Chapter 52 – Training with Ants

Jack readies the spear while taking a quick survey of where the ants are, they are just peeking through the long grasses around 30 steps away allowing him a few moments to decide the best course of action, it's a large group of ants and Jack is still not comfortable using the skill completely.

The qi flows smoothly through the spear while Jack looks at the ants, the ugly creature getting closer but they're not very close to each other allowing him to separate them into small groups of 10, two groups of 10 on the left are his first priority.

Jack silently withdraws the Bunny Ears from the storage ring and placing them on his head, he makes the first movement holding the spear out, he yells in his mind 'Bunny Dash' as he disappears from his spot and reappears 20 steps away near the first lot of ants.

The simple black ants brandish their pincers upon sensing Jacks sudden movements but they don't stop their stupid frontal assault as he launches the first round of attacks, 'Second Motion' Jack yells in his mind as he stabs out forward.

The spear flickers as the ants tumble over, Jack doesn't have time to inspect how effective this strike was as he turns to the next group of 10 ants, they're within 5 steps of him when Jack simply steps out and uses the second motion of Heavens Piercing Thrust again where the ants yet again tumble over.

Jack quickly uses 'Bunny Dash' to leap 100m away from the ants, the area is quickly overrun by the remaining 30 ants as they get enraged after smelling the death of their comrades, their eyes turn red which Jack immediately notices but it feels different to demonic qi causing him to be curious about this ability.

The ants speed up but Jack has already taken down nearly half of the ants in total from two spear attacks and feels confident in taking down the rest of the ants, using 'Bunny Dash' to leap back another 100 metres Jack takes a moment to take a deep breath and circulate his qi within the spear.

A larger yellow ant is emitting a loud screeching noise as the ground starts to rumble slightly, the soft soil turns even softer Jack is outside the effected area but he doesn't even take notice as he's trying to control the qi within the spear.

The last few explosions have just been uncontrollably pouring qi within the spear, it doesn't use much qi but Jack feels it'd be less wasteful if he can use the spear to deliver a smaller explosion while stabbing into something sort of like an anti-tank missile.

He spreads his senses within his body, he can feel the qi flowing through his meridians and enter the spear but using the qi control skills that come with his current realm of cultivation he limits the flow rate, allowing only a small amount enter the spear but this is incredibly difficult.

Jack's usual weapon, the city lord weapon 'White Dragon - Phoenix Sword' feels like an extension of his body allowing him to easily pour his qi into the weapon but this spear feels like it's just sucking up all the qi unwilling to hold a small amount, Jack needs to limit the flow rate while also ensuring an explosion doesn't go off prematurely.

The ants are now within the 30-step distance again, Jack can sense this and takes another survey and takes aim at a group of 10 ants on the right.

'Bunny Dash' he yells in his mind as he disappears from the spot and reappears 6 steps before the first ant, Jack positions the spear while controlling the qi and allows the ant to make the final 3 steps as he readies his mind, the plan will be to use the first motion while controlling the qi inside the spear causing a smaller explosion, quickly followed up by the second motion on the rest of the ants.

The ant is within 4 steps when Jack makes a half-step towards it, he yells while thrusting the spear out in a simple jab, a fast and accurate jab.

Sound almost like it's ripping apart the air as the dim yet still glowing spear head travels towards the ant can be heard, Jack can feel the spear easily passing through the outer shell as it lands in the soft flesh of the ants head and releases control on the qi causing a small explosion goes off in the ants head.

The black ant's head explodes covering Jack in ant juices including some acid that hisses on his skin causing some smoke to appear but he takes no notice, he's calm and takes another step forward to the next ant where 5 are within reach as he uses the second motion, it flows elegantly for a moment where it looks like Jack has made a single magnificent jab forward but the 5 ants collapse tumbling onto the ground as the twitch, Jack eyes the 4 remaining ants before taking a quick peek at the remaining 20.

The remaining 20 are all within about 15 steps and climbing on top of each other within close range making them unable to be grouped into 10s, Jack looks back at the remaining 4 around him that are all within 2 steps now and getting close but he just simply takes a half step forward and uses the same technique, causing the 4 ants to topple over and start twitching on the ground.

Jack uses bunny dash to get further away from the group of ants as he takes another moment to prepare a large spear strike, he'd use a fireball if his meridians were fine but they're not fully recovered as if the specific veins used for fireball are stressed.

He readies the larger spear explosion in an instant before using 'Bunny Dash' to target the centre mass of the ants.

*BOOOM*

A loudish explosion rings as 7 of the ants were blown up, their body parts flying around and charring the ground but causing the group of 20 ants to split up into two groups of 6 and 7, Jack uses 'Bunny Dash' to back away from the group and prepare the next round of attacks.

