"I'm in a very unfriendly mood right now, and you just stomped out my dinner," Drake hissed, getting up slowly from his seat on the ground.
"KREEEEE!!!"
Prince Rasha screeched loudly flexing his own aura on the surroundings in response. The Prince's guards shirking under the sudden pressure, backing away slightly.
Drake sneered back, unaffected thanks to his skills. Instead, the challenge from the Prince slowly began to spark his personality once more. But Drake was aware this time and tried his best to clamp down on the change.
"Let me ask you," Drake said coldly, flexing his own aura, "Was the last time I put you on your ass not good enough, that you came back for more?"
The Prince froze again, shaking as he struggled against Drake's aura. His dramatic entrance only serving to make it easier for Drake to find him.
"I was never one to pull the legs off insects as a kid. Too busy playing video games, and sneaking candy from the pantry. But I think it's time to catch up on lost opportunities," Drake thought aloud, walking forward toward the struggling Rasha.
Drake quickly produced a white flame in his hand, squelching it just as quickly as his arms and hair went crimson. His every step forward forcing the Prince to flinch subtly.
"Regret your own arrogance for challenging a true tyrant," Drake spat, his hand moving to grip Rasha's shoulder and arm with his hands.
The next moment Drake wrenched the appendage from the Prince's socket, ichor splattering over the ground, as the surroundings suddenly came to life as the Guards thawed from their fright jumping into action.
Drake threw the arm away casually, his hair changing to a bright yellow as sparks cascaded from one of his arms to the other, changing his endowment.
"Heretical Endowment, Single, Lightning," Drake muttered, his speed shooting through the roof as he weaved and dodged through the oncoming onslaught of weapons from the Royal Guardsmen coming to defend their Prince.
Drake moved, dodging in and out of the strikes from the Royal Guards. Taking his time to move out of the encirclement.
"Sadly I can't do anything flashy to put you in your place. But the over a hundred stat points I put into Strength to beat your brother should be a nice conciliation prize for you," Drake looked directly at Rasha who was holding his missing limb, his mandibles clattering wildly, "Weaklings."
Drake knew Rasha couldn't understand him like his brother, but the tone of Drake's voice and the condescending manner in which Drake delivered it was more than enough to convey his feelings.
Rasha screeched again in anger, throwing off the Royal Guards left and right with his still attached arm.
"Touchy," Drake chuckled, his palms opening as two white flames manifested in each, "Heretical Attunement, Fire."
Drake summoned his flames to enhance his tattoos further, the glow of his Martial skill, Lightning Endowment, and the Fire Attunement cascading together for a magnificent light show.
"Time to squash a bug," Drake sneered, his back foot planting into the ground as he crushed it below, shooting forward.
Drake took no time to appear next to the first Ant Royal Guard, his fist millimeters from its serrated jaw.
Following through with his jab, Drake took the monster's head clean off, the body falling limply to the floor.
[You have defeated Yu'zik Kikk [Rank F] Level 29] [Experience Points and 650,000 TP awarded]
"One," Drake counted aloud.
In a flash of colors, Drake sped forward to the next Guard, throwing an uppercut to its abdomen before it could ever react, his hand passing through the natural armor it had like it wasn't even there.
[You have defeated Vidmyr Kikk Level 29] [Rank F] Level 29] [Experience Points and 650,000 TP awarded]
"Two."
Drake grabbed the lifeless Ant this time, throwing it at the rest of the group. Using the monster's body as cover he quickly chanted a small spell, but the density and power of the spell did not diminish like the size.
"Ouka Houken," Drake whispered, the fire on his arms rushing forward and condensing in front of him into a small bright white ball.
Drake shot the spell forward as it passed through the Ant's flying body and landed at the feet of the three other guards and Prince, exploding and taking out two of the Guards' pairs of legs.
Not stopping there, Drake moved while the explosion distracted the evading Guards and panicked Rasha.
Drake dug his feet into the ground once again, pushing forward and catching one of the jumping Ants as it tried to dodge the explosion mid air with one hand on its neck.
"Heretical Attunement, Magma, Revised Gauntlet," Drake changed in a murmur.
In Drake's free hand, an orange magic circle quickly manifested, a blob of gooey red and orange moving over his outstretched fingers in fractions of a second. With his next motion, Drake threw the magma-covered hand open palmed into the Ant's head, sending it spinning mid-air as he crashed it into the ground below.
Dust and debris exploded from the impact, clearing in a quick sweeping motion from Drake.
The remaining Guards and the Prince stood stock still staring back at him.
Drake brought his other hand to his Attuned one, the slimy magma slowly moving to cover his other hand as well as the Guards and Prince looked on.
The Prince howled and screeched again trying to assert some sort of reprisal for Drake's one-sided slaughter.
[You have been affected by Tyrant Royalty's Dominance]
[Your skill Tyrant's Indomibility has Negated Tyrant Royalty's Dominance]
"Looks like I'm the winner," Drake said smiling behind his mask, "And you lose."
