The ants clacked their mandibles in sync as they began their war march towards Lillian’s tree.

  A worker locked its meaty face grippers on the ant in front of it and dug its feet into the crevices in the bark. Another ant climbed over the stilled bodies that had become the anchor and continued the chitin chain that was bridging the gap.

  When the ants were about to finish crossing the gap, Lillian swung a spear like a bat and knocked down half the ants that had made up the bridge. The horde was indifferent to the small loss. Another larger string of bodies attempted to make it across and were knocked down all the same.

  The clacking of the mandibles grew louder as a larger warrior ant gripped a worker in its oversized mandibles and tossed the smaller ant across the gap.

  Fred jumped into action as Lillian continued to protect the gap. The worker tumbled twice on the branch before lunging at him. Fred swept his spear low to the ground, crashing into the skinny legs of the ant. Half of the ant's legs shattered, leaving the wounded insect stranded as it was unable to crawl with half its legs out of commission. Fred wanted to move in to finish it off, but another worker rolled in front of him and attacked. Fred stood on the base of the spear and angled the stinger on the end into the path of the airborne bug. The stinger scraped across the carapace but dug deeply into the folds in the plating of the ant’s thorax. Fred put his foot on the ant’s back and pushed, sending it to the forest below as it flew off his spear.

  Lillian struggled to defend the gap as more ant bridges began reaching across. The first chitin bridge that got hold of her branch became like stone. Lillian broke her spear by swinging it against the ant that had clamped onto her tree. The smaller workers began to reinforce the bridge, and the big warrior began to cross.

  “What is the escape plan, Lillian?” shouted Fred as he continued clearing the ants that had been thrown across. He had gained a few scratches but was otherwise unharmed.

  Lillian danced backwards from the bridge, dodging the lunges of the warrior that led the ant’s charge. Her stinger thrust out, biting into the flesh of the ant’s neck as it missed with its mandibles again. The ant’s accuracy was terrible. The compound eyes of the ant weren't meant for battles like this one. The ant shrugged off the wound and continued pressing forward. In desperation, Lillian cut open her hand and coated the stinger with her blood. The ant rushed at her again, crashing into the branch as Lillian stabbed it in the neck again. This time, the warrior reacted. The wound on its neck healed over instantly but then began to bulge as the tumors within the chitin expanded. The neck of the ant shattered, sending ichor spraying as the warrior’s head rolled away from its body.

  The horde of workers began their march now that the bridge was secure.

  Fred swung his spear in a broad sweeping motion, knocking several ants off the branch. Ants were hardy, but they didn't weigh much. He had already lost count of how many of the black shelled insects he had sent tumbling to their death. The area he defended was clear for the moment, giving him a brief chance to check how the main battle was going.

  Lillian perched near the edge of the branch, and it was littered with stilled corpses. Her blood was killing them from within as they sat powerless. Lillian pierced her thighs with her stingers, coating them with her mana-infused blood and continued her dance of death with the incoming tide of ants.

  From behind the mass of ants, a large head burst through the wall and caught Lillian by surprise, its mandibles digging into her leg. The fighter ant shook its head like a dog playing with a toy, tearing a large gash in her thigh. The fighter ants were rare, but she had dealt with several already. Unfortunately, the mass of ants had grown large enough to shield the fighters during their approach.

  The warrior attempted to mirror Fred’s actions and toss Lillian from the branch. It flung its head to the side to throw her but was stopped short by a quick jerk of the girl’s arm. Lillian had grasped the warrior’s antennae and leveraged her weight to force the ants head back towards the branch. The disoriented ant never recovered as a blood-soaked stinger pierced its head not a moment later. She pried open the mandibles with her hands before it could drag her to the growing graveyard on the forest floor.

  The lone core she had secured seemed to burn a hole in her pocket as she fought back the instinct to swallow it. The invasion of her mind by the beasts had been silent and innocuous, but she couldn’t allow the cores to influence her thinking anymore.

  Lillian fought her way back to the edge of the branch and continued her slaughter. The wound on her leg splashing a bit of blood with each step. Breathe…breathe…breathe…breathe…EXHALE. She had begun using the modified version of the breathing technique at some point during the battle. When her internal stores of mana ran low, she had always supplemented with cores before. Now she was forcing herself to find mana elsewhere. The breathing technique was one of the only things keeping her in the fight. It was not as effective when the forms were not held, but it still pulled more mana into her body than regular breathing did. Lillian made minor changes to the technique as she struggled, slowly raising its efficacy as she kept her mind clear and continued her war of attrition.

