Ant Lord Chapter 29

We spent ten days searching the city of Dayton for any signs of the Queen, and though we found many bugs squirreled away in various dens, the final boss was nowhere to be found.  That wasn't to say it was time wasted though, as we did manage to stumble a few interesting things.

In the middle of the city, surrounded by skyscrapers, was a giant mound of earth that easily passed 100 meters in height.  We approached cautiously, expecting hundreds- or even thousands of insects to come bursting out and attack us, but when we got close we realized that the place was unoccupied.

"Ember, what is this? I thought there would be a nest here." I asked, inspecting a tunnel that must have led deep into the earth.

"I apologize master, but I don't know.  It looks a bit like the place where I was born but...I can sense no trace of the queen here.  It's obviously a nest, though it appears the occupants have vacated the premises."

I nodded, perturbed and contemplated venturing into the place.  The only thing that held me back from doing so was the worry that if something still lived in there it would be able to ambush us.  For now, I would let this mystery go unsolved.

"If we're not going in there then what should we do next? We've done a pretty thorough search of this place…" Terry said.

"It was always a longshot that the queen would be here.  All we can do is keep looking...I was thinking Columbus next."

"But do we even know she'll be there? I kinda feel like we should try gathering information first before we go somewhere…" Peter said tepidly.

"You aren't wrong, but as it stands gathering information isn't easy.  As far as we know, we're the only non-hostile force in this pla-" but before I could finish my sentence I was cut off by a loud BOOM, followed by an equally loud "SCREEEEE" coming from the northern end of the city.

The four of us exchanged glances and wordlessly took off in the direction that the noise had come from.  It took us five minutes to reach our destination and in that time we heard the repeated sounds of gunfire and explosions, as well as continuous screeching noises coming from whatever was being shot at.

“It sounds like a warzone” Terry said as another loud boom went off, shaking the windows of a nearby building.

“If my suspicions are correct it likely is a warzone.” I said.

When we got to where the battle was taking place the four of us were greeted by a rather peculiar sight.  The fight was being waged along a single street that was covered with various dilapidated shops.  Hiding inside of and behind said shops were about forty soldiers, each waiting for an opportune moment to peek out and fire their rifles at their quarry.  In front of the soldiers and engaging directly with their opponent was a Sherman tank, which was intermittently ramming the enemy and then backing off to fire shells.

Opposite the soldiers was a huge Praying Mantis that stood roughly twenty meters tall on its hind legs.  However unlike a normal Mantis, this one had long, sharp, scythe like appendages at the end of its arms.

The soldiers were clearly at their wits end, as even when their tank scored a direct hit with it’s shells it could do little more than dent the Mantis’s tough chitin, which would repair itself within a matter of seconds. The soldier's gunfire was simply bouncing off of it.

One of the soldiers, in a valiant attempt at exploiting what he thought was a weak point, tried sneaking up as close so that he could shoot it’s eyes.  When he was just within the reach of its arms, he took his shot and scored a direct hit.  Unfortunately, even that wasn’t enough to do more than irritate the Mantis, which deftly reached out and sliced the soldier in two with it’s right sickle. 

“Ember?”

“That would be a Knight.  Like the Ronin, they are a class built specifically for hunting and killing Lords.  Though their raw power is lacking somewhat in comparison to the Ronin they make up for it by having far less stringent conditions for evolution.  In fact, it would be harder to come across an unevolved Knight than it would be to come across an Evolved.  Weaknesses include blunt force trauma.  Strengths include a very high level of speed and a propensity for mid to close range combat. As Evolved I would class them as a low tier 5.  Unevolved are a high tier 3.”

“Kukuku, sounds like I’ve finally come across something delicious.” I said.

“Shouldn’t we help those soldiers out?” Terry said, readying his hammer.

“Indeed my friend, but I’d like the three of you to let me handle this one.”

“Looking to test your strength? Alright, I’ll protect the soldiers then.” Terry said, smiling.

“Yeah right, you just want to eat it all up yourself, don’t you?” Peter said, rolling his eyes.

“Teehee, as expected of Master.” Ember said, giggling.

They were right of course.  It felt like months had passed since the last time I got to enjoy a real fight.  Watching Terry have fun playing with that Stag had me pretty fired up and I was itching to nab myself a good bite to eat.

