Phase 4: Oh hell nah
Senior Prince Cutter Ant
HP: Green
Lv: 17
MP: Green
Lv: 10
EP: Green
Lv: 25
I looked at the monster before me, my mind going blank for a moment, but I snapped myself back.
Should I even fight this thing? It’s so much stronger than anything I’ve faced. I’ll probably just die fighting it… Nah, I have one day left to live anyway, might as well go out fighting for a chance, then run away with nothing.
I sent my Ravens at it, but it snapped its mandibles at them, a gray light flying through the air and slashing two of the birds in half. The third one dodging.
While the Senior Prince was preoccupied with trying to kill the third Raven, I sent out Thor, the Anteater, valiantly galloping towards the enemy. Standing on its back legs, claws ready to crush its carapace, but the Prince just grabbed onto Thor's exposed midsection with its jaws.
Thor clawed at the ant's armor, but it didn’t even leave a mark. Then the Prince bit down. Cutting the anteater in half.
NO!
While the Prince was distracted with killing my Anteater, I sent my last remaining Raven at it. Having it find one of its armor's weaknesses around the joints, and bombard it with Water Blades.
The Ant chirped in pain, then crushed the bird with its weight by dropping onto the ground. And while it was doing that, I had Zeus open the second to last minion cache and sent him out to face the Prince. Replacing him with Guppy, the Salamander, by my side now.
Then I sent Zeus to attack, the two beasts wrestling for a brief moment, the smaller but stronger Prince pinning the Anteater to the ground with its mandibles. While it was doing that, I had Zeus grab onto it, making sure it couldn’t move.
Then I had the three Ravens attack it, damaging one of its wings and taking off two of its six legs with their water blades. The Prince shrieked again, killing Zeus the same way as Thor, then killed the birds with its flying blades.
I checked its status with Appraisal.
Senior Prince Cutter Ant
HP: Yellow
Lv: 17
MP: Green
Lv: 10
EP: Green
Lv: 25
Only Yellow! I’m calling hacks!
I had Guppy open up the last Cache. I sent the birds up into the air and went with them. Using them as cover while I took over some of the Ants on the ground, but despite that, the Senior Prince noticed me specifically.
Flying up to meet me, but because of its size and damaged wing, I was able to keep out of its way with some help from the Ravens. Losing one of them in the process, but I had completed my goal.
I flew back down to the ground, the Prince following me, crashing onto the ground compared to my elegant landing. I connected to my Moon Silk lattice, taking mana from the ants I subjugated to restore my own reserves. I let them go, then flew back up.
The Prince tried to fly and to follow me, but, disoriented from the crash landing, it had ignored the Ravens. One of them attacking its damaged wing, bringing it fully out of commission, leaving the Ant unable to fly. It rolled onto its back, getting the bird to fly off, then shot a flying blade at it, cleaving it in half.
But it got back onto its feet, shooting blades at me instead. I did my best at dodging them, but I couldn’t last forever. One finally clipped my wings, making me lose significant control mid air, then another was flying towards me, on course to hit.
I had my last Raven take the hit, but I could see the Prince charging up another blade. So I Guppy from his post at the now-empty minion caches, hurtling a ball of hardening spit at the Prince, hitting their jaws. The ant turning its attention to my last minion, its flying blade breaking through the hardened spit and towards Guppy, but I had him hide behind the walls he made earlier for the Caches.
They exchanged fire for a few moments, all attention taken off me, so I took my time subjugating as many Ants as I could. Then landed, taking their MP and EP, and for the first time, I tried with HP, but it didn’t seem like I could.
Then, when I was topped up on energy, I used my secret weapon. I connected to Guppy through the Moon Silk lattice, taking their Hardening Spit Skill into me, then I sent it to my Ant Minions. Nearly all of my MP and EP drained from doing that.
I had them crawl onto the Prince, who seemed used to it and didn’t pay attention, then they used the skill I gave them. Placing the Hardening Spit between the flexible joints, immobilising some of the Prince's legs, and when the Spit expanded, some of their legs popped off.
When the Prince realized what was happening, they chirped in confusion and pain, and wildly shot flying blades at me. But I was able to dodge the sloppily aimed blades. I flew into the air, discarding my now MP depleted minions, after only using the skill once.
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Getting new ones, then drained their MP and EP again, discarded them, got a new set, and gave them the skill. The Prince tried to kill me throughout the whole process, but I had Guppy throw another ball of Hardening spit, sticking its head to the ground.
Then I had my new minions crawl into the crack where the Prince's neck was, placing their Hardening Spit in there. And as it expanded, I heard a crack from the Prince's carapace as his head popped off. The two separated body parts spasming in death fits for a few moments before going limp, a greenish yellow ooze seeping out of the butchered corpse.
Then I heard the ding of the system.
“Level up, +1 to Evolution Level, gain 3 mutation points.”
“Level up, +1 to Evolution Level, gain 3 mutation points. Max Level reached, Evolution options available.”
But my mind wasn’t able to linger on the relief of my life finally not being on a deadline, pun intended, because I was sensing another Swarm incoming. This time with three Senior Princes and a swarm of Juniors as well.
Phase 5: Getting the hell out of there
They reached the tree line before I even knew it, and seeing the sight of a fellow Dead Prince enraged them. The Seniors blasted out orders through their Pheromones, pointing them towards me and Guppy.
