As they progressed through the tunnel’s darkness, Hestia spoke with Ash in hushed tones.

  “Sorry, Ash. I was just worried about you. Clearly you helped us out of a tough spot. We’re lucky to have you.”

  “It’s okay. I was being too reckless in the past. But I can see I’m needed here. Despite how well you all were doing until that ambush in the cavern. I saw those piles of dead ants outside.”

  “Oh, that? Stavos and Vidar were involved in clearing one of these nests before. They know how to get the drop on the ants by attacking from downwind. They’re scent focused hunters, apparently.”

  “Glad he knows what he’s doing at least.”

  “Yeah… Though I did hear him say he was surprised there weren’t more defenders.” Hestia added grimly “So expect more resistance up ahead.”

  More resistance indeed followed shortly after. The group was just emerging into a fresh cavern when suddenly ants began raining down from above. Stavos reacted quickly, summoning his barrier and holding it up above him like an umbrella. The descending swarm was reduced to bouncing and sliding off of the smooth surface. Still, a few infiltrators dove past before the barrier flickered to life and yet more darted up from beneath the barrier, savaging him and Vidar in the front. They were followed up by a swarm of smaller ants, foragers and guardians marching forward. Ash didn’t have time to observe as she heard skittering from behind, spinning to see a tide of the small ants surging down the passage. They crawled on the floor, the walls and the ceiling, a great rippling black mass that seemed to stretch unendingly into the dark.

  Ash cried out in alarm, and Hestia was instantly beside her, firing out a great kinetic push that blasted a large chunk of ants in the top half of the space away, sending them spattering and tumbling into their cohort behind.

  Ash stepped forward, swinging her hammer at the remaining sections, splattering three ants before her club lost momentum. She swung again, cutting down another three. They kept coming. Another kinetic blast knocked back another section of the swarm. Still more replaced those. Ash felt the first bites bounce off of her shin guards, another snaking around the armour to dig home. Her swings weren’t enough. Her Will had mostly regenerated, but the ice damage would only affect the first she hit, useless against the swarm of weak ants. Instead, she channelled her fire burst, the extra momentum carrying her strikes further, proving just enough to splatter another two ants with each swing while the burst of harmless flame also served to disorient the others, slowing their advance. Hestia capitalised on the distraction, sending great sweeping kinetic pushes throughout the swarm.

  The bitter, grinding fight continued, Ash having to stagger her flame bursts with normal swings to conserve her dwindling Will. While effective, the spell cost her a whole 12 Will each time she used it.

  She regenerated her Wit x level in Will every 15 minutes at base, with the recovery buff that meant she got 33 Will every 10 minutes instead. That was basically enough for a flame burst every 3 and a half minutes. She was currently using them every 30 seconds. It was too fast. She would run out too soon. She slowed that to one a minute, letting more and more bites accumulate on her legs as she was forced to focus on unaided strikes. The regeneration from Ama kept her going, even as the small wounds accumulated.

  About three minutes into the fight, she felt the effects of delirium toxin begin to addle her thoughts, almost tripping as she fumbled her footing. She casted her own kinetic push. The shove, though not damaging the ants, gave her enough time to take her anti-venom potion, clearing her mind enough to get back to the slog. Her next flame burst brought her almost to empty.

  Already! No, there’s still so many! Ash screamed internally, resolving to find a way to improve her channelling efficiency further, assuming she even got out of this fight alive that is.

  “I’m out!” She warned Hestia, who nodded and moved up beside her, casting with additional pace to compensate. Ash knew that meant it was only a matter of time before the woman drained herself too. Once again, she cursed her lack of endurance. Hestia could afford to easily sling out these spells, they cost half as much for her after all! Plus, her pushes dealt enough damage to kill most of the ants that she hit. Anything Ash did at range would merely buffet the weak creatures.

  Ash seethed at her own impotence. After all her work, after all her gains, she still paled in comparison to a true mage. She forced her frustration into her swings, splattering ant after ant as the tide continued.

  Hestia’s casting began to slow again. The frequency of bites increased. Ash’s health began to fall faster that Ama regenerated it. Below 20. Now below 10. Ash was about to shout that she needed to fall back when the tide suddenly shifted. The next kinetic push forcing the ants back, but this time they didn’t resume after. Instead, they retreated, vanishing into the darkness beyond the glow from Ash’s club.

  Ash slumped against the wall. Panting and exhausted. She noticed that her stamina was on the brink of running out too.

  Too close. She thought. I should have retreated earlier. Logically, Hestia can take more hits than I can, letting me recover a moment before I take the front again. Ash once again realised she was not making the best use of her team. She wasn’t fighting alone here. She needed to let some of the others carry some of the burden, take some of the danger off of her. I’m still the least sturdy one here! You’re not a tank Ash, not even a bruiser. I basically have an assassin build, albeit with a big stupid club instead of a stealthy dagger.

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  “Finally got the big bastard” She heard Vidar say from the front, the fight seeming to have ceased over there as well.

  “What did I tell you! We can handle fighting on two fronts, easy. If it wasn’t for that Hive Guardian, this would have been over in under a minute. Blasted ants. They’re such a scourge. But keep your guard up. With how big this nest seems, they’re holding back on us. I expect we’ll face another group of the giant bastards before the queen.”

