26. Power of Sight

“Holy shit!” I squeaked in pure terror as I desperately tried to figure out what to do.

‘Run!’ I thought frantically.

‘You can’t run,’ my Analytical Side noted. ‘The regular red-eyes could run faster than you, so these larger ones will catch you in no time and tear you apart from the back.’

‘Hide!’ I shouted mentally.

‘You can’t hide,’ my Analytical Side continued. ‘The ants can climb walls, and they can probably get into tighter spots than you can. I’ve looked around, and there just aren”t any cubbyholes that would work. Your only option is to fight.’

Fight? That was a terrible option. I couldn’t kill all those red-eyes. I’d been holding them down and letting the warriors do the damage. There was no way I could lock down this many red-eyes.

Or could I?

‘Flashers!’ I commanded. ‘Light this place up! Full intensity, fast strobe. And stay in sync!’

I closed my eyes as the cavern lit up. It was so bright; it felt like the sun had landed. I was blinded even though I had my eyes closed.

The next second, all the Flashers went out. There was no light except for the tiny glow from the moss.

Then the light hit again.

The strobing was insane, and it almost threw me for a loop even though I knew what was happening.

Annabeth wasn’t affected at all. For once, being blind was a good thing.

As for the ants, it drove them into a panic. Some ran away. Some froze where they were, and some kept coming at us.

I had held off using big tactics like this, as I didn’t want to mess up our friendly warriors. Unfortunately, since they weren’t rabid, they were affected the most.

‘Miners, Surfers—attack their antennae!’ Then I quickly amended the command. ‘Start with the closest ones.’

Again, I’d held off doing anything like this because of the black warriors. If the red-eyes went even more crazy, who knew what they would do to our allies.

At this point, though, it didn’t matter anymore. The red-eyes were coming for us, and I had to slow them down in any way possible.

‘You need to take them out much faster,’ my Analytical Side said urgently. ‘Your existing strategy isn’t going to work. You have to find a way to one-shot them if possible.’

‘You got any suggestions?’ I snapped back. The first charging red-eye reached me, and I stopped it with a Spike-punch. ‘I can’t dodge these things, as they’re more maneuverable than I am. I need to stay grounded in the earth, or they’ll pick me up and throw me around. Annabeth can do her sonic smash on a few of them, but she doesn’t have enough magic to take care of all of them. It seems like my only offense is to stand still and punch. And that won’t be good enough.’

A second red-eye reached me, and now I was punching two of them.

‘Make your punch more deadly,’ my Analytical Side said tensely.

I wanted to cry in frustration. I’d already upgraded my punch—by a lot. I’d found out how to connect with the earth, which gave me a much firmer base and allowed me to channel a lot more power. I’d added Spikes to my fists, and now they had bashing and piercing abilities. Wasn’t that enough?

Not for these bastards.

A third and fourth red-eye reached us. Annabeth was doing her best to help, and between the two of us, it looked like we were doing a weird drum solo.

“Sonic bash?” Annabeth shouted.

“Not yet,” I shouted back. “Hold off until we absolutely need it.”

It helped that we were still partially surrounded by the black ant warriors. They weren’t fighting much, as they were too disoriented, but at least they were getting in the way of the red-eyes.

That couldn’t last, though.

My Analytical Side was right. I needed to find a way to vanquish these monsters in one shot.

I didn’t have time to take a deep breath and center myself like I wanted, but my puzzle-solving side kicked in. How could I vanquish a monster with one blow?

I couldn’t hit them hard enough to crush their heads. I didn’t have that kind of power.

I couldn’t maneuver to get to their necks, so cutting off their heads was out. Even if I could, their chitin was too tough, making my Saber-Saw too slow.

The only thing that worked fast and well were my Spikes. They’d allowed me to one-shot the orcs in the last round. Maybe I could do it here too.

I just needed to know exactly what I was facing.

Fortunately, my magic sight could see through almost anything. They had their red aura, which normally would have made their innards appear fuzzy. I was connected to the earth, though, and I’d just had this intense meditation where I was my entire sphere of sight. Because of that, it seemed like I was seeing on a whole new level.

