"Lord Kelvin. We've cleared the area. Should we go a bit deeper?"

"Patch, are any Companions requesting reinforcements?"

A young man wielding a slim Katana posed a question to a small orb floating next to him. The orb which was slightly larger a marble and held a crystal semi transparent core emitted a faint blue glow. Moments later, the light faded and a faint monotone voice echoed inside the mind of the young man.

[Reply. Enemy units in higher concentrations than predicted at Perfectus City. Backup is requested.]

Around the man, three other individuals who were part of the same team wore serious faces. Each member wore a deep blue outfit with a lion crest etched onto the shoulder in gold trim. Their suits were long on each member akin to a willow coat with gray vest underneath. Ignoring the various blood splatters on their deep blue pants, they merged seamlessly into the black trim edges of the coat. Skillfully sliding his sword back into its sheath, Kelvin issued his orders.

"Patch, send an amendment to headquarters and request permission to reinforce Perfectus City. Zeena. George. Silas. Let's start moving towards them. By the time the amendment is approved, it'll be too late."

[Reply. Requesting permission.]

"""Yes Sir!"""

On the battle front, the time between a request and arrival of reinforcements is critical. Knowing this, Kelvin issued the request and ordered his team to quickly start moving. They had cleared their area perfectly and no abnormalities could be detected when he casted life detection magic. Odds are, headquarters would approve the amendment, but Perfectus City might not hold out in the time it took the bureaucratic machine to move. In an attempt to save lives and maintain the war front, he and his team quickly began sprinting while utilizing reinforcement magic on their own bodies to boost their speed.

Keeping their bodies low as they ran, the terrain quickly slipped under the dark boots of each member as they haphazardly dodged trees with little space to spare. As they rapidly covered ground, inhuman battle cries could be heard slowly gaining in volume. Kelvin met eyes to his left with Zeena and lightly nodded his head. Understanding his intentions, Zeena leaped up from the undergrowth to a tree branch high off the ground. Maintaining her forward momentum she leaped up from branch to branch until reaching the canopy.

"Intra, Sky Walk."

[Reply. Executing Sky Walk. Requesting support.]

A blue orb slipped out from a small pocket near her chest and answered while floating and keeping pace with her. Kneading mana, Zeena grasped the small orb in her hand and transfered mana into it. Before her, a barely transparent rectangle with a green hue appeared. Zeena leaped onto the makeshift stair gaining height over the forest canopy. Controlling the flow of mana into the orb, a new stair appeared a short distance ahead. Each time her foot touched a stair a new stair formed ahead of her slightly higher then the previous. Behind her, the stairs disappeared as she maintained her speed. In hardly 2 minutes, Zeena was easily 100 meters above the surface of the canopy granting her vision near the source of the earlier war cries. Between the smoke rising in the distance and the swarm of moving bodies mingling together, she was unable to tell the state of the battle, much less friend from foe.

"Intra, Far Sight."

[Reply. Executing Far Sight in parallel with Sky Walk. Requesting support.]

Zeena lightly winced as she initially struggled to knead together a larger supply of mana. After ramping up her supply, the thought of two spells in parallel being her limit flashed across her mind causing her to grimace. In front of her right eye, a slight oval shaped distortion appeared. As she looked through it, her vision of the battle far off seemed much closer giving her details she lacked earlier.

It wasn't good. Of the swarm she saw earlier, it appeared that most of it consisted of the enemy. She was unable to clearly make out any complete squads hinting at a near total collapse of the front line. Out of place from the scene before her eyes, she felt a sense of pride swell up at the resolute orders her leader gave out. Had he hesitated, the front line would have been destroyed long before they arrived. Focusing back on her scouting, she gathered what information she could about the enemy, their numbers, positions, and similar about their allies.

"Intra, Relay to Patch."

Kelvin and his unit were still rapidly covering ground towards the battle as Patch echoed the report from Zeena into his head. After developing the situation in his mind, Kelvin ordered Zeena to return to the group.

The team maintained their pace and after passing over a shallow river, the scent of smoke and iron began to bleed into their nostrils. They had reached close enough now that various rumbles could be felt reverberating through the ground and an occasional bright light could be seen against the leaves high in the canopy. From the view Zeena reported earlier, massive deforestation visited the battle site creating a large semi-open haphazard plain. Kelvin ordered his unit to stop moments before entering the failing battle zone.

"Recast your magic reinforcement. We can't afford to have it wear off mid fight. Our mission is to support the retreat of the broken line only. Stick together once we enter battle and support each other. Priority of life goes to this team first followed by any allies we come across. Don't stray further than 30 meters from me. Intra, Deva, and Apex, maintain active communication with Patch and relay all orders real time."

[Alert from Headquarters. Order amendment request approved. Priority Message - Team Satyr is hereby ordered to support units in Perfectus City. Military groups from Zones E-12, E-13, E-15, C-6, and D-6 are moving as secondary support. ETA average of 26 minutes. ]

"It's about time... Change of plans team. From this moment on, we're acting as an assault squad. Our positioning should allow us to cut into the side of the enemy. Considering the average, I estimate The group from E-13 should reach us within 15 minutes. We'll act as decoys and cause confusion to the enemies back line. If we move rapidly and adopt hit and run tactics, we should be able ease front line pressure on Perfectus City's units until reinforcement arrive."

While Kelvin was invoking physical reinforcement magic on his body, Silas was doing a final check up on his gear. Their standard issue Katanas were imbued with magic circuits designed to increased the blade's sharpness and durability. Considering they had just fought off Demons reminiscent of enlarged ants, it was expected that the hard carapace could damage their swords. George and Zeena, noticing Silas, also followed along and checked over their gear to reassure themselves. Looking satisfied, Silas sheathed his Katana while expressing his thoughts to the group.

"If this batch is anything like them ant things we sliced up earlier, I doubt I can cut it up in one slash. George. How bout ya?"

"I dunno. It took a few swings just to thin the shell out enough where I could stab in through to the heart. Since we gotta move fast here, I can't see me being anything more than a annoyance to those things. Zeena. What about you?"

Hearing the question, Zeena smiled wryly at herself and raised her hands to shrug. Thinking back on the fight, it could have gone far worse for her, but the results weren't exactly good either.

"Honestly speaking... I could barely scratch them. In the end, I was forced into providing support since I couldn't deal damage directly. It hurts my pride to say that though. Lord Kelvin didn't seem to have any problems though. I hope you could give me some 1 on 1 lessons when we get back."

Taking advantage of the situation, Zeena nonchalantly slid closer to Kelvin while fluttering her eyes expectantly towards him. Without even recognizing her intent, Kelvin moved on to voice his detailed battle plan for hit and runs.

"Don't worry about your individual potential in this fight. We'll do it raiding style. I'll lead and mark targets for everyone. Just follow up and we will be effective."

Behind the team, a loud crash could be heard as another tree became victim to the violence. The loose atmosphere immediately tightened and the team took their stances. Judging his team was ready, Kelvin gave the order.

"Move out!"

Honoring his vanguard role, Kelvin dropped forward while lowering his body before smashing the ground and accelerating into battle. Each member followed one by one in turn until the group was progressing single file mirroring the steps their leader took. From above, the group appeared reminiscent of a centipede as they navigated increasingly disheveled forest terrain. Grasping sight of the enemy through a break in the tree trunks, Kelvin readied his Katana and began kneading extensive amounts of mana.

"Patch, let me know immediately when the first support Unit arrives after us."

[Reply. Understood.]

Breaking through the coverage at the edge of the battle field, the unit encountered ant like demons as they predicted. Without hesitating, Kelvin broke straight into the pack that was pushing the front line. Nearing the first enemy, he poured his kneaded mana into his blade causing it to glow slightly as the magic circuit inside it was invoked increasing the blade's durability and sharpness. The ant demon noticed the assault far too late. By the time it recognized it was under attack, it had already lost three limbs on the right side of its body. As the demon fell to the ground, it released a cry causing the surrounding demons to notice the team's existence. The cry did little though as the team pushed tens of meters deeper into the swarm. The moment Kelvin decided upon a target, he would nick the limbs with his sword at varying depths leaving the severance for his team following up. As the team was following single file, George would take the first limb by slicing at the exact same spot Kelvin notched earlier. Zeena following behind him would complete the cut for the next limb and Silas would eviscerate the final prepared limb. Acting as a single body, they were able to disable an enemies movement in under 2 seconds without having to pause or slow their pace.

