Super Gene Ascension Chapter 16

The night was long, and my sleep? Non-existent as the predators of the nearby area ALL came to check out the massive camp that had gotten thrown up with so many humans being in one place.

But besides just the debris we dragged around the camp to deter the larger predators, several of the legion who were trained in using bows were using either bow Beast Soul's or using extremely valuable special alloy bows to snipe any predators that came into sight.

And it was really fucking hard to get any deep sleep with a giant animal getting shot with the equilvalent of a sniper rifle and screaming in agony before running off every half an hour basically.

'Hmm, maybe I should also take up archery for some formed of ranged ability.' I idly thought before I kinda... Rolled on the idea as although enhancing a bow and arrow with Haki was certainly doable, along with powerful due to my enhanced senses with Observation Haki.

There was just the simple fact that I could just be a 'sword' cultivator with Haki and just send sword beams with any melee weapon at enemies from a distance.

Sure, I wasn't anywhere near as powerful as Zorro at like the Wano Arc or Hawkeye. But that was only for now. To say nothing of the simple and pure martial arts foundation my inheritance that came from Garp.

"Gods be damned... I need some coffee now." I muttered with a grunt as to say the least, I wasn't that well rested.

But I had maxed out most of my geno points, so I was already superhuman so even with one night of poor sleep. I wouldn't be affected, especially if I got some caffeine.

Thankfully, with this being such a large expedition, they did have some coffee, which was certainly nice to go along the rations breakfast I had packed.

"Hmm, we should be a good couple of hours from the territory of those minotaurs at this point. But, it still sucks that its going to take until tomorrow night to get back home if we aren't stuck all of today dealing with the minotaurs' remains." I muttered to myself thoughtfully.

Soon enough, a ring of a harsh bell rang, signaling for anyone to get ready to continue the march and I moved up to the front with my large water buffalo, acting to help break through the small tree's in our path, along with stomping down any bushes that could be hiding some small ambush predators.

And a few minutes later, I paused from my sitting position atop Woody as a chime rang out. [Mutant Tier Kickboxing Lemur killed- Consume to gain 1-10 Mutant Geno points.- Mutant Tier Lemur Leaping Kickboxing Gloves and Shin Guards, Beast Soul Gained.]

'The fuck? Oh Woody crushed it's underground burrow... Whoops.' I thought with a wry smile as we were leaving the thick forests behind and entering the wider open plains area that Mio and I killed those porcupines together at but at a far different part of the wide plains.

"My mount just crushed an animal... How often am I going to be notified of such things in these plains?" I asked to Yang Manli, who was riding her horse to my side a good ways away.

Yang Manli snorted and said with some amusement. "I'm sorry to hear that, Jake, but considering how most of the beasts here are ambush predators hiding underground... Probably a good bit, and I don't think you would eat a beast your mount has crushed, would you?"

The thought of trying to cook and make food out of the fucking pancake of road kill that resulted from Woody stepping on the poor bastard... Yeah, not happening.

"Not happening," I grunted out before I spoke again. "Anyway, do you know what kind of beast souls we can get-"

My question as we just left the forest and entered the plains was cut off by a very human scream that grew as more people screamed, which made me whip around in my seat atop Woody.

And all too quickly, I saw a portion of the expedition literally collapsing into the ground as they hit some kind of sinkhole and fell into the ground and out of sight.

Then there was a moment of relative silence as the people who crashed into the sinkhole were getting their grips and only letting out low groans.

But then a voice yelled out. "Giant ants incoming!"

And the screams restarted even as Qin Xuan yelled out. "Throw ropes down into the hole to bring them out!"

My whole body however, tilted forward with Woody growling as he stomped the ground and I paused as the Sanctuary system dinged out.

[Mutant Tier Steel Shredding Gatherer Ant killed- Consume to gain 1-10 Mutant Geno points.]

I whipped over to Yang Manli and the rest of the leadership and yelled out. "It's a giant ant colony with the gatherer's being Mutant tier!"

And I could see Yang Manli's clear fear cross her fear in understanding. As evolution tiers did 'follow' logic at times. So for a mere gatherer to be mutant tier? Then that meant the colonies' soldier ants could possibly even be Sacred Blood tier!