I’m not an expert on ant anatomy, but Tea had already looked inside our worker friend, and he’d passed some of the general knowledge on to me. These red-eyes were different, maybe a different species or something, but they were at least similar.

I looked at the red-eye in front of me, like really LOOKED, and suddenly, I had an idea.

Its forehead was like a shield, thick and powerful. Behind it was a layer of what appeared to be fat or muscles or something. It seemed to be the padding that absorbed the vibrations from the forehead. Behind that was the juicy stuff. That’s where I needed to reach.

My Spikes were long enough to penetrate through some of it, but I think the area behind where I was punching was related to its eating function. I’m sure it hurt, and it would give the red-eye problems the next time it went to chow down on another warrior, but it wasn’t stopping it right now.

The red-eye I was examining staggered back. But two more red-eyes got through and attacked us. They were starting to surround us, so I gave the command.

“Annabeth, take a couple out!”

She was still figuring out her new strike, so it took a couple of blows, but soon the ant on the far left exploded. Followed by the one next to it.

Go, Annabeth!

Fortunately, the main parts of their bodies were still there, which blocked more incoming red-eyes for a few seconds. Unfortunately, the Bank Crystal’s dragonfly flew over and Stamped it, causing our impromptu blockade to vanish.

Damn.

‘Crystal, hold up on clearing the bodies until they’re no longer useful,’ I instructed. Then I got back to my main problem.

Towards the top of their heads were a couple other body parts. One was packed in fat and seemed to be the brain. I’d have loved to have taken that out, but it was set pretty far into the head. There were a couple organs to the left and right that were closer. I had no idea what they were, but it was worth Spike-punching them to find out.

I had to punch up, so it took away some of my reach, but I found a moment to switch from my normal blocking punch to try for the organ on the right. I nicked it good, but the red-eye didn’t seem that bothered.

Annabeth exploded another ant, which gave me an opportunity to experiment with the organ on the left. That seemed to do the trick. The red-eye didn’t fall over and die or anything like that. Instead, it stopped fighting and just stood there. It was like I’d paralyzed it or put it to sleep.

Actually, that was even better than vanquishing it. The red-eye took up some of the space around me and acted almost like a wall. That was awesome!

“Save your magic,” I yelled to Annabeth as she exploded another red-eye. Her pink magic was looking very thin. Then I got to work paralyzing the enemies around me. It sounds simple, but in the middle of a fight like this, it was anything but.

The black warriors had mostly been beaten back, so I had enemies attacking me from all directions. Stopping their attacks and defending our position was our top priority. I couldn’t afford to just go for the sweet spot every time, or we’d get completely overrun. Red and his Hexagons were good, but I doubted they could protect me from that many mandibles.

Speaking of Red, I was deeply grateful for just how effective he was. He was much more than a simple shield. He deflected blows and slowed them down. When they landed, the Hex Network spread the force out over my body. Since I was grounded in the earth, I was able to take powerful blows that should have broken bones and sent me flying.

Annabeth, of course, helped as best as she could. She couldn’t earth smash like she wanted, but she was also protected by Red and that was a worthwhile tradeoff.

My punches, however, were powerful and fast as lightning. Even in the middle of the chaos, I found moments to hit the sweet spot. And the more I hit, the more the fight settled down. Soon, I built a wall of paralyzed red-eyes around me, which let me fight much more strategically.

The rabid red-eyes didn’t let it stop them, of course, as they either climbed over their frozen comrades or knocked them out of the way. Still, though, it brought the intensity of the battle down to a somewhat manageable level.

It helped tremendously that I could see all around me. Red-eyes were breaching my wall on all sides, but they couldn’t surprise me.

I felt like I was in one of those zombie games where a horde of the undead just keeps coming and coming. One bad move could spell disaster. One slip up, one loss in concentration would see us overrun and torn apart.

That didn’t happen, though. Instead, I fell into a battle trance.

I was in the zone.

My movements were smooth and powerful. My mind was clear and present. My connection to the earth was solid.

I was actually fighting better than I thought was possible. There was so much going on, I should have been overwhelmed. Instead, my mind sped up, and I defended against every attack.

