Ultimate Level 1

“Oh my god! Ants!”

Max ignored Cordellia’s weird cry, her already high-pitched voice somehow hitting another octave.

The tower floor was underground in a maze of tunnels and charging them were seven ants, two larger ones with giant pincers and a noticeably thicker body and four smaller ones that moved faster and moved to flank edges of the party.

The narrow tunnel provided a little help in keeping the ants from being able to flank both sides as stone walls and ice walls stacked on top of each other, creating a choke point in the middle.

Fowl’s hammer struck one of the larger ants, cracking the exoskeleton where the attack hit.

The hammer side of Max’s weapon tore through the ant, driving its head into the ground and smashing it like a melon, sending a spray of brains and gore in an arc.

Tanila’s fireball went off, hitting the two on the left, while Cordellia’s arrows punctured the smaller ant’s protective carapace.

Unlike the last few tower floors, the first six creatures died quickly to their attacks, not requiring them to work as hard as the last two days.

An icy chill entered Max as he ended the life of the last smaller ant.

“That wasn’t…” Fowl shut his mouth on his own, turning to see Batrire moving toward him with her staff held high. “As smelly as I thought it would be.”

Their healer let out a huff and scowled at him for a moment.

“I know ants have a hive mind which means they should attack in a better pattern,” Tanila said. “This group didn’t. It’s almost as if they were simply reacting to us being here.”

Their ranger shuddered, and Max gave her a confused look.

“Sorry, I hate ants… it’s a long story, but they give me the…” she paused, shuddering again and then shrugged. “Ants always make me act like this.”

“You’re fine. It’s good to know though. Up ahead, I see a few tunnels are going in different directions. Does anyone have an idea of how we want to deal with this? One of them has to lead to the portal, and it’s just guessing the right one.”

No one had any good ideas, and after storing some of the dead ant parts and waiting for the red gems to appear, they headed down the dirt paths, grateful for the fungus growing on the wall that provided a little bit of yellow-colored light.

***

“I think we’re at least headed in the right direction now,” Max said as he flicked the gore off of his weapon. “This tunnel has been headed downward instead of to the side for a while.”

Fowl ripped off one of the pincers before grabbing another, tearing it off, and storing them.

“These are strong, but their bite can’t do anything to my armor or shield either. Those fast ones are too weak to stand up against Tanila and Cordellia,” Fowl added. “So why would these be the next monsters after the first two floors were so hard?”

The silence was their warrior's reply as everyone glanced at the nine dead ants. They had hit hard and fast, seven of the quick ones racing forward while the larger two came from a side tunnel, but as Fowl had pointed out, they weren’t a match at all for the party.

“Do you think we’re being lulled into a sense of safety?”

“I doubt that, Batrire,” Talina replied. “While ants are incredibly strong in groups, I doubt they would be that smart.”

Everyone could sense the concern each party member had at how things seemed to be going. Easy fights were always nice, but after the last two floors and how hard everything seemed, this one didn’t match up with their expectations.

“All we can do is to continue as we have been,” Max said. “We’ll keep going slow and making sure nothing surprises us.”

***

“Six hours and counting,” Fowl muttered as he ripped a pair of pincers free and stored them. “They keep just rushing at us which makes killing them easy, yet now I’m concerned like you four.”

Cordellia tossed a few ant parts she had harvested toward their dwarven warrior and noticed the way Tanila was biting her lip as she stared down the underground tunnel.

“Can I ask what’s wrong?

‎ Their mage turned and frowned, ignoring how everyone was now staring at her.

“Inside me is an itch of some kind. Its gotten stronger the last few hours but I don’t know how to really explain it other than I don’t like it,” she replied. “I can’t recall ever having something like this before and yet it feels vastly wrong and dark.”

“Like we need to leave the tower floor?” Max asked.

She shook her head.

“There would be no point to that now. We’ve come this far and whatever is bothering me will soon be found. I know we’ll be fine since we’re not rushing ahead like fools but…” Tanila paused and winced as a faint screech of some kind came from further down the dark tunnels. “Yeah… that’s not nice.”

“That sound wasn’t that far away,” Batrire said as she recast her buff. “I guess we will soon find out what it was.”

Everyone stopped harvesting and got ready for a fight, looking down the tunnels that glowed with the yellow light from the fungus.

***

Seven more packs of ants had died and the light that was getting brighter came from a massive opening at the end of the tunnel they were in.

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Inside was the clattering of noise and screeching of something that appeared to be in pain.

“Let me scout,” Max whispered as he stealthed and moved toward the opening, where he could see some ants moving around in circles.

Sneaking ahead, he came to the entrance and fought back against the desire to let out a whistle.

Inside were at least seventy ants all moving around in a circle. Almost as one, they continued to move at a steady pace, heading in the same direction.

At the center was a giant black ant that was over thirty feet tall. A huge lower half pulsed and shivered as the queen ant leaned upward, both antennae going wild in the air. Large wings fluttered and made an occasional noise, but never did the queen actually lift off the ground.

