The Ant chased after me. Refusing to leave me alone.
"STEEL VEIL", I screamed aloud desperately while running. The metal liquid immediately swallowed my body whole. Covering me from neck to toe. 'Cool! Protection!'
I brought back my crimson blade from the nothingness of air. And charged forward into the Error.
Ignis drove into the armour of the Ant as it tried running into me. The sound of clanging as my blade did its best to break through the exoskeleton of the beast.
The Ant used its mandibles to try to get a taste of me. Luckily, my reflexes came in clutch just in time to save me from getting decapitated. I dodged the attack with a quick jump. My feet landed on the enclosed mandibles.
'Perfect, Fate is on my side today, it seems.' I focused Steel Veil on Ignis. The metal fluid transferred itself to the blade. I pointed the blade up.
"Ready to lose your weapons, bastard? I'll make sure to give you a slow and painful death," I spat—the silver blade glimmered in the air, like a trophy. The Ant screeched. I swung it down in an arc. Slicing off the Ant's only weapons.
I jumped off the mandibles before they hit the ground. The Wraith yelled in pain at the loss of its crushers—a greenish fluid sprayed out of where the Ant once had its mouth—completely covering my clothes in green. 'Eugh, I'm going to give myself a proper shower when I get back to the headquarters.'
I ran around the Ant, and lunged Ignis into the reinforced joints of its legs. 'Ignis with Steel Veil is crazy awesome. It was almost impossible even to scratch the Ant's legs before! Now look at how easy it is to just break into the armour!'
The Ant turned around, pissed off, to face me. 'It's now or never. I'm going to have to slay this beast quickly.'
I leapt onto the Ant's head. It violently shook itself to throw me off. Fortunately, I impaled its head just in time.
I pulled Ignis out of the head and leapt down onto the burnt earth. The Ant gave one final screech as it dropped dead with a thud. Everything fell silent. All that remained was the sound of burning bushes and leaves.
Surprisingly, the body didn't glitch away. 'Well, that's weird.' I gave the head a kick with my metal foot. Let me say something: Bad idea. The—what seemed to be dead—body began moving.
'Oh crap. It's still alive.'
The body bulged from all sides.
With a quick use of Edge Blink, I stayed clear of the Ant's sudden self-destruction (but I got smacked by the trunk of a tree). 'Thank God that I got this ability before the beast blew itself up; otherwise, I'd be dead meat.'
Within the plume of smoke from the explosion, a shadowy figure tread towards me. I prepared myself for what would happen next.
The figure paused. Then, a strong sense of bloodlust hit me. 'How can something have so much bloodlust?! Whatever that thing is, it's bad news!'
"Ha… A mere Human could slay my external body… Intriguing. It seems I have much more to work on," admitted the extremely tall figure from the curtain of smoke.
"Whatever or whoever you are, mind explaining why you just blew up that Ant?"
"Ant?! Ant?! You dare mock my creation?!" snapped the creature.
"Very well… Since you had the guts to say that… I'll make sure to devour you in the most painful way possible!" it roared.
It sprinted out of the smoke, straight for me. Its extremely sharp claws left the cover of smoke first, probably going to try and rip my head off. Then slowly its body revealed, showing off its white body and black eyes.
I lunged aside to dodge the attack by a metre. I smashed Ignis into the white armour of the creature. I glanced at the Error, 'IT'S A FLIPPING ANT ON TWO LEGS—WITH TWO ARMS.'
'Wait, I never checked its rank—'
I turned on Distortion Sense and opened my eyes to see… Purple. 'Holy shit—I'm screwed.'
'WHAT'S A NIGHTMARE RANK DOING HERE? I THOUGHT THIS WAS TRAINING?! NOT A DEATH QUEST.'
'AZURA, DO SOMETHING.'
"I'm afraid I can't do anything to help you out, child," she replied.
'Oh, great, just when I needed my assistant the most, she bails. Great. Just great.'
"EXCUSE ME, MISTER, 'ASSISTANT'?! YOU THINK I'M YOUR 'ASSISTANT'?!" yelled Azura into the depths of my mind so that it can be remembered forever.
'…And now I pissed her off—I'm such an idiot… HOW CAN I DEFEAT A NIGHTMARE RANK?!'
'I BARELY KNOW ANYTHING OTHER THAN CREATING RANDOM THINGS AND USING A BLADE.'
The Ant twisted its head around to face me with a death glare. Everything in my body felt like it had been frozen. My legs trembled under the pressure of its Presence.
The Ant sprinted for me. I ran through a flaming bush, setting my clothes on fire. The heat burnt my skin.
"Time Technique: Creation!" A small waterfall hit me from above, erasing the flames.
"Human, how long will you keep running from your impending doom?!" it asked as it chased after me.
My breath was shaky, and my hands were trembling, the heat from the flames still sizzling on my burnt skin. 'Just how can I defeat it?! Damn it, is this how I die?! After all that training?!'