I was starting to feel confident again, when the next level of red-eyes joined the fight. I was surrounded by paralyzed ants that were twice as big as the regular red-eyes—what I started thinking of as level two enemies—when the level three ants joined the fight.

They were bigger, tougher, and hit a lot harder. For the first time, my Spikes were starting to have problems getting through. I had to hit in the same spot a few times to weaken the level three red-eyes’ chitin before my Spikes could fully penetrate.

Red and all his fellow Hexagons got a real workout. I couldn’t dodge, as I was rooted in the earth, and now these level three mandibles were just too big to consistently knock out of the way. We started getting pummeled, and I was very glad Annabeth was inside Red’s protection. A few of these bites could have popped her shield in no time.

My only saving grace was that there were a lot fewer level three red-eyes to deal with, and for some reason, they seemed to be even more sensitive to my Flashers. Once I realized that, I used it to my advantage. I coordinated with my Flashers to concentrate on certain attackers, helping to limit what we were hit with.

I began picking one red-eye at a time and attacking it every spare moment I had. I’d soften it up, weaken its chitin, and then go for the paralyzing shot. It wasn’t the best strategy, as it seemed like it took a long time to take out one enemy. It was the only strategy I had, though, and I was just grateful it worked.

Annabeth played defense, and she saved us both from a world of hurt. She didn’t even try to knock these red-eyes back or take them out. Instead, she focused on the mandibles and legs coming at us. She deflected attacks when she could and stopped them when she couldn’t. She was a one-woman army, and between her and Red, I was able to keep going. We were both getting bruised, but we were making it happen.

It seemed like we fought for forever. My world narrowed to the enemy limbs flying at me and the target ant I was softening up. One by one, I took out the level three enemies, only to have another arrive and join the fight.

When Tyler had shown me how to punch, I couldn’t imagine he’d anticipated I’d get in a fight like this. I was punching at all angles, and my relax-and-tense-on-contact was generating enough power to stop a horse. In addition, my Connection with the earth was less than a day old, but now it felt like I’d been grounded all my life.

At some point, I started laughing hysterically. I was walking the knife edge of triumph and ruin, and I had to do something to let the pressure out.

“Your mama kisses roaches!” I screamed at them as I broke them down and took them apart. Annabeth must have been feeling the same way because she laughed and screamed with me.

As we fought, a curious thing started to happen. It felt like our magic was merging. The attacks were so fast and so powerful, there wasn’t time to coordinate what we were doing. Instead, I read her intentions through her magic, and she started reading mine.

When we had started this battle, we were barely good enough that we didn’t trip over each other and attack the same enemy at the same time. Now, however, it was like we were reading each other’s minds. It seemed like I knew where she was going to strike almost at the same time she did. We coordinated perfectly, and it began to feel like I had four arms.

She even began coordinating with my Flashers, so at some level she must be aware of my creations. I spared a moment to realize Annabeth had to have some version of magic sight. She was just mentally blocked from using it for some reason.

All battles must end, though. I took down the last level three red-eye and realized there were no more enemies coming at me. For a moment, I breathed a sigh of relief—thinking it was really over. Then my mind snapped out of the fog of battle to register we still had one more class of red-eye to deal with—level four.

“He’s so big,” Annabeth breathed, and I couldn’t help myself.

“That’s what she said,” I replied, but my heart wasn’t in it.

Our final level of opponent really was massive. He was tall enough to look down on us and almost as long as a school bus. I couldn’t imagine how much he weighed and how hard he was going to hit. This next fight was going to hurt.

Actually, I wasn’t sure I could win this. My Spikes, which were my most powerful weapon so far, had barely been effective at the last level. This guy seemed older and stronger in every way. Would they be able to get through his chitin? Maybe. Maybe not.

Despite the rage I felt emanating from him, he stood there.

Looking at us.

Evaluating.

He seemed perplexed at how something so small and squishy like us had managed to fight so well. At first, he had figured that we were but one more part of the battle he had to manage. But as we’d successfully wiped out more and more of his red-eyes, he’d paid attention, and now he was deeply intrigued.

I had the unsettling feeling he wanted to eat us.

Or mate with us.

Either option was disturbing as hell.

