Chapter One-Hundred and Fifty-Three: Not all is right at home.

Drake shouted, throwing Theodore into the air above them, "Hang on Theo! It's going to get bumpy!"

The instant that Drake pulled Theodore in and released him upwards, he stepped under the Ant Prince's reaching limb.

"M-my Lord!?!?!" Theodore screamed.

Obiteron's crimson eyes widened as Drake stepped in pulling the monster over his shoulder, a brown magic circle forming on the ground adjacent to them.

Drake summoned a spike of black earth to form on the spot he was going to throw the Prince, his goal to impale the monster.

Obiteron couldn't resist Drake's current strength as he might, flipping over Drake's shoulder and just moments from being skewered.

But Drake wasn't only against one opponent.

In the next second Braxor moved, his fist smashing the spike at the base.

"Fucking Ant…" Drake cursed, clicking his tongue.

Drake instantly switched it up, forcing the earth down into a pool of mud, Obiteron still careening for the same position. But now the Ant Prince sunk into the floor with a splash.

A flame sparked in the next moment, Drake throwing his fist forward at the gaping Braxor, his focus on the floor where the other Prince had just been thrown. That instant gave Drake just enough time.

Punching through the flame, Drake's endowment switched again, his arm and hair switching to a crimson red that lit up the dim surroundings.

"Marked!"

In the last second before impact, Braxor came to his senses, putting up his guard but only barely before Drake's Martial Skill-enhanced fist collided with him.

The impact sounded throughout the cavern and Braxor's thick chitin arms cracked and splintered as he was thrown backwards.

"Tough bastard," Drake grumbled.

Rasha had finally come out of his intimidation, a chittering howl sounding from his maw, as he lowered his stance and rushed Drake from behind.

Feeling the movement with his aura, Drake dropped to the ground, dodging the Ant's extended arms. Drake's legs extended as he swept the monster from beneath, tumbling the Prince into the mud with his brother.

The next moment Drake summoned another brown magic circle at his feet as he bent his legs from his sweeping position.

"You know, there is such a thing as too many people at a party," Drake sneered, the earth magic below him forming and pushing him upward toward Theodore.

Drake quickly grabbed Theo, forming a ball of wind around the man once more, another spell of wind forming a gust as Drake and Theo shot off for the other end of the room with a boom.

The three Princes hissed and shouted back into the air, but Drake had already left the area.

—----------

"You imbeciles! Your jokes and plots have gone too far this time!" Braxor clacked as he walked forward, tending his shattered arms.

Obiteron and Rasha pulled themselves from the pool of mud.

Obiteron's expression was even and unperturbed now, "I have not the slightest idea what you are speaking of, Brother."

Braxor snapped his mandibles together in anger, "Do not play me for a fool! I know you led him to the Hive! Are you so desperate for the throne you would condemn the entire colony?"

Obiteron scoffed, wiping the mud from his body and trinkets, "As I said, I have not the slightest clue of which you speak. Was it not Rasha who met them but a few weeks ago on the surface? Perhaps they simply followed him here after you chose not to deal with them."

"What did you say, weakling…?" Rasha hissed, "Are you saying it was my fault? If you two hadn't gotten in my way that filthy flesh-ridden human would be dead!"

"Oh? Is that why you were knocked on your thorax? Because you were doing so spectacularly? If I hadn't intervened you would be nothing but ichor on the floor…. Brother," Obiteron chirped.

"You think a waste of a larvae like you, who is only as good as the filthy trinkets you took from the hall, could ever help me?!"

Rasha walked forward still covered in dirt, and gripped Obiteron by the golden necklace that adorned his neck and laughed.

"Take away your trinkets and what are you? Weak! You should be ashamed to call yourself a Prince of Tyrant Ants!" he spat.

"Enough!" Braxor roared, "The human is stronger than I thought… He will become a problem if he is allowed to rampage through the Hive. We will assign blame later. Unless you both wish to be ruling a broken colony!"

Rasha released the necklace with a scoff, jumping in the direction Drake had run, his Royal Guards following suit.

Braxor waved a guard to him, "Get the knights and the trackers. Find them. They can't hide his disgusting pheromones in our home."

The guard nodded and moved towards another tunnel exit, the royal knights following as more and more ants gathered around them.

"You and I, Brother, are going to have a long talk after this is over," Braxor sneered, turning to follow his knights.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Brother…" Obiteron chirped back.

Once Braxor left, a knight from Obiteron's guard walked forward.

"What would you like us to do, your Majesty?"

"Do as we planned. I showed us fighting the intruder, now, we must use him to our advantage…"

—--------

Drake was still using his wind magic to propel Theodore and himself through the air, trying to reach the opposite end of the cavern as fast as possible.

