22. Red Eyes

I was so surprised, I screamed like a blood-splattered teen in a horror flick. I wasn”t expecting that at all, and it freaked me out. My scream must have freaked out Papa Ank too, as he reversed course and started hauling me back up through the hole.

That was the exact opposite of what I needed because the Rock Thing still had my arm in a grip that was so tight I couldn’t twist it. Now that I was being hauled up into the air, my arm and shoulder had a lot more pressure on them, and the whole thing was quite painful. If the Rock Thing jerked or if Papa Ank kept pulling, I stood a good chance of either breaking my arm or having it ripped off.

My saving grace was Red and all his little Hexagons. They were designed so they could take the force in one area and distribute it across my entire body. I’d made them when I was facing projectiles, so they worked best when facing a single incoming arrow of force. Consistent pressure like this wasn’t their forte, but it seemed like they were fairly good at that too. The flesh in my arm was getting badly bruised, but my reinforced bones were holding out and I didn’t have any cuts.

‘Let go!’ I mentally snapped at the magic rope as I Spike-punched the Rock Thing as hard as I could. To my surprise, my message got through. The rope untied the knot and uncoiled from around my waist. It disappeared up the hole as gravity took over and I fell back down again. My shoulder jerked hard as I came to an abrupt stop, but this time I was ready for it.

I thought maybe all my movement and my weight hanging from its mandibles would make the Rock Thing release me—or at least let me slip out of its grip—but that didn’t happen. Its hold on my arm stayed rock solid, and my punch didn’t seem to phase it at all.

I punched it again, but the force I could bring to bear was pitiful. I wasn’t grounded at all, and neither my punch nor my Spikes were doing a lot of damage. I was tempted to just hammer on this thing, but now the surprise of the attack had faded, I realized I needed to take a moment and think this through.

I dangled by my arm and took a second pass with my magic sight. It all still looked like rocks to me. No wonder I’d missed it on the way down. Now I knew there was something there, I could spot the creature inside. It was very long—about the length of a school bus—and very flat, with hundreds of short, powerful legs latched onto the roof of the tunnel. It had two smaller stomachs and one long one with crushed up rock digesting inside.

‘This thing is like a cross between a crab and a millipede,’ my Analytical Side noted. ‘If I had to guess, it uses its mandibles to crunch up the stone. It then digests the gravel for food and uses some of the ore it extracts to grow a defensive shell. It probably moves slowly and has few natural predators due to its solid defense.’

‘That sounds about right,’ I agreed. ‘The question is, how do I make it let go of my arm? And does it have red eyes?’

I looked yet again. This thing didn’t have any eyes at all from what I could see. It didn’t seem rabid, though. If anything, it seemed peaceful and sleepy. Other than grabbing me, it hadn’t moved at all.

On the other hand, if this thing ate rocks for a living, I didn’t want it chewing on my arm. It was time to make this Rock Thing realize I wasn’t a tasty morsel. It would also be best if it moved back down the tunnel a bit. I didn’t want it grabbing hold of Annabeth when she came down.

‘It’s Saber-Saw time!’ I told Spike and then focused on exactly what I wanted to cut. I would have preferred to cut the mandibles, but they were too close to my arm. The last thing I needed was to hack off my own limb. The Rock Thing had a thick ridge of rock protecting its head and eating area. That seemed like an excellent place to start. Hopefully, once I got rid of its defense, I could find a vulnerable spot to make it let go.

I sent encouraging thoughts to Spike and the Knuckle Crew, but privately, I was worried about cutting through stone. If this was wood, bones, or even a thin sheet of metal, I’d have felt fine. Stone, however, just seemed so freakin’ hard.

I braced myself with my left arm as best as I could and took a swipe.

Only to shriek in surprise as the Rock Thing dropped me like a hot potato and slowly started scooting backwards as fast as its multiple legs and massive bulk would allow.

‘That worked out well,’ my Analytical Side noted. ‘I think your manly scream scared it away. Either that or it was the vibrations from your new sawing technique.’

‘It was a manly shout of joy,’ I replied primly as I awkwardly landed on my feet. ‘If anything, it was a kiai like they do in Karate.’

‘Sure. We’ll go with that story,’ my Analytical Side grinned before I dismissed him and sent a message to Annabeth.

‘There was a slight problem down here,’ I sent, ‘but all is well now. Come on down whenever you’re ready.’

‘Good!’ she replied. ‘We were getting pretty worried up here. I’ll be down in a moment.’

While I waited, I rubbed my arm to help it feel better and looked around. The tunnel was quiet, and my eyes were adjusting to the tiny moss lights. Now I had a moment to take it all in, I saw there was a lot more vegetation than just moss. There were all kinds of wrinkly things that seemed like mushrooms, plants with long, leafy things like ferns, and even flowers that reminded me of dandelions.

