Chapter 17- Ants(2)

The four ants seemed to be laughing at Maxwell's arrogance. One of them came forward to fight Maxwell. Maxwell released his spear intent but lowered its level to the peak of Spear Essence, a whole major level below.

'Good, they underestimated me, I can kill him if I manage to surprise him.'

The ant tried to bite off Maxwell's right leg, only to bite air with its mandibles clicking against each other. It then attacked Maxwell again on his other leg. Maxwell dodged.

*Rrripp*

A piece of Maxwell's pant was caught and got torn off. Maxwell stabbed with his spear, and it collided with the hard carapace. Sparks flew and the spear slide off without leaving even a scratch.

The ants behind chittered, as if taunting him to do better. The ant wasn't even trying to kill him, it was just playing with him. Maxwell played along, acting as if he was struggling to survive. He let a very little amount of heat through his shield to make him look sweaty. It looked like he was struggling to keep up with the ant's attack.

The ant got bored of going after his legs and went for his torso. It looked like it had gotten a clean bite on him, but Maxwell suddenly disappeared.

'Instant Transmission.'

Maxwell appeared on top of the stunned ant and slashed at its neck joint with his spear blazing with Spear Intent at the peak of Embryo Stage. A layer of black space qi surrounded the blade of his spear, tearing through space. The layer was so thick he could barely see the red on his spear. The space qi ripped the space, revealing a void so dark it seemed to swallow him. His spear collided against the joint and seemed to stop.

'C'mon, C'mon.'

Only a split second later it ripped through the neck. The head was flung away. The ants were surprised he had such high-level Spear Intent and decided to attack him as a group. They directed killing intent at Maxwell.

'This is going to be hard.'

They attacked from three separate sides at Maxwell simultaneously at different height levels. Maxwell blocked one of the attacks with his spear, getting it caught. He strengthened the layer of qi protecting him in the sides at the same times, reducing the impact of the other 2 bites.

The bites cut into Maxwell's skin, leaving deep cuts. Maxwell tried pulling his spear back, only to be met with resistance. The ant holding it then pulled it out of Maxwell's grip and threw it away. It clattered on the rock a few meters away.

'Shit, my spear. I need to avoid being surrounded.'

Maxwell teleported away, draining his mental capacity. He was only a few meters away, so he ran, utilising the terrain to his advantage. The ants crawled after him at fast speeds.

'They will catch up to me in 6 seconds.'

Maxwell dashed around the cavern with the 3 ants following him. The foremost tried biting him but he jumped over it. He continued to run around the fighting Arion and queen ant. Another bite was aimed at his neck, so Maxwell ducked out the way.

The ants were growing annoyed with Maxwell's antics and 2 of them snapped at him. Maxwell dropped to the ground and rolled out of their way.

He grabbed his spear and got up. His legs ached from running while he used wind qi to propel himself.

'Gravity Suppression.'

Maxwell used space qi to increase the density of the space around the ants, slowing their movements down. This technique drained Maxwell's qi but did not have an impact on his mind. Maxwell stabbed the huge eye of one before fleeing.

'Tch, the bites hurt, they must have some venom.'

The ant he stabbed screeched in pain and assaulted Maxwell, trying to ram into him with its hard head. Maxwell ran straight to a wall and ran out of the way at the last second, causing the ant who was filled with rage to get stunned by the impact.

"Brainless insects. You can't stop me."

Maxwell continued to buy time, attacking them for a few seconds before running again. His muscles felt like they were about to tear apart, but he forced himself to move. His legs felt stronger with every step he forced himself to take.

Maxwell was running from 2 ants when the third appeared, blocking him off in a corner.

'F*ck it recovered too fast. I guess it's time for little dragon then.

Maxwell let lose the dragon in his dantian. It roared loudly, with echoes filling the cavern.

"Dragon!"

The Queen ant was surprised by the dragon, allowing Arion to get some attacks in. The dragon ripped through an ant's qi shield and then the ant itself, leaving a hollow exoskeleton with a gaping hole in the head. All the blood was vapourised by the heat. The exoskeleton clattered against the rocks. The other 2 ants pounced on Maxwell, pinning him to corner since their was a gap in their blockade.

