Chapter 20: Chapter 19 – Consume Spirit

He dashed towards the queens, sword in hand and prepared for a mighty slash, the two Titan Ant elites prepared to block him, their mandibles opening wide to try and crush his body, fixing his right leg in the ground he used all his strength and momentum to swing his blade in an horizontal slash, he hit the head of the first one at an angle and, instead of cutting it open, his sword just left a dent on its carapace before being diverted aside.

 

He did not even have time to be surprised at the creature’s toughness before a jet of red hot lava flew his way, jumping aside he saw it fall on the ground and start to sizzle quickly eating away a 50cm deep hole, the fire ant queen pulled its head back for another attack.

 

The endless number of ant soldiers continued to pour through the tunnel and into the room as the Einherjar maintained a constant wave of gunfire their way but the elite and queens were his problem, the fire queen spewed another bucket size shot of lava like substance but, now that he was paying attention, it was easy to sidestep and watch it fly by harmlessly, after its useless attack the queen laid back, all four of them deciding to watch their underlings do their work for them.

 

The eight elites charged him, the dwarf ants were the fastest but only the size of dogs they would prove little to no challenge so he worried about the others, the fire ants were bigger, stronger and had incredibly sharp looking mandibles that closed with high snapping sounds that screamed danger, the burst ants were the ones he had to watch out for the most, mobile bombs the size of large dogs they would explode with incredible strength as soon as he killed one of them.

 

“Beta 4 we can’t have those elites stopping us from shooting, block them!” Releasing his rifle Beta 4 pulled two short swords and started walking towards him to intercept the ants before they could get to the other Einherjar, Beta 4 was the close combat expert of the team and his blade skills were excellent as he pulled both of his short swords Eric said “I will try to kill most of them just block any that gets through” “Roger that boss”.

 

Using a strong swipe he tried to cut the two dwarf ant elites but they were too fast to get hit by such big action so he had to turn the flat of the blade and bash them away as quickly as he could, the move was too weak to do any damage, the fire ants arrived latter but he was out of position for any damaging attack barely managing to kick one away he had to take a hand out of his sword to garb the other, the creature was actually too hard for him to crush so he threw it at the first burst ant elite and actually hit the thing square in the head stunning it.

 

Lifting his sword he used the flat of his blade in a descending swing to crush both ants together, The burst ant exploded with such force it sent him flying up when he refused to release his weapon, he fell back down and pierced the ground with the sword point to stop himself but one of the titan ants immediately got its mandibles around his torso and bit down, its strength so great his armor started to get crushed.

 

Struggling to free himself he desperately dragged the ant and used his only free hand to throw his sword like a spear piercing the other burst ant, this one exploded harmlessly away but the second titan ant caught his right leg biting down as well, while he was busy dealing with the titan ants a fire and a dwarf ant elites got past him and were eagerly intercepted by Beta 4.

 

The two titan ant elites bit down on his chest and leg crushing his armor a little bit more with each movement lifting him up they started to pull him apart, using both hands he grabbed the mandibles biting down on his chest and spent another 10% of his mana to send a thick wave of power to his arms, he knew his veins would be glowing red as he applied more mana than he could safely handle to both arms overcharging them

 [Congratulations you have discovered a new skill, would you like to name it?

YES / NO]

Ignoring the message he strained his arms and pulled, its right mandible actually broke off and he was left with a meter long sharp weapon in his hand, the other mandible had bitten him so hard it actually stuck in his armor and the Titan Ant couldn’t pull it out, grabbing the one he broke off with both hands he pierced it deeply into the ant’s head then pulled it out and pierced it again.

 

Ants were a tenacious race and it still didn’t die so he decided to test something out, in the helicopter ride after their first mission Loki had handed him a skill orb he had used when he was alone, although the pain when a new mana channel was opened from his hearth had been a bitch to bear the skill <Consume Spirit> was a great one to have, it was time to use it.

 

Putting both hands at the sides of the ant’s head he channeled his new skill, the mana left his hearth and followed a new path towards both of his arms twisting in a strange way before entering his arm bone and concentrating in the palm of his hand, the mana took root on the ant’s head and started to draw the life out of it.

 

Weakned by the skill the Titan Ant lost its footing and fell down, it trashed pitifully and then stopped, he felt a strong wave of energy flowing into his hands and through his arms to spread over his whole body

[Titan Ant Knight (elite) spirit has been consumed + 5 STR, +6 END, +2 SPD, +1 DEX, +30 mana, gained <Guard> skill]

[GUARD

Block one strong attack every 5 minutes, -20 mana]

[You have slain Titan Ant Knight (elite) level 4 + 112XP]

Seeing its partner being killed the second Titan Ant was enraged, it pulled him free of the dead one’s mandible and shook him in the air before smashing him in the ground with a loud bang, he didn’t even feel the impact as his acquired skill was triggered so he grabbed the ground and kicked at the ant’s head with his free leg his improved strength managing to make it release him, stunned.

 

Getting on his feet he ran towards the creature while it was still stunned and hit its head with a strong uppercut, his improved strength actually managed to flip the creature over so he jumped on its chest and stomped on its head over and over again before it recovered crushing it into pulp.

[You have slain Titan An Knight (elite) level 4 +112 XP]

As nearly all of the elites were killed the four queens clicked their mandibles loudly and he had to jump aside again to escape another shot from the fire queen that fell on an Einherjar, it sizzled on his body deforming the entire chest armor and doing critical damage.

 

The place where Eric had just been standing on suddenly exploded with a loud bang and the air dislocation sent him flying aside to fall on his back, looking towards the queens he saw red sparks gathering around the burst queen for another explosion, both the dwarf and titan queens started to run towards him while the fire queen spit another red acid shot towards the Einherjar.

