It noticed..!

For a few moments, Alice froze, feeling nothing but blood rush to the tips of her fingers and hearing only heart clamor, bub, bum, bum. Then the snakefly moved its head away and the girl exhaled.

I cannot run, I cannot run, I cannot run!

Warm metal taste filled her mouth when she bit through her lip.

The motherfucker doesn't count me as a threat yet. I cannot run. It might... will level up as long as it survives today. This nest is too close to my node, blocks it. Now is my lucky chance to put it into the ground or I will never leave the safe zone and starve there to death. 

"Ha, ha."

She breathed heavily, fortunate the battle below was covering for her. The monster was just too scary. It was three times her length and the tail alone was as long as her spear if Alice somehow could hold the latter by its end. The girl had no advantages in reach and the damn thing could on top of that fly.

No... It would have dispatched of all ants already.

The level 10 snakefly was overseeing the battle, yes, and protecting the biggest stalagmite with its collection of eggs. Other snakeflies dying seemed to have nothing to do with it.

Snakeflies are smarter than ants, they use simple tactics. This thing is three times bigger than level 9. Is it some sort of quality evolution between them? But its ass must be too heavy for a flight now, the dungeon screwed.

Finding an explanation that made sense, Alice felt somewhat confident again. Since the big monster was anchored to the ground, it had to wait until ants couldn't beat it in direct combat. No matter how many smaller snakeflies fell, the main guardian must survive. Unfortunately for the colony, ants had smart workers on their side.

As the battle went on more snakeflies fell, ground in pieces by ants' mandibles and all the more the big boss grew restless. Several times it readied to rush down to join the fun but held back. Every time Alice would ready her bow and put it down in accordance.

In the meantime, the girl watched. No, observed. How the snakeflies flew, their maneuverability, favorite trajectories. Ants' tactics, how fast they could accelerate and stop, what angles would they turn. She soaked in it deep.

An invisible tip was overturned when the number of flying snakeflies went down to five, only two of them male, and the nine remaining ants started to crush the closest stalagmite nest. The big boss snakefly screeched so loud a few stones fell from the ceiling and dashed down. A bladed tail flashed like a shadow.

[Ant Lvl. 6] was stabbed, lifted in the air and then tossed away as it was an empty can, not a mighty dungeon monster.

Worker ants stood on their back legs together as by a command. They lunged, and three yellow liquid jets hit the big boss. The tail of the latter hit the smallest of the workers, brushed it aside easily, but too late: all survived ants moved their antennas, silently, and then they all stampeded at the ground snakefly like a flock of frenzied bulls. The five snakeflies dived, but were ignored entirely.

An arrow swished through the air and topped one of the female snakeflies from the air easily.

Despite the ants having shown a new trick, Alice still believed in snakeflies' victory. Soon she was proved right.

The big boss was surrounded, but not overwhelmed. It trashed around, hitting ants, rocks, stalagmites, and low-lying eggs indiscriminately with its tail, legs, neck and sometimes wings, successfully preventing the berserking ants from getting a ride on itself. Male snakeflies stabbed two ants. One of them was killed by a worker ant, another...

[+700 EXP, +140 BP]

...was found by an arrow. By now, Alice had hit three snakeflies and wasted two arrows: despite her high bow skill, her targets were moving more randomly, not even one staying still or simply running at her in a straight line. Seven arrows in her quiver and only one snakefly besides the big boss persisted in a fighting condition. Right now it was pumping eggs into a half-paralyzed ant. When the poor bastard tumbled down, Alice finished the snakefly.

[+800 EXP, +160 BP]

After clearing the field, Alice halted. The big boss and invaders reached a stalemate.

Five ants remained, but one of them had all right legs crashed with fighting capabilities being dubious at best. Two workers prevailed, their shape bad. Now they were harassing the big monster from flanks with hit-and-run.

The big boss got the worst of it. Alice had definitely made it chew beyond its limits. Fragile wings were mostly gone; two legs were mutilated and the whole body and neck had multiple holes with dark yellow blood oozing out. The most important, its tail was almost gnawed off and being uselessly dragged around.

Will it struggle to get revenge? A crazy thought popped up in the girl's head. No, they are not humans. Just a bunch of instincts in stupidly big sizes.

The monster snakefly could only defend itself with kicks, body slams, and still had slaughter bites from above due to its long neck. Two normal ants were stupid enough to get eventually killed, but the big boss clearly recognized the worker ants as the biggest threat. Hence the stalemate.

I need to push them into the corner. It's losing liquids and numbers beat raw power.

The girl lifted her bow and pulled the string, an arrow already nocked.

Her eyes watched ants spinning around intently.

The fingers would pull the string back sometimes, then relax. Alice wasn't in a hurry. She needed the best shot for not many arrows where left.

So the girl waited.

Her heart pounded slower and weaker.

Unknowingly, her grey eyes reddened just a little.

They were... dancing? Once awakened, this primeval not a thought; conviction brimmed her over.

The world in her eyes painted in all tones of white.

Ants weren't running anymore, they were crawling, following rhythms Alice could not even begin to comprehend.

Following just movements proved to be much easier though. What timing, what best shot? The girl simply pulled the bowstring and let it fly. The arrow drew a line in the air with a joyful whiz. Alice blinked. What was that..? She wasn't stupid, she recognized a disease after looking at the symptoms without a 'life-and-death' excuse for once. What is happening to me?

Normally she would ponder deeply, but the fight over the snakeflies' colony rose to its most dramatic hights. Her arrow hit – how could it not? – and pierced a worker ant from the back to its neck and nailed it to the ground, the new bow was that good. The snakefly boss darted as by a signal at one of the ants, bit down on its head, crashing through the carapace. The last ant and the level 9 worker beset it. The stupid one just clenched on the snakefly's leg like a mad dog, the smarter one jumped and landed on the big boss's back.

The monster snakefly screeched and arched, then rolled on the ground. The normal ant got flattened but didn't turn the grip loose, the other ran on the rolling snakefly like it was a barrel in a circus until the latter crashed into a wall!

The worker ant bit, and bit, not letting to be thrown off and the snakefly screeched. The worker reached the neck soon. Champ!

The victory was close when an arrow, and then another went through its body and bound the two enemies forever. Swish, swish, swish, Alice put everything she got into the snakefly's joints, neck, legs, five shafts in total plus the last one for the remaining dull half-dead ant.

[+800 EXP, +160 BP]

"Sorry for cs¹Creep steal guys." The girl muttered, gazed over the cave one last time and jumped down.

She was really interested in how much the system would give her for a level 10 snakefly and two worker ants, among paralyzed, grounded and immobilized common rodents' lot she could still see the active status of.