Chapter 118
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Race: Lesser Calamity Soldier Ant Lv10–19
Job: Soldier Lv0–9
Skill: 【Acid Fangs】
【Poison Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Strength Enhancement】
【Defense Enhancement】
【Agility Enhancement】
【Coordination】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
【Fire Vulnerability】
Race: Lesser Calamity Knight Ant Lv20
Job: Knight Lv0
Skill: 【Acid Fangs】
【Poison Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Strength Enhancement】
【Defense Enhancement】
【Agility Enhancement】
【Loyalty】
【Command】
【Coordination】
【Flight】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
【Fire Vulnerability】
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This was the result of Appraising the larger ants. Since they were Soldiers and Knights, they were ants whose job was to fight. They probably appeared when ordinary worker ants were no longer enough.
There were thick stingers at the ends of the abdomens of the Soldier and Knight Ants, and judging from the Appraisal results, they were poisonous as well. The Knight Ants in particular were winged ants with the Flight Skill. We would have to watch the sky too.
"The larger ones have poisonous stingers, so watch out! I can detoxify poison, but I'd rather not spend the whole fight healing you!"
I shouted toward the front-line fighters. They probably couldn't see the new enemies from where they stood, and I had a feeling they would be in for a nasty surprise if they let their guard down and assumed these ants were the same as the ones before.
"Shifune! Stop the winged ant for just a moment!"
"I'll try!"
Shifune flew toward Eiji, who was fighting at the very front. Apparently, she was using her skills as a tank rather than merely defeating enemies, and was drawing a massive amount of aggro from them. So Shifune scattered webs along their route.
I had no expectation of hitting it precisely from the outset, which was why I used this method. However, the winged ant twisted its body and dodged just before being hit. Its flying technique was impressive, but this forced it to take a wider route than a straight-line flight. That brief moment was all I needed.
"Sorry! I missed!"
"It's fine. You gave me enough time. Remote Magic Circle Activation, Fire Lance!"
I immediately tried out Grand Magic Circle, the latest Skill in 【Magic Circle】. Since this was a test and I judged its power sufficient, I didn't use Spell Adjustment. Thus, Fire Lance activated in the minimum amount of time necessary.
"Giiiiiiii...!"
"Oh, it killed it in one hit. The power is even greater than I imagined."
The giant flame spear, whose power had skyrocketed, struck the winged ant directly. As the winged ant let out a death rattle, it plummeted miserably, scattering charred pieces of exoskeleton.
I was surprised myself by its overwhelming power. I never expected it to be enhanced this much! If word got out about the spell's incredible power, then when parties fought one another, taking out the mage first might become standard strategy. I needed to be careful.
"Chitter chitter chitter!"
"Clack! Clack-clack!"
The ants clacked their mandibles to call for reinforcements. In response, countless Soldier Ants and nearly ten Knight Ants emerged... Huh? Wait a second. Were ants slightly smaller than the worker ants coming out instead?
Compared to their bodies, their heads also looked somewhat large. This smelled fishy. I decided to Appraise them.
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Race: Lesser Calamity Magician Ant Lv22
Job: Water Mage Lv2
Skill: 【Acid Fangs】
【Poison Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Earth Magic】
【Water Magic】
【Intelligence Enhancement】
【Loyalty】
【Coordination】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
【Fire Vulnerability】
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A mage!? Of course, there was no reason there couldn't be ants capable of using magic.
No, wait. This was bad!
"Charge the small one! Hurry!"
I gave orders to the Flame Ghosts flying around a little farther back from Eiji. Following them, three Flame Ghosts flew straight toward the Lesser Calamity Magician Ant.
"Giiiiii!"
Just as I expected, the Lesser Calamity Magician Ant cast 【Water Magic】 at the Flame Ghosts.
Magic—and Water Magic in particular—was the natural enemy of Flame Ghosts. One Flame Ghost caught in a Water Pillar vanished in a single hit. They were nearly invincible against physical attacks, yet even a weaker opponent could defeat them effortlessly with magic. Ghost-type monsters really were extreme!
"But we made it in time! Self-destruct!"
One of my servants had been erased, but the other two remained. So I ordered those two to self-destruct. The Flame Ghosts, incarnations of fire itself, blew themselves up right in the middle of the enemy ranks. Flames spread outward from the spot where they had been.
Gii...!
Gag...!
