Itekan glared at the beast who, surprisingly backed off, slowly they turned around and rushed away.
Itekan didn't let his guard down and remained like that for a few minutes till it became apparent they had really left.
Itekan once again sunk to the floor, his feets giving out, apart from the three killed by the tree, Itekan had killed two others, though the ants still had the advantage, they were probably thing he was going to make butter out of them.
Lucky.
Itekan looked up at the stary night, suddenly he remember the reason he'd been dropped here, whatever that chimera ant egg, he had no idea.
Suddenly he stood feeling refreshed, and walked in the same direction the ants had gone, following the tracks they had made he was led to an even darker cave than the forest.
For a long while Itekan contemplated not going in, when he remembered the shame he probably brought his Dad, he gritted his teeth, and walked in.
His vision was immediately impaired, he couldn't see anything, he felt like he had walked into a deep endless abyss, and as he trotted in slowly, he hit something, teaching down to touch it, with the makeshift sword in hand he felt a mushy feeling, like flesh, definitely not the hard bark of the chimera ants he'd encountered earlier.
He picked it up, and two large eyes opened, they gleamed so brightly in the darkness of the cave that, Itekan felt they were as sun, immediately averting his eye, he turned away.
He hadn't expected this, but the worm like creature was surely useful, he, using it's eyes as torches made his way, deeper into the cave, till he came across a y junction.
He thought for only a moment, then went right, he had only been walking for a few minutes when he felt a liquid drop onto his shoulders, he pointed the worm to the cave roof, and saw the most hideous creature he has seen in his entire life, it had been watching Itekan, and once he chose to come this way, it knew he had him.
The creature, had it's head like a snake, with bat like upper parts and an ants lower part.
Itekan soon felt his hand drop, he couldn't move it!, it was poisen, and it had paralized him.
Itekan breathed deeply, wanting to scream in fear but couldn't release the air, his lungs had been paralyzed too, he could feel his lungs struggle to breathe, to no avail.
The creature looked down on him, opening his mouth wide as more of its saliva dropped on Itekan, it proceeded to swallow him whole.
Suddenly it's head lay on the floor next to Itekan, it's body continued to advance for a few seconds before it realized it had died, for Itekan it has taken less than a second, but he knew he had just brushed shoulders with death.
In that same moment he was outside in Carpathia's arms again, he still couldn't move, but he felt air slowly make it's way into his lungs.
" Well done" Carpathia said smiling, Itekan frowned, he had not gotten the egg, yet he was being congratulated, he was confused.
" I wasn't even expecting you to get that far into the cave on your first try, I'm impressed" Carpathia said still smiling, Itekan's world rocked, hearing he'd been expected to fail from the beginning, it was an impossible task, just as he was about to force himself to speak.
Carpathia said" we'll go again, tomorrow, same time, I expect an even better result than today, my son" Carpathia said, still smiling as from the distance horizon slowly, making it's way through the sky, the sun broke through.
Well he'd be damned, he was going to go through this hell tomorrow again, he made to move, to make a sign that this was not accepted.
" Don't worry, the paralysis would soon be kicked out of your system"
Luckily, within minutes of his dad's statement, Itekan felt his hand slowly become his again, he immediately respected the deformed and amputees.
" Well then, let's head home, no?" Carpthia said and they once again durned into dark mist, then vanished into thin air.
***
The next few days, he begun his hellish cycle, in the early hours of the morning around 3 am he would be sent to the chimera ant forest, the reason, it was the early hours of the day, was because that was when the young ones of the colony were tasked with handling the affairs of the colony, everything from, food gathering, to standing guard, to even defending the eggs were done by the young ones during these early hours.
That why his Dad had waited, he'd been watching as the older ants left and the younger ones occupied their spots, after which he'd flung Itekan down.
After his daily brush with death, he trained in martial arts under his father's stern eyes for 3 hours, afterwhich he was sent to the mountain cliff, where he consumed spiritual energy, he stayed there everyday for 6 hours only eating in the evenings and mornings after his martial arts training.
This cycle continued for a month before Itekan finally reached the deepest part of the cave where the queen and her eggs were.
Itekan his behind a rock as he wat he'd the two chimera ants that stood guard the path that led to the Queen's chambers, they were significantly larger than the other chimera ants, and Itekan knew these ones as the special guards of the queen, would probably have special abilities.
That was what Itekan aimed to find out, he picked a stone and infusing a bit of spiritual energy into it flung it at the chimera ant nearest to him.
It struck him with a loud clang, but it did not move, annoyed Itekan picked another and flung it at the guard again, again a clang, but it did not leave it's position.
Itekan was impressed with its dedication, but he had seen what he was looking for, just before the stone had hit, a small area where the stineight land was covered in some dark metallic like substance.
Itekan smiled, metal huh, he thought, I can just burn it down.