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Chapter 1183 - Eldest Emergency
🕑 Added 2023-06-26 01:10:21 +0000 UTCWhat to do? Do I tell them I can’t remember the plan? Would that impact my dignity as the Eldest? Maybe I’ll just play along and hope for the best. What’s the worst that could go wrong?
“Do we all understand?”
“Of course.”
“No problem.”
“Simple.”
….
“It’s straight forward, I like it,” I declare with every scrap of confidence I can muster. “I’ll leave it to you to coordinate with the generals at the front.”
“I understand.”
Solant is all business, solemn and serious as she goes about plying her particular trade. When we arrive, she goes straight to the generals and begins an in-depth conversation about what she wants to do that I immediately lose track of, but they seem to follow okay.
Following that, she moves around the resting troops, ensuring they understand what to do, drawing little diagrams and even running a few drills until she’s happy that they’ll move the way she wants them to.
The entire time, all I hear in my mind is static. This is a problem.
Before I can work out what on Pangera I’m going to do, I run out of time. Standing on the front line as the soldiers, scouts, mages and healers ahead of me prepare to fall back I still have absolutely no idea what I’m meant to be doing….
This could go poorly. My dignity!
“Eldest, if you’ll lead the way,” Solant says.
“O-of course!”
What does that mean? Lead the way literally, as in, move forward at the head of the troops? Or do we start with an acid barrage? She talked about acid, I’m sure of it…. Or magic? Was I supposed to deploy my domain, or a gravity well? I DON’T KNOW!
Tentatively, I take a few steps forward, and when nobody corrects me I take a few more. The troops behind me begin to shuffle forward and I gain a little confidence.
I creep forward a bit more. They creep along behind me.
Alright. Good so far. But now I’m worried that I’m moving too slowly, or is it too quickly? Do I stop now?
Paralyzed with indecision, I just keep scuttling forward until the ants fighting ahead of me turn and retreat, rushing past me in a blur as the ravenous monsters behind them chase close behind.
NOW WHAT?
Do I strike?
My mandibles flex, ready to unleash a powerful chomp, but I hesitate. Would that ruin the plan? I don’t want to unravel the strategy! The whole point of this exercise is to train Solant and let her practise her ideas….
Alright, I won’t bite. Maybe I should unleash some gravity magic, slow the enemy down for the rest of the ants to deal with? That’s helpful, right?!
But what if they’re counting on me not doing that? DAMMIT! This is giving me a headache. The monsters are almost on top of me now… what am I supposed to do?!
Too hesitant to make a move, I do the only thing I can think of, I tuck my legs under my body, bury my head in the rock and accept my fate. If I can’t decide what I should do, then I shall do nothing! Clearly, this is the best course of action!
Instantly, the monsters begin to batter at my carapace. Claws scratch, teeth scrape, blows rain down on me ceaselessly. Protected by my absurdly tough, compressed diamond carapace, reinforced by the plating beneath and constantly regenerating, I take very little damage.
As the seconds tick by and my health slowly trickles down, I feel a little more calm knowing that I won’t get instantly annihilated at least. I can feel the ants engaging the enemy around me, acid fills the air, a non-trivial amount of it landing on me, but I can’t really blame them for that, given my size.
If any ant has acid tough enough to eat through my carapace, I’d love to meet them. In fact, it’s possible a nice acid wash will give my exterior an even more impressive shine.
Still, the gnawing feeling that I’m doing something wrong continues to eat away at me and every second I question whether or not I should stick my head out and do something.
OOF!
I feel like a mountain just collapsed on me. What the heck? Judging by the mana I can feel, an earth elemental just clobbered me with one of its boulders, hard enough to create some cracking in my shell. Lousy sentient collection of rocks!
I trigger my healing gland immediately, rapidly repairing the damage. This close to so many ants, the energy flowing through the Vestibule will refill the healing gland in a minute. Realistically, I could sit here all day and probably survive just fine, provided nothing too strong found its way up the tunnels.
I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed in this instance. I should have just confessed I didn’t understand the plan, not allowed my stupid pride to shut my pheromone gland and prevent me from speaking out. Is it really so shameful if I need a barely hatched ant to walk me step by step through what they need me to do?
…. YES! Yes it is!
Miserable, I park myself like a turtle in its shell and let the enemy pound on my carapace for almost half an hour, triggering my healing gland whenever necessary to mend the damage the constant barrage causes. Finally, the call blessedly comes.
“Retreat!”
Someone else’s turn to step up to the front. Thank goodness. I push myself off the ground and vent my rage at the monsters in front of me with an empowered void chomp, shattering everything within range before I turn and trundle back behind the defensive line with the rest of the troops.
I’m embarrassed, frankly. Deeply embarrassed, but there’s only one thing to do. I need to ant up, and face the music. If the Eldest can’t apologise for making a mistake, then what sort of message does that send to the rest of the Colony? That I’m above them? That’s nonsense! Just about every ant in the family is more capable than me!
I walk up to Solant and her group as they debrief each other, discussing the battle in detail.
“Look… Solant. I’m s–”
“Ah. Well done, Eldest. I wasn’t sure if you’d be willing to take such an undignified role in the plan, but your dedication and humility is an inspiration to the Colony. Drawn in by your core and highly mutated Biomass, the enemy was blinded to everything else. The strategy worked flawlessly thanks to your selflessness.”
“...ssssuper happy to help out. You can rely on me anytime!”
Comments
ManguKing
It is funny, but I'm not comfortable with Anthony being dumber than ever before. Did he just zone out once he was told to become bait rather than the main fighter?
alt31415
Anthony and forgetting things. Name a more iconic duo. (Still amused by him learning only he gets the mutation itch and Tiny being like 'dude, I told you ages ago')
Bradley Roope
He has told Solant that he can read her mind. I don't think she ever told him his role in the plan just expecting him to know what she wanted cause he *can* read her mind.
Haridya Iyengar
Bwahahahaha!!! This was an epic chapter
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! So... Was this Anthonies ability to "absorb information from the colony" or some kind of "special ability Solant has to keep the ants able to follow her explanations" ?
TheRaptorOfHermes
reminds me of my strategy of going to final exams blind regardless of the fact i forgot that i enrolled in the class and never attended a lecture. still passed baby wooo go dumb luck
Anthony Romanov
No exactly as Anthony connected to every ant in vacinity and absorts their skills like he done with sleep police sign language. He understood the plan by instinct so if he thought too much instead of doing what comes naturally to him (by instinct he just Buried his head in the rock) he would spoil the plan.
Anthony Romanov
Yep while he doesn't have capacity to understand plans, being near generals Anthony knows plans instinctively. I hope he understands it and just goes with a flow.
Anthony Romanov
That is So Much like Me! Whenever I don't understand something I run around like a headless chicken and too ashamed to ask for help!
BelligerentGnu
Now the question is, was that true or is Solant also a diplomant? Probably just true.
Koala Man
😂😂😂😂😂 gold
alt31415
Lol. Lmao.
Rahsheem Reid
Great at showing just how tough Anthony has become.
Rahsheem Reid
This was payback for them getting beat down in tunnel ball
Frank Moore
The pure dumb luck of this guy/ant....
Marter
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Crazy Abe
yah, Anthony is at the point where he can absorb information from the colony through osmosis, without actually realizing it- he knew their exact plan, without any idea what it was.
