Chapter 33: Nothing Stays Buried Forever

Georgina left after assuring Andy that he was on the right path and that he would return. She waved as she headed south toward the counsel. She needed to update them on what she’d witnessed, and on not one but three mythic candidates. 

The trio watched as she left and were kind of at a loss of what to do next. Lord Fergus kept his word, he and his men didn’t come back as they spent the next several days on edge waiting for the blowback to come. With the improvement of Andy’s [GROWTH ENHANCEMENT] the forest was becoming greener, more full of life everywhere he turned.

Animals that resided near Andy tended to have larger, and more hearty families. This was a point of contempt for Andy and a rather sore spot that he felt the need to address at every turn. “I’m sure you noticed the river seems to be filled with minnows lately.”

“Oh. I hadn’t noticed.” Auri commented without opening her eyes. She was sunbathing next to Barnacle, and had definitely noticed. 

“I saw another litter of rabbits. We’re going to be overrun any day now.”

“Only if Gustave goes on a diet.”

“I resent that.” Gustave said taking flight.

“I think you mean ‘resemble that.’”

He flew off in a huff. Andy who had been too busy scowling at the very adorable fluffle in front of him hadn’t noticed the comment.

“And next,” he shot at Auri, “you’re going to tell me you hadn’t noticed the increase in bird clutches either.”

“Mmm. Nope. I know one thing I’ve noticed more of..”

“What’s that?”

“Complaining.”

Andy let out a long and loud huff, “You know what I’m talking about, don’t you Barnacle?”

Barnacle filtered.

“See, even Barnacle agrees.”

They continued bickering on until Gustave came back, “Attention. You are both slacking in your duties. We are being overrun.” Both Andy and Auri stopped and jumped to their feet. “South East. Ants. Hundreds of them.”

“Ants?” Andy asked. “Why would we be worried about ants?”

“I would approximate their size to that of rabbits.”

“Oh great, I’ve even made the ants bigger and hornier.”

Gustave took flight with Andy and Auri trailing behind. It was only moments before Andy could feel the chaos in their territory. Animals were fleeing the invaders as every ounce of greenery was being stripped from the forest. 

“We don’t have any good moves for hundreds of enemies!”

“I suggest we wing it.” Gustave called.

Ants were crawling over every surface carrying away anything that wasn’t nailed down. (In a forest, that was pretty much anything) Andy skidded to a stop horrified at the destruction in front of him. Gustave threw a wind blade at an ant. A thin white line appeared across its thorax. Pale green fluid splashed across the grass as the two halves crashed into the undergrowth. 

“Oh, these guys go down easy.” Andy commented with relief as a sickly sweet smell tickled his nostrils. Every ant nearby stopped gathering and turned to face their fallen comrade. The next ant nearest clicked its mandibles. The rest of the swarm clicked their mandibles in response. The sound was like a thousand branches snapping at once. 

Another wind blade ripped through the swarm.  It carved a furrow through the charging line kicking up dirt and sending ants tumbling end over end. Chitin fragments rained down on the brush and the sharp sickly sweet scent of hemolymph filled the air. 

“Oh, that’s unsettling.” Andy said as he watched the alien-like enemies come apart in full chunks. The half dying ants were still moving their legs and clicking.

Gustave banked overhead coming around for another attack but before he fired it off the entire swarm charged. 

Auri split into 12 illusions drawing the swarm into different directions. She began firing psychic beams at any threat drawn too near her real form.  Andy charged at the twenty or so ants that were running in his direction. He trampled over ants who fell with a sickening crunch. 

Andy bucked, launching several ants into the air.  He called on his life magic, grabbing the ants and stringing them up from the trees. Auri’s illusions were working beautifully.  Hundreds of ants peeled away from the battle and pursued phantom foxes through the woods. 

Gustave called the winds. A cyclone appeared in the center of the swarm sucking the ants up. He poured more and more wind into the cyclone sucking up ants by the dozen,

“See these guys aren’t smart.” Andy projected facing off with a particularly large soldier ant. The soldier charged Andy. He put his horn, glinting with emerald brilliance down toward the ant and charged back.

Auri sent back the equivalent of a frown. “No. Ants are smart.” and realized the problem. The ants following her illusions weren’t trying to catch them, they were mapping them. Workers were placing scent trails behind each illusion. Auri dissipated an illusion and created a new one. The ants ignored it. She created a second, and a third illusion The ants ignored those too. All at once, every ant who’d been following an illusion broke away.

A black mass appeared inside of Gustave’s cyclone as ants began latching onto each other. At first it was a dozen. Then dozens became hundreds.  The insects hooked legs together. Mandibles locked onto armor plates. Bodies interwove into a dense writing sphere. The ball grew larger and larger. The cyclone strained around it. And just when Gustave couldn’t hold it any longer, the mass shot free. A living cannon ball tore through the side of the tornado and slammed through an ancient oak exploding it into splinters.

Gustave thought he managed to bank out of the way in time but a chain of ants dangled from his talons. “They have invented ballistics!”

Below him the distance between the soldier and Andy closed. The ant veered right. Andy did not.  Andy’s eyes widened as the ground vanished below him.  Andy disappeared into the colony’s entrance. Dirt and roots collapsed in around him. For a moment there was silence. “Uh guys.” He paused, getting his bearings. “I’ve discovered the secret base.” 