  The exit strategy didn’t exist. She was sure Fred would figure it out soon if he hadn't already. They were unprepared for such a showing from the ants. Individually, they were weak. Lillian had even managed to beat a warrior to death barehanded. The issue was that the ants never stopped. They continued to cross the bridge they had formed and threw their lives away without a single thought of self-preservation.

  The pair slowly made their way back to the entrance of the hive. The openness of the branch was a disadvantage now. They needed to funnel the ant at the entrance to continue the battle. Before they made it into the nest, Lillian caught a dreadfully familiar glint on the tree branch up above. A predator had finally noticed the feast they had prepared.

  Lillian dove into the entrance, pulling Fred with her as the serpent exploded from its hiding spot. The stealthy snake seemed indifferent to the hive and descended upon the mass of ants Lillian had left on the edge of the branch.

  Fred slid to a stop near her, whistling in appreciation of the snake's work. The danger noodle was nearly 100 feet long and over 8 feet thick at its center. The glutton already had a bulge in its stomach, and it was growing larger every second. The snake swallowed the bugs whole, unable or unwilling to take the time to chew them. The serpent did not seem to care about the ants nipping at its scales as it bridged the gap between the branches to continue its feast.

  Lillian hadn’t forgotten about the dangers of the trees and had been cognizant of predators like this one. Ants were near the bottom of the food chain and a large movement was bound to attract a predator. She was glad that only one had arrived so far.

  “We need to leave,” Lillian declared with confidence she didn’t feel.

  “What?! Why? The ants are dead, and the snake is leaving.” Exhaustion clear on Fred’s face. His body had just gone through its first tempering, and he was still trying to get the hang of using the breathing technique. Trying to use it while fighting was out of the question for him. The hollow look of mana deprivation was clear in his features.

  “The ants could return after the snake finishes its meal. Plus, there are a ton of cores inside that thing now, I’ve already seen one giant crow that had magical powers. I’m worried that the snake will turn into something similar.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The memory of Genius’s mother lighting the night sky was a constant reminder of the gap between the mundane and the supernatural. The beasts grew in strength from consuming mana, and that snake had consumed more in one minute than the entire bird alliance had in a day.

  “We were attacked by something like that at the garden. It took one of the giants to take it down.” said Fred, his face in pain as the words left his mouth.

  “Giants?”

  Fred paled as he tried to find the words to explain but ultimately remained silent. He wanted to explain but was unable to.

  “Well, we could try to finish off this snake ourselves, if we can get to it.”

  Lillian wiped her bloody hands on the side of her clothes while smiling. “The snake’s eyes were too big for its stomach. It swallowed more than just ants.”

  Fred opened his mouth to ask what she meant but then nodded in understanding as Lillian exaggerated the action of wiping the blood off herself again. The tired frown never left his face.

  “Do you think your poison will affect something that large?” he asked in doubt.

  “No idea, but we need to move either way. This place isn't safe anymore. We need to find the snake's den and kill it, then we will have another day or two of safety.”

  “Follow the snake, she says. It will be fine, she says," the exhausted man mumbled to himself as he settled himself down. He dropped to his butt and assumed the proper position to use the breathing technique. “Give me ten minutes.”

  “Eat some honey, we leave in five.”

  Lillian secured the container of royal jelly and joined Fred on the floor, refilling her empty body with neutral mana as quickly as she could. Even with the improvements she had made to the technique, it would take her hours to fill herself completely.

  The pair walked back onto the battlefield after a short rest. Many of the ants Lilian had slain were still there, crushed under the weight of the gargantuan snake. They took the time to harvest the cores before stopping at the gap that the snake had bridged so easily. The thirty-foot span was nothing to the overgrown wildlife.

  “How are we crossing that?” asked Fred.

  Lillian retraced her steps from the day before, taking them to the branch she leapt from when she was high from the royal jelly. The thirty-foot drop loomed before them. She had made the jump without a thought the first time.

  “This was easier yesterday.”

  “You jumped this? With those little stick legs of yours?”

  Lillian glanced at Fred’s frail body and raised an eyebrow.

  “I fell a lot farther than this yesterday.”

  Lillian felt a sense of accomplishment when Fred blanched.

  “Do you want me to go first?” she asked.

  Fred took off, building speed before leaping down. He landed in a roll and sprung right back up.

  Parkour!

  Lillian careened over the edge, arms windmilling as she fell. Her knees buckled as she hit the branch and stuck the landing. The jump was still painful, but her body's protests were much softer this time. She was now halfway done with her third tempering. The changes to her body that the tempering had brought were astounding. She had the body of a world class athlete now, one that could heal rapidly in a pinch.

  It didn’t take them long to find the snake. The serpent had grown too large to easily move and had tried to hide itself on the trunk of the tree. The camouflage would have been effective if it wasn't so bloated. The snake most likely didn't realize that it stuck out like a sore thumb.

