I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties

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Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on No(ᴠ)ᴇlFire.nᴇt

Falling to his side, Kai’s consciousness wavered. The tunnel spun in a vortex of agony and defeat. The zombie ant loomed over him, its fungal head swaying as it prepared for a final, decisive blow. That attack directly landed on Kai’s body. At that moment, everything seemed lost. Kai’s body lay motionless and broken, his tiny form at the mercy of a creature built for destruction.

Deep down in near-death, as his vital force began to fade away, something inside him ignited—a desperate resistance to dying into nothing. With whatever remnant of will remained in him, he knew that if he were to live, he would have to tap into the one energy that could provide him with temporary strength to struggle through himself: Worker’s Resilience.

His focus condensed, save the pound of his heart and the war yell of the foe charge lost. The zombie ant Bite Kent’s leg and the bite of its assaults receded to a shrieking pain. Growling thunderously as splintering stone walls happened to fall upon him and doubled his pain, Kai forced his shivering form to focus. At that instant of bare, unadorned perception, he called upon [Worker’s Resilience].

"I am not dying. Not today. I will live..."

An outburst of vitality, as though pulled from a distant wellspring of life itself, inundated his system. Muscles coiled in response, battered flesh tightening in the short time frame for a moment into lasting potential against crippling wear thundering to break it down. The cost was evident—where capability permitted him to build and increase power, it suggested destroying weakness afterwards—it was a cost there was no room to bargain. Solitude was an option.

"No. not yet."

Kai snarled, his low tone almost like a scrape as he rolled himself onto his side. His broken and trembling limbs, however, at last, began to respond with fresh ferocity. The zombie ant, surprised by the brief burst of fresh determination, hesitated for a moment in its assault. Its fungal eyes flashed as if it was surprised by the short burst of vigour from the tiny ant previously.