Within a split second, Shelby closed the distance, his sword a silver blur aimed at the Chimera Ant's neck. The creature moved with unsettling grace, deflecting the blade with one hardened paw while the other slammed into Shelby's exposed ribs.
***BAM.**
The force was immense, hurling Shelby back. He skidded across the broken ground, his armor groaning. The strike had hurt—a deep, bruising pain that spoke of cracked, if not broken, ribs. He'd barely managed to reinforce his body with Ira at the last moment, preventing a fatal injury.
"Fufufu. You survived," the Chimera Ant hissed, its hyena face twisting into a mockery of a smile. "You have my praise."
"You can speak," Shelby grunted, the words strained. It had been years since a mere Bishop-rank creature had hurt him this badly. This thing was an anomaly.
"Of course I can speak. Do you take me for one of my mindless kin?" it taunted. "You came to make me pay? I would love to see you try."
The Ant vanished, reappearing in front of Shelby in a motion blur. A clawed paw swiped at his head. Shelby parried with his sword, but the force of the blow staggered him. A second paw followed in a brutal left hook. Shelby jerked his head back, but a single claw tip scored a deep gash across the bridge of his nose.
Blood streamed down his face. Before he could even register the sting, a powerful kick connected with his stomach, lifting him off his feet and sending him crashing through the wall of a nearby building.
"Is that all you've got? Disappointing," the Ant's voice dripped with contempt as rubble settled. "And after your grand speech."
This creature was no ordinary Bishop-rank. As one of the Queen's personally 'educated' offspring, its strength was far beyond what its energy signature would suggest. It was at the peak of the Bishop rank, bordering on Knight rank, and it had come to this city hoping for a battle that would push it to evolve. So far, it had found only weaklings. This Xeric was just another obstacle.
"Fufufufu. Still alive?" it jeered as Shelby pulled himself from the wreckage.
"To be reduced to such a state... I have grown weak," Shelby admitted, blood dripping from his nose. "But I will have to thank you, for so long I have been holding back."
The ring on his finger glowed. A golden, round shield materialized on his left arm, with a black longsword sheathed. He drew the blade. It was pure black, with eerie blue linings that now began to drip a sizzling, azure substance. Where the drops hit the ground, they ate through the stone with a hiss.
Shelby infused his Ira into the sword. "To think I would finally get to use this Cursed weapon again," he said. The shield, attached to a sheath that could never be removed, was a weapon he had stumbled upon years ago when he was still a common soldier serving under the Lord of Duskmor. This CURSED weapon had helped him rise through the ranks relatively fast as it amplified his Ira to a different level, but as a cursed weapon, it had a massive drawback: the more he used it, the more of his Ira it drained away permanently.
The Chimera Ant sensed the shift and attacked again, a flurry of punches aimed to overwhelm. *BAM! BAM!* Shelby blocked with the golden shield, the impacts ringing like bells. The Ant recoiled, shaking its paw; the shield had burned it.
Seizing the moment, Shelby unleashed a furious counter-attack. But the Ant was a phantom, evading every slash with a mocking grin, its hyena laugh echoing across the battlefield.
'Why can't I hit it? Even with the weapon's power, am I this outclassed?' Despair clawed at him. How could an Expert-rank warrior, a City Guard Commander, be so utterly outsped by a Bishop-rank monster? The energy reading was a lie; this thing was far stronger.
"I will lose at this rate," he realized. There was only one path left.
**°IRA ZONE°**
The technique was a gamble—a moment of extreme mental focus that forced one's body to temporarily generate ten times its normal Ira. It was born of desperation and anguish, a state few warriors achieved and even fewer survived.
Power, raw and overwhelming, flooded Shelby's veins. It was a torrent mixed with the Cursed blade's energy, a combination so violent he felt his very cells straining. He raised his sword.
"Ira Art - Sure Strike!"
He slashed the air between them. This time, there was no visible projectile, only a spatial distortion. The Chimera Ant, confident, moved to block with its paw. Instead, an invisible force sheared through its limb, spraying black blood into the air.
For the first time, the Ant's mocking grin vanished, replaced by a snarl of genuine pain and surprise. The grin on the chimera ant's face was replaced by a frown; the slash not only cut through its paw but the skin of its right paw began to rot, prompting the ant to sever the rest of its hand. "A corrosive curse? Interesting!" it snarled, its voice losing its playful edge.