I’d always thought of caves as cold, hard, and lifeless, but the tunnel floor was teeming with its own ecosystem. The walls of the tunnel had vegetation too, but nowhere near as much, and the ceiling was mostly rock. No wonder the Rock Thing had been grazing at the top. It would have had to work a lot harder to get to the tasty rocks at the bottom.

I was still full of energy from my encounter, so I paced up and down a bit and swung my arms around to test my shoulder. It was amazing how much better I felt already. I’d been fearful it would throw off my fighting ability, but I felt good to go.

‘As always, thank you for taking such good care of me!’ I sent to Tea and his Grove. ‘You guys are the best!’

I got back happy feelings, and it wasn’t long after when Annabeth arrived. I had to laugh when she came into view, as she looked like Glinda the Good Witch descending from the sky. The magic rope had gone all out, creating a custom seat for her to sit in as Papa Ank lowered her down the hole. It was an entrance worthy of any production of Wicked. And sitting in her lap, like a species-neutral casting of Toto, was Bermuda.

He looked comfortable and sassy, and obviously enjoyed the drama of it all. He was the perfect cherry on top of the Annabeth entrance, and I couldn’t help but gather him up and give him a warm hug when he got within reach. Then I laid down some loud, snugga-bugga kisses while Bermuda made a face like “Dad! Please! You’re embarrassing me.” I could tell he enjoyed all the attention, though.

Once Annabeth reached the ground, she called up to Papa Ank to let him know she’d arrived. He released the rope, which fell down to us. He wished us luck on our quest and said he’d stay around for a few minutes in case we needed him. I yelled up that I appreciated everything he and Ank Jr. had done for us. Meanwhile, Bermuda decided I was being too noisy and jumped out of my arms. He started sniffing around the mushroom type things as Annabeth gave me a mandatory hug and then jumped up on my back again. The rope got to work tying us together, and it wasn’t long before we were ready to begin the underground part of our adventure.

While it did that, I decided to summon at least one of all my normal soul creations. I had no idea what we were going to run into down here, and it took less effort in the middle of a battle to duplicate them than it did to summon them in the first place.

I summoned the head Granny Godmother, who gave me a big smile and a double Dustbuster salute. She would be a lifesaver if we ran into any toxic magic. Then I summoned my main flying Miner, who blinked his helmet light at me before zooming off with his rocket backpack. I didn’t have anything he needed to break up at the moment, but we were surrounded by stone, so there was a good chance he’d be useful. I summoned an Ass Blaster 2000 as well. That little guy could move a surprising amount of dirt and rocks considering his size. He gave me a happy belch and then farted his way after his buddy, the Miner.

Octa, the purple octopus, was next, and she batted her pretty eyes at me before swimming off to hang with her friend the Godmother. Bob the Basher, who was my mage shield tester, was already present. He didn’t need it, but I gave him a refill anyway, and he thumped my shoulder in appreciation.

My ten Surfer Dudes were always with me, keeping an eye out for danger, and I gave them refills as well. They gave me a loop-the-loop in the air to show they were ready and zoomed away.

The next summons was my trusty Flasher. The little firefly with a massive amount of light in his butt had saved me more than once. I briefly debated creating several flashers and letting them light up the tunnel, but Annabeth was blind and I could already see just fine using moss light. Using my Flasher as a surprise attack if we ran into mages would be a much better use of his abilities. He gave a tiny twinkle in greeting and then flew up over my head. That was a great default position, as he would probably blind anyone looking at me but he wouldn’t ruin my own eyesight.

My final soul creation was Belcher the Blowfish. It took him a moment to compress the air and get charged up, but when he was ready, he could make a lot of noise. Given the acoustics down here, the Belcher might be extra effective. He gave me a soft burp in greeting and then swam off to hang with Octa.

Summoning these creations sounded like it would have taken a while, but Penny kept a template of all my little helpers, so it was a lot easier than it used to be. One silver lining of being trapped in stone in Karl’s cave was that I’d gotten very proficient at summoning, duplicating, and refilling multiple helpers at once. Plus, my templates were at a much higher definition and much more powerful than what they used to be. Basically, I flexed my magic, and all my soul creations sprang into being and did their thing in about the same time as the magic rope took to tie Annabeth on like a comfortable backpack.

I took a moment to appreciate my accomplishments. I’d come a long way from the mage who’d struggled at summoning a punch rocket to push an elevator button.

“Where to now?” Annabeth asked aloud. I’d been wondering that myself, but before I could say anything, I heard the faint sounds of something coming towards us.

It sounded fast, like something was running, but it wasn’t any type of running sound I recognized. Annabeth stayed quiet and gripped my shoulder in support as we moved to the side of the tunnel and faced the sounds.

We didn’t have long to wait until I saw the faint outline of a shape heading towards us. It was about the size of a golden retriever, so it didn’t seem scary at first. Then I realized it wasn’t moving like any type of dog I knew of.

Wait, was that a spider?

God! I hoped not!

I hated spiders. Hated, hated, hated them! I hated their furry legs, their beady eyes, their sticky webs.

