---
Plus, his Adaptive Armor passive grew more useful the longer he survived in battle. If he could take a hit and keep moving...
That clinched it. He began allocating, "Balanced," he told himself. But a touch heavier on muscle, sand beasts hit like runaway siege carts.
He dragged the sliders in his mind:
15 → Strength (for piercing chitin hides)
10 → Speed (for sprinting between dune ridges)
8 → Stamina (for endless glare and thin desert air)
[Ding! Stats Allocated Successfully.
Strength: 157
Speed : 120
Stamina : 118
Unallocated: 0]
A pleasant burn rippled through his limbs like molten honey. Chitin plates flexed; the world’s colors sharpened a notch.
He clenched a fist. "Good. Darius you traitor, you just wait. I’m almost ready to take my revenge."
[Status window-
Na: Kai (Elite Worker Ant)
Species: Monarch Devourer Ant
Level: 26 (⭐⭐)
Exp: 200/1000
HP: 2000/2000
Aura: 2600/2600
Lifespan: 10 years
Strength: 157
Speed: 120
Stamina: 118
Unallocated stats: 00
Ultimate Skill: Essence Eater
Sub skills: Essence Overlord, Devourer’s Bite
Inventory: Soul-Bonded Storage Cube (4x4x4)
Item: 101 Liters star crystal liquid, 47 Star crystal, 1 four star core, 8 two star core, Beast at.
Skill Set: (Duration: 5 minutes without any cool down.)
Antenna Sensory Boost – Sensing enemies through vibration and pheromones.
Worker’s Resilience – Briefly buffing stamina at the expense of fatigue earned.
Tiny Tank – Hardening the exoskeleton for greater resilience.
Ant’s Instinct – Enhanced resource finding but with a few bugs.
Reflex Mode – Movent speed increased; use at your own risk as it is unstable.
Adaptive Armor (Passive): Exoskeleton can adjust to reduce damage from different types of attacks.
Predator’s Instinct (Passive): Enhances detection of threats and weaknesses in enemies.
Aura Cost: -200 upon per use. ]
The soft groan of canvas pulled his gaze up. Mia’s elite squad, Cerastis Banner, was already packing bed-rolls, shoveling last night’s fire ash into a trench so no smoke marker betrayed them. Throats were dry from half-rations of water, but the ants moved with bright eyes; they had crossed the badlands, survived glass-storm micro-cyclones, and now the map said only a half-day’s march remained to the lip of the Sand-Worm Ruler’s valley.
To the south, beyond a jagged dune line, Thea’s cobalt-pennant Coatl Banner was breaking camp as well. Darius’s four-star aura glead near her tent, giving orders with casual arrogance. Kai’s mandibles clicked in anger, still thrumming over the captain’s flight in the mine but old vengeance had to wait. The Ruler ca first. He needs a bit more power to deal with him.
Mia strode toward Kai. Even under travel dust, her crimson carapace shimred regal. She unrolled a parchnt map and knelt so only Kai and three lieutenants could see.
"From here," she whispered, her hands tapping a charcoal line, "we drop through these gullies, four klicks into outer dune skirts. Scouting only. The Queen’s main legion sits a few days behind us; our job is eyes and route markers."
Shale, the hamr-wielding ant, rumbled agreent. "No glory, but no legion can move blind across glass-traps."
Mia’s rose-gold eyes hardened. "And no mistakes. Thea will compete for every scrap of rit. Darius too."
Needle, a wiry spear-lass grunted. "Coatl’s already shadowing us for the last three nights, Princess. Slled their vinegar torches."
Kai laid a spear across his knees. "If she wants a race, we finish it by midday, stake flags, and sprint back before she breathes."
Mia allowed herself the faintest smile. "That’s why you’re here, Kai. Lead V-detail forward. Shale takes left ridge, Needle right. I’ll remain behind to etch beacons."
Orders clicked through the squad. Packs cinched; waterskins clinked. Before dispersing, Mia caught Kai’s elbow, voice dropping to a hush.
"Kai, I have high hopes for you." A faint pink color ward the plates around her cheeks.
Kai’s antennae dipped. "I will do my best. I am your shield and sword. Don’t worry."
"Agreed." She straightened, shoulders squaring. "And Kai please don’t die out there. I... Cerastis needs you."
A new system ping blinked unseen behind Kai’s eyes:
[Impression 2
Current score: 27]
He turned away before heat showed on his mandibles.
The first hour was silence and sunrise. Crimson light crawled across wave after wave of pale sand. The grains here were not ordinary silica but ground starstone. Each mote is as sharp as a needle. Boots left glittering wakes; every step hissed.
Kai’s forward himself, a cross-bow ant nad Flint, and young courier Zephyr advanced in arrowhead formation. Kai’s Predator Instinct pulsed seismic murmurs through his feet: micro-tremors of beetle burrows, the yawning echo of subterranean caverns, nothing large yet.
"Easy ground," Zephyr whispered, adjusting his goggles.
"Too easy," Kai replied. "Stay sharp."
They reached the top of a tall dune and beheld the valley proper. Sunlight revealed a scar three leagues across: a titanic trench where the Sand-Worm Ruler had coiled through stone for millennia. Jagged basalt pillars ringed the sinkhole, like teeth of a fallen god. Heat-haze wavered above, distorting the scale of each heave hurling plus of dust sky-high.
Flint exhaled a curse.
No ti to gawk. Kai signaled a two-finger wave. The triad skirted down dune slip-face, boots sliding, sand hissing. Shale’s group shadows on the left ridge; Needle’s right silhouettes mirrored them perfectly. Good. Formation stable.
Halfway down, a seismic sense scread left burst! The dune erupted. Five obsidian-black Glass-Scorpions three-star rank each shot from sand, pincers clicking, tails spitting jets of molten silica.
"Form up!" Kai roared, spear leveled.
The biggest scorpion, a hulking brute half against Kai’s mass, charged at him. Kai boosted speed aura in legs (Reflex mode activated: -200 aura on activation). World blurred; he sidestepped, thrust spear under claw hinge, CLANG, sparks flew. Too hard. Adaptive Armor absorbed rebound.
Flint’s cross-bow twanged; a glass bolt shivered through a smaller scorpion’s eye-cluster. Creature shrieked, writhed.
Zephyr sprinted with curved daggers, hamstrings a second scorpion; green ichor sprayed.
Kai refocused on brute strength. Tail arced overhead, dripping molten glass droplets that hissed on sand. He waited heartbeat then dove forward under a sting jabbed spear tip into ventral plates, twisted. Crack. Brute spasd. Molten tail slamd ground, splashing searing droplets across Kai’s shoulder.
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