"Hahahaha, not so funny now, is it?" Shelby roared, bloodlust overriding his pain. "Just because you ragdolled me, do you think you have won? I am an Expert swordsman who has trained since he was a child. You think a puny ant like you can defeat me?"
He charged again, a tempest of black steel and golden light. The Ant, now wary, met him head-on.
Shelby roared, his blade leaving streaks of azure flame across the battlefield as it clashed against the Ant's hardened limbs. Every impact cracked stone, sent shockwaves through the ground, or shattered nearby walls into rubble. Sparks of cursed energy hissed in the air, eating away at anything they touched.
The Ant blurred, its movements a storm of claws and fangs, forcing Shelby back step by step. One slash caught his shoulder, splitting his armor and flesh, but he responded with a savage shield-bash that cratered the monster into a collapsed storefront. Dust and stone rained down, only for the Ant to burst free laughing, its eyes glowing with wild delight.
"You burn yourself out, Xeric!" it howled, lunging.
Shelby's cursed sword moved in a wide arc, but the Ant grabbed Shelby mid-swing and hurled him through three buildings in a row, buildings exploding outward. Shelby's body bounced across the ground, leaving streaks of blood. When he staggered up, the Ant was already there, jaws snapping down. Shelby barely raised his shield, the golden surface cracked under the force, sending ringing echoes like a bell of doom.
Shelby countered, slashing upward with his cursed blade. The strike carved through the Ant's jaw, splitting it nearly in half. Rot spread instantly, eating away flesh and bone, yet the monster only laughed, driving its claws into Shelby's abdomen. Blood spurted, soaking the dirt. Shelby roared in agony and slammed the shield forward again, crushing the Ant's head into the ground hard enough to send shockwaves rippling outward.
Shelby gathered every ounce of strength into a single charge. His ira flared, a raging inferno that lit the battlefield like dawn. He swung with both arms, a strike that seemed to tear the air itself, and for a heartbeat, the Ant faltered, its chest slashed open, black ichor spraying like rain.
Yet, even wounded, the monster grinned, eyes burning with excitement.
The Ant landed nimbly on a crumbling wall. "More! Give me MORE!" it shrieked, leaping down with the force of a meteor. Shelby braced, crossing sword and shield. The impact cratered the street, sending cracks radiating outwards for meters. Dust and debris filled the air.
From within the cloud, flashes of light and the screech of metal on chitin erupted. Shelby was a master of his art, his forms precise and devastating. He used the environment, baiting the Ant into strikes that collapsed buildings onto it, only for the creature to burst forth unscathed, its speed still terrifying.
But the Cursed blade was taking its toll. Each time it bit into the Ant's carapace, the corrosive magic ate away at its vitality, slowing its reactions. A deep gash on its leg now oozed black fluid, and its movements lost a fraction of their perfect fluidity.
"ENOUGH!" the Ant roared, its patience frayed. It feinted high, then dropped low, its powerful legs sweeping Shelby's feet from under him. As Shelby fell, the Ant's good hand shot out, not to strike, but to grab the wrist of his sword arm. With a sickening *CRACK*, it twisted.
Shelby screamed as the bones in his forearm shattered. The Cursed sword fell from his numb fingers, clattering to the ground, its blue glow dimming.
The Ant loomed over him, panting, its hyena face a mask of fury and triumph. "You were a good meal. But all meals must end." It raised its clawed foot to crush Shelby's skull.
It was in that moment of ultimate victory that the Ant's guard dropped completely.
Shelby's left hand, still strapped to the golden shield, shot upward. He hadn't just been a swordsman. °"Ira Art - Shield Bash: Raging Bull!"°
He poured every last drop of his Ira, his life force, into the shield. It flared with the intensity of a small sun. The bash didn't strike the Ant's body; it struck the air directly in front of its head. The concussive force was absolute. The Ant's head snapped back with a sound like a shattered bell, its eyes rolling back into its skull as it was thrown backward, stunned.
But Shelby was spent. The Ira Zone collapsed, and the Cursed weapon's drain hit him like a physical weight. He was hollow, broken, barely conscious. He tried to crawl towards his sword, his one good arm trembling.
A shadow fell over him. A sweet, melodic voice, like poisoned honey, filled his ears. "H, why did you waste so much time? The Queen requests your presence at once."
