New Friends?

'As much as I want to go hunting, I need a break. I don't have high endurance so it's a miracle that I've been walking for so long.'

He continued walking away from the others, trying to keep his appearance of being strong. This was only to anger Alan though. For some reason, he had the biggest issue with Soren and was even willing to risk his life.

Walking to a spot where if he made any noise his group wouldn't hear, he slumped against the back of a tree. The bark rubbed against his back, threatening to rip his colorful tunic. 

Catching his breath Soren wondered what his next course of action should be.

'There's still some daylight left, so I can try to kill something. Or I can find a place to sleep tonight, but I can't sit still out here knowing I could multiply my stats with some effort.'

He made his decision. 'Just don't die and that'll be fine.'

A few minutes passed before he stood back up heading more left countering the direction they had walked earlier. 

Was this a good decision? Only time could tell.

Passing the trees and bushes scattered around, Soren's heartbeat quickened. Understanding hit him. He was alone which wasn't the scary part, but he could be attacked by anything, at any time, from anywhere. 

His mind started racing, 'Is this something I'm worried about? How? It didn't bother me earlier. What if I can't respond in time?'

Still uncertain he gave himself fake confidence, 'It's fine, this is how to become stronger. I need to stick with it.' 

'What even happens when I die? Nothing so far, it's probably fine.'

He carried on passing more and more trees, but soon they started thinning out. Slowly at first, then more rapidly the more he continued going.

'Odd.'

He was still worried about getting attacked but this was slowly appeasing his mind.

Soon enough there were only a few trees scattered here and there. In the far distance, he could see a pileup of something brown, maybe 20 feet tall.

'There's no way…'

He looked closer, detail showing his mind a horror.

With practiced ease, the mound started coming apart, splitting off into streams of moving specimens.

A deep rumbling voiced its anger, mad that it was awakened.

The streams of movement coming off the hill didn't scatter randomly. In uniform line, it charged at Soren. One line after the other, turning into a horde.

Soren recognized what they were now. He'd learned about them at some point when getting his degree. 

'Army ants, nomadic terrorizers. That must've been a bivouac and I just disturbed them. So that means they'll come after me.'

'Sh*t'

Soren scrambled back the other way going back to his party members. Tripping over his own feet in carelessness, a pitiful fighter. 

He face-planted into the grass and dirt, turning around he had a quick thought.

'So annoying, can I fight them? Think about the number of stat increases I'd get.'

Under these intense feelings, he understood one thing. What he faced from his seat on the ground was death but could also be a treasure trove he needed.

This was a crazy thought process as the streams of army ants weren't regular size. They were each a foot and a half long with mandibles the same size as their bodies. The army ants were dark brown except for the abdomen being a blazing orange creating a spectacular sight. 

If he fought against one, he would win, maybe even five of them. However anymore and he would get overwhelmed. Each ant's mandibles contained something inside them that when cutting into prey, would cause a slowing effect on them.

Once again, if it was only getting cut once it'd be fine, but there were hundreds of army ants in front of him.

'Nope, not fighting.'

With that thought, he speedily raised himself and darted off again careful not to trip over anything else.

The ants were fast, really fast. For not even being two feet long their legs moved fast, blurring as they ran to retrieve their tasty prey.

After all, the queen needed food to survive. This is what needed to be done. 

Soren was running back to the Sunburned Mosquitoes members. He didn't care if he got them wrapped in it, all he wanted was a better chance at living. Should his party members perish to make that happen then so be it.

'I do hope Roz can escape, the others can die.'

This was the last thing on his mind. Escaping alive while trying to think of a way to profit from it all was. 

Looking back he faltered slightly, what he saw made him nervous. The ants were now only 35 feet behind him. They were still catching up and the ground shaking also intensified. 

'What am I doing? I have a whole item to use. Time to see if it's limited at all.'

Lightening sparked out of thin air covering his body, and instantly his speed doubled. 

Adrenaline filled his heart with joy. This feeling was a mystery to him, something unknown, but was bound to be uncovered. 

Was this freedom?

Seeing the tree larger than the others he was happy. Closing in on the tree he decided to give a nice little warning beforehand. "Hey guys, you might want to come. You'll die if you don't."

Zed, Alan, and Bill were lucky Roz was still with them. Otherwise, Soren wouldn't have even tried to say anything and instead let them become ant food.

Alan peaked his head out angrily, wanting nothing more than to kill this man right here right now, but what he saw made his brain lag.

"Th-That's, ants?"

"A lot of them too. GUYS WAKE UP!"

They were all close together, to begin with so it didn't take long before all of them knew their situation.

Before Roz could say anything. 

Soren zipped by with sparks of lightning flying around his body in a godly fashion.

"Better start running," He yelled passing them.

Needing no other reason or words they all started climbing down the tree, each in their way. 

All of them ended up falling to the ground though, it didn't matter. The ground was shaking more violently, and the ants were catching up. 

They sprinted after Soren hoping to gain some information from him, if they could stay alive from this.

A few seconds later, some of the ants went up the tree as that's where they sensed food. This didn't makeup even a small portion of the main horde.

The wind flying past the runners felt surreal. Hundreds of ants were running at them and four of them weren't outrunning the ants. 

Their speed wasn't enough. Agility wasn't a useless stat after all. 

They had been running for a while. Soren was running the fastest and leaving them behind and because of that, he was the first to see a mountain up ahead. 

On it, a cliff that climbed far into the sky, the pathway leading to it, narrowing as you ascended.

'I think I have an idea.' Soren thought excitedly with labored breaths.