“Oh, Guardians,” Felris whispered as we crept to the exit of our side tunnel and surveyed the larger cavern.

  Countless tunnels had been dug through the walls, each a possible route towards the surface. Presumably, some of the tunnels led deeper into the ground, where the queen and her egg laying chambers must be hidden.

  Dealing with the queen was much too large of a task for me. I was not ready to be some kind of hero and attempt to single-handedly solve the ant problem. No, we just need to escape.

  “Any idea which way is out?” I whispered.

  Felris pointed. “Most of these tunnels are small and look dug out, but that one looks bigger and… more natural? I think that might be the dungeon’s original path to this cave.”

  I thought back to our fall. We couldn’t have fallen that much deeper than where we had been camping, or we would be much more damaged by the fall. Though, we did have to descend deeper to make our way back out, since the tunnel had been dug upwards towards the surface, and I had to assume we were deep enough for this kind of tunneling to have gone unnoticed by the people who hunted the dungeon as part of their work. The tunnels weren’t likely to be a straight shot out, so we would probably still have a lot of ground to cover before we made it back.

  The longer we waited, though, the worse off we’d be. Without food, our hunger would become a debilitating problem. Unless we eat the Nightmare Ants, but I don’t know how much actual meat they have in them.

  “Maybe we should head back,” I muttered. “Wait for someone to dig out the collapsed tunnel.”

  Felris shook her head. “There are no skilled mages in the barony, and to excavate that much rock in such a narrow space, in time to save us, they’d need magic.” She took a shuddering breath. “We’re going to need to try that tunnel.”

  The problem was, there were quite a lot of Nightmare Ant workers crawling between the various holes in the cavern, engaged in whatever ant business they were up to. They would certainly notice us if we passed through. We also couldn’t just sit there in the tunnel, because there would also eventually be more ants coming this way to work on the formerly excavated escape tunnel, and when they found their dead, that would surely trigger some kind of response as well.

  Maybe we could use that?

  I told Felris my plan, and when she agreed, we crept back up the tunnel.

  * * *

  “You’re sure you can do this?” I asked the teen mage, who nodded, her eyes set. “All right, whenever you’re ready.”

  Felris began to chant. She had worked out her earlier jitters, and spoke confidently, the motes of mana forming on her tongue as she focused her magic on the pile of chunked ant corpse we had gathered at the exit of the tunnel. Several more had been added to the pile when new worker ants came our way and found us, so we had to act quick.

  Flames burst to life over the corpses when she finished her chant for [Create Fire]. The heat blasted us, but Felris ignored it as she began working on her second chant. This was the part which would make or break our plan. If she failed, we would be stuck between a bonfire and a hard place. The fire would fill our tunnel with smoke, deplete the oxygen, and attract the ants. This better work, I thought, clenching my fist.

  Felris’s second spell came together, and she lifted her hands in front of her to focus her intention. [Create Wind] caused a gale of air to burst into existence, and she blasted the pile of burning corpses out the tunnel into the ant-riddled cavern like a shotgun.

  The effect was immediate. The orderly progression of ants fell into temporary chaos as they dealt with raining fire throughout the cave, giving us a very temporary opening. Felris was breathing hard from casting two spells in a row, but I grabbed her hand, pulling her after me. “We’ve got to go, now.”

  We slid out the exit of our tunnel and down the curved wall of the cave until we could get our footing under us, and raced past the scurrying workers-turned-firefighters towards the tunnel we hoped would be our way out. Several ants ran past us from the tunnel, ignoring us in favor of helping to deal with the underground fire.

  “Distraction’s working,” I grunted as we ran up the sloping tunnel.

  Worker ants were just that. While we had fought the ones we encountered in our tunnel, it was mostly to prevent them from going back and getting reinforcements. As monsters, they could still be a problem in a one-on-one fight, but as a group, these weren’t the ants we needed to worry about. I was afraid to see what kind of ants we did need to worry about.

  Once the fire was taken care of, the workers would likely communicate there were intruders that needed to be dealt with, and then we ran the risk of finding out who the real defenders of the colony were.

