Tanya is smart in her own way, just not in the problem analyzing way. She is more of a doer than a thinker. So she wasn't frozen in terror like the priests after they realized how big of trouble they have found themselves in. She recovered quickly from her stumbling and roused her divine power. Her body brightened with sparks of electricity. She channeled the power into her rune, the hammer of the sky god. It lit up and resonated with her.
She raised her right hammer into the air and brought it down for a smash on the head of the royal guard. The head is already low to the ground and extra vulnerable. She aimed for an eye. Such a fragile organ will be squashed beneath the might of her hammer.
The head will be jostled and pushed to the left by the impact of the hammer. Then her left hammer which is in the process of being lifted up will smack the head in the opposite direction. She would go on to pummel the royal guard. She could already see it in her mind.
The royal guard moved. It shook its head and moved its horn to intercept the hammer strike. The two of them met and the hammer was deflected harmlessly to the side. Another swift shake of the horns and Tanya lost an arm. The horn on the top of the ant's head had cut through both the flesh and bone of her arm. It was then that she finally felt shocked. Her eyes widened in disbelief even as her severed arm fell to the ground and blood started leaking out of the stub that her arm has become. She realized something critical to their survival. She had been incapacitated easily. Too easily.
Her defeat shouldn't have been that easy. If it is, then they are in big trouble.
"No more playing around." The voice of number 9 reached them through the divine sense.
Tanya's eyes widened further. They knew that a royal guard is not like a normal mindless ant. They have intelligence and they learn. But a royal guard with a divine sense is too strong and indicates a demigod ant queen. It was then that the possibility that they may have been tricked started to crop up in Tanya's mind. With it came the realization of a real possibility of death.
The priests were roused out of their frozen state when they saw Tanya get hurt. They have to keep her safe. They were told that the ant queen is about to become a demigod and yet there is obviously divine power at play plus the royal guard could communicate with a divine sense but it doesn't excuse them from their duty. This heroic quest stinks of a conspiracy that they have been caught in. But conspiracy or not, Tanya must survive.
It is not the first time that those on heroic quests have been tricked for the entertainment of the gods. The gods do it to make the struggle real. The direct involvement of a god has never happened before but they have to ignore it for now and fight for a chance to survive. It is either that or they accept death. Because if Tanya dies, then they will surely die and their souls will be tortured in the afterlife. That's the punishment for those that have offended a god. They shall not have peace alive or dead if Tanya dies.
The nine priests behind her rushed forward to save her. They shot spells of various kinds at the royal guard. It just shrugged them off and pushed through the firepower. It has its eyes locked on Tanya who is crawling backward in terror. The royal guard stalked her in an imposing manner. Its legs stamped the ground in quick succession as it gained on her. Then it attacked.
A priest jumped in front of her just in time to block an attack for her while another pulled her up. The priest that blocked her front took on the attack for her and is swiftly impaled by a giant horn.
The royal guard had rushed forward with the intention to pierce all obstacles. One such obstacle was the priest. The giant horn pierced through the barriers and into the body of the priest and out the back. Then the royal ant exerted its mandibles to shear the body of the giant. Tanya and the other priests were splashed with blood and were bestowed with the scream of pain from the suffering priest who was being split in half.
Number 9 tossed the priest aside after a quick work separating the chest from the waist. Then it crushed the skull of the screaming priest to make sure he is dead before moving on. It ran after the escaping team. The blood on the ground, splattered all over the shiny carapace of the royal guard, and the internal organs littered about are proof of the messy job that Number 9 had just done but it is still looking to do more.
The team didn't see these signs since they are running back the way they came, but they do not need the signs. The sounds the priest made were descriptive enough for them to know he didn't die painlessly. Even the silence that ensued after the skull was crushed only made the violent image in their minds more vivid. Even now, they can see a deformed skull with eyes popped too far out of their sockets and twitching legs still attached to an unnaturally independent waist.
Such sounds continued to be heard as more priests were overtaken and slaughtered. Their death was swift but very violent. Royal ants are very efficient killing machines. Some of the priests were overtaken and died unwillingly while the others sacrificed themselves to buy more time for Tanya to escape.
Number nine continued to rush after them. It quickly dispatched any obstacle before stepping over the spilled organs and broken bodies without care. It stopped once in a while to crush or impale skulls to ensure the deaths of its victims.
Tanya's team finally reached the intersection but they didn't find the salvation that they were hoping for. The main team had been pushed back. They have also suffered casualties. That isn't all. The team that took the left tunnel is also returning disgraced and beaten ragged with their tails between their legs. Even their metaphorical tails didn't get away unscathed. It has been severed and is bleeding creating a bloody trail of shame behind them.
The sight that was waiting for them is not a good one, to say the least. There was blood, limbs, bodies, and more blood everywhere. Tanya shuddered as she caught the look of shock on the face of a dead priest. The priest's mouth is opened in shock which mirrors the hole on the forehead where the priest was impaled by a horn. Tanya was only pulled from her terror when a shout shook her.
The demigod who took his team to the left tunnel shouted, "We were ambushed."
Things had gone differently for them. They weren't as headstrong as Tanya's team. They had decided to stop and plan their next actions. The royal guard waiting for them in the tunnel was the one that got the jump on them after getting fed up with waiting for them.
One of the demigods in the main team shouted, "What do we do? They suddenly became violent and strong all of a sudden."
"You fool. They were pretending." Another one shouted back.
Tanya's group ignored the others and their shouting that helped no one. They have a royal guard hot on their tails so they are preoccupied with running away. The dead priests in their team had bought them time, so they will be able to make it away if they rush without paying heed to side chatter. They chose not to think about how they will get through the ant hoard outside. They will face it when it comes.
As they are right now, it is no use thinking about too much at all. Solving problems as they come is always the motto of the storm church. That motto also says that they should solve problems with pure might, but they are running away since they are out of might to solve this problem. Unfortunately, running away doesn't solve problems and neither will it solve the problems they're currently facing.
Two more royal guards are waiting for them in the tunnel they came from blocking the way to safety. The strike team is surrounded. They are in a situation that only pure might can get them out of. The ant horde didn't allow them to get within the ant mound so that they can let them escape, now do they? No, they got them here so that they can carry out their aim without interference. Now, an annihilator cannot rescue them no matter the amount that is fired.