The kept their pace for several minutes as team Satyr burrowed deep into the enemy lines and the effect was starting to show. There were signs of confusion amongst the demons and it appeared like their frontal assault had been slowing down. Thinking the front line at Perfectus City was starting to regroup and hold their defense easier, Kelvin let out a strained smile. He continued marking targets without slowing his pace but was monitoring his team's exhaustion periodically by notching a limb while rotating like a top. He could maintain this pace for quite a while more, but fatigue was starting to show in the actions of his members. Recently, their follow up slashes would sometimes be off center of some of the notches he prepared showing either a lack of mana, stamina, or both. Thinking about reinforcements and estimating the passage of time since they started, Kelvin determined it would be dangerous to pursue their current tactic and vectored his group towards the front line. Each notch he prepared for the teammates behind him were slightly deeper and more completed to help ease their fatigue even a little.

[Alert, Military support from groups E-13 and E-12 have arrived on site. Unification of combat power requested.]

"Patch, tell them we are headed their way."

[Reply. Understood.]

Deciding it would be better to quickly regroup with reinforcements rather than continue their raid while moving towards the front line, Kelvin increased the supply of mana to his sword causing it to glow brighter. Signaling his team with quick hand motions, Kelvin immediately began a one sided slaughter of the enemy opening a path up for his allies to follow through behind him. Engaging in fight after fight, he disabled each opponent by severing the limbs on a single side of the body without slowing his pace. Following behind him, his allies only see limbs flying through the air accompanied by screams. A rotten, sulfur like, smell hits the members as they travel across various limbs spewing an orange colored blood.

On the front line, the units that had originally broken ranks from the overwhelming swarm had started to regroup themselves. With reinforcements arriving from the military, pressure was gradually applied and the once vague battle field began to show a definitive defense line. Teams near the center of the line engaged in melee combat witnessed a spray of blood followed by Kelvin's team bursting through from behind. Landing with a slide across the ground, Kelvin braced himself with one hand touching and his Katana still wielded in his other hand. As he surveyed the front line while coming to a stop, the rest of team Satyr appeared beside him gasping for air. To his left, Zeena collapsed to her knees from exhaustion. George and Silas also showed signs of severe fatigue as they were unable to even maintain their mana supply to their Katanas. Recognizing his team was already pushed beyond their limits, Kelvin issued his orders before rejoining the battle.

"Take a break and recover your stamina. From this moment on, this unit will focus on hit and run tactics to support weakened zones along the front line. I'll be back in 25 minutes to pick you up."

Without listening for a reply, Kelvin leaped back into the battle continuing his one sided slaughtering of the demons. Watching the back of their leader as he returned to the fight, the team members glanced at each other. A similar unspoken thought passed through their head. Breaking the silence, George chose to speak pro-actively.

"Putting off if that guy is actually a Monster, lets get some info from the City Defense Council while we recoup."

"Good idea. We don't actually know the situation yet, do we?"

"Now that you mention... We did just leap straight into the fire didn't we... Intra, lead us to the City Defense Council and inform them of our visit. Oh, also relay our position and any relevant details to Patch for Lord Kelvin."

[Reply. Understood.]

The group followed the glowing orb at a brisk pace as it floated over the rough terrain. Leaving the front lines, the team covered ground utilizing whatever natural path they could find. The land looked as if it was razed with trees laying across each other with their trunks splintered and leaves kicking into the air frequently by small fires. The fresh destruction enabled a wide view of the front line allowing the team to maintain a visual even though it was at least half a kilometer away at this point. Vaulting over a fractured tree, the team noticed a Unit ahead of them surrounded by torn flags stuck into the ground. The flags were clearly of Perfectus City and Torise Empire. Each flag had clearly seen better days with them now shredded and rippling in the wind. Intra was clearly navigating towards the flags signifying the City Defense Council was there. The team picked up their pace and approached the makeshift camp.

"Something is not right."

"Certainly... Where's the Council Defense Representative?"

George and Silas voiced their concerns as they approached the camp. A group of 11 adventurer teams were standing around a makeshift table formed from a fallen tree base and appeared to be studying a map projected by a Companion Orb. The first member to notice the arrival of the group alerted the rest. Breaking from the meeting, they approached the members with rather subdued faces. Approaching Silas initially, an older gentleman who appeared to of been leading the meeting earlier ignored pleasantries and cut straight to the chase.

"Thank you for your support. Without your assistance, we would have lost many more men. The fact we're standing before you now is because of your team's performance behind enemy lines. I wish I could thank you more, but we have a pressing situation on our hands."

Without giving Silas a chance to talk, the older gentleman dominated the flow of conversation and immediately reconvened the meeting dragging the freshly arrived adventurers into it. Thinking their goal was to gather information anyhow, the team willingly joined into the meeting and took a stance near the map being projected above the makeshift table. With all members back in attendance, the older gentleman continued what appeared to have been a strategy meeting. For what seemed to be out of courtesy for the new attendees, he began to recap a brief overview of the meeting before continuing in detail.

"As we discussed earlier, Perfectus City was holding solidly against the sporadic invasions of the demons. We were able to repel most of the invaders without any injury and expected the situation to resolve itself. After pushing the front line in though, a Earth Dragon we believe to be of S rank or higher collapsed a pit under us taking 15 other teams out. From the pit, an absurd number of ants poured out. We've been unable to determine the exact location, but we believe a nest of these Demons is somewhere near that initial collapse. We just happened to fall onto another land mine."

The older gentleman took a moment of silence before continuing.

"Of the teams we lost in the initial collapse, the Defense Council Representative and his team were included. The 15 teams we lost was nearly a 4th of our total defensive potential. The immediate swarming afterwards took down another six units. I was designated the new Defense Council Representative but there was little I could to to regroup the remaining Units in that chaos."

Looking up from the projection, a small smile crept upon the man's face before continuing.

"That was until a certain reckless group of adventurers suddenly barged into the middle of the enemy. Once the enemy lost their momentum to confusion, I was able to regroup and reform the front line and so, here we are. Now the hard part, how do we progress from here?"

As if preplanned, a smooth voice answered the seemingly rhetorical question.

"That's obvious, we kill the dragon and you sweep the ants."

Unnoticed by anyone except his teammates, the owner of the voice strutted closer while maintaining a calm tone. The gathering directed their attention to the young man slowly closing the distance. He owned somewhat short black hair that swayed as his 189 cm stature shifted on each step. Arriving at the edge of the collective group, his pitch black eyes peered at the projection they were centered around.

"We have a solid defense now thanks to the surplus forces. As of now, the swarm is being managed but drawing out the fight is only going to cause unneeded deaths and excessive expenditures. Leaving a colony based demon offshoot alone is just asking for another swarm to break out. In order to prevent this in the future, we need to take out the Queen. I'll leave that to you while we tackle the Dragon."

Stepping further into the group near the map projection, he pointed a slender finger to a single location. With the faces around him looking somewhat lost, the young man lets loose a sigh before he raised his refined chin and introduced himself.

"My apologies on the intrusion. I'm the leader of the adventurers that performed the assault earlier. I had thought my description was passed along by my Companion Orb. It'd appear I was wrong. My name is Kelvin Belmore."

The moment his last name left his mouth, shock rippled through the audience. Excitement visibly spread amongst the group with smiles breaking out as well as chatter. As if to represent the group, the freshly appointed Defense Council Representative put their feelings into words.

"Belmore?! Kelvin Belmore from the distinguished Belmore family?! There's no way, why would such a Hero be on this battle field!?"

Somewhat taken back by the excitement that sprang from no where, Kelvin let slip a nearly audible frown. He didn't think his family was particularly distinguished as much of their accomplishments rode on the back of their founding ancestor. It was true however, that over the years since the founding Belmore, the family had produced significantly stronger magic users every generation. Utilizing secret training methods developed by their founder and refined through generations, Kelvin in particular had obtained an extraordinary degree of control over magic. After joining the adventurers guild, he quickly racked up awards and reputation.

Thanks to his family's reputation and his abnormal strength, he had earned the nickname 'Hero'. Such a title was useless in his eyes, but it certainly was useful in circumstances like now when he needed to act with authority. Recovering from his displeasure at being called a Hero and the needless mention of his family, Kelvin attempted to abate the cacophony.

"Calm down will you. I'm just another man like you... Of course I'd participate in any battle all the same. As I mentioned earlier though, what's important now is destroying the nest. If you're willing to let my Unit take the lead on the Dragon, I have a workable plan."

Unexpected words escaped from his mouth. The surroundings quieted down as Kelvin once again pointed towards a location on the map. Off to the side, the rest of Kelvin's Unit shared the same expression while blinking with wide eyes. Each member was sneaking moments of eye contact with each other as if transmitting their thoughts telepathically. After silently communicating, the team let loose a sigh in near unison as if their thoughts aligned perfectly.

[He's a monster.]

Their team had been with Kelvin for a long time and they were well aware of his abilities. Even if they strictly graded his control of magic and swordsmanship, there were few in the modern era who could match him single handedly. Though his swordsmanship was only moderately above average, the addition of magic to his style left such a strong impression among practitioners that he was unofficially given his own classification of Magic 'Swordsman'. The team mentally prepared themselves while listening to the strategy Kelvin was delivering.

