Chapter 9: Crashout

Three red moons hung in the night sky, the ground below was black almost as if it was razed by an intense fire. In the distance was a mountain with a cave entrance below.

The surrounding of the hunters was barren, no monster, no vegetation nothing was present as far as they could see. Thomas was leading the party so he walked to the front and stretched himself.

“Ming and Becca, let’s start. It seems like the monsters are inside that cave over there.” He said as he leapt from his place and landed near the cave entrance.

Ming and Becca looked at each other and sighed, Thomas was a fun-loving dude. Becca took a stance as well and jumped high into the air. She channeled mana through her runes and activated her elemental rune, a fire burst from her hands which pushed her forward.

She landed on the ground and jumped again, Thomas was a beast in strength and Becca was an Assassin so her strength was lacking. She finally landed besides Thomas who had been using his using his mana as a sensor to check the monsters inside.

Ming finally arrived with an unamused face, Thomas looked at Becca and both of them chuckled.

“I’m never going on a mission with you both, ever again.” She said with a pout.

“Now don’t say that senior Ming, what will this junior do without you?” Becca pleaded as she grabbed both of Ming’s hands.

“Urgh! Fine, let’s finish this quickly. I need to go shopping with my parents.”

Thomas nodded and they entered the cave. Becca used her fire runes to light up the torches they had brought. The cave was full of cobwebs, as they went deeper it also got colder.

An eerie aura enveloped the whole cave, indicating a strong monster being present inside. The cave rumbled suddenly, the walls crumbled down and dozens of ants swarmed the hunters.

These ants were no normal ants, they were as big as a teenager. Their exoskeleton was dark blue and hard but Thomas was no joke. Despite being over two meters he was fast enough to block the ants.

The ants which came in contact with his shield instantly died as their exoskeleton cracked. Ming applied health and strength buffs to both Thomas and Becca. Becca unsheathed her sword and cut through the ants, despite their hard exoskeleton, she cut through them easily.

With her strength only, she wouldn’t have been able to do it but her main skills which made it possible for her to be on par and even be an S-Rank by now it was very possible.

[Predator’s Precision Level 6 – S]

Type: Passive

Automatically adjusts sword trajectory mid-swing to hit weak points. Increases accuracy and critical hit rate.

[Assassin’s Edge Level 6 – A]

Type: Passive

Increases critical hit rate and backstab damage when wielding a sword.

Both skills combined with her mastery of the sword for which he trained day and night made her unstoppable.

As the number of ants diminished, Thomas switched to an axe, he stretched his long arms and swung it once, a huge chunk of the wall along with half of the remaining ants perished. This was the strength of a high tier S-Rank.

Ming stopped her buffs and crouched down to inspect the ant, she cracked one open and collected samples from it.

“These ants…they seem abnormal.” She said almost subtly as she smelled the blood. “Worker ants do not fight, yet these attacked us without hesitation.”

“Are you trying to say that there’s an intelligent ant queen somewhere inside this cave that is manipulating and forcing these ants?” Thomas asked.

“Yes.” She replied as she stood up and putting away the sample, “I will take samples of the ants and check what type they are so it’s easier to classify which is which later on.”

Despite being a hunter almost equal in status to both of them, Becca remained quiet. She had been an hunter for only five years but these two had twelve years of experience under their belts. They were among the first hunters of the Dragon Guild.

They went deeper inside the cave and arrived at the center of the mountain, the sunlight directly came from the top and illuminated the whole cavern. There were a thousand holes all over the inside of the mountain through which worker ants came and went.

In the middle of the cavern, sitting atop a throne was the ant queen, almost human not quite fully though. She was surrounded by eggs on both sides as eight guardian ants stood in front of her.

These were of the same navy blue color but bigger in size and full of sharp edges on their exoskeleton. The queen raised her hand and the ants once again swarmed the three hunters. All of them activated their skills and attacked.

“I’ll go for the Queen, keep them occupied. They won’t stop until she is alive.” Becca said as she cut through the ants and ran towards the ant queen.

She had almost reached her when she saw the queen smirk, a oppressing cold hand went through her body and grabbed her heart and squeezed it a little. Becca ceased her movement and so did Thomas and Ming.

The assault of the ants continued on the hunters as the ant queen kept grinning through it all.

*****

A purple rift opened in the sky as huge amounts of mana poured out into the cavern. A tall man dressed in a grey suit and a black shirt came out of it. His hair was white as snow, still black on the tips.

His beard was bigger and went down to his chest, in one hand he held a katana, blood smeared all of it, same with the spear in his other hand.

He landed on the ground with a loud thud and looked at the ant queen, he then saw the three hunters from before who lay on the ground unconscious. He saw an all to familiar fiery red mane, and a soft face reminding him of his past.

The boy who was indifferent to happiness, sadness, anger and other emotions had finally died. He felt anger, pure anger the first time in years. He always let go of things and he ended up in the hell-hole called The Abyss.

Now he was not that frail little boy who was miserable and wanted to die. He would fulfill his revenge first, because if he didn’t even death will not take him.

Xior dropped the spear from his hand, pressure erupted from his whole body which made the unconscious hunters gain conscious. They were confused as they heard a human growl and an ensuing battle not far away.

Becca supported Ming as they looked at the battle, the man in question fought on equal footings with a Indigo gate boss monster. The ant queen had turned her arms into sharp blades and clashed against his sword.

But it was useless, her arms cracked and broke down as he cut one off right from the shoulder. He didn’t speak a single word, his pitch black eyes and his facial expressions which showed how angry he was were enough.

The ant queen got cornered but still kept fighting him, mid-fight Xior dropped his katana and engaged her with his fists, the sound of the hard exoskeleton crack as his fists connected resounding in the whole cavern.

She was confused, why were none of her children coming forward to help her? Did she do something wrong? She had failed to grasp that it was because of Xior’s skill that the other ants which were weaker than him.

Xior picked up her severed arm as his own wounds healed quickly with a sizzling sound. The ant queen was on the ground, she had no strength left to continue, she looked at Xior, his pitch black eyes stared back at her.

Xior raised his hand and impaled the cut off arm right in her face, a sound of flesh breaking made the scene more gruesome for the hunters watching this happen. As he finished off the ant he turned towards them with a slight smile and said.

“I’m back, Becca.”

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