A song of courage.

Ah, I feel good.

For once I can act cool without it biting me in the ass.

I'm dodging wolves like they are but puppies.

Well, to be fair the ones I am fighting are mostly rank 2.

Oh! Am I actually bullying young cubs right now?! (o_O)!

Not that I mind haha.

After all most giant ants are of the same rank anyway.

Good practice for what is to come.

Well except that there will be way more ants.

If the wolves are like a coordinated squad, the ants are a relentless army.

They fully mastered the human wave tactic.

Eh… ant wave tactic.

(((￣(￣(￣Д ￣)￣)￣)))

But so what?! For once I am confident!

[Wolfie make sure you stay in the backline alright? These bugs are dangerous!]

* Nod* |･ω･)

And off we go!

Time to march on!

Beat the drums!

I'm sure I'd look dreamy with a military outfit right about now.

Well…any outfit would make me look better.

There is a certain charm to being buck naked.

Take that my old nemesis: laundry day!

You shall not take up any of my free time no more!

That brings back memories. Ah.

I used to read all day long and forget about washing my work clothes.

Because of that, I'd have to stay up late while the machine did its magic.

Of course, I'd inadvertently read a few dozen more chapters.

Can't be helped you know. *Shrug *

╮(╯3╰)╭

Oh. I'm at the edge of the ant territory.

Now that I think about it isn't it weird?

How is it that these are so well defined?

I mean yes animals and monsters are territorial.

Makes sense.

But why are the limits so well defined?

That is the weird part.

There should be some infighting.

There should be some violence.

There should be bloodshed.

Nope!

Besides the natural food chain going on…. everything is peaceful.

Fodder monsters are getting eaten, but that's it.

No struggle at all.

It almost seems like there is some higher power assuring order.

But that doesn't seem to be it either.

After all, I've been running around with wolfie this whole time.

No trace of any last boss.

If anything the strongest monster I've ever seen is the 50m giant tree.

That thing is dead.

Totally destroyed.

Yet there is no reaction at all from the other powers.

Maybe they don't know yet?

No way all of them missed such an intense lightning storm.

(￢_￢)

Some kind of backstory explaining all of this?

Possible.

Then again, do I really need to care about it?

I'm just here to have fun anyway.

I almost feel like I am forgetting something.

Hum.

Oh right I'm here because I'm running away from the Moon Keep, aren't I?

I wonder what is happening to these guys.

Did war erupt? If yes, I'm gonna stay here and let them fight.

Talking of war, I'm ready to wage one myself.

I am fully armed to the teeth. By that, I mean lots of sticks.

*grin* (☆ω☆)

[Come here you ant bastards! Time for a serious ass-whooping!]

*Sound of tons of ants emerging from the ground*

Yep. That truly is the sound of tons of them emerging.

Ten, Twenty, Thirty, lost count.

I activate my secret ability! Run around!

C= C= C= C= C=┌(;・ω・)┘

Let's just say it's way harder than when I was dealing with my furry friends.

Still manageable.

Ants everywhere. If anything I should have practiced Parkour.

To maneuver around all these obstacles.

But what the hell is that sound?

High pitched. Strident. Coming from all directions.

Is it the sound a giant ant makes?

Turns out Them! had it right all along!

ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

What are the odds?

But this is bad.

Not the fight, the noise. Stop shrieking!

My stick hits one of them.

A heavy sound resounds upon impact. My hit pushes an ant away.

*DO*

I keep going.

*TAK*

Oh my god! (□_□)

Why is the sound different?

Ah! One is a rank 2, the other a rank…2.5?

Slightly bigger, harder, and faster.

That means.

*DO DO Crack*

Ah, my weapon got destroyed.

(╯︵╰,)

Focus. Right now damage doesn't matter.

All about making the stick last!

You can do this!

*DO DO TAK! DO DO TAK! *

I can almost hear it. Yep, that's the beat!

Time to sing like no one is watching!

ヾ(´〇`)ﾉ♪♪♪

*DO DO TAK! DO DO TAK! *

[Antsy, you're a bug, screech some more]

*DO DO TAK ! DO DO TAK! *

[Playing in the forest, gonna be a big bug someday]

*DO DO TAK! DO DO TAK! *

[You got mud on your face, you an ant who cares]

*DO DO TAK! DO DO TAK! *

[Kicking your friends all over the place, missed me!]

I feel their assault slowing down.

Just in time for the grand finale!

I concentrate to get the song right!

*DO DO TAK DO DO TAK*

(ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ

[We will, we will rock you! Sing it!]

"Awoo, Awoo Awoooo!"

(ᗒ ᗨᗕ)/♫•*¨*•.¸¸♪

[We will, we will rock you, yeah!]

That feels so damn good!

I and Wolfie look at each other in the eyes.

*Satisfied* ＼(＾▽＾)／

Wait? Where did all the ants go?!

What about my trained situation awareness?

Well…. can I really be blamed?

Humans are designed to get hyped when that song plays.

It's in our DNA I tell you! It wasn't even the original?

So what?! It's all about the drum!

Only one explanation.

My song of courage vanquished them!

Seriously wtf?!

I look away 2 seconds and they gone.

I guess they left around the we will part.

Guess they didn't want to get rocked … at all.

To be honest that could sound ominous to the uninformed.

Oh well. Let's see where they went.

Underground.

Tunnel.

Lots of tunnels.

I'm totally just gonna head in there.

Nope.

If I was lucky I'd totally go down there, find myself face to face with some ant queen.

Then I'd have a near-death experience. Followed by a power-up.

Maybe fall into a pond of magical healing liquid?

Maybe stumble upon a long-lost legacy?

Or maybe manage to tame it?

That could make a nice misunderstanding arc with a new mount.

The town is getting attacked by a sole giant ant!

Oh, wait it's the glorious ant trainer!

That guy that tames only the fiercest of ants!

Let me see. Concentrate. I need to somehow extend my sensing range.

In a line. Farther I just need to sense the width of a single tunnel.

Reach as deep as possible.

There stands a creature straight from a nightmare.

8m tall. Long as fuck too!

Shiny sturdy-looking exoskeleton.

Sharp mandibles.

Dangerous spikes on its legs.

Soulless black eyes.

A humongous ant queen! I fucking called it.

＼(º □ º l|l)/

No fucking way I can beat that!

It is questionable if I can face it while it is alone.

Add a few hundreds of basic giant ants.

BIG FUCKING NOPE!

There is no logical way I'd survive such an encounter.

Also, I'm not lucky. At all.

I won't go somewhere my odds of survival are not at the very least sunny with no cloud in sight.

Wait…. I still have the necklace, don't I?

Could it help me in such a case?

Time to go back to camp for some luck testing!

How does one even test luck? You'll see haha. 😉