After seeing Sebastian collapse to one knee, Baron and Carlos rushed over and kneeled down to his head level. Just as they were about to touch his shoulder and ask him, he coughed up a mouth full of blood.
"I'm fine! I'm fine! I expected this to happen." Sebastian said.
Still worried, Carlos pulled out a flask and handed it to Sebastian. Accepting the flask, he chugged the entire flask and handed it back.
A few seconds went by and he stood up, and slowly walked toward the unconscious ant.
"I was wrong about my analysis. You guys won't be able to fight an army of them." Sebastian said as he pierced the ant's head with his sword.
"What?" Carlos said, confused.
"I was stalking these ants and didn't think about informing you guys since I figured you guys could fight them alone but I was wrong."
In disbelief, Carlos threw a fist and stopped an inch away from Sebastian's face. As mad as he was, he couldn't hit Sebastian. He didn't want to harm as he already was injured enough.
"What are you gonna do about identity? Your outfit is destroyed and won't be able to hide it anymore." Baron said.
Sebastian lifted his hand up and an exact replica of his outfit appeared and wrapped itself around him.
"Solved."
Standing up, he proceeded to walk in the direction of the base. It amazed Carlos and Baron as they thought Sebastian would've been too hurt to even walk straight but they were right. Every so slightly, they could see him limp a little.
'They weren't lying when they said this liquid would harm me.' Sebastian thought, pulling out another vial of green liquid.
Following Sebastian, Carlos and Baron were whispering between each other about his identity.
"How did you know it was Sebastian?" Carlos whispered.
"When he first arrived, he put his hand on me and told me." Baron replied.
After thirty minutes of walking, they arrived at the base and noticed Lycaon's mana signature was gone.
"Gareth! Where did Lycaon go?" Baron asked.
"Lycaon went to scout a new area of land with James, Katlynn, and Sophie. Wait, what are you two doing with him?" Gareth replied.
"He needs assistance finding a specific beast.."
"Right… So he needed both of you?"
Ignoring his words, Sebastian walked by and entered the cave. Upon entering, Sebastian noticed a few beast crystals on the ground and seemed to be the exact ones he had been hunting for.
"Baron! Can you make those chains now?!" Sebastian shouted.
"I said you need twe- Oh! Lycaon must've helped you get them." Baron replied, surprised.
Grabbing them, Baron noticed the crystals themselves were of a higher purity compared to the ones Sebastian had gotten. Glancing at him, Baron was able to tell that Sebastian was slightly agitated.
'Always competitive.' Baron sighed.
------
"Where is Brother Neo? He should've returned by now." Zane asked.
"Now that you say that, he hasn't… You don't think he could've died, right?" The ant named Xavier replied with a question of his own.
"Impossible. He's stronger than us four combined. Let's go investigate."
After ending their conversation, both ants left their underground colony and followed the pheromones Neo had left behind. They then began to notice an increase in the pheromones and noticed a fight had occurred from the damaged surroundings.
"Quick! We might have to help him!"
Hastening their speed, the two ants followed the pheromones until they arrived the scene of a previous fight. As they looked at the battlefield, they noticed a corpse on the ground.
"Brother Neo!" Zane shouted, rushing over to his side and inspecting his injuries. "He's dead!"
"That should be impossible though. Even if he was part of the first generation, he was still the captain of squadron Killjoy." Xavier said, confused. "He clearly was outnumbered. You can see that metal spear over there and look at the ground, it was modified by an earth user."
"We need to report to our mother. She'll help organize a raid party and avenge him."
The two ants then picked up Neo's body and proceeded to walk back. While they were walking, surrounding ants smelled his pheromones and looked at Neo's corpse. Some fell to their knees while others were angered.
"Brother Neo is dead!? That should be impossible!" A slightly bigger ant shouted in anger.
Upon arriving at the ant colony, thousands of ants lined up at the entrance and kneeled on the ground, showing their respect toward their fallen brother.
"Take his body to the burial ground. I'm gonna have a talk with mother." Zane instructed.
Approaching the entrance of his mother's room, he noticed the increase in security around her room and the amount of ants along the walls.
"Brother Zane, is it true Brother Neo has passed away?" One of the guards asked.
"It's true." Zane replied. "I'm here to talk to mother about it now"
Hearing his words, the guardian ants opened the door and waited for Zane to enter before closing the door.
"Mother." Zane said, kneeling.
"Did you know? Neo was one of the firstborns and excelled at everything. I watched him grow up and do everything for the family. I told him that he would grow to be very strong and had hopes for him. He was better than the second and third generation but he suddenly stopped getting strong.
Still, I always treated him with high priority and always listened to his recommendations. When I felt my connections to him sever, I knew he had died and couldn't help my wonder what had killed him. I already know what you're gonna ask and I'll give you permission." The mother said.
Hearing her words, Zane walked out of the room and gave instructions to one of the guardian ants to gather an entire company of ants. Soon, Zane walked toward the armory and noticed a few ants were already rushing toward it.
"We heard. You're getting vengeance for Brother Neo." A muscular ant said
"Fourth generation brothers? It would be an honor to fight alongside you." Zane bowed.
