Blade Over Magic

Chaos VII

In truth, after Falael got removed from the fight, Aubrey’s clones had come to the consensus that victory with the people they had at hand was close to zero.

Even before the ant grasped mana control and refined its combat prowess, the truth was that the rate at which they damaged it was simply too slow, and the rate at which their bodies broke down from their various boosting skills (or Aubrey frying her brain) exceeded the speed at which they dealt meaningful damage.

Hence, she quietly made a choice when Falael fell, and that was to stall.

Not for the arrival of Xander’s father, that wasn’t even in her mind. Nor for the arrival of reinforcements from the town over, she knew they’d have their hands tied settling the refugees and preparing their own defenses for the ants.

No, she subtly changed the flow of the battle from having the Lunatics deal as much damage as possible to having them waste as much time as possible, in order to stall for the arrival of one person.

Xander.

Just before she lost consciousness, she transferred all the corresponding information to Xander. He soon comprehended it all, was quietly relieved that the reason Falael and Curtis weren’t there was that they were sent away as soon as they were out of commission, and quietly pained at the Captain’s sacrifice.

However, he didn’t dwell on it. Couldn’t, actually, as the source of it all was right in front of him.

”...” Tha ant’s mandibles clicked quietly as it stared at Xander. It almost seemed... perplexed, by his appearance.

After a few seconds, it spoke.

”... You aren’t... scared?” It seemed like such a strange thing to ask in the current situation, but funny enough, Xander understood what it meant.

It had decisively taken care of the strongest combatants Landor had to offer by itself. To it, it had effectively killed the ’queens’ of the ’hive’, so realistically, no one else—Xander included—should have the urge or gall to fight. After all, if the strongest were eliminated, what could anyone else manage?

But that also revealed something.

The ant did not see Xander as a threat.

Well, it was to be expected. After its recent mastery of its own abilities, the strongest beings it had encountered now lay on the ground, decimated. Perhaps it couldn’t imagine anyone being stronger at the moment.

It wasn’t an issue of pride. Again, it was a newborn. The total life experience it had could be summed up to a few hours at best. So it was more appropriate to use the ’Frog in a Well’ analogy.

All these thoughts flitted through Xander’s mind in a moment, yet he did not respond. He simply held his stance.

Seeing this, the ant clicked its mandibles and...

Proceeded to ignore him.

To it, it was more important to eliminate the ones it had been fighting already so that they wouldn’t be future problems.

Raising its limb, it prepare to kill Aubrey once more. She’d been the most problematic one even though she wasn’t very strong. So it was only fitting.

Yet as it prepared to lower its limb, it saw the new human appear in its front, directly in the path of its attack.

This made its confusion grow. What did he intend to achieve? By time? But he was on his own.

The ant tried and failed to grasp Xander’s intentions, so rather than think too much about it, it simply chose to kill Xander as well with that single strike. He clearly had no intention of evading, so a direct hit amped with enough energy should be enough to crush him and the girl at his feet, even if he blocks.

But then something weird happened.

The ant struck with the same speed and strength as it had when it fought the previous group. It knew that the only reason they could react to it then was due to Aubrey who was obviously unconscious.

Yet when it swung down, it clearly saw the new human swing his weapon to meet its limb. This increased its confusion. How was he reacting? Was the girl actually conscious and aiding him? No, that couldn’t have been it. And even if she were, she would have warned him to evade rather than take the blow head on, like she had before.

Then the sword and the limb met, but the following scene was not in line with the ant’s expectations. The human’s body didn’t get crushed under its tyrannical, neither was sent flying.

Rather, it felt a strange sensation run up its bladed limb, like an odd vibration. One that was deeply uncomfortable. At the same time, it watched the trajectory of its strike change as its limb was redirected by his blade, making it miss entirely.

Before it could make heads or tails of what just happened, the human stepped forward and rammed his shoulder into its chest.

Once again, the ant was confused. Did he seriously intend to try and hurt it with his bare body? Sure, his deflection had left it wide open, but compared to the weak flesh of humans, the ant’s frame was special. It had rarely gotten pushed back even when the humans from before gave it their all. So what was he intending to do?

But once again, something weird happened.

As soon as Xander’s shoulder check connected, that strange feeling came through again. It somehow went through its highly resistant chitin and into its body, causing a jarring sensation that sent it stumbling backwards.

At this moment chains of earth extended from some distance away and wrapped around the bodies of the unconscious fighters. The chains originated from one of the elite mages who had been on standby.

Seeing this, the ant’s attention was immediately taken.

Annoyed that someone was trying to take away its targets, it immediately raised its limb, intending to do to the person what it did to Landor’s artillery batteries.

Yet as it did so, Xander had gotten in front of it again. The tip of his sword struck the base of its limb, and it felt that strange sensation again as its attack missed by a wide margin, the red line hitting an uninhabited area.

The mage quickly pulled in everyone and scurried away.

The ant observed for a moment, then it turned its head to Xander, and slowly tilted it.

Eventually, it spoke.

”... What... are you?” It seemed like a genuine question, devoid of malice. Because it was truly perplexed.

It had originally questioned the humanity of Aubrey. Yet in just a few short exchanges, it voiced its doubts at Xander, because it did not make sense to it.

When it looked at Xander, it found it hard to see anything particularly noteworthy. The level of mana he gave off was, frankly, quite insignificant compared to the ones it had encountered prior, especially that half-elf. That one was the first one to make it feel genuine danger, which is why they were eliminated so quickly.

It didn’t feel the same gaze it felt from Aubrey, the one that seemed to catalog its very existence. Xander’s figure did not appear as robust as Ragna. His output didn’t seem as raw as Bodhi or Falael, and other than that strange technique he used to move around, he didn’t seem as fast as Sparrow either. Neither did he have magic with the same level of battlefield control as Nash, wasn’t as elusive as Zeke with his poison, and he didn’t possess the same destructive capability as the captain.

By all accounts, Xander appeared average in the eyes of the ant.

Yet in those brief exchanges, he had quietly proved the opposite.

Which is what confused the ant. How was this human who didn’t seem to possess any extraordinary traits manage to keep up with it and deflect its attacks twice? It was odd.

So odd that the ant had to ask him what he was. Because its young mind couldn’t quite grasp what it was seeing. Again, it was a newborn with limited experiences, so it was difficult to put into words just how shocking the scenes that just occurred were.

But despite asking this question, Xander did not reply, nor did he give any indication of doing such. He just calmly held his stance, his cold, eerie green eyes never looking away from the ant, and that’s when the ant had another odd feeling.

Previously, when it was looked at by the others, it could feel the frantic desperation in the gazes, the determination, the thinly veiled terror, the anger, and so on. It was a bit gard to describe, but it felt like it was being looked at by living, sentient creatures.

And yet, when Xander looked at it, it did not get those feelings. Instead, it felt like... it was being looked at like a nuisance?

Well, objectively, it was more than that. It had singlehandedly caused so much chaos, after all... But this was different. This wasn’t being looked at as a nuisance... in the sense that it was a dire problem.

Rather, it was being looked at like an... obstacle. An annoying obstacle. An inconvenient obstacle... but a solvable one.

... Like a puzzle.

The feeling of discomfort deepened significantly. It didn’t know what Xander was or what he was doing, but the ant suddenly had the urge to remove him from the picture permanently. It did not like the sensation. It did not like it at all.

It tensed to move, and Xander firmed his stance.

And for the first time, the two of them truly clashed.