They silent, clicking advance of the soldier ants was a wave of living armor. Leo stood his ground, not with arrogance, but with a placid curiosity. They had tried to pin him. They had failed. What was their next move?
The answer came from the second row. As the frontline soldiers braced to be sacrificed again, the ants behind them did not attack. Instead, they began to vibrate, their carapaces emitting a high-frequency hum that resonated deep in Leo's core. It was a Sonic Disruptor Ant, its ability not to harm physically, but to destabilize magical and cohesive energies.
The soundwave hit him. For the first time, he felt a genuine disruption. His form, usually perfectly cohesive, rippled violently like a pond struck by a stone. He felt his control waver, his thoughts jostled by the invasive frequency. It didn't hurt, but it was deeply disorienting, like trying to think in a thunderstorm.
[Alert: High-frequency sonic attack detected. It is interfering with host's cohesive field and cognitive processes.]
While he was disrupted, the Spitter Ants fired another volley. The resin globs struck his shimmering body, and this time, they stuck, beginning to harden. At the same moment, a new type of ant, smaller and faster—Blitzer Ants—streaked from the flanks. They didn't bite or stab. They simply slammed into him at blinding speed, their bodies exploding on impact in a concussive blast of kinetic force, each one a living cannonball designed to knock him off balance and keep him disoriented.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Leo was rocked by the impacts, the sonic disruption preventing him from fully absorbing the kinetic energy. He was being pushed back, step by step, his form constantly rippling, resin building up on his limbs. It was a flawless, multi-layered strategy: disrupt, restrain, and overwhelm.
A flicker of the frustration returned. This was… annoying.
He decided to stop experimenting.
He stopped trying to absorb the individual attacks. Instead, he reached out with his will and performed a simple, profound act. He invoked the ultimate expression of his nature. He initiated a Total Energy Siphon on the space immediately around him.
It was not targeted at a single ant. It was a sphere of absolute consumption with him at the center.
The effect was instantaneous and horrifying.
The Sonic Disruptor Ants stopped vibrating, their internal organs and the energy powering their ability drained away in a microsecond. They collapsed, silent and hollow.
The Spitter Ants,mid-launch, had the resin in their glands and the life in their bodies sucked out simultaneously, becoming lifeless husks.
The Blitzer Ants,a split-second from impact, simply disintegrated into fine, gray dust, their kinetic energy and mass becoming his.
The very air in a ten-foot radius around him grew still and dead,its thermal energy and light itself subtly dimmed as he consumed the ambient energy.
For a moment, there was a perfect circle of void around him. A hundred ants were gone, not just dead, but unmade. Their mass, their energy, their very molecular structure had been converted into pure potential and absorbed. He stood in a cleared ring, the faint, mineral flecks within his jade body glowing brighter for a moment.
The swarm, for the first time, hesitated. The hive mind processed the data: target cannot be harmed by conventional means, cannot be restrained, and can enact total annihilation in a localized area. The loss of a hundred units was acceptable. The loss of their fundamental understanding of physics was not.
The response was not retreat. It was escalation.
From the largest central mound, new forms emerged. These were the Mutated Elites, the hive's living artillery and champions.
A Magma Ant reared up, its abdomen glowing like a forge. It spat a glob of superheated rock that flew through the air, not as a liquid, but as a contained, molten projectile.
AFrost Weaver Ant scuttled forward, its mandibles clicking together to create a blizzard of freezing mist that flash-froze the red clay, creating a sheet of ice aimed to trap him.
AReclaimer Ant, a hulking, tank-like creature, simply began eating the husks of its fallen kin, its body swelling as it regenerated damage and recycled biomass at a visible rate.
The hive was adapting. It was throwing the full, terrifying spectrum of its evolved arsenal at him. Fire, ice, regeneration. This was no longer a battle of numbers. It was a war of elements, and Leo was the unassailable hill they were determined to erode.
Leo watched the magma ball fly towards him, the freezing mist creep forward, and the Reclaimer Ant swell with power. The frustration was gone, replaced by a calm, focused clarity. They were showing him their tricks. And he was learning.
He raised his obsidian staff, not as a focus, but as a declaration.