I promptly ran, or, well, flew towards Guppy, my flight a little slower than I wanted it to be, due to my injury. But I was able to get to my minion, having them open their mouth, landing inside, keeping an eye through Guppy's senses with my Connecting Tarsus.
Then I ordered them to run towards the lake as fast as their stubby legs allowed, the Ants quickly gaining on us. A few of the Junior Princes getting to us first, being much faster than their bigger Seniors.
Faster, Faster!!!
I urged the painfully slow Salamander to speed up. A painful moment later, we finally reached the water. Guppies' speed increasing substantially in the water, finally getting ahead of the Ants, but we were in the shallows, Guppy's back still exposed to the cold air.
Then, a Senior Prince had grabbed onto Guppy's tail and pulled the Salamander back so the rest of the Princes could tear Guppy apart. And by extension, me.
Welp, I’m dead.
But Guppy instead detached their tail from their body, leaving behind a wriggling lump of flesh.
Oh, I forgot Salamanders could do that.
And Guppy took the chance to bolt forward to deeper waters where they could dive, but they were significantly slower after losing their primary form of locomotion. Stinging and biting Ants crawling all over their skin, the Senior princes just behind.
But we finally made it, Guppy dove underwater, the Ants unable to even get beneath the water's surface to pursue due to their buoyancy. But the Ants that were still on Guppy just bit down harder to stay on.
I had Guppy go to the bottom of the lake, squishing the Ants on the lake floor in a barrel roll, finally getting rid of the last threat. Leaving me free to finally relax as Guppy went to their underwater home.
When we reached it, I stepped out of Guppy's mouth, seeing a small dug out cave, the walls lined with what I recognised to be Guppy's Hardening spit. This place was built into the side of the lake wall, far away from the battleground. And even if the Ants somehow tracked us underwater, then they would have a hell of a time getting through the thick walls.
I finally let a mountain of stress fall off my shoulder, and another mountain, this time exhaustion, replaced it. I crumpled to the ground, my legs splaying outwards.
I had made it, I had finally made it.
I checked my status sheet, a new screen popping up, a list of Evolutions appearing.
“Congratulations on reaching Max Evolution Level, three Evolutions of been unlocked.”
Elder Lunar Scale Moth
Requirements: Reach 1 Max Core Skill Level
Queen Lunar Scale Moth
Requirements: Reach 2 Max Core Skill Level, Gain all possible Mutations, Female Sex
Lunar Shadow Moth:
Requirements: Gain the skill ‘Stealth’, Gain the skill ‘Appraisal’, Reach 1 Max Core Skill Level
Wait a second, why do I have Queen Lunar Scale Moth unlocked if one of the requirements is “Female Sex”? Wait a moment, does that mean… Bugs are a female dominate species. Why am I making such a big deal out of this? I’m literally a bug; being in the body of a female bug doesn’t really make a difference.
I shook my head and used appraisal on the possible Evolutions.
Elder Lunar Scale Moth: A Lunar Scale Moth who has proven they’re worthy of serving their god. Allowing for their growth to go beyond their predetermined limits.
Junior Queen Lunar Scale Moth: A Lunar Scale Moth who has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt their unparalleled usefulness. And are given great power for their future growth, being capable of creating huge armies of Slaves, while still having fine control.
Lunar Shadow Moth: A Lunar Scale Moth who has shown a knack for stealth and information gathering. Their god expands their capabilities and life to serve as their personal eyes and ears.
Ok, that whole god thing has another boatload of implications. Is it Terra again? Mmm, probably not, it doesn’t say their name anywhere. Maybe Appraisal can help?
I tried it, but an unexpected message popped up.
“This information has been deemed sensitive and unnecessary to The Great Debate, so it has been blocked.”
Oh, you dare, system! You DARE! I’ve been getting around walls like this since I was a little boy. You should’ve seen the horror on my math teacher, Mr. Jefferson's face, when he pulled up that Power Point presentation with a video of him cheating on his wife. And he had two factor authentication! Do you have that, little System?! I bet you use the same password for everything, don’t you!
I then proceeded to fail horribly for the next half hour. I tried finding a terminal first I could use to hack into the system, which was an idea that I should’ve thought of earlier, but no dice. Then I tried brute forcing it by asking the same question in a dozen different ways, but again, no dice.
So I gave up, deciding to actually find out which of the Evolutions I was going to pick. The first one was Elder Lunar Scale Moth. Which I threw out immediately, it just seemed like Lunar Scale Moth 2, with better graphics and nothing else.
The next two, though, did grab my attention. The Lunar Shadow Moth was speaking to my heart, aesthetics wise. But with how the description put it, it seemed like I wouldn’t really be free. Well, from what I could tell, any option I picked would make me serve whatever or whoever this mystery god is. The Lunar Shadow Moth seemed especially restrained.
And the Junior Queen Lunar Scale Moth, despite being a mouthful to pronounce, seemed to be the best. It gave the most in return, and it actually fitted my fighting style compared to the Lunar Shadow Moth. Since I only used Stealth and Appraisal sparingly. So I made my decision and mentally pressed the Junior Queen Lunar Scale Moth evolution.
My vision dimming as the process started. Then I heard the system ding, a message popping up in front of me.
“Congrats on passing the first stage of The Great Debate, my contestant. I am very happy with your performance. -Terra”
What, no, don’t you dare leave me hanging like this, you damn god! The big G wouldn’t be doing this to me!
But my protests were unheard as I fell unconscious.