Ever since I’d gotten trapped in the crawl space under my parent’s house, I had hated them. They’d swarmed all over me as I’d screamed in helpless fear. One had even crawled into my mouth.

Just thinking about it made me shudder and break out in goosebumps.

I knew they were good for the environment and all, but I didn’t want any spiders near me. Ever. No thank you.

Wait—it was an ant. A black ant. That was better.

‘I’m not sure how much better that is,’ my Analytical Side noted. ‘They still have six legs and move like a spider.’

‘It’s much better,’ I replied firmly. ‘Ants are like workers. They’re nice. They are the good guys.’

‘Ants can also sting you,’ my Analytical Side continued. ‘Plus, they”re crazy strong. They can lift over ten times their own body weight. I know you’re not as scared of ants, but you should still be on your guard. This insect might be looking for food for its freshly hatched babies. It might decide you’re a tasty snack and drag you back to the nest like you’re a discarded Dorito. I don’t think you want to be treated like a tasty potato chip.’

‘First, you have a weird mind,’ I retorted. ‘But I get what you’re saying. Don’t worry. I’ll be wary of anything we meet down here. No matter how innocent it seems.’

The ant ran towards us, and I was shocked at just how fast it was moving. It might have been the size of a medium dog, but it was arriving much faster than any dog I”d ever seen.

I would have thought that it would have been slower, as it had six legs to maneuver. But I realized its strides were much longer than a canine”s. Its legs went up and then bent back down again, like a cricket, giving it a deceptively long reach.

The ant saw us and started running on the opposite side of the tunnel, so it would miss us. We were here for points, but I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like it didn”t want to fight us. Plus, I wasn”t seeing red eyes, so it wouldn”t have given us points anyway.

The ant ran right up until it was even with us, and then it stopped. It didn”t skid to a stop or slow down. It just stopped.

‘We need to be careful.’ I sent a quick thought to Annabeth. ‘We”re used to normal creatures on the surface. These insects won’t react the way I think they should. They”re moving much faster, and they seem more agile than expected.’

Annabeth didn”t say anything out loud, but she sent back a quick message of agreement. The ant waved around a pair of antennae that were almost as long as my arm, then took off running again. As it scuttled away, I saw more ants headed towards us.

“Do you think this is normal?” Annabeth whispered. “Or are they being chased?”

“I think we”re about to find out,” I replied.

This time there were three ants, and Annabeth was right. They were being chased. Behind them was a larger ant with red eyes.

It wasn’t that much bigger, about as tall as my waist, and I would have thought that three black ants could have taken it down. They seemed to be running for their lives, though, so maybe there was something I was missing.

“How do you want to handle this?” Annabeth asked, but before I could reply, the three ants had zoomed past us. Suddenly, our first red-eye was in front of us, and I felt waves of killing intent rolling off it.

From a distance, it wasn’t that intimidating. Up close, I felt like a scared little rabbit getting ready to get splattered into roadkill. It only came up to my waist, but it was much longer and more dangerous looking than I expected. Its six legs suddenly seemed very spider-like, and its red eyes seemed crazy. Like the Joker, with that fresh-from-the-asylum crazy. Like Zombie Spider I’m-going-to-eat-your-brains crazy.

I didn’t have long to be scared, as it didn’t even try to slow down and figure out what I was. It just opened its mandibles wide and charged right at me.

“Incoming!” I hollered at Annabeth and started punching before it even arrived. It was a good thing I did, as it rushed us at what seemed like sonic speed. It came to an abrupt stop a few inches in front of me and tried to take a bite out of my stomach.

Fortunately, my fist got there first, and I knocked its head out of the way. It didn’t seem phased at all. Instead, it snapped its head back into position and tried to take another bite. That’s when Annabeth’s shillelagh landed and knocked its head down so hard it bounced off the ground.

Again, the red-eyed ant wasn’t stunned, and just kept on coming.

“We’re only facing one ant,” I yelled, “so we need to see what works with these things before we have to face a whole swarm of them.”

“Agreed!” Annabeth yelled back, and together, we let loose.

We quickly found out that blunt force wasn’t very effective. My fists would knock its head around, which was good for defense, but I couldn’t knock it backwards to give us some room. It had a lower center of gravity than we did, and its six legs gave it a lot more stability.

I also couldn’t pigeon-step to dodge like I was used to. Again, six legs trumps two. The rabid ant could turn on a dime. The only thing that seemed to be effective at all was to just center myself in the earth and hammer away at the enemy.

Annabeth was getting her shots in, too. We weren’t sure how her over the shoulder blows would work in a real fight, and I was very happy to note that she laid down some thumpers. She wasn’t hitting as hard as she would have if she’d been standing on her own, but she was doing a lot more than knocking politely.

The problem was the ant had a head like a goat—it was all forehead and it could obviously take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. The mandibles weren’t to be discounted either. They were massive, as long as short swords, and it used them to defend as much as attack. I was very glad I had Red and all his Hexagons shielding me. If those mandibles ever got a good bite, I was going to be hurting.