Not wanting to wait a moment longer, I jumped from where we were standing and landed squarely on top of the Sherman tank, facing the mantis.  Behind me the soldiers were shouting at my arrival, but I had eyes only for the delicacy laid out before me.  The Knight regarded me for a moment and seemed like it was about to take a swipe at this strange newcomer with its scythes, but before it could do so…

“SHKRIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, sending out my menace and glee in waves along the mental link.  Normally a Lord’s scream was enough to strike fear into the hearts of any foe we faced, but by mixing in my own emotions I was able to amplify the effect of the scream, causing the Mantis to physically recoil and jump back.

Behind me the humans were barely able to stop themselves from retreating, with some of them actually passing out from fear.  They impressed me, as most humans weren’t able to withstand it to this extent.  As expected of soldiers.

The Mantis had taken up a defensive position down the street and seemed to be waiting to meet my challenge.  I happily hopped off the Tank and approached the beast, but not before shouting “If you lot don’t want to get caught up in the crossfire I'd advise you get moving!”

The soldiers, still getting their wits about them, nodded and retreated half a mile farther up the street.  Where they stopped and started observing.

“They’ve got grit, I'll give them that.” I thought, turning my attention back to my quarry.

I continued to approach the Mantis, stopping just out of reach of his arms.  I was certain the beast was intelligent, but I had no interest in exchanging words.  I had fallen out of the habit of talking to my food, so instead I just pulled out my bastard sword and held it in one hand.  The glowing antenna that I had placed in it’s pommel and blade both were glowing brighter than usual, as if they too were anticipating the coming battle. Indeed, the blade itself almost seemed to be giving off a dark and sickly aura.

My mouth was dripping with saliva and my stomach was growling with anticipation.  I could hardly hold myself back as thoughts of sweet meat flooded my mind, threatening to rob me of all reason.

For a moment the two of us just stood there like that, staring silently at each other.  And then-

“Skreee!” The Mantis yelled, jabbing out at me with it’s scythe.  Ember hadn’t lied, it’s speed was incredible, even to my standards.  If I had been a bit closer to it, it probably would have landed a deep cut in my chest.  As it was though I managed to dodge out of the way and respond with my own attack, namely the four, meter long spikes that I launched out of my left arm.  Each of them managed to strike their target, but all but one of them glanced off of the Mantis’s carapace.

To be honest I hadn't expected that.  It seemed that the Mantis was even more sturdily built than the Demolisher was.  And this was considered weak defense compared to the Stag.

“It just goes to show how much stronger Terry has become.” I thought approvingly.

Grinning, I dodged another of the Mantis’s attacks and took aim at the place where one of my spikes had managed to pierce, a joint of the leg.  However this time I fired one of my hypodermics, loaded with acid.  My aim struck true and I managed to load the leg with a dose of acid, but if the Mantis felt any discomfort from it, it didn’t show.

“Tch, as expected.” I thought, reevaluating my attack plan.

Part of the problem was its size.  I imagined that even if I managed to pierce directly into the thing's skull, I probably wouldn’t be able to deliver enough acid to kill it before it shook me off.  The other problem was this thing’s crazy regenerative ability.  It was easily on the level of what  Lord could heal after eating, which meant that I’d have to find a way to kill it in one or two hits.

“It’s certainly possible, but it will be difficult.  Kihihi, this is going to be delightful!”

I jumped back to gain some distance and then, using the legs I inherited from Lizzy to their fullest, I jumped onto the side of the building next to me.  But I didn't stop there, I then used the momentum to jump onto the building adjacent to this one.  Then I jumped onto the next building, even faster than before.  And then the next, and then the next, all the while building up speed and force as I jumped ever closer to the praying Mantis.  

The Mantis, for its own part, didn’t seem to understand what I was doing.  But it could see that I was getting closer to it and that I was building up speed and power for an attack.  It brought it’s arms close to itself like a boxer, ready to defend itself from whatever I had planned.

“Yes, that’s right! Keep that up!” I shouted.

By the time i was within range of its blades my speed had increased to a level far beyond what the Mantis was capable of reacting to.  It’s eyes were still following me, looking for any slip up where it could sneak in and jab at me, but there were none to be found and eventually-

SHING

All of my momentum brought my sword down on its neck and the result?

A scratch.  Though I put all of my force and all of the accumulated speed into that strike, all I’d managed to do was scratch the Mantis’s neck. I had managed to draw blood, but the wound was already healing when I looked back at the Mantis.

To be honest, I hadn't expected my blow to deal so little damage.