  Lillian raised her finger to her lips, hoping Fred got the message. Fred was only there for moral support. If she failed, he would share her fate. An opportunity to get the jump on an ambush predator like the serpent was a rarity. She approached without making a sound and readied her stingers. The short blades would struggle to do any real damage on their own. The snake was too big. The bark-like scales still had remnant scars from the ants, but the bite marks were shallow. The ant’s mandibles had been too short, never getting through to the meat below.

  “Lillian, this is a dumbass idea,” Fred hissed into Lillian’s ear.

  Lillian ignored his complaint and focused on the new stinger trick she had thrown together during the ant tide. The stinger was originally a method of delivering venom. Hornets used their stinger to shoot paralytic venom into their victims; she figured she could do the same. She had scraped her dried blood off her body and stuffed it into the hollow of the stinger as a ground-up powder. Then she capped both the butt and the tip with the quick to harden honey. Her hope was that the action of stabbing the snake would break the seal on the tip, allowing the snake's blood to mix with her powdered poison.

  The approach went smoothly. Lillian followed the length of the serpent's body to its resting head where she hoped to strike a fatal blow. The snake was laid motionless, its head resting on its bulging stomach. With how close she was to it; she could see it slowly shrinking back down to its normal size.

  Lillian held her breath, afraid even the movement of air around the snake would rouse it. With a quick dash, she stabbed at the snake’s body where its neck should have been. The stinger bounced off the scale and broke, releasing a spark that lit the dried blood on fire. The small flame did nothing to the snake besides draw its attention. The cold-blooded beast uncoiled from the trunk and lunged at Lillian.

  This is bad!

  She was too close to the snake. The massive serpent moved with a quickness that defied logic. The razor-sharp teeth in its gaping mouth seemed to shine as the snake fell onto her with its jaw unhinged, swallowing her whole.

  Lillian learned very quickly why snakes don't chew their food. They don't need to. The muscles of the snake crushed her as she traveled into its stomach. She wanted to curl up to protect herself, but she couldn’t lift an arm. The walls of the snake's stomach were like stone, crushing her from all sides. Her last stinger slipped from her hand and was pressed into her own stomach, each movement of the snake shoving the blade deeper into her gut.

  She weakly reached for the container, wanting to get the jelly into her mouth. Her fingers found an empty satchel. The container had smashed in her pocket, leaking into the snake as it digested her and the ants.

  The stomach acid ate away at her, invading her broken body from the hole in her gut. Her resistance to the substance only prolonged her suffering. Her body was losing the battle against the acid. The parts of her that were tempered remained, while the human in her burned. Her body was trying to adapt; she could feel her muscles cry as they resisted the burn. The serpent had absorbed all the royal jelly, even the cores she had on her were long gone. Everything on her was dissolved by the stomach that continued to digest her.

  Time lost meaning as the pressure continued to crush Lillian. Most of the bones in her body had fractured, with only her skull remaining whole. The all-encompassing darkness reminded her of the placid lake of her mindscape. If only she could escape the pain and sink into those waters again.

  Is it over? Did I finally die!?

  She couldn’t feel the pain or the pressure. Lillian couldn’t feel anything at all. Only the comforting darkness kept her company.

  “Oh god, you smell like shit.”

  What a rude thing to say.

  “You need to swallow now.”

  What a pushy grim reaper

  “Swallow the damn core, Lillian!”

  The core entered her throat and dissipated before reaching her stomach. The damage was too great for a single core to repair. Her sense of taste was the first to return, which was unfortunate. The taste of shit in her mouth caused her to retch, losing a core before she could swallow it. The process continued as Fred stuffed her full of ant cores and her body slowly knit itself back together. Smell was the second sense to return. She did smell like shit. Everything smelled like shit.

  “Why is everything shit?” she asked.

  “I think the snake must have eaten something bad. You are inside of a snake turd the size of a minivan. The sooner we get you up and moving, the sooner we can both try to forget this ever happened,” replied Fred, disgust dripping from every word.

  Her body seemed intent to let her wallow in filth as feeling returned, starting at her center and working its way outward towards her extremities. She had never lost sight or hearing; her head was just buried in crap.

  Fred yanked the girl from the pile and began marching through the forest floor. He removed the upper layer of clothes from himself, tossing it backwards to the naked girl. Lillian was too dazed to feel embarrassed and wore the shirt of her own make that was a few sizes too large for her.

  “When did we get to the ground?” asked Lillian. Her mind was struggling to understand what happened to her. Her mental faculties were unable to process the fact that she had been eaten and shit out.

  “Animals don't shit where they sleep.”

  The pair rested in the grass as rain began to fall.