As Kelvin finished up his delivery, he let a slight smile spread across his face. The smile didn't escape the observation of his team who let slip another deep sigh in unison. While others may interpret that innocent smile of his to be satisfaction and confidence in his plan, Zeena, George and Silas all knew he was extremely excited to leap into the depths of a giant nest to fight monsters. In an attempt to bring the meeting to conclusion, Kelvin offered a line to his audience.

"So, what do you think? Can you do it? If you can sweep the ants and kill the Queen, we will succeed for sure."

The fresh Defense Council Representative looked amongst his peers for any objections.

"We'll be relying on you..."

---

The defensive units in Perfectus City continued their battles while rotating rested units in and fatigued units out. Kelvin and his unit were assisting the withdraw of fatigued units while the Defence Council REpresentative made preparation for an aggressive assault.

After assisting a unit and escorting them to temporary barracks for rest, Kelvin slowly walked back to the front lines while taking notice of his surroundings. The current situation was far better than it was when they first burst onto the scene. A makeshift wall around 4 meters tall had been created by relocating the fractured trees that were victimized by the earlier combat. What use to be an encumbered battle field with debris laying everywhere became a clear battle front with elementary defensive structures. After losing their momentum, the swarming ant demons resigned their assault leading to sporadic battles as they tested the wall and the scouts protecting the boundary. For now, the scene was similar to the calm before a storm.

Walking past a pair of soldiers leaving the front line for rest, Kelvin could feel the idolizing eyes on him. He maintained a stoic face and continued on his way. After walking a fair distance past the pair, Kelvin slowed his pace to a stop and glanced to the darkening sky in thought.

[It's about time, eh?]

A childish wide smile slowly spread across his face.

[I don't think I've fought an Earth Dragon before. This is going to be fun.]

As if the immense battle earlier were inconsequential, twilight overtook the final rays of lights. With the encroaching darkness came sparks of fire as torches lit the surroundings near the fabricated wall. On cue, Patch slipped out of Kelvin's front breast pocket and floated in front of him.

[Alert. Perfectus City Defense Council Representative has requested your presence.]

"Patch, Take me to him."

[Reply. Understood.]

Trailing behind the glowing Companion Orb, a side thought in Kelvin's mind entertained itself. He had always wondered who gave the feminine 'voice' that Patch used. One of the many reasons his family was so accomplished was the little Orb bobbing in front of him. The Belmore family invented them along with the techniques to embed magic circuits into objects. Many of the family's inventions were originally planned out by their founder which the family continued to research over the centuries. Through trial and error, they were finally able to bring many of the founder's designs into reality drastically altering the modern era. Even with centuries of research though, many mysteries revolved around the little Orbs. Researchers in the family often joked around submitting the founder's voice and Patch's voice are the same.

"Patch, what's your serial number?"

[Reply. Unit identifier is Patch.]

"No... That's not what I asked about though... Then when were you first activated?"

[Reply. This unit has not yet been activated.]

"No... You're clearly active... **sigh**"

A wry smile developed on Kelvin's face. Hearing the answers from Patch did nothing to solve the mysteries. No matter how someone asked Patch, it would always reply in odd ways when asked about itself compared to other models. It's said Patch was the first Companion Orb ever created and was crafted by the founder themself. Every Orb created after Patch was built by the founder's descendants. Research efforts on Patch died over a century ago when no new information could be collected from it. Since the research interest mostly died off, Patch became something like a cross between family pet and family heirloom.

While lost in thought, Kelvin and Patch arrived near the refurbished command tent. Standing near the entrance were two guards positioned on either side of the doorway. A soft shroud of light could been seen illuminating the ground connected to the entrance. Kelvin returned Patch to his pocket while approaching the entrance. The guard nearest noticed his presence and issued orders for him to stop.

"Halt!"

The high strung soldier readied his weapon towards the unexpected arrival. Recognizing the individual his coworker was acting hostile towards, the other guard quickly moved to disarm the situation.

"Calm down, that's Lord Belmore. They're expecting him inside. Apologies Sir, he's fresh to battles and is high on the adrenaline. Please forgive him, you can pass."

Covering his partner in the vexing situation, the experienced guard calmed his younger cohort and attempted to mediate his mistake. Kelvin had no intention of making a big deal out of nothing and quickly appeased the guard.

"I understand. Teach him well, first battles have a high attrition rate against demons. Since I'm expected inside, I'll be going now. Keep up the good work."

Gifting a warm smile as he passed the guards, Kelvin stepped up to the door entrance. Using his arm to brush aside the heavy cloth covering the entrance, he entered the tent. In front of him, the same individuals present during the initial planning were addressing the final details of the nearing battle. Glancing across the tent, Kelvin noticed the Defense Council Representative in a corner exchanging information with the leader of a scout team. Kelvin slowly made his way to the Representative while drawing eyes from others in the room. As he walked, silence slowly resounded as more members took notice of his arrival. The odd actions surrounding him drew the Representative out of his conversation and upon recognizing Kelvin, gestured for him to join in.

"Lord Kelvin, thank you for coming. The scouts I sent to investigate the area you pointed out returned moments ago. Let me introduce you to Leon. Leon, this is Lord Kelvin Belmore. He provided us the primal information I asked you to flush out."

The scout's eyes opened wide upon hearing the Belmore name. As if in disbelief, he moved to verify the information with the man in question himself.

"Belmore... is it? By any chance are you related to the Belmore family?"

"Yes, I'm the current heir. It's a pleasure to meet you though rather than talk about myself, I'd rather hear about your scouting report."

"R... Right. My sincerest apologies, Sir. I'm quite the fan of many Belmore products. Anyhow, the contents of the report, is it? Well in summary, you nailed the target dead on. While scrutinizing that section of land, we came across a massive sinkhole with various ramp like paths leading down into it. We were unable to investigate deeper as there were Demon Ants practically swarming the entrance. They appear to be building up the edge of the sinkhole leading me to believe it's highly likely the nest is nearby, if not inside the hole itself."

During the raid Kelvin and his Unit initiated, he noticed the ground collapsed in the distance. At the time, he thought the land was simply damaged during the battle. There are various skills and spells capable of gouging the land after all. By chance, he caught sight inside the sinkhole and noticed what appeared to be ruins of some sort. Since his Unit was already severely fatigued during that point in the fight though, he was unable to verify what he saw. It wasn't until Intra relayed through Patch the contents of the meeting that he put two and two together. Hearing nothing about the ruins somewhat concerned him since it was such a large visual for a scout to miss. Deciding it was relevant, Kelvin brought the matter forward.

"Certainly, that matches what I saw during our initial assault. I thought I saw structures inside the hole though... Were you able to see inside from the distance?"

"Unfortunately, no. By the time we reached the area, the Demon Ants had already built up the edges. We could barely even tell the ground behind it was collapsed."

"I see... Well, we will find out for sure once we dive in anyhow. Commander, how's the battle preparations?"

"It's mostly complete. The primary participating units are currently recovering their stamina and we were just waiting for the scouts to return and validate the data we planned the mission around. Since everything mostly checks out, we're aiming for mission start in 20 minutes. A night assault should give some hell to those ants. Grab your team and meet me near the boundary."

"Gotcha, we'll meet you there."

Though the update wasn't everything he had hoped for, he left the tent to gather his team up. Brushing aside the heavy cloth covering the exit, Kelvin stepped out into the cool air taking a deep breath and letting out a soft exhale. The two guards posted near the entrance greeted him as he passed by. The younger man looked far better to Kelvin than when he first approached. Thinking the young man finally adjusted to the atmosphere, Kelvin replied to their greetings and continued on his way.

"Patch, Where are Zeena and the others?"

From inside his breast pocket, a gentle glow could be seen.

[Reply. Intra, Deva, and Apex are currently located near the Mission Start designator.]

"They already moved there? Well, that's rare."

Changing his direction, Kelvin circled around the back side of the command tent making his way towards his new destination. The temperature around him was gradually decreasing turning the once lukewarm air surroundings into a crisp chilling environment. Picking his pace up slightly, Kelvin played around with his breath as he walked. Imbuing his breath with insignificant amounts of mana, he created smoke rings that traveled a distance from him. Although the amount was minor, it was a common trick taught to novice magic users to increase their control of magic. For Kelvin, it was nothing more than entertainment at this stage. Multiple smoke rings were floating away from him when he took aim and blew out orb shaped smoke balls targeting the rings. As each orb passed through the center of the rings, they reacted together destroying the fine shapes they had and disappeared like mist into the air.

