Rebirth : Lizard-man Party Leader Chapter 24 24. Bladepede

Before I could do anything, Lyra brushed past me and jumped into the hole after Eric.

The rest of us rushed to the hole and looked in to find Lyra doing a split to hold herself up while holding Eric's arm, preventing her from falling into a hole we couldn't see the bottom of.

"Hold on, we'll get you out of there!"

I yelled down there.

"Hurry, I think I hear something moving down there!"

There was a bit of panic in Lyra's voice.

Eric wasn't panicking at all, instead she was staring further down the hole.

"I dropped my dagger Jay."

"Fuck the knife! Just hold on, we're coming to get you."

"Can y'all be quite, or did you forget about the sleeping.... Oh shit!"

All six of the soldier ants were awake and ready to kill.

They were clacking their mandibles, headed our way.

"Me and Flora will hold them off, you just get them out of that hole no matter what."

(Jurea)

"Say what?! There's six of those motherfuckers! And just two of us!"

(Flora)

"Then start shooting them with fire balls!"

Flora and Jurea headed towards the ants.

I shot down a web rope for Lyra and Eric to grab onto, I guess never mind to not showing her my other abilities.

"Grab on!"

Lyra was a little shocked, but got over it real quick.

"Thanks! Eric, start to climb, then I'll go."

Eric let go of Lyra, and started to climb.

It was then that I saw what Lyra had been hearing.

A monster - that looked like a centipede and a kitchen knife set had a love affair that ended in it being born - was swiftly making its way up the shaft.

In one of its many, many, eyes was Eric's dagger.

What is it with this world and mish mashing bad things with even worse things!

Like, who the hell needs nightmare fuel like that thing in the world.

"Climb faster! Like your life depends on it, because it does!"

Once Eric had passed her Lyra stopped her split and started to climb too.

I sacrificed a glance towards the other two.

Flora must've learned encapsulating ice because they were both covered in a layer of ice holding off all ten of those ants.

Wait, ten!

Shit!

And more are coming.

Eric and Lyra are almost out, but the bladepede is almost to them.

Please work, please work.

I activated 'Empath Aura' again and tried to put bladepede to sleep, unfortunately it didn't even slow down.

Patty, what can I do to slow that asshole down?

I felt a little energy leave me.

Pain? I didn't think I could do that, but then again being tired isn't an emotion either.

I focused on its back end, as if something was taking a big ass bite out of it.

Kreeet!!

It stopped in its tracks, and bent its head in a weird angle to look below itself.

This gave the girls just enough time to get out of the hole.

Kreeeeet!!!!

Apparently my trick made it angrier than it already was.

Flora - who was whispering - and Jurea were running our way, with around fifty ants chasing them.

When they reached us Flora turned around to face them.

"{....ulating ice}!!"

A giant wall of ice appeared, blocking the ants, who immediately started spraying acid out of their asses to melt it.

The skittering noise told me that Edward scissor hands down there has figured out my trick, and is coming to pay me back.

"We have a problem, that ice won't hold forever."

(Flora)

"We have a bigger problem, there's a monster down that hole and it's coming up."

(Lyra)

Flora stared at me.

"What did you do?"

"It wasn't my fault! Besides, I think we should come up with a plan right about now."

Bang!!!!

"Stop arguing, and come and help me!"

Jurea was making a hole in the dungeon wall.

Instead of arguing, we all pitched in and made a sizable indent in the wall, big enough for all of us to stand side by side.

"We don't got time for me to explain, so shut up and listen. Flora as soon as we're inside make another ice wall to cover us, and Jay use that new mana clone ability to keep that second monster here. Got it? Good."

We all stood in the indent.

"{Encapsulating ice}."

I activated 'Mana Clone' and an exact replica of myself was born right outside of the brand-new ice wall.

It is weird having a clone, I was literally staring out of two sets of eyes.

I tried activating any of my abilities, but realized I couldn't.

I was about to try spells when I heard the bladepede exit out of the hole.

I (clone me) turned around.

Alright all I have got to do is stay alive long enough for the ants to break through.

Piece of cake, besides I probably won't feel a thing! Clone bodies rule!

"I'm gonna kick som... aaaaaaah!"

(Clone me)

"Aaaa...umph!"

(Me)

I totally felt myself get eaten by that monster!

Every broken and crushed bone, every torn muscle, and every pierced scale.

Luckily Jurea clamped my snout shut before I gave away our position.

At least now I know that all of those people that think getting eaten alive is sexy, are fucking crazy!

It hurts like, well, it hurts like getting eaten alive! I don't recommend it.

We couldn't see because of the ice, but my heat detection allowed me to 'see'.

The bladepede was searching for the rest of the party after it had killed 'me'.

As it was looking it came within inches of the ice we were hiding behind.

Just as it was probably wondering if it should break the ice, the ants broke through the ice wall.

Both the bladepede and the ants froze, as if they didn't know what to make of this situation.

After all, both of them were chasing adventurers not another monster(s), but they must have said fuck it I'm already here because they started to attack each other.

I couldn't 'see' all that well, but what I did see could be summed up in one word - brutal.

Hundreds of ants had appeared to rip and shred, but that bladepede must have been on some horse steroids or something.

