Lars’s insect head armor resembled some ants, if not for its human head size, then Rue might mistake him for one of these creatures.

  The ants still surrounded them, their jaws snapping, as if imagining the human body between them.

  “I’m jumping in,” Lars whispered.

  Another clang of claw against Rafael’s strange glaive reverberated through the air, pushing a blast of energy.

  Rue offered a thumbs-up; he would rather commit to the fight even if it was an agreed-upon duel.

  Lars grinned, his lips twisted into a visceral smile, “All right, let's make sure it went better this time,” He said, referring to their battle against the Plague Doctor.

  “This is a duel!” Romero snapped. “You wou—”

  “Maybe this world has wrapped your mind, big guy?” Lars remarked before snorting. “We’re fighting to survive, not this honor nonsense. Besides, we want to take care of these ants to get back to the others, don’t we?”

  That shut Romero up, although it is impossible to tell his reaction behind that helmet. But, Rue could imagine the frustration seeping out.

  These enhance, level, skills, class. These indeed had wrapped his mind, and many others, no doubt. Rue would even say ‘Wrapping mind’ is not accurate, as this is their new reality. But Lars appeared to be someone who didn’t share it.

  “So, are we just going to jump in?” Romero asked.

  "They weren't surrounded, were they? They funneled through that small gate. What worse can happen?”

  “The ant swarms us? I still don’t like this…” Romero said.

  “Oh bugger off, we carve through bodies of them. Don’t be afraid now,” Lars said, and the highest-level charged.

  By charging, he quite literally charges straight, skipping over the space leading toward the duel. It took Rue and Romero a couple of seconds before acting at the mere audacity of Lars.

  Romero cursed, and his greaves stomped against the stone pathway.

  Lars sped up, his hair flowed behind him, escaping the embrace of his insect head like armor. A sword made out of bright light blared forward, and in a fraction of a second, he launched. The sword of light stretched and bludgeoned through the Ant King's arm like a razor whip, sending green blood spluttering down along with that slick, muscly, almost skeletal, rough hand.

  The King was flying, and like a sudden change of wind, the Ant started flailing around with a stumped hand that still bled.

  Such power from Lars surprised Rue at first, but he remembered that Lars was also level 45. Just like the king. He's possibly at a higher level now, and that still does not count his class.

  Lars landed, and he spun around, about to jump again.

  “It's coming down!” Rafael shouted near him. The Commander did not seemed to offer any sign of annoyance for having his duel interrupted.

  The King went tumbling down, and Rue almost reached them. But it was not needed. Both Rafael and Lars greeted the poor creature in a slash of lightning and light. The Ant King strengthened its body. Rue could make out black steel creeping around it, but alas, he was gouged into three parts with its upper body dove the wall.

  It's over in a sudden. But still the rest of the ant—

  They did not charge at them; instead, their antennae went twitching, and they started to stir around, bumping into each other. A supermajor crushed an ant soldier beneath its feet. Some Ant soldiers bumped into each other and went tumbling down from the gargantuan wall.

  One Ant Soldier was about to trample Rue. He moved aside and slashed down upon it, easily parting its black, sleek body. The ant did not even offer any resistance.

  “Kill them!” Rafael shouted.

  The ants, most of them, went down the wall. Their body stuck to it, and they raced down in a frenzy.

  Rue’s sword carved around the creature's body, more and more falling by his sword. Romero fought beside him, the knife he got from Bondred, blared with red weak light as the green blood of the ant dampened its shine. They cleared the ant while fighting their way to the tower, which was not difficult, as the ant was more than willing to just run around. The path toward the humans opened, and Rue couldn’t help but be relieved.

  “Taking the king's work isn’t it?” Lars grinned; his armor might as well be painted green by now.

  “I was wrong,” Romero said, under his full-plate armor. “Should’ve done that much faster,” He said.

  The others now enter the walkway, cautiously eyeing all four in front of them. And Rue has now realized what he looked like. His body was covered in obsidian ice and smeared with green smudges all over.

  “Man the battlement! Now!” Rafael shouted to those who had just entered.

  A boy couldn’t be older than fifteen, stiffened, when he had to pass by some human corpses into a walkway full of ant corpses.

  The boy froze when he saw Rue.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He sighed and undid the Time of Obsidian Ice. His black icen tunic turned into blue, and his body returned to normal temperature. The chilly night felt warm after the armor.

  “It's really you,” Lars muttered. “Right, you used it when we fought that psycho doctor. How do you get a skill like that?”

  “It's… Complicated,” Rue said. He turned to the boy, who muttered an apology ?before passing him and settling behind a battlement. More and more people entered, and Rue automatically followed Lars and Romero, who stood by Rafael. They were looking down on the ants that made it inside the castle wall. A group of mages and archers was situated atop the wooden tower they had made by the archway. More and more ants have fallen to them, and if some pass, then warriors await them with a spear formation.

  Things went well. His mind can now finally relax. That was when Rue noticed something strange, his sword—The Frost Bite Sword still held obsidian ice. They took the color of midnight, and sure enough, this feeling by Rue palm. This is obsidian ice.

  He instantly recognized this was an effect from Winter’s Sword momentum. But it looked like this just works on a sword as described.

  “Report!” The archer girl—Jessica was there, along with more still streaming across the stone walkway behind her. "We've dealt with every ant inside the tower!" North and South walls have seen no fighting; they merely stare down with the Centaurs and Monsters of ice. West is still fighting with a fire creature, and currently has the upper hand.”

