The Threshold Falls (3/4)

Quickly, the Ants are hungrily trying to find a way to reach the tasty human just above them. Sadly for them, the cavern walls have been carved so smoothly that the Ants have no traction to work with; instead, they just comically scratch their feet on the wall without going anywhere.

Then, hundreds of them start to gather as they form large of their own bodies in a bid to reach even higher up the wall.

Fhulk, of course, notices what the Ants are doing, so every time they try to make a ramp up to Faylin, he growls in anger and slaps the writhing ramps apart.

It doesn't take the Ants long to recognize that every time they try to go after the human, the dragon turns around to protect the human.

With such a predictable pattern, it doesn't take long for the Ants to grow more coordinated and start biting off pieces of his flesh.

Whenever Fhulk turns his attention to protecting the human, the Ants on the other side would take advantage of his exposed backside, and despite his tail constantly slamming on the ground, some of the ants would make it onto his body.

Faylin sees Fhulk start to lose and she shouts, "Get out of there, you idiot!"

She knows full well that he COULD just transform into his humanoid form and use the last of his mana to perhaps... do SOMETHING to escape on his own.

However, the dragon down below isn't thinking of escape; instead, he's thinking, "I COULD just transform into my humanoid form, since I wouldn't have to care about a broken wing, and I would have to use as much mana to jump away, since I'd have a lighter body then…"

Of course, just escaping on his own isn't enough, so he also thinks, "I COULD jump after Faylin and grab her…, but I wouldn't be a be able to fly with her; that means I'd have to jump away in a single leap…"

He growls in frustration and concludes, "The physical speed I'd need to jump up thousands of feet would instantly kill this woman. I HAVE to stay here to buy time for her to climb higher."

Fhulk already has a dozen ants on his back, and despite him thrashing about, they won't let go easily; he can't roll on the ground to crush them, since he still has his wings preventing a full body roll.

Meanwhile, Fhulk hisses aggressively when he arches his long neck and looks at the Ants who are on his back – busily chewing at the base of his wings… until both of them are clipped off.

With the loss of his wings, Fhulk roars in not in pain, but that special flavor of fury that demands blood.

With his adrenaline consuming him, Fhulk fights twice as ferociously, and he quickly loses his reasoning in the slaughter. Even the Ants retreat momentarily after seeing that they're pointlessly getting killed when they get too close to him.

Even still, the Ants want this dragon to drop from exhaustion already, so they expertly make small, coordinated attacks at him to keep him just angry enough to keep thrashing about.

Ever so slowly, Fhulk starts to feel his body growing lethargic, and even the embers in his body starts to grow cold.

Sensing a feast, the Ants swarm around him, and they grip all four of his limbs. The next part of the struggle is the Ants desperately to disarm the dragon (literally), while the dragon thrashes about weakly – trying to get his arms and legs free.

Several minutes later, Faylin watches as Fhulk finally can't fight back, and his limbs are pulled outwards. "IDIOT" she screeches at him, "GET OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOT! YOU CAN STILL JUMP, RIGHT?!"

Unexpectedly Fhulk hears her over the hungry clattering sounds the Ants are making, and he looks up at her – roaring with some ironic air of dominance, "THE ONLY FITTING DEATH FOR A DRAGON IS TO DIE PROTECTING THEIR TREASURES!"

Even more unexpectedly, Faylin hears this and actually starts sobbing as she witnesses the dragon be ripped apart and ravenously devoured.

Only now does Faylin truly understand how a dragon loves. In the past, whenever Fhulk would try to "claim" her, or put her in his stash, she'd feel extremely insulted – thinking he was calling her a treasure because he sees her as an object.

However… dragons truly have a different idea of what "love" is. To them, calling you a treasure and treating you like one is the highest expression of love; to them, a treasure is something you love and protect – something you derive purpose from. A dragon without a treasure feels meaningless and empty inside.

What's the point in living if you have no purpose? What could possibly give you a greater purpose than having the greed / desire to claim a treasure and the power to protect it?

Thus, Faylin's heart finally reaches out to Fhulk after she comes to understand this truth.

Alas… it's all to late for them now.

After the small mountain of Ants over the dragon's corpse finally disperses, the human assassin looks down and sees that all his glistening white bones have been picked clean.

Remembering what Dakka and Haalfrin told her about dragon bones, Faylin wipes the tears from her eyes with one hand while she considers that Fhulk's soul is probably still in his bones. "If I can just get his bones to his father, and he can bring the man called Fhulk back to life, right?

Realizing he might not be dead forever, she buries away this kernel of hope and focuses on trying to escape. She can worry about apologizing to him for ignoring him all this time later…

… However, Faylin only manages to limp her way up the wall a little higher before the Ants are done feasting in the dragon and remember her.

As one, the chittering horde turn their sites up to her and start piling themselves up the wall with no scaley interruptions this time.

In less than a minute, a mandible grips Faylin's ankle and tries yanking her down, but her adhesive boot and glove hold her body so tightly to the wall that she doesn't budge.

More and Ants climb up, and one of them gets onto her back. It then puts its mandible over her wrists one by one and cuts both her hands off, while another Ant cuts her adhesive boot off by severing her foot.

With that, Faylin is pulled down into the swarm of hungry mouths with barely a chance to scream.

---------------------

"The gate is open!" Fisco anxiously tells Haalfrin through their Far speak medallion. "Other people can hold the final wall, so get over here and escape. NOW!"

There is no response from Haalfrin.

"We can't lose you now Haalfrin!" Fisco sounds more urgent now as he starts to have an idea of what the dragon slayer is planning. "Come through the gate while there's still time!"

At last, Haalfrin's frustrated voice answers back, "No! I need to find my squad mates! My Wills lost track of where Faylin is, and I haven't seen Resburn and Jay in a while. WHERE ARE THEY?!"

"Jay's with me," Fisco answers – this time more calmly. "I don't know where the other two are, though."

Haalfrin hears this and growls in frustration, "I'm looking for them right now."

He then instructed all of his Wills to keep a lookout for Faylin and Resburn, then he releases all his Wills at once.

Sure, his Wills would run out of mana faster if they're all out, and even this huge amount of Death Aura isn't enough for him to keep them full of Mana with his Fel Name forever… Even still, he needed to act fast and find them as soon as possible, so this is his best option.

Just after Haalfrin issues the orders to the rest of his Wills, he doesn't even get to take a few steps before he trips over a corpse. He glances down and sees a bloodied man with both his legs missing.

With the blood trail on the floor, Haalfrin realizes this soldier must have tried crawling the short distrance towards the world Gate in an attempt to escape this place with the rest of the evacuees. The soldier must have given up upon seeing he was alone in this hall, so he propped himself against a wall and bled to death.

The man's face is so scarred and burnt that Haalfrin actually can't recognize the man… but his blood goes cold when he sees the drawing in the soldier's hand. It's pocket sized portrait of Myra.

Even Haalfrin's eyes go moist seeing this. Respectfully, Haalfrin bends a knee and looks the soldier in the eyes, then glances painfully at the blood trail on the ground. "Old friend, you wanted to make it back to your family."

Somberly, Haalfrin reaches out and picks up Myra's picture. On the back of the portrait are written two names he doesn't recognize – a boy's name and a girl's name.

Haalfrin smiles sadly seeing the two names. Knowing what they're for, he summons a dagger will and straps the portrait to it. "Take that to Jay," Haalfrin orders the Will. "I want Myra to know what her husband wanted the child to be named."