Zeena had been watching Kelvin walk silently from a distance as he played around with the smoke rings with a childlike composure. Each successful hit an orb made through a smoke ring drew a small smile or laugh from him. With each laugh and smile released, Zeena turned a shade of red darker. She was disregarding the mana consumed to invoke her night vision and deemed it a necessary expenditure while watching her leader. Although her attention was focused on her leader, she didn't fail to notice the sudden raise of blood lust in the air. Realizing the mission was about to kick off, she let slip a small vocal sigh filled with regret before jumping off the makeshift wall and moving towards Silas and George.

"Lord Kelvin is on his way. The mission must be starting soon."

"Ah, I agree. I can practically cut the tension in the air from the units near the wall."

George responded nonchalantly to Zeena's statement. The surrounding units were clearly wearing strained faces. Many of them sitting down were practically hugging their weapons while the mission clock was counting down to zero. Zeena glanced in the direction George was facing before nodding in agreement. Silas stood up from sitting down on a stump behind George and walked over to his chatting teammates. Raising his voice slightly to make his presence known, Silas let out his opinion.

"They must be fresh recruits. I've heard the other garrison troops have already returned out East and resumed their normal duties."

"They returned?! Under current conditions... Isn't that pretty irresponsible of them?"

"Orders from above apparently. Thanks to that, most of the participating Units are virgins from training."

"A lot of people are going to die... Aren't they?

"Most likely."

Zeena had a crestfallen face as Silas affirmed her fears. As she was also a soldier, she understood the risks and participated in battle while conscious of them yet she never could get use to seeing new recruits entering their first bout of combat. It's well known the attrition rate for first timers against demons is incredibly high. Of the 90 to 100 new members here, only 30 to 40 are expected to survive under normal circumstances. At the thought of so many deaths, Zeena's face slightly paled. While helping the field medics earlier, she had witnessed plenty of young recruits die while being transported back for care. She had lost count of the corpses strewn across the battle field. Hardly audible steps approached the group while its owner spoke up.

"If we finish our part quickly, we can lower that death count indirectly. Not to mention, they will be providing support to defend the wall while a more experienced group will be going in with us. Very few people should die during this mission as long as we succeed. Some of the veteran adventurers elected to stay and help defend as well."

Silas and George nodded their heads while reaffirming their resolution. Unlike the earlier childish smile and playful banter she saw him expressing during his walk, Kelvin now held a light smile with sharp eyes. The members could feel the clear determination radiating off him. Breaking the moment of silence, Kelvin regurgitated and abridged version of the plan.

"The mission starts soon. Let's roll the plan once more to make sure no surprises occur. On mission start, Perfectus City Units will pierce the enemy's territory. The ants aren't nocturnal, so they should have a delayed response and allow us to build momentum. Once the Units pierce close enough to the sinkhole, we'll have to start our part. Three other Units will infiltrate the nest and destroy the Queen while we tackle the Earth Dragon. Once the Dragon is killed, we will immediately return and act as a pincer unit. The Units holding the pierced position will shift from an insertion strategy to a subjugation strategy. We will expand the back line, link with Units protecting the boundary and slowly wrap the enemy forces while the pierced Unit has all attention focused on them."

"So... Long story short, we strike fast, distract the enemy, kill the brain, kill the S ranked Bouncer, return to forces then perform a surround and kill mission? That sounds easy enough. Now... about that point we kinda skimmed over... Who here has actually fought a Dragon before?"

George who summarized the abridged plan into main points threw out a rather obvious question. The Demon Ants they've been facing up to now were nearly three meters tall and 5 meters long. Considering their behavior and combat prowess up to this point, it was clear they would defend themselves aggressively while they fought the Earth Dragon. Considering they were swarming like normal Ants, it wouldn't be strange to think their Queen is nothing more than an over sized egg laying machine holed up somewhere. The entire plan devised with the Defense Council Representative relied on this assumption, though there was little evidence to prove it beyond the fights up to now. The Earth Dragon itself was another problem, but it seemed unrelated to the ants other than stirring them up.

"George, I understand your worries, but we've killed similar creatures plenty of times before. If there is anything too abnormal, I'd wager my money on two things. The first is the underground ruins I saw when we first arrived. The scouts apparently haven't been able to verify it, but I know what I saw and I saw it clearly. Those ruins didn't look like ancient relics either. I'm willing to bet the ants just happened to find it and use it as a base since it was already a largely hollowed out area. The second abnormality is the ant's combat tactics. It seemed to me they used simple battle strategies and even retreated once they lost their momentum. I bet this Queen has simple intelligence as well. Considering the lack of tactics we saw, I'm willing to bet its intelligence is somewhere along the level as wolves. I don't think either of those items make a strong enough case to abandon the plan though. The other team should be fine."

Kelvin refuted George's worries while explaining the main points that are factually of concern. If they concerned themselves with every possible 'what if' situation, they and the local Units participating in the subjugation would freeze up. Such a freeze up would certainly cost more lives in the long run and it was something Kelvin was trying to avoid as much as possible. The team was continuing their discussion on tactics and positions when a horn with low bass resounded out. The horn signified a five minute warning. Multiple Units that were previously sitting down to rest had stood up shaking off the tension that was burdening them. Kelvin and his team moved to their designated position. Their job was specifically to destroy the Dragon first and foremost. Because of that, they would remain out of combat until near the sinkhole where the Dragon was resting.

Far in front of the team, near the point of the piercing arrow shaped formation, the Defense Council Representative was rendering words of encouragement to the veterans participating in the initial engagement. The team was somewhat too far back to hear everything that he yelled, but considering the ground shaking cheer that erupted moments later, they assumed it was quite a inspirational speech. Seconds after the reverberating cheers died down, the horn sounded once more and the ground shook as dozens of Units started forward at the same time.

Moving quickly behind the leading Unit, Kelvin and his team pushed forward as piercing Units broke off to engage enemy scouts. Without much trouble, the piercing strategy worked wonders as they quickly overwhelmed any enemies they came across and the objective sinkhole was within sight no more than 40 minutes after starting. Kelvin had a bad feeling about the smooth progress and it appeared the Defense Council Representative did as well. Moments after the feeling of uncertainty crept up Kelvin's spine, the Defense Council Representative called the squadron to halt. He looked back towards Kelvin as if to ask if he was also feeling the same. Kelvin nodded back causing the Representative's face to slightly twist. Regardless of how they felt, the mission had already started and there was no going back now.

As if reading their thoughts, the ground around them shifted abruptly as if a carpet had been pulled out from under them. The entire squadron who was near Kelvin's Unit was knocked to the ground as their footing suddenly disappeared. Following the shift in terrain, large ants breached the surface of the now loose soil and began their assault on the disorganized units.

"~ Dammit! They lured us in! Freaking Monsters! ~"

"Group together! Perimeter teams, secure our outer defenses! Support teams, surround and kill the ambushing ants!"

Various shouts could be heard but they were reeled in quickly by the Representative who started issuing orders to counter the ambush. Kelvin was somewhat impressed at the virgin Defense Council Representative and his understanding of the battlefield. Not many people would realize the terrain shifting signified the tunnels below them collapsed. The ants failed their ambush and the units attacking now were those who escaped the collapse. The enemy clearly knew they were attacking but didn't have the intelligence to factor in the weight of an entire squadron atop their tunnel when devising their plan.

Realizing their assumptions about the intelligence level of the Queen was within expectations, Kelvin immediately kicked his Unit into gear and accelerated towards the front of the squadron. The Defense Council Representative, understanding Kelvin's intent, issued orders once more to begin the suppression of any ants exiting the nest. The three other infiltration Units quickly passed by the Representative and sprinted towards the lip of the former sinkhole. Since the piercing squadrons entire purpose was to pierce deep and distract the enemy, the Representative let howl his mightiest war cry before rushing into battle. The surrounding Units reciprocated the cry causing the air to reverberate behind Kelvin's team. He felt as if the mighty squadron behind him were sending encouraging cheers for the four Units invading the nest.

It took the infiltration teams less than 45 minutes to reach the edge of newly built hill surrounding the sinkhole. Against the night sky, the hill could be estimated at 30 meters tall with a gradual slope. Honestly, it resembled a miniature volcano with holes revealing some of the newly constructed tunnel littered along the outer surface slope. The darkened hill's soft outer layer of dirt depressed as the team progressed up the edge towards the crest. They momentarily paused upon arrival at the top as they saw a large number of moving shadows inside the crater-like hole. The four Units utilized their Companion Orbs and invoked a night vision enhancement to their eyes. In his vision, the hardly visible environment suddenly appeared to light up as if a full moon were out. Inside the crater, the Units observed the ants swarming to the lower exits to join the fight.

"It'd appear they took the bait after failing their ambush."

"Looks that way. Which path do you want? We'll take the North most tunnel."

