The three Bullet Ant Soldiers never once left Sparrow’s sight as they lived out their first week in Immanu, and, to their credit, they were at the basic chores the Worm Mages would typically spend the entire day working on.

  They were just as quiet as Sparrow was when he’d first arrived, and they were always wanted for nothing. They didn’t complain when they had to bunk with Minki on the second floor of the library. They didn’t complain when they were the only ones not served Boreus flesh during mealtime. Shovelling snow off the roofs was but a light exercise, hauling logs of crystal wood and sharpening them into defensive spikes to shore up the village’s defences were barely any struggle. It didn’t matter how wary the younger children were around them at all times; they always did exactly as Sparrow told them to do, stone-faced all the way through.

  If they felt any pressure being in the heart of ‘enemy’ territory, just the three of them, they never showed it on their faces. It was the quiet, teeming confidence of knowing they could easily kill at least a third of the Worm Mages before going down themselves that kept them so calm—but, for their part, Sparrow had never seen them showing as much as a of hostility towards the Worm Mages.

  He’d told them to never pull a trigger as long as they were in the village, so they never took out their rifles unless it was to beat down an invading Boreus with their bayonets.

  He’d told them to not bare their gleaming black teeth at the younger children, so they always ate with their backs turned to everyone in the communal kitchens.

  He’d told them to steer clear of the Worm Mages whenever possible, so they always put in an effort to carry out their daily chores in the shadows of the village.

  It was a bit refreshing commanding soldiers as obedient and competent as they were. Only the great worms knew how much trouble he and Ninmah had whenever they had to coordinate the younger children during Boreus hunts. In comparison, the Bullet Ant Soldiers were like if he’d cloned himself three times so he could work as a single four-body organism. The past week’s chores had gone nothing but swimmingly as a result, and, for his part, Sparrow felt a little… ‘creeped out’ as always.

  Today was no different.

  It was late in the afternoon. Almost twilight. The three of them were on hole digging duty alongside the younger kids, and it’d be incredibly easy for them to cut a chunk of meat for themselves. With so much wrapped bug meat being tossed around into holes and so much noise from the children chatting all around, even Sparrow wasn’t sure he could spot an attempt at stealing a chunk of bug meat unless he were standing right in the soldiers’ faces; but they always strived to keep both hands on their shovel, digging holes faster than the children could haul meat over, making it readily apparent they had no intention of getting stronger themselves. They’d never tried. They’d never even envious of the children who got to eat bug meat every single day, and that made him feel a little sick.

  Minki, who was sitting next to him on the edge of the kitchen’s roof, tilted her head as she slanted her eyes at the extraordinarily quiet workers.

  she mumbled.

  he said plainly, watching Harpy carry two large chunks of meat over her shoulder, helping a child out before the young girl could even ask for any.

  Minki finished, shaking her head slightly as though she just remembered.

  He pursed his lips.

  he said, glancing at her lips,

  He probably could. He’d never tried, though—he’d started eating bug meat again ever since the General’s letter reached him, and since they weren’t actively hunting Boreus outside anymore, he’d been eating more than usual for his daily meals to clear out the village’s frozen stock.

  [Name: ‘Sparrow’]

  [Grade: D-Rank Mutant-Class]

  [Class: Whiteworm]

  [Swarmblood Art: Worm Maw]

  [Aura: 4,387]

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  [Points: 549]

  [Strength: 7, Speed: 7, Toughness: 7, Dexterity: 6, Perception: 6]

  [T1 Mutation | Inorganic Heart Lvl. 10

  [T2 Mutations | Vibrational Senses Lvl. 5 Wormic Bones Lvl. 5

  [T3 Mutations | Segmented SetaeLvl. 3Rigid Annuli Lvl. 4Sclerite Jaw Lvl. 3

  [T4 Mutations | Proliferating Septa | Salt Epidermis Lvl. 2Permeating Mantle Lvl. 2

  Looking back on it, his growth the past five months quite remarkable. His grade had increased from D-Rank Giant-Class to D-Rank Mutant-Class. His aura had increased tenfold, and he now had enough bioarcanic essence to warp almost every single step in a normal, relaxing day.