  Blasts of fire smudge across the night sky in distant vision. West wall is directly opposite them, with kilometers upon kilometers. All Rue could make out here was a bunch of flying creatures and constant fire that lit up the distant sky.

  “What creature?” Rafael asked.

  “Trident Demons and Dragons”

  “Dragon and Trident…” Rue muttered. “That sounds more troublesome than the ant.” And did he hear correctly? Dragon? Granted, he has seen goblins and kobolds, and Salar, who attempted to turn into a dragon. But, just hearing they exist was truly another reminder that this world is no longer the one he has known

  “Tell the North and South to feel free to reinforce the West wall if necessary; we did not need any reinforcement,” Rufus said.

  Jessica saluted; she was about to run before her eyes looked over Rue and Romero. “Uh, thank you for everything, and good job on surviving,” She mumbled before running toward the tower.

  If only she knew, both of them got too consumed in the fight–to the point they forgot their objective. Rue sighed, and Romero also did not offer any reply to the blonde archer.

  “That was a duel,” Rafael said, in a low voice, almost a whisper under the strong night wind. That drew their attention. Was he actually angry about that?

  “Not you too,” Lars grumbled. He sheathed his sword, the Liquid Light Sword, identical to one Rue had. “What's important is surviving,” He added.

  “It's not that simple, you simpleton.” Rafael pushed his glass up and glared at Lars, who scowled openly at the commander. “Those ants value honors. And they’re not an NPC or a Mindless monster. They have their own mind, culture, and society. You might ruin our chance for negotiation between us.”

  “Negotiation? With the very thing the System has assigned to kill us?”

  “Just how much do you understand of the system? How do you know if it is absolute? That there’s no other way except to do what it orders?”

  Lars gritted his teeth.

  Rue could see Rafael's point, but ultimately, he agreed with Lars. Resisting the system came with a cost. As proven with Cel, and the Entram, whose beauty was taken away—A whole race of them.

  If it is possible to finish the System quest, then it is better to do it as fast as possible with little risk.

  “This is not the time to argue,” A deep, gravely voice said. Rue turned to see Romero walking to the battlement. Two warriors trembled as he towered over them. But most gaze not trained on Romero or the suicidal trio.

  The buzzing of wings trembled ahead of them, flying with an entourage of about a dozen other flying ants.

  A dark, sleek figure, with bulging muscles and a slender exoskeleton, draped in the night.

  (Ant King Aran. Lvl 52)

  This one was much stronger.

  Rue breathed out as he joined Romero.

  Behind the Ant king was an army of flying ants. They were still too far to identify, but from afar, their figures resembled the Ant king to a lesser degree, and in each hand was not a hand but a dark lance like an overgrown bee stinger.

  And on those stingers was the reason some puke went down from the castle wall.

  Humans, about fifteen of them, were pierced across their bodies. They scream, a shrill begging voice echoed through the air.

  Rue instinctively reached out to his obsidian armor, ready to summon it again.

  The Ant King grasped one man, a scout, no doubt. Its clawed hand tightened around the man's head, and he yanked the scout from the ant’s stinger.

  The King flew close to the wall and stopped just about far enough where the archer and spell wouldn’t reach.

  “Those flying ants, they positioned so we can't identify them,” Romero whispered beside him.

  “Yes, maybe they are.” Hopefully not, the first Ant King almost broke through their defense. But overall, it was not a competent leader as it offered a duel despite knowing the ant soldiers and Supermajor would lose control over themselves when it died.

  Rafael lightly pushed an archer beside Rue, and in a small voice unbefitting of the commander, he whispered. “I hate this.”

  Rue's eyes widen; only Rue, Romero, and two other archers heard that. Maybe it's not strange, it’s a normal thing to stay under such conditions. But the commander has been stalwart and stern from the time Rue knew of him, which was not long.

  The Ant King spoke, and it spoke in the human tongue. “I believe, my brethren were here…” He opened one clawed hand as the other still held the screaming human. “As proven by many fallen ants, what happened to him?”

  “He is dead,” Rafael shouted.

  The Ant King stayed silent. The king did not have to shout; his voice reverberated through the darkness like a grating echo. “Dead? Was it a duel?”

  “It was interrupted and ended in his death.”

  “Yes… I appreciate your honesty. Just now I’ve received the report from my fellow ant. I see that what happened,” The Ant king rose high, still holding the scout, with its claws drawing blood from five points of each talon. “As a reward, this one can stay alive.” The Ant King hurled the human, and the scout launched in at great speed. But, not toward them, his head crushed against the wall in a sickening splatter of blood. His body went limp, and he fell ?a thousand feet below.

  Vapor of cold went out from Rue’s mouth, anger flared within him. This creature was playing mind games.

  “Apologies, when a loved one dies, it's hard to contain your anger. And your rationality…” Aran the Ant king raised his arm. The exoskeletal dark limb twirled its long claw. In unison, the flying ant behind him lifted their stinger and crushed them into the human's head, dropping them into the darkness of the plain below. “Remember me, Aran. I will breach this wall and kill all humans in this fortress”.

  Aran turned, and alongside its retinue of flying ants, they flew back to wherever they came from. Rue stared at the crackling mountain ahead, the mountain with ever thunder. Crack resounded across the sky as they kept drumming on the mountain.

  Inside ,there is the Ant Rift. It had to be closed eventually. And, strangely enough, he wished to be assigned to this one.