Ch. 4 An Antbush

"So Jack's alive? And he told you to find the nexus where he's trapped? Miss Aria is dead… How weird…" Zephyr said in the middle of the Slasher forest. It neighbored Etheridge, which was perfect since Orion had a few things he needed to grab before they left.

"Yeah Yeah, it's all bullshit pretty much… But if my brother is being trapped with the nexus, might as well find it before someone else does."

"Yeah… Like The Enchantress," Zephyr said, slashing away as bushes as they walked.

"Enchantress? Sounds hot," Orion said with a small smirk before a dissatisfied look fell upon his face. "Wait… Are we slashing away at bushes while traveling through Slasher forest? That's weird, pretty sure we're supposed to stay at the edge…"

Zephyr gave him a confused look. "Huh? I thought we were leaving to go find the king?"

Orion looked even more confused. "Fuck, how long have we been mindlessly traveling through the forest? I still need my equipment from Thorne…"

Zephyr looked at his watch. "Huh… About 8 hours?"

Orion's eyes glowed blue, and a rune materialized on his wrist, shooting a beam at Zephyr's face, and then doing the same to himself.

"Holy shit! Why have we been going through the forest?!" Zephyr yelled as a mask covered his nose and mouth.

"LureBane," Orion said, a pistol appearing in his hands as he zapped away a bunch of vines that grew around them. "Been a while since 4th grade, forgot about the dangers of this forest…"

"So… We've been breathing in toxic gas from Lurebane for the past 8 hours? Crap can we even find our way back?" Zephyr asked, calming down as he breathed in clean air from the mask Orion gave him.

Orion shook his head, his expression serious. "Lurebane toxin messes with your perception. We've been walking in circles, ensnared by the illusions it creates. Finding our way back won't be easy… For normal people.."

He activated a holographic map, the display hovering in the air between them. The Slasher Forest, usually navigable for seasoned adventurers, now appeared like a complex labyrinth of twisted paths and shadowy thickets.

"Luckily… I have a friend who so selfishly embedded herself in my mind chip. Qece."

The blonde blue-eyed Ai appeared in front of Orion, looking angry. "You've kept me inactive for forever O! I don't care that you helped Aria make me, it's not nice! Not nice at all!"

Zephyr got real close to the Ai, smiling under his mask. "Wow, she's cute huh? You made this Orion?"

Orion groaned. "Yes, I helped Aria make her to aid in… Basically everything really. As I'm sure you can tell, I gave her that attitude. Qece, no messing around, can you scan the area and see how far we are from Etheridge?"

The girl scoffed. "Oh sure, deactivate me with your stupid technomancy, but the second you need my help it's all water under the bridge? I don't think so O, I want you to make me a promise," Qece said with her arms crossed.

"The fuck?" Orion said, "When did you start talking to me this way?"

"Since Jack added the brat protocol," Qece said, sticking her tongue out as Orion groaned louder.

"Fine, what promise?"

"You can't deactivate anymore, it's boring being alone in that dark room, and if you're gonna be taking care of me until Aria comes back then you have to make sure I'm up to date, state of the art!"

Zephyr laughed in the background, looking around as Orion debated whether it was worth having Qece.

"Alright… Deal, now do as I said please?"

Qece grinned innocently before closing her eyes. "Alright, we're about 4 hours hike from Etheridge, also your system is still full of lure bane O so I suggest making camp and sleeping it off.

Orion sighed as Qece disappeared, leaving him and Zephyr alone.

"Well you heard her buddy, time to get some shut eye," Zephyr said, plopping to the ground, and within seconds he was snoring.

"Qece, set up an alarm within 100 meters of us. If something walks into it zap me awake,"

Orion's eyes flickered with a faint blue glow as he communicated with Qece. "And don't fry me, Qece. We don't need any accidental electrocutions."

The AI responded cheerfully, "Of course, Orion. I'll make sure it's a gentle wake-up call."

With the safety measures in place, Orion settled down next to Zephyr, his gaze drifting upward to the distorted sky of the pocket dimension.

…

"Humans?" General Zhang asked, his voice raspy from his years of smoking.

