Chapter 42 - The Queen Arrives Pt 2

I was to focused on preparing for the upcoming fight to hear what the others were saying. But after a few minutes of hearing their voices I simply turned my head and smiled.

"If your afraid then go back to the others, I just want to get this over with and capture myself a queen. I listened to those bastards last time and didn't take the queen egg but this time I have nobody persuading me otherwise. But since I do not want you all to die, go ahead and go back to the others and warn them and help them defend while I have fun.

"Master why are you doing this? Is it because your angry? Sacrificing yourself is not the way to go about this please." Shorunt begged for me to come back with them. But I was ready to fight and I wanted to destroy to release this anger that was building up. I needed this so that I can go back to the group and be somewhat level headed.

"Shorunt I need this please just do what I ask and go help the others. I will be back after taking out a few of the ants and pushing them back, I feel bad for attracting their attention just now it was a spur of the moment action but now I have to deal with the reaction."

I walked further down the tunnel away from them to further prove that I was resolute. I ended up having to order Konna to drag Shorunt away with them to keep that stubborn bastard from staying and dying because of my stupid decision.

After they were gone I used Mana hands to pick up a few of the nearby un-refined mana crystals that I detected while trying to get Shorunt to leave. I could feel a tremor getting stronger and that told me they were close so I took the crystal and did what Sondar did. Well I tried to but I found out that to get to the level of overloading it I had to infuse a shit ton of mana all at once and at most if I use up my storage aswell as what I have naturally then I could only create 1 and it wouldn't even explode.

But what I found out was that it did drastically increase the MP drain of the crystal. So I figured that I could save this until the queen shows up and then get her to swallow this somehow. In my head I thought that if she swallowed the mana crystal it would start to rapidly drain her mana, Considering she had any in the first place.

I threw the crystal a little bit down the tunnel towards the ants and waited for them to arrive. Which they did not disappoint as a few seconds later I see a horde of worker ants and warrior ants all in a mad rush towards me.

I smile at the thought of how bloody its going to get, and at how many meals I'll get out of this. I shoot out a few spatial bullets just as a warm-up, I was able to hit a couple of the worker ants ending with a almost instant death as their large bodies get sucked into a hole half the size of their heads.

The others quickly react and go around the now dwindling spheres that after hitting a target stayed at the location of impact. I could see some of the weaker worker ants get sucked in but with the help from the surrounding ants they were pulled back out of range. So I shot out a few more just to try and lower the incoming numbers as much as possible before I switched to close combat.

This time something strange happened, A few of the spatial spheres had started moving closer together and starting amplifying the others gravitational pull. I was a bit shocked but still happy as I seen that they lasted longer this way and could suck in more of the ants before winking out. The gruesome part was that the smaller the sphere the unluckier the ant was that got caught by it. There was alot more agony filled noises coming from the ants then I had anticipated, It made me feel a bit bad about doing this to them. But I quickly shook free of that thought as a warrior surprised me from the side and almost tore a chunk out of my leg.

If it wasn't for my Pain tolerance being maxed out I would have been crippled by the pain. But instead I got angry and jumped towards the warrior ants. I dodged the attempts to capture me with its huge and without a doubt earth shattering mandibles, then landed on its back where I slashed a few times with my lightning strike to reveal the gooiness inside. I was a bit squeamish just because it wasn't cooked but still juicy and squirming, But I rammed my leg through it and activated Life Steal. It screamed in agony as the life essence was drained from it and was in turn used to regenerate my crippled leg in a few seconds. I also received a nice bonus of +1 to my Str on top of a full heal.

By the time I got through draining the warrior, the other ants were already almost on top of me so I had to quickly switch on my Electric scales of Vitality, and I went ahead and used Lightning Muscles aswell to make sure I had enough speed to not only hit but also to dodge any attacks that get a little to close for comfort.

I jumped from ant to ant aiming for the weaker worker ants first and severing off their heads with a couple lightning slashes each. I noticed that it was a tiny bit easier to penetrate their hard shells after gaining that +1, It was going smoothly until I heard a loud screech and looked back to see a huge ant almost to big for the tunnel to hold that was surrounded by 6 warrior type ants that were bigger and had a more menacing aura aswell as an almost metallic like sheen to their shells.

"Ha you finally showed your ugly face my future pet I have some plans for you." I say quickly as I dodge yet another side swipe from a warrior trying to catch me off guard but thanks to my heightened senses their attacks seemed a bit sluggish. But I knew the time for my Lightning muscle buff was going to shortly run out. I had to make this quick or else I had to fall back and rely on the others until I can recuperate.

The thought of going back to them right now especially in a weakened state felt like a disgrace to me. So I sucked it up and I shot a volley of Spatial bullets towards the queen hoping to take out atleast a couple of her royal guards.

Luck was not on my side as the second the bullets filled with spatial energy got close to the guards the lower warrior ants dived in front and sacrificed themselves to protect not only their queen but also the royal guards. I was a bit ticked off at that so I used up a good chunk of my mana to throw out an enlarged Spatial bullet. I charged up for a few seconds and with each passing second I could feel like the weight of the surrounding air itself multiplied as my mana started to gather and when it fully formed I got a notification as I shot it towards the incoming ants.

