13 — Myrmecology

13 — Myrmecology

The ants we’d faced up until then had all gone down in a single hit, but the bipedal variety was an unknown. I had asked Lionel to handle this fight as a means to test what we were up against.

It did not work.

“One hit,” I huffed.

A single swing from his flaming greatsword had blown one of the evolved variants away. It did not get back up. Ketty annihilated any other ants trying to stand in his path.

“This isn’t really helping us learn anything,” I said.

“I can give it a try,” Kefin offered.

“Good idea.”

We jogged over to the growing pile of ant bodies and I started collecting them, dealing with the fodder easily enough on my own. Things weren’t so easy for Kefin, who struggled to deal with the bipedal variants as swiftly.

“You okay?” I asked.

“They’ve got high defense. Their joints are protected now, but I have an idea. I’ll make an opening, then you strike them down with your sword.”

I hesitated for a moment, then said, “Just tell me when.”

“Go in when the monster takes a swing.”

“Got it.”

As instructed, I waited for the ant to strike Kefin, then thrust my blade in. I felt it pierce the ant’s fleshy interior.

“Your weapon is a little intimidating, sir, if I’m being perfectly honest,” Kefin remarked.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking that for a while now. Let’s grab some more bodies before more come.”

Slowly but steadily, we made our way around the piles of fallen insectoids.

Rockwell watched from behind. “Remind me why we’re here again.”

“They’re doing a good job,” Lihzalea observed. “Not a single monster’s made it over here.”

“But this is simply ridiculous.”

Lionel drowned the ants in slashes of fire, normal and variants alike. Ketty danced among the chaos, swiftly dealing damage before leaping out of harm’s way and skillfully leading them into reach of her companion’s blade. The fight did not last long.

As I continued to gather corpses, I began to wonder just what this clearing was for. We had come to a dead end.

“Did we take a wrong turn?” I wondered aloud.

“It would appear to be a storage area for food,” Lionel said, returning to my side.

“Well, this is anticlimactic,” Ketty added, following him.

“This should’ve worked,” I said. “The staff should’ve shown us the way.” I held the Illusion Staff upright against the ground, then let go. One last shot in the dark. “Excuse me?”

The staff didn’t fall.

“Huh,” Ketty said. “Maybe we’re right on top of whatever’s causing this mess.”

“Bold of you to stake this venture on destiny.” Stars sparkled in Lionel’s eyes. “I like it.”

“King Rockwell, can you open up a hole here?” I asked.

“I can,” he answered skeptically. “Everyone step aside.”

He placed his hand on the ground, and soon the earth spread apart in the middle of the room. Lihzalea approached and shone the light down, spotting ants crawling not three meters below.

“This skirmish is mine!” the king declared before jumping straight down.

So much for strategy, I thought. “What in the world is he doing?”

We peered down to see where the madman had run off to, but we didn’t have to look far. He stood mere centimeters from the wriggling ants, separated by what looked to be a membrane.

Rockwell looked up at us and yelled, “This place seems to have been dug out by the monsters!”

Boy did I want to go home. Was it too late to go home? The answer was yes.

“Everyone, we’re handling this with the same level of caution as the main chamber of a labyrinth,” I ordered. “We can only assume this thing is the queen’s belly. I’m going to cast Aura Coat and Area Barrier on everyone just in case.”

“Sir!” they cried in reply.

When I finished casting the spells, Kefin said, “I’ll go first and scout it out. If it looks bad, I’ll retreat with the dwarf.”

“Be careful.”

“Be sure to check how big the room is and how many enemies there are,” Ketty reminded him.

“Right.”

Kefin leaped down, then came right back up just as quickly.

“What was it?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he said. “The good news is you were right. The bad news is King Rockwell is standing on top of the queen. The cave was small, but that’s definitely where the ants are coming from.”

So many monsters had been born from a single parent? This threat went beyond the Kingdom of Dwarves or Rockford. If we didn’t act here, they could pose a threat to the whole world. Had Lord Reinstar done this? Had the creation of Rockford and the immense magic used in its construction mirrored the birth of a labyrinth too closely? I found myself wrapped around that man’s finger yet again, but at the same time I couldn’t fault him for not foreseeing a danger three centuries in the future.

“Then we know what we have to do,” I said resolutely. “We need to take out that queen before the entire world becomes their nest.”

“Shall we slice its gut?” Lionel asked. “Or lop off its head? Or aim for its magic gem core?”

“Guess we should split up,” I replied. “The monsters will probably be all over whoever goes for the head. Let’s leave King Rockwell to handle things where he is, Kefin and I will find the magic stone, and Lionel and Ketty will take the head. Lihzalea, keep shining that light and fill Rockwell in.”

Everyone had their roles. Rockwell still hadn’t fully earned my trust, and I had no idea how strong Lihzalea was. I would have to have Kefin look into it later.

I took a deep breath and descended. The queen’s back was squishier than expected, and vast. At a glance, it seemed to extend over twenty-five meters across. It was certainly larger than a competition swimming pool, that was for sure.

“Can we actually beat this?” I asked.

“Certainly,” Lionel responded. “But we will have to fend off droves of its soldiers.”

“We’ve seen worse,” Ketty said.

“Let’s do it,” said Kefin.

“Everyone, move out,” I ordered.

We all ran. I poured magic into the Illusion Sword as Kefin led me to where the ant’s prominent jewel was. I thrust the Holy Dragon spear straight in. If this had been a labyrinth, the ant queen would have let out a dramatic shriek, then disappeared, leaving behind a single stone. But we didn’t have that luxury.

The ants inside the queen’s body began to eat their way out, and the innumerable holes leading to the chamber overflowed with subjects flocking to their fallen matriarch. I tried to put her body into my magic bag, but the ants still within her prevented me.

“We’ve got the stone, but there’ll be no end to those evolved variants if we let them eat her body,” I said. “Rockwell, I need you to seal as many holes as you can. Lionel, start dicing the queen apart so I can put her away. Everyone else, keep them off us!”

I didn’t wait for their replies and dashed straight for Lionel. He removed the queen’s head first, which I promptly collected and swung at an ant that had crawled too close. I took solace in the fact that there was no single attack I couldn’t easily heal from.

Lionel carved the queen apart, and I gathered each individual piece, taking out the increasingly angry minions with Ketty and Kefin in the meantime.

Half an hour passed before we finished clearing the queen away entirely, and then we fought her subjects. They were endless. Kefin’s weapon broke on numerous occasions, and he nearly met his end, but otherwise no one suffered any substantial injuries.

Seeing Lihzalea surpass even Kefin in combat ability, I made a mental note to myself to be more cautious around her in the future.