“Bashing sucks,” Annabeth called. “Switching to cutting.”

I nodded and kept defending.

Her short swords didn’t do a lot of good either. Its chitin was tough and smooth, and unless Annabeth hit it just right, her sword slid right off. She managed to crack its shell in a few places, but it would take a lot of time and luck to take this red-eye down.

“I can go for the eyes and the antennae,” Annabeth suggested, but I shook my head.

“Let me see how my Spikes do first,” I replied.

I got in two Spike-punches before the red-eye went even more crazy. My needle sharp Spikes, backed by the power of grounded punches, easily shattered its chitin and stabbed deep inside its head.

The red-eye stopped trying to bite, and instead, used its two front legs to grab Annabeth. It jerked backward and almost ripped Annabeth off my back. The sudden pull forward was completely surprising, and for a moment, I was off balance.

The red ant used that moment of weakness to lunge forward again. This time it was aiming to crush my head.

That was enough. Testing time was over.

The front two legs had a solid grip on Annabeth, and she used that stability to cut off both of them with a double swipe of her short swords. Meanwhile, I switched from Spikes to Saber-Saw and cut through both sides of its grasping mandibles.

I thought it would run away or at least rear back in pain, but instead, it lowered its head and tried to run us over.

This thing really was crazy. It didn’t seem to have any self-preservation instincts at all. It just wanted to tear us apart. It seemed like if it could use its last flicker of life to destroy us, then it would die satisfied.

I already knew I could move its head around, so I used a punch to knock its head down and to the side. That gave me access to one of the smallest parts of its anatomy: its neck. I stepped in, and one Saber-Saw later, its head fell to the ground.

“Wow! That was intense,” Annabeth said as I stepped back. Then we both freaked out as the body of the ant kept moving. It walked back, like it was going to run away, before slowly sinking to the ground. Like a balloon slowly losing its helium.

We both stayed alert, ready to fight again. I didn’t feel like we’d won until the legs relaxed and stretched out on the ground. A red haze that I hadn’t even noticed was present finally lifted, and for the first time, the ant looked truly lifeless.

Even in death, it looked menacing. I hadn’t realized before just how big it was. Its body was as long as a full-size SUV, and its legs were as long as its body. No wonder it had such stability and had moved so quickly.

“That thing is built like a tank,” Annabeth continued, echoing my train of thought.

“For real,” I agreed. “I wonder how the other teams are doing against red-eyes like this?”

“I would imagine they’re struggling,” Annabeth said. “It was fast and fearless, so teams probably won’t have much time to figure it out. If they’re using regular magic weapons, I can’t imagine that they’d do better than I did. My sword and shillelagh didn’t seem to hurt it much at all. The only other solution I could think of that might be effective is to use pure magic attacks like fire, or tear it apart with vines, or something like that.”

“That weird life-sapping glow the Fists of the Desert used might have been good against these things,” I agreed. “However, attacks like that use up a lot of magic. They might be effective against a few of them, but if they face several red ants, they are going to be in trouble.

“Switching topics, did you notice a red glow around this ant? It wasn’t just its eyes; it was around all of it—like its aura had turned red.”

“That’s what I saw in your images,” Annabeth said. “I could hear it too, and it sounded awful.”

She made a face of disgust.

“It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard crossed with screeching brakes from a train.”

“Wow,” I said thoughtfully. “I keep forgetting how old you are. You probably had real chalkboards when you grew up, didn’t you?”

I was teasing her a bit to try to lighten the mood. Fighting crazy, giant insects in the dark was scary stuff.

“You better behave yourself, young whippersnapper,” Annabeth laughed and lightly thumped me on the head. “I might have grown up with chalk instead of a touchscreen, but this old granny has still got it!”

“Yes, you do,” I laughed with her and gave her leg a pat. Then I looked at the body again in the dim light. “I thought ants had smooth exoskeletons—like armor. This thing has bristles or spikes, or something like that all over it.”

“It’s kind of like the rats at Otugh’s warehouse,” Annabeth agreed. “I wonder if all underground creatures have something like this. Do you think they are sharp?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. Its head was right by my feet, so I looked down and saw there were a few bristles in the back where its neck used to be. The whole hair-on-the-legs thing reminded me of spiders, which was just nasty, but I decided to be brave and touch a hair to see what it felt like.

I knelt down and carefully reached out to touch a spikey projection.

“Boo!” Annabeth hollered and grabbed my shoulders.

I screamed like a startled cat, and I just about shit my pants. I swear I jumped at least four feet off the ground as I screamed again.

“Don’t do that!” I yelled, smacking her leg as Annabeth laughed hysterically. “That wasn’t funny!”

“Oh, it was funny!” Annabeth howled. “Believe me, it was very funny.” She mimed me almost touching the bristle and freaking out. Then she started laughing all over again. Annabeth is such a sweet soul, but she can be mischievous sometimes.

