The limbs are dangerous to be around and because they are thin, it is easy for spells to miss them. Not everyone is like Helios who makes fighting a royal guard look easy.
"Hit its eye. Yes, hit its eye. That's how you do it." Harkam hollered at the top of his gruff voice as he watched the wonderful show.
The royal guards seemed tailored to hunt giants of order and yet, they are being pushed back. They fell back before the might of the demigods and it was exciting to watch. Harkam couldn't sit still. He rose from the cloud he is sitting on to cheer Tanya on.
Things are going well by the look of the fight. Harkam has forgotten about the impending reinforcements and he overlooked the fact that none of the royal guards have been wounded at all. Yet, they are losing.
The demigods are just strong and it is enough for Harkam that the royal guards are being pushed back. Each attack from the strike team is weak but many of them seemed to overwhelm the Goliath ants. Who wouldn't be overwhelmed when they are attacked from all sides? When quantity reaches a certain level it becomes its own quality.
The strike team is doing well and that's all that matters. They pushed the royal guards into the entrance of the ant mound. Harkam thought nothing of it. Where else are the royal guards going to be pushed back? Nothing seems suspicious. Even the absence of reinforcements for the royal guards. The fight has gone on for a long time and yet, there are no reinforcements.
Maybe the reinforcements are being delayed by something. But what could be more important than demigods who want to kill their queen at their very doorstep? Besides, what does it matter? The only thing on Harkam's mind is the current fight that is going well for the strike team.
"Something is finally going well for them." Harkam laughed heartily as the strike team entered the ant mound with the royal guards.
Tanya's PoV
The screen continued to show the progress of the strike team as they entered the ant mound. The tunnels in the ant mound are large but they can only allow two royal guards to stand side by side while the demigods can allow 5. It is restrictive but it restricts the ants more than the giants.
The members of the strike team have to funnel themselves into the ant mound but they can rotate the front-line positions so that all of them can engage the royal guards while the royal guards are limited in number. This means that the entire strike team of 85 is fighting the 3 royal guards with an advantage of 5 to 2. 5 to 2 is still dangerous for the demigods but the tight space is inhibiting the royal guards and making the fight easier. So it is not a wonder that they pushed deep into the ant mound pretty quickly and were about to approach an intersection.
"Intersection coming up." Someone shouted above the din of battle.
The intersection is a result of the cross-over of two tunnels. One runs from the entrance to the center of the room and another one runs across it from left to right. Numerous priests used sensory spells to scout ahead. They found nothing except for the usual worker and soldier ants.
"It is clear. Both sides are clear. No sign of royal guards."
The first priest to complete the scouting informed the others. Other feedback confirmed it to be true. By the looks of things, there are no royal guards around. It seems the royal guards are preoccupied with something else in the ant mound.
"My team and I will be splitting here. We'll take the right tunnel." Tanya informed the group.
Fighting in the tunnels is easy for the strike team. They don't have as much room to maneuver but the ants can't overwhelm them either. The small space is more of a problem for the royal ants than for them. The demigods will always be at an advantage no matter the number of royal guards they face.
The absence of danger means the absence of opportunity to shine. That's why Tanya hasn't exchanged her position from the front since they entered the tunnel but that cannot continue. Some others want to fight too. If there are not enough royal guards to go around, then it makes a lot of sense to split up. The heroic quest is a race anyway. The first person to reach the queen wins. So it is in Tanya's best interest to split and find her own way.
She ignored the strike team's reaction to her heads-up. She will do whatever she wants to do regardless of their opinion about it. She was just telling them so that they would be prepared. No one objected to the violent-looking female giant of order. They didn't need her to push back two royal guards and her absence will give them a better chance of winning the heroic quest. Another demigod also made his intention to separate known.
'Finally, some free space to fight and show my full power.' she thought in anticipation.
Tanya is looking forward to the separation. Her recent performance isn't satisfying enough for her. The other teams and her teammates were in the way of having a full fight with a royal guard. Their presence and interference didn't allow her to show her full power. What she wants is to fight a royal guard alone and see her limits but she can't have that yet.
So she will go her own way and hopefully encounter a royal guard or maybe two so that she can display her full power. The thought of the progress that Helios must be making within the ant mound chased her anger to rise and her lightning to become more potent.
The strike team pushed the royal guards past the intersection. Tanya and her team separated from the strike team and took the right tunnel. The tunnel is clear as the scouts said. She doesn't see any threat apart from the soldier ants which she can crush easily. She ran forward smashing her way through the ant horde. Then she suddenly fell back after running face-first into something. She was at the head of her small squad so she was the one to run into the invisible obstacle.
"What the fuck?" She cursed angrily.
"Are you alright, exalted demigod?" One of her teammates asked.
The priests were startled by her behavior and stopped to ask her. She didn't get to answer but they received their answer anyway. The invisible obstacle was an invisible barrier. It wasn't strong because it wasn't set up for protection. So it flickered after Tanya knocked into it. Then it fell to reveal a glaring royal guard. Its head was lowered menacingly at them.
The priests and Tanya were shocked by the situation. One of them managed to ask the question that was bothering them.
"How?"
How did a royal guard hide from them? They had used various sensing spells to scout the tunnel but nothing showed up. The priests happen to be more than faithful idiots, they are also smart so they know that they are in big trouble.
Divine spells are just like normal spells except that they are powered by divine power instead of mana. A normal spell can be trounced by a stronger spell. In their case, divine spells can be fooled by divine spells with stronger divine power.
What is mind-boggling is that it should be impossible for them to be fooled. They are not priests to weak gods and have never worried about their spells failing them. The only force stronger than the grand god of the sky and tempest will have to be a celestial god and there is only one in the entire plane.
The celestial god of order and justice shouldn't have done this. After all, this heroic quest was arranged by the Celestial Supreme. But if it were him that helped the royal guard hide from their sensing spells then they are screwed in more ways than they are aware of.
Even if they are priests of weaker gods like a low god, the fact that they were fooled means that a god is on the side of the ants. That should be impossible since the queen is only about to become a demigod. So it is either that they were lied to or a god is on the side of the ant and probably a very strong god too.
Either way, they are screwed. The involvement of a god is not a good omen. It is like a wolf playing among sheep. No matter how innocent or well-meaning the wolf is, something bad is bound to happen and it is highly likely that it will happen to the sheep. This mission is difficult already without the introduction of confusing factors that spell certain doom for them.