4 – Nanthan and Hercules

10 seasons ago… BeetleField:

At the time I was a pretty well known ant around Castanea, as I was the youngest ant to participate in the Showdown. I was wondering around BeetleField, exploring the place, looking for a ladybug to spend the night with. This could have very well been my last night…

At the time I didn’t know if I was even going to survive the Showdown, let alone make it as far as I did, so I desperately wanted to spend this night with someone… Especially because I’ve never done so before…

My dumb, naive young self thought that ladies were easy to get...

A lot of female worker ants had a crush on me back in Anthill, but I never found any of them attractive… I wanted someone more like the beautiful Lucana… someone… stronger…

I was walking for a while, slowly losing hope that I would find anyone interesting… and then there she was… I saw her…

The ladybug of my dreams…

She was standing there, in the Gregor’s bar…

Gregor was an old, stubborn cockroach that owned the bar since forever! Everybody in BeetleField knew him and disliked him, but they LOVED the drinks he served in his little bar. I was no exception, and neither was the ladybug it seemed…

She had a beautiful dark purple pattern on her wings and was more muscular than any other ladybug I’ve ever seen! She had battle scars all over her body.

It was love at first sight…

Or so I thought…

I approached her nervously and said hi.

She said hi back, checked me out and added: “So you’re that famous ant from good old Anthill?”

“That’s me! I’m Nanthan, by the way.”

“I’m Darra, dear…”, she saw me looking at her wings and teased: “You like what you see?”

“I would lie if I said I didn’t.”, I answer confudently.

“Well that’s too baaad.”, she said with an accent not a lot of bugs from BeetleField had.

“And why is that?”, I ask.

“I already haaaave myself a mate…”, she said in a seductive tone.

“Oh, really?”, I was being a little cocky, “Well where is this mate of yours?”

“Right behiiiind you sweet.”, she winked at me and looked behind me. I immediately turned around and felt a swing coming at me at incredible speed. I managed to duck just in time to dodge it.

“Woah! Chill, dude!! I didn’t know she was taken!”, I panicked a bit and said that as I tried to calm down.

And there he was, in front of me… A giant hercules beetle!

“What do ya think yar doing, pal? Don’t ya dare touch my ladybug!! What did this perv do to you, Darra?”

“Oh, you’re no fuuuun, Hercules! I was just playing with himmm!”, Darra had a disappointed look on her face.

“Ye know I hate when ye do that to other bugs, Darra!”, Hercules yelled. “But nevermind that… I’m more curious as to what is such a wimp of an ant doing here?”

“I’m participating in the Showdown!”, I said, irritated by Hercules’s attitude. I checked him out. He was not only enormous for such a young hercules beetle, but he also had a strapping physique! ‘He must be working out daily!’, I thought to myself. His claw-jaw was trenchant to the point where I was certain it would be able to cut any opponent in half without much of an issue. His wings made me feel imperilled. He was a truly terrifying foe to face!

Darra and Hercules

“HAHAHA!! Don’t make me laugh! You?? In the Showdown?? HA!! What’s yer name, wimp?”

“Nanthan.”, I answered coldly.

He then got really close to my face. His claw-jaw-thing almost touching my neck. “Listen to me now, Nanthan… I don’t think this Showdown is for a bug like ye… I mean look at yourself! Don’t take it as an offence, pal, but yer an ant! Ye don’t have the tough armour of a beetle! The sharp claws of a mantis! The fast wings of a wasp! And even the venom ye got is nothing compared to that of the spider folks! Look… Yer a young, handsome lad… Don’t be foolish… Don’t throw your life away…”, he genuinely said.

“It’s not about me… It’s about the Queen. Someone needs to be strong enough to protect her! That someone is me… I’ll prove it in the Showdown that I am worthy!!”, I exclaimed loud and clear.

“…”, Hercules was silent for a few moments. He got farther from my face, looked away and said: “Ye ant folks are all the same… Queen this! Queen that! If I were ya I would say ‘screw the Queen!’ and would go live by my own rules, like I do now! But you ant folks are too plain to have yer own freedom of choice!! Fine! Go, die in the tournament! Do whatever the hell ye want!”, he then looked at me again: “But don’t tell me I didn’t advice ya!”, he turned to face Darra and told her to go.

“See you aroooound, sweet!”, she waved at me and they started leaving.

My body trembled as I shouted out with all my might: “STOP!!”

Hercules then froze for a moment then turned around and walked back to where he was earlier. He then got so close to my face our mouths almost touched. Darra looked like she really enjoyed this in the background…

“Listen, Nanthan… I like ye attitude. That is why I warned ye… And that is why I will not challenge ye in the tournament… It is bellow myself to challenge bugs weaker than me! So quit making me mad before I break yer legs right here right now!!”, he threatened me.

“Well if it’s bellow you to challenge me… I challenge you! First round of the tournament. You against me!”, my blood was boiling! I was filled with a sensation I have never felt before! I was excited! Oh, so excited to fight against him!