It almost looks like it's in pain…

Another screech came from the maw of the queen, her red eyes sparkling for a moment before going dim again. When she screeched, the circle of ants paused for a moment before starting their progression once more.

Dozens of other tunnels led off in other directions and yet no more ants seemed to be coming or going inside the hundred yard cavern area.

Moving back to where the others were waiting, Max tried to figure out what was going on.

Anything you can tell me?

With no reply coming, Max sighed.

***

“So that’s not normal at all,” Tanila said. “Those are called death circles, as the ants will literally walk like that until they die unless something forces them to stop. No one knows why they do that, but if the queen isn’t telling them to do something else, perhaps that is a clue.”

“What kind of clue?” Fowl asked.

Tapping her forehead, their mage then pointed down to where the cavern was.

“The queen is a hive mind. If something is affecting her it might be affecting the ants closest to her like that. Whatever it is, could be the problem.”

“You don’t think it’s the fungus we collected a few samples of?” Cordellia asked as she rubbed her gloves against her pants. “I mean, we touched it. Will that bother us?”

“I doubt that is causing this,” Tanila replied. “If that was the case, all the ants in the tunnel would be acting the same way. No, whatever is taking place, it’s magical of some kind.”

“So can we attack the queen and the ants?”

Their mage shrugged at Max.

“I’d probably try to fight the queen last because I’m guessing whatever is affecting her will cause the ones walking as you described to react. That would then mean fighting both her and them. If what you have described is correct, we might be able to kill all the ants surrounding the queen first.”

“Well, without a portal, it doesn’t look like we have a choice,” Fowl muttered. “So fight seventy plus ants and hope that we don’t get overrun before fighting a thirty foot tall queen. Sounds like a typical day in our lives.”

Laughter came from everyone as their dwarven warrior motioned to the opening and started to move ahead slowly.

***

After Max moved up to where the circle was via Stealth and killed the closest one, he leaped back, weapon ready for a response. None came as the circle of ants continued to move as if nothing had happened. When one reached the body Max had liberated a head from, it simply walked over it.

Turning toward the group, he gave a thumbs up and then got to work, whittling down the number of ants, killing one each time it came near him.

Half of the circle of ants were dead, requiring Max to kill and then drag the pile of corpses away as a pile had formed.

Every ten minutes, another screech came from the queen, pausing the death march before it continued.

When the last ant that surrounded the queen was dead, the group gathered about twenty yards from the boss.

“What’s the odds of us being able to cut off that queen’s head?”

Max snorted at Fowl’s question and shrugged.

“Depends on if she fights back. Her jaws look like they could snap you and your plate armor in half and I doubt that’s the only attack a queen has. If I can fight without having to worry about it fighting back, I’ll probably manage it without a problem.”

Tanila nodded and pointed at the queen’s neck area.

“I’ll send a shard of ice. If the queen doesn’t react then you should be safe to teleport up there and then do your part.”

“And if the queen ends up fighting back?” Cordellia asked as she nocked an arrow on the bowstring.

“We fight,” Max replied as he motioned to Tanila to start casting.

Max drew closer as he left Fowl with the other three, getting into range so that once Tanila’s spell connected, he could react either way.

A giant shard of ice flew through the air and struck the joint where the head and next section of the queen’s body connected. The sound of the impact echoed through the cavern, yet the queen ant didn’t react at all beyond the force of the spell.

Without waiting a second longer, Max moved to end this fight.

[ Demonic Teleportation ]

[ Magical Strike ]

[ Power Strike ]

His halberd swung at the spot Tanila’s spell had hit the moment his feet touched the outer shell of the queen's body. The bladed portion of his weapon tore through the joint, cutting a third of the way into the queen’s neck area.

It shuddered, letting out a screech.

Max never hesitated after the first strike hit, swinging again and again, hacking off bits of the protective carapace as body fluid and squirted out from the open wound.

The head rolled to the side where the area he had been hacking had been weakened, resting against the section and preventing that spot from being accessible again.

Moving across the top of the queen’s body, Max began working on the opposite side, raining down attacks.

Finally, the swing came that broke the last piece supporting the massive head and a loud crack came as the carapace couldn’t hold the weight anymore. A slurping sound filled the air as the head fell forward, yanking out a large section of flesh and ligaments as it fell, dangling from the massive hole.

A single last screech came that was worse than all the others as the light of the boss’s red eyes faded into darkness.

Cold power flooded Max as he stood on top of the fallen queen and he struggled to stay standing.

[ Bonus Stats Consumed ]

[ 10 Strength Consumed ]

[ 10 Constitution Consumed ]

[ 10 Intelligence Consumed ]

[ 10 Wisdom Consumed ]

[ Consume has consumed an ability ]

[ Ability does not match entity type ]

[ Power stored for future use ]

Grinning, Max ignored the sensation as he swung his weapon with as much power and speed as possible at the strands of ligaments supporting the queen’s head. Time was running out and he hoped his gamble would pay off.

‎

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