A mage responsible for calculating coordinates watched the violent explosion caused by the large-caliber fireballs landing. Seeing a large number of ants perish in the blast, he whistled and cheered excitedly, “Look! As expected, scorching flames work wonders!”
Another mage beside him snapped irritably, “Stop taking it so easy and keep calculating the coordinates! Haven't you seen the situation?! We're still a long way from victory!”
Celia, who was nearby drawing the magic circle, looked at the battlefield. Her expression turned solemn, and she silently agreed with the second mage: He's right. The effect is good, but it's far from enough.
The combined magic that the mages were currently casting together was a form of magic artillery that amplified the power and range of spells through collective effort.
This was one of the commonly used war magics on the Terra continent. Its power was unquestionable, but the problem was that there were too few of them.
One of the mages watched the ant colony continue to charge relentlessly despite being blanketed by artillery fire. He muttered in disbelief, “Are you kidding me? They're actually charging straight through the bombardment of the magic artillery?”
The conventional way to deal with magic artillery was usually to deploy mages to intercept the bombardment as much as possible.
Even the fierce and valiant beastkin warriors wouldn't dare face magic artillery head-on like this.
Celia spoke in a low, solemn voice to her fellow mages, who lacked experience fighting the ant colony:
“Those monsters have no emotions. They don't know fear, and they don't know pain. Even if their bodies are hacked to pieces, they will still use their mandibles to clamp down on their opponents with a death grip.”
Hearing the account from someone who had witnessed it firsthand, the mages present all showed shocked expressions.
As expected, dealing with these doomsday monsters requires specialized methods. But how much sacrifice will it take to figure them out...
Celia bit her lip, knowing full well that they couldn't fight the ant colony using conventional tactics.
The ant colony was fundamentally different from any life that had ever existed on this land.
Learning and studying the characteristics of the ant colony, and then spreading that knowledge to create a completely new way of fighting them, was not something that could be done overnight.
Finally, Celia took a deep breath and said to her companions, “Anyway, let's keep attacking!”
The only thing she could do now was to work with her companions to fire one more fireball and whittle down the ant colony's numbers as much as possible.
While she exerted herself to cast spells, the front line had already descended into a brutal, chaotic melee.
“It's venom! Cover your eyes!”
“Warriors dealing with the mutants, don't forget to apply blessings to your weapons and bodies!”
While the magic circle area in the rear was already a hectic battlefield, the front line—where soldiers had to physically block the ant colony—was a living hell.
The vanguard soldiers, whether human or beastkin, had to risk their lives to fight these swarming giant ants.
A paladin knocked away an attacking ant and shouted, “Holy power is useless against these things!”
A beastkin warrior beside him immediately stepped forward with his axe, growling, “Then it's our turn!”
Even so, they were barely holding the defensive line.
The ants immune to holy power were cut down by the beastkin warriors charging forward.
Other mutants were met by paladins and ordinary knights.
When the venomous ants sprayed venom, the soldiers immediately covered their vital spots.
To avoid being surrounded by the ant colony, they maintained a tight battle formation at all times.
All of this was the result of their previous clashes with the ants and the research they had conducted afterward.
The more they understood their enemy, the stronger their combat effectiveness naturally became.
Normally, they would have been swept away by the ants' general offensive long ago, but now, they were stubbornly holding their ground.
Bogut also used this strategy to slaughter enemies left and right on the front line.
He suddenly leaped into the air and swung his battleaxe with all his might, shattering the head of a giant mutated soldier ant covered in sharp spikes with a single blow.
Stepping onto the ant's corpse, he hacked down several more ants lunging at him, spitting on the ground. “Bah, tough bastards.”
His valor made both humans and beastkin around him cheer in admiration.
Bogut grinned as he listened to the cheers.
Although danger lurked at every turn, they were still holding.
On the battlefield, boosting morale was of paramount importance.
High morale could often turn a battle that would have otherwise ended in a narrow defeat into a victory.
Rommel, a human knight who had temporarily retreated to the rear to catch his breath, quickly walked over to him, his face flushed with the excitement of battle. “Incredible! Bogut, you actually finished off that giant monster all by yourself!”
Bogut laughed. “Rommel, you held your side well too.”
The two hadn't known each other long, but the bond of fighting side-by-side on the battlefield had quickly made them close.
Looking back at the history of this land, such peaceful communication between a beastkin chief and a human knight would have been absolutely impossible. Yet, the emergence of the ant colony had made it a reality.
Rommel said with a look of anticipation, “At this rate, we can definitely hold. Once we win this battle, we'll charge straight through and burn those monsters' nest to the ground!”
Although this battle was by no means easy, their thorough preparations were already showing results.
Therefore, they only needed to win this single battle.
The ant colony had clearly thrown everything they had into this. As long as they won this battle, the coalition would secure ultimate victory. Rommel believed this without a doubt.
Bogut smiled, raising his giant axe once more. Glancing up at the sky, he said, “Having high morale is good, but don't get too complacent. Speaking of which... those things in the sky are a real eyesore.”
They had noticed those small, winged ants long ago.
They also knew these ants played the role of scouts, so they had been doing their best to shoot them down whenever they spotted them.
Right now, those winged ants were circling and hovering in the sky like crows watching a corpse.
Standing in the dead center of this brutal war, Bogut looked up at the sky and found those things incredibly annoying.
Although everyone knew these flying ants had no real combat power themselves, having enemies flying overhead kept anyone from feeling truly at ease.
However, at that very moment, Bogut's body suddenly shuddered, triggered by his beast-like combat instincts.
As if by fate, amidst the noisy shouts and screams coming from all directions, a sound clearly reached his ears.
It was the low hum of some massive creature rapidly beating its wings, churning the air.
In the next second, Bogut subconsciously roared, “Above us!”
The objects that had been mere tiny black specks instantly revealed their massive bodies, diving toward the ground at an astonishing speed.
It truly happened in a split second.
“Rommel!”
By the time Bogut's instincts identified the true nature of the descending attackers and he managed to shout a warning, those gargantuan beasts had already completed a sweep of their dive, thoroughly plowing through the ground forces.
Violent impacts and blood-curdling screams erupted from all corners of the battlefield.
The spot where Bogut stood was not spared either.
In that sudden, caught-off-guard moment, Rommel beside him was grabbed in a death grip by sharp insect claws. His chest, armor and all, was completely impaled by a venomous stinger thicker than a spear.
The hum of the tiger hornet ants' beating wings whipped up a howling gale, knocking down the surrounding people and completely drowning out their voices.
Watching the tiger hornet ant turn to look in his direction, its forelegs clutching Rommel's bloody, dangling corpse, Bogut couldn't help but grit his teeth.
Even Bogut, who understood the ant colony better than other beastkin after listening to Celia's detailed explanations of their traits, was seeing this kind of mutated ant for the first time.
Only a single thought remained in Bogut's mind: What on earth are these monsters?!
Yet, from the fluctuations of magic power he could clearly feel with every beat of its wings, Bogut understood one hard truth.
The specimens before him were powerful monsters, incomparable to any opponent he had faced up until now.
On the battlefield, soldiers who witnessed this scene let out heart-wrenching screams: “Run! Monsters are diving from the sky!”
Just a single surprise attack had completely shifted the atmosphere of the entire battlefield.
The panicked soldiers quickly collapsed under this sudden turn of events, and the mutated tiger hornet ants seemed to use this fear as fuel, weaving freely across the battlefield and tearing the coalition's defensive line to shreds.
Rate on N.U.