 

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Dashing towards where his sword had fallen he screamed “Beta 2 Incoming!” Beta 4 had finally taken care of the surviving fire and dwarf elites so he ran towards him screaming “I take the big one!” Eric tried to stop the guy but he slipped past his position charging the Titan Ant Queen with two swords in hand, the Queen tried to catch Beta 4’s head between its mandibles but he managed to blocked with his swords unfortunately the queen was too powerful and, with a flick of its head, sent him flying away.

 

“Okay… maybe it’s better if I deal with the little one instead!” the Einherjar screamed as he picked himself up, Eric just shook his head in amusement and readied his sword, the buff from <Consume Spirit> was still active so he decided to take the Titan queen head on, his feet sliding 2 meters back as he blocked the ramming attack with the side of his sword.

 

Using both hands he pushed the ant back and used an overhead blow to slash at its head, the queen’s carapace was too tough to be cut but his strength still caused it to act like a blunt weapon breaking a small part of it so he tried to do it again, this time with <power strike>.

 

As his sword was about to hit the creature the world exploded.

[-12% HEALTH!]

Loosing his sense of direction and with his ears ringing he managed to keep his hands around the sword but his visor was flashing red all over for armor damage, he was confused and dizzy, when he finally managed to get his bearings one of the Einherjar was trying to lift him by the arm “Siegfried you okay?” putting a hand on his helmet he tried to keep the world from spinning and answered “Yeah, what happened?” “The burst ant got you with an explosion!”

 

Getting back on his feet his hand tightened on the handle of his sword, three Einherjar were keeping the Titan Queen occupied by circling it with shotguns and keeping it confused while the others were still killing the seemingly endless wave of soldier ants coming from the tunnel, their bodies starting to pile up nearly to the ceiling, using the time before he was fully recovered he named his new skill <Overcharge> then shook his head and prepared himself.

 

Running towards the confused Titan Queen he activated both <Overcharge> and <Power Strike>, maintaining his sword parallel to his body he dashed ahead and used his own momentum to power a descending diagonal slash on the creature’s head bashing it into the ground the carapace broke and pieces of the ant flew everywhere, with its head crushed but legs still twitching he hurriedly put his hand on the mess and used his last amount of mana to activate <Consume Spirit>.

[You have slain Titan Ant Queen (Boss) level 6 +255XP]

[Congratulations your <Power Strike> has reached beginner level 4]

[Congratulations you have became level 4, as a human you gain 1 attribute point]

[Titan Ant Queen (Boss)’s spirit has been consumed + 8 STR, +7 END, +3 SPD, +2 DEX, + 50 mana, gained <Titan Body> ability]

[You lose all power from previous spirit]

[Congratulations <Consume Spirit> has reached beginner level 2]

 

[TITAN BODY

[All resistances increases by 100%]

Noticing a flash or red coming in his direction he lifted the Ant’s remains and used it to block yet another fire spit then threw it aside and dashed towards the two long range queens as fast as he could, the red lights around the burst queen started to gather faster and covering nearly its entire body so Erick knew he wouldn’t make it in time.

 

Twisting his body he used centrifugal force and his own impressive 18 points of strength to send his sword spinning towards the creature, it flew so fast even the nimble ant didn’t have time to dodge, a burst ant’s body was far more fragile to an edge than those of the titan race but he missed the throw hitting the creature with the handle, it was still enough to send the smaller queen flying disrupting its spell casting and crushing several of its legs

[Crippling Strike! -78% health]

The fire ant queen spit at him one last time then tried to turn around and run but it was already too late, ducking bellow the fire spit he grabbed it’s head and body then pulled it apart with pure strength, a little of its insides dripped into his arm sizzling with the same sound as the fire spit so he threw its head aside and its body into the half crushed burst ant getting it covered in the corroding stuff.

[You have slain Fire Ant Queen (Boss) level 7 + 185XP]

Getting burnt by the fire ant’s blood the Burst queen finally exploded with enough power to rival a powerful grenade it shook the room but the ant goop on the walls managed to hold it together and avoid any cave ins, breathing hard he recovered his weapon once again and looked around.

 

Without the Queens to protect the endless ants started to retreat from the room leaving half of it covered with their curled up corpses, thankfully two of the Einherjar had taken the trouble to bring big boxes of ammunition with them so they managed to sustain a high rate of fire to the end of the fight, there were several men hurt from burst ant explosions or the queen’s fire spit but no one death, Beta 4 had managed to cut apart the dwarf ant queen and was laughing over its corpse while striking a manly pose and bothering another Einherjar to take a picture, trying with little success to clean his blade of ant blood and goop he walked towards a tired Beta 2.

 

“Is everyone ok?” “We are, but control just bombed the place where Loki was and now they can’t get in contact with him” “Damn what happened?” recharging yet another magazine into his rifle Beta 2 let it hang on his side before passing a hand through the top of his helmet “Loki spotted queens ready to fly and spread, he called for a missile from control and ran, it should have been enough time for him to escape the explosion radius but he never entered in contact again” “shit”

 

“Men start looking for surviving ants and loot, somebody check the room’s integrity we shoot everything and there were a lot of those exploding fuckers around no telling if this crap isn’t gonna fall on top of us!” Sheathing his sword dirty as it was Eric started to look among the ant corpses for his rifle but his head keep stealing glances of the tunnel where they came from so he was relieved when Beta 2 screamed at him “Go!” “What about you guys?” “We are quite grown up no need to babysit us go” nodding in thanks he ran into the tunnel using his 18 strength to push corpses out of the way as he went.