The more ants that came, the more ants were killed.

After waiting hours for the battle to end, it did without fanfare. The final body count for the ants must have been in the thousands.

The bladepede must have been levels beyond those ants, but the ants had numbers and tenacity.

As the saying goes 'a thousand cuts can bring down an elephant', the ants sacrificed themselves until it was dead.

After all was said and done, the workers started to cut and carry pieces of bladepede meat away.

I'm not going miss out on this opportunity, I hope this works.

I transformed into a worker ant.

"Holy shit!"

(Lyra)

"Sssshhhh!!!"

(The rest of them)

I dug a side tunnel out, and went to the nearest ant soldier corpse.

Patty, absorb.

Do it.

Ability 'Acid Blood'

upgraded to 'Acid Shot'. >

Instead of checking my stats, I grabbed the nearest mana heart and headed back to our hideout.

An ant stopped in front of me and waved its antenna over me, then went on its way.

Phew.

I hurried back to the others, then went back out for another heart.

I did this over and over again multiple times, until we had over a hundred hearts!

And I even got Eric's dagger back.

Eventually the ants cleared all of the meat and left.

To bad we didn't get a single level off of that fight.

"This is fucking amazing! We could leave right now and still be good for weeks!"

(Flora)

"Really?"

"Yes, all of these are Mid-rank low-grade hearts and will go for hundreds of gold each!"

"Did you forget we still have to take her down to the third set?"

Jurea was pointing at Lyra.

"And speaking of me, care to tell me what happened? I'm assuming you're not a tame? At least, not a tame I've ever seen before. You used multiple abilities, and transformed for the gods' sake!"

I looked at the others.

"She did save Eric's life."

(Jurea)

"I like her."

(Eric)

"Can we charge her for knowing?"

(Flora)

Guess this was bound to happen anyway.

"You're right, I'm not a tame I'm still a monster, just different.

"Okay."

"I'll under... wait what?"

"I said okay. You haven't hurt me so far - in fact the opposite, you saved me, so I see no reason not to trust you. And don't worry I'll keep your secret."

"Thanks, I guess."

"I'm glad we got past the whole he's a monster thing, but seriously we got bigger problems. Like how are we going to get past the fifteenth floor, which a monster ant colony takes up most of it."

(Flora)

"Can't we go around it? Like you did with the ogres?"

Flora was shaking her head at me.

"There are worse monsters that way. I planned on you just running through with us inside of you, but with her here we can't do that."

Lyra was giving us a weird look.

"It's not like that! Flora just is too stupid to learn from her past mistakes."

I was getting ready to smack her ass, when I got struck with an idea.

"You said we're good on collecting right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"So, we really don't have to kill, we just got to get to the third set."

"Yes, that was my idea from the onset."

"I've got a plan."

I told them my plan.

"Anyone else got another plan? I'll even take the shit farmer's ideas."

(Flora )

...

"Ugh, no one? I guess we'll go with yours."

______________________

Days later I was scurrying along as a soldier ant, carrying a cube made of rock past millions of fellow ants.

If you're wondering what's in the cube, it's Lyra breathing through a couple of air holes at the top.

The rest of them are in my soul storage - yeah still doesn't sound right.

This was my plan.

I transform into an ant, take them into my gem, and waltz through scot free.

There were a few hiccups in my plan though.

First one was Lyra, she wasn't in my party so I couldn't carry her like the rest, and she didn't want to be connected to me in that way.

Second problem came about from the solution to the first problem, I used my crafting stat to make a stone cube around her to carry her unnoticed.

The problem is to carry her I had to use the soldier ant form, and that one takes twelve energy a minute.

Which only gives me around a hour and a half to travel.

Talking it over we did come to a solution to that problem as well.

Mini status.

------------------

Health:1,000/1,000

Energy:230/1087

Stamina:300/653

Excess energy : 2,345

------------------

Time to take a break.

a placed the cube down, then dug a cave into the wall.

Once it was big enough to hold all of us for a few hours, I sealed the entrance back up with rocks.

I then used my crafting stat to make a hole in the cube big enough for Lyra to climb out.

"Are you doing alright?"

I asked her that question as I transformed back and released the others.

"You ask that same question every time we stop for you to recharge."

Because we don't want me to transform back right in the middle of the ant colony, I stop and dig a side tunnel to recuperate my energy.

As of now, it takes me just over eighteen hours to fully recharge, that means the process of going down has been moving at a snails pace.

"Well, you are stuck in a cube for hours at a time. Are you sure you don't want me to add you to my party? The only real thing I see about you is your name."

"Yes, I'm sure. After all, you've said that you only have two slots left, and this is just a temporary partnership."

"Alright, if you're sure?"

"I am."

"Well, at least we've been lucky so far."

Jurea spoke as she stretched out her legs.

"How so?"

"We've yet to run into the queens."

"Queens, as in plural?"

"Yes, there are multiple queens, they're the only ants capable of breeding. Many an adventurer has run into them and few have returned."

"But doesn't that cause infighting? You know, having more than one queen?"

"The queens don't rule, they're more like sex slaves the colony uses to keep their numbers up."

Flora spoke up.