Narrow Escape (948)

There weren't too many times in his centuries of life that Rassan'tep had truly feared for his life. He'd been outnumbered and surrounded during a wave defence in the fourth in just his fifth decade, barely out of the nest. Only the intervention of an Old One had saved him from the jaws of a ravening horde of Emerald Lizards. As he had grown, increased his level, power and prestige, he had not found himself in that situation again.

Until today.

The Ka'armodo found a nice shady spot and crawled in before settling down to try and recover some equilibrium. Not far away, others tended to the termite brood, accelerating their growth and directing them to battle each other to improve their skills. The Old One felt nothing but contempt for the efforts of his comrades in their continued attempts to attack the Mother Tree, and by extension the ants. Even so, he would continue to use them for his own purpose.

[Master!] His faithful chief retainer, the Setsulah Ammon'sil, rushed to his side, placing both hands on the great lizard's side in an unusual public display of concern. [I felt your agitation through the bond. Is all well?]

Under the calming influence of his servant and the cool of the shade, the powerful mage began to feel his blood slow in his veins as he gathered himself.

[It goes to show what happens when I leave without my faithful servants by my side,] Rassan admitted, ruefully.

[I warned you not to go.]

[Peace, Ammon'sil. I know. I judged it to be worth the risk, and I am still not convinced that it wasn't.]

His chief servant subsided and bottled his objections, allowing his master to think and calm himself as he kept his hands pressed to the great lizard's side. He monitored the breath and thoughts of Rassan'tep through the bond as he felt that ancient mind turn.

[I was able to find our specimen,] Rassan'tep finally conferred. [Though I saw it much closer than I would have liked.]

[You were attacked?] Rage blossomed in the heart of the servant at the thought of such a lowly monster threatening his master, but Rassan'tep only chuckled across their bond.

[I was, indeed. Such a fury of a monster. I don't know how it found me, but it came after me so quickly I didn't have the time to retreat before it was upon me.]

The scene was far more terrifying than he communicated, and he could feel the confusion in his Setsulah, but he made no effort to dispel it. Better that he remain in ignorance than try to grasp the desperate madness that monster possessed.

Rassan'tep had taken his turn to lead a brigade of termites toward the tree, controlling the horde through the methods the Ka'armodo had built into their servants. Of course, he couldn't possibly refuse this opportunity to study the budding ancient in action and had purposefully attempted to engage it in combat.

It had taken several days of careful manoeuvring, but he had finally encountered the target toward the centre of the lines. It had been trivial to arrange an engagement where he would be in position to both watch the conflict unfold and make a quick escape, yet things hadn't exactly turned out that way.

The specimen was everything he had hoped to see. Domineering, decisive, radiating strength and power. The colossal ant had fallen upon his termite horde like a natural disaster, the pets kept by its side unable to keep up with the sheer fury on display. Magic of many elements, including that strange, unknown power, was on display, along with potent physical abilities that shredded through the termite force far quicker than anticipated.

That was when things had taken a turn.

He'd been so engaged with watching the monster annihilate his troops that he had missed the window to retreat. When he tried to correct this mistake and withdraw, he'd already been noticed by the ant he'd been trying to study. Even so, he should have made it out; the distance between them was large enough, but necessity was the mother of invention, after all. The ant had leapt towards him, its body flying into the air as it burned its skills to accelerate as fast as possible. That still wouldn't have been enough, but a powerful explosion had erupted beneath the creature, flinging its body towards him even as it suffered severe damage.

It had commanded its pet to create the explosion in order to propel itself at him.

The memory of that gnashing, chomping nightmare of chitin and flesh that had set upon him then was enough to accelerate the heart of Rassan'tep once more. Truly a powerful monster. Any thought he'd had of preserving the monster, this potential ancient, had flown out of his mind after a minute of combat. It had taken every ounce of mana that he could produce to keep the creature off him, and only after inflicting wounds that should have killed it five times over was he able to disengage and escape.

If his servants had been there, connected through the bond, their collective strength would have allowed him to withdraw far more easily, but even so, he couldn't help but suspect the creature would have found a way to make him pay by destroying one of his servants. Truly, a fearsome and indomitable monster.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that he would need to make contact with whoever had created or was guiding this monster so that they might collaborate in their efforts. His plan to accelerate the growth of the creature through difficult combat appeared to be working, but it was always good to confer with one's peers on the correct course of action.

Also, he had strongly begun to suspect that the termites, and his fellow Ka'armodo, were significantly underestimating what would come their way when the ants began to turn on the offensive. Even after the display of strength at the termite nest, they still didn't believe the ants were worthy foes.

And now that they had redoubled their efforts in producing a termite war machine, they failed to realise they were not grinding down the ant resistance, but feeding it, strengthening it. Despite inflicting casualties, the ants who remained were growing in strength, and none faster than the specimen. There was trouble on the horizon.