Chapter 398: Shooting one’s foot.
After 45 minutes of both running and walking, both groups finally got to their destination.
‘Did your senses pick up anything suspicious on our way?’ Blake asked the system as they climbed the top of a tree to scout the location.
[Nothing so far.] The system answered.
Since there was nothing to worry about, Blake and his team went on to monitor the number of army ants in the area and their activities.
After checking the other 2 entrances and confirming there was nothing off about the ant colony, Blake had decided to accept the mission.
“The reports you gave are correct, so this brings us to the final part of the agreement, the distribution of loot.” Blake said.
“Although we are meant to take the greater share of the spoils since we are the ones that discovered the hide, I have decided to be generous. Whatever you kill or find belongs to.” Bradly said with an evil grin in his mind.
…..
With his team’s number and experience being greater than that of Blake’s, Bradly’s goal was to make sure Blake’s team got nothing.
‘Does he think we are dumb?’ Brian asked using the mind link as he kept a straight face.
‘He sure thinks we are dumb, so let’s keep acting that way.’ Blake thought with a smirk.
“Thanks for your generosity, we gladly accept.” Blake accepted the condition with a smile on his face.
‘Now that they have accepted the condition, even if they were to complain about kill stealing, or not getting anything we won’t be punished by the association because they agreed to it.’ Bradly was finding it hard to not laugh at Blake’s stupidity.
“Before we make our way into the colony, we have to make sure we have killed every army ant outside. We don’t want a scenario where we enter the colony and get surrounded from both sides.” Bradly instructed.
‘At least he is not a complete idiot.’ Blake mind chuckled.
Once the instruction was given, both groups began moving around the trees to take down army ants that were outside the colony.
The first party of army ants that were spotted consisted of 15 elite rank army ants, and while killing them they made sure none of them escaped back to the colony.
After they had completely wiped out the army ants in the area, Bradly couldn’t help but smile because Blake and his team were only able to kill 3 out of the 15 ants or so he thought.
‘I think the greedy fool is falling for it.’ Castiel said in a condescending tone.
‘Yes, but we have to keep this up until he fully buys into it.’ Blake said as both groups continued moving through the area around the entrance, wiping out multiple ant groups.
By the time they were done with every ant in the area, Blake and his team had only killed less than 25% of all the ants they faced.
“Now that we are sure to not get boxed in, are our teams going to split up into the different entrances?” Blake asked as he faked a frustrated look on his face.
‘We haven’t even entered the colony and he and his team are already frustrated. I would be a fool to let go through another entrance.’ Bradly thought.
“No, we have little to no idea of what we are going to face inside there so it is best that we stick together.” Bradly said causing Blake to grin on the inside.
“Alright then, but is there anything we need to know about formation?” Blake asked because even though the underground tunnels could fit 6 army ants standing side by side, it still limited their movement.
“Yes, I want your team to stay in front so as to help you 3 get some loots because I noticed you didn’t benefit much from the ant groups we just wiped out.” Bradly said as masked his evil intentions with a smile.
‘I can swear on my left ball that he doesn’t give a fuck and just wants us to act as their human shields while they kill steal.’ Brian didn’t even need effort to read Bradly’s evil intentions.
“Thank you once again.” Blake gave a small bow before him, Brian and Castiel jumped down from the trees and began heading for the 1st entrance.
The entrances were littered with ants not only protecting the entrance, but also those that were moving out dirt from the new tunnels they were digging.
‘There is no need to hold back anymore.’ Blake said to Brian and Castiel as he brought out Ebony and Ivory from his pocket dimension before activating lightning reinforcement.
On sensing the presence of the humans, the 10 army ants that were currently at the entrance turned in their direction, but before they could move Blake was already in front of them. 𝐛𝐝𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺
With a single sword slash for each, the ants had been sliced to different sizes before they could even react.
‘What the fuck just happened?’ Bradly and his team members couldn’t help but rub their eyes to make sure their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them.
They planned that as Blake’s team engaged the enemy, they would swoop in and steal the kills, but he had already dealt with them just as they came down from the trees.
‘Were they hiding their strength all this while?’ Bradly didn’t have the time to realize that he had shot himself in the foot, because the trio had already jumped into the hole.
The 5 man adventurer party quickly snapped out of their reverie and chased after them.
As they jumped down the large entrance, they saw the yellowish blood of ants spilled all around the tunnel, but not the corpses. It was clear that the trio had killed ants and placed their corpse in their dimensional amulet.
“Why are you slow?” Blake said as they waited for them to get close.
What was the need of going on a killing spree without them seeing it?
*************************************************************************************
Check out 3_Sins_Studios works: Deviants and Reborn in a Magical World: From Cultivator to Mage.
The account is a group work from me and two other authors. I hope you like it.