Free Web NovelChapter 34: Ant queen
The moment Oliver removed the pear from the tree, a dazzling golden light burst from it.
For a brief moment, his vision was completely blinded as the light was so bright that he had instinctively chosen to close his eyes.
But then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the brilliance vanished. But unfortunately, it had already done its job as every beast on the battlefield had turned towards him.
The giant serpent that was already fighting another creature stopped midway through crushing it beneath its tail, while the bulldog who was crushing ants froze in its place.
Even the fire leopard whose indirect help Oliver had used earlier, lifted its head and stared directly at Oliver.
All of their eyes were on him. More specifically, on him holding the golden pear.
’Oh! Fuck.’
Oliver didn’t waste even a second admiring his prize as the moment his vision had returned, he had immediately chosen to turn around and started running.
As he ran, a huge insect beast suddenly leapt toward him from the side. The creature was almost humanoid in shape and possessed a thick black exoskeleton along with a pair of gigantic pincers that looked capable of cutting him in half.
Just looking at the thing made Oliver’s scalp tingle but unfortunately for the bug, a pillar of flames suddenly engulfed it. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
The insect creature didn’t even get the chance to scream before the flames swallowed it whole. In the end its body blackened and it fell on the ground.
Oliver had been about to try the same but the fire leopard had done so faster than him.
’Ohhh... I am literally going to be cooked.’
The fire leopard immediately turned toward him with its fiery eyes full of greed.
It wanted the fruit too and yet strangely, it didn’t use its flames on Oliver.
’I see...So, its afraid that it might damage the golden pear itself.’
Seeing that, Oliver felt a tiny bit relieved as he kept running back towards Korre and Goldie.
’At least these guys aren’t completely brainless. But is that really good for me?’
The leopard then lowered its body and prepared to pounce at him, but, before it could move, the bulldog beast crashed into it from the side.
The impact was strong as it alone shattered several trees and immediately after that, the two beasts immediately began fighting fiercely, with neither side willing to back down.
It seemed that the bulldog beast still believed that stealing the fruit from Oliver later would be easier than allowing one of the stronger beasts to escape with it now.
Oliver naturally wasn’t going to complain and he continued to run as fast as he could.
Soon, he reached the place where he and Korre had been hiding earlier. Goldie was already there, nervously jumping around while Korre looked ready to run.
He was about to say something, but behind him, the giant one-eyed serpent suddenly exploded into action.
Earlier, it had been fighting two giant bug-like beasts, but as Oliver looked at around it it has already cut through both of them in a single strike.
Oliver’s eyes widened as only then did he realize something.
Those giant bugs might have looked terrifying and were much stronger than drifters like Oliver and Korre, but compared to the truly powerful beasts here, they were much weaker.
The serpent didn’t even spare their corpses another glance as it stared at Oliver with its single eye, which remained fixed on Oliver.
Then, without any warning, it lunged at him, seeing which, nearly stopped Oliver’s heart.
Looking at Korre and Goldie he simply screamed, "Run...Fucking run."
It was just about to reach him, but before it could, the ground exploded and a gigantic red figure burst out from beneath the earth.
It was an ant, or rather more specifically, an absolutely gigantic ant.
Its body was covered in crimson armor-like plates, and its legs were longer than Oliver himself. Also, massive pincers that protruded from its mouth.
The strangest thing, however, was its head. The shell around it’s head naturally formed something that looked eerily like a crown.
’The ant queen?’
The creature let out an ear-piercing screech and immediately attacked the serpent. Their collision was so strong that it shook the entire area.
The stronger beasts were too busy with each other and that gave Oliver and Korre some room to escape.
The surrounding area had already become a complete mess as trees were collapsing left and right while the ant swarm crawled over everything they could get on.
But unfortunately for Oliver, not everyone was busy.
A wolf-like beast suddenly jumped out from behind a tree and lunged straight at his neck.
"Watch out!" Korre immediately shouted giving a warning to him.
Oliver however didn’t even need the warning as his body threw out his hand own it’s own and a wave of flames erupted.
FWOOSH!
The beast barely had time to yelp before the flames engulfed its face. It crashed onto the ground and rolled several times before giving a few screams in pain.
Oliver didn’t even bother checking if it was dead or if it was about to die as he simply kept running.
At almost the same moment, several crimson ants suddenly jumped toward him from the ground.
The little bastards were surprisingly fast, but they had made one mistake.
They had tried to jump him together.
Oliver grinned as he raises his hand yet again.
"Bad idea."
Another burst of flames spread before him, due to which the ants screeched as their tiny bodies caught fire and dropped to the ground.
[Aether Beast: Lesser Crimson Ant slain] X32
[Grade: Tarnished | Rank: ??? [Part of the Crimson Ant Hive]]
’Crimson Ant hive and no rank?’
Although, he was a bit surprised, Oliver’s eyes immediately brightened as he looked at them.
’Soul cores! There are so many of them.’
His gaze swept across the burning bodies as there wasn’t enough time to extract them now.
Still...if he could carry the corpses, then there was no need to remove the cores one by one.
"Hehehe."
Without slowing down much, Oliver bent over and quickly picked up a handful of these burnt ants and pocketed them.
Korre who was running too was stared at him in disbelief.
"You idot...What are you even doing?!"
"Ahem...nothing much."
"YOU ARE LOOTING?! At this fucking time."
Oliver had never heard Korre curse before, but he guessed that the situation was just that bad.
He could literally hear what she was likely thinking,
’This idiot is stuffing ant corpses into his pockets while being chased by an entire army of beasts.’
A moment later, another beast appeared and this one looked like a giant monkey with grey fur and four arms.
The creature leapt directly toward Oliver but before he could react, vines burst from the ground and they wrapped around the monkey’s legs.
The beast immediately lost its balance and then Korre swung her hand, and then the vines smashed the monkey headfirst into a tree.
CRACK!
The sound alone made Oliver wince as the monkey slid down the trunk limply.
’Damn! That’s kinda scary.’
The two continued sprinting through the forest. freewebnoveℓ.com
Ants occasionally emerged from beneath the ground and tried to attack them, but Oliver’s flames easily kept them away. The little creatures seemed strangely fearless though.
Several of them ignored the flames entirely and still tried to bite him.
’Crazy bastards.’
[Aether Beast: Lesser Crimson Ant slain] X14
[Grade: Tarnished | Rank: ??? [Part of the Crimson Ant Hive]]
Still...Oliver couldn’t help but feel excited.
If those ants truly possessed soul cores...and if he could get them from their corpses, then he was going to be able to ascend soon.
A grin slowly spread across his face and Korre noticed it.
"This is not the time to lose your mind, idiot."
Oliver kept smiling, completely ignoring her complaints.
’Wow... now she is even calling me an idiot.’
’She really has opened up to me.’
Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but feel a little amused.
When they had first met, Korre had been quite polite and gentle around him. Now she rolled her eyes at him and even made fun of him.
’So this is your true personality, miss Korinna.’
Strangely...Oliver liked this version better.
Goldie then suddenly began screeching as it pointed excitedly ahead and through the trees, a familiar clearing finally appeared. Seeing it, Oliver almost cried tears of joy.
"We’re alive!"
Korre snorted cutely as she looked at him.
"Don’t jinx it."
Almost immediately after that... a terrifying roar echoed from behind them.
Just after, the ground shook and Oliver’s smile disappeared.
’Damn! Did I really jinx it?’
