My life as a reborn monster

I collapsed on my knees with the leg and the staff still in my hands. I couldn't do anything besides keep staring at them. Gaia had walked up besides me but he had to instantly back off as we were within the range of the bars draining range.

"Vexsus, what are those things. why did he give you a leg and a green jeweled staff?"

"This.... This leg is from one of my minions, a hobgoblin I had tamed when I first got to this dungeon. Her name is Konna and she is a strong warrior, her and a few other goblin females were being used as 'entertainment' for a goblin outpost me and my friends first encountered. After taming them they became my family. This staff is from my first tame Shorunt, He is my second in command, and... haha... he acts kind of like a butler at times."

I started spouting off random stuff about my family like they were already lost and I was just remembering the good times. I felt like I was starting to slide down a spiral of despair.

Shortly afterwards  Gaia came up to me and dragged me away from the bars and slapped me. His claws even drew blood as it raked across my cheek.

"You moron. You can't lose yourself now, we need you. We can't escape without your help Vexsus so please snap out of it and help us think of a way that doesn't end in you sacrificing yourself."

"You guys just go.... I'm sure that my friends are still alive somewhere and they will take care of you. Just tell them I sent you and they will do whatever they can to help you. I will stay behind and fight in this sick bastards games. Hahaha trust me..... I can't pass up on a free experience grind."

I snapped out of my sadness and gave them a smile. I knew what these people needed and it wasn't me. Yea I could help a few escape with the strength I have been slowly gathering but I couldn't realistically protect everyone. Even if I went all out and let my hunger take over some of them would still die, so Digger being the bastard that he is gave me a good way to get them out. I just needed to make sure that he let them live after they escaped.

"Just trust me guys ok? Let me handle this and you guys can be free." I said before I walked up to the bars and yelled.

"HEY DIGGERRR, COME HERE, I WANNA TALK TO YOU." Shortly afterwards the door opened up and he walked out covered in blood.

"OH that was fast, I assumed you can see how my idea is the best to keep these people alive?"

"Ugh you sicken me, but yea your right. So I will be your sole prisoner, I'll fight your creations and give up my mana to fuel whatever you want. But in exchange let them go, but also let me go with them to make sure they get out. I don't trust you or your ants."

He looked at me for a few seconds before responding. "Yea, sure what the hell, you can go with them. But I'll be sending along a Relay to keep an eye on you." He said before he took out a weird circular crystal like key and tapped it against the bars. The bars then seemed to regress up and dissolve into the ceiling before he stepped in.

"Ok everyone, looks like its your lucky day. Thanks to Vexsus here you all get to live. Well not all hahahaha." He said looking down at the covered up bodies of Hannah's parents.

"Ok you had your fun you bastard lets just go before I take back my agreement and fight you right here." I said as anger started welling up inside.

"Oh shutup you weakling not like you can do anything in the condition your in now so just get the others ready to leave while I get together a small unit of ants as an escort." He said with a wave of his hand as he walked back out. The Royal guard he had with him was posted just outside the door while we all got ready to leave.

"Vexsus just come with us, once we meet up with your friends we can kill the escorts and escape." Gaia had rushed over to me and grabbed my shoulders and whispered aggressively.

"Gaia, I can't do that. My friends soul is still here I have to get her back from here and into her body. I will take you to my friends and from there I trust you to train and get stronger and then come rescue me haha."

After a few others tried to talk me out of it but otherwise failing, we finally got ready and left the cave followed by a couple warrior ants and the Relay ant. After about an hour of walking I sensed a presence up ahead in the tunnels.

It was Liosa who was hiding in the shadows. I spotted her before any of the ants did and I motioned for her to stay quiet and to go back to the others. I soon saw a quick flash of a shadow as she left.

We came upon our base and what I saw left me shocked.

I saw Konna and Sondar laying on a bed covered in their own blood while Konna was missing her leg and Sondar was missing half his arm and the other arm was broken. Sylvania was trying to use her limited healing magic on them to keep them alive as Shorunt was using his magic along with Howy and the twins were trying to fend off a group of goblins that had smelt the blood and came to investigate.