[User has met the conditions to acquire skill: Spatial Bomb]

[Warning!! User is within detonation range please seek shelter immediately]

As soon as I read that my eyes opened wide and I use up what little energy I had to top up my Lightning buff and ran towards the others. I burst into the resting area and quickly warn the others.

"We have to go now, we have to leave this area now I just shot off a bomb and it has the capacity to do alot more damage than I than." I quickly get the others up and we all run out towards the goblin cave area. We all feel a huge quake that lasts for a short while but a couple seconds after the quake died down was a loud boom, and the entire cave shook like the earth itself was splitting apart.

Then the cave behind us started to light up slowly, but soon we all could hear a loud roar and saw a giant torrent of blue flames coming down the tunnel after us.

There was a collective 'OH,SHIT' from the group as we all used whatever skills we had to run faster. I forced out a few mana hands that grabbed the cave walls and brought them down to try and give us some leeway from the incoming flames of doom. Only to see the same walls get melted by the intense heat seconds later.

The flames were quickly closing in on us until Howy pointed towards another opening ahead of us. We all quickly ran towards it and jumped through after which Sondar made a thick stone wall to help shield us from the flames.

We were lucky that it soon died down but not after causing sever burns on Sondar who stayed with the wall and pumped his mana into it to make sure it gave as much protection as to us as possible. I tried to help as much as I could by sharing what little MP I had with him but it wasn't able to keep up with the huge output that he was using against the fire.

When it died down the rest rushed over to the and I had Shorunt start casting his healing spells over Sondar as he screamed in pain now that the adrenaline wore off. His normally hard shell seemed melted and his fur was burnt off leaving behind red blistered and crackled skin. Between each scream was a hacking cough that blew out plumes of smoke and the smell of cooked meat.

"Ve....Vexsu...." He said looking towards me I leaned closer to him with worry in my eyes.

"Yea man i'm here whatsup?"

"Vex 'Cough' 'Hack' 'Cough' Vexsus.... I think.. this.. might be it for me..."

'Cough, cough, cough'

"No man listen you just hang in there, Shorunt is the best guy to fix you up and you'll be good as new soon enough."

He looked at me with a smile but his eyes were filled with acceptance. He knew he was going to die but he pushed through to talk to me one last time.

"Vexsus listen....I'm.... Sorry....."

His eyes started to gloss over as his final breath left his body.

The others started to tear up as I just continued to watch my friend lay there dead from something I did. My vision started to get blurry as tears started to fall from my face landing on his body but because of how hot the tempature was that he endured the tears almost instantly became steam.

After a few seconds my mind was filled with regret but a small part was filled with anger. Not at this man who decided to become my friend not even knowing who I really was but instead because I chose to help other people. This man who I hurt multiple times the last day with my words and actions.

That anger built up until it turned into rage and I screamed at the world at the thought of it taking my companion, my friend, my brother.

"SYSTEM USE ALL REMAINING STORED NUTRIENTS AND CAST LIFE BURN AND LIFE SHARE"

[User has requested use of Sealed skill: Life Burn..... Granted]

[User will now consume all remaining stored nutrients to supplement the skill: Life Share]

[User has targeted the being known as: Sondar. Now creating Life Link.....Connected.....Will now commence Life Share]

"AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH" I screamed at the top of my lungs until they burst as my body was overwhelmed with a green and purple aura that ran rampant like a mad beast.

"VEXSUS WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP!!!!!"

The others all shouted out to me to stop what I was doing, but how could I when I needed to return his favor. I needed to bring him back to repay him, He did so much for me and this group and I took advantage of him, not once thinking of how he felt but instead of what use he gave me. Out of my own selfishness I gave him a new goal that turned into a bomb. Then Because of how angry I was about how I scared them. I went and created a bomb myself that ended up killing him because this man was still willing to sacrifice even further for us.

I felt like my body was cracking apart as my life force was being used in an attempt to bring him back. I could feel my muscles withering and my scales falling off. I felt weakened to the point my legs gave out and I was forced to kneel on the ground, but I kept the skill active and forced even more of my power into Sondar to bring back my friend.

[User has successfully reignited targets life flame.]

[User has consumed 50 years of life.]

Those were the last messages I saw as I looked down at Sondar as he slowly blinked as his body started to visibly regenerate. His body sloughed off the old burnt skin like a snake, and he started tearing up when he looked at me.

"Vexsus you fool. Why?"

"Because I owed you for being so awesome." I said as I smiled right before everything went black.

-----------------------------------

[Spatial Bullet] 2 -> 8

[Lightning Slash] 1 -> 3

[Life Steal] 3 -> 4

[Strength] 3 -> 4

[Electric Scales of Vitality] 7 -> 8

[Lightning Muscles] 4 -> 5

[Spatial Bomb] Lvl 0 0/10 - By gathering enough spatial mana the user can shoot out a bomb that after impact with target will cause an implosion that which after a short delay will then explode.

[MP Share] 10 -> 11

Sealed Skill [Life Burn] 0 -> 1

[Life Share] 0 -> 1
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