Unto the Ages

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As Grud was slaying ant after ant with every swing, a few other hunters joined him on both sides of the column of escaping people. Soon after the first few people escaped the encirclement, Grud started to pick up the agitated scents of the ants signaling each other.

 

[HERE. FOOD. RUNNING. HERE]

 

Within seconds, Grud saw a ripple go through the ants and soon all the ants were heading in his direction, even those who were still climbing the wall turned on the spot.

 

At first, the hunters were doing a good job holding off the ants, but that tide was swiftly turning as more ants came pouring in their direction. Seeing the situation rapidly declining and only half of them being out of the encirclement, Grud had to switch from holding the line to becoming a skirmisher.

 

It had barely been half a minute before the rear guard got their first injury. A shout of pain rang out as one of the hunters from the other side of the column, there, one of the hunters had a pair of mandibles clamped around his calf, below where the mandible was biting down, the rest of the leg was loosely flopping around while the hunter was furiously stabbing at the ant’s head.

 

As the injured hunter was stabbing away, another ant crawled on top of the dead ant and was about to attack when Grud’s spear impaled the ant that was about to finish off the hunter. After casting the squirming ant off his spear into the swarm, Grud swang his spear down, chopping off the head of the ant that had its mandibles clamped on the hunter’s leg, then he grabbed the hunter and tossed him to the line of retreating hunters while another came to cover his place.

 

This scene of Grud jumping from fight to fight took place over the next minute as the rest of the hunters fought their way out. Unfortunately, even with his superhuman capabilities and magic, Grud could not save everyone.

 

With the ever-increasing swarm, some of the hunters got overwhelmed before he could get to them, but eventually, the last of the column made their way out, and now with no one in front of him to be cautious of friendly fire, Grud released a wide mana pulse in front of him which sent ants flying back and crashing into their own ranks.

 

Hoping that would be enough to slow them down for a bit, Grud turned and ran after the others.

 

Soon after, Grud’s hope was dashed, as he looked back into the darkness he heard the clattering of hundreds of ant feet scuttling along the ground and his enhanced eyes saw the ants closing in on his group.

 

He needed a plan, so he dashed to the front of the group and asked the lead hunter “Do you know any rivers around here?”

 

The hunter turned to Grud with shock at appearing next to him so suddenly, “At this pace and direction, there should be one in around an hour… are we going to try crossing it to escape these ants? That river is quite deep and its flow is strong, we will be swept away.”

 

Grud nodded and replied, “Head there, I will slow down the ants as much as I can, Go!”

 

With that, Grud turned around and rushed toward the pursuing ants. Seeing their numbers, Grud was not confident going all out, he may kill a lot of the ants but he would soon tire and get overwhelmed.

 

So Grud decided to supply his bone spear with just enough mana to strengthen itself to prevent its damage and rely on his physical prowess to hold back the tide of ants.

 

Grud crashed into the ants and batted them left and right in an attempt to attract as much attention from the ants and slow them down. He soon found out that he only accomplished attracting their attention, as he clashed with the ants, he was privy to what they were saying.

 

[STRONG. FOOD. HERE…. MORE. FOOD. FORWARD]

 

While a portion of the ants stayed to attack Grud, the rest of the ants ignored him and kept chasing the rest of the retreating hunters. The ants may have bad eyesight, but their sense of smell via their antennas was excellent, a few antenna taps on the ground and waving it around in the air told them which direction the rest of the hunters went.

 

“Shit! Not good!” Grud cussed to himself as he used a powerful jump to get away from the ants surrounding him and back to the front of the ant column. 

 

From there, Grud did the only thing he could do, a fighting retreat in the hope of thinning the ant numbers before they reached the others. Grud would repeatedly stop and start killing as many ants as he could and when he was almost surrounded, he would break away and start again.

 

Eventually, Grud could hear the rushing of a river, so he gathered his mana and released a mana pulse to send ants flying and throw the lines into disarray, then he turned and sprinted to his people.

 

When he got to the river bank, he came upon a river that was around fifteen meters wide and the hunters there had put together ropes of vines with a stone on tied to one end. They were throwing them over to the other side of the river, trying to snag one of the trees of vegetation so they could use the vine as a safety line to avoid getting swept away by the current.

