Chp 7 - (ant)icipated Action

Earth/Europe/Bertotia Kingdom/05_09_2020:

(POV Ivan): So now all I have to do is stay out of sight long enough to come up with some sort of plan.

Focusing intently on the squad to his front, Ivan tiptoes from hiding spot to hiding spot, pressing his body flat against walls and ducking behind recycle-bins. Perhaps because their attention is drawn to the Weaver they’re transporting, Ivan has so far gone completely unnoticed by the squad. That’s not to say that regular pedestrians haven’t seen him dolphin-diving behind stationary vehicles, it’s just that they don’t give enough of a fuck to do anything besides quietly chuckle to themselves about it.

BANG!

From 200-300m further down the road from the squad, a large explosion can be heard. Accompanying this explosion is the trademark screeching and scuttling of Spiderlings, wreaking havoc and ruining lives. Fortunately, they only seem to be low rank creatures¹the rank of a Spiderling is generally defined by the amplitude and frequency of the vibrations it causes in the surrounding web, as well as it’s area of influence however, judging from the faces of the fleeing civilians, there must be quite a number of them. Peering closer to the sight of the explosion, dozens of large, black ant-faces can be seen looking back, eyes glistening with a ripe bloodlust. His face turning stiff, Lieutenant Couture snaps into action, issuing orders to try and reduce the severity of the situation as quickly as possible.

(Couture): Break off into groups of 2! I, alongside 2 of these groups will guard the princess, the rest of you shall work to diffuse the situation. As they seem to be no more than D ranks, each pair should aim to take 20 on at once²Spiderlings ranked S-F, Arachnophobes are ranked similarly. 10 E rank Arachnophobes would roughly equal 1 E rank Spiderling in strength. Therefore, the Squad members are around C rank. There seem to be roughly ~100 Spiderlings, so direct whatever you can’t handle towards the group guarding the princess, we will take care of them. Disperse!

A little blinded by the torrent of commands just issued, Ivan falters slightly. This, however, cannot be said of the Squad members, who have already paired up and started running towards the swarming horde of Spiderlings. As there are only 3 groups³one of these groups is the Lieutenant now surrounding the princess, they form a triangle, with the princess at its base. Their back is to the concrete wall of a seemingly desolate bungalow, meaning they have fewer openings. Taking a deep breath and a sweeping view of the situation, Ivan’s brain begins to whirr, having been thrown into overtime once again. After scheming for a short while, a dauntless grin works its way across his face…

(POV Ivan): Well this’ll certainly be fun…

Quietly working his way over to the swarm (in order to avoid the eyes of Roberts and Milner who are guarding Andresia, as they know he is associated with her) Ivan realises he has a problem… Quite a large problem in fact. His plan largely revolves around attracting the Spiderlings towards him, a feat he’d normally use sound to accomplish⁴Spiderlings are usually highly sensitive to sound and will attack whatever is making the most noise. However, if he were to make a noise louder than 100 rampaging giant ants, the attention he would draw to himself wouldn’t come exclusively from the monsters. His plan would ultimately fail. Biting his lip and observing the ants, he looks at patterns in the way they attack, trying to identify any other ways to attract their attention. A few moments pass before he realises that, while they attack any physical combatants that assault them, they are also targeting the Twill and Satin Weavers, even though they specialise in long range attacks.

(POV Ivan): Could it be… Can those overgrown insects distinguish one person's waves from all the others? Using this, they then attack the combatants furthest from them first, as long range attackers are a pain in the arse to deal with. I see… So, all I’d have to do is send out a low-amplitude wave continuously, from far enough away to aggravate them. That’s good for me, considering I can barely produce any waves at all, I’d be screwed if I needed some high-frequency, high-amplitude nonsense…

Taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and holding his arms outstretched in the direction of the swarm, Ivan begins to slowly oscillate the surrounding atoms in the air, causing minute vibrations to fill the surrounding Web. It doesn’t take long for his plan to show results. Unfortunately, his plan works a little too well, as opening his eyes reveals 15-20 of the monsters, scuttling towards him at full speed.

(Ivan, visibly panicked): Eeeeeek! A-aren’t you guys getting a little too pissed?!?!

Realising that he’s talking to ants, who won’t respond, he decides instead to run, fleeing the battlefield with an entourage of hungry killer ants, heading towards the princess and her captors.

(POV Ivan): Well one thing’s for sure, whatever happens from now on will definitely be interesting, to say the least…

Andresia’s location/several minutes earlier (the Spiderlings have just appeared):

(POV Andresia): This might be an opportunity… If I can cause some sort of distraction, I might be able to get out of here, now that there are fewer people guarding me… The only problem is how…

Tracing the path of the attacking group of soldiers with her eyes, Andresia spots something unexpected, someone following closely behind them, clearly unrelated to her kidnappers. Squinting in order to better her view of the anomaly, she spots a miracle – Ivan. Biting the fleshy sides of her mouth to prevent her body from subconsciously screaming with joy, hope once again floods into her… But wait, why is he running towards the Spiderlings? The only thing he seems to be good at is drawing their atten~

Wait a second… he can’t possibly be thinking…

(POV Andresia): That idiot… Well at the very least, I can get into a position that’ll make it easier for him to carry out his plan.

Cautiously looking at her captors, it’s apparent that she was the only one to notice the former slave. A dauntless grin creeps on to her face, before being suppressed.

(Andresia, trying to get closer to the wall behind her): I can’t believe you’re making a princess stand and watch this whole thing!

(Roberts): You weren’t acting much like a princess at all bef~

SMACK. Looking back at the man that whacked him in the back of the head, Roberts opts to pout, remaining quiet. Milner looks from his partner to the princess, offering an apologetic smile before resuming his job as a guard. Turning from the pair of scouts-turned-guards, a wry smile glued to his face, Lieutenant Couture nods in the direction of the wall before addressing Andresia.

(Couture): I know it isn’t exactly the height of luxury, but you’re welcome to go sit down, just be aware we might have to move soon.

Channelling all her restraint, Andresia manages to twist her smile into an arrogant scowl, flicking her head away from the Lieutenant to further highlight her “absolute displeasure”⁵this is actually what she was aiming for, so she’s simply pretending to be unhappy at the current situation. Squatting, back to the wall, Andresia looks up to the roof of the bungalow they’re based out of, counting down the time until he arrives.