Every ant caught in the blast was incinerated without exception. The Magician Ant was no exception. The explosion caught more than half of the Knight and Soldier Ants, so it would be fair to say we had dealt the enemy a devastating blow.
"The real problem starts now."
The balance we'd maintained until now had only been possible because of the Flame Ghosts, even if using them had been necessary to survive. I could resummon them, of course, but the mana cost was significant. I wanted to keep some mana in reserve for my own use, so I decided not to summon them again.
"Here come the reinforcements. Eight Soldier Ants, four Knight Ants, and two Magician Ants... Are they out of worker ants already?"
Every monster that emerged from the nest was above level 15. Each one might have been stronger, but their numbers had definitely decreased. We should assume that the enemy was exhausted as well.
"This is the decisive moment! I'll buff all the front-line fighters! Back line, keep supporting us!"
As long as there were Magician Ants, summoning Flame Ghosts was nothing but a bad move. It would be better to buff the front line that was holding the battle line together. First Eiji, then Toji... I also needed to keep an eye on their health. There was a lot to do, and it was exhausting, but I had no choice!
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"Buaaaargh! This is the last one!"
With a crunch, Eiji's axe split the head of the final Knight Ant. By using 【Enchantment】 to enhance his Strength and imbue his weapon with the Fire element, he could now deal massive damage even to enemies above his level.
Of course, he hadn't killed it instantly through his strength alone. Rather, the front-line fighters, including Eiji, had been attacking as part of the finishing move in a sure-win pattern we had devised partway through the battle.
The pattern was simple. First, I placed magma imbued with the Fire element at the nest entrance using 【Lava Magic】's Lava Shot. The other back-line fighters then cast magic on the ants, which had already taken damage by the time they emerged. Finally, the front line finished off the ants after they had been battered by the spells.
It was a strategy I'd thought of immediately after having the Flame Ghosts self-destruct, and it had worked perfectly. Naturally, we hadn't come through completely unscathed. The front line had suffered severe physical exhaustion, while the back line was nearly out of mana. To be perfectly honest, we could probably only fight one or two more battles.
"Is that the end? I'm already exhausted."
"Who knows? This might be the real hell from here on out."
"Stop it, Moss-san! That's a flag!"
Despite having survived such a fierce battle, they still had enough energy for some casual banter. Having so many people on our side had clearly been a major factor. Jigorou and Genzuro would have joyfully rampaged through the battle and been perfectly fine afterward, but normally, you needed this many people.
"Oh, look. More reinforcements."
"Aren't they kind of big?"
Shiitake and Shifune, who were stationed atop Stone Wall, were the first to notice the new enemies. The reinforcements they saw appeared larger than the ones before. That meant they might be even higher-level variants. For the enemy to grow stronger at this point meant I had underestimated the situation.
"Huh? There aren't many of them."
"Four Knight Ants and three that look like new species?"
As Moss-san said, there were only three special ants. One was even larger than a Knight Ant, while another had an even bigger head than the Magician Ant. They were almost certainly higher-level variants of the Knight Ant and Magician Ant.
However, those two were still within the bounds of common sense. The final one was abnormally large. It was nearly twice the size of the higher-level Knight Ant. Its abdomen in particular was enormously swollen, taking up seventy percent of its body length.
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Race: Lesser Calamity General Ant Lv33
Job: General Lv3
Skill: 【Greater Acid Fangs】
【Venomous Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Strength Enhancement】
【Defense Enhancement】
【Agility Enhancement】
【Mental Enhancement】
【Loyalty】
【Command】
【Coordination】
【Flight】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
Race: Lesser Calamity Sage Ant Lv32
Job: Sage Lv2
Skill: 【Acid Fangs】
【Poison Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Greater Earth Magic】
【Water and Ice Magic】
【Intelligence Enhancement】
【Mental Enhancement】
【Loyalty】
【Coordination】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
Race: Lesser Calamity Queen Ant Lv38
Job: Queen Lv8
Skill: 【Acid Fangs】
【Poison Stinger】
【Exoskeleton】
【Earth Magic】
【Water Magic】
【Strength Enhancement】
【Defense Enhancement】
【Intelligence Enhancement】
【Mental Enhancement】
【Morale Boost】
【High Fertility】
【Slash Resistance】
【Earth Resistance】
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A General, a Sage, and a Queen!? This was bad. Everyone was already severely exhausted, and three powerful enemies had appeared at the very end. If we fought them head-on, half of us would probably be killed.
