Point of view of Toqlan, outside of the frontier village

  As the ants invaded the village, Toqlan closed his eyes. He was not as connected to the ants as he was to the mushroom soldiers, but due to them being connected to the territory of Mafu, he could still faintly sense them. Closing his eyes helped, it made the ants, who seemed like faint lights in his mind, glow a slight bit brighter.

  After a few minutes, the alarm bell was rung. He felt one of the little lights disappear as an ant was killed. It was one of the ones trying to open the gates that would be used as an escape for the beast-kin.

  As it died, multiple ants nearby got a new order from their queen, and about ten of them rushed at the gates. He could hear screaming in the distance as the assault continued, most likely as the guards minds were torn apart.

  Toqlan shuddered as he had experienced the ants mental attacks, although not to the extent these guards would have. He did not envy their deaths, but they were necessary.

  Taressa contacted him and told him to expect some humans to accompany the beast-kin.

  "Humans? Were there human slaves?"

  "No, sympathizers. The king wants citizens, and these humans sympathize with the beast-kin."

  Toqlan thought for a while and remembered a few of the humans usually averted their gaze when slaves walked around town. Rarely was there anyone who did anything to help them.

  "Are you sure?"

  "I have read their minds deeper than I've read yours. Do not question me."

  The connection was cut off by Taressa. Toqlan swallowed nervously as he was again reminded that Taressa would have no qualms about killing anyone if Mafu had not ordered her not to.

  It took another hour before the first of the slaves started to emerge from the gate, now guarded by ants. Toqlan recognized a few of the faces, these slaves were mostly from the quarry. Mole-kin, bear-kin, and rat-kin. He ordered the mushroom soldiers to open a narrow entrance to let the beast-kin through.

  As the biggest male bear-kin approached, he slowed down as he inspected the soldiers with caution. His eyes then fell upon Toqlan, and he hurried his steps a bit more and called out.

  "Toqlan, is that you?"

  Toqlan remembered his name being Uther.

  "Uther, it is good to see you are still alive and healthy. Are any of the beast-kin from the quarry still unaccounted for?"

  "No, we are all here. We were preparing to go to the quarry when the enslavement broke. Did you do this?"

  "Yes, or rather our compatriots did." Toqlan pointed towards an ant that was standing nearby.

  Uther looked quite scared of the ant but kept his courage and ushered the rest of the beast-kin into the middle of the defensive ring of mushroom soldiers. They then sat down and caught their breath.

  "A voice told us to follow the ants. That they would show us to freedom." Uther said, in a more relaxed voice now that there was a pause in their escape. "How did you escape Toqlan?"

  "Sheer, blind luck, really. A horse stepped on our slavemaster, and the ring broke."

  "Then the kids are also safe? I don't remember their names, but there were some cat-kin and a... sheep-kin with you over there, right?"

  "Yes, they are safe." Toqlan began to take out some of the mushrooms that had been prepared to feed the beast-kin. It was the same old meatshroom and vitashroom that had been pre-grilled.

  The beast-kin all looked at the food with a bit of suspicion. The mushroom flesh was white, with the meatshroom being slightly darker in color. However, as they all started eating, it did not take long for their share of food to be gone.

  "What is this, Toqlan?" Uther demanded to know as he held up his last piece of meatshroom.

  "It is a mushroom, created to be close to meat in taste and nutrients."

  "A mushroom, huh?"

  Toqlan did not start much more conversation with the beast-kin; instead, he went back to focus on how the invasion was going. The slavemaster was dead, as the enslavement was broken. And soon more beast-kin started trickling out of the town.

  They got the same welcome and food rations as they entered the defensive emplacement. Soon the beast-kin were exchanging stories about what had happened this morning.

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  As the last few beast-kin trickled out of the town, and Toqlan counted 28 beast-kin in total, the humans Taressa had spoken of came out in a group. The beast-kin in the defensive emplacement all reacted quickly, standing up and preparing themselves to fight.

  "It is fine, those humans will come with us." Toqlan spoke, trying to reassure the beast-kin.

  Uther was the first to ask, "Why?"

  "They have been deemed as friendly."

  "How could you know if someone is friendly?" Uther spoke rather fast and in an elevated tone, as his hate of humans started to emerge.

  "The ants can read minds. They have read theirs."

  "What if they hid something from the ants then? Why bring humans with us?" The beast-kin was slowly being riled up by Uther's words, and Toqlan decided that a demonstration might be needed.

  "Taressa, give the beast-kin just a few seconds of your mental attack. Just to show them how we can be sure the humans are on our side."

  Taressa was more than willing to invade the beast-kin's minds. She might be more favorable to beast-kin than humans, but she did not truly like any "two-legs," as she sometimes called them. The beast-kin instantly fell to their knees, trying to block their ears with their hands. Some of them started screaming, and then it ended just as quickly as it had started.