"No need to bow. When we were young, Brother Neo taught us how to fight and continued to teach, even after we were stronger than him."
It didn't take long for news to spread about the formation of a raid party against those who killed Neo. Soon, over a thousand ants wanted to get involved in the raid party but only a hundred were selected. The colony needed to be guarded from other ant colonies and recently their rivals were getting closer into their territory.
"Is there everyone?" Zane asked, overlooking an entire company of ants.
A few ants stepped ahead and were slightly taller and muscular compared to the other ants. These ants were the fourth generation. With each passing generation, the ants got stronger and started to gain the features of previous deceased beasts.
"You five will lead the charge." Zane instructed.
Although first generation ants were considered weak, their intelligence was slightly better than the newer generations. They were always given respect since they were older and protected their mother the longest out of them.
"I swear I'll get revenge for you, Brother Neo." Zane said with fury coursing through his eyes.
-----
"Antares! Your chains are finished!" Baron shouted.
Waking up from his nap, Sebastian walked toward his finished chains and grabbed them. Inspecting the craftsmanship, he noticed they were engraved with Baron's initials and symbols all over.
"These chains were a bit complicated to work on. Half of the time they wouldn't even be infused with metal and had to restart from scratch." Baron said
Spinning the chains around like a lasso, Sebastian threw them at Baron and the effect could be felt immediately on Baron. His strength weakened considerably and fell to the ground.
"I'm gonna go out to hunt." Sebastian said, releasing Baron.
Before Baron could respond, Sebastian was already gone. Currently, he was headed North since the beasts there were stronger.
'I must get stronger! That ant was stronger than I had thought and it seemed to know where the killer of that one ant was… I must feast and become stronger.'
Once Sebastian was a certain distance away from base, he stopped and expanded his energy to max. To ensure he would get stronger, he wanted to fight a high-ranking beast to put him in a near-death situation and kill it.
'Found you.'
--------
"Is there really a need to move base? That area has an abundance of metal for Baron and an abundance of nearby beasts." James asked.
"Yes. The King doesn't like that man and if the King learns of his location, he will send waves and waves of beasts after him. Not only is that bad, but that man already has hundreds of souls following him." Lycaon replied.
"Souls? Oh, that's right. You can sense the souls of the dead."
Roar!!!
"Incoming!" Lycaon shouted.
High in the sky, a ball of lava was flying through the air and landed near Lycaon. Soon, a large figure could be seen running and breaking every tree in its way.
"A lava golem?" A girl questioned.
"We need to leave! It's C-Rank!"
Upon hearing the rank, they turned around and ran. Behind them, the lava golem was following. In its back, a sword could be seen and clearly was the thing that woke it up.
"Damn it, Katlynn! Why did you have to go ahead and anger this damn thing!"
"It was an accident! It just happened to catch a stray sword flying its way!" Katlynn explained.
Another ball of lava was lobbed toward them and landed in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. Another ball of lava landed to the right of them and blocked their path off.
"What are we gonna do?!" James said, panicking.
"It's coming!" Lycaon shouted
"What's coming?
"Don't you know who's territory we're in?"
Before the golem could take a step, a tail slammed into its body. A big, long beast appeared in front of them and started to hiss at the golem. Another one appeared and slithered forward.
"Quick! We must leave before we become their next snack!"
Snapping out of their daze, they went around the globs of lava and ran as fast they could. Eventually they arrived at their base after running for an hour.
"North, East and South are off-limits. That only leaves the West left."
Staring west, Lycaon felt a strong force in the distance, coming their way.
"Who the hell angered an army of beasts?!" Lycaon shouted angrily.
"Baron, Carlos and Antares. They came from that direction." Gareth said, immediately.
"Those f*ckers! We must leave this area for now. We won't be able to defend this area."
Rushing into the cave, Lycaon saw Baron hammering another weapon. In a fit of rage, he slammed his fist into Baron's jaw and sent him flying a few meters.
"What the hell was that for?!" Baron asked, angrily.
"You led an entire army of beasts here!" Lycaon argued.
"What?" Stepping outside the cave, Baron's eyes glowed as he could see an army of ants coming in their direction. Surprised, he went back inside the cave and quickly tried to grab as much material and weapons as possible from the weapon rack.
"Leave them. We could always go and gather materials again."
Hearing this, Baron was angered by his words. He was a blacksmith and he cared deeply for his creations. He didn't want to leave them so he spoke his mind. "Like hell! I ain't leaving my babies behind!"
"Fine! Go ahead and die to them" Lycaon said, storming out of the cave.
Dropping them, Baron stared at them and began to shed some tears. Although he didn't want to admit it, Lycaon was right. He would have to leave them for him to survive.
"Don't worry! You always make more" A voice said.
Staring at his weapons, he felt like they were talking to him.
"Yeah! You can go make more!" Another voice said.
Chuckling to himself, Baron thought he was going insane from staying in the dimension for a long time. Waving bye, he exited the cave and noticed the army of ants were closer than ever, and seemed to be running.
"Goodbye, my babies." Putting his hand on the mountain, he used his magic to collapse the cave and ran toward his friends.