happening.

Although, to tell the truth, they yearned to pay that price!

Surely, now they would fall! Though this select group had been raised to the sixth tier, they were not as mighty as the Eldest, did not possess their wisdom or strength, so how could they hope to prevail against such dreadful odds? They wouldn’t, they couldn’t! But with their final breath, they would drag their enemies down into the abyss with them, saving their family and freeing themselves.

Despite their weight, the ground was swiftly eaten up by their furious charge. The prospect of imminent death spurred them on to run faster than they ever had before, charge more desperately than could have been previously imagined. Soon, the target of their wrath was in sight.

The demons did not appear overly special when compared to the others around them, not much larger, nor much more powerful than the rest of their group, but the evidence provided by their sister was all the Immortals needed to commit themselves wholly to the fight. They would not take a backward step!

“Brace!” Leeroy roared, and the ants to her left and right lunged against her, interlocking their arumour with hers.

The motion was repeated down the line, and in the lead position, Leeroy was overcome by the sensation that their wills had truly become unified. Were she to lift her legs from the ground, the unstoppable momentum and strength of her siblings would still carry her forward to glory.

“Remember the inner fire and bring them down with you!”

The group of demons, only six in number, realised their deception had failed the moment the wave of furious insects appeared. Amongst them, the two most powerful had sneered, because despite the forceful charge of the insects, they felt no fear. No longer constrained, they allowed their power to swell, blanketing the area with an aura of violence and decay that sent the rest of the ants skittering back.

The demons believed this was a sign of fear, whereas, in reality, the Colony was simply making room for what was about to take place.

Emboldened by the retreat of the weak who fled at the first sign of their power, the two tier seven demons stepped forward boldly, willing to take the charge of the Immortals head-on. A curious decision. When the two sides met, the sound of screeching metal and shattering stone sent the hairs on Sloan’s antennae dancing all the way back in the command hill.

Like a freight train run off the rails, the Immortals smashed into a wall, paused momentarily, then punched right through it. The weaker demons were reduced to a fine mist as Leeroy and her sisters perfectly executed their final surge, combining their Dash and Charge Skills in one ecstatic surge. With the force of an explosive harnessed in insect form, they ran straight through their foes before collapsing in a tangled heap on the other side.

“Right yourselves! It’s not over yet!”

Amongst the twisted piles of wrecked buildings and tortured armour, Leeroy and her sisters began the desperate fight to break free. Several of them were injured, some limbs had been shattered at the moment of contact or the collapse afterward, but all had to be put aside so they might finish the fight. For she was not wrong in her assessment, their leader. Though wounded, their two great foes had not fallen in the initial charge, and now the irate demons sought to exact terrible vengeance upon the armoured insects.

Now the battle began in earnest, and Leeroy, the most battered of all the cadre, felt her veins blaze with joy as she stood, her helmet twisted across her head, before she once again raced forward to join the fray. Mandibles flashed and snapped as the two mighty demons roared, spitting fire, slicing with blades that split steel and carapace with equal ease.

It was a desperate struggle, with neither side willing to give an inch, but it quickly became apparent that although their opponents numbered but two, the ten Immortals were outmatched. Even though they shrugged off the overwhelming pressure the demons brought to bear, despite causing significant injury in the initial charge, the ants lacked the speed and power necessary to contend with enemies such as these. The monsters danced amongst the ungainly armoured figures, slashing with wild abandon as they sought to end the fight and complete their task.

But Leeroy and her sisters would not be brought low so easily! The more they were wounded, the more elated they became! As their HP dropped lower and lower, their hearts soared higher and higher! They fought more savagely, snapped their mandibles more viciously!

Every moment that passed, the Immortals felt the fire in their veins grow ever hotter, for they knew that which their opponents did not! Without conversing, without collaborating in any way, it so turned out that all ten had taken the same evolution at tier six. The System had looked into their souls and seen they were worthy, and so had bestowed upon them a most powerful evolution, with an organ that would see to it that they accomplished their purpose!

Even now, as the strength in her limbs was fading, Leeroy could feel it within her, pulsing with power that only grew as she drew ever nearer to death. Only when she breathed her last would it unleash its full might and pull these foul creatures who sought to bring harm to their family into the afterlife along with them!

As the battle raged on, the demons became increasingly frustrated. These horrendous ants simply refused to die! No matter the injury inflicted, they would come back, snapping their mandibles with ferocious energy that seemed impossible to snuff out. The two combatants were incredibly aware of the vast numbers of weaker ants who simply watched them from a safe distance, no doubt ready to leap into the fray the moment these armoured beasts were defeated.

The two demons decided simultaneously that they could no longer drag this fight out, they were weakened and injured as a result of this disaster and could not afford to let these undying insects exhaust them further. Acting as one, they marshalled their remaining strength and unleashed a devastating wave of power, a combination of fire and ash that swallowed everything around them in a fifty-metre radius.

When she saw that deadly conflagration ignite between the two demons, Leeroy felt a wave of peace wash through her being the likes of which she’d never felt before. With the last of their strength, the Immortals dove into the expanding sphere of destruction in order to bring themselves as close to their enemies as possible. Though they would die, they would succeed in defeating their enemies and thus live in glory.

“Farewell, sisters! Be at peace!” Leeroy flung one last message to her sisters before each of them were consumed.

When the blast finally cleared, every building within its radius had been reduced to a smouldering heap of slag. Drained, but victorious, the two demons surveyed what remained of their foes: little more than mounds of smouldering Biomass and superheated metal. They had no time to celebrate, however. Already, the surrounding insects were moving to confront them.

Then, something strange happened. An upswell of power they did not recognise began in each of their fallen opponents that grew so fast, they had no time to react before it burst forth in radiant light. Each of the defeated ants became bathed in golden flames that grew in intensity until none could bear to look at them. There was no heat, only a pure light that could be seen kilometres away, piercing through the ash of the third stratum.

The two demons were bewildered, but unharmed, and when the mysterious fire vanished, they despaired, as they found themselves once more staring at the ten massive insects, completely unharmed, though without their armour.

Each of the Immortals froze in pure confusion. They’d died, they were sure of it… What happened?!

As one, they threw open their status screens and inspected their new organ, demanding the System display its description.

[Pheonix Fire Organ: Throughout the course of battle, this organ will consume the strength of its holder, empowering itself as they draw closer to death. When the host expires, it unleashes the contained energy in a wave of flame that will annihilate⁠—]

Each of the Immortals realised at the same moment that when evolving, they’d stopped reading at this point and confirmed the selection on the spot. Leeroy hadn’t even noticed there was more text!

[—any injuries the host bears, bringing them back from the brink of death to live again.]

The battlefield remained frozen for a long moment as each of the ants tried to process what they just learned.

“DAMMIT!” Leeroy screamed.