Drake rushed forward again, beelining for Rasha all while dodging and weaving through his remaining guards.
But he was suddenly interrupted by the crashing of the chamber wall, an army of Ants flooding the forest, as eleven figures shot out ahead of the rest.
Drake halted, waiting for the newcomers to reach them. Not because he could not reach and kill Rasha, but because the small rational part still left in him told him to hold back.
Natto had been silent ever since they last spoke, and continued to be. Leaving Drake to his own thoughts and will. Understanding that the increased amount of monsters in the chamber would mean more fights and more destruction of the land. And possibly killing the food they needed for the rest of the participants to survive for the remainder of the tutorial.
Drake also considered that he had no idea where Theodore was at the moment. And he couldn't risk accidentally getting him caught up in the fight if the number of monsters increased forcing him to start using large spells.
Landing down moments later as Drake felt the new Ants enter his Aura Field, he stared back at the last Prince. Who screeched something at the Rasha.
Drake held firm and waited for them to finish, as the pair of Princes stared back at him.
"Go run with your tails between your legs. Don't worry I'll wait," Drake scoffed, crossing his arms as his magma attunement faded away.
"Antagonizing them when we wish for them to leave is rather stupid," Natto said, finally speaking up.
Oh, are we talking now? Drake thought.
"I have been busy. But it seemed this act of foolishness needed my immediate attention…."
Drake continued to watch the back and forth that the princes were having before they finally looked to be ready to move, the thirteen other Royal Guards - Obiteron's, Braxor's, and Rasha's remaining three - all waited for the Princes before helping the pair of Guards Drake had blown the kneecaps off off.
Moving Rasha was pulled away by Obiteron into the opening of the wall, but not before Drake Marked the Prince wanting to track where the pair was going.
"Now, I just need to figure out where the hell Theo is, and stuff his curly mustached tushy into a safe place so I can go wild," Drake sighed, looking out into the sea of Ants that had flooded the chamber.
—-----------------
"It's been more than a week already!"
"There's nothing I can do about it. We have to wait until there is another entrance. If I go around cutting into the ground I risk burying them alive."
This back-and-forth had happened several times over the week.
Megan stood on the rampart like the rest of the party waiting for something to happen so they could do something, anything.
She looked on as Bear and Claire went back and forth again. Claire was desperate to find Shot, even after being reassured by Harley and Bear that he would be fine.
And Bear was again trying to calm her down while looking for any openings into the Ant's Hive.
Megan had been going over the events in her mind again and again. Everything leading up until this point in the tutorial. All her mistakes, all the blunders until she found her friends again, and suddenly found someone who was actually honest for once.
"And I really believed him for a second…" she muttered.
"Believed who?" Chelsea asked next to her, sitting on top of the rampart, her legs dangling off the edge.
"O-oh, just thinking out loud…" she muttered again, with a nervous chuckle, "You aren't worried like Claire? I thought you were head over heels for Shot?"
Chelsea flinched briefly from the sudden question but sighed and resumed her casual surveying.
"It's not that I'm not worried…" Chelsea explained, her eyes flashing green for a moment before turning back to her natural brown, "It's just I understand there's no use in getting worked up about it.."
"And the falling for your boss?" Megan snickered.
Chelsea coughed before answering, "He isn't my boss… He's our party leader. And I already know I don't have a shot with him anymore… So I moved on."
"To bigger and better things yeah, love?" Jacqueline suddenly said, stepping into the conversation.
Chelsea's ears turned red, and she clammed up at the pointed question.
Megan and Jacqueline laughed lightly before Jacqueline pointed a new question at Megan.
"You worried about the dumb sod, Megan? Julia's been pretty worried about the bloody guy despite usually being calm."
Megan looked down at the barren land below the rampart before responding, taking a moment to think.
"It isn't that I'm worried about him, it's that I really believed he was what he said he was. After Chris… I really wanted to hope he was being honest," Megan admitted.
"Honest?" Chelsea and Jacqueline asked together.
"Yeah, honest. He's everything I thought he was, brash, and arrogant. He's also strong, protective, and works hard despite always joking. But he said he would stay with us and protect us all until the end of the tutorial. And then, he left…." Megan explained turning sullen.
"Love…. You sure you don't have the hots for this guy? You seem to be pretty right with noticing them small details," Jacqueline joked.
Megan blushed but Chelsea also spoke up to add.
"Shot didn't leave us."
"What do you mean, of course he did," Megan countered.
Chelsea shook her head, "He didn't leave us to abandon us Megs. He isn't Chris. If Shot left us behind…. It means we just couldn't follow. If I've learned anything from being around that guy for this long. It's that he always puts us first. I don't know why and honestly, I don't know why we deserve it. But he always protects us. So I'm sure he's doing just that."
Megan looked back out into the barren field where the Hive entrances used to be, the collapsed rubble of the tunnels under the ground forming jagged fallen crevices in the ground.
"I hope you're right… I don't know if I can deal with losing another hero…"