Chapter 119

Chapter 119: Don’t let them get into your pants, please! part

“Sera, use it”

As soon as she heard this Sera lifted her arms without even putting away her jeweled dagger. Risa was too busy to notice what they were doing, but she turned her head back when she felt the hot air coming from behind her.

Sera, with a wicked smile, was launching a flame about three meters long from each palm, burning the ants to a crisp in a matter of seconds. Their hard shells were useless against the fire element that boiled them from the inside out.

“Miss Risa, use slash!”

Ryu shouted, and the instructor who was supposed to be giving orders followed his commands.

They breached the seemingly endless wall of ants with ease and walked towards the place where Shortie and Fena were supposed to be. But, just as they were about to be set free from their countless captors, a bigger ant, the size of a person, cut their path.

It had long mandibles, clearly not designed to bite but to cut instead. It was able to move them separately at incredible speed and Risa had to make a decision.

.....

“Ryu, Sera, go help the other guys, I’ll be fine”

She said, though she knew that was not the case. Facing a single special ant wasn’t that difficult, but this was a soldier ant, which meant this was a well developed nest. Ants didn’t have a ranking, but that wasn’t because they were too weak, rather, their strength varied so much it was always difficult to exterminate them. Besides, there was no point in hunting them because they rarely nest near people and they were easy to avoid. But the true reason was that they never leave any loot.

It didn’t matter if someone defeated the ants, unless the nest is destroyed they would keep coming in great numbers to feed on the corpses. Friend or foe all the same, ants leave nothing behind, not even shells or bones.

“Yes ma’am!”

The rookie couple dashed forward avoiding the bigger ant and it seemed the other ants made a pathway for them to get out of the encirclement.

Once free, Ryu looked back and he caught a glimpse of an incredible fight that was taking place amidst the ants. Now that Risa was alone she didn’t have to hold back anymore.

Her exposed curvy body moved at a speed difficult to follow with the eyes and a wide smile appeared on her face, she was having fun.

When they got to where Shortie and Fena were previously fixing the fence they saw a few ant corpses and Shortie lying on the ground covered in them.

“Are you ok!?”

“Ryu, is that you? I can’t move, help me get up please”

“Where is Fena?”

“I don’t know, she was fighting some ants but she got hurt and ran away to take them away from me”

Ryu tried to help Shortie stand up but he was still in pain and wasn’t able to.

“What happened to you? are you hurt too?”

“No, I pulled a muscle trying to flaunt in front of Fena”

“Are you for real!? I miss the times where the only thing I had to worry was a dude chanting embarrassing words”

Ryu recalled his time with Bob and the others as he took a potion from his side pocket. Shortie gulped it down without even asking what it was. The healing potion was so effective his pain numbed immediately and he stood up right away.

“Thanks, let’s go find her, I’m afraid she’s in trouble”

“Are you not mad she left you behind?”

“Not at all, she saved my life. At first I thought she was bluffing when she said Ants wouldn’t attack me if I hid under their corpses, but it worked like a charm. Every ant that passed nearby ignored me, except for the smaller ones, they’re all over me”

“Beats being dead, anyway... Saving this girl takes priority over rescuing Fena, you go find Kinta and Thea, I’ll go rescue her”

Ryu said and handed the cowering small girl to Shortie.

“She ran over there”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find her”

Ryu said and started follow the footprints left by Fena. For some reason, ants didn’t leave any tracks or traces, but he didn’t have the time to ponder about such matters.

“That felt so good!”

Sera confessed after they took some distance from Shortie.

“What did?”

“Using magic to burn those bugs, did you hear the sound they made?”

“That’s... sort of cruel”

“I know, but I can’t help it. I mean, being able to use magic but hiding it has been very hard on me. They all take us like weaklings, you don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to beat those who disrespect you”

Wondering if Sera had always been so aggressive, Ryu just kept walking focused on the tracks. They were easy enough to follow, but something kept bothering him. If Fena was hurt, how did she manage to run this farm, how did she know how to hide from ants. She had always been a timid girl that barely spoke, she was stronger than she looked and Ryu somehow started to question himself about that. He couldn’t quite point his finger at it, but his curiosity had been piqued.

“Mister Ryu, over there!”

Sera called for his attention with a loud scream.

Fena was being cornered by a group of ants, but more importantly, there was a big bearded man cowering behind her. The picture in front of them was dumbfounding, a little shy girl was in front of a man two heads taller than her defending him.

Sera felt the temptation to chuckle, but all that Ryu could do was remember the time when Nikolai, Ksenia’s late husband, tried to use Anne as a meatshield.

Before Sera knew it, Ryu was no longer besides her.

The wind ran across his face, his steps left deep footprints on the ground as he advanced taking long strides, this was his first time experiencing this speed.

Ryu passed swiftly in between the ants so fast they couldn’t even react.

“Are you alright?”

Standing in front of Fena with his sword unsheathed he asked her, but she was in a daze.

Several ants tried to get close to them, but Ryu took care of them swinging his sword without care if it chipped or even if it broke. Just like Risa, his new instructor, he was having fun.

Sera watched the scene from the same spot where Ryu left her, she was in awe looking at Ryu copy Risa’s movements, the same Ryu that was constantly exhausted after going out for a walk, the same Ryu she tended to.

For just an instant, she was able to catch a glimmer in his eyes causing her to tremble just as she did when he used consider to check up on her health back at Ironwoods. A feeling that could only be described as brutal shook her body and left her mind in blank.

“Thanks for your help, I found the farmer but he’s in bad shape. His foot was hurt and he can’t move by himself anymore”

Hearing this, Ryu managed to calm down a little.

“Is my daughter ok? did you find her?”

“She’s safe now, she’s with one of our companions”

“I’m so glad, I saw there was an ant near our home and I asked her to wait for you at the road while I tried to drive it away. It nearly killed me, but thanks to this brave young girl I’m still alive. Please, let me see her!”

“Don’t try to stand up, you’ll only hurt yourself even more”

“Let’s carry him back to where the rest are, as long as we’re separated we can’t evacuate”

“Wait, there’s something jabbed into his thigh, perhaps if we take it out he’ll be able to walk in his own after drinking a potion”

“I don’t think so, we have limited potions and he may need more than one. Besides, he could bled in a matter of seconds, so I think it’ll be better to cauterize his wound first”

“Uh, I didn’t think of that”

Fena replied, ashamed of her incompetence. But it was thanks to her efforts that the man stayed alive for so long.