Ping!
"Yes."
Kaede's eyes quickly swept the battlefield to see the skill's effect.
"Wha?! What's happening all of a sudden?" the selected members exclaimed as they were briefly surrounded by tiny green lights.
"F*CK! What's this?! Get off me!"
Some of the feisty ones thought the lights were some sort of an attack and struggled to brush them away but they all soon realized that the mysterious lights were assistive as they felt a surge of energy rush into their bodies.
Their veins bulged and pulsated as their muscles underwent a change similar to Kaede's body reinforcement.
"HAHAHA! THIS IS INSANE!"
"What kind of spell is this?! I feel invincible!" they hollered in excitement.
It was just a 15% stat increase, yet the buff skill did more than just that. It gave the people hope that they could still turn the tables in this battle.
As the Rally skill boosted their morale, the members pushed at the ant monsters with renewed vigor.
"I dunno what the heck that was, but whoever cast the spell…" Swordsman Carlo tightened his grip on the sword hilt, eyes curved into crescents, "I owe you one!"
And he jumped into the fray, slashing soldier ants with more ease.
His fervor infected the others who followed suit, "D*mn! I really did get stronger!"
Meanwhile, Finn's jaws hung open at the incredible sight.
For all his years obsessively studying Almageia, he had never heard of any spell that can boost several people's strength simultaneously.
'This… this is the ultimate goal of artifact-based Almageia!'
Artifact production was a progressive field that helps non-Almagi utilize the power of mana. Together with blacksmiths, the Artisan Almagi, the production-based counterpart of combat Almagi, creates weapons and armors that boost the wielder's strength and defense respectively.
All it takes are a suitable mana circle carved into the weapon and an embedded high-grade mana crystal to serve as its battery.
Even then, the boost only affects one person and only one aspect—strength OR defense.
Recent advancements in this field expand to speed and intelligence via boots and helmets.
But as far as Finn was aware, artifacts that extend usage to third parties were only possible in theory.
Yet the situation in front of him was what it was—The humans who seemingly had their strengths increased now also had a higher defense.
'Impossible…' Finn muttered before a sudden thought struck, 'Who was it? Who cast the spell?!'
Then his icy blue eyes landed on the Kaede's figure,
'Was it the prince? Did he use a national-grade treasure?'
'Then again, he's the only one here who has access to such an artifact...'
'I heard the royal family owns a lot of legendary artifacts in their treasury.'
'I wonder if he'll let me study them if I succeed in this mission?'
'Right. I'll ask him once we get out.'
Never did it occur to him that it wasn't even an 'Artifact' but just one of Deon's skills obtained from the Ascension system.
This shocking incident further fueled Finn's motivation to showcase his best sides to the third prince, befriending him in hopes of uncovering all his secrets.
While Finn resumed commanding the units, Kaede sighed in relief. At least for now, he doesn't have to worry about people dying left and right.
Ping!
Ping!
As if to reward them for their efforts, the two souls inhabiting Kaede leveled up twice simultaneously.
'Maybe because we're in perfect assimilation, the experience points we gain are centralized?' Mikael wondered—And he was right.
The experience points they accumulated are converted to 'Kaede's' points. This meant that in perfect assimilation, the system designates the host as a unified entity, thus, Deon and Mikael will level up when Kaede levels up,
Now, at level 14, Deon would have strength equivalent to a lowest-ranked junior knight's which was quite a feat considering his young age and his weak constitution just a few days prior.
The young prince had certainly grown at an incredible pace, but he was still no match for the Super Major ant that guarded the Queen.
Throughout the battle, only this one ant never left the Queen's side-- Even as its kin was butchered, burnt, electrified, or exploded to smithereens as if it was programmed to protect the Queen no matter the situation.
From the moment they stepped foot inside the chamber, Kaede had been aware of the monster's existence.
After all, who wouldn't? When this Super Major ant's terrifying aura nearly drowned out the rest's? The ant's menacing appearance told Kaede that it was in a league of its own even as it stood there, motionless.
The only relief was that it didn't join the fight as long as no one threatened the Queen.
But Kaede knew that to sweep the colony, someone had to face off against this monster—And that 'Someone' would be him.
Slowly, Kaede made his way to the Supersoldier, advancing through piles of dead ants.
With every step, monster corpses flew aside. It was like Moses parting the seas… yet no one was there to witness the spectacular sight.
Every member was emersed in their own battles and in their struggle to survive, they didn't have the leisure to watch the prince confront the second-highest authority in the colony.
Ultimately, Kaede's world narrowed to contain only two: Him and the Super Soldier.
As he strutted toward the Super ant, Kaede's left pale green eye carefully studied its form.
If Mikael would describe it using Earthen gaming terminology, he'd say that this guy was definitely a 'Tank'
The Super Soldier was thrice the size of regular soldiers with a head that's abnormally bigger than the rest of its body. Its whole head was shaped like an extremely tough kite shield with snapping jaws at its pointed end.
Just looking at it sent shivers down Kaede's spine.
'Kid, are you ready?' Mikael asked.
A moment.
It took a moment of respite for the young prince to answer, 'Yes.'
This was a one-on-one fight in which he was almost certain to lose…. And losing meant dying.
There'd be no do-overs.
No second chance.
But Deon was done being a coward.
'Yes. I'm ready.' He repeated, this time with more conviction.
--Chapter end--
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** Super Majors (AKA Super Soldiers) are a class of ants, It is a stronger, larger, faster version of the major (AKA Soldiers), only the Carpenter ants have the Super Major caste. its main job is for raiding and protecting the queens as they are the strongest of all the other ants.