He’d thrown all the lesser red-eyes at us to see if he could wear us down. He didn’t seem to care about them. He could always make more.

For a moment, I was confused. How did I know all this? It was like I was reading his mind.

Then I realized he was reaching out with his red aura. He was trying to connect with me.

It wasn’t a cosmic Connection like I was familiar with. This was a one-sided link. He was attempting to dominate me.

And then inject my soul with his red aura.

Was this how more red-eyes were made? Despite the danger of the moment, I was fascinated.

‘Is this similar to how mages are using their presence?’ my Analytical Side queried. ‘If so, it would be worth studying. We still haven’t learned how to do that.’

‘Maybe,’ I replied. ‘But this seems more like a one-on-one sort of thing.’

The pressure from the massive red-eye increased. My Analytical Side was right. It definitely felt like the presence, or glow, the other mages from the tournament were using. The pressure increased even more, and I could sense the red-eye was shocked I was still standing.

“Jason!” Annabeth gasped and almost collapsed on my shoulders.

Oh crap. I’d forgotten that Annabeth was much more sensitive to this type of pressure. I quickly flared my aura with the intention of pushing this pressure away from us.

Fortunately, Annabeth and I had already sworn to share our magic and our auras, so my aura smoothly expanded and covered hers. I then thickened my aura over Annabeth and condensed it into a flexible shield.

That seemed to work, as I felt Annabeth relax a bit, although she still hugged me close.

“Thank you,” she whispered. I think she didn’t want to disturb my concentration.

“Anytime,” I replied and gave her hand a gentle pat. “Actually, can you send me a message showing me what it was like?”

She nodded. It took a few moments, as she didn’t have the maximum affinity with her Bank Stamp, but when the message arrived, it certainly got the idea across.

For her, it wasn’t just pressure. It was an entire experience.

It felt like an apex predator was staring at her—like a velociraptor was sizing her up and evaluating the best way to disembowel her.

On top of that, it seemed like the red-eye was screaming directly into her skull. Her head vibrated with the intensity, and it made it almost impossible to think clearly. The scream didn’t have words, exactly, but it projected powerful feelings of failure and worthlessness.

It was as if every authority figure she’d ever had was sneering at her and rejecting her as a nobody. She was nothing. Less than nothing. She was a tiny dried piece of excrement that only deserved to fall apart and fade into dust.

Good grief––that was intense! I had no idea the red-eye was affecting Annabeth like that. My respect for her ability to stay calm and cheerful increased even more. My relationship with authority figures wasn’t that great—my dad being a royal asshole and all—so feeling that domination like she was for any length of time might have torn me apart. I quickly shut down the message and let the intensity of it fade away as best as I could. I didn’t want any of that to take root in my own mind. The red-eye was hitting hard enough as it was.

The red-eye crouched down a bit more and pushed even harder. He was frustrated and excited all at the same time. Frustrated because he had never failed to dominate a creature before. Excited because he wanted to own me. He wanted me to be part of his army.

He thought I was worth more than all the red-eyes he had owned before. He was a quality over quantity type of general, and while I was flattered, I had no intention of succumbing to his call.

What I couldn’t figure out was how he was doing all this. How was he applying this force?

He wasn’t using magic. At least, not yet. I was obviously very familiar with magic, capsules and color density, and I couldn’t see any motes of power flowing my way.

So he wasn’t using a spell. He was using something else.

But what was it?

I studied him while he pushed, but I couldn’t figure it out. Then I felt a flicker of intention, and suddenly, the pressure vanished.

I’d almost forgotten about the regular warrior ants, but they were still attacking. The level four red-eye was too tough for them, and it didn’t seem like they could do any damage, but that didn’t stop them from trying.

The red-eye general hadn’t forgotten about them, though, as he focused on a warrior by his front left foot. His presence slammed into the unfortunate ant, and it froze like a deer in headlights. These black warriors weren’t mages, so they only had a basic aura. It was wispy and thin, and the red-eye’s attack tore right through it.

The red-eye hit it so hard, the warrior”s aura peeled off of most of its body. The aura clung to the back segment of the ant and even flared outside of its body, like it was one of those drag racer parachutes that slow a car down.

