Genetic Awakening: My Genes Evolve Infinitely!

The question tore its way out of Rohan’s mouth faster than he could hold it back. The sudden shift in the atmosphere left everyone present unable to even utter a single word in response.

He wasn’t the only one thinking it either. The moment the thunderous screech finished echoing throughout the nest, the atmosphere of the battlefield changed completely.

Gone was the relative ease and relaxation they had just enjoyed while mowing down the hordes of Worker Ants. Gone was Niko’s playful grin. And gone was Aron’s stern but previously stable composure.

Even Noa and Elane froze for the briefest of instants, allowing a couple Worker Ants to slip past their arrows and very nearly land a few hits on Niko and Aron. The sheer oppressive force carried within that scream was enough to leave everyone’s bodies momentarily stiff.

The surviving Worker Ants reacted before anyone else could. Every single one of them halted their attacks after the scream seemed to have registered in their minds. Then, almost as if driven by an instinct stronger than fear, they all started moving differently.

No longer the mindless, frantic rushes from before; their movements carried more purpose. They instantly became more coordinated.

They began backing up, retreating in an eerily similar fashion to Rohan and Niko’s group earlier on — not a retreat from fear, but a simple repositioning...

Niko’s expression darkened instantly.

"...That wasn’t a simple Worker Ant."

Aron’s grip tightened around his cleaver and shield, with his earlier irritation at Rohan and Elane completely gone.

"No shit." He muttered.

Rohan felt cold sweat trickle down the back of his neck.

That scream contained far too much ferocity; too much power behind it. A Normal Tier Worker Ant couldn’t possibly produce something like that.

Even weirder was that the feeling gave him a sense of déjà vu — one that he couldn’t quite place on anything specific.

’One thing I know for sure is that neither of the Soldier ants I’ve encountered so far gave me a feeling like this... Only once during my stay in the Origin Realm did a simple pressure make me feel this terrified.’

Sarah’s intel had been clear ever since they set off. It wasn’t like she held some things back from him and Elane either, as she shared all the information she learned equally between both old and new members of the team.

There was supposed to be just one Soldier Ant acting as the nest’s primary high threat combatant, supported by a larger body of Worker Ants. That was why Rudith’s plan had been built the way it was. Split the force, kite the Elite away from the main fray, and then intercept the Worker Ants before they could interfere in the main fight.

It was a simple, efficient and proven multiple times to be a successful strategy.

...Except for this time.

That assumption felt dangerously wrong now.

The thunderous screech echoed once more, though a little more distantly this time, reverberating through the deep crevasse walls like a warning bell of what lay ahead.

Noa’s face paled slightly. As the ranger and substitute scout of the group when Sarah wasn’t there, he felt the aura most clearly.

"Didn’t that sound like the Soldier Ant Rudith and the other two lured away earlier?" Noa asked.

His sentence made everyone’s heart drop a little further.

They all knew what he meant, but the screech they’d just heard came from the exact opposite direction they went. Which meant that this was a different beast from the one they’d lured away.

Niko clicked his tongue.

"Sarah’s sensory sweep only picked up one Elite signal before we entered, right?"

Noa nodded tersely. "That’s what she said, and Rudy confirmed it too."

However, Rohan’s remained skeptical. ’That’s what she said, but only she truly knows what she felt and saw.’

Elane offered him a similar suspicious look, confirming that she thought the same thing.

The other three might now have immediately come to the same conclusion as them due to how long they had been a part of a team with Sarah, but Rohan and Elane were new enough not to put their full trust in any one of them from the very beginning.

Every second that passed only made their suspicions grow. ’Something smells fishy about this situation... But I can’t quite figure out what just yet.’

Perhaps Elane felt they could still complete this cleansing of the Beast Nest even with the addition of another Elite in the mix. It wasn’t even worth going over all the possibilities at this point.

One thing that reassured him a little was that Noa, Niko and Aron each seemed just as concerned as they did. It was hard to fake such emotions and genuine reactions without being a total sociopath.

Aron’s eyes narrowed.

"Either the intel was wrong..." he trailed off grimly. "...or something else in this nest wasn’t where it was supposed to be when Sarah scanned the place."

Rohan’s pulse spiked.

Neither option was better than the other.

Elane stepped closer to him unconsciously, bow half raised as she glanced toward the dark bend in the crevasse ahead where the surviving Worker Ants were now filtering backwards into the shadows.

"You don’t think there’s another Elite, do you?" She whispered quietly in his ear.

Rohan nodded to say he did, but he had his own input to add.

"Remember that Soldier Ant we faced before?"

Elane nodded. Of course she did. How could she not remember that harrowing but valuable learning experience?

"That scream just now gave me an odd feeling; it feels stronger than the one we faced..."

She stepped back in shock, her face paling in the same instance. A bad feeling already rooted itself the moment he brought up the idea of another Elite from their first day, but this seemed worse than she thought.

"Don’t tell me you think..." She couldn’t even finish her sentence.

"Hmm. This beast is stronger than the one we faced, and I suspect the one Rudith’s group is facing right now."

Rohan knew that aside from the normal ranks and tiers separating the strength of Awakened and Beasts, they still differentiated in strength at the same level. It was like how the Firestone Ants were considered the weakest and easiest beasts for newbies to take down in the regions surrounding Erenhot, while the Black Iron Beetles that dropped the Armour Rudith and the others were wearing were considered some of the strongest.

’But why do these guys seem like they haven’t realised the difference?’

His suspicions grew even further, thinking that there might be something wrong with them. ’Or maybe something wrong with me? Do I just have a more acute sense for power scaling than they do?’

Niko was the first to speak up. "We should get out of here... one Elite was already a handful, two would stretch us to our limits."

But Aron thought differently.

"No, we should wait for Rudith, Sarah and Joe to regroup with us once they deal with the Soldier Ant on their end. With them at our side, we stand a much better chance of facing this other Elite further inwards."

Rohan wanted to refute, but the sound of footsteps drawing in from behind made him pause.