Then, I was brutally reminded why so many people didn't get to the Second Sanctuary as a large horse-sized massive ant breached out of the hard plains ground with an explosion of shifting dirt.

The soldier ant then, with pincers thicker than my own chest, sliced a poor bastard literally in half, even with the mutant's at least tier armor he was wearing at the mid chest area, so he wasn't even able to scream.

Qin Xuan's orders were silenced as dozens if not more than a hundred, hissing angry fucking giant ants burst from the ground underneath us, including myself. 

But said ant was stomped on by Woody with my system ringing out as it was another mutant tier gatherer ant.

'With such huge ants. Will the colony be much smaller then usual?' I mused to myself.

And as though to answer my question the yells and screams within the original large sink hole were silenced at this point but then a wave of giant ants began pouring at from the sink hole.

"Flee! Run deeper into the plains!" Qin Xuan roared as she smashed back the soldier ant she was fighting and then transformed into her horse form before fleeing.

And Qin Xuan was VERY strong as she had been practising an S grade Geno art and having all Sacred Blood armor and Beast Soul weapons. So seeing her flee from the ant she couldn't kill in a few exchanges, it meant only one thing clearly.

That soldier ant was definitely a Sacred Blood-tier creature!

Which meant that the queen of this Ant Colony was almost assuredly a Super-tier creature as well!. But I needed to get the fuck out of here as there was just too damned many ants!

"Lets go!" I yelled to Woody and he happily began charging out into the distance to get away from the giant ants that were now pouring out of the giant whole in the ground that our marching expedition broke into the no doubt massive cave system it had opened up.

And with a loud thudding symphony we all charged out as our expedtion was not ready to fight an army of Sacred Blood creatures!

Screams rang out from behind us as we used whatever means we could to run away from the ants nest deeper into the wide open plains. Where we, or at least the people with mounts could run even faster then if we pushed our way back into the forest.

As I bet that the ant nest was right on the border of the forest because that's typically where they got their food as well!

A loud skittering rang out from behind me and I saw that while Yang Manli was riding nearby, a large ant slammed into her horse mount sending her flying off the mount and across the ground.

With a scowl, I pulled at the mental connection with Woody and he came to a stop after a couple dozen meters with Yang Manli getting up slowly with a dazed appearance and her right arm was limp at her side.

I then kicked off the back of Woody with a Soru that allowed me to lose the forward momentum and land on the ground a bit away from her. But the large soldier ant was now rushing towards Yang Manli with it's deady pincers aimed directly at chest to cut her in half.

'Fuck it!" I cursed and with a yell my arm and my spear was coated in Haki as I threw the spear into the armored head of the ant that was a dozen meters away.

The ant hissed with caustic blood that steamed as it hit the ground spurting from the head wound with hit reeling back in surprise at the blow which made me realize something.

The ants were literally blind! They coudn't 'see' us, they were following and tracking us by the vibrations or smells we were leaving behind. And with Woody so close to me, his large ass stomps were drowning out my own actions.

As my spear was throw out of the soldier ants armored body by it's whirling actions to get the spear out of it's brain. I had already reached Yang Manli and with a hand on that fantastic ass for leverage, I tossed her onto Woody's back making her cry out in pain as it seemed that the shock was wearing off.

"Dammit... I want my spear back!" I cursed before I ran in with another Soru that allowed me to dash forward and with a hair raising clanging noise I dodged the soldier ant's pincers that instantly went for me at sensing my foot hitting the ground near it.

A loud crunch rang out as I kicked the back of my spear deeper into the ant's skull and then I ripped it out before running without another word seeing at least three dozen soldier ants running up behind me.

But as I was running with Soru to catch up to Woody who was already running at my order to get away. I scowled as my previous thoughts were correct as the venom on my Sacred Blood tier spear finished off the brain damage I already did to that ant.

[Sacred Blood Tier Steel Shredding Soldier Ant killed- Consume to gain 1-10 Sacred Blood Geno points.- Sacred Blood Tier Steel Shredding Soldier Ant, Beast Soul Gained.]

