Kyle's team trained a bit more before they took on the next mission.
The Spellcasting training would take a long time to bear any fruit, and Kyle couldn't just spend weeks on end doing nothing but practicing Spellcasting.
First, Kyle had to be able to conjure different amounts of Ether down to an error margin of only a single Miz.
He needed to be able to conjure about 350 Miz worth of Ether for the temporary enchantments he wanted to use, and whenever he tried to get there, he summoned anything between 310 and 400 Miz.
While using techniques, it didn't really matter how much Ether one summoned.
Since the techniques were all created in one's body, the surplus Ether would just travel back to the Center, essentially not wasting anything.
So, Fighters just summoned more Ether than necessary and just pushed the surplus back.
Spells didn't work that way.
One had to be accurate with how much Ether they summoned since the Injection and Shaping phases needed a specific amount of Ether to work.
Using too little or too much Ether was like messing up the ratios when making an alloy or baking a cake.
The result would not be very good.
The new mission the team accepted was another difficult one.
This was about a powerful nest of ants that was encroaching on Gelden's territories.
The local Beast Tamer was already holding the ants back, but the nest was outside her domain.
If no one killed the queen, there might be missing farmers soon.
Every single ant was a Mid Ferocious Beast, and there were almost 150 of them.
Not an easy mission.
At least for other teams.
Sven hopped onto one of Lily's birds and flew over the nest.
Five powerful and big ants with wings approached him, but Michael used a lightning Spell that spread across a big area.
The lightning Spell didn't cause a lot of damage, but it froze the ants' wings, making all of them fall to the ground.
From there, Sven simply killed them one by one before raining hell onto the ground ants.
Eventually, the ants retreated into their nest, and the actual troublesome part started.
This time, Lily's ground golems were at the front of the group, forming an advancing blockade.
Whenever there was a fork in the road, Kyle's nose guided him to the closest ants, which he killed rather quickly.
At some point, an ambush of five warrior ants appeared behind them, but they ran right into Michael's prepared Spell. Two ants were immediately turned into dried husks while Kyle and Falk dealt with the other two.
Sven remained outside in case any of the ants escaped.
Eventually, the last storm of ants coming from the queen's nest arrived.
Kyle stood at the front while the golems kept watch over the other tunnels.
Just like back with the Hillstalker Ant Nest, Kyle killed one ant after the other while jumping back.
Falk focused on pushing any ant back that came a bit too close to Kyle after he just unleashed a strike.
Surprisingly, Falk had only killed one ant so far.
In fact, it seemed like he wasn't even trying to kill them.
And yet…
He was surprisingly useful.
He wasn't causing much damage to the enemy, but he was controlling the battlefield very well.
If an ant came too close to any of their members, Falk appeared and pushed one of the parties away from the other.
Falk was protecting the team's formation.
This was his solution to his troubles.
He realized that he couldn't compare to the others in terms of destruction.
So, he decided to not even try to compare to them.
Instead, he looked at what the team needed the most.
Lily and Michael were the ones in the most danger since they didn't have many defenses if there was an ambush.
Additionally, even though Kyle was the Shouter, he was also open after launching a powerful attack.
Falk made it his mission to close the gaps in their formation.
When the enemy was launching a counter, Falk was countering that counter.
Falk was in a team with four destroyers.
They didn't need a fifth destroyer.
They needed a supporter.
And that was what Falk would be.
He was creating space for the team to breathe.
BANG!
A warrior ant pushed past one of the golems and directly went for Lily.
An instant later, Falk appeared in front of the warrior ant.
BANG!
His spear hit the warrior ant's claws.
The warrior ant didn't receive any injuries, but the force of the attack stopped it in its tracks.
Meanwhile, Falk was thrown against the wall behind him, and some of his bones broke.
A moment later, two golems started to hack away at the warrior ant, killing it.
Lily furrowed her brows.
Her cat was relatively good at defending against ranged attacks, and it could also jump away in case anyone came closer.
But in these small hallways, her cat was basically useless.
Lily would have been in significant trouble if Falk hadn't slowed down the warrior ant.
For just a moment, Lily looked at Falk, who was recovering from his injuries.
Then, she looked at Kyle.
Kyle looked away from the horde of ants for an instant to throw Lily a shit-eating grin.
Lily almost exploded in anger but kept ordering her golems.
"Stop lazing around!" Lily shouted at Falk. "Get back to work!"
Surprisingly, Falk just smiled. "Immediately!"
This was proof that Lily's opinion of Falk had increased.
During the battle against the Icestone Fiend, she had told him to just watch since she had considered him useless.
Now, she wanted him to work.
Falk was useful now.
Sometime later, they reached the queen's chamber.
"You want?" Kyle asked Michael.
Michael just started casting Spells at the queen.
The queen was powerful, and she didn't go down after a single Spell.
When she got attacked, she attacked the tunnel itself since she wasn't big enough to fit through.
The team just kept walking backward.
From Kyle's shoulders, Michael kept casting one Spell after the other.
Eventually, the queen became so injured that Kyle could run in without any fear and finish her off.
"Well done, team," Kyle said.
Sometime later, Sven also joined them.
"No more ants outside," he said.
Then, everyone started focusing on grabbing the loot.
This time, they could keep whatever they found.
"By the way, I thought of a good name for our team," Kyle said.
The others looked at Kyle.
"Lily's golems are kinda stony and sandy. Sven's arrows are sandy. I use Wind Ether. Falk uses Wind Ether. Michael uses lightning."
"What about Sandstorm?"
Silence.
"Barely acceptable," Lily said with a snort.
Falk just smiled.
"I like it," Michael answered.
Sven nodded.
"Then, the decision is made," Kyle said.
"We are team Sandstorm!"
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