Nis continued to walk away from the breach leisurely. He was taking confident strides, but he felt anything but confident. His body was pulsating, his head felt like it was about to explode, and his vision was constantly blurring.
Things like pain didn't matter to Nis currently, though. All that mattered was the façade. He had to at least look confident. If not to fool the hand, then at least fool the crowd watching.
Nis didn't look back towards the breach even once. The angry grunts and booming had already stopped, and no gargantuan limb emerged from the breach again.
'I guess, he took that to heart.'
Nis still held his sword on top of his shoulder. He held the blade out in front of his body and let it fall into a reverse grip with the tip pointed at the ground. A small pitch-black circle opened a few inches beyond the tip. Nis took a quick look into the hole since he was curious about it.
A couple of things Nis had in his pockets back on Earth had been moved into the void. So he was a little disappointed that he could not see any of the stuff he had from the outside. As part of the necessary knowledge, Nis knew that it was called a Personal Pocket Dimension. Although it was administered differently from the other Necessary Knowledge. It was just that Nis knew of the movements rather than the knowledge of what he should do the access it. Like, having muscle memory without ever knowing what it was for.
Nis let go of the blade and watched as the void absorbed its body. He was approaching the crowd now. All the miners, in addition to Kragg, looked completely lost. They all were staring at Nis like he was some alien lifeform. Although they would be correct if they did think that.
'I don't know what their all thinking. It kinda makes sense for Kragg, though. The sickly bug he found lying on the ground just got into a fight with a giant hand. And won.'
Nis stuck his arms out to his sides and flashed a bright smile.
"What? No welcome bac—"
Before Nis could even finish, Kragg had snapped out of his trance and hugged Nis. It felt odd, Nis wasn't used to being hugged. In fact, it may have been the first time it had happened.
'Oh, wow. Did we have this kinda relationship? I also really don't like this feeling. These people's skin is way too hard for me. ...Or maybe I just don't like being hugged.'
After a few moments, Kragg backed off a bit and put his hands on Nis's shoulders.
"Brother, that was amazing! You scared that horrid creature off!"
"Uh, yeah. I'm glad it's gone too. But, uh, can you let me go? I'm in a lot of pain right now."
"Oh yes, you're right. I forgot you were ill."
Nis was a little taken aback to hear that.
He forgot?'
Kragg let go of his shoulders, but a few moments later, the rest of the miners all crowded around and bombarded Nis. Some bombarded him with praise, and others thanked him for helping their brothers. A few of the others were apologizing profusely for not helping and not taking action themselves.
'Why should they be sorry? I was just a crazy madman who ran into a terrible situation for an honestly terrible reason. The correct thing for a normal person was to stay out of it.'
The ant Nis saved had also come right up to Nis, even holding onto him a bit. He young ant was pouring tears and thanking Nis repeatedly. Nis raised a hand through all the pain he was feeling and patted him on the shoulder.
"Good job getting out of there, brother. You're really good at running."
***
After the hand disappeared, it didn't take too long for other members of the defence force to appear. They looked to be ready for a fight, carrying fancy weapons, but everything was already over.
Kragg took it upon himself to deal with relaying what had transpired. Nis, on the other hand, shurred for to some corner and leaned against the wall. He used the wall to slowly lower himself to sit on the ground. Standing was too much of a chore for him right now. Frankly, just staying conscious felt like too much. Unfortunately, there was too much to do. So, passing out had to be left for later.
'I did what I set out to do. I saved that kid and got recognition for it. People know my name now. That'll be helpful somewhere along the line. I did well there, but that doesn't mean I can ignore my failures. I told everyone to run far ahead of time. If we had, then there would have been no reason to fight; either that thing would have given up after finding no spoils. Or it would have bought enough time for the defense force to show up. I can't blame others for not hearing me. You can't stop fear, and being afraid is nothing to be ashamed of. I was at fault for not knowing how to command others. I've never been a leader before, so I failed to rein them in. I'll have to figure out how to do that for next time.'
'On a different note. Dear God, I feel terrible. Stupid rock was too strong.'
Wrapping up his thoughts, Nis heard some footsteps coming his way. Kragg and a couple of other defence force members were heading his way.
'Yep... Great. No rest for evil people... or whatever the saying is.'
Nis forced himself to stand upright and greeted them as they approached.
***
It was decided that Nis and Kragg would go back to the defense force base and talk with the commanders about what happened. They were being escorted by 2 other defence force members, who were being oddly tight-lipped. They must have still been tense over what had just transpired at the mines.
Nis's mind was elsewhere, though. He was trying to keep his mind off the terrible pain he was experiencing. His breathing had become heavy, and he had to keep shaking his head to clear his blurry vision. He couldn't allow himself to rest yet. He just needed to go just a bit longer.
To keep his mind off the pain, Nis was observing his new brothers and sisters. Nis, at least to some degree, kept forgetting his new kin were ants. They were fairly human-like, at least in the way they acted. It was odd to think about. They were organized more similarly to how ants would be instead of humans, but their intelligence wasn't that much below that of a human. If any at all. They just seemed less developed, like they hadn't made key discoveries yet.
Things like electricity, buildings, and military weaponry didn't seem to exist. But some of these things were replaced with the blast material, it seemed. Rather than electric lights, small amounts of blast were placed in fixtures to produce light from their micro explosions.
'The bit I set off gave off a stupid amount of light, so they must only need a tiny amount.'
Instead of electric mining tools, blast was used on particularly solid areas or for speed. The rest was done with the ant's claws and mandibles. Blast was also used in place of weapons. Nis wasn't sure how this was exactly done, though.
'Maybe they just throw it at them like super grenades.'
Nis giggled a little at his own joke. Laughing like that made him a little lightheaded, causing him to stumble a little while walking. Kragg noticed this and placed a hand on Nis's back.
"Are you sure you're okay, brother? Even the color on your carapace is starting to look pale. I don't think that happens unless one is very sick."
"Haha, you worry a lot, huh, Kragg? A lot has happened to me today, so I'm just a little tired."
Hearing that, Kragg grimaced, but didn't push the subject further. Oddly, he still kept his hand on Nis's back to help him walk.
'He truly is a good guy.'
Nis just smiled and accepted the help. A few minutes later, they arrived at the defense force base.
Nis just expected it to be one of the many different open areas, but to his surprise. It was a building. A really dirt colored building