"Yes sir, two of them, both immune to the effects of the lurebane, they're sleeping as we speak.

"Hmm… Humans haven't explored our forests in some time."

General Zhang's mandibles clapped together in excitement, he could practically smell the blood on his spear already.

"General… Should we maybe just leave them alone? Alerting them of our continued existence after their attempted purge could prove harmful to our colony… The king may-"

"I know Antony… But isn't your heart pumping right now? Real humans for the first time in your lifetime? Don't you want to hunt?"

The short ant-man gulped, and his mandibles clicked together even faster than the old General Zhang's.

"I suppose the king doesn't need to know?" The young creature said in an excited tone.

"Let's hunt Antony, let's kill those humans," General Zhang said as he burst through the tunnel, followed by his 300 soldiers.

…

"Orion the perimeter has been breached," Qece's voice said, causing Orion to open his eyes quickly.

"Considering their speed I'd say they'll be here in… Oh now."

Orion jumped up, throwing silver disks all around him as Zephyr jumped up due to his sudden movement.

"What was the command word again? Uhh… Fuck," Orion said with a sigh as the brushes rustled and they were surrounded by dozens upon dozens of ant creatures.

Each one stood at seven feet, nearly 2 feet taller than Orion himself.

"Since when were Formicarans holed up here?" Zephyr asked, holding his sword tightly as a 10-foot ant walked through the shorter soldiers, his mandibles tapping away as he looked at Zephyr and Orion with excited eyes.

"Hello, humans! Feats your eyes on the mighty General Zhang!" It yelled proudly in garbled speech.

'Damn it… What was the word?' Orion thought, looking around at all of them.

"Mighty? You look like you're damn near on your deathbed," Zephyr said with a growl, hoping to provoke them into attacking.

'Please Orion,' The man thought, 'Please have a plan…'

"I'll excuse your words, since you'll be dead soon, why have you come here?"

Orion continued glancing around, ignoring the words as Zephyr talked for them.

"We're just hiding out until we go into the city, we'll be out of your hair in a bit so-"

Zephyr stopped talking as he felt immense bloodlust being directed toward him.

"I didn't say speak human," The general growled.

"What? But you asked a que-"

"Silence!" The general yelled, stabbing the end of its spear into the dirt to make a point.

"You, weird-looking human, why do you keep looking around?" The general asked Orion.

"Uhh, yeah sure, hail the queen and stuff," Orion said absentmindedly before focusing on the larger ant.

"Sorry, what did you ask?"

The general face scrunched up, or as close as it could come to scrunching up with an ant head, and he pointed his spear at Orion.

"Tear that human limb from limb, I will continue receiving satisfaction from the bulky one."

Ten ants rushed Orion, closing in on him just as it clicked in his mind.

"Oh right," Orion said, as if something was obvious. "Semper Fi," Orion said, grabbing Zephyr and flying up quickly as the silver disks hummed.

"Get the-"

The disks exploded, each one flinging shards of metal around. Orion had gotten the idea from when he was watching old military movies.

The claymores looked effective enough, so Orion replicated the damage but tenfold in each disk.

The ants screams were cut off as they were torn apart in seconds, leaving dead bodies as Orion landed back in the same spot he'd jumped.

"Y-You cruel humans…" A young ant Said, crawling as it forced itself toward Orion holding a knife.

Orion watched as it reached his ankle, weakly banging its head against his shoe.

"Yeah… Whatever," He said, crushing the ant's head under his foot as he looked around, making sure all of them were dead.

"Woah, remind me not to underestimate modern technology…" Zephyr said with a whistle.

"We should probably go, their colony will feel their deaths," Zephyr continued as Orion nodded.

"Qece, lead the way," He said as a holographic map appeared in his vision.

"I didn't hear a please!" She yelled before the path glowed on the map.

"Shut the hell up…"

As Orion and Zephyr left the bloody scene, an ant popped its head up, watching them go in relief as it stood up.

"General…" Antony said with a gulp, looking at the torn-up body of the general at his feet.

Antony bent over and grabbed the Spear of Chitin.

"Your… Your death shall be avenged…"