Sweep with the refills, take a step forward; one activates the 'Purple Transformation' while the other sweeps with the refill.
So on and so forth. Each took turns with the attacks as they slowly moved forward like mindless machines. Their bodies long past their limits, only the thought of saving their son kept them going.
Some of the ant heads on their body that was clutching to their flesh fell off on their own. A small trickle of blood seeped out for a few seconds as the wounds soon closed themselves.
One foot, two feet, three feet, four feet, the couple kept taking turns with their attacks as they slowly inched forward in the horde of ants.
When they had charged one foot into the horde, the ants began to viciously throw themselves at them. The pressure the couple faced intensified. After they were two feet into the horde, the ants started to stack upon each other and tried to kill them with twice the mandibles.
The pressure the couple faced intensified further as the ants that could taste the tiny drops of their purple blood became excited and charged maniacally towards the couple with zero regards to their lives.
Anita gritted her teeth as she struggled to swing her refill. She had been swinging it for god knows how many times. Her arms were tinged in a layer of purple as they sometimes failed to even hold the refill in place.
Moreover, a certain sensation was growing within them for quite some time. It was just on the levels of 'Ignorable' at first but as they charged through the horde and began to sustain more injuries, the sensation deepened.
It was their sense of thirst! They began to feel thirsty as if they had been travelling through a scorching hot desert without a single drop of water to quench their thirst for days together.
The feeling of thirst, as it increases, one's mind would slowly start to decrease its thinking capacity and cognition powers. Only a feeling of the need to drink water would remain.
Water! Water! Water!
The couple began to feel drowsy as their arms no longer had the strength to even lift the refills, no; they failed to even clutch their refills.
Suddenly, a lump of purple smoke seeped out of their pores almost at the same time and formed into the 'Record' on which such a message was displayed.
The couple gazed into the puzzled eyes of each other as if implying, 'Did you get the message too?' and they further looked into their 'Record'.
Ant-289 (1.00%)> There were some changes that he noticed in his attributes. Immediately after the message in the 'Record' was displayed, Prakash felt a little bit of his body condition increase. A little bit of vigour also returned to his eyes. Anita also noticed some changes in her 'Record'. Ant-324 (1.01%)> Their strengths magically increased. This would have been a cause for question, research, doubt, clarification, and joy in normal situations. But, they could no longer move their bodies properly, let alone fight. The small increase in their attributes didn't help them much. "Uwaaaaaaa" At this time, a faint cry entered their ears. The cry was so faint that the couple wouldn't have heard it if it had sounded before their strengths had slightly increased. Maybe, the faint cry had already reached them before but they couldn't hear it. Maybe they were just a bit farther than the range of the sound. But, the moment the couple could hear that faint cry, their bodies jerked in response. Their previous eyes that only had faint embers of vigour suddenly flooded with vigour like an erupting volcano. Their previous hands that couldn't even move now gripped onto the shaft of the refills and took a few mighty swings at their surroundings. Rows upon rows of ants flew away for a few centimetres as the immediate area about 5 centimetres in a radius around them was clean of ants. "If my current strength is exhausted, then I'll borrow from tomorrow's stock!" Anita bellowed as she charged forth. She took small but quick steps; there were cracking sounds coming out every time she took a step and her feeling of thirst further intensified, but she didn't seem to notice it. Prakash charged in front of her as he somehow managed to take strides with his sprained ankle. His sprain was getting cured in real-time but, at the same, his feeling of thirst exploded. "I'm coming for you Akash!" Prakash roared at the top of his lungs in a coarse voice as he swatted all the ants in his path. The ants raged, their eyes cold as they threw themselves at the couple, intending to destroy them. Prakash raged in response and maniacally charged for 15 centimetres. After that, Anita took charge while he rested his aching arms. 20 seconds later, the couple found themselves at the foot of the bookshelf. Now, they were faced with a serious problem. How do they climb up? There were four rows in the shelf, with each row being one foot high and they were further divided into 5 columns. Each column was 1 foot apart from each other. "I'll work it out somehow. Just cover me." Prakash said as he climbed up the wooden base that was about 3-4 centimetres in height and entered into the lowermost first row. Anita followed suit and climbed up. Defending from a height was far easier than defending on the floor. The area she needed to defend was smaller and moreover, it would take some time for the ants to climb. All she now had to focus on was to throw them off the moment they entered the first row of the shelf. As Anita covered his back, Prakash gazed at all the items present in this segment. There were mainly picture books; some were thin while others were thick. They were stacked from the left to the right. Prakash gazed at the rightmost book in the stack. It was a hardbound book titled 'Poldy' that probably had around 40 pages. Prakash ran to the rear end of the rack towards his right, leaned his back against the wooden wall, rest his legs on the thinner side of the book and pushed it. "Happ" Prakash grit his teeth as he pushed the book. Slowly but surely, the book crept forward. 'Ksssh' Prakash suddenly slipped on the smooth floor and fell down as his legs slipped due to all the blood that was on the soles of his feet. Prakash wheezed as he once again got up and began to push at the book. Slowly, the other end of the book steadily peeked out of the shelf. When almost 1 centimetre of the book had peeked out, Prakash stopped and plopped to the ground. "Anita!" Prakash shouted towards the fighting Anita as he slowly tried to get up. His legs were wobbly as he failed to exert strength in them. Anita ran towards him and inserted her refill in the gap between the book titled 'Poldy' and the book behind it. Prakash also inserted his refill on the other side parallel to Anita and at the count of three, they both pushed the refill sideways like a lever arm. Their refills actually began to bend due to the force they exerted with all their might when finally, the book began to tilt. The eyes of the couple lit up as the book made a small arc in the air and its top edge hit the walls of the shelf. It now stood inclined on the wall. The couple immediately began to scale up the book when Prakash's legs gave out midway and began to slide down. "Dear!" Anita shouted as she extended her refill toward him. Prakash gripped the refill that was extended toward him and stopped sliding. The moment he caught the refill, Anita almost lost her balance due to the force of his pull but immediately managed to regain her balance as she widened her footing. Prakash stood on all fours as he began to scale up. He currently needed all the friction he could get. The couple finally reached the top of the book when they found out to their shock that there was still 9 centimetres left to reach the next row (i.e. the second row). "Climb on top of me," Prakash said as he got on all fours. Anita climbed upon his back and slightly jumped up. Using the upward force, she leveraged her arms on the surface of the second row and climbed up. She then took the two refills that Prakash had extended up. After that, Anita stably stood her ground in a kneeling position as she extended a refill downwards. Prakash caught hold of it and climbed up with great effort. The limbs of the couple were shivering as all the heavy lifting they had to do till now took a huge toll on their bodies. They lay sprawled on the floor of the second row as they tried to regain their breaths. They could hardly think much. There were just the thoughts of 'Water' ringing in their minds like an alarm tone on an infinite loop that seemed to almost overpower the thoughts of their son's safety. The couple were going insane as they regained some strength in their limbs and once again stood up to proceed to the next higher row. The third row, the fourth row, and finally the roof of the fourth row; they still had to climb up three more times until they could come to their son's aid.