He was at a loss, both physically and mentally. The only option he could think that would allow him to defeat the army of ants headed his way was simply jogging through them at a sustainable pace. Each step might squish one, maybe two. Over time the number of ants would be whittled down and he could then speed up his extermination with mimicries.

If he added the pincers to the strategy, that would allow him to snap the ants in half when they jumped on him during his squishing marathon. With the sheer amount of ants, he doubted there would be any lack of mana to hinder a long term transformation. Each ant gave 20 to 30 mana a piece, and there were thousands. He would have an excessive amount after the battle.

He didn’t look forward to the amount of time it would take to defeat them all, but he let out a groan and began to jog into the fray as he focused on his hands to cast Partial Mimicry: Pincer. He clacked his pincers together after the transformation was complete, and the sound was echoed by the army of ants. It was a deafening rumble of clicks from the small things, and Steven felt the sand shift under his feet at the sound.

The distance to the ants was closed in seconds, as Steven was several times faster, even at a slow jog, than the diminutive yet larger than life insects. He didn’t change his stride as he stepped onto the ants, and tried to count the crunches underfoot while he jogged through the entire army. He veered to the left when he neared the edge of the mountainous hill as he didn’t want to run up the hill.

It took him forty three steps to make it across the ants and he turned to witness a giant wave of ants barreling down on him. For some reason, he thought that the ants would continue in the direction they were going to allow him to run back and forth over them.

He was absolutely wrong. The ants were climbing over themselves to follow him through their army. The wave growing larger the closer it got. Hesitating as he watched the wave draw nearer, the nearby ants jumped on him and he absentmindedly clipped them in half. He needed to get some space between himself and the army, to come up with another plan.

Dismissing the pincers, he focused on his hands and cast Mimic Growth: Heater Shield. He intentionally didn’t cast the ability on his forearms, as he wanted to use the shields as a sort of bludgeoning punching device. Once again, he wasn’t specific enough in his thoughts and was disappointed in himself when the shields burst from the back of his hands. He was unable to use the shields like boxing gloves as he had intended.

All was not lost however, and he spared a quick glance at the growths. They had grown in a different orientation than when he cast the ability on his forearms. Instead, the shield was a fourth of its normal size and the point of the shield was facing outwards past his knuckles. The top of the shield, now oriented towards his elbow, was still long enough to cover his wrist and a few inches of his forearm. He had effectively made a wide punch dagger out of the shield.

The best part about the mistake was he could still grab the ants that were attempting to bite and sting him. He crushed them easily and began to sprint towards the oncoming wave of ants.

He closed his eyes and began to swing his arms in a swimming motion when the wave collapsed around him. Driving forward hard with his legs against the weight of the ants, he dug into the wave but was unable to move after a second. The weight of the ants held his arms still. His momentum stopped. Although he couldn’t feel any bites or stings, he knew that if he didn’t get out of the pile he would eventually suffocate. His lungs already burned from the exertion of trying to dig through the wave.

He dismissed the growths on his hands and felt the ants shift a bit as they filled in the space. The weight pressing down on him was beginning to cause him pain, as he felt his bones and joints creak under the stress. He was out of options. Even his attributes, as absurd as they were for this floor, were not enough to even the playing field against the swarm of ants.

Imagination was the source of his power. The note from the Felqwurst family head had told him that. He would very much have liked to be a porcupine or turtle, able to protect his sides. Imagining himself as a porcupine, skewering ants with spines from his back, brought him much joy as his oxygen deprived brain slowed.

Imagination, that was the key. He had been focusing on parts of his body to cast his mimicries and growths. Since he was about to die, now was a good time for another experiment.

Instead of focusing for his abilities, he would try to imagine them. He visualized himself, blades protruding from every inch of his body outward, and cast Mimic Growth: Shortsword.

He felt crushed. His legs slammed together and felt sharp pains in his ribs, but a blast of fresh air allowed him to breath deeply. A split second later the weight of the ants returned. Dismissing the growths, he immediately dropped onto his stomach, flat against the ground before the ants fell on him again. He laid in what felt like a puddle of slime and visualized the blades out of his back and cast Mimic Growth: Greatsword. Again he felt a crushing weight as the swords burst from his back, pressing his body into the sand against the weight of the ants.

The same as before, he was able to take another breath before the ants fell on top of him, this time the weight seemed a little less. He braced himself for the ants to fall on top of him again, and dismissed the growths.

Other than the pain from his ribs, he could continue this for as long as it took. Each casting of a growth from his back killed hundreds of ants, which replenished the mana used for the ability. He just had to remember to move forward or to the side when he had a chance before he drowned in ant goo.

