Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 151: The Battles Below

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One heartbeat.

Two.

Then the change came.

Her runes lit up across her body in a cascading wave of tiny glowing sigils along her spine and it flanks like a living script carved in light. Her wings flicked once, briefly catching the wind. A pulse of aura flared off her scales.

The system blinked in Kai’s vision:

[Companion Essence Intake Complete.

+5 Strength

+5 Agility

No mutation detected. No instability.]

Luna gasped, one hand flying to her chest. "She’s okay. It worked."

Kai let out a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He nodded. "Perfect balance. Exactly what we needed."

Miryam turned and burped a puff of silver mist. Then she curled into a crescent and chirped, already dozing again.

"She always wants more sleep after a power up," Luna whispered.

Kai didn’t reply immediately.

He was staring at the essence rivers again, watching the spirals continue to flow, gradually shifting. The rift was changing with every second. The pool wasn’t complete yet. This was only the first surge.

But now they had confirmation. It was real. It was powerful. And it could be controlled.

He handed the vial to Heart Mason. "Get the storage crates prepped. I want six more samples today. We’ll rotate everyone with trace doses and watch for side effects."

Luna nodded, but her expression had grown serious. "The pool isn’t done forming. But soon... the others will move too."

Kai’s eyes drifted to the ledges below and across. He could sense them. Many different squads, hidden by terrain, but their auras leaked across the ether like faint perfume in the wind.

He felt pressure build behind his eyes. His instincts buzzed. "It starts today," he murmured. "The real competition."

But for now, they had the high ground. A safe spiral. The first bloodless breakthrough. He turned back toward camp, casting a glance at the silver basin as it writhed.

"Now we wait," he said. "And harvest. Carefully."

Mid morning came soon not with warmth or sun but thunder. The thunder was aura charged, resonant, layered with power. It struck not the ears first, but the chest. A reverberating pressure that rolled up the stone ledges like the echo of some ancient god waking beneath the earth.

Kai’s eyes narrowed as the first flare of green fire erupted on the lower left cliff, a crackling burst of energy in a clean arc followed by a rapid scatter of smaller sparks.

He didn’t need a spyglass to know. His Predator Instinct was enough to tell him everything.

"That’s Princess Mia’s..." he said flatly. "Dawn Blade Aura signature."

The green flame didn’t move like wildfire, it curved like sabers in the wind, precise, tactical, cutting across the platform below in trained formations. Kai had seen their discipline before. It was unmistakable.

Skyweaver landed beside him with barely a flap of her wings, sharp feet clicking softly on the stone. Her long antennae twitched with frequency pulses.

"Eight energy signatures confirmed," she reported. Among them there was Shale, Flint, Needle, and Vexor, his buddy from the star crystal mine. They’re holding a defensive formation.

"Trying to bait something," Kai muttered.

Just as he spoke, a second pulse bloomed from the far side of the basin.

This one wasn’t fire, it was a silver mist, coiling upward like fingers made of smoke and steel. Cold. Strategic.

"Thea’s squad," he said without turning. "Shadow-Talon."

He couldn’t see the details from this distance, but he could feel the difference. The Dawn Blade squad fought with speed and formation. Shadow Talon... with shadows and anticipation. Two rival teams testing the water, poking the veil around the sometimes or someone’s lair.

They were baiting it.

Clash. Pause. Retreat. Repeat.

Like waves striking the edge of a cliff, both squads struck, then vanished before the storm could bite back.

From their ledge high above, Kai and his team had the luxury of distance. The elevation gave them cover. But even so, Kai felt the echo of each hit, muffled booms that shivered through the canyon like half swallowed thunder.

"Let them fight, They know how things are done." Kai muttered. His voice was calm, but not indifferent. "Right now, I can’t help Princess Mia team, I can’t help my old squad Dawn Blade, I can help my friends. I have my own responsibility. Maybe later... I will help them."

He stood with his arms folded, spear resting against his shoulder. His eyes never left the swirling basin. "They’ll trigger something soon," he added.

Skyweaver perched higher on a stone outcrop. Her limbs bent at odd angles, giving her vantage over both cliffs. Her wings stayed half open, sensors calibrated.

She clicked softly. "Every engagement lasts under sixty seconds. They hit, withdraw and regroup. Cautious. Smart. But no commitment."

"Because they don’t want to be first," Kai said. "Whoever draws the unknown enemy’s full attention first... dies first."

Below, a ripple of tension passed between the cliffs. A small spark blinked, and a hissing vibration drifted upward, a screeching aura clash that sounded too distorted to be natural.

Then silence. Even the air seemed to stop. Kai frowned. "That wasn’t part of the pattern," he said.

Skyweaver didn’t answer. Her head tilted slightly, receptors flickering.

Luna stepped closer, her voice quiet but firm. "I know they are your friends but Promise me again. You won’t dive in. Not yet. We need you."

Kai turned his gaze to her.

Her eyes shimmered like moonlit and calm but her fingers curled tightly around her own cloak. She knew how he thought. She knew how his instincts itched when the hunt drew near. But she also knew what was at stake.

Miryam. Their future. Their whole fragile nest perched on the edge of a war against the Silvertail clan.

Kai stared at her for a long second. Then he took her hand and squeezed it once. "I promise," he said. "I won’t go unless their life is in danger."

Luna looked at his eyes, it sure looked like he meant it.