"Ah, in that case, my Unit will take the West side, there were some strong looking ones there."

"Heh, you want the glory that badly, eh? Well... I'll take the East side then. Kelvin... are you sure you can manage that Dragon in the South?"

"It's fine. I wanted to check out the ruins I saw there earlier anyhow. Remember to signal after the Queen is killed. We sill got to clean up the rest of their population after."

"Hahahaha, the 'Hero' just can't catch a break can he? Since we gotta do it anyways, whoever kills their target first gets free beers from the other. What do you say?"

"You're on old man!"

The Unit leaders discussed their plans and claimed their sections of the ant nest prior to sounding final encouragement to each other. Each Unit dropped into the crater silently one at a time with Kelvin's team quickly taking off to the south to face the Dragon. Without wasting anytime, the team utilized sound suppression magic to move quickly over the South side terrain in silence. They encountered short tunnel passing through along the way. Unlike the other tunnels, the South side tunnels didn't appear to have any ants roaming around. It was instead oddly silent. Realizing the team didn't have to utilize such special magics and could progress in a normal fashion, Kelvin felt somewhat relieved. Kelvin signaled his team with hand gestures before rounding the crest of a hill.

** Crack! **

The team quickly slid to a stop at the sudden fracturing noise that echoed through the tunnel. Kelvin gestured for the team to start moving once more. The sound originated from the other side of the crest forcing the team into cautious pace as they neared it. Arriving next to the edge. Kelvin tilted his head peering over the lip and froze for a moment before inhaling a sharp breath and abruptly ducking his head back down. While glancing at his team, Kelvin met their gazes and uttered in a low tone.

"Jackpot."

Motioning for the team to check out the situation, each member took a spot along the cliff before peering over the side. An audible groan escaped Silas as he watched the scene in the distance. The Dragon was resting inside a pit it had probably dug out earlier. The land appeared as if an orb were removed from the land. The cutout land easily reached 150 meters or more in diameter. Silas could only imagine the name of the new lake that would appear in the next few years as it filled up. As he looked closer, he was able to see the Dragon's hard, angular skull jutting from an equally solid torso. The bulk body was adorned with crystalline spikes riding along its spine. Every exhale the creature let out eroded the soil immediately in front of it and dramatically changed its body size. In what seemed to be a massive hole in the earth spanning almost 150 meters, the Dragon easily consumed at least 30 meters of that distance from body length alone.

Kelvin observed his team's reactions to the creature. He couldn't see fear from them, but there was an obvious nervousness. It would be stranger though had they not been nervous at all. Although they held the rank S in the Adventurers Guild, a Dragon was only considered S-Rank at the low end of the spectrum. If they were unlucky, this one could easily be on the same level as the rumored SSS-Ranked Demon Lord. His team was making good progress and in truth, he believed they could push into the SS-Rank realm whenever they wanted, but they always tried to maintain a degree of safety. This Dragon was likely to push them into the next rank if they succeeded, but he didn't want greed to be the end of them. He lowered his voice before talking.

"This is the last chance we have to turn back. Even if we fail here, we can go help wipe out the ants. The Dragon is a walking natural disaster, but those ants will actively hunt down other Humans for food. In the end, they will cause far more damage than sleeping beauty over there. If we do this, there is no turning back. Are you willing to join me?"

His teammates didn't even hesitate.

""Obviously.""

"... Alright then. Let's go. Start off with the strongest hit you can manage. If we don't deal good damage right from the start, its going to be rough."

"Let me start us off then."

Zeena rose from her position and began kneading mana. Silas and George, who were more melee focused, watched the scene in awe. Zeena's golden hair slowly began glowing and her vivid green eyes appeared as if they were crystallizing, increasing their depth and refracting the light with particles floating out limply. She brought her hands out in front of her calling upon her partner.

"Intra. Support me."

[Reply. Preparing Support Mode. Establishing Base Link. Verifying Owner. Elf Zeena Halflight... Verified. Executing Support Mode.]

The blue orb floated from her pocket resting centered between her out stretched hands. The dense mana Zeena was generating circulated around the orb gathering in denser and denser quantities. A thick mist slowly appeared rotating around Intra with increasing velocity. Zeena left collection and management of the mana required for the spell to Intra while she focused on forming the various control circuits. Two small circles offset from the center of a larger middle circle on either side of it slowly formed. The circles aligned themselves as if to target the Dragon in the center of the bowl. From the edge of each circle, detailed inscriptions slowly appeared as mana spiraling around Intra flaked off appearing to act as an ink of some sort. Zeena continued to knead a moderate amount of mana constantly and pumped it into Intra. Her trait as an Elf allowed her access to ancient magic and a tremendous degree of control over mana, though she required large invocation times. In her practice with Intra, she was slowly increasing her invocation time. Among the many Elves alive, Zeena's control of mana and her invocation speed was nearly unmatched. As if to prove that, she boosted the inscription rate of the circles. As they rapidly filled in, the dense mana surrounding Intra suddenly expanded into a large ring that fit around the outer circumference of the large inner circle. Zeena looked towards the sky rotating the entire apparatus with that motion. She inhaled slowly and on exhale, invoked her ancient magic.

The team shielded their eyes from the blast of light that shot towards the sky. Their surroundings turned silent before a large gust suddenly whipped at them. Bracing themselves against the wind, they watched as trees were slowly torn from the ground by the wind and dragged into the bowl. The gusts appeared to intersect in the air above the bowl at the center before immediately rushing vertically into the sky. Kelvin looked up only to see a large depression in the clouds. As if someone was pushing the clouds upwards, he watched the sky rapidly clear to show stars behind them. Before long, the wind stilled again. Zeena quickly dropped to the ground bracing herself.

"Get down!"

The wind shifted. Feeling the draft rapidly reversing itself, the team dove to the ground while peeking over the ledge at the Dragon. Having sensed something wrong, the Dragon had woken up and was currently attempting to escape the bowl. It raised its massive body and started using earthen magic to dig deeper as a shield, but it was too late. The previously clear sky quickly fogged over as a cloud of air rapidly descended into the bowl. As the column of air slammed into the bowl, it pressurized the internal column raising its temperature rapidly. The Dragon let lose a loud roar clearly reflecting its pain as it was both crushed and baked by the pressure and heat. The earth immediately surrounding the Dragon quickly started melting as if a laser were pointed straight at it until the ground beneath the Dragon finally gave out.

The group looked on in astonishment while the air pressure equalized. It escaped the bowl by traveling up the edges tearing off chunks of the edge of the bowl with it.

"Maybe you over did it... just a little?"

"It was a Dragon after all..."

"Remind me to never piss you off..."

Zeena blushed at her friend's comments. In frustration, she jumped over the cliff ledge sliding down towards the now mostly cooled surface. Watching her from behind, the three members smiled lightly before proceeding down to catch up to her. The hole the Dragon fell through was nearly 26 meters in diameter, but they were unable to accurately measure the depth. The darkness of the night in conjunction with the hole shading its depths further made the shaft appear pitch black.

Kelvin quickly invoked an emission magic and tossed a ball of mana down into the hole. As it burned away releasing light, it bounced off various jagged edges of wall face until finally coming to a stop far below.

"What do you think Silas? 200 meters or so?"

"Further. Do you think that Dragon survived? Last I checked, Earth Dragons can't fly..."

"So... Zeena's solo kill? Seriously?"

"Ehh?! Don't put that on me! People will have expectations if you word it badly! Maybe it's still alive, let's head down and finish it off together."

Eager to share the glory and fearful of being raised alone to the degree of a hero, Zeena quickly urged her team onward. Kelvin smiled slyly at Zeena's back along with Silas and George then proceeded to follow her down the shaft. They utilized 'Sky Walk' magic to descend into the abyss, slowly spiraling down the shaft while also keeping their senses fully alert. As they descended, various metallic ores periodically interrupted the smooth melted shaft walls by jutting out near the center. Each extruded ore was shattered near the center, probably from the Earth Dragon as it fell.

"How'd you manage to make a hole this deep, Zeena? I know you didn't hold back, but this is ridiculous..."

George teased Zeena slightly about the overpowered ancient magic she had casted, but his tease seemed to pass her completely.

"This wasn't me alone. I only caused an extremely powerful down burst. It shouldn't be capable of something like this. I can only think my magic merged with the Earth Dragons ability to manipulate earth. I probably knocked its aim directly down, then melted the edges as it heated up from the air pressure rapidly rising. This is strange though. Even if they merged together, unless this shaft already existed, it'd be hard for such an accidental merging of magics to penetrate this deeply. Rather, I think the Earth Dragon penetrated this shaft and my down burst widened the hole dropping the Dragon in."

Her response was slightly unexpected. Her surprise was clearly conveyed, as was the oddity of the situation. Kelvin raised his voice to Silas who was currently trailing the team slightly as backup.