My heart was still racing, and I had goosebumps on top of goosebumps. I grumbled at her as I walked around to help get rid of all the excess energy.

“Awww, Jason. Don’t be mad.” Annabeth gave me a big hug. “You just seemed very tense, and I thought I’d lighten the mood.”

“You almost caused me to make a gravy stain on my new super suit,” I grumbled. “There’s lightening the mood, and then there’s giving me a heart attack. I swear, I thought I was going to die.”

“I got you good,” Annabeth stated proudly. Then I got another hug.

“You got me good,” I agreed. It was hard to stay mad at her, and I was calming down a bit. “It’s just that I don’t like bugs. I don’t like their crunchy shells. I don’t like the creepy way they walk. I don’t like their hairy legs, and I don’t like their buggy eyes. I just flat out don’t like them.”

“I’m beginning to get that,” Annabeth laughed.

“Give me a sweet, furry cat any day of the week,” I said. “Sure they can pee in your shoes and yak on the rug, but they’re so damn cute when they do it. Speaking of which, where is Bermuda?”

I looked around and Bermuda was off to the side, chewing on a flower. He seemed totally unconcerned with red ants or my near heart attack.

“Come here, cat,” I said as I walked over and picked him up. “You’re supposed to be my emotional support animal. So support me, damn it.”

He looked at me like “Daddy, what are you doing? I was busy.” But then he resigned himself to his fate and licked my face a few times. It seemed like he did it more out of obligation than anything else, as he then wiggled for me to put him down again. I sighed, gave him a few kisses of my own, and put him back on the ground.

“I love you, you little rascal,” I told him.

He gave me a cheerful look like “I know you do. Now run along and play with your monsters like a good human.”

“Since this ant was a red-eye, shouldn’t we be collecting our points?” Annabeth asked to get us back on track.

“Good idea,” I said and went over and gingerly tapped my Bank Stamp against the dead ant’s head. It disappeared with a pop. I looked at the long, hairy body, but it was still there. I walked over and gingerly tapped my Bank Stamp against its neck. The body also disappeared with a pop.

‘Did I just get double points?’ I asked my Bank Crystal hopefully.

‘No,’ it replied. ‘It was only one enemy, so you only received the allotted amount of points for a red-eye soldier ant.’

‘And how many points was that?’ I inquired.

‘Twenty points,’ it replied. ‘Which is pretty good overall. You’ll only need to vanquish five of them to get a hundred points, which is more than many of the teams from the last round.’

Twenty points didn’t seem like a lot to me—especially when we were over seven thousand points in the hole. I started to tell Annabeth about it, when we heard the sounds of movement coming down the tunnel.

“Incoming,” Annabeth said as I moved to the side of the tunnel and got ready for our next fight. Letting the black ants run past me and taking out whoever was chasing them had already worked once. Maybe see if it would work again.

The shapes got closer, and this time it looked like a single black worker ant being chased by a red-eyed soldier. The worker was running with everything it had, but the soldier was fast, and before they reached us, the soldier managed to catch up.

The red-eye’s mandibles tried to bite the worker’s rear end, but the worker dodged at the last moment and it missed. The evasion was necessary, but it slowed the worker down and let the soldier get even closer. It attacked again, but this time the soldier used its jaws to get under the worker and flip it off its feet.

Immediately a desperate struggle ensued, with the worker on its back, trying with all its might to fend off the red-eye’s relentless advance. Its legs pushed frantically against the soldier’s head as it slid along the ground.

“Go!” Annabeth cried, gripping my shoulders hard. “Stop this!”

I was already in motion, sprinting as fast as I could towards the worker fighting for its life. It wasn’t really a fight, though, as it wasn’t something the worker could win. The red-eyed soldier was bigger, stronger, and much more aggressive. Even as frantically as the worker defended itself, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

I was still strides away when the enemy soldier grabbed one of the worker’s back legs and ripped it off.

The violence was shocking.

I felt the intensity of their battle in my soul.

This wasn’t movie violence. This wasn’t a fight for fame or status. This wasn’t a fight for glory in front of a crowd.

Instead, this struggle was life and death. This was one ant determined to end the life of another.

What made the whole thing feel eerie and surreal was that there were almost no sounds. There wasn’t any cussing or screaming or cries for help. There were just the soft sounds of their scuffle on the quiet moss.

The worker never stopped fighting, its five remaining legs struggling all they could.

Annabeth felt the intensity too as she screamed a battle cry and urged me to move faster. The red-eyed soldier clamped down on another one of the worker’s legs just as we arrived.

This time we didn’t play around. As I ran past, I slashed at the red-eye’s mandibles and cut them off. Annabeth sliced off its antennae and stabbed it through the eye. It reared back and focused its attention on us, but that didn’t matter, as I raced past its head and reached its neck.

I felt like a Jedi striking a blow against pure evil as my Saber-Saw sliced through its tiny neck.

