“You can’t go faster than me, even if you can fly!”

“Bet I can!”

“No-no you can’t! Let’s race!”

“No fair, I’m only tier four!”

“Hah! Slow-slow!”

The hatchling flexed her wings and pushed them as hard as she could, racing through the air, but it wasn’t enough. Not close to enough.

Despite being so much larger, Vibrant blurred as she raced off into the distance, quickly running out of line of sight. Although she was left behind, the hatchling wasn’t discouraged, rather she found it delightful.

She couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps she might be that fast one day.

“What’s taking so long?” Vibrant laughed, returning so she could run alongside the much smaller ant. “I got so far ahead, had a nap and you still hadn’t caught up to me!”

“You had a sleep?”

“Yep-yep! Micro-naps! That way I can take a quick snooze when I don’t have anything to do. Like now!”

“You’re napping right now?”

“Yep!”

The hatchling looked at Vibrant, who seemed completely awake and full of energy, practically vibrating in place and filled with the need to move.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” the hatchling asked hopefully.

“Of course! You need to change-change your brain quite a bit to make it work, though!”

“Is it worth it?”

“Yes,” Vibrant replied emphatically. “Nobody chases me and tries to make me sleep anymore. I liked the chasing, but not the resting. Not at all.”

When the hatchling’s wings began to hurt, she reluctantly lowered herself down to the ground and the two came to a stop for a rest.

“Do you… like being a Champion?” the hatchling asked, recovering.

“I don’t think-think about it!” Vibrant laughed. Despite her enormous size, she was so agile and fluid that it almost seemed to defy the laws of reality. Constantly in motion, her legs twitching and skittering individually, her antennae waggling and waving wildly in all directions.

“You don’t think about it?” the hatchling wondered. “How? That's all everyone wants to talk about with me.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So what?” Vibrant said. “Do you like to fly-fly?”

“I do!”

“How much?”

“The most!”

“Do you want to help the family?”

“Of course!”

“Then that’s fine, isn’t it?” Vibrant said, zipping from side to side so quickly she started blowing up a dust cloud. “If you can help-help and do the thing you like doing, isn’t that the best?”

She turned, braced her legs and then blasted up the wall of the tunnel. Here in the fourth stratum, the tunnels weren’t as large as they were below, in the fifth. It only took her a few seconds of running to complete a whole circuit around the walls of this tunnel.

Screeching to a halt, she laughed joyfully.

“I am the fastest in the Colony!” she boasted proudly. “That means I can run real fast and help-help as many as possible.”

She reached out with a single antenna and prodded the hatchling.

“Do you think you can help-help with your flying?”

The hatchling buzzed her wings.

“Of course I can. Flying is the best! It’s super useful!”

“You’re still slower than me!” Vibrant said, teasing.

“Not for long!”

“Always! I’m the best-best at going fast.”

“Just you wait. When I evolve I’m going to be even faster than you!”

The two raced off again, Vibrant easily keeping ahead as they zipped through the tunnels beneath the Colony’s mountain nest. They passed so many others who turned to see what was happening, only for the pair to vanish around the corner.

It was clear to Vibrant that the hatchling lacked the stamina to keep up her top speed for long. Not enough evolutions, mutations or Skills to allow her body to maintain that level of exertion. Not yet, at least.

“Land on me-me!” she laughed.

“What?”

“Land on me! Then hold on tight-tight!”

The hatchling landed, gripping tight to the smooth plates of Vibrant’s carapace as best she could. The big ant laughed, clacked her mandibles, then lowered her head.

In truth, she barely needed to try in order to beat the hatchling. Now she would show her what real speed looked like!

Power surged through her legs and the sleepiness cleared from her head. No need for naps, now it was time to focus!

BOOM!

She surged forwards, accelerating at an absurd pace, leaving a shockwave in her wake. A hardened cone of air split the air in front of her, allowing her to rocket forward and build up more and more speed. Muscles burned as her body began to heat up, systems built upon systems providing the absurd level of energy required to sustain the incredible effort she was exerting.

But she could go faster.

Concentrating, Vibrant took in everything around her—even moving at this incredible speed, her mind was faster. She zigged and zagged, dodging left and right as she moved around pillars, obstacles, other ants, reacting at almost preternatural speeds.

Just when she was really getting into it, she realised the hatchling was barely holding on. With a sigh, she slowed down again, letting her reclaim her grip.

“Was that fun-fun?” she asked, eagerly.

It took a second for the hatchling to recover, but when she replied her eyes were shining brightly.

“That was amazing!”

“Right-right?” Vibrant cheered. “It’s the best!”

“How do you go so fast?”

“It’s really hard!”

“Can you teach me?”

“Yep-yep! Nobody can teach you better than me!”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.