"Silas! We're going to pick the pace up, keep your distance until we call for you!"

"Go as fast as you like, Lord Kelvin! I'll be right behind you!"

Kelvin canceled his 'Sky Walk' and plummeted rapidly towards the dark depths of the shaft. As he raced down, he kept his eyes focused on the dim light beaconing where the floor was at. Behind Kelvin, his teammates waited a few seconds before canceling their magics and fell after him. He rapidly descended and after nearing the floor, he quickly invoked an updraft halting his fall and simultaneously invoked dozens of instances of an emission magic. Scattering the balls of mana in a wide arc around his location, the cavern slowly lit up showing a surprising amount of detail. The exit of the shaft opened into a large chamber about 260 meters wide and the ceiling of the chamber reached nearly 150 meters high. As his eyes adjusted to the low light area and he squinted his eyes, Kelvin was able to make out buildings and tunnels etched into the walls and they were exposed to the outside through various inlets. The inlets appear to have been caused by rain slowly eroding the outer shell of the chamber. It was hard to call the chamber a cave as the floor was embedded with a shallow brickwork stained gray from hundreds of years of weathering. The ruins Kelvin saw during their assault were similar in construction to the buildings in the cave that were wrapping the edge of the chamber. The ruins themselves showed damage from exposure to the environment, but they were still far from being in a dilapidated state. The ruins were situated along the walls immediately to the right of Kelvin's landing point.

Silas, Zeena, and George landed lightly near Kelvin and took in the astounding sight with him.

"Are they ruins?"

"Seems that way. They resemble what I saw at the surface, maybe this connects to the ant colony... Rather than that..."

Kelvin turned his sights to the massive lump of meat in front of him. He landed slightly off to the side of it thinking it was a mound of dirt originally. When he glanced over it from his spot though, it was obviously bleeding out slowly. The Earth Dragon clearly lost its life in the fall. Judging from the degree of bones jutting from the skin on its lower side, it painted a pretty gruesome image of its moment of death. It probably landed on its backside compressing its internals and shattering the spine and ribs. Portions of the frontal legs practically exploded as meat was pressurized completely through a minor gash made during the tumble down the shaft.

"Wow... That had to hurt. So who's going to get the subjugation mark?"

The team looked at each other exchanging gazes until they slowly convened on Silas.

"What? No! Come on! That damn thing is a slurry at this stage! For all I know the crystal was shifted on impact. It's going to take ages to find it!"

Kelvin placed an innocent smile on his face and rebutted.

"Senior, I've never dismantled a Dragon before. I heard you had experience! Can't you show us your skills?"

"Huh?"

Silas avoided the young man's admiring gaze only to lock eyes with Zeena. Her fluttering peridot eyes were moistened and she was utilizing her shorter stature to direct her gaze upwards towards him. She drew her arms behind her back interlocking fingers before practically begging him with her eyes.

"Please?"

Once again, Silas quickly averted his eyes from the beauty locking onto the only pair left and missing the small vial of eye drops tucked into Zeena's pocket. George was a burly man. His rather large build aided in the various quests the team took, and his pantherian characteristics enhanced his hearing far beyond what normal Humans and Elves could detect. Even the Elves could barely compete with the pantherian eyesight. Covered in golden fur with brown spotting, his typically overpowering presence was now sacrificed and appeared to be a lovable tiger. The beady eyes and fake tears George summoned caused Silas to turn away once again avoiding his teammates gazes as much as possible. He gave up...

"Fine... Only this time though... Lord Kelvin, I'll teach you how to dismantle a Dragon once we come back later. I'll try to find the core quickly for now."

"Thanks!"

Grumbling to himself, Silas made his way to the Dragon's corpse when George suddenly rushed beside him. Grabbing his shoulder and planting him in place, George forced Silas into a kneeling position. When Zeena and Kelvin saw his movements, they quickly took a spot beside him using the Dragon corpse as a shield. George held a serious expression forcing Silas to throw out any jokes or complaints he had against him. George took a moment before signaling the team with hand gestures.

[Over there. Just across the way.]

Bracing themselves against the corpse, the team followed Georges sights into the distance. Between them and the ruins along the far wall writhed a large slimy mass. The back end resembled a maggot and was attached to a thorny carapace. The creature's legs gleamed in the dim moonlight cast from the caverns inlets as it dragged itself along the ground. Without a doubt, it was the Queen ant.

The Queen left a wet residue on the ground as it dragged its giant mass across the bricks. Surrounding the Queen were... no guards.

"Lord Kelvin, it's alone..."

George was the first one to point out the discrepancy between their expectations and the reality before them. The Queen of any nest is an absolute existence that mustn't be lost. Every individual in a colony except the Queen is expendable. The survival of the nest rides upon that very reality and yet in front of them, in a surreal scene, was a 15 meter long, 6 meter tall Queen Ant dragging her lower abdomen across the ground. Kelvin was busy surveying the Queen's surrounding just in case there were hidden units, but he wasn't able to pick anything up even after invoking his life sense magic.

"I don't know... But for now, let's not skip etiquette and introduce ourselves to the Queen."

Kelvin left the safety of the corpse and started to casually cover the 80 meter separation between him and the Queen. Zeena, Silas and George left the cover of the corpse as well but followed Kelvin while giving him a large margin. Each member was highly alert after invoking a fresh instance of reinforcement. Approaching the 50 meter mark near the Queen Ant, Kelvin yelled out to it to help ease the tension and bait out any guards that might be hiding near by.

"Hey Queen! Now why would you be here? You're here alone at that."

The Queen Ant stopped dragging its body across the ground after hearing Kelvin's words and froze in place after turning her upper half to look at him. The group readied themselves for any surprise attacks the Queen might make against them. As if she was thinking about her next actions, the frozen Queen's compound eyes were the only thing moving and she kept looking over the Unit behind her. Kelvin continued to step forward and slowly close the distance with his team lagging behind him slightly in preparation for any surprise attack. As if making up her mind, the Queen's mandibles began to slowly open and close before picking up pace and releasing a loud screeching noise that echoed off the chamber walls.

Taking the action to be a threat, Kelvin readied his sword in hand and began kneading mana to invoke the magic circuits embedded inside them. Before having a chance to invoke the magic, Kelvin's face slowly twisted in disgust tinged with confusion when the Queen in front of him bent her front torso backwards. The large mandibles attached to her head tore into her waist that was connected to the sack being dragged behind her. Large sprays of a yellowish fluid spurted out of the wound as she continued to bisect her own body. Zeena, George and Silas had dropped their guard watching the site with a clear look of bewilderment inset across their faces.

The Queen continued to tear at her waist for and extended period of time. The entire team was lost in staring at the spectacle before them with minutes slipping by. Tearing through the final strands of flesh attaching the maggot like sac to her body, the two halves of the creature separated from each other with a final gush of fluid followed by a sticky spattering noise as it slammed against the ground. The Queen, now free from the baggage that was weighing her down began rapidly moving towards a pillar in front of the ruins while dragging various internal organs behind her. Kelvin watched the bleeding mass running while staying calm. Most of the confusion in his mind had subsided and he had been analyzing the situation for a while now. While their new primary task was to destroy this Queen, something too abnormal just happened for them to complete the plan without further investigation. Having also recovered from their mental afflictions, Zeena, George and Silas reconvened next to Kelvin awaiting his orders.

"She tore herself in half just to get away from us, but doesn't appear to have any guards and is running away to ruins that don't appear to have an exit. What in the hell is going on down here? Team, we're postponing the kill order until I'm satisfied investigating. If it's just panicking and running away from us, we'll resume the operation and return to surface. Let's move!"

"""Yes Sir!"""

The team began moving maintaining a 30 meter distance between themselves and the Queen. They followed her while keeping observations on their surroundings and the possible destinations the Queen was aiming for. All six legs were rapidly intertwining carrying the Queen forward at a constant pace. Kelvin, who had shrunk the distance slightly to the Queen, took notice of a pillar that stood out earlier. Originally, he had thought the pillar just happened to be in the same direction, but the Queen adjusted her path slightly as she got closer. The cylindrical pillar was about 14 meters tall and stood alone in the center of a large terrace. At first, Kelvin thought the pillar was covered in decor but as they got closer, it was clear there were gold and red circuit patterns etched into stone. The traces reached up from the base of the pillar and appeared to center around an oval shaped inlet near the center. In that inlet, a dull, colorless glow could be seen.

[What is that?]

Curiosity covered Kelvin's face. The Queen Ant was slowly picking her speed up making Kelvin somewhat anxious for some reason. Judging it was too dangerous to let the Queen reach the pillar, Kelvin issued orders to continue the kill orders he had postponed earlier. They will just have to investigate the area after eliminating the Queen.