The red-eye didn’t waste any time, as a blob of red mana shot out of his mouth and landed on the warrior’s forehead. The warrior couldn’t do anything, as it was still stunned, and the red mana swiftly soaked into the ant’s head.

The red-eye released its presence, and the warrior’s aura snapped back into its regular shape. The red magic was inside it now, so it only took a moment before the aura gained a slight red tint.

The warrior collapsed. All its legs spread out on the floor like it was dead. Its antennae fell listlessly to the side, and its mandibles relaxed half open.

“Is it dead?” Annabeth asked.

I shook my head.

The red tint became more and more pronounced, and soon the warrior scrambled to its feet—a black warrior no more. I felt small waves of hunger and rabid anger flowing off the new red-eye. It looked around, and its head bobbed like it was still dazed. But then it wasted no time attacking the nearest warrior.

“Dear god! It just took over that ant,” Annabeth hissed. Then she put the events together and realized what was really going on. “It was trying to convert us!” She clung to me tightly and shifted lower, like she was using me as a shield.

“Don’t worry,” I replied as confidently as possible. “I won’t let that happen.”

The massive red-eye looked at me, looked back at his newest recruit, and then looked at me again. It seemed like he had wanted to make sure his ability to make new red-eyes was still working. I guess he wanted to test himself a bit more because he picked out another warrior and blasted it with his presence.

‘Grannies!’ I called quickly. ‘He’s going to spit out some red magic. Stop it!’

The Grannies swooped in to intercept, but they were too slow. The red-eyed general spit, and a glob of toxic magic was already on its way.

It was my Surfer Dudes who saved the day. Seeing the red glob was about to land on its latest victim, they raced to intercept. The Surfers are bullet-fast, and they quickly overtook the hostile magic and redirected it towards the ceiling. My Granny Godmothers changed directions and raced behind, dual dustbusters ready to go.

‘If it’s too powerful, then split it up first,’ I quickly said to my lead Granny. I got back an image that roughly translated to ‘don’t try to teach your Grandma to suck eggs!’ She followed that up with an image reminding me just how toxic the magic had been back in Karl’s cave.

I just laughed at how feisty she was and backed off.

‘Good luck! You got this!’ I sent, and all the Godmothers added sparkles to their flight path.

Meanwhile, the fourth level red-eye released his presence and waited for the conversion to happen. The warrior’s aura snapped back into position, and it stayed frozen for a few moments. I’m sure it was paralyzed with fear. Then, it seemed to pull itself together and scurried away as fast as possible.

The red-eyed general seemed shocked at his failure, so he tried again. He glared at another warrior with extreme domination and stunned its aura. This time, he really laid on the presence, and it looked like he almost ripped the aura right off. I didn’t know if that was possible, but it appeared to be a hell of an attack either way.

He spit his red magic, but this time it was an even bigger glob of power. That didn’t matter to my Surfers. They effortlessly intercepted the new glob and diverted it up towards the waiting Grannies at the top of the cavern.

Once again, the red-eye stopped projecting his presence and waited. This time the warrior ant sank to the ground, and its legs relaxed like it was dead. If I had to guess, the red-eye had hit it too hard. The warrior was at least knocked out and might be severely injured.

‘This is a whole new way of fighting,’ my Analytical Side noted. He seemed pretty excited. ‘You need to figure out this whole presence thing. It would make sense that if you can defend this well against this much pressure, then you should be able to generate it powerfully as well. Maybe you could use it to knock out your opponents. Or at least throw them off balance while you attack them another way.’

‘I hope so,’ I replied, but before I could say more, the red-eye attacked the stunned warrior again. This time he stepped forward and injected his magic directly onto the warrior’s forehead. The Surfers were still able to grab some of it and pull it away, but enough landed and absorbed into the warrior for the conversion to start.

“Stop!” I yelled, but despite my intensity, it didn’t affect the massive red-eye at all.

The general watched the warrior until it went crazy and started attacking its former hive mates. Then he turned back to me, and I sensed he felt a new level of confidence. There wasn’t anything wrong with his conversion ability. He was now absolutely certain that I was blocking him somehow.