  Toqlan spoke with kind words, but still with authority.

  "The humans endured ten times what you just endured. Do you still feel we are being careless?"

  "N-no... I felt as if my head was going to split apart."

  "That was only their queen who attacked your mind. All of your minds at the same time. She has 2500 children, all capable of a lesser version of that attack."

  The horror that spread among the beast-kin kept them silent. They would relax in due time, but Toqlan knew that if they did not show their fangs early, the beast-kin might slip away on their own instead of following them back to the territory. And Mafu wanted people to help him.

  It hurt Toqlan to inflict pain on what he considered "his people." But like the deaths of the human guards, some pain and death was needed for their plan to work.

  The last of the beast-kin entered the defensive emplacement in silence. The humans soon followed. Toqlan then gave the order to return to the forest, and the mushroom soldiers removed the stakes they had put up earlier. They then started to march towards the forest, with their ragtag group of beast-kin and humans in tow.

  The ants would return on their own. This invasion had gone to plan, and only four ants had died in total. Now the only thing left to do was to get everyone back safely.

  ---

  Point of view of Jod and John, mid-day, approaching the frontier village.

  As they approached the frontier village, Jod saw more and more familiar sights. This was his birthplace, he was sure of it. Why was he sent here? No Templar was ever sent to their birthplace. That was one of the fundamental rules of their order.

  Was it because this place had no name? None of the three frontier villages did, there weren't enough people to truly feel it was needed to have a name for it. The people here were poor and did not travel far.

  They were riding slowly, and as they came into full view of the village, they realized something was wrong. No guards were standing by the entrance. Even in a small village such as this, guards would always be at all entrances. Otherwise a stray goblin could cause horrible damage.

  Jod felt a pang of pain in his heart. What of his mother? Was she alive? He hurried his horse a bit and told John,

  "Something is wrong. No guards."

  John had already realized it and had also increased his horse's pace. He now drew his sword and equipped his large shield that had been hanging on his back.

  As they got to the entrance, they dismounted and entered the village. It was quiet, but there was a commotion further into the village. Jod started moving that way, sword in hand. John was not far behind, but he moved slower as he was inspecting the alleyways for potential threats.

  In the town's plaza, there were bodies. Guards, with dried blood around their eyes. People crying. And in the middle, the corpses of two giant ants. They were the sizes of dogs.

  Jod walked up to a guardsman standing nearby and grabbed his shoulder.

  "What happened here?"

  The guard, startled, shoved his hand off and started protesting.

  "Who the fu-... oh, you are a Templar. Sorry, sir." The guard bowed his head.

  "Never mind that, what happened here?"

  "We were attacked by those creatures," the guard said, pointing towards the ants. He had tears in his eyes but was not fully crying.

  "Two of those creatures killed all these guardsmen?" Jod asked incredulously. The guards in these frontier villages may be weak, but not that weak.

  "No. There were hundreds. They climbed the walls. Then they went to the west gate and killed all guards on the way." The guardsman took a pause and looked like he was about to vomit. "Then, the guards atop the walls started screaming, and blood ran out of their eyes. They dropped dead in seconds."

  Fuck. These are the creatures that Jod and John had been sent to investigate. He took another look at the ants. Nothing really showed any evidence that they had psychic powers. Usually, in other animals or creatures with mental attacks, there would be a different coloration on their bodies. Or a different organ entirely that was used to inflict the attack.

  None of that was present in the ants, Jod concluded after having cut up one of them and looked inside. He wiped the sweat off his brow and walked back to John, who had started talking to another guard.

  "So they retreated to the west? You are sure?" John spoke.

  "Yes, they had some sort of soldiers in a position outside. All the beast-kin and some humans were transported there, and then they left towards the west."

  "Humans and beast-kin were removed from the village?" John sounded like he could not quite believe it.

  "Yes. They did not seem like they were bound or anything. They all walked out there."

  "Could have been mind control." John said, trying to put everything together.

  John then grabbed Jod's shoulder and walked him into an alleyway nearby.

  "What do you think, Jod?"

  "Well, these are the same creatures we were supposed to investigate. If they somehow kidnapped humans, it has to be for food, right?"

  "Yes, these are the creatures we were looking for, but don't make assumptions about their motives. If they are from the portal, there could be more to it."

  Jod thought about it and then nodded.

  "It doesn't change our plans, does it?"

  "No, it doesn't. Our investigation simply became a rescue mission, but the plan stays the same. Enter the forest and exterminate whatever did this." John pointed towards the plaza with his hand, disgust on his face. "Let's move quickly; the humans might not have long to live."

  They both mounted up and started moving towards the forest. It would be a two-day ride there.

  Jod wondered whether he'd be any use to John, as the psychic attacks seemed quite powerful. If hundreds of ants attacked, even John might be strained to endure it.