Below him, the skittering of Ants still sounded as he saw movement constantly. They had obviously been alerted to him and began turning and following. More and more ants beginning to gather, forming a horde below. Even some began to pour out of the columns that supported the cavern.

"This is a bit of a pickle," Drake sighed.

"M-my Lord! Allow us to pause in our escape so that this one may conceal us!" Theodore screamed over the blistering wind.

"Oh! Good idea!" Drake agreed.

Looking down Drake canceled his fire endowment, switching to water for the regeneration.

Summoning a handful of orange magic circles Drake smirked under his mask.

"Time to sow some chaos."

The circles fully formed as droplets of red hot glistening magma began to drip from them as Drake continued to propel forward.

Huge bombs of liquid fire rained down on the gathering Ant horde below them kicking up dirt and instantly bursting the Ants to flames.

"We don't want to leave a trail…Do we think that they need so many columns? They can go without one right?" Drake thought aloud.

"Do not dare! You said yourself the place might collapse again!" Natto screamed.

"That was then, this is now. Before we didn't have three high-level monsters on our tushies. Besides we aren't staying here, we have to find the treasure room, or at least another place where they aren't!"

Drake slipped his rings into his inventory, Morning Glory shimmering into existence in front of him.

Pointing his staff towards a pillar in the opposite direction they were going, he began casting.

"Bring down the house!" Drake smiled, a flame forming in front of him, quickly changing colors as it flickered from red, to blue, to white.

"Howitzer," a brown magic circle coming into existence, forming a jet-black barrel of earth around the condensing flame, a green-tinged magic circle then flashing into place behind the flame at the end of the barrel.

"Impact!"

Drake roared, finishing the spell, as it fired, the flame bullet pushed through the barrel, melting it as it went screeching forward towards its target. The force of the recoil more powerful than Drake could have expected, flinging both him and Theodore backward. His Magma magic circles were barely able to keep up as they were launched toward the cavern's wall.

A thunderous boom pierced through the noise of the cavern as the spell ripped from the barrel, a second later slamming into the column.

At the moment of impact, an explosion sounded with an earth-shattering pitch deafening the surroundings as the column broke apart in the explosion, tumbling and breaking apart at the point of contact.

The column broke and snapped from its support tumbling down to the ground in large pieces, crushing whatever was underneath it without discrimination or care.

Drake and Theodore pushed with such force, Drake struggled to orient themselves, having to suddenly cancel his magma spells, forming wind spells around them, to slow and cushion their impact.

The wall quickly encroached on them as they sped forward Drake gritting his teeth. Instead of slowing, changing to shoot forward in front of Theodore, orienting his feet to the wall.

"Legs! I know you haven't liked me recently, but don't break damn it!" Drake shouted, his hair switching to a fierce orange.

Drake braced for impact, his legs almost buckling as he hit the wall perpendicularly. But he didn't have time to care about the pain or if he had shattered every bone in his legs. His head shot upward seeing Theodore flying towards him.

Drake aimed his staff upward, summoning a pillar of water to cushion Theodore's landing. Stowing his staff, Drake raised both arms.

Theodore screamed loudly as he tumbled into the pillar of water, slowing down and coming out the other end, right into Drake's arms in a princess carry.

Drake chuckled his legs stuck in the wall.

"That was fun. Wanna go again?"

"M-my…." Theodore tried to say, then coughed up a mouthful of water.

"I'll take that as a no," Drake laughed, pulling his feet from the wall with some effort and pain as they fell to the ground.

Drake again used his wind magic to cushion their fall, pulling a health potion from his inventory, and downing it in one gulp.

"Fuck I pulled one not made by Bjorn… I really wanted the grapefruit-tasting one, bleh…" Drake said, sticking out his tongue.

Theodore righted himself, still soaking wet and coughing up water.

Drake watched and spread his aura making sure no one was following them for now as he waited for his broken legs to heal.

Once Theodore was done expelling the water, he spared no time in concealing them with his spell.

"So hopefully this keeps us safe for a bit, I can feel the potion working on my legs but I need a few more minutes…. Can you use some illusions to get them off our trail Theo?" Drake asked.

"Certainly my Lord, but a moment," Theodore nodded.

"My enemies see not the world through a lens of clarity but as I make it. Breath of Nightmares," Theodore chanted, tens of inky black figures forming around them, slowly condensing into identical versions of Drake and Theodore.

"You know I don't think I've said this before but, you're taller than I am aren't you, Theo…." Drake said in a hushed grumble.

"Y-yes..? This one believes he is…?" Theodore answered, sending the illusions out in different directions.

Drake clicked his tongue.

"Bastard…."