Again, his presence slammed into me. But this time his antennae did an extra little dance. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I didn’t worry about it, as I was focused again on how this red-eye was generating so much presence.

The mages in the tournament called it ‘glow,’ and I guess that made sense because they were using it like a general advertisement of how powerful they were. They were radiating their presence all around them, so the word ‘glow’ fit their actions perfectly.

This red-eye wasn’t doing that at all. His attack was powerful, directional, and highly focused. His attack should be called ‘freight train,’ as it felt like a railroad car after a railroad car’s worth of presence slammed into me, trying to knock me over.

I was so focused on the red-eye that I’d forgotten that there were two more like him. I remembered pretty quickly, though, when the second one ran over and slammed its presence into me too. I guess the first red-eye’s antennae wiggling had called his mates over.

I flared my aura even more and wrapped it like a thick blanket over both of us. Both red-eyes hunkered down and projected as hard as they could. My aura held up, and neither one could get through.

Then the third massive red-eye joined the fight.

I’d thought the pressure was bad before. Now it was insane! It felt like three freight trains were trying to run me over.

The whole situation felt fantastical—like I was Superman in a comic book, standing firm, while I got blasted by death rays from three supervillains.

‘Ummm. You might want to keep this battle at the spiritual level,’ my Analytical Side noted anxiously. ‘If they give up on converting you and decide to attack, there is no way you can take on three of them and survive. Actually, I’m not sure you can defeat just one of them, so maybe you should fake it a bit and give them some hope that what they’re doing now is working.’

That was a good idea, and it wasn’t hard to fake it at all. Between the three of them, I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane. It was easy to start swaying a bit, like I was going to collapse and fall over.

“Jason! Are you alright?” Annabeth’s voice was sharp with fear.

“I’m fine,” I replied through gritted teeth. “This is all part of the plan.”

“Okay,” she replied nervously. “You’ve got this, Jason. I believe in you.”

She was trying to be encouraging and supportive like she usually was, but the quiver in her voice gave her away. What I think she really wanted to say was ‘Don’t F this up, Jason! I better not get rabies from a hairy-legged monster!’

I sent her a quick message with the plan and also tried to sound as encouraging as possible. I was holding up, and my feigning weakness was mostly an act, but I couldn’t last forever. These damn red-eyed monsters were no joke. Being a god obviously gave me an advantage, but I needed to figure this out—and soon.

Now, how the hell were they doing this?

‘Let’s eliminate what we can, and then test what’s left over,’ my Analytical Side said. He popped in looking like a college professor with a tweed jacket and reading glasses. He made a show of opening a pocket notebook and licking his pen to get started.

‘Magic,’ he stated as he wrote it down.

‘Nope,’ I replied confidently.

‘Physical pressure.’

‘Not yet.’ Let’s hope it didn’t come to that. My Analytical Side was right. I didn’t want to physically fight these guys.

‘Some type of pheromone?’

I used my magic senses to taste and smell the air around me. There were a lot of pheromones in play, but they didn’t seem to be used in a domination type of way.

‘No,’ I replied.

‘Some type of sound?’

I messaged Annabeth. If it was sound related, then she would know for certain.

‘No,’ I replied when I got her message back.

My Analytical Side paused in thought. ‘You say it feels like pressure, but is it really a force?’

That was a damn good question. It wasn’t pushing against Red, so it wasn’t in the natural world. My aura was protecting me, but it wasn’t actually flexing or moving. Was it really pushing against my aura?

I didn’t think so.

On the other hand, I’d seen what it had done to the aura of the warrior ants. It had certainly pushed them. Or at least it seemed like it.

However, what Annabeth had shared had hit her were extreme emotions and feelings. That wasn’t from her aura. That was something else.

I tried to feel what the red-eyes were projecting at me, which was harder than it sounds. I couldn’t stop resisting what they were doing, so I couldn’t just give in and sample what was really going on.

Every time I’d been hit by presence or glow, I’d naturally resisted. That was wonderful, and it had kept me safe so far, but it was also keeping me from learning what this was all about.

‘It’s not an outside force,’ I said slowly. ‘It’s more like it wants to be inside me. It wants to own me. My aura is keeping it out, maintaining my personal space. That’s where the pressure is coming from.’

