The Almighty Ring

What could he do when even his most trustworthy strategist had wished him luck instead of helping? Based on times like this, Jiang Fei would rely on the most primitive method of deciding, a dice throw!

Instead of using a die, Jiang Fei threw his boots up in the air. When they hit the ground, the tip of the boots pointed, not directly but almost, toward an exit.

“Right… Luck it is,” said Jiang Fei, disgruntled for having to rely on this method. Then again, he had nothing else to help him decide. If he had a coin on him, he would have simply flipped it!

Using this method, Jiang Fei ventured through the complicated networks of tunnels. Darkness and eerie silence were his only companion as he walked. Sometimes, he would hear sounds of falling sand, rustling around, eerily. Having watched so many shows and TV dramas, Jiang Fei knew that this kind of atmosphere and setting was only a sign that something bad was going to happen. The only thing that could happen then was something jumping out and inserting something into his throat.

“F*ck me… This is so freaking scary… Come on, let there be something… something small and cute, at least…” Jiang Fei mumbled to himself. Even though the only thing that could appear then were only his enemies, the thought of walking through endless tunnels, alone and quietly, was far scarier.

“0541, say something now. It’s too quiet!” said Jiang Fei. The only thing that was making sounds was his own heartbeat and the tap-tap-tap of his footsteps. He did not dare to even stop walking as the creeping silence would only make things worse.

“Captain, I think–”

Before 0541 could finish his sentence, the wall of dirt to Jiang Fei’s left burst open and a sharp, blade-like stinger shot toward Jiang Fei.

“HNNG!” Jiang Fei grunted as he unsheathed his sword and blocked the stinger from stabbing him in the head. Due to the fact that Omnisurge was inactive, Jiang Fei managed to deflect the stinger but he was thrown off his stance and he hit the other side of the wall forcefully.

“Gah!”

Jiang Fei groaned. The stinger was so powerful that the force of him hitting the wall had damaged his internals even though he had the Bio-Armor to protect him.

After wiping away the blood from the corner of his mouth, Jiang Fei rushed over to the opening on the wall and found nothing. Whatever it was that had attacked Jiang Fei had left immediately, without leaving any trail behind.

“I can’t catch a break…” said Jiang Fei. He felt a shudder down his entire body when he realized he would have died without the Bio-Armor protecting him. Knowing that, he activated Omnisurge and adjusted his combat level to be as high as 1,500,000. This level of power was only on par with lower ranking Valsalrian military officers but it was surely stronger than any other beings on this unnamed planet.

“What was it that attacked me…” Jiang Fei murmured before poking his head through the small opening in the wall. He turned his head left and right but could not see anything; nothing but a long trail of narrow pathway. As such, Jiang Fei decided to follow that pathway instead.

Concurrently, the rest of the Valsalrian soldiers had been attacked by the same manner. And since not everyone had the privilege to put on the Bio-Armor like Jiang Fei, many had perished with a single sting despite them being stronger than him by around 10,000 combat level on average. Unlike Jiang Fei, however, their reaction rate was much slower, hence, an ambush like that would most likely kill them.

Lieutenant Domingo was now on the retreat, reading messages and recordings of his other soldiers.

“Impossible!” he yelled when he read one of the reports, showing the most recent attack. His earlier intelligence had showed no signs of strong enemies. By right, they should be unharmed yet the number of soldiers that were K.I.A. had reached the hundreds, including those soldiers that were shot down during the atmospheric entry.

“Dammit! F*ck this planet! I’ll call it!” said Domingo before hitting the “All Recipient” channel button on his communicator.

“This is Lieutenant Domingo. I want every soldier we have to retreat to the surface! We are leaving this planet! I’m going to destroy this planet and I don’t want to see your sorry ass remaining here!”

When rage clouded his judgment, the mission objectives were quickly discarded. He did not care about the eggs or the Queen. All he wanted was to bombard this planet until its core ignited and exploded!

“Roger. Initiating emergency evacuation protocol.”

“Activating beacon…”

“Teleporting sequence commenced. Targeting all soldiers…”

“Targets acquired. Begin teleporting…”

…

A few operators that were on the ship quickly got to work. In no time, particles of lights started to manifest in and around the ship, teleporting soldiers from deep underground to the surface. Domingo’s decision was final. Although he would return to base with nothing in hand, he would still want to destroy this planet.

“All beacon signals retrieved. Lieutenant, all surviving men have been extracted. There are 321 men left. We cannot teleport them. Either their beacon has malfunction… or K.I.A,” said the operator to Domingo when he entered his Corvette class ship.

“321?!” Domingo roared. He had lost 321 men on a single mission run; that’s one-third of his total soldiers!

“Sir… The Terran… he is still on the planet,” said the operator only when Domingo had calmed down.

Domingo’s eyes widened when he heard the news. He was prepared to lose all of his men but not Jiang Fei! That was the one mistake he could not afford to make! Jiang Fei was a VVIP and what if he was still alive? He would be killing him by destroying the planet! What would the VVVIP that was supporting Jiang Fei do to him if Domingo had “accidentally” killed him…

“Have all ships activate all available scanning systems! Find Jiang Fei or we would not be leaving this planet!” Domingo ordered. It would be impossible to rely on ground infantry to start a search operation in the vast network of tunnels. All of his men might even die before they could reach Jiang Fei!

“All ships, this is CV-Main, activate all radar and tracking systems and search for the Terran!”

“Copy that.”

“Roger.”

“Roger.”

“Understood.”

Everyone was briefed about Jiang Fei and knew about how he was being treasured by their top brass. Even though they were nobody, they dared not fail this mission or they would be facing the wrath of their commanding officer.

While Domingo and the rest were panicking about his safety, Jiang Fei was still wandering deep underground. Until now, he had yet to find his attacker, or anyone else!

“Bugs should be coming by the masses but why have I not seen any yet? Sh*t! Come on, bring me a fight!” Jiang Fei taunted, trying to boost himself up as he walked through the dark and creepy path.

After a short distance, he found an exit, and when he peeked out from the hole, he immediately regretted his taunting words. He was currently peeking out from the top of a large hollow hole. Like a tower, the center of the hole went far down to the bottom with only smaller holes on the sides. At the bottom, countless ant-like creatures were seen, crawling about in tight formations. There were so many of them that there were at least hundreds of thousands if not millions of them. To make things worse, those bugs, individually, had over 10,000 combat level. To put things in perspective, there were more than a million fighters at the same combat level as Ariel!

“I’ve hit the jackpot…” Jiang Fei murmured to himself. Even though he could defeat them as easily as he could deal a slap, he could not handle so many of them! They were all as big as the largest alaskan malamute!

Jiang Fei remained on the top, daring not to make a sound as they greatly outnumbered him. He was in their natural terrain after all. Being deep underground and in the middle of a giant labyrinth, he had only his sword and his strength, but not the terrain advantage. They held the ultimate upper hand here.

However slow Jiang Fei moved, he had, unfortunately, made a clumsy mistake by kicking off a small rock that fell to the bottom of the hole. At that moment, all the bugs looked up and spotted him. However, instead of triggering a stampede, the ants remained calm. Everyone of them made a strange squeaking sound, the kind when one rubbed on a clean surface with a clean finger.

“What are they doing…? Are they communicating with each other? Are they intelligent?!” Jiang Fei thought. If they were like the Poppies on Cororan, they should be moving toward him in swarms instead of turning their heads around and squeaking to each other. Such a scene was incredibly odd.