“Ember did say that the Mantis was weak to blunt damage, but I didn't think it would be so strong against slashing...this may be a bit more difficult than I thought.  Even if I were to hit it with all of my strength, I doubt that I would be able to punch it’s head off in one go.  You’d basically need the strength of a hellfire missile to kill this guy…”

Though I still thought I could win, I was starting to think that this might be a troublesome fight.  I was in the middle of reformulating my strategy again when I noticed something odd happening to my sword.

When I cut the Mantis a little bit of its blood had splattered over my blade, and now that blood was being drawn into the sword, disappearing into the chitin.  For a moment I stared at the blade in confusion, unsure of what was happening, and then the sword itself started changing.

Right before my very eyes my sword transformed, with the blade becoming slightly shorter, and single edged rather than the double edge my bastard sword had been.  The antenna that I had set in the blade also changed, now glowing a sickly shade of green rather than the poisonous yellow it had been, though the one in the pommel had stayed yellow. It’s length was still nearly the same, but the width and shape of the blade were vastly different now resembling that of a chef’s knife.

Somehow, my sword had imbued itself with the Mantis blood and transformed into a Great Knife.

“...!?  But how...wait, I made this thing using my own body parts...so does that mean that my weapon can absorb the powers of the things it...gihi….gihiki...kikiki!....KIKIKUKUKIIIII!” I laughed.

A weapon that devours its foes and steals their power?  It was absolutely perfect for the likes of me!  Though i didn’t understand how it worked or why it hadn’t done this up until now, what I did understand was that i had just acquired an amazing tool!  And if my guess was correct, that tool had just given me the ability to win this fight with ease!

Wasting no more time, I once again jumped onto the buildings to build up speed for a massive cut.  The Mantis, now wise to what I was planning, stopped guarding and moved in, arrogantly believing that I was incapable of dealing it any real damage.

As soon as it was within range of me, the Mantis started jabbing and slicing at me.  But I had also become wise to the Mantis, and was able to match it’s timing and dodge with ease even as I continued building up speed until finally I reached a level I was comfortable with and took another shot at it.

This time, my blade cut right through it’s left arm, slicing it neatly off of the main body.  The Mantis, shocked that I had managed to deal it such damage, backed off again and defended itself.  Big mistake.  The arm that I had just cut off was already regenerating, though it would need at least a couple of minutes to grow a new one.  Perhaps the correct move would have been for me to immediately go on the attack and give it no time to recover, but instead I opted to increase my own power.

Landing next to the severed arm, I wasted no time using my knife to carve through the carapace.  When I finally got to the meat I took a moment to savor the experience of discovering a new kind of food before eating my fill.  I had to admit, the taste wasn’t quite as good as the demolisher had been, but the meat had a much nicer texture and the mouthfeel was positively superb. By the time I was finished my body was already done absorbing one of the Mantis’s abilities, namely the carapace hardness.  

I stood up and faced the now fully healed Mantis again.  It was behaving very differently from before, as it was staying firmly on guard and didn’t seem to want to be the one who made the first attack.

“You truly are a worthy opponent.” i thought, impressed by its ability to assess the fight.  It already knew what me eating it’s arm meant and yet still it didn’t back down or panic.  Instead it just calmly adjusted it’s battle strategy to one that focused on guarding its head.

The two of us fought for another three hours after that, each of us aiming for the same thing- a single blow to end our opponents life, and though we dealt each other many scratches and near fatal blows we each had a means of regenerating any damage that we received.  For me, it was the many body parts that I’d managed to slice off, for the Mantis it was it’s own astounding regenerative powers.

The battle finally came to a head when I broke it’s guard using my spikes, which were now able to pierce the Mantis’s skin.  The Mantis was able to keep it’s arms up but it didn’t anticipate a follow up from my legs as I kicked its arms aside.  Finally, I ended the chain attack by cleaving straight through its neck.

Yet still, even with it’s head detached from it’s shoulders, the Mantis’s arms reflexively struck out at me and managed to impale me through the abdomen.  It wouldn’t be enough to kill me, not with all of this food lying around, but I was moved by its sheer will to fight.

In the end the body, after dealing that one final strike that would have killed any other foe, collapsed and was finally still.

I stood over my quarry for a moment, admiring its strength, before finally enjoying the meal I had worked so hard to hunt.  Unlike the Cleaners, who had been little more than brutes, the Demolishers, who lacked the intelligence to understand what was going on, or the Beacon, who was conniving and unfaithful, this Mantis had been a warrior through and through.

I savored it, and made sure to eat every little bite.