Chương 58: A Massacre

Coburn climbed down and sat on a stone that was protruding at the mid-cliff. It waited for a few moments before picking up a small stone and hurling it to its left. Clack. The small stone made a sound. In the silent quarry, the sound echoed loudly. Instinctively, all the ants that were working to remove the stones at the entrance of the cave turned towards the sound. However, the echo made the location of the origin hard to detect.

But, the big ant, which seemed to be the leader of the group, was not confused like the other worker ants. Its head did not move at any other echoing sound. When the worker ants were about to move to a different location, the leader ant's antennae twitched. Every one of the worker ants stopped moving and went back to their previous work. However, before the worker ants could continue their work, the sound echoed again. This time, however, the worker ants did not bother to listen to the leader ant.

In the next second, all the ants started to run in the direction where the last echo vibrated. The leader ant tried hard, but it was unable to control its workers. Its mandibles ticked and its antennae twitched as its focus locked onto the sound's original location. Clack. The sound echoed for a third time. Without hesitation, the leader ant sprinted towards the original location of the sound. Arthur, who watched all this from the cliff, was very impressed by Coburn's intelligence.

It had successfully separated the worker ants and the leader ant. Now, the only job remaining was to kill the Black-core Ant, then scram from this ant colony. However, before Arthur could delight in the successful hunt, something entered his eyes at the bottom of the cliff. A big ant, the same as the leader ant, exited from one of the caves. Its antennae twitched continuously, as if it was having a seizure.

Before long, the ants that went searching for enemies returned and started their work as if nothing had happened. Currently, Arthur could not see the leader ant that went to the original location where Coburn threw the stone. Coburn, itself, had also disappeared from the stone. Hence, he did not know if that leader ant was called back before reaching the spot where his skeletons fixed the spot to hunt. He hoped it would not come back after hearing the command from the other leader ant.

If so, all the work would be wasted. However, even after a while, the ant did not return. Arthur felt the hunt was successful, and he expected his skeleton to walk to his location at any time now. Suddenly, he saw some activity going on; the new leader and the worker ants started to agitate. Arthur guessed the leader ant who went to check the sound sent some signal when it was attacked.

The agitation of the worker ants increased to the level where they immediately darted towards the location where the signal came from. The worker ants completely ignored their second leader ant once again. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The leader ant at the entrance of the cave signaled the other ants inside the cave. Then it, too, dashed toward the direction the worker ants had gone. Arthur felt the skeletons must have struggled to quickly kill off the leader ant.

That must be the reason for this unexpected turn of events, which he wanted to avoid from the start. However, the same thing was now going to transpire. Once the second leader ant disappeared from Arthur's sight, an army of ants started to exit from the multiple caves.

"God damn it. Didn't I say to run away once they got the Night Crystal Core?" Arthur muttered. However, when he thought about what command he had given before, he felt unsure about it. The amount of ants exiting from the caves would fill the big quarry. It would even spill out of the quarry. That many ants were exiting. Worker ants in multiple sizes, leader ants in multiple sizes and colors, and even some ants with a whole body of metal ran towards the location.

'Did the killing of the leader ant trigger this phenomenon?' Arthur thought. Otherwise, how could this many ants exit as if their territory were attacked by enemies? Seeing the situation, Arthur could not sit around here while his skeletons were overwhelmed by these ants and eventually destroyed. If that were to happen in this place, that would cripple his plan. He would rather go blind instead of losing his skeletons.

With that thought, Arthur started running along the edge of the cliff, heading towards the location the ants went. Meanwhile, his three skeletons closely followed him. After running for a while, he slowed his pace. If he were to make a commotion and expose himself to the ants, he would be torn into a thousand pieces by those iron ants. Hence, once he neared the location, he started to crawl, using his stomach to move along the ground. Soon, he started to hear the commotion where the battle was happening.

Craning his neck, Arthur tried to see what was occurring. In the midst of the sea of ants, three white figures stood in a triangle position. Their weapons moved without any extra motion. With every slash, every thrust, and every slam, one ant was killed. Around them, a mountain of corpses was scattered, with green fluid gushing from the corpses. Seeing this grueling battle, Arthur's stomach growled. It was a nasty battle for the ants, not for the skeletons.

Even when the skeletons were struggling to clear the overwhelming charge of the ants, it was easily cleared with a single [Sweeping Slash] from Dolph. As far as Arthur could see, Dolph would be the MVP of this battle. Its iron spear continuously rotated, thrust, and swept. Every attack it made killed a dozen ants. Not only could the worker ants not withstand its attack, but even the leader ant with a metal body was easily slayed by it. That being said, Coburn and Maan were not struggling, either.

Coburn, especially, meticulously used its sword to slay the ants. Every slash and every cleave took an ant's life. As far as Arthur could see, Maan would be the least if a competition were conducted for how many enemies were killed by each. Basically, Maan was a tanker; it was not very effective in a killing battle. However, that did not mean it was sitting around doing nothing. Every time its door shield descended, a few ants' heads were crushed. With every [Shield Charge], it broke iron mandibles.

It was a cruel massacre in the quarry. The ants were slaughtered left and right. Arthur, however, did not know what to do now, since this was not the plan in the first place. But, considering the situation, he could continue this battle without stopping. The more monsters slayed, the more materials; the more materials, the more skeletons. Which was his ultimate goal!