The larger yellow ant is still screeching while emitting a yellow qi, the ground goes even softer almost turning into a sand like substance, Jack can feel this change and frowns testing the firmness of the ground, his foot is easily buried by the sand-like dirt.

Jack's expression turns very serious as he repositions the bunny ears on top of his head, he is going to need to be very careful about tripping over given the changes caused by the yellow ant.

'Bunny Dash'

Jack yells in his mind but the high speed movement and battle is getting to him, he disappears and reappears before the group of 7 ants towards the left, he uses the second motion as the elegant looking spear jabs forward and pierces the head easily, but two of them avoided a fatal blow they're now within half a step and very enraged.

His feet are constantly moving not allowing them to be swallowed up by the sand-like dirt, he launches a single strike towards one of the ants before retreating again, the single ant topples over like the others but the remaining ant is still very enraged.

Jack is now 100m away from the remaining 7 ants, a group of 6 that include a vicious looking yellow ant and a very enraged normal black ant with a large wound on its head. His forehead is covered with sweat from this intense battle, the constant high-speed movements are new to him and he's having trouble adjusting to using a spear.

'Bunny Dash' is a simple movement skill designed to utilise the leg muscles in a particular way while 'Heavens Piercing Thrust' is almost entirely about accuracy which compliment each other very well but the spear itself is long, heavy and unwieldly focused almost entirely on thrusting and piercing.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he takes a deep breath allowing his body a moment to recover some stamina and coldly eyes the rest of the ants, giving the spear a quick twirl and placing it into a ready position, Jack disappears from his spot and reappears 5 steps from the final group of ants.

The large yellow ant's body emits a large amount of qi as the ground goes even softer, Jack's leg starts to sink in but that doesn't stop his thrust as he jabs out with the second motion yet again causing the smaller ants topple over but the larger yellow ant is still screeching without any damage.

The yellow ant is 2 steps away from Jack as he quickly pushes his qi into the spear, the spear head glows brightly before dimming slightly indicating that it's one of the smaller strikes, thrusting out he uses the first motion and aims for the ant's eyes.

*SCRAPEEEE*

The sound of metal rubbing against rock can be heard as the spear pierces through the ant's outer shell, the outer shell is glowing yellow indicating that the ant is using its qi but the spear still passes through it easily.

*BANG*

Jack releases his qi within the spear causing the ants head to explode, the yellow outer shell and flesh go flying through the air while the ant's body loses the yellow glow and slumps over, the legs are twitching but Jack doesn't take notice, he looks at the remaining ant and readies the spear.

The ant rushing over impales itself on the spear without much effort from Jack, he used the first motion to aim for the previous wound he made. The ant's jaws open and shut a few times as high-pitched screeching can be heard and fluids are leaking from various parts of the ant, the area starts to smell strangely but the ant stops moving before long.

Jack removes the spear from the impaled ant while removing his legs being buried in the incredibly soft sand-like dirt. He's panting, covered with dirt and ant juices while sweat pours from his forehead but he just feels physically tired, mentally he's excited.

"Ha, Stupid ants" Jack laughs to himself inspecting the battlefield, the soft ground has buried part of the ant bodies and he doesn't really need to collect any of them but looking at the yellow ant that's positioned next to him decides that he should collect some.

Placing the spear back within his storage ring, Jack trudges through the soft ground and collects several ant carcasses while recovering his energy not taking much notice of what he's doing. The yellow ant and 5 of the black ants are securely stored and their dropped items are collected, nothing except a few copper coins.

Jack stops for a moment to inspect the battlefield again; various ants are blown up but majority of them are cleanly killed with a single stab in their head. A smile creeps onto his face as he stretches his body, Sleipner comes walking up giving Jack a nudge as if reminding him of something.

Jack strokes the large horse while asking "What do you rate my performance?".

The horse just snorts and shakes its head as if saying, 'All that effort for some tiny ants?'

*rustle rustle*

Some long grasses have a familiar sound in the distance, Jack stops stroking Sleipner and jumps onto the back of it giving him a better vantage point, in the distance a huge mass of ants can be seen running in this direction but they're several kilometres away clearly enraged.

Jack nudges Sleipner causing the horse slowly walk out of the sandy area before breaking into a sprint, the horse's full speed leaving the ants far in the distance quickly as Jack watches behind him at how the ants behave.

The ants can be seen inspecting the area, a few of the larger metallic ants stop for a moment before continuing to run in the direction that Jack left, the sound screeching can be heard far in the distance and a few flying ants can also be seen.

Sleipner doesn't pause as Jack is watching behind him on top of the horse, it's difficult to see at the distance but he feels confident enough to say that the ants haven't been majorly impacted by the demonic qi yet.

