Niphru awoke again in the evening, finding that the small rodent had moved ohe day. The roots had not returned, however, which he was thankful for. He hoped the little creature would be okay, as it had been o have somethiively friendly around.

  He exited his burrow, heading back towards where the forest lord had fallen, carefully hiding himself in an illusion. About halfway there, he ran across a pack of the mutated wolves. Unlike what he was expeg however, they simply smelled in his dire, then pulled back, fading away into the forest.

  Somewhat ed, he kept cheg around himself and expanded his mana sphere as rge as he could manage, uo find any trace of them. After he made it back to where the immeurtle had fallen, he rexed a bit, though he was ed for other reasons. Apparently the fire hadn’t been enough to burhing, rge ks of flesh still hanging ihe shell. And as he watched, a stream of hand-sized ants flowed between a massive pile of soil and the carcass, carrying small blobs of flesh and even some ks of the shell that y scattered around.

  He also saw several dismantled animals nearby, nothing but bones remaining. As he watched, a swarm of several hundred ants left the immense mound, heading out away from the deep forest, shredding the vegetation and bringing it back to the . This was extremely ing, as he knew rge numbers of small things could overpe ones, as he had seen earlier in the day with the warriors defeating the forest lord.

  He sat there watg for a few moments thinking things over before he decided on a course of a. It was likely the Church of flict’s warriors were still around, but he couldn’t risk his friends not knowing about this threat, so he would return to the vilge anyway and hope he was able to escape any attacks.

  As he was sitting there, he noticed some of the ants start moving in his dire, antennae waving bad forth. He dropped his illusion iurn for a ribbon of foxfire, looping it around them and willing it to ignite, watg them pop with a disgusting squelg noise almost immediately. Paying more attention to the bodies, he saw that they teo pop along the joiween the body and head, as well as body and abdomen. He kept this in mind and began using his foxfire more carefully, practig destroying them.

  After a few moments, much rger ants began showing up, with huge jaws, so he stopped and fled the area, heading back towards the barren trail. The ants only followed for a few doze before turning back to the , which made him feel relieved, at least he wouldn’t be bringing a trail of them back.

  Niphru raced along the trail as quickly as he could, only stopping once he reached the first den he had made, panting and out of breath. He curled up inside and fell into an uneasy sleep. His dreams were filled with swarming is tearing apart everyone he knew. He awoke, terrified, as he saw Dawn fall into a horde of ants, her agonized screams haunting him.

  He was barely awake at all when he burst from the burrow, sprinting back towards the vilge. Along the way he almost literally ran into a boar, leaping just in time to bounce off its bad roll back to his feet, tinuing his pabsp; Surely the humans would know how to solve the problem, he just had to get there with enough time to spare.

  He stumbled up to the gate, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. The guards were specifically looking away from him until he spoke through his illusion.

  “There is a major problem in the forest, I o see Amilya, I don’t care if it is risky for me,” he stated, slumping to the ground.

  The guards’ eyes so him, and after a moment one handed her spear to the other, reag down to pick him up. As the gate opened, she jogged in, quickly passing by a man ie armor, who watched before turning aering the building he was sitting outside.

  As they arrived at Amilya’s home, the guard didn’t bother knog, simply opening the door and rushing in. Amilya was sitting nearby and looked up in surprise, the white as she saw Niphru in the guard’s arms.

  “Niphru, you have to get out of here! The warriors are still here and have to have noticed you!” she cried out.

  The guard spoke before Niphru could, exg, “He insisted on ing even if he was at risk. I decided if he was so certain then I had to help. His as saved my little brother after all.”

  Niphru spun his illusion into the form of the ants, dozens of them suddenly on the floor of the house, with three of the rger ones behind as they marched at Amilya. He excimed, “There are thousands of ants feeding on the dead forest lord, and groups of them are heading this dire stripping the forest of vegetation along the way. It is only a matter of time before they reach the vilge. I ’t risk anyone here by not inf you.”

  As he spoke, the door burst open again, three figures in red armor appearing, hands on their ons. The one in front looked like he was about to shout, only to close his mouth as he took in the illusion and listened. He waved the other two back, then moved into the room, sitting in a chair near Amilya, removing his hand from his on.

  “Well, this certainly ges things,” the man said, “normally I should kill you for existing, but your aay well have saved the lives of everyone here. I reend you leave before my troops hear what happened, not all are as uanding as I am.”

  Hearing that the man wouldn’t immediately attaiphru, the guard sighed in relief aly set him down on the ground a.

  As she did so, Amilya spoke up, “I thought you said you burhe body! If you had properly disposed of it, there wouldn’t be anything for the ants to mutate from!”

  The man sighed before replying, “I thought we had bur well enough, we spent about an hour piling trees around it before burning them. Apparently I was wrong. We were scheduled to leave tomorrow, but I am making the decision to remain here. arently caused this problem, so we will help solve it as well.”

  He looked at his axe before speaking up again, “We do need better ons though, we are equipped fhting rge targets, not tiny ones. Do you have any woodworkers who could make some clubs for us?”

  “Of course, we are a forest vilge after all. We get you plenty of clubs by tomorrow,” Amilya stated, calming down a bit as color returo her face.

  Niphru finally spoke up, finding a lull in the versation, “I am not leaving, my friend Dawn is here, and I ’t abandon her. I will help defend too!”

  The man looked over in disbelief, and iurn, Niphru shifted his illusion bato a ribbon of foxfire, ing it all around the man while it was harmless, then direg it into the firepce where he ig, pulling it back so the man could see the fmes, the it ba to extinguish the fire.

  “I may be small and weak, but I have my owhods of fighting and have killed things several times rger than myself. I kill smaller things in droves, and I will protect my Dawn!” he excimed.

  The man shen a slight smile crept onto his face before he responded, “I see. I certainly ’t fault your ce. I will try to expin things to my men, but be careful, we are duty-bound to destroy all non-human mutants.”