The Antventure Begins

105. Kong Fury

Tiny can sense it too. I have no idea how, but he begins to stare hard at the walls, electricity crackling in his eyes alongside the rage. He really seems to be working himself into a frenzy!

Dropping off the larva, I return to the nearly blindingly bright queen’s chamber. My legs are soaking up Mana so quickly, the floor feels hot, as if I were standing on a hot plate.

So much energy! It’s almost unfathomable just how much Mana is rippling through the walls. Just what could someone do with all this power? If this scene is being replicated throughout the entire Dungeon, thousands of square kilometres… I just… I can’t bring myself to think where it all comes from.

There must be a source, right?

Unease and fear shift in my heart. Something capable of a feat such as this…

With just a tiny fraction of this energy. With just the smallest taste of the Mana thumping through the walls in just this one chamber, I can create an all-devouring sphere of death.

I shudder to think what the forest looks like right now.

As the heat signatures bloom, I can’t help but turn constantly to stare hard at one and then the next, never knowing exactly when one was going to burst into life. The tight packages of blazing heat don’t grow at a constant speed. One will flare brightly, making me turn, only for it to fade slightly while another explodes with growth. Over and over, it happens until I’m dizzy from spinning.

I almost want them to start leaping out of the walls, just so I know it has started.

The ants continue their constant shuffling, bringing the brood into our escape tunnel before leaving and returning to bring more. The escape tunnel itself remains blessedly dark, untouched by the veins of light flaring brighter and brighter each second.

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

What the heck was that!

From one side of the chamber is a faint scratching, like claws… or teeth… on stone. I can’t be certain, but I swear that sound is coming from inside the wall…

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

From every side. Up the shaft. The brood chamber. Everywhere in the Dungeon, that horrible scratching erupted into a cacophony of sound.

The walls are burning so brightly my antennae feel like they’re practically on fire and my heart is pounding. This is almost more than one ant can take!

I clench my mandibles to stop their shaking.

Stupid Dungeon… Stupid monsters. Y-you want some of this? You want to come—to come in here and fight me? Well come on then! Show me what you got!

CRASH!

Right in front of my eyes an arm punches out of the dirt, sending a shower of loose earth flying throughout the room. I flinch back instinctively and before I can recover, Tiny is there.

One titanic fist is ablaze with electricity and his lips are drawn far back in a ferocious screech as the ropes of muscle in his shoulder shift and send that fist cannoning into the ground.

A shrill scream rings out, muffled by the dirt, but Tiny isn’t done.

Ripping his hand back out of the ground, the monster is gripped between his thick fingers. The beast looks nothing like anything I’d seen before. Ink black with long thorny tentacles growing from a torso that is more mouth than body, four thin, double-jointed arms emerging at jarring angles.

This monster follows no natural design. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this on Earth! What the hells is it?

The newly born monster shrieks and writhes in his grip, tentacles and clawed hands lashing at Tiny’s long arm. The rage in the great ape’s eyes burns ever brighter, matching the glow of the current pulsing in his hand.

The lightning grows stronger and stronger until electricity is coiling around the monster’s body like crazed snakes. The creature shrieks higher each moment until, with a sizzle, it grows still.

Tiny… you cooked it… with lightning? That is badass, little bud—

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

More and more monsters explode out of the walls. Hands, claws, scales, and fangs tearing through the dirt all around us. Some ants get caught as they run with the newborn charges in their mandibles, limbs appearing from the walls and floor to scratch at them.

Dammit!

Instantly I’m running past the crumbling walls exploding with thrashing limbs and gnashing jaws.

Crushing Bite!

Snap!

Without mercy, I bite down hard with my mandibles, shearing straight through a limb that had only moments ago prevented my sibling from moving to the escape tunnel.

“Run to the tunnel!” I project with all my might and hope the ants are able to smell it amidst all of this chaos. Their antennae may be covered in dirt, which would interfere with their sense of smell.

I throw myself to the next trapped worker, desperate to free them all. In my peripheral vision, Tiny appears to have simply gone mad.

His body is so charged with electrical energy his long hair is almost standing straight up, giving him an unearthly, almost demonic appearance. His long arms smash repeatedly into the walls as monsters emerge. The tremendous impacts send shockwaves rippling through the soil.

He plunges one hand into the earth and pulls it out with a bizarre, hooked worm creature wrapped around his arm, leech-like mouth restrained in the ape’s fist.

With a mighty bellow, Tiny channels his electricity into his arm, roasting the monster in seconds before turning and flinging it into the face of another creature charging at him from across the room

A scene of chaos!

As the monsters emerge, they are not dedicated to fighting only us, or coordinating with each other. They rip and tear into each other just as quickly. Even if they’re the same species!

The entire Dungeon is supposed to be possessed by this madness.

The wave. It’s crazy!