I ran forward and threw a spatial bullet combined with a smaller spatial bomb added inside for area of effect straight at the center of the group of goblins. It exploded and killed over half of them in a second. The others instantly got scared as they looked back to see me followed by a large group and even some ants. They screamed and ran away as the others turned and with happy expressions they all came over to me.

"MASTER!!!! YOUR OK, I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU." Shorunt being the first to get to me kowtowed to me and asked for forgiveness. The twins jumped on me and hugged me real tight as they cried, Howy just stood nearby and watched the ants and the prisoners.

"Ok, OK get off me and Shorunt man please quit. Tell me what happened here."

The others looked at me before looking down in sadness. Sylvania patted Shorunt on the shoulder and asked him to take over healing the 2 warriors before looking at me.

"We ran away like you said to, but on our way back we were ambushed by weird looking warrior ants. They looked insane and fought like demons, They had acid spit and other long ranged attacks. Konna and Sondar was able to fend them off for a little while but they were overwhelmed after They both were surprise attacked by some kind of Shadow ant. It came straight out of the darkness and cut off Konna's leg and another one sliced off Sondars arm and broke his other one with some weird grappling attack. We couldn't do anything but run away..... I'm sorry."

She knelt down and started to cry. I knelt down next to her and lifted her head to face me. I wiped her tears away before speaking.

"You guys did the best you could. To say that everyone has their lives even after encountering new enemies like that is an achievement not many people could accomplish. Now I have some bad news but first let me take a look at some things."

I quickly called for Gaia to give me Konna's leg and gave Shorunt his staff back. He ofcourse cried over how amazing I was, but I just sighed and walked over to Konna.

"Konna can you hear me?" I asked while looking down at her. She barely opened her eyes before smiling at me.

"Master.... You came....back.... I was... SO worried I had.... Failed you.."

"Hey now none of that. You should never worry about failing me. But nevermind that. I brought you a present here look." I then showed her the leg,

"This may hurt alot but if your ok with it, I can try and reattach it."

"Master...Please...." She said before finally losing consciousness.

I took the still bloody leg and placed it right up against her stump. I activated Regen along side Life Share and focused most of the energy to her leg while sending a small amount to the rest of her body to help with her overall healing. I could feel her tissue start to merge together slowly. I had use my claws to dig out and scrape away the dead and rotting flesh to make way for the new healthy flesh to grow and reattach. It took me a while to do this but in the end her leg finally seemed to grow back together with minimal complications.

I sat back and breathed out a sigh of relief, after a couple of seconds I moved over to Sondar. He was conscious and speaking but You could tell he was suffering a huge amount of pain.

"Hey man how ya doing." I said acting like I didn't see the massive wounds.

"Oh, ya know, just chillin. But hey let me ask you a favor? You happen to see a huge muscly arm on your way over here?" He said trying hard to not show pain.

"Nah man, I'm sorry I did see the blood but no arm. That bastard Digger only showed me Konna's arm and Shorunts staff. I'm sure he used your arm as material for some messed up creation. I can heal you but I don't know what I can do about your arm. I'm not strong enough to give you a new one." I said looking down with shame. I couldn't look him in the eyes knowing how I had failed him.

He kneed me and brought my attention back. "You remember I can feel how your feeling right? I am your sworn brother. We have a connection. That's how I knew you were still alive the past few days. Yea we had some hard times but because of you giving me my life back, I was able to keep these fools together long enough for you to come back to us."

"Well let's just heal you up first because about that, I have some crappy stuff to say." I quickly said and before he could say anything I activated what I had before but this time I just send wave after wave of healing energy all over his body.

"AGHHHH, DAMMIT MAN WARN ME NEXT TIME." He yelled as he braced himself against his body being forcibly healed. After it was over he was panting trying to catch his breath.

"You bastard, you could have given me a heads up before doing something like that."