"Team, we're moving to annihilate the Queen. Don't let it near that pillar!"

Breaking into a run and covering the final 30 meters in mere seconds, the team engaged combat against the Queen.

"**SCCCCCREEEEEEEE**"

The Queen let rip a loud screech after registering the killing intent directed at her and pushed forward at an even greater speed. Silas closed in on her right and while dumping mana into his sword, took a slash at the Queen's legs in an attempt to halt or slow her locomotion. At a distance no more than 5 cm, a red glow was emitted from the Queen deflecting Silas' sword with a loud clang. The sword reverberated on reflection and rebounded nearly tearing itself out of Silas' hand. Struggling to maintain his numbed grip on the deflected sword, Silas broke off from the chase momentarily. George quickly followed up Silas' withdraw with a leap into the air. Injecting mana into his sword, he wielded the sword with both hands and brought it down tip first as if to stab straight through the Queen. Behind the sword followed the entirety of his weight and upon impact with the red shielding, a large spiderweb shaped crack spread along its surface before releasing a sound resembling glass shattering. The shattered shielding dropped to the ground while the Queen maintained her run, now merely seconds away from her goal. The sword, after losing most of its momentum and structural integrity to the shielding, stabbed into the Queen shallowly causing her to buck and launch George into the air. Landing on his feet, George once again started his sprint to regain the distance he was bucked while Zeena and Kelvin closed in on either side of the Queen.

The emission of killing intent wasn't lost on the Queen Ant who shattered the floor tile while stabbing her legs into the ground. The quick halt caused Zeena and Kelvin to miss any timed attack they were planning. Zeena recovered slightly faster than Kelvin and relaunched her attack on the now still Queen. Fully utilizing the reinforcement magic applied to her, Zeena moved next to the front torso of the Queen and quickly followed up launching into a series of quick horizontal and vertical strikes. Each strike nicked the carapace shallowly but was unable to damage it further than an equivalent flesh wound. While taking the strikes head on, the Queen swung her front legs with full force at Zeena trying to slice her in half. George and Silas who had just caught back up, inserted themselves between Zeena and the two arms barely blocking each swipe.

**CREEEEEAAKKK---KKSSHHHHHH**

The arm Silas was blocking with his sword fractured and plunged through the new opening. Abandoning his sword, Silas reached for the arm and softened the blow in the small distance he had by latching his legs into the ground. The shattering tiles scattered around Silas as his legs gouged the ground. Small drops of blood flowed down his arm as the entirety of the blow was blocked cutting slightly into his skin. George's sword had spider webbed against the pressure applied to it but managed to block the blow without shattering entirely. With the small moment of time bought by two sacrificed swords, Zeena, George and Silas withdrew from the front of the Queen taking their distance nearly 10 meters away. In their place appeared Kelvin crouching down as if he were a distorted image rapidly turning clear. At his side a Katana was shining brightly inside its sheath. Watching the state his team's swords ended up in, Kelvin judged any attack less than a fully empowered strike would shatter the Katana without dealing mortal damage. Prior to the quick movement, Kelvin kneaded the maximum amount of mana the sword could contain. Injecting all the kneaded mana into the sword, he grasped the handle with an iron will and unleashed a single horizontal strike at full speed. The sword screamed on contact with the shielding but continued to slice towards the Queens main torso digging deep into its chest. In less than a tenth of a second, Kelvin completed the swing at full arc.

The Queen, who had been mostly unscathed up to this point, widened its mandibles and let loose an ear grating shriek while stumbling backwards a few steps. At the center of its carapace, half of a long blade was jutting out with an oily orange blood rapidly pouring from the trail it left behind. Each pulse of the creature's heart pumped more blood outside of its body. Kelvin who had recovered from his stance rejoined his crew in dissatisfaction. With his sword sheared in half, the unit no longer had a viable weapon to continue fighting a creature with such a hard external skeletal structure. Mid thought in deciding his next course of action, the Queen at a distance from him suddenly began to emit a dull red glow evenly from its carapace shell. The pumping blood appeared to slow down as well while the Queen dropped down onto all six legs. A moment of silence passed between the two groups as if they were studying each other before the Queen jerked its head and suddenly accelerated towards the pillar.

"It's making a break for it! Quickly, stop it!"

Kelvin issued his order in a slight panic. The team currently had no means left to efficiently fight against such a defense heavy opponent yet Silas, George, and Zeena moved instantly upon hearing his orders. Each member had a generic plan in mind on how to dissuade the Queen from the pillar. With their primary means of offense shattered, each member resorted to a variety of assaults reinforced with magic. Zeena reached the Queen first and attempted to slow it by disturbing the terrain.

"Intra! Sand Rift!"

[Reply. Executing Sand Rift. Requesting Support.]

Zeena pumped all the kneaded mana she had been storing up for the mission into her Companion Orb while focusing on the target in her mind. Directly in front of the rampaging Queen, the ground rippled once before sinking the surface tiles into it. Seeing the depression moments before falling into it, the Queen kicked off the ground barely covering the 6 meter sand pit before landing with half its torso on the other side. Attempting to restrain the Queen Ant, Zeena adjusted the magic flow forcing the sand pit to start rotating while pulling the creature to the center of the cone. Unfortunately, the Queen had already secured its grip with 4 limbs on the tiles and yanked its lower half out of the pit before continuing at a now slower sprint. Zeena collapsed from the fatigue of delivering such a massive amount of mana to the Orb and could only watch on as her teammates passed her to catch up to the Queen.

George, Silas, and Kelvin quickly approached near the Queen. Attempting to put together a plan without the necessary equipment, the men resorted to brawling tactics. Focusing mana into his arms, Kelvin swung around to the Queens backside and gripped the carapace around where the maggot like sack was originally attached. Anchoring his feet into the ground and pumping an extreme amount of mana into his limbs, Kelvin acted as an anchor slowing the Queen's progress until he finally halted it merely 4 meters from the central pillar. Silas and George capitalized on the moment circling around the front of the Queen. Mirroring each other's movement with a slight delay, Silas agilely used the pillar as an anchor to kick off from, fracturing the base of it in the process. Using his momentum and weight, he kicked the end of the blade exposed on the chest of the Queen driving it slightly deeper. A spurt of orange blood encouraged George who followed immediately after kicking off the pillar as well to drive the blade even deeper. After being weakened by Silas, George's kick shattered the base of the pillar knocking its lower portion out from under it. He landed his kick dead onto the blade driving it once more into the Queen's torso. The spurting oily blood soon turned deep orange suggesting a mortal wound. The screech of the Queen was no longer a crisp shriek, but instead resounded with a bubbling gurgle. As if the Queen's will drove it past its limits, a bright red glow encompassed the Queens carapace prying Kelvin's grip off the wounded shell. Swinging the remaining protrusions of her abdomen, the Queen knocked Kelvin back towards Zeena who was watching the scene with a stunned face. Silas and George both intercepted Kelvin absorbing the impact and kept him safe.

Through his squinted eyes, Kelvin witnessed the Queen weakly struggle closer to the now collapsing pillar. The shattered monument, now removed of its sturdy foundation was under the full control of gravity rapidly leaning towards the Queen's direction and accelerating its fall. The Queen, realizing its peril, weakly leaned its body to the side allowing the pillar to shatter onto the tiles beside it. The creature was obviously weakening at a rapid pace as Kelvin and the team could see the deep orange oil liquid gush out on each heartbeat and the Queen's limbs struggled to carry its own weight. Repeatedly slipping on its own blood, the Queen rotated itself and arrived at the peak of the now shattered column. A pathetic gurgling noise resounded through the chamber as the Queen lay next to a small glossy artifact that was released from the shattered pillar. Kelvin and his team slowly approached the creature while maintaining their wariness. It was clearly dying, but what interested Kelvin the most was the artifact the creature was nuzzling up against.

"Is that what it was after?"

"What's an ant gonna do with a gem?"

Zeena and George exchanged dialogue while approaching the fallen Queen. Kelvin who was steps ahead of the group took a knee beside the head of the Queen Ant. The Queen who was noticeably weakened attempted to protect the artifact with what little strength it had left by nudging the glossy item with her head slightly away from Kelvin. In order to take a closer look, Kelvin attempted to get closer to the gem.

The Queen Ant, seeing Kelvin approach, quickly placed her head over the gem in a last ditch effort to keep it from his grasp. Seeing the actions, George and Kelvin furrowed their eyebrows. As he considered his next step, a small cooing sound choked from the Queen proceeded by an ominous presence filling the cavern. The silence was deafening. Silas' eyes were drawn to a glow beneath the Queen Ant and guessed the source.

"The Queen Ant's up to something!"