A massive double door made of stone comes into view. "I guess if I die today, then it'd better be somewhere great, eh?"
I pushed open the doors.
I'm met with a room of pillars that rose towards the gold ceiling high above. The rustling of the creature indicated that the distance between us was closing.
I limped towards the distant seat at the far end of the massive room, my legs sore from all that movement.
I sat down on the comfortable throne. Taking in my final breaths, I lay Ignis on my lap. My hands trembled. 'I guess this is how it feels to be so close to being killed? Ha, here I used to think that I would die peacefully on my deathbed…'
The Ant walked up to me and stared me down. Then lowered itself down to look at me one last time. "You wish to die a noble death… Very well, if that's what you wish, pathetic human."
The Ant pulled back its clawed hand. Everything felt like it was in slow-mo.
It thrust its hand towards my chest. And everything went black.
[You have received the Gaze of Rulers.]
[The Rulers do not permit you to die.]
'Seriously? I can't even die?!'
[Your father doesn't want you to die, Horacio.]
[Defeat the creature and claim its power along with more memories of your lives.]
'Ugh, fine—Wait, more memories of my what now?! And my father is dead, what do you mean my father "doesn't want me to die", dumbass system!'
My eyes burst open. I gasped in surprise and disbelief that I'm still alive. I looked at my chest, where a hole should've been, was then covered by skin. My clothing, coloured by the dark shades of red and green.
I raised my head to see the creature now walking out of the doors.
"Stop, bastard. I'm still alive," I spat.
"Oh? But I was sure I stabbed your heart—" before I let it continue, I dashed towards it with Ignis in my hand. "Steel Veil," Ignis once again got coated in the metal fluid. Scratching the surface of the Ant's armour.
I jumped back, in my sword stance, "I never asked before, what's your name, creature?"
"Anthrion, and what's yours?" it responded.
"Horacio, though, I doubt you'll need to know mine," I replied.
"Don't think it's that easy to defeat me. I'm the eternal king of Insects; never have I lost to any being. Many humans have fallen in my path. However, you might be my most delightful snack," he announced.
Anthrion charged at me, its claws driving into the metal of my blade. I used Edge Blink to get behind it. And I finally found its weaknesses—the joints in its legs and arms. 'There's a chance they're reinforced, but it's not wrong to at least give it a shot!'
I thrust Ignis into the joints. Anthrion staggered because of the force, "Damn you, human!"
"Ha, now who's pathetic?"
Anthrion elbowed me in the guts. Sending me flying towards the double doors, producing a loud bang throughout the room. I coughed up a pool of blood, splattering bright red onto the rock floor.
"Eugh, I should've been faster in destroying the rest of its joints—"
'If I could just throw Ignis towards its neck, then it should die—fingers crossed it didn't decide to have its neck made of metal.'
I charged towards the Error. Ignis, in a position to sever Anthrion's neck. I used Edge Blink to move into its blind spot, almost falling out of control, and threw my blade towards its neck.
Ignis embedded itself in Anthrion's neck, blood oozed out, "I… Can't believe this. HOW DID YOU DO IT, DAMN YOU HUMAN—" it thundered.
I pulled Ignis out of the corpse's neck, "Maybe I'm not as 'pathetic' as you described me before. Now look who's the pathetic one," I declared, kicking its head.
I lay down from exhaustion, breathing heavily.
The body twitched, 'Oh great, I still have to deal with this shit?'
Anthrion got up, its back abnormally bent. Its blood-red eyes opened. Twisting its head towards my horrified face. I got up, running away from the literal nightmare of a creature, into a bedroom within the throne room.
I called back Ignis. Hiding behind the wooden doors of the ruined bedroom. "You can keep on hiding, Horacio, but it won't be long before I find you and devour you!"
I leapt out of the cover, driving Ignis into the bleeding gap in its neck. It roared in pain and collapsed. I stole a glance upward, and, fortunately, a massive metal boulder was slowly falling through the mossy ceiling. 'Perfect! Now I run!'
I ran out of the bedroom, creating a box of explosives right beside the entrance to the room. I glanced back as I was just about to collapse onto the ground, "A spectacular explosion indeed… With this, I hope I can just rest a little…"
[Well done, Eraser Horacio. You have slain the Nightmare.]
[Eraser Horacio, you have the respect of the Rulers.]
[You have received a Nightmare rank gem. Check your inventory for more information about it via the system.]
[Eraser Horacio, your battle prowess is beyond description. You have been bestowed the title "King of Insects"(Quasar rank).]
[You'll receive your memories and DisAbility after 24 hours.]
'I just won this battle by mere luck. Next time I fight a Nightmare rank Error, I could die if I'm not trained well enough.'
'Well, anyway, I wonder what is going to happen to me now. Will Draco pick me up and take me back to the headquarters? Wait, has Draco even been monitoring me the whole battle?!'
'Oh yeah, Azura, remind me to slap Draco, yeah?'
"Very well, child."