Chapter 20: Fear Aura

*Thump*

The lifeless body of the decapitated Arsenis ant collapsed and its disgusting yellow blood gushing from the wound soon pooled and formed a small puddle on the ground.

*Pack!*

By the time the Arsenis ant's head hit the ground Marcus had already moved and cut through the first monster that entered his field of vision.

*Slash Slash Slash Slash*

At that moment, Marcus finally let go. Every time his blades landed a blow, some unfortunate ant was cut down or lost some part of its body.

*Slash Slash Slash Slash*

Under the light of the moons, Marcus' swift figure was like a gale cutting through everything in its path, and each of his blows was charged with powerful rage and killing intent. He wouldn't stop.

With his current capabilities, Marcus was sure that he could easily run away from this huge swarm. But even if he escaped, the Arsenis ants would not stop until he was exterminated.

Also, unlike the undead, the Arsenis ants would not be affected by the sun's energy, so they would not suffer any negative status effects. That being the case, Marcus had to exterminate this swarm before dawn or he would be doomed.

*Shik!*

Marcus jumped and with his two black swords covered by a layer of necrotic energy pierced the brain of an Arsenis ant killing it instantly.

'Hahaha, holy sh*t! This is more fun than I thought'

Every time he killed an enemy, Marcus felt a sense of ecstasy along with a myriad of emotions welling up from deep within his soul.

Anger, hatred, contempt, deep resentment, an emotion like he never felt before invaded his body, mind, and soul, and only the thought of killing remained in his consciousness along with the pleasure he felt every time he killed an enemy.

*Slash, slash, slash*

As if everything he had suffered from his sudden death to his intense battle to survive on the floating island were within each of his attacks whose only purpose was to exterminate every living thing around him until only a pile of corpses would remain.

*Slash, slash, slash!*

In a few minutes, the battlefield was covered with yellow fluid and multiple bodies of severed giant insects.

*Bang!*

Just as the dark blades were about to decapitate another enemy, Marcus heard an explosive noise to his left followed by a powerful blow and a crushing pain in his ribs.

The force of the blow sent Marcus flying through and shattering multiple trees in the process until finally crashing into a large rock.

'Ugh...what...what just happened?'

Marcus looked at where the blow had impacted, he noticed that five of his left ribs were broken, and what followed was a horrible feeling of pain.

After he regained his sense of touch and went through his second evolution, Marcus had also regained his ability to feel pain, but being an undead lacking nerve endings his perception of pain was a little less than that of a normal person. This except for solar, sacred, and spiritual damage.

However, the amount of pain he felt from having broken his ribs was enough to wake him from his murderous trance. But even though he had regained his consciousness he still didn't understand what was going on.

Marcus' attention then turned to the largest ant in the group who had not made any move so far.

*Weng Weng*

The giant Arsenis ant opened its huge jaws and strange ripples of energy began to form around it causing the air around it to distort.

*Bang!*

The giant Arsenis ant closed its jaws causing a powerful wave of energy to shoot out at great speed destroying everything in its path.

*Boom!*

Immediately Marcus stood up and jumped to the side managing to evade the ant's attack and the energy wave hit the rock behind him, causing it to explode into pieces.

Marcus was shocked. Just one attack from the lead ant was enough to reduce the huge rock he had been standing on moments before to a pile of rubble.

If it hadn't been for Marcus having multiple reinforcement spells activated he probably would have ended up with more than just five broken ribs.

[HP: 403/666]

[MP: 1357/2232]

'Damn it. If I get even one more hit from that thing I'll be dead!... Looks like if I want to get out alive I'll have to kill the swarm boss first.'

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The lead Arsenis ant seemed to get impatient and began to unload a barrage of attacks on Marcus. But thanks to the effects of the Buff spells, his AGI had surpassed 150 points making him so fast that one could only see residual images of him.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Despite his opponent's great speed, the giant ant continued his rain of attacks, knocking down trees and destroying everything in his path. Of course, due to this large number of destructive attacks, the jungle environment soon changed.

Within minutes all the trees within a 50-meter (54 yards) radius were knocked down and the areas on the ground where the energy waves impacted became craters about two meters long and wide (6.5ft), and one meter deep (3.2ft).

'Damn, this guy sure is persistent. But seriously, it's a fool for killing his subordinates.' Marcus thought as he surveyed the disastrous battlefield littered with corpses.

Many Arsenis ants who had been left in the middle of the bombardment were unable to escape and ended up being torn apart by the giant Ant's attacks or were crushed by the trees that were knocked down during the fighting.

Because of this, the number of Arsenis ants that made up the huge swarm was reduced by almost half.

But that didn't seem to matter to the lead ant. After all, from his point of view, regular ants only served as collectors or cannon fodder.

So what if he lost a few dozen soldiers? The main colony had tens of thousands of ants and could always raise more. A hundred soldiers? The queen could produce that many in a matter of days. However, all was not well.

[MP: 0/1040]

From the moment the giant ant attacked him, Marcus knew that if he wanted to get rid of the rest of the swarm he would first have to kill the leader. But that was easier said than done.

In addition to being able to shoot energy waves that had enormous destructive power from a great distance, the lead ant also had an army capable of coordinating and with a simple command could turn it into a meat shield to defend against any enemy attack.

