Without completing understanding what he had really said yes to, Mingi accepted the systems challenge.
[User has accepted the challenge]
[Challenge conditions: Kill the ants]
Mingi was shocked to say the least because the system indicated there was more than one ant and it did not ask him to tame the ants but to kill them instead.
Mingi didn't have time to keep thinking about it as the ant jump toward them. Instinctively, Mingi shoved Nani out the way narrowly dodging the ant's attack.
Quickly standing up, Mingi's head was starting to spin but he needed to get this done.
"Slice" A thin blue line looking like water flew from Mingi's hand increasing in size and speed at it made contact with the ant.
A gasp was heard behind Mingi as Nani witnessed him using his affinity for the first time, and up to that moment she had not known that he had one.
The slice penetrated the ant but barely, and it definitely wasn't enough to take the thing down. If the screech it let out was any indication, it just made the damn thing pissed off.
The ant rushed in for an attack but there was no dodging this one.
"Shield" Mingi's shield was up as soon as the ant spat mucus towards them. Looking down Mingi heard a sizzling sound realized that the ant's mucus was acidic. The ant was gearing up to shoot another ball of mucus and Mingi wasn't sure if his shield would hold up given it was only made of a light barrier of water. As Mingi anticipated the attack, the shield fell and Mingi realized that he was not strong enough to hold the barrier for a long time.
Just as the ant was about to shoot, Nani stepped from behind him and with a raised hand she called, "Drill". A concentrated burst of air left her raised hand, and a hole the size of a bullet pierced through the ant causing it to fall but still not dead.
Nani commented, "You didn't think I'd just sit there and let you get killed, did you?" She continued without a response, "That should be enough for us to tame it." However, before Nani could step forward and tame the beast for her own, Mingi order another slice which went right for the underside of the ant's head, severing it from its body.
Breathing heavily, he collapsed on the wall next to him catching his breath.
"What the hell Mingi, I was going to capture that thing. That could've been my first tamed beast, but you went ahead and killed the thing." Clearly upset by Mingi's actions, Nani stood waiting for an explanation as to what just happened, but Mingi didn't intend to explain it to her, as least not right now.
"I'll tell you once we're outside, but we need to move, there may be more of them. Ants don't normally travel alone." As if on cue, they heard a chittering sound behind and when they looked, the elevator opened to reveal another ant.
"For fucks sake." Nani swore at their luck while taking a step back from the elevator.
"Nani, I'm in no condition to fight again." Mingi spoke beside her already moving back as well.
The ant inched closer for every step they took back.
"Well, it doesn't look too friendly I'm afraid," she replied before continuing, "only one thing left to do then. Run!" Mingi didn't have to be told twice as he willed his legs to move as fast as they could.
While rounding the corner Mingi suddenly had an idea, "I have an idea that may get us killed or save us" he said while running.
"Well if we don't do something now, we will die anyway. So, whatever your gonna do, do it now." Nani said in between breaths.
The ant was just about to round the corner when Mingi dragged Nani into a room through the first door he saw. They both slid across the floor and the ant skidded to a stop in front of the door chittering menacingly.
Nani was the first to get up. "I thought you said we weren't fighting this thing."
Pulling himself up, Mingi countered, "We're not going to, but quick question, how strong is that cushion skill of yours?"
Quickly catching on, Nani asked, "Are you really asking me to jump out a window using a fucking defense skill to cushion us?"
"I did say it might get us killed, didn't I?" The ant way clearly growing impatient and would pounce on them at any second now. If a decision was being made it needed to be done now, or they would end up like the man from earlier.
""I swear to God Mingi if we are alive after this, I will kill you." A grin spread over Mingi's face as his senior grabbed his hand and rushed toward the open window.
"Grab onto my shoulder and pray to whatever you fucking believe in to make this work." With that Nani made a leap toward the window and Mingi made a leap behind her grabbing her shoulder as they went headfirst from the window.
Nani drew in a big breath before shouting "CUSHION!"
Mingi waited with bated breath for the few seconds that it took for them to reach the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he realized they were hovering a few inches from the it. Before Mingi could say anything, they fell abruptly.
Mingi tried to get up, but he was winded and could barely move.
"While I am happy to be alive right now, I'd be even more happy if you could get off me Mingi." Nani muttered squished against the floor by Mingi and her inability to move.
Rolling to his side and off Nani, Mingi couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he really had no idea whether it would've worked or not, but he was just glad to be alive. Mingi's rejoicing may have come a bit too soon as he looked to up to see the ant peering through the window and screeching into the night, but that screech was not one of pain.
Other screeches started to echo into night and Mingi immediately knew they were not alone. Mingi heard a stone crunched under something, and he realized that another ant had already located them and the ant from the window was gone. Cursing internally Mingi started thinking of ways that he and Nani could escape the other beasts.
Slowly he and Nani got up from the floor and looked around them, there wasn't just one ant, there were several.
Nani was the first to speak, "Well if we didn't stand a chance against the one ant upstairs, then we have no chance of taming nearly a dozen."
Just then, a system notification popped up. [User's life in danger]
[The system acknowledges the user is too weak to defeat all the ants in his current state]
[The system wishes to grant a temporary boost in stamina to the user for killing his first meta-beast]
[Would the user like to accept this reward?]
Another timer came up, but it was 10 seconds this time. Mingi had no idea why the system referred to the ant as a meta-beast, or why it was so hell bent on making sure that he killed the insects, but he was sure of one thing, if he didn't accept the reward both he and Nani would die.
Deciding that he could figure out what was happening afterward, Mingi focused on the task at hand, and for the second time this night, he uttered, "I accept."