The Threshold Falls (2/4)

As Faylin creeps up to the Queen, she sighs in relief at seeing the Ants seem to ignore her. Still… watching thousands of eggs sprout around her is really grossing me out.

Faylin doesn't even need to wait very long for her next opportunity to pass. Once another one of Haalfrin's heavy attacks strikes the Queen's mana shield, it shudders, and the shield's simple structure is disrupted.

With the mana in the Queens shield thrown into chaos, it will be significantly easier for Faylin to use her mana control and enchanted dagger to slip through the shield. She's an assassin who's had to do most of her real work by herself, so she's quite experienced in bypassing magical traps and barriers.

So, Faylin reaches out with one hand and slowly pinches the tip of the dagger on the most chaotic part of the barrier. Ever so slowly, the dagger slips through… followed by her arm, and then the rest of her body.

The thing about mana barriers is that even when there's a gap in it, a huge force will try to close the gap. Basically, the mana in the barrier flows like water, and if you puncture the water and make a hole in it, the gap will just close automatically, with the way the water flows and folds on itself.

Just the same way, the mana flows in the barrier.

What Faylin is doing when she slips through the barrier changing the way mana flows through her body to allow the mana in the shield to safely pass through her without harming her. It's like being struck by lightning, only to provide the excess energy a safe place to go by being grounded.

Thus, Faylin is able to slip through the mana barrier by carefully pushing the Queen's own mana through her body without killing herself. One mistake, and Faylin would've turned to ash!

After getting through the mana shield all the way, Faylin knows she has to act fast. Since the Queen has put her mana shield around her bodyguards as well, the shield itself is about 10 feet across.

There's so little room here that Faylin has no choice but to dive straight for the Queen and hope she can get past the bodyguards; there's no way they haven't realized she's an intruder after seeing her slip through the barrier.

The Ants may be numerous, and they may be uncharacteristically strong for Rehkin, but none of them are professionally trained in hand to hand combat; the Queen and her swarm had spent most of their lives not even being aware of civilization, after all.

And so, Faylin is able to expertly knock the (useless) bodyguards aside and lunge at the Queen with an outstretched dagger.

If Haalfrin had been in Faylin's shoes, he'd have shouted a warcry. If Dakka had been the attacker, he'd have yelled something barbaric, like "DIE!" However, Faylin is used to killing silently; the only sound heard is her dagger whistling through the air.

*SPLASH*

Faylin smiles in satisfaction seeing the Queen's terrified face as her dagger emerges on the other side of the Ant's throat. Gurgling in pain, the Ant drops to the ground and spasms grotesquely… before finally passing away from blood loss.

Just when Faylin thinks the Ant hoard is about to fall apart from panic at losing their Queen, as well as the mana barrier fizzling out with its caster being dead… all the Ants look at her… and the barrier doesn't change.

"HOW!?" she screams in her mind. Obviously, this means the Queen isn't dead. "I killed the Ant in the center of the barrier, so how did this happen?"

What Faylin doesn't know (and will never know) is that the Queen had shifted the center of the mana shield; instead of having it fixed around herself, she had practiced with it over the years spent underground.

The Queen had decided to put one of her useless soldier Ants at the center of the mana shield, with herself posing as one of the bodyguards. After all, she only has one life, and she's very careful with it.

Sadly for Faylin, she doesn't know exactly what happened; she just knows that whether the Queen is dead or alive, she still has to get out of the mana barrier before the humanoid Ants gang up on her and eat her.

So, the human assassin dives for the barrier and tries slipping through the barrier once more.

This time, because Haalfrin isn't conveniently striking the barrier the moment she came knocking, the mana in the shield isn't as chaotic, and Faylin has a harder time controlling the mana flow as she slips back out…

In fact, the Queen's mana is so abundant that Faylin screams in pain and actually loses her concentration just as she's almost out of the barrier. As her foot is leaving the barrier, the mana suddenly explodes in her body, and everything below her left ankle is blown off.

"AAH!" Faylin screams even harder. Even if she hadn't been making a lot of noise, all the Ants around her already know she's here. With the Queen's near assassination attempt, the Ant is surely angry at her.

Just as the newly spawned Ants are springing to life around her… she hears a roar from just above her, "DON'T TOUCH THAT! THAT'S MINE!"

Without warning, Fhulk dips down and snatches Faylin off the ground. He gripped her so tightly that one of her arms got broken… but no matter! He just saved her life! Off to freedom they fly!

… or that's what he'd have liked to do. Instead, as he's frantically beating his wings in a desperate bid to pick up speed, the Queen – snarling in fury by now – drops her shield for a split second to send a precise mana blast.

At least Haalfrin's training has paid off, and Fhulk is pretty good at dodging by now… though he's not perfect.

If Fhulk hadn't dodged, he'd have been hit by the mana blast and directly killed; instead, the blast grazes half of one of his wings, and the leather on the wing is burnt off.