  They stepped into the next chamber, Ama and Ash’s light sources illuminating the cavern and revealing a strange cluster of white bulges on one side. “Look.” Stavos continued “This is an egg chamber. We should destroy them now. Lance, if you could do the honours.”

  Lance nodded and stepped forward. A single cast of his spark wave spell rippled through the clustered ant eggs, the sacks searing and rupturing as the energy coursed through them. Thick amber fluid starting to leak from the rents, followed by an acrid smell.

  “Alright. An egg chamber means we’re close. This could be the final push.” Stavos called out “Gather near the far entrance and we’ll take 10 to recover. Then we push forward. Understand?”

  The group nodded. Despite Stavos’s bravado, only him and Vidar didn’t look fatigued. Ash guessed that their higher-level stats meant they still had more in the tank, while Lance, Ama and Hestia looked visibly strained and she felt like she was about to keel over.

  Ama handed around a waterskin and some strips of sweet jerky. After a drink, and a good few minutes of serious rest, Ash did have to admit she did feel a lot better. Her stamina was full, her Hit-points and Will mostly recovered at 29 and 57 respectively. Hopefully the rest would come back before the next fight. She also noticed that her skills had improved, her frost touch was now 6, Great-hammers 18, her arcane conduit was up to 15, and her flame burst hand started to rise now too, up to 3 already. Clearly the damage from the added momentum counted towards the skill’s advancement. Overall, more progress than she would have thought possible a few days ago.

  Rest now over, the group crept along the next passage, wary of each small forager or guardian sized side tunnels that they passed. Nothing had emerged yet, but Ash expected that small openings like those were what the ants had used to get behind them last time.

  “I’m not very effective against lots of small opponents like these foragers.” Ash complained. “I can’t cast these sweeping spells like you or Lance”

  “I think that’s a limitation of many close-range fighters.” Hestia consoled her “But I think you manage better than some. Some weapons may be faster than yours, but you’re cutting through several with each hit and giving me the space to cast freely, that’s enough. I liked that fire thing you did too. That seemed effective.”

  “Sure, but it costs like 12 Will a cast.” Ash sighed “Having to channel anything useful doubles my costs, even with the inscription you taught me.”

  “Ouch.” Hestia said sympathetically. “We really need to find you a more efficient mana conductor.”

  “That’s possible?” Ash asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, I think I mentioned before that some metals and woods are better than others, but there’s actually-”

  They suddenly stopped, Stavos had raised a hand. There was a distinct sound, coming from up ahead. faint chittering and what sounded like hissing along with several other harder to distinguish noises. He beckoned them forward and they suddenly emerged into a massive cavern. It was a good 4 times the size of the previous one. Ants were everywhere, completely covering a large central mound. At the top of it stood a hulking shape, a great bulbus while sack of undulating flesh.

  “The Queen,” Stavos breathed “Be careful. She’ll be at least level 5 and have the same stats as a humanoid of her level.”

  “They’re distracted.” Vidar commented, and indeed the ants did not seem to have noticed them, focused on the far side of the chamber where the strange sounds and scattered lights were casting vast shadows throughout the cavern. “Should we rush her?”

  “I don’t-” Stavos started, then paused as one of the giant guardians, or Hive guardians as he had called them, strode along the back line of the ants. There was a moment of silence as the whole group held their breaths, then the guardian’s head turned, jerking to a halt as it found them.

  Another moment passed, both groups staring silently at one another.

  “To hells with it,” Stavos snarled “Take it down!” He started running forwards, summoning his barrier. Vidar loosed a bolt at the creature before Ash even moved. Then she rushed after him. “Kill it, then onto the Queen!” Stavos yelled “They’ll scatter without leadership!”

  The Hive Guardian screeched out a chittering roar and a whole section of the massed ants turned, immediately surging forwards towards them. Vidar’s bolt caught it in the shoulder, and it raised its shield arms, blocking another bolt before charging forwards itself.

  Stavos planted his barrier just before the wave of ants hit, slashing Eric’s sword down at an infiltrator that had snuck past. Hestia and Lance started yelling out spells, blasts of force and lightning zipping past her. Ash only had eyes for the Hive guardian. It was distracted, fending off Vidar’s bolts. That gave her a chance to strike. She leapt over the tide of foragers, swinging her large club in a wide arc. Fire blasted out of the back, propelling her and her weapon forwards until it slammed down onto the ant’s shoulder, cracking a great icy chunk of its arm clean off of its body. The next bolt slammed into its face, finishing the creature off for good.

  Ash roared with triumph and continued forward. She knew she was being reckless, but she also knew the best defence she had right now was her offence. She smashed an ice blast though a smaller guardian’s guard, swept her hammer through a trio of foragers, than blasted a leaping infiltrator from the air. She continued forward, blasted down another guardian and suddenly, the way ahead of her was clear. She had broken through the line of ants. Ahead of her, at the top of the mound, sat the great bulbus form of the Queen, still turned away from them despite the fight breaking out in her home.

  Ash considered for a moment. She knew that behind her lay a sea of ants, separating her from her companions. Ahead of her, the queen lay, seemingly unaware and defenceless. Fuelled by the adrenaline pounding through her veins, there was only one option that Ash truly considered. That Queen needed to die.

  Ash rushed up the mound, straight towards the Queen’s great white backside.