With a grunt of effort I climbed back onto Woody and I dismissed my spear so that the steaming acid blood on it would then be wiped away and as I saw Yang Manli holding her collar.

I knew that she definitely broke or at least knocked her shoulder out of it's socket.

"Help me... I can walk you through it." Yang Manli spat through gritted teeth and I nodded. But in reality, I still had the memories of going through the school system of this world and the ample first aid knowledge it demanded students go through.

Thankfully with Woody's great height, his stride allowed us to outrun the ants even as I slowly pumped and twisted her right arm over the next few minutes to gently coax her shoulder back into its socket.

"That should be fine... Just help me get my arm into a sling." She said with her eye's closed to hold back any tears of pain. But her shoulder, instead of being screaming agony was probably at a deep burning ache.

I reached into my saddlebags and brought out a long length of bandages and carefully made a sling to rest her arm in so that the weight wouldn't be on her bad shoulder and then I asked quietly.

"Where to now? Should we head back to the forest?" I asked a bit tiredly as my legs hurt from using Soru several times in a row.

Yang Manli hissed as she forced herself to sit upright. But after taking a breath, she said firmly. "No! Even with this setback, we need to meet at the meeting point a few miles away from the Minotaur tribe."

"We are being tracked by Sacred Blood-tier creatures in a large force. We can still deal with the minotaurs even if it will be more dangerous with even a quarter of the full team. But those ants... There will no doubt be thousands of them at the very least." 

And then she gave me a wry smile as she said. "And even more importantly, our expedition is going to get the predators of the surrounding area into a bit of a frenzy. Especially when they smell the humans who died at that nest."

I brushed a hand across my face as I realized that she was right. This night was likely going to be dangerous. And we wouldn't be able to light a fire in the plains at night lest everything for like fifty miles be coming at us.

"Alright... I get what you mean." I said with a bit of tiredness before I climbed back up to my feet to look from atop Woody's back to see if I could find another who ran in the same direction I went in.

And thankfully, it seemed like it was the case, and they were already coming towards us from a good couple of miles away, which I could see from atop the giant mount.

"We got people coming in. At least my mount is a good sign for people to get over here... Wait, should we try to make like a signal fire or something?"

But Yang Manli just said cooly. "No, we can't wait around here for an hour as we wait for people to backtrack and get back here. The minotaurs themselves aren't more then another two-hour march, even on foot, from here."

'Sucks to be those poor bastards who ran the wrong way then.' I mused as I just shook my head as there was nothing to be done for now... On the other hand, that nest was giving me an idea.

As should I be able to sneak into the nest and find the queen. That would be a far easier Super tier monster to kill, and hell I could just eat her eggs to gain a bunch of Mutant and Sacred Blood geno points as well!

The small group rolled up on their own mounts and I coudn't help an inward groan as the leader of the three spoke out seeing Yang Manli leaning her good side on me to see the people who were approaching.

"Ah, Yang Mani, it is good to see you in good health after that fall! I thought you were lost to us, honestly." The man who was speaking was clearly the heir of a powerful family as his entire kit was taken from the Sacred Blood tier Ice Alligators to the north in the swamp.

To which Yang Manli said flatly. "Yes Kalio... Especially when you were riding right next to my own horse before I got knocked off my own. You saw it quite closely didn't you?"

Left unsaid was why 'I' got to her so quickly when he just charged ahead and didn't look back in the slightest.

But the man just gave a thin smile and said. "I was deal within a mutant tier ant that was also chasing my horse. Sadly, I was unable to turn around after I dealt with it seeing the dozen Sacred Blood ants incoming."

To which Yang Manli just snorted before giving the two women beside the man who were on their own horse beast soul mounts, a look before she said calmly. "Then follow us. We have ground to cover before we reach the minotaur's location.

And with that, I gave Woody a mental prod to get moving forward with hum huffing as he did so.

A minute later, Yang Manli huffed quietly and said coldly. "Stay away from him, Jake. His groups have a habit of falling apart and people 'sacrificing' themselves to buy him and his girls time to escape situations."