  I hoped to escape before that was an issue, but no such luck.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked, hearing a loud clanking sound coming up the tunnel behind us. Whatever it was, it was coming, and quickly. “Uh… run faster,” I called to Felris, picking up speed.

  A metallic shriek echoed up the tunnel.

  Felris wheezed another prayer to the Guardians between heavy breaths, and I realized that if we got caught now, we would be defenseless, run down, and out of breath. I had no idea how much further the exit was, so I decided to make a stand.

  I turned and raised my sword, catching my breath and staring into the dark tunnel, my magic light illuminating only the area around us.

  “What are you doing?” Felris hissed.

  “We can’t outrun… that,” I said, the horrible metal sound bellowing louder now. “I have to kill it.”

  “It’s probably a Nightmare Ant soldier,” she said, trembling. “It’ll kill us.”

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  I glanced at the teen, and frowned, coming to a decision. “Keep running. I’ll hold it off.”

  “Tovar, no. Let’s go,” she cried, wincing as the sounds in the tunnel grew louder.

  I shook my head, widening my stance. My life wasn’t that important. I got a few spells and skills for my next life, where I’d take less chances. “I’ll buy you time.”

  Felris cursed, then took a few breaths. “I’ve got enough mana for one more [Create Fire].”

  Debating a moment, I nodded. “Fine. Hit it when it shows up, then run. I’ll be right behind you once I kill it.”

  Felris would need light, so I raced through a chant for [Create Light], binding it above her position. Felris started chanting after me, and I focused my attention on the tunnel. I needed to hold off whatever was coming to let Felris finish her chant, and once it was damaged from the fire, I hoped I could find an opening and kill the monster.

  As it stepped into the light, I couldn’t help but lose faith in myself.

  The Nightmare Ant soldier was the height of a grown man, with mandibles that reflected my light with a shine like steel. Instead of the red of the workers, this creature was armored in a sleek black exoskeleton. Its eyes glowed a dull red.

  It advanced, shockingly quick for its size, and I moved to repel it.

  My sword bounced off the monster’s mandibles, barely stopping it, and as it clacked them it made the same haunting shriek that had reverberated from down the tunnel. Right in front of my face, it was piercing. I just need to hold it off until Felris can cast.

  The best defense was a good offense, so I ducked and thrust, but my sword skated off the monster’s black armor. I rolled out of the way as it slashed at me, and I hacked at a leg, hoping to reduce its mobility, but it was much too strong. I screamed at the nightmare-made-flesh, hoping to keep its focus and distract it from Felris, each breath coming harder as I danced away from the chomping blades that made up the front of the monster’s face.

  “Now!” Felris yelled, and I rolled back as a conflagration erupted over the giant ant soldier. It screeched in its metallic way as the flames washed over it. I glanced back at Felris, who was breathing hard. She gave me a weak grin. “That was all I had.”

  “I’ll finish it off,” I lied, saying what I needed to to get her to run. “Go!”

  Felris hesitated a moment before nodding, turning, and racing up the tunnel, the magic light I had cast on her fading into the dark. I turned back to the living bonfire that was the flailing monster. It was smashing itself against the walls of the tunnel, trying to put itself out, and the fire was quickly losing power as the magic that created it faded.

  “All right, you fuck, let’s finish this,” I growled through gritted teeth.

  The Nightmare Ant soldier struck at me with its mandibles as the fire sputtered out, and I deflected the strike with my sword. My skill had improved, and unlike the smaller monsters, this was more like fighting a man dual-wielding swords. I was managing to hold it off with blocks and parries, but only just, until I was given a violent reminder that it was not a man with blades, but a monster.

  It reared up, and my shoulder jerked as it knocked my blade above my head. It slashed at me with a foreleg, catching me on the chest. My shirt and skin tore open, hot blood pumping over my abdomen and soaking into my pants.

  I hissed through the pain, twisting my hips so that I could use the force to swing my arm back down hard, and hopefully hurt the ant, but its head blurred as a snap rang out and echoed down the tunnel.