 

Having no time for this, Grud looked around and found a tree that looked to be tall enough to bridge the gap, he then shouted for everyone to clear a path, and with a mana-empowered sweep of his spear, Grud shattered the base of the tree and pushed it toward the river.

 

Sure enough, the tree crashed down and made an impromptu bridge which the hunters started crossing immediately, too bad the tree was only wide enough for one person to cross at a time, and it did not help that the river water was crashing on the fallen tree, making it unstable for whoever crossed.

 

And as in most high-stress situations, things usually get worse, the ants were closing in.

 

Grud organized the hunters to defend the bridge as within seconds of the defense line being formed, the ants crashed into the hunter line where Grud and the hunters started slaying ants as fast as they could. 

 

Eventually, the full might of the ants was upon them as the men sold their lives dearly for others to escape.

 

When the ants were at least two rows deep, the back line of ants started raising their abdomen over their body and started shooting acid over their fellow ants and onto the hunters.

 

While other hunters had their shields to block most of the acid raining upon them, Grud was too busy killing ants, and by the time he saw the acid flying toward him, it was too late and too spread out to dodge, and even if he wanted to dodge, he could not, it would create a gap in the defense line, so Grud grit his teeth, and closed his eyes as acid splashed upon him.

 

At first, he just felt wet, but that soon changed when he felt the burn of acid eating at his skin. Grud roared in agony as he wildly swept ants away, only for them to be quickly replaced by their kin.

 

Grud’s whole body began to smoke as the acid ate at him. The first thing to go was his hair as it got corroded off his body.

 

Next, Grud’s skin started to turn an agitated red as the acid did its job, but unlike other hunters who got splashed with acid, the acid was having a tougher time eating thur his skin.

 

Another thing that was smoking with acid burn was what he was wearing. His loincloth was already starting to have holes in them. As for his armor, while the chitin plates of the monster centipede were barely affected, the leather straps holding the armor together were a different story.

 

As Grud fought on in pain while killing ants and using the occasional mana pulse to relieve the pressure on himself and his men, the people crossed the log bridge until it was only the defenders left.

 

“We are clear! Retreat!” a hunter on the log shouted to Grud and the hunters holding the line.

 

By this point, quite a few hunters had fallen, most of the shields and their replacements were corroded beyond use and all of them were suffering from acid burns.

 

Grud, not having a shield to defend himself, was in the worst state of them all, while the other hunters rotated out the injured, Grud stayed in the frontline throughout. By this point, the leather straps holding his armor together had been destroyed and the armor fell off his body and his loin cloth had corroded away. He was essentially fighting naked.

 

Along with his clothes and equipment, the acid had also taken his eyesight, with the rain of acid, it was only a matter of time before some of it got into his eyes to blind him. 

 

Another thing the acid had taken from Grud was his skin, by this point, Grud was a muscle anatomy model wildly swinging his spear around.

 

“Chieftain! Let's go!” the defending hunters called out to Grud as they marveled at how he was still alive.

 

“Ho!” (Go) Grud shouted as he waved his men off, unable to pronounce properly due to his lips being melted off.

 

Guided by the sound of the flowing water, Grud could only take steps backward toward the river where the log bridge was as he blindly battled for his life.

 

“Chieftain! We are safe, come over!” Grud inched his way back until his ankle bumped into the log bridge and he took his first step on it.

 

As he walked backward a few steps while swinging his spear at the ants who mounted the log, Grud missed a step and he fell into the water but managed to grab onto the log with one arm.

 

The ants assaulting him did not miss a beat and swarmed him, biting his arm and shoulders while the other ants crawled over each other to get to the other side of the river bank.

 

Throughout this whole fight, Mita was shouting, crying, and begging in Grud’s head to run away and save himself, but as Grud heard the ants skitter past him on the log to the other side, he knew what he must do.

 

He raised his spear in his free arm empowered it with what mana he had left and brought it down on the log bridge, which shattered and swept away Grud, the ants that were biting him, and the bridge itself.