Making her way deeper into the nest following the sounds of battle in the distance, Scaly found herself encountering all kinds of new giant ants that she hadn’t seen before. Having been recently killed off by what she guessed to be the group of adventurers who had passed her while she had still been hidden in the ceiling of the tunnel.
Saddening as it was for her to see so many dead giant ants starting to pile up, Scaly continued moving forward. Hoping that the adventurers up ahead would be able to make up for the experience she ended up losing out on because of them.
At the same time, she also used the opportunity while closing in on the battle to examine a few of the dead giant ants. Finding that every single one of them had either been cleanly cut through with minimal resistance or burned to death by what she could only assume was some kind of fire magic.
Assumptions that were soon proven correct, as she found herself stepping inside a large underground space that seemed to have been created by the giant ants for storing their young while they were still growing inside their eggs where the adventurers she had first hidden from were engaged in a deadly battle with a seemingly endless tide of giant ants.
Even then... The group of adventurers showed no fear nor exhaustion as they continued pushing forward against the endless tide of giant ants.
At the front, covered from head to toe in thick layers of armor covered in shimmering magical runes holding massive tower shields that linked together to form an impenetrable defensive line, while at the sides equally guarded members with lighter armor with massive two handed swords that easily cleaved through any giant ant that approached them and finally at the back, a group of what Scaly guessed to be mages cast powerful fire magic that easily burned through large sections of the giant ant swarm. Rapidly thinning their numbers.
Watching from afar, Scaly could not help feeling impressed, as this was by far the most coordinated group of adventurers she had witnessed so far.
It also made her realize that it would be far more difficult than she had originally anticipated to kill these adventurers, as it looked like the ambush she had planned wouldn’t work against this kind of coordinated group.
The second she stepped forward; she would likely be pinned down and burned to death like the giant ants. After all, outside of being extremely well coordinated, the strength of this group also far exceeded that of the adventurers from earlier.
All she could do for now was observe the slaughter from afar as the group began to make their way towards the large ball-shaped clump of giant ants located at the very back of the large underground space.
The clump in question being made up from at least a few thousand giant ants from what she could tell... And not the weaker kind of giant ants, but entirely the royal guard kind of giant ants.
Even the group of fearless adventurers seemed to understand the danger of so many powerful giant ants, as they momentarily slowed down their approach while two of the adventurers who had been throwing out fire magic stopped what they were doing and closed their eyes to pray loud enough for even her to hear it.
""O eternal light above. Guard your faithful servants against the spawn of darkness and bring forth the hopeful light of dawn.""
Following the short prayer, Scaly watched in amazement as light seemingly began gathering around the group from nowhere. Coating the group in a veil of light, as they now charged forth with more power and speed than before, causing the clump of giant ants at the back to start stirring.
Rumble~!
And before Scaly could even turn her attention towards the clump of giant ants, a loud rumbling echoed out as the giant lump of giant ants began moving- or more accurately, something beneath the giant ant clump stirred because of the commotion that had been caused when light streamed in from everywhere to coat the group of around fifty people.
It was at that moment Scaly realized the giant lump at the back of the underground space wasn’t the giant ants surrounding their young to guard them against invaders but instead hid the true ruler of the giant ants, the giant ant queen that she had been unable to even spot once in the past before today.
The reason for this now becoming obvious, as she had clearly remembered seeing a large clump of giant ants every now and then during her battles. Only... This giant ant queen had clearly grown far larger if she had really been hidden beneath one of the giant lumps of giant ants she had seen in the past.
With this thought in mind, before the battle began, Scaly focused her attention on the giant ant queen to see if she could potentially learn more about the giant ant queen before it was too late.
[Gluttonous Giant Ant Queen, lvl 17]
[Description: A normal giant ant queen that through some mysterious circumstances ended up evolving into a gluttonous giant ant queen. The gluttonous giant ant queen is a full-fledged S Rank Monster, but different from other giant ant queens that reach the S Rank, a gluttonous giant ant queen is several times larger and is nowhere as weak as normal giant ant queens.
But this special evolution comes with a cost, as the gluttonous giant ant queen has difficulty moving and needs to constantly feed to live. Turning to consuming its own giant ants if it can’t find anything else to eat. Because of this, most gluttonous giant ant queens end up consuming their own colony and find themselves unable to hunt on their own, thus starving to death. Tastes... Interesting...]
Reading the description of the giant ant queen, Scaly could not help rolling her eyes at the last part that made some part of her want to try tasting this giant ant queen even knowing what the other giant ants she had tasted so far ended up tasting like...