However, the Queen appearing here was also good news. Under normal circumstances, that Queen Ant had to be the ruler of this nest, and defeating her should mean victory for us.
"Chitter-chitter-chiiiiii!"
Clack! Clack-clack-clack!
When the Queen Ant clacked her mandibles, the other ants responded by clacking theirs as well. They seemed to be in an excited state, somehow. It had to be the effect of the 【Morale Boost】 Skill.
It might temporarily raise the stats of her subordinates. We were already at a disadvantage, and if that was the case, we were in a desperate situation. Everyone except those who could fly would certainly be defeated.
"I-Izamu-san! This is really bad!"
"What do we do? It doesn't look like we can escape..."
I racked my brain for a way to turn the situation around. However, aside from one method, I couldn't think of anything.
"...It can't be helped. I guess it's time to get serious."
The final measure for ensuring that everyone survived and won was for me to fight with everything I had. Saying I would get serious didn't mean I had been holding back until now. I had merely been hiding the Abyss-type magic I didn't want anyone outside my inner circle to see. I had been fighting with the maximum power I could use while keeping those spells sealed.
"Don't tell anyone what you see from here on."
I pulled my hidden third and fourth arms from my sleeves and gripped my scythe. Everyone gasped when they saw the arms emerge from beneath my clothes. On top of that, I began using magic. No more holding back.
"Full throttle from here on out. Diamond Magic Circle Activation, Death!"
"...Huh?"
My instant-death spell, Death, from 【Dark Arts】 instantly killed the four remaining ordinary Knight Ants protecting the Queen Ant. With a level difference of twenty, they apparently had no chance of resisting it. Someone let out a dazed-sounding voice, but I deliberately ignored it.
"Strength Overboost. Magic Circle Activation, standby. Then, Grand Slash!"
I used the new 【Enchantment】 spell Strength Overboost to temporarily increase my Strength to an extreme degree. I then put a certain spell on standby so it could be activated at any time. Finally, I raised my great scythe overhead to unleash Grand Slash, the highest-damage attack in 【Scythe Arts】.
I had barely moved from my original position. So why had I used 【Scythe Arts】? The reason would become clear very soon.
"Now! Short Teleport!"
"Gii!?"
Just before my scythe came down, following the system assist, I used the Short Teleport I had placed on standby. The spell moved me instantly to a point within my field of vision, allowing me to leap behind the Sage Ant and slam it with Grand Slash.
The completely unexpected attack dealt physical damage to the Sage Ant with the modifier from 【Assassin Arts】. I had deliberately aimed for the boundary between its head and thorax, but my Strength wasn't enough to cut off its head.
"One more for good measure!"
So I drove the tip of the tail extending from beneath my robes into the Sage Ant's abdomen. Compared to the Knight and General Ants, it was far weaker, so the tip of my tail sank deeply into it.
"Gyu-giiiiii...!"
If it excelled at magic, then I only needed to kill it before it could use magic. Thanks to my surprise attack, the Sage Ant died without being able to do anything.
"Clack-chiiii!"
"Whoa, close one. Short Teleport."
The General Ant charged at me in anger. It had finally grasped what was happening. It seemed furious that its colleague had been defeated through the almost-cheating method of launching a surprise attack during combat. But I had no need to accept that anger head-on. I simply escaped with Short Teleport.
"And there's no need to let the one that can fly take flight, either. Astral Magic Circle, Holy Ring."
I bound the General Ant with glowing rings of light. Restrained tightly by five rings, the General Ant thrashed desperately in an attempt to break free, but it was useless. It looked like I'd turned it back into a caterpillar.
"Eiji and Sei, finish off this useless lump. Everyone else, gang up on that absurdly huge one."
"Y-yes!"
"Got it!"
"O-okay! Let's go!"
"Nyahaha. Did we just team up with someone truly incredible, nya?"
Although shaken by the sight of me using magic that radiated a sacred glow utterly unbecoming of an Undead, they began moving according to my orders. Yes, fighting with tricks that killed enemies before they had seen them coming, or without allowing them to show their true abilities, was much easier.
And so, we successfully exterminated one nest of Lesser Calamity Ants. It should be noted that although the Queen Ant possessed the toughness one would expect from her enormous body, she had almost no means of counterattacking and was therefore crushed by one-sided violence.