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Night blanketed the desert in sapphire tranquillity. Fires dotted around the corpse segments glowed like embers of a giant broken necklace. Worker ants sang mourning hymns while forging chain yokes.
Kai’s level sat at 29, exp 100/1000. Miserable. He needed bigger kills. But because of his worker ant status he can’t leave from his duty. He is wasting time here. If Mia was here he could easily go for night Hunt’s reach level 30.
He conferred with the squad Fenn and Brask, who were now healthy again. "If predators strike, slipstreams near our column edges will be thin. I want to request perimeter scouting for rotation duty. Can you help me?"
Brask rumbled assent. Fenn checked javelin counts. "Kai, it’s impossible. The general Iron is very obsessed with ranks and rule. He won’t allow it. Forgot about that. Just do what you are assigned to do."
They slept in quick cycles. At dawn, hornets yanked harness chains; the first corpse wagon lurched. Sand-rollers squealed but held. Kai’s Delta-19 team pushed behind, legs sinking knee-deep. Ten metres at a time, rest, reset Arctic-grease on axles, push again.
So began the Long March of Spoils, one hundred thirty kilometres back to the Ant Empire frontier gate.
Day 1: Heat hammered like smith’s mallet. Kai’s Speed stat let him flit along the wagon flank checking lashings, but strength points still screamed; he poured Stamina and water ointment to keep muscles from locking. Miryam the egg was absorbing star milk in big doses at dawn and dusk, purring after each. He sometimes shared jokes with other ants to pass his boring time. Something talks with the egg in a low voice.
At twilight, minor beasts probed: three two-star Scorpion Riders darted from dunes seeking scrap flesh. Perimeter pikes skewered them. Kai leapt, delivered a coup de grâce on the last rider, earning [EXP +30]. Hardly worth sweat.
Day 2: Storm front, glass shards carried on scouring wind. Kai’s shield lines overlapped; still, minute cuts etched armour like acid. Amid howl, he heard Miryam the egg whimper. He tucked into a cloak, humming a lullaby, to his surprise, the tune rose instinctively from his human memory long buried, some ancient Earth melody. Egg quieted.
"Twinkle twinkle little star. Bla bla bla."
That night, Kai snuck to the rear line, found a wounded four-star dune serpent gnawing carcass scraps. One aura strike ended it (EXP +80). He drained partial essence discreetly [+3 stats]. Yet still many exp short from level up.
Day 3: Morale dipped. Only half distance covered. Wagons slowed on steep dune slope called the Scree Step. Chains snapped; one rib sled slid downward thirty metres before shock crystals anchored. Worker death toll climbed, heatstroke, lash whiplash, predator stings. General Irontide executed two overseers for negligence, morale soared strangely, the Empire valued swift justice.
Kai’s back ached, but his Predator Instinct nagged and warned him of something, "Something big is shadows us." He glimpsed a silhouette of a high dune: quadruped, massive, then gone. He prepared a report but Irontide dismissed him, "Scouts will warn us. You go and do your job. Otherwise you will be punished."
"Sigh!" Kai sighed and left.
That evening, the wind died and the desert lay silent as a tomb. Stars were cold lanterns overhead. Kai curled against the wagon wheel, the egg tucked to chest. It thrummed restless fear. He whispered, "Soon, little one. Home soon."
Pre-dawn darkness remained when husky alarm-gongs clanged. Kai jolted awake. Sand trembled like a pounding drum. Far north, faint roar, deep and long, rolled over dunes.
Torch-posts flared. Workers scrambled to battle lines but confusion reigned: vision limited past thirty metres.
Then Kai saw them, a carpet of shapes cresting dunes, wolf silhouettes, scorpion tailed lizards, cinder-hawk swarms. In the centre prowled a creature twice basilisk size, quadruped catlike, plated with obsidian crystal, eyes green furnace, the Night-Leopard King, a seven-star predator known in myth to feast on Ruler carrion.
Thousands of predators work’s under it, two, three, four-star, flanked him, hunger driving them into suicidal charge.
Kai’s mandibles went dry. Irontide’s voice thundered across lines: "Shield wall! Defend the husk!"
But Kai’s thoughts snapped to Mia first: She and the queen were already far ahead. No cavalry support remained. They were isolated.
He jammed his spear haft into sand. "My level sits on a precipice. A single large kill could tip me into three-star, but the leopard king is very strong." Egg thrummed terror; Kai pressed pouch. "Hold on."
Predator horde descended.
Two star rank wolves hit first, black saliva sizzling from the mouth. Kai sprang left, parry, riposte; wolf skull burst, EXP +20, but wave behind.
Brask’s tower shield anchored line. Fenn hurled javelins static-charged, ten hawks fell.
Yet numbers surged; back ranks buckled. Kai scanned for leopard king, still pacing high dune, studying lines. He realised: the king sent fodder to break discipline before pouncing on the corpse.
Kai shouted to the overseer: "We need pike stakes round wagons, force choke!" Overseer relayed; workers hammered stakes.
Blood slicked sand beneath him. He fought mechanical, spear flashing. EXP messages trickled, ding! +30 exp, +20 exp, +40 exp. He lost count. Finally.....
[Ding! System notifications- Exp: 1000/1000
Congratulations host. Level Up! 29 → 30]
No time to celebrate the horde still attacking. He glimpsed General Irontide was dueling six-limbed dire mantis Six-star. General cleaved it in two but the tail spike stabbed his thigh. Even an eight-star could bleed against predators.
Kai sensed the leopard king sliding forward now; the dune crest darker than cloud.
Workers near Kai faltered; two mauled by horned scarab. He triggered Antenna Sensory Boost; the world vibrated with enemy signatures, every ripple like a drop in a pond. He plotted intercept arcs.
He raised his spear and roared, "Dawn Blade echo! Push!" Many soldiers recognised his voice, rallied.
But then the dune exploded. Leopard king launched in silent bound, covering seventy metres, landing atop rib wagon eight. Claws sheared harness, severed twenty chains. Corpse section lurched.
Kai’s heart was hammered. The Predator’s aura slammed him like an avalanche seven-star dread. Irontide pivoted, roaring, but he was fifty metres away.
"Protect the husk!" Kai shouted, though a whisper compared to the king’s growl.
Leopard king’s throat glowed ember-green. It inhaled, preparing an aura beam.
Kai felt Miryam panic. He gritted teeth, weighing the desperate option: Ruler’s Roar stigma. One use might cripple the beast but how will he explain it?
"Should I use it? Otherwise I will die here."
Before the decision, the king’s maw opening, emerald flames gathering, workers screaming, Kai stepping forward, the future of the convoy perched on his shoulder.