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And if that wasn't enough, the giant Arsenis ant's level turned out to be higher than the [Analysis] skill could handle, so Marcus didn't know how many skills the lead ant had in its arsenal.

But despite the giant Ant's stats being much higher than his, Marcus was still superior in terms of the amount of mana available to him and as expected, after firing almost 50 energy waves, the Ant's MP was completely depleted.

For his part, Marcus still had over 1000 MP available and could continue casting spells! But he had to act fast.

Although Marcus possessed the [Automatic MP Recovery] skill, his mana recovery rate was still very slow. So even if he eventually managed to defeat the swarm of ants, if his mana ran out it would take several hours for him to recover and in that period, he was at risk of being exposed to attacks from other predators.

Marcus stopped running, stood a few meters away from the army of ants that had already regrouped, and looked at the giant ant at the back of the swarm.

Dark shadows began to emerge from Marcus' skeletal palms until they formed a pair of glowing black swords that glowed with a dark purple glow from the necrotic energy.

'Alright, now it's my tur-'

"KIIIIIIIIIIH!"

But before Marcus could even react, the giant Arsenis ant opened its jaw and grabbed one of its subordinates by the thorax causing it to let out a shrill shriek of pain.

*Crunch!*

Without much effort, the giant ant's powerful jaws snapped the subordinate ant in half like a piece of tofu.

'But what is it doing?' .... wait a minute, [Analysis]!'

Marcus used his skill and immediately checked his opponent's MP.

[MP: 182/1040]

"KIIIIIIH"

*Crunch*

"KIIIIIIH"

*Crunch*

[MP: 225/1040]

Two more Arsenis ants were torn apart by the giant ant's jaws and soon their MP exceeded 50% of their full capacity. Seeing this, Marcus didn't wait any longer and immediately charged towards the huge swarm of hundreds of ants.

It was a miscalculation. He didn't expect that the giant ant would be able to recover its MP by devouring the rehi crystals of its soldiers, even if it meant killing them in the process.

If this continued, the giant ant would once again have the advantage and, as time went on, Marcus' MP would be depleted. For its part, the lead ant still had an almost inexhaustible supply of magical energy.

*Whoosh! Whoosh!*

Marcus' figure was like a shadow as he passed through the army of Arsenis ants and in a matter of seconds he arrived in front of the giant ant. He didn't have time to worry about the swarm soldiers, if he wanted to survive, he had to finish off the leader first.

Marcus jumped and his dark blades formed two vertical slashes as they flashed with a deadly glow ready to stab the colossal ant's head. But before the blades penetrated its brain, the Lead Ant's body took on a metallic gray glow that spread to its head.

*CLANG, CRASH!*

A tingling sensation ran through Marcus' body as his dark blades, unable to penetrate through the colossal ant's defense, ended up shattering into hundreds of pieces, only to turn into shadows and finally vanish into thin air.

'A-an hardening skill?!'

"Puit!"Before Marcus touched the ground, the ant spat out a thick yellow substance. Being so close he was unable to dodge the attack and it hit him right in his ribcage.

The force of the impact sent Marcus flying in a curved arc through the air, past the swarm of Arsenis ants, and finally crashing into the trunk of a tree about a hundred meters away.

The yellow substance that was as thick as tar hardened in a matter of seconds leaving Marcus stuck to the tree trunk.

'Argh! What the hell is this?! Quick-drying glue?!'

*Bang!*

Immediately an explosive sound was heard and a wave of energy was sent into position towards the tree where Marcus was standing.

'Sh*t, Dark Wall!'

Marcus cast the spell and quickly dozens of shadows came out from under his feet spreading out and joining together to form a wall of shadows.

*BOOM!*

The wave of energy slammed into the Dark wall causing a deafening explosion, destroying the ground, and creating a curtain of dust in the process. After the collision, the dust dissipated and the Dark wall was still intact.

"KIIIIIIEEEH!"

Seeing that his attack was ineffective, the giant ant screamed a command, and the remaining hundreds of Arsenis ants began to move. In front of a colossal number of ants, the jungle floor shook as if an earthquake was occurring.

Just as the ants were about to attack the dark wall, it came apart revealing the skeleton behind it. Marcus was fully attached to the tree, with his right hand trapped in the hardened yellow substance, and in his left hand was a black flame the size of a human head.

'...Negative flame.'

*BOOM!*

Marcus threw the flame at the roots of the tree and immediately there was a huge explosion of black flames that engulfed the tree and scorched the nearest ants.

In the face of the powerful black flames, the ants were powerless and began to retreat to a distance where the fire could not burn them.

*Crackle Crackle... Thud!*

The flames soon consumed the trunk of the tree, which couldn't take anymore and fell with a thud.

'Hahaha, a destructive power worthy of a rank 2 spell! Too bad activating it cost me almost 300 MP.'

As if he were a demon from hell, Marcus' skeletal figure emerged from the sea of black flames completely intact. Despite being weak against fire, the flames were charged with necrotic energy so he had taken no damage.

Marcus stopped and looked at the huge swarm in front of him. Although many ants had been killed throughout the battle, it seemed that this was far from over.

'Sigh, I'd better get this over with. Oh, maybe this would be a good time to try out my new skill....[Fear Aura]!'

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