Fhulk doesn't even shout in pain at his injury; instead, he looks down grimly as he starts to spiral downward. He'd have plummeted straight down, if he hadn't learned enough practical magic to his Dravar magic to at least keep himself upright in a glide.

As Fhulk is coming closer to the ground, Faylin looks up and shouts, "Fhulk! Try to get over the edge of the Threshold! If you land in the city proper, we'll both get eaten!"

"I KNOW!" he calmly says back. (He only sounds like he's shouting here because he's so big in his dragon form; his voice is loud and deep by default).

Only moments later, Fhulk manages to get over the edge of the outermost wall (given how fast he was already flying), and he looks down… only for his heart to drop.

He'd heard from Commander Fisco that the Ants on the cavern floor had all been wiped out… yet the place seems to be full of them right now. Even here isn't safe!? Why?

What Fhulk hadn't considered is that the chasms built into the front of each castle wall had to be bridged by the Ants using their own bodies; naturally, many of the Ants ended up falling to the floor in the process.

Realizing that he can't fly up on a broken wing, Fhulk knows he and Faylin have no choice but to fight.

So, the dragon burns a large swath of ground and all the Ants on it to ashes – just in time to land on the clear spot he made.

Remember something Haalfrin had taught him before, Fhulk was also sure to land near the edge of the cavern; with a wall on one side, he'll have fewer sides to look out for; it's better to be surrounded 180 degrees around you than 360.

The moment Fhulk lands, he carefully sets Faylin on the ground near the wall, and he roars at her, "I KNOW YOU HAVE THAT GEAR FOR CLIMBING WALLS. GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Perhaps it's because he's too frantic, but he actually didn't notice that one of her feet is missing right now.

Hissing in frustration, Faylin curses mentally, "Climb up HOW?! I can't go anywhere like this! Plus, I'm bleeding out, so there's that."

"… Sorry Faylin…," Fhulk looks at her and grumbles as he starts slapping his tail around him to beat off the approaching Ants. He shakes his head, then roars again, "I DON'T CARE IF IT HURTS! YOU'RE GETTING UP THERE NOW! I CAN JUST FOLLOW YOU LATER! THERE'S NO POINT IF WE BOTH DIE."

It seems that Fhulk is under the impression that Faylin isn't immediately climbing up because she doesn't want to leave her rescuer behind. He meant his last words here as a tearful fairwell and a last nod at his unrequited feelings.

Faylin, on the other hand, thinks Fhulk said these words as a form of encouragement. So, she steels her heart and thinks of a way to make it up there.

After thinking it out briefly, the human assassin slaps her broken arm up and uses the adhesive glove to cling to the cavern wall. With her entire weight dangling on the injured arm, she feels the bones grinding on each other, and she cries in agony.

Literally. She cries tears – not some exaggerated form of shouting.

Even still, this woman fiercely wants to live… so she keeps climbing.

Since she can't pull her own weight up with her broken arm, she lifts up her good leg and uses the adhesive boot to get a firm grip. Then, she pushes on it and reaches even higher with her good arm.

Like this, she slowly but surely gets higher on the wall.

Every so often, Faylin glances down to check on Fhulk… and what she sees isn't surprising, though it does make her worried. Sure, he's beating off the Ants fairly well, but she knows just as well as anyone else that these Ants don't care if they die; what Fhulk is doing is just delaying the inevitable.

Once the Ants have congregated around him in large enough numbers, just slapping them with his tail and stomping his claws on the ground isn't enough to protect himself. So, Fhulk engulfs his entire body in flame – incinerating any Ant who gets too close.

Since having your entire body on fire is a terribly inefficient way to use mana, Fhulk tries eating some of the Ants to replenish his mana pool…

… In any other circumstance, this would've been a good plan. However, the Queen is able to preserve the mana used to summon her ants by returning whatever bodies she created back into mana.

Thus, the instant an Ant dies, Fhulk literally has nothing to eat; his meal just dissipates into mana before he even gets to swallow it all the way.

If it weren't for this fact, Fhulk (as well as any dragon) would've been able to fight forever.

Dragons are naturally avaricious and gluttonous in order to compensate for the massive mana they use with every attack. Thus, the Queen and her swarm is actually one of the most effective counters to dragons; hence, why she was able to give old senior dragons like Kalkor a lot of trouble.

Given Fhulk's natural disadvantages here, he quickly starts to run out of mana, and the flame on his body starts to grow dim, like a piece of firewood that's been mostly burnt out; sure, his scales are still searing hot, but instead of bursting into flame, they're just glowing with heat.

With his mana running dry, Fhulk's movements become became more sluggish. Even still, he is a tall, towering dragon; his natural strength is still great - great enough to hold the Ants off.

Once the Ants notice the little human climbing up the wall, a few of them try scuttling up after her…