30 Ants Adventure 1 (2/2)
” You make it look so easy, it is my duty to prevent as much death as possible. If I get to command people, I will not stand as my subordinates die left and right because of my negligence, that is why I spent my time training. Giving up on my own comfort or the safety of my comrades, I will pick my own comfort in a heartbeat.
Besides what do you take me for? A brute? Who in the right mind would train his body in a world full of magic?”
”Regardless whether your sentiment is right or not, it is quite hard to train, if your so-called subordinates are busy testing the limits of their testicles,” Claudia said grinning.
Samantha began to look back in disgust and then a deep frown seemed to appear on her forehead.
”I will get wrinkles if I have to train with people like this all the time and nobody likes to marry an old wrench. I just wanted to let them train against a pack of wolves, it is an easy exercise for improving team coordination. But to no avail, men will find a way to fuck it up in the end. ”
Well, then spend some time with your dear sister, you may even call it a bonding experience to get a better grasp at what your team is thinking.”
After having no more excuses left, she was forced to comply with her sister's reasoning. A little smile escaped her lips.
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As they were moving away from the spectacle, they started to gossip about all the new rumours that got to their ears. About the mysterious Call-Me-daddy2 and how a certain person reputation went down the drain, after trying to compare with Call-Me-daddy 2. Even about the latest developments on the frontlines. Until they started to talk about all the newest rumours surrounding”Primal Survival”.
” Have you heard, about the rumour of the young miss from the Merediem family, wetting her pants? Apparently, she was so scared by just a single creature. This creature massacred her 100 subordinates and then just walked passed her. It was as if magic did not have any effects on it.”
”As if stuff like that exists in the first place, this is just another cheap trick to gather some attention. This is supposed to be a realistic depiction of reality not a fabrication of old myths.”
”At first I was just like you, believing it to be just a scam, but then because of some strings I pulled someone sends me a video of her perspective directly and afterwards, she deleted every other trace of it happening, saying it was way too stressful to remembering that strange creature. After watching only a small bit of itI was sure that it was not just a rumour. Take a look, I send you the video.
At first, there was just the young miss busy jumping on something, with a bright smile on her face. Afterwards, many magic spells were cast and aimed at the membrane, after the multitude of spells left no visible damage, the young miss started to use her best effort and strongest magic to set it ablaze, but the membrane was only pulsating a bit otherwise there was no reaction, to the extent that any spectator would guess that it just an item devoid of any life.
After the flames died down, they forgot about the rest of the video, in their eyes was just this savage grin, giving everyone single one of them a feeling of impending doom. The grin belonged to something, that they have never seen before. Its silhouette was ´resembling a human baby, its general shape was the embodiment of terror.2 blades were attached to its arms and 2 tall wings were growing out of the body. covered in a pitch-black shell it was looking at straight into their souls. They found themselves caught helplessly. They have never seen something like these eyes. It was the kind, that just the thought of resistance alone felt useless, it was crushed before it could fester. It reached the deepest part of the soul and left an imprint of raw pure terror there.
It came closer and closer, but looking at the camera a look of disappointment flashed over its face. It just walked passed the camera and started to massacre the exhausted soldiers with ease cutting off limbs left and right. It looked effortless as if it was just a casual performance. Cries of pain were growing louder as the ground was covered in a red hue. But instead of expecting the sweet release of death, the mangled men were devoured by bugs, torn to shreds until they were no more.
Those bugs were the perfect fit for such a heinous creature, they were as dark as the deepest night and had a big white eye on their backs. While each bug was just the size of a small finger, their mere presence was deeply unsettling. The slow clacking of their little teeth in anticipation of tasting human flesh. Their behaviour when consuming their prey, it was looking like they were actually savouring the taste and enjoying the moment. The slow twitching of the eye, on their backs, as if it was alive.
There was nothing left of the once proud men. Only the heavy steps of that walking nightmare were audible and yet again it slowly came closer to the young miss. Despite its face not clearly visible, you still could tell, that everything that it just did was beneath it as if all that suffering had no relation to it all. The forehead was flaring up in different colours, but it only became visible after the creature looked at the helpless girl for one last time. Opening its wings it started to spread his wings and fly away without any kind of worry in the world.