  Of course, the other Worm Mages were still far stronger in terms of the raw numbers, but he’d catch up eventually.

  Minki asked, and he snapped out of staring at his status interface.

  He cracked his neck, scowling unwittingly.

  Minki looked at him, puzzled.

  he said.

  He was about to speak when the blackrock mountain to their left rumbled. He barely needed to turn to tell, with his vibrational senses, that a massive avalanche of snow was heading their way, about to wash across the western end of the village; they’d been happening more often recently. The avalanches started a week ago, only once at noon on the first day, but this was their third avalanche in the afternoon.

  Neither Ninmah nor any of the elders had an explanation for why the mountains were periodically quaking and shedding colossal amounts of snow into the village, but Sparrow had an idea. It had to be the Forward Army’s fungus sporespike mortars again, constantly shelling in the far, far distance and releasing invisible poison into the sky with every shot. The General probably hadn’t been lying when he’d said, in his letter, that he was drawing thousands of Boreus’ attention every single day.

  Regardless, neither he nor Minki warped away from where they sat atop the kitchen roof. The avalanche of snow wouldn’t reach them. They watched and listened as a tidal wave of snow rushed down the side of the mountain, trickled through the walls of spikes, rushed over the crystal-reinforced fences, and started pouring between the narrow streets of the village. The children standing on ground level and letting the avalanche wash them away—it wasn’t like they didn’t have skin tough enough to withstand the impact, anyways—so a few of them waved up at him cheerily as the snow swept them away from the kitchen, laughing all the way.

  He waved back absentmindedly, and so did Minki.

  It took about one whole minute for the avalanche to level out. The wave of snow reached about fifty metres deep into the village, but no more. As about a dozen children poked their heads out of the thick snow and grinned at each other, they warped up onto the roofs in an instant to begin the usual cleanup process: they could now open and maintain several of wormholes per day, and that meant they could just draw wormholes underneath the snow to warp chunks of it away at a time. In about thirty minutes, they’d have warped all the snow away and returned the western end of the village to its usual cluttered look.

  But then he started counting their heads.

  Four, six, eight children on his left.

  Ten, twelve, fourteen children on his right.

  Today, there were supposed to be seventeen children on meat processing duty.

  And as he was about to grumble and climb onto his feet, the three Bullet Ant Soldiers burst out of the thick snow right underneath his roof, holding the three missing children over their heads. The three children were the youngest of the young, and they choked, gasped, and coughed out mouthfuls of snow—no doubt they’d thought they could just play and wade around in the avalanche as it came, and they’d paid the price for it.

  Were it not for the Bullet Ant Soldiers covering for them and shielding them with their own bodies, they most likely would’ve spent about a minute or two longer buried in the snow, waiting for Sparrow and Minki to find them and dig them out.

  he repeated quietly, watching as the Bullet Ant Soldiers let the three children warp away and then climb out from their holes, patting snow off their coats.

  Minki sucked in a slow breath through her nose, releasing it as a sigh.

  he said plainly, rising to his feet.

  As Minki gave him a pointed look, he walked off the roof and landed on the thick snow, catching the Bullet Ant Soldiers’ ears. They turned to stand at attention, all three of them saluting with their arms across their chest, but he wasn’t going to return anything of the sort—night was falling quickly and they needed to get this over with before dinner roll call.

  He reached into his cloak and tossed each of them a small metal box, and their eyes narrowed the moment they caught his gifts out of the air; of all soldiers in the Hagi’Shar Forward Army, they’d be the ones who’d recognise the sharp jingle of hollow-point cartridges inside their boxes.

  he said, chambering his own rifle with snow he was scrounging up from the ground.

  Days until Storm Strider launch: 12

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