And just like that, the battle was over.

I Bank Stamped its headless body before it could wander away and then got rid of the severed head too. I spun around to see how the worker was doing, but it had already gotten to its feet.

For a long moment, we just looked at each other, and once again, the whole thing felt strange. The poor ant had just lost a leg, and yet it wasn”t crying or whimpering at all. It had also just fought for its life with everything it had, but it wasn’t panting or doing any of the other signs I’d recognize as having been through an intense struggle.

Instead, it just stood there like it was reporting for duty.

Somehow, that made the whole fight seem even more intense. Life in the underground was no joke. It was kill or be killed, and it better not take long to recover.

The only thing about the ant that seemed to portray an appropriate level of agitation was its antennae. They were waving around like it was conducting two orchestras at once.

“Poor thing,” Annabeth said. “It must be so scared. I can’t believe it’s back on its feet already. Can you put its leg back on?”

I looked around and saw its leg on the ground, but it was looking pretty mangled. When the soldier had ripped it off, he must have twisted his head, as the leg was both crushed and bent at a steep angle.

“I don’t think I can,” I replied. “Even if I could get it to reattach, it wouldn’t do any good. That leg is ruined.”

“It has to be in pain, though,” Annabeth continued. “Can you at least do something for that?”

“I’ll try,” I said and took a tentative step forward. The worker immediately took a step back.

Annabeth made soothing noises, and I slowly stepped forward again. This time it didn’t move. As soon as I took a second step, though, it took another step back. Its steps were bigger than mine, so although I’d taken an extra step, I still wasn’t any closer.

At least it wasn’t running away.

Annabeth kept talking to it like it was an injured cat on the street, but it wouldn’t let down its guard. I could get about two strides away from touching it, but no closer.

“I don’t think we can do anything,” I said regretfully. “I want to help it too, but I think we are going to have to move on.”

“I agree with you,” Annabeth said slowly, but she said it in a tone like she really didn’t feel like that at all.

“But?” I asked.

“It doesn’t feel right,” Annabeth replied. “Logically, you are certainly correct. We’ve never seen this ant before, and we probably won’t again. We need to get going, find some more red-eyes and work on our points. I agree with all that.

“It’s just that I feel like this is important. I don’t know why, and I can’t tell you how this will change things. It’s just a feeling, but it”s like fate is telling me we should take the time to help this ant.”

I nodded in agreement, although I was feeling resigned. I trusted Annabeth’s feelings like I trusted my own. My hunches had saved my life before by allowing my magic to grow in unexpected ways. I wanted to help this worker ant, just like I’d want to help any injured animal. But it was wary of us, and even with five legs, it was still much faster.

If it didn’t want us to touch it, then we wouldn’t be able to. At least, not without hurting it, and that would defeat the entire purpose of touching it in the first place.

‘Do you think you can help this ant?’ I asked Tea. ‘If so, I could always fly a member of your Grove over.’

Tea looked thoughtful for a moment as his healing flowers waved in an imaginary wind. Then he shook his head.

‘I don’t have her permission to help her, so it would be very difficult to make any changes. She isn’t a magical creature, so she has a regular, weak aura. Your aura is powerful, so you could probably override her natural defenses and give me a small amount of room to work. You’d need to be touching her for that, though. Besides, healing works best when it’s working with the body. I like to help the body help itself.

‘To make this even more difficult, this ant has an exoskeleton, which isn’t something I’ve worked on before. I don’t think she has anything like a human heart or lungs or even blood. Figuring how she operates, without her permission, would be an impossible task.’

He gave me a deep bow, and I could feel his sadness and frustration. Tea loved being a healer, and he didn’t like that he wasn’t able to help.

‘What,’ I said. ‘The worker is female?’

‘Of course,’ Tea replied, like I was being dense.

I shrugged, as it didn’t really matter and passed on what Tea had said to Annabeth.

“Well, shoot,” she said. “I was hoping we could do something, but she doesn’t seem to be responding to me at all.”

She sighed, and we turned to go, when I suddenly had an idea. I’d just learned about the power of Connection and PLACE from my Mark of the Deep Earth, so I’d been thinking of it as a skill that worked with stone. Or possibly plants through my Mark of the Lagerel.

This wasn’t a skill from my Marks, though. This was a skill that I had from being alive. From being magical and part of the natural fabric of creation. I’d already used it on a sentient being when I’d Connected with the Dummy at Whet’s Edge. Sure, it had a stone as its center, but I’d done a lot more than feel its core. I’d Connected with it on a fundamental level and measured who I was against who it was.

Maybe the same thing would work here?

“I’m going to try something,” I said to Annabeth as I grounded myself on the floor of the tunnel. I tuned in completely to my magic senses and Connected to the stone all around me.