Jack turns around and nudges Sleipner to run away from the ant hill, "We need to find somewhere to stop for a few minutes, I need to wash off this smell otherwise we're going to be tracked by these ants for far too long"

The horse just gives another snort but he shifts his direction, Jack gives the horse a pat before taking a map out of his storage ring. It's a survey map created by the Bunny Scouts produced overnight, it has a projection of the forces in the local area and especially the north.

Looking at his current position, there is a watering hole not too far away which Sleipner is already heading towards allowing Jack to take a breather and relax for a moment on top of the horse, thinking about his tasks that need to be completed today.

The first was confirming that the ants are impacted by demonic qi and going to invade suddenly, this was partially confirmed with the battle that just took place. It's not enough to say confidently but it's enough for now.

The second was confirming the status of the goblins, looking at the map again not far from the waterhole is where the kobolds went missing, the goblins from United Goblin Town have caused issues for the kobolds before so it makes them the most likely culprits.

The only issue is that the marks on the map are almost exactly in the middle of the two force projection areas decided upon by the Bunny Scouts and Bane, Jack is curious as to how they decided upon these areas for the ants and goblins but he needs to rely on his ministers, trust the information they provided is accurate.

Jack puts the map away and sits quietly upon the scaled horse recovering his physical condition, it takes roughly 45 minutes to reach the watering hole area, it's dried out but due to the fact that the water would have been poisoned it works out much better, the area is covered with signs of various creatures coming here such as wolves, deer, pigs and various insects including the familiar markings of a giant centipede.

Jack dismounts the horse while a shiver goes up his spine upon thinking about the fact that another centipede isn't too far from Dragon – Phoenix village. He walks into the dried-up watering hole, quickly removing his robes, his body is covered in red marks from the acidic ant.

Taking some water from the storage ring, he pours it over himself and scrubs up causing his entire body to feel itchy. He honestly feels like scratching off several layers of skin to resolve the itchiness but pushes it out of mind, drying off and putting on a new set of clothing made of black iron wool.

The robes feel fresh but he still feels incredibly itchy, Jack remounts the horse and the two make their way quickly to the area the kobolds disappeared, it's an area that looks just like every other leaving no clues for Jack to follow.

Riding Sleipner, Jack looks around the area to see if he can find any trails through the grass but there are many trails going in various directions indicating that this area has had many creatures or people stop here specifically.

Jack lets out a sigh, he will need to get closer to United Goblin Town to accomplish his task but he really hopes that it doesn't end up like last time, Fenrir didn't join him because it's currently doing something with the giant rats so he wont be able to easily get away from goblin wolf riders.

Giving Sleipner a pat, Jack nudges it towards the direction of the United Goblin Town following one of the many trails through the long grass, the giant scaled horse trots through the grasses carefully while Jack is watching out from the high vantage point over the long grasses.

A group of deer can be seen in the distance running, some pigs are searching for some food around a tree but no goblins nor any predators can be seen, Jack quietly rides on the horse taking in the surroundings and the wildlife.

A black substance can be seen bouncing around not too far away causing Jack to raise his eyebrow, it's too far to inspect with the system but he's willing to guess that it's a slime. It doesn't take any notice of anyone as it bounces around the plains leaving black dead marks where-ever it lands.

Jack nudges Sleipner to get away from the slime but he can hear some speech, "Do we need to capture the slime?"

Looking around the plains, Jack can see a group of goblins four of them are walking while one is sitting upon a wolf appearing from a direction of longer than normal grass, Jack pulls up Sleipner signalling the horse to stop.

"Jax said we need to capture anything that can become evil, slimes can become that!"

"I don't want to get near it" one of the goblins backs away.

The wolf that the goblin is riding starts to snarl at the goblin that was backing away, "You are here to train, do your job" the goblin sitting on the wolf says while coldly looking at the walking goblins.

Jack watches this interaction and makes a decision, jumping off Sleipner he pulls out the spear giving it a silent twirl before placing it in the ready position.

'Bunny Dash' Jack yells out in his mind as he disappears and reappears several times crossing the several hundred metres before the goblins are able to notice but the wolf is able to notice, it turns around quickly as its ears track Jacks movement.

The goblin sitting on the wolf pulls out his bow but before he can, Jack appears behind the wolf holding the spear against the goblin's neck.

"Tell your wolf to settle down, you won't be harmed if you answer my questions" Jack announces in a cold tone, the wolf is arching its back while its fur stands on end but the Goblin pats it causing it to settle down.

The other goblins start to run away while the one sitting on the goblin calmly looks at Jack, "What do you want to ask?"