Devon sighed, looking over the fields outside the village.  Cleaning up would take ages, but they had more pressing matters at hand.  The Black Tide had broken upon their defenses, but unless the nest was dealt with, they had only bought a little time.  He turned back to the village and returned to Amilya’s home.

Along the way, Devon ran into the child he saw as he brought Niphru in.  They shifted nervously for a second before calling out, catching his attention.  As Devon focused on him, he stated, “I think I can guess what is going on, we aren’t safe unless the anthill is destroyed,” and with a nod from Devon, he continued, “I think it might be worth trying to catch the queen alive.  Dawn bonded with a wild fox, maybe she can bond with the queen too and make it help us.”

Devon considered this for a moment, then replied, “I am not sure if we can manage that, but it is an interesting idea.  I will bring it up before we go, thank you for sharing it with me.”

The boy nodded his head, then ran back to the western gate where the others were still unloading the carts for evacuation that luckily hadn’t been needed.

Devon arrived at Amilya’s house, finding her outside among a crowd of villagers.  He was pleasantly surprised to find her holding her composure, even if it was clearly forced.  Even better, she had begun instructing everyone that they needed a force of volunteers to head into the woods to destroy the nest, saving him time explaining.

As he watched, about half of the farmers volunteered before heading back to the north, presumably to gather their equipment.  Three people he had learned were water mages also volunteered, nodding to him as they passed him towards the eastern gate.  Amilya herself indicated she would be remaining, which he understood, but she waved him over before explaining that the best hunter in the village was already tracing down the exact location of the colony and would meet them back at the remains of the forest lord they had slain.

Thanking her, Devon headed towards the eastern gate, stopping by the healer’s house to check on his injured men.  The one who had caught a blast of acid in the face would likely not recover his sight even with the best efforts, but the others who were only splashed were expected to recover, aside from scarring.  Unfortunately, one had been too severely maimed and succumbed to their injuries in the hours since he had last visited.

After checking their health, he headed to the barracks, finding all the men there ready to leave and willing to join in.  Devon brought them along to the gate, finding a few farmers present with the mages, and more arriving from moment to moment.  Eventually they stated everyone was present, and they headed into the forest.  Due to the lack of vegetation in the path the Black Tide had taken, they made good time, unimpeded by any wildlife, as they had either fled or been consumed.

Several hours later, they arrived at the immense shell of the former forest lord, finding a woman with a sling who introduced herself as Diara.  She had located the nest nearby, and warned them of a fair number of ants still present there, though everyone agreed it was manageable.  One of his mages suggested cutting down some of the trees and using fire as a shield in case they got surrounded, which he agreed with.  Those of his men with axes began to hack down some of the smaller saplings, with the rest gathering them up as the farmers kept a lookout, holding their scythes at the ready.

Once everyone was prepared, they followed Diara for a while before they began seeing ants roaming around.  As they were spread out, there was no difficulty for the farmers in cutting them down, and they continued forward.  Eventually, they saw an immense mound of wilted foliage, larger than the forest lord had been, sitting beside a much smaller mound of dirt.  As they watched, more ants arrived carrying foliage they deposited in the pile, or meat they brought into the anthill.

Ants began closing in from every direction as they approached, and his men began tossing down the saplings.  The mage who had suggested the idea walked around the perimeter igniting each one as he passed by.  While everyone was stopped, Devon brought up the idea of trying to capture the queen ant, finding no major opposition, especially when he mentioned only attempting it if they could do so safely.

Finding everyone in agreement, they began advancing towards the nest, throwing down more saplings to the sides as they went, the fire spreading to them from behind.  Once they actually reached the hive, there were hundreds of ants surrounding them from all directions.  The fire proved to be a great idea, as it restricted the ants to only approaching from the front, allowing the farmers to effortlessly cleave through the swarm while any that attempted to bypass them simply burned.

Having arrived at the anthill, the last saplings were used to ring around it, preventing returning ants from approaching.  The warriors then switched to their clubs and stood guard as the farmers changed from scythes to shovels and began digging up the colony, occasionally beating the warriors as an ant emerged, splattering it with the head of a shovel.

Nearly half an hour later, the fire went out, ants swarming them from all directions.  Half the farmers switched back to their scythes, rotating in shifts to defend the others.  Eventually one of those shoveling shouted, spotting an oversized ant in a chamber they had just breached.  Larger ants boiled out of the nest, only to be crushed before they could take action.  Several moments later, the majority of the ants were dead, and the chamber was fully exposed.

Devon volunteered to take the risk, jumping down and grappling with the queen.  Within seconds he had managed to roll it over, and maintained a firm grasp on its head, keeping it from retaliating.  Finding it went far easier than expected, he called several others to assist in carrying it back to the village.  Before they left, they ignited the pile of vegetation, leaving a rising pillar of smoke behind.

As they arrived back at the village, one of the farmers offered his barn for containing the queen, explaining that they had used enough animals as bait during the attack that one barn could be completely emptied.  After depositing the queen within, two farmers remained there to ensure it didn’t escape, or produce too many ants, tossing a small amount of meat into a pile for it to consume.