To protect our men's safety, we have to kill every leader-type we can find, and we shall do so with extreme force!

I dispel [Invisibility], then I fill Patrono with mana, and it bursts with light, blinding the bugs and making them cower in fear, if they can even feel such complex emotion, then we dive.

"RAAAAAGH!" Hana, Aoi, and I roar in unison with righteous fury.

My current MP isn't that low, so I pull more mana into me with [Redirect Mana], refilling my pool, only to use it up by summoning the Masked Aberrant.

Three meters tall; four huge, muscular limbs like logs that keep its long body high above the ground; curved claws for grasping onto wood; stone slabs that look like scales; a vertical, rectangular stone "mask" that has square, glowing eyes and a square, glowing mouth; and a long, dexterous tail with sharp-looking metal scales protruding out of it. A murder machine.

The beast falls onto a Leader Mantis, crushing the bug into a paste, then it spins, swiping its tail at everything around it, the force behind the blades enough to throw away the Trains that it hits along with the mangled remains of the other bugs.

Aoi forgoes controlling the golems and crashes through the bugs, leaving a long line of crushed corpses behind as she just lets her body weight do the work.

Alissa, Roxanne, and the golems remain up high, far out of reach of both ranged bugs as they pick off the Red Barrels that could threaten us.

Spears are useless here, and even our swords have trouble cutting through their exoskeletons, so the girls use maces to crack some skulls.

There's no room to be cautious, not even enough time for us to see if our hits land properly. The girls spin with their attacks, then they hear the sickening crunch of an exoskeleton breaking followed by the feeling of striking something fleshy, and they take a chunk of it along with their weapons, spreading bug innards everywhere.

I hold Patrono at a distance with a tentacle, making it harder for the Frogs to grab me as I carve a line through their ranks, doing as much damage as I can.

These unthinking, unfeeling monsters deserve no mercy, no pity. They serve no other purpose than to be a thorn in the lives of humanoids, to be a plague upon our existence, so I have no problem with exterminating them to the very last one.

And to protect our men, I let my disgust and anger fuel my draconic thirst for carnage.

The density of bugs in our path is reduced as the Aberrant becomes the target of most of the bug army, but the summon is a relentless beast, so it fights with brutality as it kites them, abusing its higher strength and nimbleness to crush anything that comes close.

The few Trains in our path rear up like horses to try to impede us, but they're harmless since it's so easy to dodge them, so we just focus on the Spitters and Frogs that we can kill on the way as we seek out each and every Mantis Leader.

Patrono's brilliance is helpful, but not enough to make all of these bugs permanently blind.

Lina has the most trouble with flying out of all of us, so she becomes an easy target for the Frogs. The first tongue that grabs onto her is easily cut off, and so is the second, but then it's quickly followed by a third, and then comes a fourth, and she isn't fast enough to cut them all off.

Her small amount of mass makes it easy for them to pull her down, and she smacks down onto the tunnel's floor with a heavy thud.

I summon her before the Trains can crush her, but then she gets caught two more times, and the violent yanking around is making her dizzy.

"LET ME GO DOWN! I'LL FACE THEM ON THE FLOOR!" She pleads through [Bind], then I summon her once again and use a tentacle to punt her towards a spot on the floor that's clear of living bugs.

She touches the ground, then casts [Earth Wall] around her, creating a small funnel so that the Trains can't catch her from behind. This draws a good deal of attention from the bugs, making it even easier for us to hunt down the Mantis Leaders and allowing the Aberrant to increase its level of destruction.

A Witch starts screeching, and Alissa detects a pattern in its pitch change, which indicates that it's giving orders, and once she finds the grasshopper-like bug that's making the infernal sounds, she notices that a Mantis Leader has its tentacles on the Witch's head.

"It's altering its behavior!" She shouts in my soul space as she kills both of them with an [Arrow of Annihilation], but then the other Leaders use their tentacles on the Witches too, and the cave echoes with mind-shattering screeching, so I pull back from my carnage so that I can better observe the battlefield as it changes.

The Trains ignore Lina and shield the Mantis Leaders, protecting them with their bodies while the Frogs lie in wait for when we come closer, then they barrage us with their tongues, pulling us down so that the Spitters, Trains, and Crabs can have their way with us. The Barrels also avoid the pile of bugs to not give us a chance to blow them up.