The ants bit onto the spear shaft and pushed against it, trying to snap the spear. Maxwell slid back, with his back touching the hot rock in the wall.

'Ow, that's hot.'

Maxwell planted his feet on the ground and pushed back. His arms shook with the force, and they almost gave out.

'Orphelia should be nearly done.'

Right on time, Orphelia appeared, burning the ants to a crisp. The fire she used was a rank 5 fire. It was the highest rank one could possibly discover on the mortal plane.

"Phew, that was right on time."

Maxwell collapsed on the ground, letting his aching muscles rest. He was devoid of all his qi and couldn't even lift his arm currently. His shirt was so wet that his body was visible.

"How dare you! You killed my guards." The queen ant screeched furiously.

"Where are you directing your attention, you have to fight me." Arion blocked her from attacking them.

Orphelia placed her soft palms on Maxwell's abdomen and sent wood qi through his body, healing him.

"Hey, where are you touching?" Maxwell spoke, surprised and blushing.

"Shut up, I'm healing you. There's no better option for me."

Orphelia was blushing at she could feel his toned abs.

"You like my body?" Maxwell asked with a forced grin.

"I won't heal you if you keep teasing me."

"Fine, fine, I won't say anything. I can't resist you if you take advantage of me anyways."

"What do you take me as?"

Maxwell sat up with his wounds all closed and his muscle ache gone as if it never happened.

"You got a good fire, it's a rank 5 fire."

"I can't even use it openly because of its rarity."

"Stop complaining, you're not the one who had to hold off four Level 4 ants at the same time."

"I was almost getting burnt for 10 minutes."

"Both of us suffered equally, now we need to wait for Arion to kill the queen."

Arion and the ant queen were engaged in a ferocious battle. There was Lightning and Fire Qi all around them, clashing against each other. The lightning was more destructive but there was a much larger amount of Fire qi. Arion was flying around and attacking the ant queen with sharp blows from his hooves. The queen was snapping at him, usually missing because of his superior speed. The queen was slowly losing, and she knew this. She was planning to flee after injuring Arion's wings.

She sent a burst of fire qi that filled a large area, blocking Arion away. She then dashed towards Maxwell and Orphelia, who were watching.

"Oh F*ck."

They both got up, weapon in hand a moment before the queen appeared before them. Orphelia was about to release all her qi to block the queen before Maxwell intervened and used his spear.

It was an ordinary attack, with no qi or Spear Intent, but the instincts of the queen told it something was wrong. The queen went against its instinct and charged forward. The spear that flew towards her suddenly spewed out a mass of blood, the size of a normal head. The blood then turned into a giant hammer and struck on the queen's head.

*Crunch*

The hammer smashed the queen's head against the ground in a terrifying attack. The head was pulverised, spraying blood everywhere that was then absorbed by the spear. Only bits of the hard exoskeleton remained.

"What was that?" All 3 of them spoke, confused.

"I just used the spear after a feeling. I felt it would protect me." Maxwell said while marvelling the spear.

"That was dangerous you know. Good thing your spear saved you."

"It was a good choice to follow you. Your ability is impressive indeed."

Maxwell's heart was beating wildly. Although he did that out of his own instinct, he couldn't help but be nervous.

"Let's loot the corpse and get out of here."

They took the hard exoskeleton of course and the best part, the beast core. Most of the eggs laid by the spider queen had been destroyed by the fights but the few that remained would die soon without the heat from the Earth Fire.

"Arion, can you use this beast core?"

"No, it's from a fire element beast so I won't have any use for it."

"Okay then, I'll take it." Maxwell said while storing the glowing red orb in his spatial ring, "So Orphelia, our guess was correct?"

"Yes, I can use every element now." Orphelia responded as they hurried back up through the tunnels.

"Nice, I can easily catch up to you."

"I already broke through in Fire and Lightning cultivation."

"That's unfair, you used my Lightning to cultivate."

"You gave it to me in the first place, you can't complain."

"That's true." Maxwell then offered, "How about we split the other cores equally?"

"No, you can take much more. I'm already at a higher level than you."

"Okay."