I didn’t allow myself to express the frustration I felt as I demanded that the flighty child take to her father. Sybil imdiately understood my intent when I glanced at her and so she turned to continue directing the swarm in my absence. Her competence and trust made grin widely as I jogged behind Trai towards whatever it was that Foire found so interesting. The hills quickly transitioned to mountains underfoot as I followed her.
My claws dug easily into the firm earth underfoot and gave leverage for each step I ascended. The air was clear and clean in my lungs, and I enjoyed the feeling of exertion. Before long, though, we stopped ascending and instead followed along a long ridge of stone that divided the forests from the sparse tree growth in the steeper mountains. Along the ridge, we could see much further, beyond just the peak that climbed ahead of us. Below, the thick forest teed with foreign life, life that seed to beg for us to rely on it for our survival. It took a force of will for to drag my attention from the flitting creatures within the branches below and instead to focus on the path that laid ahead.
Maybe a mile and a half from the main body of the swarm, Foire stood before a hole in the ground. My first thought was that the hole must have been for so rodent or other small prey animal, but sothing about the hole seed to communicate the presence of a more dangerous creature. I continued to observe it as I approached and just before we reached Foire, I realized what it was–there were signs of struggle leading into and around the entrance of the den. Deep scores in the earth from desperately clawing prey marked this as the dwelling of a hunter.
“It slls off here. Whatever lives here has a different sll from anything else we’ve ever encountered.” Foire simply said as I stepped next to him.
“In what way?”
“Not like a reptile or mammal or bird, or anything else. It’s just… different. I can’t place it, but it’s a distinct, strange sll.”
I lowered my snout to the ground and breathed deep to no avail. A hint of a scent slightly jumped out to , but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to recall it or find it anywhere else without guidance.
“I’ll trust you on it. Do you sll it, Trai?”
“Nope! Dad slls things better than anyone but Silf, though, so I just believe him.”
“Slight scent of prey down there too.” Foire added. “Sothing with fur.”
I flared my frills in acknowledgent while I watched the hole. Then, I realized how I’d already kept myself from learning as much as possible, and instead focused myself instead on my [Tremorsense]. My own shifting feet as well as Trai’s constant movent were the first things I could feel, but I quickly tuned them out. Foire’s mostly still stance didn’t draw my attention, and I pushed my sense deeper into the den underfoot. Before long, I felt the light skittering of industrious feet below us. I’d never felt anything quite like it before, but I wasn’t altogether too concerned, given that I hadn’t seen anything around here before. Then, the feet approached.
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“Whatever it is, they’re coming. Be ready.” I commanded, and Foire stepped to one side of the hole while Trai faced him, ready for whatever ca out. Between them both, I held both hands at the ready, my fingers bound together by their specialized scales and muscles. Then, it exited the den.
Two foot-long antennae poked out of the hole, inquisitively poking left and right as the bulbous head exited the colony. The clusters of eyes on each side of the creature’s head shone in the afternoon suns’ dying light, and the huge ant stepped out of the den. Its head was maybe a full foot in diater, and the body that ca out behind it was nearly three tis that. The massive bug’s mandibles clicked together curiously as it seed to investigate us, but it wasn’t long before it made its decision. Its six legs churned beneath it as it lunged at , mandibles wide open and ready to snap. I didn’t let it.
My left hand, pointed like a knife, stabbed true into its chitin. With that first thrust, my claws poked out of the bottom of its head, and though it twitched and its jaws still sought my flesh, it was dead. I shook my hand to the side, and the body flopped to the ground with a strangely hefty thud. Before I fell into a more complacent stance, though, I felt dozens and hundreds more feet rushing towards us.
“Brace yourselves!” was all I managed to shout before another head exploded out of the hole. No sooner than Foire had snapped the head from its torso did another ant lunge forward. Trai darted forward with both her hands and ripped another head from its body, but in that ant’s place rose two, then three at the sa. Faster than we could kill the unnaturally large insects, more flooded from their ho. [Tremorsense] warned that there was no chance of a quick resolution to this combat, with hundreds more feet rushing to our location.
Tens of ant bodies surrounded us before Foire took the first bite. He grunted with pain as an ant’s mandibles crunched through the bones in his tail. Blood fell to the ground in a heavy rain below him, and the ants continued swarming. Another reached for my ankle, and I sacrificed instead a painful strike on the thicker bone of my knee. My scales cracked and my bones scread in protest, but the bone held true under the attack. Knowing that our ti was limited, I shouted for both the other keelish to escape.
Trai didn’t hesitate, while Foire haltingly beat a retreat. His steps left a trail of blood, but he did retreat while I gathered a painfully large percentage of the sonic magic held in my sonilphon to my throat. A dozen more ant maws ca snapping for , and I sent most of the rest of my magic to the tip of my tail while I continued to compress the magic within my throat. Once my tail began quivering with magical potential, I spun in a quick circle.
The mass of my tail could already send the much smaller insects flying, but with [Destructive Wave] empowering my heavy tail as it smashed into chitin, ants’ bodies crumpled and exploded at first contact. With a small gap around , I lunged forward and, knowing the risk I was taking, placed my snout just in front of the entrance to the ants’ ho. I saw another set of flashing mandibles reaching for my face, but I released the compressed [Murderous lody] from my maw and blasted the would-be attacker back into his ho.
A quaking wave of sound thrumd through the ground underfoot, and I felt hundreds of ant bodies fall to the ground either stunned or dead with my sonic attack. Those still living aboveground, however, pressed the attack, though they were slightly off balance with my latest attack. I took another bite, this one to my tail, before I was able to extricate myself from the press of another twenty or so ants.
Trai and Foire both retreated with several ant bodies in each arm, and I took two in my mouth while I scooped a double armful of other corpses in my escape. None of us needed instructions to make our escape, though the sounds of ant mandibles and feet didn’t disappear from behind us as I disregarded the [System] notification that flashed in the corner of my eye.
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