Hana and Ciel get caught, forcing me to summon them while Aoi simply pulls back up out of range again, dragging a dozen Frogs along with her. Yunia fares better thanks to [Precognition], but she can't approach due to the sheer number of Frogs.

Then I also get caught and panic for a moment as I realize that I don't have a [Gate] coordinate nearby, so I use Patrono to free myself and fly away towards a safe corner where I can set our retreat point.

More bugs pour in through a tunnel, and the number of protectors for the Mantis Leaders only increases, then we notice that the air is starting to burn our lungs again. This, coupled with the headache from the screeching, is making us all very stressed.

Due to the constant noise, my voice doesn't reach the Aberrant, and it gets too close to a pile of bugs. Now agglomerated, the Frogs manage to slow down the large summon, allowing the Spitters to rain acid upon its flesh. The stone plates don't cover everything, so the Aberrant quickly begins to melt, and I decide to unsummon it and recover some MP before it can die and waste it all.

Since there aren't any monsters after her now, Lina casts [Earth Wall] again, giving her a magical hold of the stone under her, then she forcefully makes it disappear, creating a long hole downwards. She repeats the process, digging a tunnel towards the nearest Mantis Leader that she could kill.

For now, only Patrono and Roxanne can assassinate the Leaders. Aoi can just crash through the pile, but I don't want her to do something as risky as that considering how the Masked Aberrant met its end.

A rumbling suddenly draws our attention, but then we become puzzled as Alissa detects gnomes and pixies coming towards us from the direction of the sound.

I un-[Equip] Patrono and instantly notice the bugs' coordination improving.

Dammit! I don't want to show Patrono to them!

Alissa suddenly stops in confusion as she notices music coming from the same direction as the rumbling, then a wall suddenly breaks apart, and the sound of bagpipes and violins pours through.

A second later, a house-sized monstrosity of metal pushes through the wall. The first thing we see is a dozen drills and rock crushers, which are currently glowing from both magic and heat, then comes the cylindrical body, which has a dark brown and sparkly color, darksteel. It's dotted with pointy little protrusions that immediately start firing [Earth Bullet] and [Lava Jet] everywhere.

The huge drill slams onto the floor with an earth-shaking thud, then Alissa notices that there's a very-well covered pair of caterpillar tracks underneath it that simply grinds any bug that comes towards it into paste.

"THE FOURTH EXTERMINATOR SQUADRON HAS ARRIVED!" A cheerful, magically-enhanced gruff voice echoes throughout the cave, though it's almost drowned by the incessant screeching, and the monstrosity accelerates to an impressive speed, quickly turning two clumps of bugs into nothing but paste as it blasts music through its magical megaphones.

The Witches change their tune, and the Trains start to swarm towards the Exterminator, but it's simply too massive to be stopped by the puny monsters. Then pixies armed with lances emerge from the top of it and skewer the few that manage to climb onto the beast. They're so small that I can only see the little dots of light from their [Spirit Light]s zipping about.

The girls and I simply stare in awe at the size of that thing. What an absolute unit.

Then a chorus of gnomes starts singing.

"♪ To save our fatherland from any monster attack. ♪

♪ From vicious giant insects who have once again come back. ♪

♪ We'll unleash all our forces, we won't cut them any slack. ♪

♪ The EGDF deploys! ♪"

The defensive piles thin out as the Mantis Leaders clearly see the Exterminator as a greater threat than us, so we resume assassinating them while the gnomes and pixies deal with the bulk of the monster army.

The battle lasts only a mere minute from that point as the Exterminator reduces everything to paste while we finish off all the Mantis Leaders, ensuring that they can't put up any sort of resistance to our attack.

Once we've killed the last screeching Witch, we're finally allowed to hear again, and we gather together to let Ciel [Heal] our ears, starting with Alissa's, then I put the dragon back in its cage, though I don't lock it just yet.

As the treatment begins, a pixie comes closer, and I notice that her body is covered in stone except for her butterfly wings. She's using [Earth Armor], which seems better than normal armor since you can shed it and rebuild it at will if you're ever caught by a Frog. Her face is also covered by rock, with only a few holes under her chin to let her breathe and a thick glass visor protecting her eyes.

