After swinging his hammer a couple more times, Kyle focused on his journey ahead.
"I guess it’s time to continue," he said.
"You should be safe for now," Theodor said. "The Skysand cloud should have made almost all beasts retreat. Make use of this opportunity."
Kyle nodded and ran towards the southwest.
His goal was the Fire Coast.
Kyle passed by a couple of small mountains and hills.
When he saw another canyon, he stopped.
"Should I go through the canyon?" Kyle asked.
"Usually, yes, but this is not the usual case," Theodor said. "Just walk around it."
"Sure thing, Boss," Kyle said.
He went to the right side of the canyon and ran near its edge.
If necessary, he could jump into the canyon and try to hide.
Yet, as Kyle kept running, he didn’t see a single beast.
"Can you see the black column of smoke in the distance?" Theodor asked.
Kyle looked at the horizon, and sure enough, he saw a tiny black cloud rising from the horizon.
Looking into the distance was weird since fantasy land was obviously on a round planet, but it was so much smaller than Earth.
The horizon was not nearly as far away as on Earth.
"As the name implies, Fire Coast is a Fire Cradle. Fire Coast already existed back when I was still alive, and it is essentially a big volcano. The cloud you’re seeing is coming from that volcano. That is your goal."
"Sure thing, Boss," Kyle answered as he kept running.
After running for a couple of kilometers, Kyle slowed down.
He saw a huge ant walking across a hill in the distance.
’That thing has to be like seven feet long!’ Kyle thought.
Kyle’s instincts told him that the ant was a bit dangerous, but not a lot.
However, Kyle knew that ants were never alone.
"Hillstalker Ant," Theodor said. "They are troublesome. One of them isn’t dangerous, but their nests contain between twenty and two thousand ants."
"They are a pest. This nest is not close enough to the Fire Coast to be a nuisance, but the rulers of the Fire Coast are probably also not comfortable with its presence."
That was when Kyle saw the Hillstalker Ant turning its head to him.
"It saw you," Theodor said.
Kyle’s heart rate rose. "From so far away? I thought ants couldn’t see very well! Don’t they use their feelers for everything?"
"Why do you think Hillstalker Ants are called Hillstalker Ants?" Theodor asked with a snort. "They climb hills and use their quite developed eyes to survey the surrounding landscape."
Then, Kyle saw the Hillstalker Ant retreating behind the hill.
"That was just a scout," Theodor said. "It is going to alert the ant warriors, and they will come for you."
Kyle gulped. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Isn’t it obvious?" Theodor asked.
"Run away?" Kyle asked.
"Apparently, it wasn’t obvious to you," Theodor said with annoyance. "No, you are going to kill them."
"Kill them?!" Kyle shouted. "But there are so many!"
"So?" Theodor asked. "They use their numbers to overwhelm their enemies, but their enemies are stupid beasts. You are faster than them, and as long as you don’t let yourself get surrounded, you will only be fighting two at a time."
That was when the scouting ant returned.
The next moment, five huge ants appeared behind the scout ant.
They were twice as big and had gigantic pincers.
Just their pincers were already as long as the scout ant!
These ants felt quite dangerous to Kyle.
That was when Kyle saw the warrior ants charging right at him.
"You said they were slow!" Kyle shouted as he saw the ants running towards him.
"I didn’t say they were slow," Theodor said. "I said you are faster."
"Yeah, by a bit!" Kyle shouted.
The five ants ran towards Kyle, two at the front and three at the back.
Kyle saw them coming closer and closer.
He became nervous as he activated Air Current on his hammer.
As the ants came closer, Kyle jumped back.
"Stop retreating!" Theodor shouted. "Attack!"
The ants followed Kyle, and their pincers extended, ready to strike.
’I can’t get hit by those!’ Kyle thought as he looked at the pincers.
’Well, here goes nothing!’
Kyle’s grip on his hammer tightened, and he jumped forward.
He swung his hammer to the left with incredible speed.
The hammer hit one of the pincers.
The pincer exploded off the ant’s head, and the ant flew towards the left, hitting the ant beside it.
When Kyle saw that, he blinked a couple of times in surprise.
"Move!" Theodor shouted.
The other ant was barely inhibited in its movement and reached Kyle.
The other three ants climbed over the first ant and also approached.
Kyle jumped back, but a jump backward wasn’t as fast as a full-on charge.
Kyle found himself in reach of the pincers.
If they closed, he would be hit.
At that moment, Kyle’s instincts took over.
He immediately stopped and ran forward.
The pincers closed explosively, but Kyle got past all of the pincer’s spikes.
He grabbed his hammer just below the head and moved it up.
The pick of the hammer buried itself in the ant’s head, killing it in an instant.
"Imbecile!" Theodor shouted in anger.
Kyle quickly pushed the pincers away...
The ant was dead, but its pincers were locked, keeping him in place.
’Fuck!’ Kyle thought as he saw another warrior ant climbing over the one stuck to him.
That was when Kyle moved his hammer upward.
The corpse was lifted together with the ant on it.
The ant’s head detached from the body, while the body and the other ant flew over Kyle.
Now, Kyle had a head and two two-meter-long pincers stuck on his waist.
Sadly, he didn’t have any time to deal with them since the other three ants approached him.
He turned around and immediately started running.
But then, he was violently stopped as one of the ants clamped down on the pincers stretching out from behind Kyle.
The other two ants charged at Kyle, while the one that had been thrown earlier also approached him from his front.
The one thing Theodor said not to let happen.