"Yea I could have but I need you pissed off for something I'm about to say." I got up and walked in front of the Gaia and the others.

"These are the prisoners that Digger had gotten through his partnership with the slavers. This Lizardman is my brother Gaia, He was turned into a Fallen Dragonoid because of our other brothers betrayal, but that can be spoken of at a later time. These are our new companions. They can leave if they want but if they stay it will be your job to train them and after awhile I want you guys to leave the dungeon without me."

After I said that a number of voices started shouting, asking me what I meant and why I could even say that. Gaia ofcourse was upset because I had tricked him into following me, knowing he couldn't come back unless he wanted to die. The other people I met like Jasper and Victor had the same outbursts. It wasn't until Hannah came up to me and held my hand while looking up with tears in her eyes. That was when I felt like a piece of shit, I knew I couldn't keep my promise to her but If I could stop Digger from making deadly versions of ants and sending them after my friends and family. I was going to do all that I could.

I bent down and picked her up. "Guys just be quiet for a second. This is Hannah, Her parents died because of one of Digger's experiments. I decided to adopt her as my own, Now I promised her that I would look out for her and take care of her. But I need you guys to pick up the slack for me for atleast a little while. You see.... Digger is on a rampage when it comes to creating new ant variants. I agreed to stay behind and fight against them in exchange for letting these people go free. I was allowed to personally bring them to you guys before I had to go back and prepare."

"There is no if, ands, or buts about this situation. I need you guys to trust me and follow my orders atleast until I can escape myself."

About that time the damn Relay ant came forward. "Ahem, Vexsus, it's time for my little gladiator to come back and get ready for the big fight. I gave you plenty of time with your friends."

The voice of Digger came through as the ant clicked it's mandibles. I took another look at Hannah in my arms and smiled.

"Hey I'm sorry I can't be here for you for now, but these people are my trusted family. They can take care of you until I get back so will you be a good girl for me and do what they say?"

She was still crying but she nodded and smiled at me. "Yes, But... do you promise to come back for me?"

"Oh honey, How could I not when I have such a cute Daughter waiting for me?" I smiled a huge smile and tickled her a little before I handed her over to the twins.

"You two are going to be like her big sisters, I put my faith in you two to do your best while I'm gone got it?"

"Yes, master I promise to keep Vinoa in line and help Hannah grow up strong while your away."

"HMPH, I was going to say I will keep you in line you liar." Vinoa huffed and said.

I smiled as I saw this, I didn't know how long it would be before I could get strong enough to escape but I knew these 3 would definitely get along.

"As for the rest of you." I said as I turned to face everybody else. "You are free to stay here and become stronger with my family, or you can take your chances to escape the dungeon. We have a tunnel that can lead to the slavers area and from there I'm sure there is a way to the outside. As for my family, I will be away for awhile but I know you guys will be just fine. I trust in you guys to stay strong and get even stronger. I will be back....One day." I said one final goodbye before turning around and leaving the base.

I could hear crying and some of the others consoling and promising that I was strong and that I would be back soon. Oh how I wish I could turn around and promise them that it wouldn't be long at all. That I just had to go take care of a mad scientist and that I'll be back before dinner.

I walked back to my cell and the whole time I was quiet. I was to focused on preparing myself for whatever monstrosity I was going to fight.

"Ah, your back, time to go to the newly constructed Arena. You should be happy, I made it just for you hahahaha." Digger came and said as he unlocked the cell and led me to a huge opening. It opened out to reveal just a giant dirt pit with one entrance. I guess when your opponent can crawl along walls you don't really need to make a doorway for them. I was quickly shoved out into the middle as Digger appeared and sat down on a crudely crafted throne.

"Ok Vexsus, first on the list, a weak variant that I first started tinkering with. I like to call it my....SHADOW WARRIORS!!" He yelled as from the darkness opposite me came out 3 smaller than worker sized ants. But these had a black colored carapace that seemed to almost shimmer as if they were heatwaves. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly.

"NOW, FIGHT."

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