Chapter 76 - A Second

The same as the Silver Metadome shown by Matias to Commander Yun, Aldrin who was still enduring the waves of giant ants trampled on them with slight ease.

Along with his Dimensional Clones, he appeared to be dancing as he nimbly dodged and decimated the endless ants coming to drown him with their numbers.

If someone had a camera drone observing and recording the situation from the ceiling of the Ant Queen Lair, it would be even worse than the Iron Bull Stampede Aldrin witnessed on the way to the fortress.

Initially, Aldrin found it overwhelming when the number of the charging ants exceeded the number of ants he and his three Dimensional Clones could kill with every passing second.

Their attack variety was simply limited with basic attacks and one Skill. The rest was supplemented by his combat sense that his Dimensional Clones also adapted.

He had three usable Concepts excluding the Spatial Pocket. However, among them, only Shadow Blade could be considered an offensive ability. Furthermore, it's just a blade made of shadow. It is sharp and can cut through the ants, however, it has one glaring weakness; Shadow itself.

Pretty obvious, right? Once it passed through numerous bodies wherein light couldn't reach, it visibly weakened. That's why after cutting through a few ants, its cutting power would be rendered useless and it would vanish shortly. Not everything hit by it would instantly die. Those at the back or were hit by the dull and brittle Shadow Blade would only be pushed back or injured at best.

In short, it's not a totally effective Concept against a horde of enemies. The Ripple Skill from the Idle Adventure was proven more effective.

Furthermore, he had to watch over his limited refined energy. He could feel the limit but given the current situation, he could lose himself to the heat of the battle.

"It's certain that a Metadome can amplify that Concept, however, it will surely have the same weakness. Its sharp edge will eventually dull. But thinking about it, the 'shadow' property substituted for the strength one will need to cut through anything using a sharp weapon."

Aldrin contemplated his weaknesses even under the siege of endless human-sized ants.

If he used the Concept without letting it form through his equipped weapon, its sharpness will not be the same. Nonetheless, without exerting strength in his arm, it could cut through an enemy, saving him some stamina.

That's the plus of his Shadow Blade. And with the harmonization with the other two 'shadow' Concepts, the conceptualization was faster and had a wider range.

"Anyway, since my Dimensional Clones can use it, there's probably a way to bring it out to the real world and be used by me. I just had to unlock that kind of feature."

With his thoughts taking another turn, he eventually shook his head as he readjusted his focus.

[5:08]

Looking up at the remaining time, Aldrin almost sighed in relief but reigned it in as he deflected a flying spear aimed directly at his head. Following that, he picked it up and threw it forward, creating a sudden free space as ants got impaled one by one until the spear got embedded in the lair's wall.

"No. I can't be complacent yet. I've passed the most dangerous moment when arrows and spears suddenly rained down on us but this is far from over."

Aldrin then spun once as two deadly arrows passed by his sides and got embedded behind him.

After 25 minutes in this Survival Challenge, he had long left the middle of the lair. There's no way to run and he had no choice but to make a stand. So, rather than worrying about being surrounded in all directions, he slowly moved from the middle to a corner of the wall.

That way, he only had to worry about what's in front of them.

"Intentionally putting our backs against the wall can surely be laughed at in a real battlefield, but that is if our strength is only on par with these enemies. This time, however, this is akin to a Survival Mode of any game that has a set time to win. As long as I prolong our lives to that point, we will win." Aldrin declared to himself before sending another mental command to his three Dimensional Clones whose 500 IDLE Points worth of Basic Refiner Battlesuits were already worn off from the holes and cracks in it.

As they covered up for one another, the pile of ant corpses gained an additional layer.

Four minutes.

Three minutes.

Two minutes.

When the remaining time reached its last minute, every Royal Ant and their corpses instantly disappeared.

In their place, three anthropomorphic Royal Ants wearing full-body armor akin to a medieval knight and deadlier weapons replaced them.

"Champions?!" Aldrin instantly exclaimed upon feeling the pressure of the three ants who had human-like body structures.

They're definitely different from the Royal Ants who had only been enlarged. And the one closely similar to the three armored ants in front of him was that Ant Champion that led an army of ants.

BANG!

Aldrin had just exclaimed upon noticing them but in the next instant, Hitter who's standing next to him disappeared. From the spot where it was standing, a clinking chain extended as electricity seemingly sparked from it.

He glanced back and witnessed his Dimensional Clone vanish into nothingness. Ironically, its head was directly hit by a large ball of steel attached to the chain.

Hitter died in less than ten seconds of the three Champions' appearance!

As soon as that clicked in his mind, Aldrin issued retreat orders to both Tank and Striker.

However, he was one step too late. Two weapons were thrown by the other Champions hitting both Striker and Tank.

"What the... How can they be so fa—" Aldrin hadn't finished his words as his refined energy whirled into his existence as he manically activated a Concept.

Shadow Steps!

His body disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared from the shadows a few meters away from the three.

Striker and Tank were still alive but the former had one of its sabers and arms broken or rather cut clean while the latter had its shield and its stomach penetrated by the javelin, the remaining piece of Basic Refiner Battlesuit broken.

It's already hopeless for the two at that point, By giving them the simple command to stall for time and survive the remaining 40 seconds, Aldrin disappeared from his where he was once more.

BOOM!

The ground where he had just been standing exploded, the deadly ball and chain landed on it.

"Now, this is truly survival. There's no way for me to kill these three..." Aldrin laughed despite the sudden spike in difficulty.

SHRIEEK!

With the usual shriek that he had already used to, the ball and chain Ant Champions zoomed towards his position, still intent on ending him.

However, given that he had gotten the gist of his current situation, his mind was only geared towards retreating and shaving off the remaining time.

The same as him, the one-armed Striker and the hole-in-a-stomach Tank jumped and retreated in any direction they wanted just to prevent the other two from killing them.

At the 15 second mark, Tank got pinned down by the javelin Champion and died tragically.

At the 10 second mark, Striker lost all of its limbs before the sword Champion beheaded it.

At the 5 second mark, Aldrin faced the three-pronged attacks by the three Champions.

"Five seconds!" He shouted as two Shadow Clones appeared in front of him.

The two blocked the ball and the javelin with their bodies, disappearing the instant they got hit.

And before Aldrin's eyes, the sword whistled into the wind as it aimed to behead him.

"Come on, fly!"

Utilizing the sixth piece of Battlesuit, Aldrin kicked the ground with all his might as he watched the time go down by the millisecond.

[0:03]

[0:02]

SLASH!

A second too late, his legs got cleanly cut from the knee, the Dark Warrior Battlesuit seemingly useless from its sharpness.

[0:01]

Ignoring the pain of his lost limbs, Aldrin continued funneling his refined energy to the Battlesuit, overloading the sixth piece as he flew up high and into the ceiling of the lair.

However, two weapons flashed before his eyes. The uselessly big ball and chain and the needlessly pointy javelin!

"Please make it!"

Along with his shout, Aldrin's remaining limbs got crushed and impaled. The sword Champion was about to finish him off but a loud ringing sound echoed across the whole Ant Queen Lair.

[0:00]

The countdown reached 0!

[You have completed the Survival Challenge!]