After three more casts of his greatsword growths, he was able to move under the lesser weight of the ants. He grit his teeth against the pain in his joints and ribs, and stood, feeling a cascade of ants fall around him. He could smell the dusty air tinged with what he suspected was ant goo and opened his eyes to see some ants crawling right at his face.

He had diminished the wave enough temporarily to free his head, but he had to keep up the pace unless he would be completely covered again. Taking a moment to visualize something new, he closed his eyes and allowed the ants to cover his head. He imagined his arms covered in the greatsword glove he had accidentally made during his fight with the Skeletal Blend, held outwards like deadly airplane wings. Adding to that, he imagined a sword sticking out of the small of his back. His idea came to fruition when he visualized two more swords emerging from each of his thighs, sticking straight out like another set of deadly wings.

He cast Mimic Growth: Greatsword, and yelled the attack name, “Super Mimic Ant Blender!”

Spinning slowly in place, he gained momentum as the ants were either pushed out of the way or sliced. Soon he was performing a deadly dance of ant death and spinning around the ants until he could no longer feel the swords make contact with any chitinous bodies.

He was finally having fun again, and wondered where the ants went. Surely he didn’t kill all of them. He spotted a trail of ants scurrying back up the hill. They were carrying the bits and corpses of their slain brethren. The ants were no longer trying to attack him, and were instead cleaning the sand of their friends.

With no threat to him at the moment, Steven dismissed his growths and sat down to watch the ants scurry about, gathering up their brood to return to the nest. He felt almost sympathetic, but was mostly tired.

The ants were surprisingly efficient with their clean up, only leaving the goo. After a couple of hours Steven could see them gathering at the top of the hill, he guessed for another swarming charge. They waited at the top for several more minutes, and then the charge began. When the line of ants passed the halfway mark of the hill, Steven noticed a small blur fly out of the top and angle itself towards him.

He watched the small insect grow larger as it approached, and got excited. It had wings! He cast identify.

Giant Desert Ant (Queen)

Mana 40

Strength - 2

Dexterity - 2

Endurance - 4

Intelligence - 2

Wisdom - 3

Bummed a bit from the identify screen, he decided to absorb it quickly and end the floor. The queen wouldn’t give him wings after all. The quest didn’t say progress was a reward, so he can come back to farm mana whenever he wanted. He also had some new pants to look forward to. A lack of wing mimicry was the least of his concerns.

The queen was flying much faster than the swarm of ants it commanded. When it got closer, he saw that it had the same pincers as the worker ants, as well as a stinger. It was also twice the size of the other ants, though it was the same tan color.

He let it buzz at him, and within a few seconds it crashed into his chest and stabbed its stinger into his sternum. It hurt like hell, despite its low strength, and Steven was glad it had decided to aim at the center of his chest. Otherwise he might have a punctured lung or heart.

He imagined his right hand a pincer and cast Partial Mimicry: Pincer. Waiting for the transformation to complete and the red dust to settle, he empowered his new pincer with absorption and reached over to clip the queen in two. He heard a small chime as the pieces of and were absorbed into his implant, and saw the remaining swarm turn and scurry back up the ant hill.

“That was anticlimactic.”

Tapping on his implant, he pulled up his interface and scrolled over to the quest screen. The quest to defeat the swarm now had an additional line below it asking if he would like to accept the reward. He focused on the Y and a small box appeared on the ground in front of him at the same time as a dungeon window appeared in the air above it.

He dismissed the window and reached down to open the box to pull out the armored pants inside. They were black denim, with chitinous armor over the thighs and shins on the front and back. The armor was a dark red color, and slightly pitted. He wished he knew if they did anything, and quickly stripped off the goo covered pants. He folded up his old pants and placed them in the new box which he put in his pouch.

The new pants he pulled up over his legs. He could feel them adjust in size to fit. They fit perfectly, and he was glad the dungeon didn’t default to skinny jeans. Floor 2 had been a success, and he thought about his gains as he made his way to the Red Eye to reactivate the new dungeon screen. Not only did he discover a new way to use his abilities, but he also found out that his abilities weren’t as static as they seemed.

He thought about teleporting back to Serenity Springs to tell Garth about the floor and his gains, but as he walked up to the Red Eye he decided against it. He could finish Floor 3 first before a break.

Tapping on the eye, he went through the dungeon teleportation menu to the dungeon floors, and selected Floor 3. He hoped there were no bugs when he arrived. He had enough bugs to last a lifetime.