Shelby tried to turn his head, but he had no strength left. He felt a sharp, precise pain in his lower back, and then a terrible numbness spread through his legs. A clawed hand, slender and sharp, pulled back, holding something glistening—a segment of his spine.
The sweet voice continued, somehow making him accept his fate. He felt he had fulfilled his duty by dying here, protecting his city until his last breath. As life faded from his eyes, the world dissolved into darkness.
"Tsk... You should have let me have more fun," grumbled the hyena-ant, named H, shaking off its daze and getting to its feet. "Things were getting more interesting. I was learning more about Ira use from that Xeric." It looked around; half the buildings in the district had been turned to dust by the power of the strange sword. It picked up the shield, the sword now securely sheathed. "I will give this to my sister. In case Mother gets angry because of the delay," it mused.
"Anyway, how many of the supplies reached the nest?" H asked.
"Oh, about 1500 Xeric, and 500 humans," the voice replied. It belonged to a praying mantis chimera ant, with the body of a mantis and four arms, standing on two powerful ant-like legs. "I must say, the Queen will be pleased. You did well."
The hyena-ant smiled at the thought of praise. "Okay, we are done here. But I still have one more thing to do." H bent down, opened its jaws, and began to consume Shelby's body with terrifying efficiency. In less than a minute, little remained. "That was strangely good," H said, before communicating with the remaining ants to head back to the nest.
As a final act of contempt, H used its sharp claws to fashion a spike from a fallen beam and impaled Shelby's head upon it, leaving it as a grim monument for the Lord of the City.
-----
Back in the auction house pen, the world had become a symphony of terror. The distant roars and tremors had escalated into a cacophony right outside the walls. Shane gripped the iron bars of his cage, his knuckles white. The guards, who moments before had been vigilant, were now pale and hesitant, their weapons pointed shakily at the main doors
"Fuck...fuck.. why did they have to be ants, and the owner already took the talented guards away with him?" one of the guards panicked, his short sword shaking as he tried to calm his nerves.
With a splintering crash, the heavy timber doors exploded inward. Not from a single massive force, but from a hundred smaller ones. A seething, chittering tide of Chimera Ants, smaller Pawn-rank workers with serrated mandibles and glowing, mindless eyes poured into the hall. The air filled with the scent of ozone and damp soil.
"Form a line! Protect the goods!" the auction master shrieked, his voice cracking as he scrambled backward, disappearing behind a curtain after giving the order.
But it was too late for a cohesive defense. The ants ignored the guards' formations, swarming everywhere. They targeted the closest source of biomass, the slaves in their cages.
Shane watched in horror as the ant beside his cage locked its powerful, iron-like pincers on the rusted lock of a neighboring cage. With a screech of protesting metal, the lock shattered. The slaves inside screamed, trying to fight back with bare hands, but were swiftly overwhelmed, dragged out, and subdued with paralyzing venom.
Panic was a living thing in the room. Guards swung their swords and spears, crushing ant carapaces, but for every one they killed, three more took their place. A slave across from Shane, driven mad by fear, reached through the bars and grabbed a guard who was fending off an ant, pulling him off balance. The guard stumbled, and an ant's pincer snipped through his leg greave with a sickening crunch. His scream was short-lived.
This was the chaos Shane had needed, but it was far more horrifying than he had imagined. It was a slaughterhouse.
His own cage rattled violently. A worker ant had clamped onto the bars, its mandibles grinding against the iron, trying to get to him. The rusted metal groaned and began to bend.
[SYSTEM ALERT: HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED]
Name = Chimera Ant
Type = Worker
Level = 3 [Pawn]
Hp= 150]
Shane recoiled, pressing himself against the back of the cage, searching for anything, any opportunity.
His chance came a second later. A guard, backing away from an advancing group of ants, stumbled against Shane's cage. The impact jarred the guard, and he dropped his sword, his head snapping back and smacking against the iron bars with a dull thud. Dazed, he slumped against the cage, momentarily stunned.
Time seemed to slow. Shane's eyes locked on the ring of keys hooked on the guard's belt. Without a second thought, he thrust his arm through the bars, his fingers straining. He couldn't reach the belt. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed a handful of the guard's hair and tunic, and with a strength born of pure desperation, he slammed the dazed man's head forward into the bars again.