We take our helmets off, and the pixie's suddenly cracks open, revealing Tinkerbell's grinning and sweaty face. She glances at Aoi's draconic form, and her face stiffens for a split second, but she hides her fear and surprise very well.

"What a chance meeting. I certainly didn't expect to see the Ryder Lords here," she visibly shouts, but our ears are still so damaged that it's barely audible.

I nod diligently and explain, "We noticed that the leader-types were giving our men a hard time, so we decided to come forward to deal with them to avoid taking losses."

She raises her eyebrows and parts her red lips in surprise. "How bold. Never let anyone say that you don't care for your men."

Lina flies up to us and gives Belind a shy wave, who waves back rather slowly due to the weight of her rock armor.

The pixie's cute face then becomes serious as she reports, "I got a notice a few moments ago that this is the sixth outpost that we've wiped out, so rest assured that the hardest part of this battle is almost over. They shouldn't have that many leader-types left, so the Exterminators will converge on their nest soon."

I look at the beastly vehicle and notice that it's going towards another wall, not the tunnel that the monster reinforcements are coming from.

Ciel [Heal]s me while her [Holy Spirit] heals the pixie, then I admit in a normal voice, "I'm curious about what's going on in that nest."

She frowns worriedly along with half of the girls, then she kindly warns me, "Be careful when approaching it. The monsters that protect it are much more dangerous than the soldiers that they send to attack us."

I hum in agreement. "I understand. Going by how much things are diverting from our original plan, all I really know about the nest is that I know nothing, which is why I'm so curious about it." Then I grin.

Alissa grunts tiredly and chimes in, "You do have a hobby of dealing with dangerous things."

Belind shrugs and continues, "Well, it's true that the monster nest has us all puzzled, but if you're that inclined to explore it, then perhaps you could take a ride in the Exterminator." -Her serious expression is instantly replaced by a wry grin- "Just be warned: it's cramped, even for a gnome."

"We'll pass…" Yunia immediately answers as politely as she can.

Considering how sweaty the pixie is, I believe it's for the best that we remain outside, not that we're any better, we just don't want to get worse.

Then the Exterminator suddenly stops near the wall, though the music continues without interruption, and the pixies begin to retreat into the beast again.

Belind glances at it, then gives us an apologetic smile and gently states, "I have to go. I'd like to meet up with you again once this is over, or perhaps we shall meet at the nest?"

"That depends on what I see there," I assert.

She nods with a hum. "Godspeed and Godstrength to you. Until later."

I smile and nod back. "Likewise. Fight safely."

She shouts cheerfully as she flies backward, "Can't promise you that, but I will fight fiercely."

Then we both wave at each other, and she finally leaves.

Once all the pixies are back inside, the Exterminator moves forward again and drills a hole into the wall, leaving behind a large cloud of dust that irritates our noses, then the music slowly fades along with the rumbling.

More bugs pour out from the tunnel ahead, but we're too far up for them to threaten us, so they just run around like headless chickens since there's no leader-type here to guide them.

I narrow my eyes in thought and deliberate, "We need to fly to get past the constant waves of monsters, so I don't think all of us should go."

"You already used [Redirect Mana] once," Alissa cautions me.

I shrug. "I'm the only one who can use [Gate], so I have to go."

"We don't really need to explore the nest, do we?" Ciel asks sarcastically.

"It's Wolfy, of course we do," Lina mumbles back.

I raise my hand for them to allow me to explain, "I'll keep to the back lines if a fight breaks out to conserve my energies."

"Hmm…" Ciel hums annoyedly with a pout.

Roxanne grumbles with an exaggerated pout, "You're just going to have us all fight for you while you rest, hm?"

"We're all far from exhausting ourselves, so we can handle a few battles," Hana honestly answers, and Roxanne shows her tongue in response.

"What about our men?" Yunia questions me sternly.

"I'll send you girls back to help them while Alissa and I scout," I calmly reply.

Yunia sighs and relents, "Fine, but you know my opinion."

I fly up to her and gently hold her head, then I give her forehead a kiss and smile warmly at her. "Thanks for being so caring."

