[Not to be the bringer of bad news, but among the 100 ants there are 2 Knight- rank ants.] Blake didn't even have time to curse as the system gave him more bad news.
Ansgar's lookout spot was quite a distance away, so that once they were alerted it would give them some time to clean up and leave the scene.
The fact that the system had already detected the incoming horde of ants meant they had no time left.
'Shit! That idiot is going cost us a lot.' Blake was furious at Ansgar and would have loved to strangle him to death but this wasn't the right time.
"Grab as much as you can and leave, a lot of ants are on the way!" Blake announced to the group, stunning most of them.
'How? I didn't see or hear any form of alert from Ansgar. Unless…' Damon and Ansgar came to the same conclusion and simultaneously their expressions changed to anger.
Damon and Sach began placing the corpse of both ants and centipedes into their dimensional space.
Click! Click! Click!
The team wasn't able to grab much when the swarm of ants began attacking the water and earth barrier.
"Gather we are leaving!" Blake said to the team as they all gathered towards him, before opening a spatial corridor below them.
…
In their still active water barrier shelter, a spatial tear opened and the team walked out before it disappeared.
"What the fuck was that?!" Blake was the first to shout at Ansgar.
"You selfish, greedy, hind sighted bastard!" Sach was fuming with anger as he grabbed Ansgar by the neck.
"Calm down, we need to know why he did it before we take action!" Damon said prevented them from making a terrible mistake without hearing the other side.
"Seriously, I don't what came over me. At one point I was at the lookout spot thinking of how many points I was missing, then the next thing I can remember is me appearing here with you gu…" before Ansgar could finish his sentence, Sach had grabbed one of his blades and stabbed at him.
Just before the blade touched his neck, Ansgar was teleported back to the castle and was officially eliminated from the test.
"What did you do that for?!" Damon was shocked at Sach's action.
"Even a child wouldn't believe that lie. He is a serious liability and is of no use to the team. So rather than things like this repeating itself, he should be gone." Sach said as he put back his blade into his dimensional amulet.
"If he didn't do it, I would have done it myself." Blake said when Damon looked at him seeking his reaction.
"I never liked that guy in the first place." Kade said as he sat down and rested his back on the soft water barrier.
"Me too." Beyoni did the same.
"So what's next?" Damon asked as he took a seat. "I mean with us lacking 1 member, how are we going to keep hunting?"
Blake's formation was very simple and effective, but with Ansgar out, things wouldn't be that easy.
The first group was the ones to draw the focus of the entire army, while the 2nd group confused them by dividing their attention and blocking their path.
Having a lookout was a must and the 2nd group had to be 2 people to make sure none escaped. The question now was, if they were to reduce the numbers from the 1st group will they be able to handle so much pressure?
"It is actually easy. We could just decrease the amount we face in every batch." Beyoni suggested.
"Isn't as easy as you think." Blake shook his head. "You see, for the fact that more ants were deployed when groups had gone missing mean their intelligence is quite high."
"Right now the horde of ants led by 2 knight-rank ants had seen us meaning they would be weary and deploy more ants in every group." Blake explained because that was exactly why he always emphasized leaving before the ants arrived.
"So what are you proposing we do?" Beyoni asked.
"I am thinking…" Blake said as he closed his eyes and began having a conversation with the system.
After a while opened his eyes and spoke. "Alright, so I have two options, but they would be based on the situation."
"The first situation is when we scout all entrances and see that we can't handle the increased number of ants. What we would actually do will be a random and scattered attack." Blake said. "Because if our presence has been noticed, then there is no need to remain stealthy. We need to grab as much as we can."
"The second situation is when we find out that the number of ants at other entrances was quite manageable. That is when I will have to switch to the 2nd group and you guys will fully have faith in my sensory skills" In his sensory skills Blake meant that of the system.
"Both options are great but I think they will lead to the same result." Damon spoke. "For the second option, if we find less concentrated areas and start hunting there. The ants will still increase their number and it will leave us with no option other than to do the first option.
As for the first option, it is quite dangerous since not much planning will be done, but that isn't all. If we start attacking them and leaving some to return to the hive. The ants will continue to increase their numbers and even send out multiple Knight rank ants, making any other attempt a death trap."
"You are correct, but it isn't as if we have a choice." Blake looked around looking for who had a better suggestion, but no one spoke. "So, after tonight's scouting mission then we will decide on which approach to take."
After planning the team began sharing the spoils they had managed to grab.