  The clang of my blade hitting the ground confused me, and I glanced towards the sound, my eyes widening as I took in the sword on the ground with my hand still wrapped around the hilt. I looked down at my dominant arm, my brain attempting to process the missing hand through the blood loss from my chest wound.

  Blearily, I looked back up at the Nightmare Ant. Well, guess this is it, I thought to myself as my vision darkened.

  Right before I passed out, I imagined I heard the sound of footsteps coming from up the tunnel.

  * * *

  I awoke in blinding pain, letting out a scream as my eyes snapped open. Light assailed me and I blinked through it, trying to figure out what was going on. This… isn’t the whirlpool. I’m not reincarnating. I’m alive?

  The sound of shifting bodies drew my attention, and I glanced down to find Felris and Felton at my bedside, waking up from where they had drifted off. Felton opened his eyes first, and an expression of relief washed over his face when he saw me.

  “You’re awake! Thank the Guardians. We almost lost you.”

  I looked down at my body, and found my chest was bound tightly with heavy bandages, already showing red where blood was soaking through. I glanced at my missing right hand, which was in a similar state. “Well, we lost… some of me,” I joked weakly.

  Felris, now awake, started crying. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “It’s all my fault.”

  “It’s definitely not your fault,” I said, shaking my head. “If anything, it’s all my fault. I’m the one who wanted to see the dungeon. That was the whole reason we were there.”

  “If anyone is to blame, it’s me,” Rikton’s strong voice declared as he entered the room, looking me over. “I’m glad you’re alive, Tovar. On behalf of Obdorn barony, you have my deepest apologies… and my utmost thanks. Not only did you protect my daughter while you were in the dungeon, but thanks to you we discovered the Nightmare Ant colony before it emerged.”

  I shook my head. “Felris saved me as much as I saved her. I couldn’t have done it without her magic.” I glanced over at Felton. “Uh, how long was I out?”

  “It’s been a day since the guards pulled you out. They found you on the verge of death under a Nightmare Ant soldier, but the men managed to push it back and kill it.”

  So much for the rest of this vacation. I’ll be healing right up until we have to leave, and the carriage ride back is going to be awful with these wounds.

  I thought back to everything I had seen of Obdorn, and turned to Rikton. “What’s going to happen with the dungeon?”

  “Well, we’re going to have to purge the ants. It’s a massive campaign, and it’ll probably take years. It’s going to hurt profits, but if we can keep them out of the farms, it shouldn’t be devastating. If they had broken through, we may have lost everything, and had to wipe the whole dungeon.”

  We continued to talk a bit as food was brought up for me. After eating, Felton and Felris were told to let me rest, and shuffled out of the room. My bandages were changed, and I was left alone to get some more sleep and recover.

  Alone, laying in bed, I pulled up my System to take a look.

  I didn’t know if it was my part in fighting the Nightmare Ant soldier that was killed or if it happened fighting the worker ants earlier, but I had gained the level I had been hoping for, adding a point to each of my stats. I had also gained an extra point in Will, possibly from channeling so much mana while I was down there. Not sure it was worth the trade-off, though.

  Losing my dominant hand meant I wouldn’t be advancing my [Swordsmanship] any further, and my physical training would be quite limited. It wasn’t the end, though. I wanted to focus on magic in this life anyway, and I could do that with one hand.

  Lifting my stump up, I thought of my father, who had lost most of his arm to the goblins outside of Redding. I shouldn’t have been so stupid and confident. Rushing into a dungeon as a child was idiotic. I could have spent years training first, and had the size and strength to hold my own for real before worrying about levels and easy stats.

  Instead, I’d have to deal with a massive setback for the rest of this life. It was a hard lesson in humility.

  I chanted [Create Light], watching the magic spark to life. Even that was a poor reward, since I would have learned how to do it next term, but now that I knew how to cast, I would put my all towards it. Imagining the vast number of spells I would learn from Somnial’s library, I drifted off back to sleep.

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