She turns her face away snobbishly. "Trying to mollify me won't change my opinion."

"Not my intention," I whisper gently as I release her. "Alright, let's go."

 

Alissa and I continue scouting just as we did before by using [Invisibility] while seeing through a Holly and an Ice Wraith, which allows us to fly past the waves of bugs unimpeded.

The temperature continues to rise until it becomes uncomfortable for us, and the air becomes thick with steam, then the sound of trickling water reaches our ears as little streams appear everywhere.

We even find a few Thalantro scouts hunting down the remaining lava hybrids. The bugs are good swimmers and seem to have no problem walking on wet stone, so the scouts avoid the bugs since they don't have the advantage against them in a fight, unlike when they're up against the slowed lava hybrids.

The waves of monsters coming for our men suddenly become disorganized again, greatly reducing the pressure, then the Prince reports that all of the leader-types have been eliminated, so everything is back under control.

Alissa and I eventually encounter the first sentry, a dog-sized dragonfly that's so still that it's nearly invisible. Seriously, in the dark, misty tunnels, it's actually hard to see it without [Sense Presence], and it even has the monster version of [Hide Presence], so Alissa and the Holly both have to get pretty close to see it, and though the Ice Wraith doesn't have this problem, the range of its vision is rather short.

The sentry has a Witch in its grasp, which means that they work together as the eyes and alarm system for the bugs, but they don't seem to be able to see or sense magic, so we just fly past them without issue.

We pass near a few obsidian galleries, which means that there was once lava here that cooled rapidly, though we can't ascertain when that was. The long patches of shiny black obsidian are quite a pretty sight, actually, but we don't have time for sightseeing.

Then we start to encounter dozens of lava hybrids in rock form, slowly heating themselves back up. We've finally entered an area that the Thalantro haven't passed through yet.

Shortly after that, we encounter a light coming from further along the misty tunnel, so we follow it to its source, and we discover a partially-flooded, underground magical forest crawling with bugs. The nest.

We see a huge cave filled with sparkly gems that are lit up with extremely faint light, which allows us to see the outlines of huge mushrooms and rather grotesquely shaped plants of all sizes. Small lights move about the forest, and from their size, they seem to be newborn underworld creatures that are tending to the plants or cutting down what looks like fruits.

One of those creatures comes near us, giving us a good view of it. It's a red, ugly imp the size of an apple, with a small flame at the tip of its long tail. Like a fantasy evil Charmander.

Some of them are riding bugs like one would take a bus, using them to go back and forth between the plants, while others swing from the branches like monkeys.

Then, further in, we notice something big moving. Four sets of flaming eyes suddenly light up, revealing the outline of horse-sized heads, then they suddenly spread out and bite into the mushrooms, quickly devouring them in under a minute.

I order the Holly to move a little further ahead, and the mist clears a bit more, allowing us to see the rest of the monster. The heads are all connected to a long, quadrupedal body of a size comparable to the Exterminators. Its hide doesn't have scales and appears to be rugged like a crocodile's, so it isn't related to dragons.

It's a Cave Hydra, threat level five, capable of killing a squad of knights. Though it looks fearsome, it's below our level, even without Patrono, and its feet end in pitifully puny claws, completely ruining its image for me.

The Hydra's body suddenly lights up with small red crystals embedded all over its hide, then its four heads growl, and fire escapes their mouths.

Well, a fire variant of the Cave Hydra has its threat level bumped up to six, but that's still not really a threat. Though, I don't know if we can sneak past it since it's a full-blown magical creature, which makes it a lot more sensitive to magic than the stupid bugs.

While we come up with a plan, something else catches our eye. A very human-like, bipedal, iguana man appears, carrying a large cocoon.

The red lizard man puts it down before a group of waiting bugs, then its hands glow, and strings wrap around the cocoon.

The Holly detects some sort of chaotic magic going on inside it, making us all puzzled as we've never heard of such a thing before. Then the cocoon suddenly bursts, and a Leader Mantis pops out, its opaque exoskeleton now glowing blue with light that waves about like the sea.

"What the fuck…?" We all grunt in unison.

We've just witnessed the birth of a monster variant.