8 Swarm

     While we ran through the collection of ants, the Ant Warrior just stared at us. 

     It's large, red eyes just glaring daggers into me specifically. 

     I can't explain the possibilities of why, but I decided not to bother with it. I just wanted to get rid of all the ants to keep them away. All these ants needed to die before we got to the one in the middle. With them here, it would just make it harder to fight the big one because of the sheer number of them. Because of my armor, they only deal one damage, and with a hundred of them here, it would shred my HP to nothing. Instead of fighting one huge monster that can kill me in an instant, I'm fighting an ocean of enemies that can take me down by sheer number rather than power. 

     I considered every option available to me. None of them worked except doing one simple thing. 

     Jumping off of one of the ants, I launched myself upward, into the air. Being this high in the air, I saw just how many there were. There were way too many for just Veronica and I to fight consistently. I didn't help either that just like in real life, fatigue was a thing. While mine wasn't incredibly high, I had to be cautious. If someone was at 100% Fatigue, then their speed and attack would end up decreasing to almost zero. 

     Veronica was trying her best to get rid of all the ones in front of her with her greatsword. 

     I needed to act fast. 

     I poured out all of my bottles of oil except for two. I tried to get as many ants as I could before I descended, and I was falling down right on top of the Ant Warrior. 

     Kicking off of it, I landed down on the ground where barely any of the ants were. This showed that we were putting a small dent into their numbers, but it wasn't enough.

↳ [SKILLS]

→ [Sword of Agni]

     Removing one bottle of oil from my inventory, it splashed onto my sword and was suddenly lit on fire. 

     I smirked. This was our chance to drastically reduce the number of ants!

     My blade, driven into the thorax of one of the monsters, ignited the oil on its body. Without hesitation, I swung my sword, letting the ant fly off my sword and into the mass collection of insects. A large plume of flame was erected, incinerating the ants one by one. Even the ones that weren't even doused in oil had caught on fire. 

     Veronica looked at me, and pulled out a few bottles of oil herself. She tossed me a few, and I nodded, already knowing what to do. I threw one of them out into some of the ants that were caught in the flames to produce a larger explosion of fire. Some of the flames had actually ended up coming down like rain upon the infestation, lighting them up, sending them down the same fate as the rest of their comrades. 

     Her and I decided to lay low, finding an opening in the ores along the walls of the "room", and we sat there, waiting for the right moment to come back out. Even through walls, you could see the names of the ants, and every few seconds, a large chunk of them completely disappeared. 

     I couldn't see more coming in either, so maybe all of the ones here were all the ones left in the mines? What was beyond this room? I would suspect that they had a queen. The more they died, the more experience I was getting. Veronica noticed it. We were steadily climbing up. It got to the point that we were only getting one point of experience per ant, but with so many dying at once? We were already nearing the required amount before leveling up. I looked at my stats and figured that I should just put everything into attack. 

     The more that died, the more I could see the Ant Warrior getting a little nervous. 

     The numbers continued to decrease steadily. I turned to Veronica and we nodded, immediately figuring out what the other was thinking. 

     In my mind, I figured that while the rest were dying, we should take on the big one. While he was of higher level than us, it was clear that he was more confident in the numbers of the ants taking care of us, rather than his own strength. 

     Sword of Agni had deactivated as we waited, but I wasn't at all worried about something like that. I stood up along with Veronica, and our target was staring right at us. 

     We ran out. The room was almost entirely cleared out of ants already. We activated Sword of Agni at the same time. But before we could get within ten feet of the Ant Warrior, we were surrounded by ants once again. 

     These were not Ant Soldiers. These were Ant Warriors and ten of them had appeared before us. We jumped back before we got attacked by their mandibles. 

     "Damn. We were close, too." I uttered. These were of the same level as the one guarding the ore. It's demeanor changed, too. It became more confident. However, it stared at its own allies, and it sunk its mandibles into two of them, and used their bodies as extensions of his own arms, attacking the others with no hesitation. After a while, the corpses of the ants disappeared.

     It grew larger. 

     It's color changed to black. 

     Its level had increased to 10. 

     Veronica and I watched in horror as the events unfolded before us. 

     It stared at us once again. 

     I could not possibly explain what happened here. No one could. The only possibility was that it knew what would happen if it killed its own to gain power. 

     Did this mean that monsters could level up like players if we gave them enough time?

     Flashbacks to the Ogre appeared in my mind. The thought of that thing getting stronger… 

     "We kill it. Now. Before it gets stronger." I stated.

     "I'm not letting something like that live. We need to kill it before it escapes." 

     "Okay. Let's just do our best." Veronica said, her attention focusing back to the Ant Warrior. Before we ran out of time on our skill, we ran once again, full force. Her and I decided to split up, taking a side to attack the insect from. It was easily three or four times my height. With its large legs, it swung at the both of us. While Veronica decided to roll out of the way, I jumped onto the one coming for me. 

     Luckily, it still had a weakness to fire. So, when I swung my sword, the legs were cut, it was like a hot knife through butter. I fell on my feet, and turned to face the Ant Warrior with both hands gripping my sword. Veronica returned to my side in the same stance. "From now on… I'm not letting a monster escape from me." I thought to myself. I had a new goal to kill the Ogre in the sewers, and I had to get stronger as fast as possible. To do that…

     "I'm going to kill any monster, no matter how high their level is!"