And then the video fades into black, leaving the spectators dumbfounded, questioning whether what they just saw was real or just a bad dream.
”I refuse to believe that this is real, I reject even the notion of such a thing existing”. Claudia said in a denying fashion. Each one of them needed some time to realize what they just witnessed.
”Let us calm down first, it is useless to get into a hysteric fit because of such a stupid creature. I mean we treat it as if it had human intelligence and judging by literally any other monster in existence it is most likely quite stupid. ”
The two other girls nodded and began to remember all the encounters they had with the monsters here and could only shake their head because of their baseless panic.
” Though despite our initial error of judgement this thing truly is interesting. It does not look like any animal be it modern or historic I have ever seen or heard of. If I had to make a comparison I would say its like a mix out of many different animals. This seems like the most likely given the cause of such a thing even existing, though this still does not explain why the general outline is that of a human. Though that is just scratching the surface, of what is really strange. Most animals just hurt everything that they come across, they don't differentiate if you are young or old, male or female. they just attack you. But this kind of creature was showing great restraint, it did not kill her subordinates right on the spot, instead, it immobilized them by cutting off their limbs. All that just so the little bugs could consume them, there seems to be great importance attached to this fact.” Samantha calmly analyzed after returning to her usual mood.
”Those are the things that I can safely tell.” she continued
”But there are some things I can not get any gist of. That creature is so thoughtful, yet leaves a witness behind. I can not fathom what the reasoning behind it is. Normally an intelligent being of this world would kill every witness. Dead men tell no tale after all. But it just straight up looks at her and then calmly flies away. I really don't think that this monster is a chauvinist.
While there was still a bit of tension left in the air, that stupid remark forced a little chuckle out of Claudia and Eve. The existence of such a monster is a real challenge to their imagination but just the pure thought of such a monster having complex thoughts and judging it by human standards is something so stupid, that they did not notice it before. After all, they are in a scripted reality, where they literally cannot die at all. Such a scary monster does not seem so scary any more if you really think about it. It is just a monster that seems slightly more intelligent than other monsters. So while the first impression of it may seem to induce fear because of its contradiction to everything known beforehand, its existence is something that is only possible in this kind of world. All it will ever amount to be will be a work of fiction.
Eve suddenly got an excited expression on her face and she began to grab both of them by the hand and pull them away from the crowd. Confused by her sudden actions to light squeals escaped their lips before they were even able to question the sudden action a cheerful voice answered.
” Come on, we never had an adventure like this. Nowadays we are required to act serious and mature nearly all the time. The duty here,the obligations there. I totally agree that we have to face our destiny sooner or later. But this may be our last big journey, the last mystery we are able to solve before adulthood comes crashing our doors and tearing us apart.I refuse to acknowledge any kind of reasons not to.So let us gather some more information on this little creature.
Before the even could realize what was happening to them, they found themselves pulled away from every onlooker and in the distant forest.
”Why are you bringing us into this forest?” Both of them asked perplexed.
” You guys are so intelligent, yet fail to see the obvious. At first, there are those nagants that behave like a completely different species and now there is this bug-boy. It is common-sense that there has to be some kind of connection between the two. I mean everything was normal before bug-boy happened and now you tell me a mutated ant does not seem like an unlikely occurrence anymore.
Before you start criticizing my idea, think about it. Where did the first ant appear from? It was inside a forest. Why did no one find the bug-boy even though nearly every cave is full of players? It is because it is not there anymore and the only area that is not that well explored in the woods. So do I need to continue or are you starting to believe me?
Claudia suddenly had a slight epiphany and nodded her head.
” Ah I get it, you want to take advantage of the fact that most bugs are currently busy duking it out with the boys. So while they are occupied, we sneak in and scout the area in order to locate this monster. Other than that weak magic has no effect on those bugs directly, but we as ice mages can hinder their movement and can avoid most of the fights that way. As for the rest of the monsters, Samatha will take care of them with ease. While we may not be able to search a big area due to our limited group size, it does not take away our mobility. All we have to do is search systematically. I really like your approach Eve”
As the girls marched into the woods they were not sure, what their little search would lead to.