The Antventure Begins

55. Timber

Up against the thick trunk of the large tree, I cautiously flex my mandibles. Hopefully these Infused Mandibles are up to the challenge.

Ignoring the deafening noise of the little chimps above me, I wander up to the base of the tree. The aggravation of the monsters only becomes more intense, the small creatures look almost comical with their faces twisted in incandescent rage, completely infuriated that a single enemy would dare approach their territory.

Turning my head, three workers have followed my trail to the area where I finished it, about fifty metres away from the tree. Once they arrive, they muddle about, turning here and there, searching for the location of the food which the trail indicated existed in this place.

Not to worry, chaps, I’ll be serving it up to you shortly.

Infused Mandibles!

With thought activation, Mana begins to flood out of my core, rushing through my body and into my mandibles. The build of energy becomes more and more intense until I almost wonder if there is anything I can’t Bite through with all this power.

Combined with the strength generated by my active skills I can pack a tremendous force into every Bite.

Under the bewildered and disbelieving eyes of an entire tree full of monstrous apes, I rear back my head and dart forward, unleashing the full force of my jaws upon the tree trunk.

Piercing Bite!

Crunch!

The sharp edges of my mandibles sink deep into the strange wood these trees are composed of, sending splinters flying into the air and bouncing off my carapace. After this Bite I don’t cut off the flow of Mana, letting it continue to pour out of my core and fuse with my jaws, vastly increasing their strength.

Again, Piercing Bite!

Crunch!

And again!

Crunch!

My Mana is depleting at a furious pace, the power of these mandibles does come at a steep cost. For a monster with a poorly developed core, they would be almost completely useless. Thankfully I’ve been able to reinforce mine quite a few times and I’ll only continue to improve it further in the future.

Crunch!

The apes above are completely apoplectic with rage, practically foaming at the mouth. They may have finally realised what I’m up to and some of them are starting to descend to contest my actions.

But it’s too late.

Crunch!

CREEEEAK!

Here we go!

With Tiny secured on my back, we dash away, moving across the path of descent. I turn my head to watch the show.

The huge tree, with all of its shocked occupants on board, slowly begins to lean over.

The apes become completely silent in horror as their world literally starts to fall around them, while they are still in it.

Timberrrr!

CRASH!

With increasing speed, the tree tilts and smashes to the ground with a tremendous boom. The whistling of leaves and shattering branches resounds through the forest.

Followed by the indignant howls of hundreds of tiny apes!

The three workers stare silently at the bizarre spectacle of a horde of injured apes pouring out of the wreckage of their tree home like angry demons. Possible even to a monster ant, this sight is truly something fresh and original.

For the colony!

Gleefully I charge into the gathering throng of ape monsters, Tiny hooting and roaring on my back like an enraged knight, who is also an ape.

The small creatures are scattered by my larger frame, literally bouncing off my Diamond Carapace when they attempt to strike. My assault sparks the workers into action. There is a fellow ant in a battle. Fight! Food! Two of the ants immediately turn and sprint back towards the colony. I’m not shocked by this. They aren’t running away in fear or anything like that. These workers know no fear. They are instead going to summon reinforcements with all the speed they can muster.

The remaining ant leaps into battle alongside me, latching onto the nearest ape with its jaws and engaging in deadly combat. My mission now is to delay and keep this one worker alive until our brethren arrive for the battle.

The apes are screeching mad as they rush to slay the would-be attackers, punching and kicking at me. Some even pick up improvised weapons like branches and rocks to try and increase their damage.

Muahahahaha! Useless! All of your efforts are for nothing.

My newly improved Diamond Carapace is the perfect defence against these sorts of impacts. My HP isn’t even dropping at all! The small monster’s physical strength is surely far beneath my Toughness to begin with. Also take into consideration the advancement of my carapace against physical damage, there is very little these chimps can do to me with their strength alone.

I rampage joyfully through their ranks, knocking them aside and sweeping through them with large swings of my mandibles. By playing with the chimps, the anger and fury on their faces only grows more intense. They redouble their efforts, grouping up to leap through the air and bring their fists down on my head with all of the force they can muster.

Is that all you’ve got? It barely tickles!

Whenever my lone ally starts to get surrounded, I charge in to clear away the swarm and draw the aggro back to myself. This is actually a lot of fun.

ZAP!

Ouch! Why you little…

So the little chimps have started to bring out their skills, eh? One of the apes is drawing his fist back after punching me in the side, electricity still sparking off his arm. You little monsters can use your electric skills, huh?

Checking my stats, my HP has dropped by one. Tsk. When I evolved, I was careful to increase my internal resistance, as well as my external defence, but against elemental damage like this my Diamond Carapace doesn’t help at all. Even though I’m able to almost resist the attack completely, it’s still enough to break through my defences and drain my Health.

Witnessing the success of this strike, more and more chimps begin channelling electricity into their hands and tiny jolts of electricity spark off their fur as the energy builds and builds.

I won’t let you!

Rampaging through their ranks even more vigorously than before, the apes are sent flying before they can fully prepare their strike. Tiny is hooting and hollering from his position on my back, occasionally lashing out with a fist or foot whenever one of the apes gets too close.

Despite my best efforts, several more strikes land on my body, discharging their electrical force through my frame and my HP drops by a few more points.

Maybe you chimps are going to get somewhere after all…

Kidding!

Regeneration!

The flood of icy sensation powers through my body, repairing all of the internal damage and brings my HP back to full in a matter of seconds.

All of your efforts are for nothing, apes!

Tiny remains completely unaffected by the electricity coursing through my body. Since he’s actually an evolved version of these smaller chimps, he is no doubt powerfully resistant to electrical damage to start with. I’m not sure if he’s even noticed it to be honest.

In the middle of the melee, I check on my ally and notice that more ants have finally joined the battle. Turning toward the direction of the trail, more and more are making their way down and into the fight.

Now the real power of the colony will begin to show!