Kyle jumped, but he could barely get off the ground because the other ant was still clamping down on the pincers.
CRACK!
Then, a second ant clamped down on the pincers.
Surprisingly, the third ant also tried to clamp down, but it only had one pincer.
“Fuck!” Kyle shouted as he felt himself being pulled backward.
The ants were pulling him toward their territory!
The ant in front of Kyle was waiting out of his reach, opening and closing its pincers to threaten him.
Kyle was pushing against the pulling force, but the ground wasn’t stable enough to support him.
While his stance was stable, the ground beneath him gave way, and his feet left small crevices in the ground.
That was when Kyle realized something.
’They are idiots!’ he thought. ’If they just charged me, I would be in trouble, but they’re not doing that. They probably think that the pincers stuck to my body are part of my body.’
’Lucky!’
Kyle activated Air Current again and lifted his hammer.
BANG!
And he hit both of the pincers stuck to his body.
They broke, and the ants lost their hold, falling back.
Then, Kyle moved back a bit and kicked the severed head away.
The head hit the other ant and disoriented it a bit.
Kyle was free!
The next moment, he charged at the lone ant.
BOOOOM!
And destroyed one of its pincers as well.
The ant fell to the side, but the other three were charging at Kyle again.
That was when Kyle got an idea.
As he ran forward, he grabbed the long pincer he had broken.
The ants approached, and Kyle moved in a way that made one of them come closer than the others.
Then, he extended the pincer to the ant.
CRACK!
The ant clamped down on the pincer.
’Hah! Dumbfuck!’
Kyle grabbed his hammer, ducked below the pincers, and swung upwards.
CRACK!
The pick of the hammer buried itself deep in the ant’s head, killing it.
Then, Kyle threw the ant’s corpse to the last ant with healthy pincers.
Naturally, the other two approached Kyle almost immediately.
Kyle swung his hammer.
Their pincers closed.
CRKSH!
The spikes on the pincers rammed into Kyle’s side.
However, the ant only had one pincer!
BOOOM!
Kyle’s hammer hit the ant’s head with the flat side, smashing and decapitating it.
It felt amazing!
The other ant also approached, but since it also only had one pincer, the same thing happened again.
That only left one ant alive.
Kyle grabbed one of the pincers again and extended it to the ant, which clamped down on the pincer.
“These things are not the smartest,” Kyle said with a laugh as he killed the last ant as well.
“And yet, they almost killed you,” Theodor said. “Your intellect is barely higher than theirs.”
However, Kyle just smiled victoriously.
He killed five ant warriors.
“Anyone dumber than me is an idiot. Anyone smarter than me is lucky or cheating,” Kyle said with a laugh.
“If anyone else said that, I would think they are joking,” Theodor said. “With you, I am not so sure.”
“It was a joke,” Kyle said with a bit of annoyance. “Yes, I fucked up. I will do better from now on.”
“Anyway, where do we go now?” Kyle asked.
“Into their nest.”
Kyle’s eyes widened. “And why would I do that?”
“Because beasts avoid Hillstalker Ant territory. Going through the nest is the safest way.”
Kyle looked at the horizon.
“How many are there?” Kyle asked.
“I would say anywhere between fifty and a hundred ants,” Theodor said.
Kyle looked at the five corpses.
Five.
He looked at the horizon.
A hundred.
Kyle gulped.
’That seems… mildly dangerous,’ he thought.
’Also, I’m getting hungry.’
As he eyed the corpses, a mix of disgust and hunger assaulted Kyle.
Kyle approached one of the headless corpses and looked at the ant juice running out of it.
“Ugh,” he said as he licked a bit of it.
Kyle’s body shuddered.
“This stuff is so fucking bitter,” he muttered. “It tastes healthy… that’s the worst taste!”
Theodor didn’t comment.
With disgust, Kyle ate more, but not more than necessary.
It tasted disgusting!
He was no longer hungry, but he also wasn’t really satiated.
Then, he looked at the distant hill where the scout ant had been earlier.
That was where their territory was.
’I really don’t wanna go there.’
’This is gonna suck so bad!’
Kyle approached one of the broken pincers and looked at it.
’Guess I will use this. Just sucks that I have to let it go to swing my hammer. Would be cool if I could hold this with my legs.’
At that moment, Kyle got an idea.
“I got an idea!” Kyle shouted with excitement.
“Please don’t,” Theodor said. “Not one of your ideas has worked out so far.”
“It will work this time! Trust me!” Kyle said.
Theodor didn’t answer.
Kyle searched for two pincers before putting one end of one of them to his right leg.
Then, he put the other pincer on his other leg.
“Here goes!” Kyle shouted as he used his Soul to stick to the pincers.
Next, he rose up while standing on the pincers.
As Kyle stood on top of the pincers, he remembered the performers on stilts who sometimes walked around different carnivals on Earth.
He was now one of them.
He was on top of stilts that were about one and a half meters high.
“Is that your great idea?” Theodor asked.
“Yes, great, isn’t it?” Kyle asked with a smirk.
Theodor didn’t comment.
He thought that Kyle looked like a clown.
How did he get stuck with this inheritor?
Kyle grinned and started to walk forward.
Keeping his balance wasn’t easy, but thanks to his powerful body, Soul, and mind, he got used to it very quickly.
“Watch out ants! A big bird is coming to eat you!” Kyle shouted.
But as soon as Kyle reached the top of the hill, he stopped.
“Yep, that’s a bunch of ants,” he commented.
From Kyle’s elevated position, he could see around 30 ants in a valley surrounded by hills and dunes.
In the middle of the valley was a big hole through which ants entered and exited.
And, of course, since Kyle could see the ants…
The ants could also see him.
It was very hard not to notice Kyle since he was standing on stilts on top of a hill.