My Life As A Reborn Monster

As soon as Digger yelled fight the 3 ants seemed to dissolve into the darkness around the cave. I couldn't see them physically but using Detection was working as I could see a faint outline of their mana moving around to get into a 3 pronged attack position.

As soon as I saw them move towards me I jumped up and then using Mana body slam I turned into a meteor that slammed down and caused the entirety of the arena to shake. I missed my target but was happy with the result, because as the ants exited the shadows they were pelted by debris and knocked off balance by the tremors. I took that opportunity to go and use Vampirism on the nearest one. 

As soon as I placed my hand on its head it tried to fight back but I just jumped onto its back and using my weight I was able to hold it down until I finished. I felt a surge of speed rush into my body aswell as a feeling of familiarity towards the shadows around me. 

I quickly jumped off the husk just in time to dodge one of the survivors trying to clamp down with its eerily glinting mandibles. When I took a good look at the one who tried to bite me I noticed a weird growth in its mouth. 

However when I looked closer while trying to dodge other attacks I noticed that it wasn't a growth. It was a damn piece of uneaten meat that was dangling from its mandibles. It looked almost like a brown slightly armor plated arm? If I didn't know any better I would think that this is the ant who took Sondar's arm and actually ate it.

While I was running and dodging I yelled out to Digger.

"HEY ASSHOLE.... DID THIS ANT GIVE YOU ANYTHING BESIDES KONNA'S LEG AND SHORUNTS STAFF?"

Digger snickered at that as he rose up from his seat.

"Ofcourse they did. He brought me quite the specimen, It was Sondar's arm ofcourse but I felt that it did such a good job that it deserved a treat... HAHAHAHA hope you enjoy dying by the hands of the ant who crippled your friend." He said before he sat back down.

"OH before I forget, I'm getting bored so I'm gonna go ahead and add a couple more Shadow Warriors ants." 

He spoke before 3 more Shadows off to the side emerged and formed to look just like the black shelled ants I was currently fighting against.

"Fck me, come on." I said before narrowly dodging a 2 sided attack from the new shadows, but was quickly launched into the air as the 3rd materialized underneath me and body slammed into me.

I would've used more skills but I was barely running on fumes even after absorbing the ants energy. That's when I noticed that there was a faint glow on the otherwise stone walls, it clicked in my head at that moment.

'Oh, that FCKER, he put up entire walls of unrefined mana crystal. The more I use my mana the more it's going to be absorbed which causes the crystals to drain even more of my power. G**Dam It that conniving bastard. Dual mind I need you to start using Mana absorption even if it reduces efficiency. You are going to be the deciding factor for the future fights.'

'No problem boss, just be sure to survive.' My Dual mind said before I started to feel a slight influx of mana. I felt the rush of mana flow into me, but at the same time I felt it being drained out of me in a ever increasing pace.

I knew that if I don't kill these things soon that I was going to die and get used to perfect Diggers body and then who knows what will happen to my family after that. So I mentally said Fck it, as all people do when they are about to make a potentially fatal mistake, and I used up what little power I had left to activate my tried and true buffs.

As I activated my Lightning muscles and also my Electric scales of Vitality, I felt a new rush of power as I saw that my scales had grown in size aswell as the electricity that arced between them had changed to a slight purplish color, matching my natural magic affinity. I could feel time slow down even more as I saw the 5 ants all attack me from different angles, but now they seemed to be off track by a few seconds. 

I quickly stepped out of the way by figuring out the center of where their attacks were headed and I went up to each ant and used Vampirism to suck out their energy.... I found out that using this new and improved 'Time slow' ability I got when combining the 2 also increased the drain on my body and mana by an incredible amount. So I decided eh screw it I'm just gonna spam this one move and bedamn the consequences.

After the last one fell, I could tell that my speed and even the movements of my fingers themselves had grown tremendously, I'm guessing that because my system was still rebooting, that It wasn't able to show me when I had gained stuff, I could tell already that I gained speed and Dexterity and even the beginnings of Shadow magic if I assumed that it applied just as my other magic comprehension skills did.

'.....Wait, aren't I in the middle of a fight? Why am I thinking of this now? I am totally off track.'

'Ya, I should say, but dude why are we so amped up? It's like when we used to drink 2 energy drinks a night and go into overdrive.'

'Yea... Wait shutup we gotta get back into the fight so just start slowing down the mana Absorption so this can wear off faster.'

'Got it, I just gotta warn you that we aren't gonna feel good shortly after it wears off... Are you sure we should stop? Just in case this guy has another round of ants he wants us to fight?'

'Dammit your right, ok keep it up for now but lets try and lower the efficiency that way I can actually hear what Digger is saying. He's been talking this whole time but since we are thinking so fast, I can't understand him.'

That's true, shortly after the fight Digger had stood up and applauded Vexsus for winning but by this time Vexsus had already had a full conversation with his Dual mind.

"Shit sorry man I was lost in my own world, what were you saying?" I said to Digger knowing it would piss him smooth the fck off.

"You dare to talk like that to me? Even after the beatdown I put you through? In that case lets go ahead and move forward with todays events."

'Great going boss, you asshole.'

'Shut up its better to kill whatever it is now versus later.'

"I introduce you to my newest creation..... I call it the STONE GUARDIAN ANT." 

Out of the wall itself came an ant shaped creature that looked like it was completely made of stone..... Ok I guess that makes sense on why he named it that but still seeing the actual thing is a bit shocking. I mean it came just straight from the wall itself. I was just completely dumbfounded seeing what I thought was just unrefined mana crystal, take shape into an ant. I mean this has to magic right? There is no way it's a living creature..... Oh damn does this mean that it has a similar mana draining power like the crystals? 

As my mind was working overtime even after I tried to lower it down. The Stone ant had lumbered over to me and actually looked down towards me. It stood over 2 times my height and I had to strain my neck to see its face. The horrifying thing was that it had a humanoid shape. It still had the numerous legs like an ant but the last 2 were used the way a bipedal creature would walk. Its other legs were either sharpened spear like appendages or were ended in hand like things with opposable fingers. One of them held a sword while the other held a giant Tower Shield that was just almost as tall as it was.

I knew I was in over my head with this thing but if my family had encountered this instead of me, I don't know if they would survive it. Hell I don't know if I could survive it.

"Ok Vexsus I gave you enough time to strategize, now its time to Fight. STONE GUARDIAN ANT..... DESTROY THIS PATHETIC WORM!"