That wasn’t hard to do, as I’d already been paying much more attention than usual to my magic sight. The minerals and ore around me came into sharp focus, and I heard their whispers and gentle melodies as they slowly communicated with each other. The stone wasn’t in a hurry. It had been here long before I’d arrived, and it would be here long after I left. I Connected to the stone, and its unhurried permanence helped ground me for my next step.

Now I was in the right frame of mind, I turned my attention to the worker ant. Tea was right; her aura was weak. Or maybe I was just getting stronger. Either way, her aura blocked my view, but nowhere near as much as I’d expected. I could see her internal organs, her physical makeup, and it was so different from anything I was used to.

I wasn’t here to study her physically, so with a small effort of will, I created our Connection. The worker ant was wary, so there was resistance at first. But as the Connection settled into place, she started thinking of me as a magical ant, and an entirely new world opened up.

I thought of myself as very lucky to have my Housemates as close friends. Her family, however, numbered in the thousands. And they were a family on a level beyond any actual family I’d known. They were relatives, friends, and workmates. The ant was part of a clan whose members supported each other in every way possible. They shared food, raised their young, and fought their enemies. And they did it in harmony and connection with each other.

To feel that from the worker was inspiring and humbling all at the same time. I also sensed that there had been ants before that had developed magical abilities. That didn’t happen often, but when it did, they became known as special worker ants. The others in the family took care of them, and in turn, they used their magical talents for the good of the clan.

The worker ant didn’t have a reference for anyone as individual as I was, so she began to think of me as a strange magical ant, and that opened up a whole new level of information.

Basically, the family was in trouble. They had a territory they thought of as their own, and they often fought with other creatures of the underground for dominance and food. Sometimes they won, in which case they hauled the intruder back to their nest and ate them. Sometimes they lost, and in turn their enemy would put them on the supper menu as well. This was all normal, as nothing was wasted in the underground. What wasn’t normal were the red-eyed creatures that had shown up.

They fought, and it wasn’t for food or survival. Instead, they fought and fought, destroying anything and everything they could. The clan battled back, of course, but the red-eyed ants were stronger, faster, and seemed to feel no pain. The only way to stop them was to tear them apart, making sure they were completely dead.

The worst part was that sometimes members of the clan became infected, and they turned into red-eyed ants too. They still smelled like family, but now they were crazy and did everything they could to kill their former friends.

The family was everything to the worker ant. She worked every day, all day, to provide for her clan and keep her people strong. She would gladly die for her family if it would keep them safe. The thought of turning against them was her worst nightmare. It was the antithesis of who she was—who every black ant was—and the conversions had the entire family freaking out.

None of the ants had any ideas of how to deal with this new threat, so they continued to do what they’d done before. They raised soldiers to protect the nest, even though they weren’t strong enough. They bred workers to search for food, even though they weren’t fast enough to escape.

They worked. They fought. And they hoped for a miracle.

I bundled all this up as best as I could and sent it to Annabeth. Then I used my Connection with the ant to get more specific. This time I didn’t focus on her family or her situation. Instead, I focused on her physical abilities.

Connection was about knowing how two entities measured up against each other. For rocks, it was all about PLACE, pressure, temperature, and composition. For the ant, it was about who could work more, and in that instance, she could run circles around me.

She could lift so much more than I could and run so much faster. Her endurance was astonishing, as she worked constantly and only slept for a few hours every day. Her dedication to the family and her work ethic were astonishing. Most of all, she was happy. So very happy to be doing everything she could for her colony.

Connection allowed the two parties to grow and learn from each other, and in this case, I became inspired by her ability to work and not stop. I thought I’d trained hard before, but I had a whole new benchmark now. The next time I trained on the beach, I was going to attack it like an ant!

Connection also held up a mirror. It allowed me to see myself in a whole new light, and I was both flattered and worried about what I saw.

My intelligence and my ability to see the world in new ways was far beyond what this worker could understand. Her life was simple, and she loved that simplicity. My life wasn’t simple at all, and I wasn’t sure I loved how complex it had become.

Obviously, I was way more magical than the ant, but what that highlighted for me was that my magic had turned me into a deadly fighter. A killer. I’d created weapons that could destroy my opponents, but the worker ant didn’t see that as a problem. To her, I was a soldier ant, fighting to the death for my family and those I loved.

I was also a healer. And apparently there were healer ants too. They couldn’t restore lost legs, but would take care of injured ants, and helped restore minor injuries.

It was interesting because none of my abilities were ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ As long as I was true to my clan and used my abilities for their benefit, then all was right in the view of the ant. It was an interesting perspective, and something I’d have to think about later.

In the meantime, I finally got the ant”s permission to begin the healing. I stepped forward, touched her head, and transferred a couple of Tea’s Ents. They went to work right away as I continued to realize just how different this worker was from myself.

It wasn’t just that she had an exoskeleton, which was like having her bones on the outside. It was also that she mainly communicated by scent and using her antennae. Her eyes were on the side, making her vision very different from what I experienced. In the same way, she had a version of hearing, but it was mainly about sensing enemies through vibrations in the air. It wasn’t used at all to communicate like we did. No wonder she hadn’t responded to Annabeth’s overtures.