Inside the tunnel, emerald light spilled from Andy’s horn. The chamber stretched far beyond what he believed to be possible. Passage ways branched in every direction. Dirt began falling from the ceiling. Then his eyes adjusted. No, not dirt. Ants. Thousands of them. Entire traffic lanes of ants carrying branches, bushes, animal carcasses, and chunks of bark disappeared deeper into the nest. 

Every tunnel stopped. Thousands of antennae turned towards the glowing horn. Andy swallowed, ‘...hello…’ 

The entire colony clicked in response. The sound rolled through the tunnels like thunder. Outside, Auri’s ears flattened. She felt the collective attention of the surface ants settle onto her. She fired a psychic beam at the barrage taking the heads off three and injuring two more.

The storm around the battle raged. Gustave was no longer controlling it as he was flying, rolling, flinging wind blades at his own feet trying to get the ant chain to release. The bottom ant began crawling up the chain followed by the next bottom ant and the next. “Auri!” Gustave exclaimed. “Pinata! Pinata!”

Auri looked up as Gustave flailed wildly above her. She took aim and the psychic blast cut the top most ant of the chain in half. Pale green hemolymph rained down along with destroyed ant bodies. 

Freed from his unwanted hitchhikers Gustave flew straight up into the air. High enough that Auri lost track of him. She continued backing up firing psychic blast after psychic blast. Ants were coming in from all directions. She snarled and nipped as its mandibles snapped at her. A low growl emanated from her throat and her fur stood on end as two more ants lunged. 

Auri winced, throwing two more ants off of her and blasting a third. A loud whistling caught the attention of her and the two hundred or so ants moving in on her location. 

“Coming in hot.” Gustave sent moments before hitting the ground. 

Boom.

The forest exploded. A shockwave raced outward from the impact point flattening grass and ripping leaves from branches. Ants, and ant pieces were launched in every direction. For a single glorious moment there were no ants near Auri. Only a crater.

At the center of the crater stood a hawk. His feathers were puffed out and one wing was raised in triumphant salute. His victory lasted approximately half a second as the crater began moving. The tunnel system beneath the crater destabilized and more ants began pouring out from beneath the bodies of their fallen comrades. 

“Oh, come on!” Auri called blasting another cluster.

“The vast numbers of the enemy have far since surpassed the concept of reasonableness!”  Gustave agreed. (At least Auri thought that’s what he was doing.)

Above them the storm Gustave had abandoned continued to churn. Wind screamed through the forest canopy, and clouds spun overhead. Lightning cracked the sky and struck a tree igniting it.

Inside the tunnels Andy’s horn cast long green shadows. The ground shook above Andy and part of a tunnel system collapsed to his right. Thousands of ants clicked and the sound vibrated through his chest.  The front ranks began advancing one step, and another. Each in unison. 

[AMBIENT ENERGY DETECTED: FIRE MAGIC (NATURAL)]

[ABSORPTION POSSIBLE. ABSORB? Y/N]

Andy smiled, “Thanks, System. Yes, I think I will.”

[ABSORBING…]

Red hot energy flowed into his horn. The warmth spread from the tip of his horn and settled into his skull from the base. He felt hot rage burning just beneath his surface. As if fire had the key to everything he had been pushing down, every unfair piece of terrible circumstance he’d run into in his life. Every single compartmentalized box he’d stowed away in the cobwebs of his being opened and he felt all of it at once. 

[FIRE MAGIC AFFINITY: BASIC - ACQUIRED]

[YOUR HORN CAN NOW STORE AND CHANNEL SMALL AMOUNTS OF FIRE MAGIC. CURRENT CAPACITY: VOLATILE]

The time his dad sold his GameBoy for cigarette money. Jimmy cheating off of his spelling test and having them both get Fs. The first time a girl had pretended to like him in eighth grade as a dare. The time his college loans were denied causing him to become a vet tech rather than a full fledged veterinarian. Catching his college girlfriend Tiffany, who was strictly hands off until marriage in bed with his room mate. Getting hit by a truck and dying on his way to Megan. The system reincarnating him as a cell. Veronica. Lord Fergus. Veronica.

Andy’s horn was burning white hot. The emotions were coming too quickly. One after another. It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. And now he was underground in a giant ant hill, because to top off the never ending joke the universe was playing on him, Andrew Snodgrass, forever a virgin, caused everything around him to be way more virile and fertile.

The pressure built and built and built. The ants advanced. Thousands of legs, drumbeats in his ears, Thousands of clicking mandibles. Thousands of tiny eyes staring. Judging. Andy’s horn glowed, emerald, ruby, emerald, ruby. The colors fought each other. Life and fire–two sides of the same coin. Creation and destruction. His chest hurt, his heart ached. His head throbbed. Everything hurt. It wasn’t fair. Not dying, not the System, not Veronica, not Fergus. Not any of it. The nearest ant lunged and its mandibles clamped down on Andy's ankle.

“No.” Something inside him snapped. Heat rolled from his body. Roots burst from the tunnel walls. Not green roots, burning roots. Vines wreathed in white-hot flame erupted from every surface. The ants charged. The tunnel exploded.

Fire surged through the root network like blood through veins. Burning vines raced through the colony in every direction. Walls split apart, ceilings collapsed as roots punched through. Flames followed behind them. 

Above ground, the earth bulged, then ruptured. Ants were launched into the air fire consuming them before they even hit the ground. Others found themselves entangled in burning vegetation. 

The fire raged and Gustave took to the sky. Auri retreated, sending psychic blasts at any escaping ant.

Gustave channeled his power over the storm regaining control. The sky opened up and it began to rain.