He looked at me with a very shocked look in his eyes. One of them ticked a little when he said: “Very well! We will brawl in the very first round! Just remember that ye were the one who challenged me! And not vice-versa!”, he went back to Darra and, just as they were about to leave the bar, Hercules stopped and added one last sentence: “Oh! One more thing… I leave my opponents dead… I rarely show mercy… Goodbye, Nanthan! Enjoy yer last night!!”

The two left, and I could barely breathe. I was so excited. My body just couldn’t stop shaking. I forgot all about wanting to spend a night with a ladybug. I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping at all that night!

I spent the entire night training and warming up for my upcoming match against Hercules! I-

“WAIT!!”, Antonio suddenly stopped Nanthan’s story.

“What is it?”, Nanthan asked, annoyed.

“I don’t understand… what do you mean by ‘challenging’ Hercules? I thought it was a normal tournament. You know… random brackets and all…”

“Oh… right… sorry for that… But wait… didn’t you read about the Showdown in the books with your friend? Shouldn’t you know then how the tournament functions?”

“Oh, no, you misunderstood me! Tan and I were reading a lot about the famous warriors from the tournament and how far they got! For example, I know about how you fought the beautiful Lucana herself and how she eliminated you in the quarterfinals! But I do not know about the technicalities of the Showdown…”

“Ooooh! I see… Well, here’s the basics of how the brackets worked: each year 64 of the strongest bugs from all around Castanea are accepted to participate in the Ultimate Showdown. A lot more bugs sign up, and, by a publicly unknown process of elimination only 64 get accepted. The tournament goes on for eight nights. Each night, just as the sun sets, the battles begin! And every time the bugs participating are cut in half – now whether or not the bugs who lost survive or not is a different question… It’s a deadly tournament – one where you can only survive if your opponent shows enough mercy not to finish you off! Tho… it is usually seen as a great trait to show mercy towards those you defeat – especially those who you defeated with ease.”

“Have you ever… killed another bug?”, Antonio asked cautiously.

“No, I haven’t, fortunately…”, Nanthan said as he finished eating his crumb, then he continued: “But I’ve seen numerous bugs die at the hand of their own. A mantis folk murdering another mantis folk… A wasp heartlessly tearing another wasp appart… it was madness!”

“I… uhm…”, Antonio looked quite shaken by Nanthan’s words. He did not imagine the tournament, which he had always seen as nothing more than a fun event the whole Kingdom enjoyed, to be this… this dark, twisted, cruel and melancholic space, where countless nameless bugs came with hopes of becoming famous, only to be forever forgotten as their empty vessels rot away into nothingness…

“You seem quite upset by all this… but it is the reality… And the reality can often be unforgiving… it’s just how life is…”, Nanthan had once again opened Antonio’s eyes to something the latter thought he was familiar with, yet he knew nothing about, until this very moment…

Antonio’s heart had slowly started realizing that the world is far from the peaceful, happy place he would stubbornly keep telling himself it is… This hurt Antonio way more than Nanthan thought, yet Antonio did not let that show… he did not want Nanthan to think he was weak… he did not want Nanthan to regret following him on this journey…

So Antonio kept calm, even tho deep inside he wanted to let tears out… he wanted to let the negative emotions out…

Antonio kept calm, even tho the mere thought of so many bugs with so many hopes and dreams being forever forgotten was making him sick…

“I’m fine…”

“… Alright then… now… the way the rounds themselves worked was like this:

Basically all bugs could fight any other bug that participated in the tournament… all they had to do was ‘challenge’ that bug to a brawl, and if the latter agreed, they would fight in the arena… The winner would advance to the next round, meaning he be allowed to participate the following night, thus having a chance to advance even further…

I say the winner would be allowed to participate, because sometimes even the winner would be so injured that he would not be able to come to brawl again the following night…

Now… there was this… unwritten rule you may call it…

You see, while anybody could technically challenge anyone else, if you were an already well established, well-known warrior, and you ended up challenging a weaker, smaller or lesser-known bug in the first round of the Showdown, you were looked at with disgust and utter disrespect from other known warriors, as the act of challenging a lesser… weaker opponent – especially at the very beginning of the tournament – was seen as you searching for the easiest way to advance to the next round…

That being said, the opposite was true as well – if a lesser-known warrior or a seemingly weaker bug challenged someone stronger than it, the stronger bug would be seen as a coward for not accepting the challenge, while the weaker bug would gain respect, especially if it did well in the brawl – if it survived the brawl of course…

Thus, I decided to challenge Hercules… I was caught by the moment of anger… I got enraged by what he said about ants… about our Queen… I got angry for him thinking of me as a weaker opponent – even if it was justified… I challenged him because I knew he would be forced to accept…”

“Wow!”, Antonio couldn’t help but express his amazement.

“This might sound like something that took me a while to think of, but the truth is, it all flew by me in an instant! Anyways…

Back to the story...”

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