The two Ents seemed to spend a long time learning how the ant worked, and time wasn’t something we had a lot of. We waited for a while before Tea suggested sending over more Ents. I doubled their number to four. We waited again before I doubled their number to eight.

Finally, I sent Tea himself over to speed things up. I was leery about letting Tea out of my body, as he was my soul creation that had been around the longest and he was responsible for my personal health. If something happened, I wasn’t sure I could recreate him. He had always been an independent thinker, but when he’d taken the healing rune and turned it into flowers, he’d somehow become a medical genius.

The other members of his Grove were copies of himself, and they did an amazing job. But they weren’t the original Tea. He was one of a kind.

Even with Tea on the job, it still took another couple minutes for them to finish mapping out the worker ant. Once they did, the healing happened pretty quickly. They couldn’t regrow a new leg for the worker, but they fixed her up in every other way. As they all merged back into my hand again, Tea assured me that our new friend wasn’t in any pain and she was now stronger and faster than before.

“Jason, this is just amazing!” Annabeth exclaimed. My Bank Crystal had been sending her messages with my images and feelings, so she remained caught up on developments. I’m sure it wasn’t the same as experiencing it firsthand, but it still had to have been pretty exciting. It wasn’t everyday you got to experience life as an ant.

She was going to say more, but we heard the faint scuffing sounds of something incoming. I turned to look and told Annabeth that three red-eyes were headed our way.

‘Get out of here,’ I tried to send to the worker. ‘You’re not a fighter, and I don’t want you to get hurt again. We’ll take care of them.’

I wasn’t sure if she got the message or not, but at least she backed off and retreated down the tunnel. I couldn’t focus on her anymore, though, so I dropped our Connection and got ready for our latest enemies.

“Okay, backpack buddy,” I called up to Annabeth, “are you ready to do this?”

“I’m packin’ and wrappin’,” she called back, brandishing her shillelaghs as she gave me a squeeze with her legs. “Let’s go smash some crazies! Giddy-up!”

I laughed and made ‘clop-clop’ noises as I started jogging down the tunnel. I sent a quick mental tug to Bermuda, but he was still very interested in the flowers. I guess they must taste good or something. I was disappointed that he didn’t want to join us in the fight. I always felt safer with him around.

I didn’t have time to dwell on that, as the battle started sooner than I expected. I was feeling pretty good about our chances until it occurred to me that this time they weren’t chasing anyone. This time, we had their entire focus.

That made a huge difference, as the fight went to hell almost right away. The red-eye in the center came straight at me, mandibles wide and ready to bite me in two. The red-eye on the right closed in and went for Annabeth. She thunked its head into the ground as I Spike-punched the center ant and stopped it cold. I’d wanted to cut off its mandibles, but it was coming in too fast, and if I didn’t stop it, it was going to run me over.

All that would have been great if there were only two ants. But there were three of them, and the ant on the left was more battle savvy than the other two. Instead of going for my body or my arms, it went for my feet.

Its jaws closed on my left ankle, and I had enough time to think ‘Oh Shit!’ before I was hauled in the air. It flung its head, and for a moment, I thought it would let go and we’d slam into the wall.

I was preparing for impact, but instead, what it did was much worse. Rather than letting go, it whipped its head back the other way. My spine popped like a bullwhip as the centrifugal force generated by Annabeth’s extra mass almost tore me in half.

I’d never felt anything like it before and never wanted to again. I didn’t know what hurt worse, my ankle or my back. The wind swallowed my cries as the ant whipped us back again. The two other ants backed off as it shook us like a dog playing with a chew toy.

I wasn’t the only one howling in pain and terror. Annabeth was screaming right along with me. In some ways, it was probably worse for her, as her head was the tip of the ‘whip.’ I was sure her head was feeling even more pressure than mine.

I was moving so fast, I couldn’t think. I had enough presence of mind to try to bend over to cut myself loose from his jaws, but the centrifugal force, multiplied by Annabeth’s weight on my back, was too much to overcome.

On the other hand, I couldn’t let Annabeth go, as she’d fly off, smack into a wall, and then get attacked by the remaining two ants. She’d be stunned and still couldn’t see. She would be a sitting duck.

On top of all the pain and pressure, I was getting hit with a massive wave of vertigo. My magic sight was fantastic in normal situations, but it made me very dizzy if I got spun around unexpectedly. I’d gotten better at dealing with it, but getting whipped around like this was way outside of anything I’d trained for.

My puke reflexes kicked in, and suddenly, I wanted to toss my cookies like a gay boy drinking shots for the first time. I had a vision of chunky stomach juices shooting out of my mouth, all over my face, and then all over Annabeth. That was beyond gross. The situation looked hopeless and was only getting worse, so I did the only thing I could think of. I clamped my jaws shut and sent out the call to my soul creations.