Too Stubborn to Die

Book 3: Chapter 48

No matter how bad the situation got, Aaron wasn’t about to let up. But man, was he tired and beat up. Cycling energy was straight-up painful, and his body felt like it was about to fall apart.

Luckily, the ant appeared to be in even worse shape and didn’t seem to be recovering as quickly as he had been, even with his soul in the shape it currently was.

He shot forward, fists at the ready, and the ant obliged, charging forward, and the two clashed. Fists and kicks flew back and forth, sending a splattering of both red and green blood all about. But it quickly became apparent who had the upper hand.

Some might have struggled in a melee against a foe with four serrated arms swinging at them, but compared to taking on Mo’han, this was a walk in the park.

And in their weakened states, it became painfully obvious who had superior skill out of the two of them. Aaron easily weaved through the ants slicing counters, and landed strike after strike.

He was putting on an absolute clinic against the outmatched ant. And while he might not have been quite as gifted as Yendal, it was beyond obvious that the ant was relying on its speed far more than he relied on his energy.

And for every second that the fight went on, the ant looked more and more desperate, eating shots one after another in painful succession.

But beating the reaver ant that was practically falling apart under the pressure of his deadly fists was no longer his biggest concern.

In his periphery, Aaron could see the swarm getting closer. This wasn’t good. They had been annoying enough to deal with at full strength, and in his current state, even drones would be able to get the better of him with enough numbers. And worst of all, he lacked the aether to rely on his resurrecting abilities.

Digging deep, he knew he had to finish this quickly, and he lunged forward with a devastating flurry. Reading fate to take advantage of the perfect opening, he slipped straight through a last-ditch effort to defend itself and landed a combo that he poured all of his remaining energy into.

Any remaining defense was crushed by his [ Soul Shattering Strike ], and the haymaker that followed it burst a hole through the ant’s remaining broken pieces of carapace and flesh, and his spectral fists shot into that hole and ripped apart the ant’s insides.

You killed: Formic Reaver [ Level 140 ]

Bonus Experience rewarded for killing beasts of a higher level than yourself!

[ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

86 → 88

Panting, Aaron wiped sweat from his brow and attempted to steady himself as he quickly grabbed food out of his storage.

Victory was bittersweet, as he could feel his knees trembling, and every inch of his body felt so incredibly weak.

He mightn’t have actually died too many times throughout the fight as he had in the fights with Mo’han, but he had made up for it with how much he had exhausted himself, alongside the soul damage he caused by going overboard with his core.

In fact, his soul damage was the worst part of it. He wondered if it had anything to do with becoming a shinigami, as he felt his body crying out to him. Then again, he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to do what he did without being a shinigami, as it had, without doubt, increased his control over his soul.

“I gotta get outta here.”

Aaron turned to leave, but when he tried to use his [ Spectral Rush ], a weak whizzing sound came out, and the Skill failed. He had already started eating to recover, and while his wounds were healing, his energy wasn’t properly circulating thanks to his overused core and damaged soul.

This wasn’t great, and he clenched his fists and bit down as he attempted to cycle and recover. But his body and soul just didn’t respond as they usually did. It seemed he simply needed a little more time, and as the swarm scuttled forward, he staggered backward.

“Ookay. Just a little misunderstanding,” he muttered with a full mouth, cramming food down there as fast as he could. “He attacked me. Not my fault, he got himself beaten the fuck up.”

As he backstepped the encroaching horde of ants, he was starting to realize just how delicate the situation was. The drones might not have been strong on their own, but if they sprung one of their traps, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to escape it in his current state.

But just as that troubling thought made its way through his mind, he felt something. A spark of lightning. It wasn’t much, but his energy was flowing again, a tiny trickle where a flooding torrent had previously been, but it was better than nothing.

And most importantly, it was enough to escape.

He had already given up the thought of continuing the fight now. Even if he did somehow manage to recover enough to fight back the swarm, he was a sitting duck in his current stage if another powerful ant came along. And it was obvious that the reaver ant hadn’t been the queen.

“I’ll be back!” He waved and turned. Then, he broke into a sprint, running back through the jungle and eating simultaneously, and the moment he had energy and strength, he activated [ Spectral Rush ] and shot into the air.

Zooming through the sky, it didn’t take him long to find Talia and the others. They were split between the jungle’s edge, and some alongside Zero were fighting a little way inside of it.

They were cutting apart sections of the swarm as it tried to regroup, and they were doing fine. But Aaron knew that the section of the swarm they were cutting apart was only a small fraction of what was coming for them from deeper in the jungle.

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“Hey, Talia! More are coming!”

Talia looked up as her avatar continued to swing its massive sword, slashing away at the pesky ants dozens at a time. But when her gaze caught Aaron, she sighed and looked relieved.

“You beat the D-grade one, then?”

“Yeah, but that was one hell of a fight. I’m not in the best shape right now.”

Exhaling, Aaron crashed down beside the others. He looked terrible, but even in his poor shape, he was still strong enough to beat down several drones around him.

“We’d better get moving, though,” he said, crushing an ant under his fist. “The swarm is regrouping in the jungle, and there are a lot of them. And I need some time to recover.”

“What about D-grades?” Talia asked.

“Didn’t see any others. But that reaver wasn’t the queen. Who knows if she had other minions as strong as that? But I certainly don’t want to call her bluff in this shape.”

“Yeah,” Talia said, eyes sweeping over Aaron. “Good call. We better retreat for now.”

