Chapter 399: False hope.
On their way down the pitch black 4 meters deep entrance hole, the system had informed Blake that 4 worker army ants were carrying dirt and making their way up the entrance.
Using the system’s heat vision, Blake sliced through the 3 that were already on the vertical climb before falling on the last one and thrusting Ebony and Ivory through its brown exoskeleton.
Immediately the system confirmed that there was no danger nearby, they didn’t waste time putting the corpses in their dimensional amulet. That was when Bradly and his team jumped in.
“Why are you guys slow, we need to finish this quickly before the entire colony is aware of our presence.” Blake said as they waited for them to catch up.
Bradly had wanted to accuse them of being in a rush to kill everything, but he soon remembered that they were the ones that were rooted to the spot a few seconds ago.
“Lead the way.” Bradly said as he was still trying to wrap his head around what was going on.
Ants didn’t need light because they relied mostly on senses and information they get from their legs and antennae than from their eyes, so the pyromancers of both groups conjured floating flame balls to illuminate the pitch-black tunnels.
…..
As they walked down the long tunnel, worker ants carrying dirt entered their range of sight, and before anyone could react, Blake had activated lightning reinforcement and dealt with them.
‘How is he so fast to react? Did he know the ants were coming?’ Bradly was only getting more confused.
It was after the same thing happened 2 more times that he confirmed that Blake’s team somehow knew when they were coming. That was when he activated a Hero level spell.
Seismic Perception!
Seismic Perception was a hero realm earth spell that increased the user’s perception of vibrations. Within the 12 meters radius of the spell, the vibrations created would form an image of both the source of the vibration and the environment.
‘There!’ Immediately 2 army ants entered the range of seismic perception, Bradly charged up a solid flame spear, but before he could release it, Blake was already there, and with 2 swings of his sword they were dead.
‘What the fuck?!’ Bradly’s stunned.
‘The range of seismic perception should be 7 meters away from the light source, so how is he still able to sense them.’ Bradly’s confusion was turning to frustration. Not only are they not getting any kills, but he couldn’t even kill steal.
He had no idea that the system’s detection range was 30 meters (100 feet), twice the range of seismic perception. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.
They soon reached the end of the large tunnel that turned out to be a T junction.
“Which direction?” Blake asked Bradly.
Although he was on a mission to drive Bradly crazy, Blake still had to follow the rules. Bradly was still the leader of the party so his decision had to be respected.
“Ehm… The right.” Bradly was trying to use the seismic perception to check for the best location for his team, but the spell wasn’t picking up anything. So he had to make a random decision.
‘The system has detected 4 ants and they seem to be clawing at the wall, meaning they are constructing a new room.’ Blake informed Castiel and Brian through the mind link.
Almost all the ants that came their way were carrying dirt out of the colony, so Blake knew it was a matter of time till they reached the digging site.
Because the tunnel on the right side was relatively new, it didn’t take time for them to reach the end, where they saw 4 army ants digging.
The antennae of the army ants wiggled as they sensed the vibrations from the footsteps of the humans.
They turned to confront the invaders, but before they could even let out a screech, their heads were already on the floor.
“I guess there is nothing here, we should head the other way.” Blake said as he stored the corpses in his dimensional space while maintaining an indifferent expression regardless of the death stares that were coming from Bradly and his team.
‘If I knew this would be this fun I wouldn’t have complained.’ Brian said as he tried hard to not burst out in laughter.
Bradly’s team members couldn’t talk because Blake’s team would hear them, but the looks in their eyes made it clear to Bradly that he had to do something about what was going on.
‘The bright side is that we now get to be in front.’ Bradly thought as both groups turned back and began moving back to the T Junction.
‘Aren’t we meant to remind them about the formation?’ Castiel asked when he saw what they were doing.
‘No need for that, it’s not as if they can stop me.’ Blake said. ‘Also, it’s nice to give them the false hope that they are in control.’
They soon reached the T junction and went into the tunnel at the left, but after walking for less than 2 minutes Bradly and Blake sense quite high traffic of army ants in the area ahead.
[From the direction the army ants are moving, it is safe to say there are 3 tunnels down there. The problem is If you guys are to charge in, there is no way you to prevent all of them from escaping and alerting the entire hive.] The system said.
‘The best way would be to use the darkness element to go and scan the area ahead before determining the next course of action.’ Blake said.
This was impossible because Bradly didn’t trust them, and would think they were trying to trick him in order to get more kills. On the other hand, Blake wasn’t planning on going through the stress of trying to explain especially after what they had done.
Also, it wasn’t as if he cared about them, so even if Bradly was to make a stupid decision Blake and his team could easily escape.
*************************************************************************************
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.