The three other members quickly focused their sights and watched a now blood covered gem defy physics and float from the ground. As it rose, the Queen Ant's head slid off while still struggling to maintain its life. The outer shell of the dull gem had continuously fractured as it rose from the ground. Small flakes fell off the gem as if its outer shell were being shed. As the shelling fell to the ground, the dying Queen Ant began to release a weak cooing noise as if it was excited. Each fractured piece revealed a matte item beneath it. Parts of the item now visible were clearly shimmering as beads of light raced from the outer edge towards the center. As more of the gem's surface disintegrated, a blacken gem was revealed at which the Queen Ant's behavior celebrated with a loud hiss.

Zeena, George and Silas began moving up next to Kelvin while maintaining a look of confusion visibly on their face. When they neared Kelvin's side, a pressure pulsed through the air halting everyone in their steps. A second pulse followed immediately after with a subtle screeching beginning to resound through the chamber. The pulses continued every second raising the screech noise a little more each time. Gravity snatched control over the floating gem ripping it back towards the ground smashing it against the stone floor.

"It's like someone is dragging metal across metal. What's going on?!"

Zeena cried out while covering her ears as the noise rose to deafening levels. Less than 12 centimeters above the fractured gem, space fractured horizontal to the ground. The crack in the air spider webbed with chunks of space itself falling down into the black abyssal center of the gem. As each chunk of space fell through, the black opening gradually grew larger until it covered nearly a 15 meter by 15 meter area. The pulses ceased and the air turned silent. All eyes were locked onto the apparent hole in space floating above the gem. From within the abyss the top of a cross slowly ascended revealing a blackened metallic sheen with golden chains dangling from the tip. As more of the cross revealed itself, a pair of arms restrained at the wrists were attached to the dangling chains. A pair of crescent horns accompanied by elongated ears and silver hair with a bluish hue emerged just after the intersection of the cross. The spectators watched in silence too enthralled by the features of the woman restrained to mutter anything. As the metallic cross continued its ascent, Kelvin and his team's eyes jumped from feature to feature focusing primarily on the pair of wings that appeared to extend from her lower back. Each second revealed more of the creature until the cross halted its ascension exposing a pair of legs bound to either side of the cross with a set of chains not unlike the kind restraining the woman's arms. A moment of silence lasting no longer than 5 seconds felt like hours expiring to the dazzled spectators before a sudden movement across the womans torso drew them back into reality. The woman lifted her chin while slowly opening her eyes laying bare a pair of deep azure eyes with slitted pupils.

Beside the fractured space a weak cooing noise could be heard as if the Queen Ant were cheering the arrival of the new cast. Silas picked up on the situation first and after studying the Queen Ant momentarily an epiphany struck him with fear causing a cold chill to run through his spine.

"De...mon...?"

Silas uttered while reaching in habit for his now empty sheath. Grasping air near his side, he quickly looked to Kelvin for further orders.

"Lord Kelvin, we're not equipped to deal with another Demon. The fight with the Queen Ant destroyed our primary weapons. We have to retreat now."

The Demon restrained on the cross appeared to be regaining consciousness as her movements were slowly becoming more lively and she was beginning to observe her surroundings. The restrained young woman began to put strength into her limbs causing the chains to grate against the cross as if testing their durability. Each testing clank drew the woman's eyes as she studied her situation. A final clank was heard as the woman slipped a wry smile across her face, apparently coming to some understanding of her situation. She glanced up and down at the chains restraining her to the cross before suddenly kneading a massive amount of mana dropping the temperature of the immediate surroundings to below freezing. The massive drop in pressure caused a shock-wave as air rushed to balance the internal pressure. A loud clap resounded as air collided upon it self and with that resounding clap, the sound of rending steel mixed into the air. Bracing themselves against the implosion and following concussive blasts, Kelvin and his team were kneeling down while covering their ears.

Kelvin stood back up as the wind and noise found equilibrium and mellowed into a light breeze and faded echo. He used his left hand to hold his head and shook off the dizziness and headache incurred from earlier. Before him the abyss that had been floating above the crystal had long since disappeared. A shattered red stone lie where the artifact was originally situated. All traces of of streaking lights that were visible previously no longer existed. A large cross was impaled into the ground a short distance from that shattered gem. The cross had torn nearly in half and was radically warped as if someone nearly bent it in half both ways. Recognizing the woman was no longer attached to the cross, Kelvin immediately began scanning the surroundings.

His eyes fell upon the woman with golden chains still attached to her limbs dragging across the ground with an excessive number of links. Her white one piece dress extended below her feet causing it to drag across the ground as well tainting the portion in contact with the tiles and staining it a light brown. She had just stopped walking near the Queen ant before kneeling next to it and raising its head onto her thigh. Doubting his vision, Kelvin slowly moved to get a better angle of the sight as he watched the woman stroke the hard carapace of the head. For a moment, he was worried about her safety, but the soft cooing emanating from the Queen Ant could only be taken as a form of satisfaction and the gentle smile etched into the woman's face disregarded any sense of fear.

Zeena who had just recovered from the repeated concussive blasts helped Silas and George up before moving towards Kelvin. In her eyes, he was entirely engrossed in watching the spectacle of the two creatures near them. Seeing the look upon his face, something pricked at Zeena's mind causing her to move forward to brake Kelvin from his trance. As she neared him, a gurgling noise echoed through the chamber followed by a deafening silence that even stopped Zeena in her tracks. Glancing to the source of the gurgle, Zeena saw the final moments of the Queen Ant as the previously gushing blood no longer pumped from the wounds of the Demon.

A moment of stillness was followed up by a ruffling as the kneeling woman flapped her back wings and rose to her feet. The woman invoked some sort of magic igniting the Queen Ant on fire. The Queen's body burnt rapidly without any smoke raising from the flames suggesting the absurd temperature it was exposed to. In less than 3 minutes, the entire corpse had disintegrated into the air leaving only a molten crib behind. Turning to face the team, the young woman's eyes crawled across each member momentarily before settling on the pantherian of their group which appeared to uniquely peak her interest. The woman took a few steps towards George while dragging the chains from her legs and arms across the ground. Each step the Demon took brought with it a clank or scrape though the woman appeared uninterested in her own bindings.

George felt the Demon's eyes on him, but he was unable to move. An undeniable pressure was exerted upon his entire being to stay still. The young woman approached further until she was overshadowed by his large build. Apparently using a magic of some sort, she levitated slightly and raised her hands to George's face. She placed a palm on either side of his cheeks gently stroking the side before moving her hands to the top of his head. His ears twitched slightly when she first touched them surprising the young woman slightly. Taking advantage of the moment, the young woman dropped to the ground and moved to George's backside only to start petting his tail with a smile. After seemingly playing around for 30 seconds or so with it, She moved her focus onto her next target much to the relief of George.

To her dismay, Zeena suddenly felt the overbearing pressuring that sealed Georges movements. The Demon moved elegantly in front of her frozen body and turned to look directly at her. She moved her face close to Zeena with ease as their heights were similar, she peered straight into her eyes. Zeena's pair of peridot eyes were staring back into what can only be described as a pair of azure elysium crystals. The eyes appears light blue but as she looked deeper, the color strengthened until she felt as if she were looking into the depths of a sea. The woman adjusted her face to the side and moved her hand to feel Zeena's slightly elongated ears. A small smile appeared on her face before she drew back allowing Zeena her first breath of air since the over bearing pressure first assaulted her. The woman took her distance from the team and the absurd pressure that had frozen them suddenly released entirely.

As the woman backed away her eyes floated between Silas and Kelvin, the only two Humans of the group. Kelvin was acutely aware of the selection criteria the woman used when nearing them which caused him some worry. If a creature capable of inducing such a strong paralyzing presence attacked them, he doubted they could win without any weapons or preparation. The woman looked at the group once more before extending a hand into the air. A soft voice reached team Satyr's ears.

"I suppose it's safe enough for now..."

Space fell away once more into blackness though it seemed to be yanked back into itself this time. A vertical slit extended from the ground and peeled back revealing another cross carrying a young male Human. At the sight, team Satyr couldn't avert their eyes. The woman approached the cross and gentle caressed the man's face in her hands. She poked him slightly until the man slowly came to consciousness. Collecting his thoughts momentarily, he looked around at the sight before tearing the golden bindings that restrained him. The young creature stabilized the man's body as he fell into her arms and she gently set him down allowing him to recover naturally. The tear in space sealed itself behind him leaving behind his cross as well. As if he regained enough of his mental faculty to deal with the current situation, he turned his sights to the group of people staring at him from a distance.

After looking towards the creature, who shook her head, the young man rose to his feet and slowly walked over to the team with her.

"Hello. My name is Sakamoto Hiiro. This is Lazuli Fardom Lapis. If you have the time, I'd like to ask a few questions."