Story time

𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴.

"𝘚𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘥𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳", 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

𝘐 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 ���𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘥" 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦," 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦'"

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"Red wake up"

The soft smooth voice echoed in my head growing louder with each echo. I groaned rolling over on my side.

"Get up you stupid ant!"

I jumped up startled; the voice was even louder than the first time. Rubbing my eyes I looked around seeing Amber and Ka-el standing near me.

"Finally decided to end your beauty sleep my King?" Ka-el said sarcastically.

"Do you really think I wanna hear your annoying voice as soon as I get up?"

"That's the point my King" Ka-el said a smirk on his face.

Sighing I slumped to the ground still rather tired. I surveyed the room around me and saw that we were no longer in the part of the house where the battle took place.

"So what happened?" I asked looking at Amber.

"Tell him," She said looking over to Ka-el.

Kael grumbled a little before speaking.

"Well as you can see we survived, no thanks to you. When those huge bugs came in I instantly played possum so I was left unscarred after their raid. I also protected Amber which you should be eternally grateful for. I saved the majority of the rest of the troops by having them play dead; in doing so I managed to save 17 ants excluding generals and Belle. For some reason they just left after you collapsed, although that might partly be because of the fact that you killed all five of those hornets with that electrical discharge. Oh, and by the way, I've figured out the cause for that blue light and have rewired your sword as such; I also took the liberty of reattaching it to your metal leg while you were out."

As Ka-el continued his long boring monologue I stretched my limbs, letting my thoughts wander then a thought hit me. "Where's Blade at, and the others?"

"Don't tell me your ears are as bad as your brain!" Ka-el shouted,' I just told you they're outside eating.

"You don't have to yell," I spat back, then sitting solemnly I spoke," So only seventeen are left huh?"

"Why does it matter you killed off a good few thousand yourself" Ka-el began," Oh wait Amber is here ... um forget you heard anything".

"She knows" I said.

"Oh" Ka-el looked surprised.

A sad look came upon Amber's face. " I'll be back Red get some rest.

With that Amber left followed by Ka-el. I stared after them wondering what was going through Amber's mind at that point. It was difficult just knowing that she knew how ruthless I could be. Every since she had told me that she knew I was the one responsible for the destruction of her colony, I've been trying to keep myself in check, trying to keep my anger from exploding. But it is hard especially with Ka-el around. Then a thought occurred to me, why did Amber tell me to get some rest after I had just woken up! I quickly grew restless and arose to go outside.

Entering the room where the battle took place I was greeted by quite and unwelcoming. Many insect bodies lay strewn across the floor and still present were the rotting human bodies. I quickly exited the house making sure to avoid the looks of the dead ants with their eyes wide open and mouths gaping begging to live another day.

I met Mordred on the way out who said he was on his way tell me something.

"Come let me take you the camp and I'll tell you what I need to say on the way" Mordred said.

As we walked Mordred began to tell his tale.

"As you know we currently have only 17 ants left to make up our forces, this is of course excluding generals, Belle, Ka-el, Amber and yourself. Right now all seventeen all those ants are suffering from a deadly poison, in 6 hours the weakest ones will die by the time 24 hours have passed they'll all be dead."

"What?" I exclaimed, "How is it that they are poisoned, was it the spiders."

"No, it was not"

"Then how?!"

Mordred kept looking down to the ground as walked an extremely serious look upon his face.

"Do you honestly believe that you and your ants brought down an entire colony of 3000 ants?"

"What do you mean?" I asked narrowing my eyes as I looked at him," Did you not experience our strength for yourself?"

Mordred met my gaze as he spoke." Think Red fancy arm or not do honestly believe that you and four other ants brought down a colony of 3000 ants? You should know wars aren't won by strength alone but by numbers as well, the power of nearly every insect lies in their numbers if those ants were near full strength you would've been quickly overwhelmed."

I averted my gaze staring into the ground. What was he trying to say?

Mordred stopped walking.

"Red, I am not a part of the colony which you think you brought to its knees."

My eyes opened wide with shock.

" I am an agent, an agent of the scientist who made you into what you are, that arm, your intelligence, your power, on orders from Reed I was to infiltrate the colony and kill them, I had to gain their trust, throughout a period of time I became the most respected member of that colony even more that queen herself, that's when I began to slowly poison them each and every member of the colony, I have a power too I can change the degree of deadliness of the poison in my stinger; I can inject that poison into your food your water. When you attacked, the entire colony was under the effects of my poison. They were already half dead, but they're all too prideful to admit it. It's a wonder they've made it this far. Red, you need more ants to make a colony but you also need strong ants at the end of the six hours I will give those remaining the antidote then it will be up to you to once again build an army,"

"My you talk a lot, poisoned huh? Do what you want, just don't cross me and by the way, you're my general, not this scientists agent anything else you wanna tell me before we move on." I said as I locked eyes with him.

"I said I was an agent but I'm a highly classed agent as only a selected few of the agents receive these bodily enhancements. Above us are the thirty lieutenants and the 5 captains. Among the lieutenants there is a chain of command, and Blade is number 5 in that chain, which I might add is rather impressive for bug without enhancements."

With that Mordred walked away heading to the camp. I stared after him a bit bewildered for awhile then quickly followed.

Meeting my sight was that of my 17 remaining soldiers all lying trembling on the ground as Belle, Ka-el and Amber tried to treat them. Goliath and the generals along with Blade were taking guard at strategic points around the camp.

"Hey kid!" Dean shouted across to me," I've been waiting for ya it's time I told you my story".

Eager for something to get over my bewilderment I settled into a comfortable position, backing the sickly ants as they writhed in their agony.

"Ok" Dean began," So as you know I practically disappeared after the battle with Dred, to be frank I was pissed off. It was just after we had reached the tree that I hopped off and snuck off into the brush. I really didn't have a plan I was just wandering until I was Interrupted by a soft crunch in the grass. I looked around carefully eyeing each blade of grass my body tense expecting something to pounce on me at any moment, but I saw nothing, satisfied I whirled around to continue my aimless wandering only to be faced with piercing red eyes. The powerful presence caused me to freeze my whole body becoming useless for those few moments. Then what I though was a blade of grass before became hooked passing dangerously close to my face. With a scream the insect charged towards me, I struggled to get back but it soon held me to the ground amazingly resisting my full strength. Then it spoke asking me why I had forsaken you. For whatever reason I just vented off my rage telling every bit of detail of what happened to me. Then with what appeared to be an amused smile the beast released me, he told me his name was Blade. Blade told me he was tracking you, it was his mission from some science guy, he was to make sure that you and your troops stayed intact that especially means keeping me one of your generals by your side. He made me promise to come back and stay with you however I wanted to at least spend one night away from Mordred. Of course when went to the campsite the next morning you were all gone so Blade and I tracked you down and here we are today."

"Great you just bored me half to death" I said as I sighed and rested my head down.

"C'mon kid I think I'm pretty good story teller"

"Maybe in your dreams Dean but right now I'm half asleep."

"Whatever, by the way when are you gonna tell us what's your connection to Blade."

I arose quickly, suddenly remembering.

"Blade!" I hollered.

Upon hearing me call for him Blade flew up looking as deadly as I remember him.

"Explain yourself, you're in with that scientist guy, the one that messed with me and all my other generals and I'm assuming he's the one that set up Noire too, now spill it before I teach why I'm in charge around here."

Blade seemed somewhat surprised when I let loose on him but then his face instantly returned to its serious demeanour.

"Fine, I'll tell you what you want to know in fact I'll tell you everything!"