Marcus stopped in front of the cave entrance. The opening was wide enough for him to advance with steady steps, but not enough to lose attention to every detail.
Ahead of him stretched an irregular chamber: a natural space with high ceilings and rough, damp rock walls, jutting out in formations that could serve as obstacles or points of leverage.
At the far end, another opening marked the exit, offering continuity to the tunnel.
He moved with measured steps, each motion calculated. As soon as he crossed the entrance, a dry crash echoed behind him. Rocks began to fall, completely blocking the way he had entered.
Marcus turned his head: the entrance had closed. There was no way back.
From the silence, two enormous shadows emerged. Elite ants, each the size of a bus, with powerful jaws capable of crushing rock, their thick exoskeletons reflecting the hardness of the surroundings. Their antennae moved constantly, assessing every movement Marcus made.
Before he could react, a louder crack announced that the exit was also closing. The chamber, which minutes ago had offered room to maneuver, transformed into a prison.
Marcus remained still for a moment, evaluating the situation.
The elite ants advanced slowly, their jaws open in warning. Every step he took resonated on the stone, increasing the pressure. Tension spiked instantly: he was trapped between two monsters with no escape.
He went on guard and quickly assessed the surroundings. His eyes scanned the chamber, noting every ledge, every wall, every available space.
Two elite ants, the size of buses, watched him with gaping jaws, slow but lethal.
In his human form, killing them was not just difficult—it was impossible; his strength alone was insufficient.
He could resort to his monstrous form, but the limited space of the chamber made any wide movement risky. Moreover, they were not only strong and large—they also outnumbered him: any mistake could leave him trapped between them.The scene felt like a cruel joke.
The first ant moved with a heavy, calculated step, its leg striking the stone hard enough to shake the ground.
Marcus reacted instantly. He ducked, letting the leg pass over his head, rolling to the side and scraping his back along the wall.
He jumped onto a ledge, twisting his hips to propel himself upward, avoiding the leg of the second ant, which came down like a hammer.
Marcus combined horizontal and vertical movements, bouncing backward to avoid frontal attacks, shifting sideways to evade lateral blows, sometimes using the low ceiling as a rebound point.
Each dodge was fluid, calculated—a precise dance with the weight of the giants before him.
Despite the danger, he realized something: the mass of the ants, their gigantic size, was also their limitation.
Their movements, though powerful, were slow compared to human agility. Each charge could be anticipated and avoided. It was almost a game of cat and mouse: enough space to evade, enough force to maintain distance, enough time to study patterns.
Marcus inhaled deeply. He had room to think, to plan an attack or trace a strategic path.
But time was not on his side.
Every second that passed, Liora and her group could advance toward the egg, Victoria could reach it before him, or any other student could gain the advantage.
Action was urgent.
He leapt backward, and a leg landed with immense force where he had been, sending a brutal shock through the rock and creating a cloud of dust.
He slid to the back of the cave, rolled, and came to his feet. He cracked his neck, stretched his knuckles, flexed his back muscles, preparing every fiber for immediate action.
Then he ran.
Without losing a moment, he sprinted toward the ants, propelling himself with calculated steps over the uneven rock. His speed increased with each stride, body and mind synchronized, until he reached 70 km/h in seconds.
The distance between him and ant A closed at a vertiginous rate. He leapt, air cutting around him, aiming directly at his target.
Ant A reacted instantly. Its massive jaw lunged at Marcus, closing with lethal force; each tooth capable of crushing stone.
The creature hesitated at nothing, attacking with the certainty of a seasoned predator.
What the ant did not expect was what happened next.
Marcus exploded into vapor. His body vanished from sight, engulfed in swirling smoke. From that vapor emerged his monstrous form—a 3.5-meter-tall humanoid, covered in gray plates.
He landed with a flying, powerful strike to the ant's mouth. The force of his fall and the density of his monstrous form concentrated all his power into a single point: the ant's jaw.
The plate on his arm struck with surgical precision, and the collision echoed through the chamber. The ant's jaw cracked, recoiling, a stream of blood and saliva spilling from its mouth.
Marcus wasted no time. The ant's jaw had recoiled, but the creature was still alive, staggering under the force of the blow. His monstrous body absorbed the landing's rebound, gray plates adjusting to distribute weight and maintain balance.
With a subtle hip twist, he delivered a left punch to the side of the ant's head. The plate on his arm collided with the thick exoskeleton with a metallic crunch, transmitting concentrated force through the jaw into the skull.
The creature staggered sideways, its front legs trembling as it struggled to regain footing.
Without pause, Marcus followed with a right punch, targeting the other cheek. The combination was rapid, precise—a pattern calculated to destabilize and open gaps, not to finish the fight yet. Ant A swayed from side to side, unable to coordinate its legs as its mind staggered under the concentrated impact.
Ant B wasted no time. Its jaws lunged with brutal speed toward Marcus, aiming directly at his right arm.
With instant reflexes, Marcus raised his armored hand to block. The impact reverberated through his plate. The creature's strength was immense; the shock ran through his entire arm.
Despite the block, the jaws did not stop completely. Teeth grazed with precision, cutting the skin and leaving a deep gash on his right arm. Blood poured instantly, hot and sticky, while the creature attempted a second bite.
Marcus did not hesitate. His combat instincts triggered: a controlled, powerful uppercut with his left arm emerged, connecting just beneath Ant B's head, deflecting its jaw and forcing a retreat. The creature groaned under the impact, balance disrupted, wobbling slightly on its thick legs.
He seized the moment. With a controlled impulse, he leapt into the air, using the landing's momentum and his monstrous leg strength to gain height and speed. As he ascended, he calculated the exact trajectory for his next attack: B was still attempting to bite but reacted slowly, predictably.
At the apex of his jump, Marcus descended with his right elbow, concentrating the full weight of his monstrous form into a single point of impact. The elbow, reinforced and heavy, struck with brutal precision against Ant B's head, deflecting the jaw and causing a violent recoil.
The collision echoed through the chamber, shaking the rock beneath and raising small clouds of dust and stone shards.
Marcus stepped back, calibrating distance with precision.
His monstrous form stood nearly 3 meters tall, arms and torso occupying considerable space. In front of him, the two elite ants, each the size of a bus, further restricted his movement.
The chamber, vast in conception, now felt like a narrow octagon: walls close, uneven floor, ceiling barely four meters high.
After analyzing the patterns and situation, this was the only plan Marcus had arrived at. In his human form, he wouldn't even have the strength to harm the ants. Initially, he also thought he couldn't defeat them even in his monstrous form due to the limited space.
Under these conditions, direct combat was risky. A movement too wide could strike the rock, a careless twist could place him in front of a jaw. Brute force alone would not suffice; the confined space turned every action into a tactical decision.
However, throughout the battle, Marcus realized the key wasn't avoiding transformation, but using it intelligently. His monstruous form offered reach and power, but he needed to maintain mobility.
If he could manage distance with precise footwork, anticipate the ants' attacks, and accept certain calculated risks, he could create openings without exposing himself fatally.
Every hit he might take would be an exchange, an inevitable cost to preserve strategic advantage.
But this was his only choice.