Talia pressed two fingers to her lips and whistled with mana amplified power, calling the squad leaders to her. It was all very organized and planned, and the moment she gave out orders to the squad leaders, they gathered up their squads and fell back.

As they fled back over the plains, Aaron watched the swarm that followed. It wasn’t moving as fast as it had been once they were away from it. Taking a more measured and cautious approach. But it was still moving far faster than it had been prior to their engagement with it, and he really hoped taking out the reaver ant was worth enraging the ant nest.

Luckily, there was quite a bit of distance to cover when crossing the plains before they reached their settlement of Dober. And the swarm’s current speed, he guessed that they had at the very least a few days, if not weeks, before their arrival.

Okay, not so bad. I’ve got plenty of time to recover.

He had done some soul damage that was undeniable, but it was nothing compared to what he had done when opening his true core. This damage would heal relatively quickly, especially since he was getting better at healing his soul.

But that plan wasn’t good enough for Julius. He thanked Aaron and the others for their service and called up the scouting parties he had been organizing and anybody from the squads with enough strength to keep fighting.

Their job wasn’t to directly engage the swarm, but to slow it down. Ranged fighters and trappers would make the ants pay for every inch of the plains they crossed.

At higher levels of E grade, almost all archers and other ranged combatants had skills enabling them to shoot over great distances, and they could pick off ants from miles away. Still, the sheer number of ants meant that picking off a few drones meant little, but this strategy did seem to slow the horde.

Not only that, but trappers laid entire fields of death for the scuttling horde, and scores were taken out as they ants marched onto them.

But for Aaron, this was all a distraction, one that he needed out of his head. And the moment he got back to Dober, he headed straight to his temple to recover.

The faster he was healed, the sooner he could charge back out to assist in pushing the swarm back again and have another attempt at breaking through the jungle.

***Ant Queen***

The illustrious queen of the ants had received a message some time ago that the reaver had been killed. The ant she had promoted to captain and ordered to guard the hive’s eastern flank had been one of her more promising offspring, but not quite worthy of being made a royal guard.

Still, for a human to have defeated it showed promise she had not expected. She couldn’t deny that the humans showed some tenacity. And that couldn’t be ignored.

As strong as her hive was growing, especially since taking over the jungle, she was well aware just how huge this world was.

It had been a long journey. At first, she had been just a mindless ant, but with every little kill, she had grown a little, and so had the hive.

Sentient awareness hadn’t blessed her until not long before the humans had arrived. But when it had, her progress had begun to absolutely streamroll the rival beasts that inhabited the jungle.

And then, two weeks back, she had claimed the obelisk. It was then that she truly realized the scope of this new world.

The distances were so incredibly vast, and there were many enemies spread across it. Their numbers, even the greatest of them, were pitiful compared to her hive.

But if they joined forces?

It was a deadly threat. Individually, the creatures she shared this world with were naught but food for her hive. But she was no fool. If they worked together, they could overcome her hive. That much was obvious. Not to mention other beasts, she could sense that there were other powerful entities on this world. And for all she knew, there could be other colonies, and while she could tell that none had claimed any obelisks, that only guaranteed she had a head start over them.

The reality was, with all of these threats in the world, she had to remain cautious. There was still far too much that needed doing to let herself become complacent and underestimate her enemies.

The giant queen shook with contemplation. Her huge body took up a good one-fifth of the subterranean royal chamber, and her massive abdomen constantly pulsed with life as she spawned new drones.

But simple-minded drones weren’t going to win her a world to rule, and with that thought, she turned to an egg in the far corner of her royal chamber.

Dozens of worker ants were seeing to the egg, guarding it and kneading the earth around it.

It wasn’t just any old egg, though. The queen was pouring a great deal of energy into this little ant egg, helping it grow. And she could feel the results already.

The potential this new offspring held was beyond any she had felt yet. It wasn’t too surprising, though. When her spawn had returned with the wendigo corpse, she had already known that it would make for a fine specimen. But the energy she felt now surpassed even her wildest expectations.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time. With her two strongest children and royal guard off to the western edges of the jungle, sent off to deal with the other human settlement that had grown too close to comfort, she had made herself somewhat vulnerable.

She hadn’t made the decision without serious thought, though. She had ordered her royal guard to deal with the problem as it had gotten out of control. A human settlement with thousands of warriors, and growing by the day.

She had thought that this huge settlement was her greatest threat. But perhaps she had been wrong. This threat to the east had proven that maybe it was more serious than she had originally anticipated.

To have pushed the hive’s drone swarm back and then to have killed the reaver with such small numbers was a troubling development.

Her antennae shook with irritation, and she turned back to the pulsing egg ready to hatch.

“Feed my child,” she whispered as she increased her energy flow into it. “Grow stronger. I can feel you in there. You’ll be a great champion soon.”

Her plans were made, and her drones didn’t have to defeat the humans. They just had to buy her time.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and she turned as her two remaining royal guards entered the chamber. They were the weakest of her elites, but they were still royal guards.

“Go,” she commanded. “Head to the eastern edge of the jungle. Do not let the human progress any further.”

The royal guards bowed and took flight, heading to the destination they were ordered.

With this piece put in place, her victory against these surprisingly audacious humans was all but assured.

The royal guards would either kill them or, at the very least, buy her the time she needed. And then, either her strongest offspring would return from the west, or her newest addition would have hatched.