‘Say more about that,’ my Analytical Side prompted.

‘It’s like an evil presence. It’s powerful and malevolent. It’s searching me—looking for something.’

That felt right, so I kept going.

‘It’s like it is the Eye of Sauron and it is pressuring me to put on the One Ring.’

I thought about Frodo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings movies. That’s exactly what it seemed like. It was a piercing sight backed by hate and chaos.

Wait a minute!

Sight!?!?

This was about magic sight?

This damn ant had figured out how to weaponize its magic sight? Holy cow! No wonder I hadn’t figured it out yet.

I’d looked inside others before, but I’d always asked their permission first. Even with my ant friend, I’d gotten an implied permission before healing.

Wait a minute… Earlier, when I’d looked at a level two red-eye to figure out exactly where to hit it, it had stumbled back. I hadn’t asked for its permission to use my sight; I’d just forced my way in. In the middle of battle with so much coming at me, I’d missed that I’d stunned it somehow.

Was the secret of presence really that simple?

There was only one way to find out. I focused my magic sight and tried to look inside the level four red-eye in front of me. It turns out that it might be simple, but it wasn’t easy.

As soon as I tried to look through the red-eye’s wild aura, I felt a strong resistance push me back. It felt exactly like the resistance I was putting up against their attack, so I knew I was on the right track.

Resisting their attacks and pushing an attack of my own wasn’t simple, though. It was like I was trying to do two opposite things—like patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time.

Fortunately, I was good at these mental games. I focused on defense first, building a mental wall all around us. Then, from that fortified position, I created a mental spyglass—like old-fashioned pirates used—and LOOKED at the enemy in front of me.

This time I hit him hard. The main red-eye’s attack against me vanished as he suddenly shifted his focus to his own defense. I guess he couldn’t do both at the same time. That freed me up to attack even harder.

His defense wasn’t solid—it wavered and crackled. The chaotic nature of the red aura that made his attack so devastating was terrible at defense. I bore down hard, and it wasn’t long before I punched through.

My sight started peeling back the layers of the red-eyed general, and in the process, I created a one-sided connection. This time, I was the boss. I was the master mage here. This red-eye was as brittle as glass before the power of my soul.

I soaked up images from our connection, and I realized this general wasn’t a mage at all. At least, not a natural mage anyway. Instead, he had been a normal, regular-sized ant—doing normal, regular ant things. He hadn’t even been a warrior. Instead, he had been a worker, busy collecting food for his colony.

Then, one day, he had been in the wrong place trying to gather the wrong thing, and a being of power had lashed out and turned him into the start of the red-eye he was today. He didn’t have a concept of time that I could recognize, but it seemed like this was long ago.

He didn’t start out crazy. Instead, he got filled with red magic and was given a new purpose to protect the being of power. This conflicted with his natural colony instincts, but the power inside him couldn’t be denied. He wasn’t built to contain magic, and over time the power seeped into his aura and ate him up inside, furthering his mental instability.

He wasn’t the only one from his former colony to intrude on the being of power, and they were either converted or killed as well. Finally, he’d had to go to war with his former family, and the red-eyes had wiped them out to the last ant. That had broken his mind, and he’d given up trying to resist the red magic. Instead, he’d embraced it. And now he wandered the tunnels fulfilling his mission. A mission that had changed from protecting a being to killing everything that moved.

He’d started by forcing his own evolution and growth in order to fight better. Then, he’d figured out how to pass on his version of crazy by infecting others. Once he was proficient in the process, he taught the other red-eyes how to make new recruits as well. Now he was part of an elite group of creatures that roamed the tunnels with one purpose—create an army and destroy every sentient being not under their control.

The early part of his story made me feel sorry for him. He’d been dealt an unfortunate hand in life. But images after that showed just how crazy and ruthless he had been. His life, for a long time now, was nothing but a haze of cold-blooded slaughter. He destroyed new lives by converting them to red-eyes and gloried in killing anyone in front of him. He was completely lost in his mission, and there was no coming back for him.

The question was, now that I’d created a connection and busted through his aura, now what? He was seething and trying to break free, so I needed to do something quickly, but what did I do now?