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Back at the Queen's Chamber.
Luis and the rest are still trying their best to release the Queen from a high altitude. So far, they managed to lower her mucus bubble to some degree but for their plans to succeed, they have to make sure that she's on the ground.
It didn't help that the hardened mucus was a pain in the rear to sever, even the energetic Malik clearly slowed down from visible exhaustion.
"Huh…this things are tough! I'm getting tired from constant swinging." Malik whined but his actions his actions never stopped. Of course, he knew that he can't stop now, they were running out of time, and if they didn't do this now, then it would be too late for them.
"If you have the energy to whine…" Raphael said as he just finished severing a connection, "…then use it to cut away instead of whining."
"Hmph! Smart ass…" Malik made faces towards his direction, but did what he said anyway.
"If you guys are feeling tired, then you can drink some potions that Merlin gave you earlier." Luis said in a 'matter-of-factly' tone.
Malik and Raphael froze, they looked at each other and shook their heads in embarassment. They summoned a vial of blue liquid from their spatial rings and downed it on one go. Their bodies brightened up and both of them felt refreshed and ready to go wild once more.
"That's some good stuff, got to ask her to make me a few of these later." Malik said as he began slicing away.
"Yeah, good luck about that. As if you could get one without her emptying your wallet." Julius' sarcastic remarks echoed from the opposite side of the room.
Malik's eyes twitched for a bit before sighing in defeat. He almost forgot that Merlin is actually a ruthless business woman. Unless it was necessary for their cause, she won't even give discounts to her own teammates.
"Well, she's an Alchemist after all. The ingredients that she used to concoct these things must've cost her a fortune, plus there's also her research for the forgotten medicines. So yeah, she would really charge us heavily for this, we should be happy that work calls for it or else we won't even have one." Raphael added.
"Heads up!" Luis exclaimed catching their attention. The trio looked up and saw the mucus bubble losing it's balance.
They hurriedly moved away and retreated as far as possible. It didn't take long before the bubble fell and crashed to the ground, kicking up a huge dust cloud. Everyone that's inside the colony heard this, good thing that the effects of Paralyzing Mist are so strong that this sound wasn't enough to wake them up.
The bubble landed onto the floor, but it doesn't mean that their work is done here. Just to make sure that everything would go according to the plan, they needed to completely sever all of the connections from the walls so that there won't be any mishaps during the execution.
"Alright team, there's only a few left. Let's get this over with." Luis encouraged the team and they replied.
"Sir yes sir!"
***
While Luis and his team were dealing with the queen, the onslaught against the paralyzed ants began.
The Hawk Forces were told not to show any mercy for the ants. Complete Annihilation as Luis ordered. And since the ants are paralyzed for few hours because of the earlier efforts of the team, then this will undoubtedly lower their casualties, making this mission accomplished with flying colors.
As a matter of fact, Hawk Forces never dealt with this kind of problem before. It was actually va first time for the team to slay beasts, usually they deal with shady organizations, cults or rebels and pretty much everyone in this team had their hands stained with blood.
It was the specialty of Luis though. To deal with corruption. His moniker, The Hawk, won't be something to fear if he didn't have anything to back it up. The amount of corruption he ended during his term are numerous. To Luis, it didn't matter whether one is of noble, military or common background. If they start to threaten the peace of the Kingdom, he will eventually show up in front of their gates and when that happens, it would be their end.
His reputation soared to an unbelievable heights that some started to even brand him as a hero. The only thing that's keeping him from his position as a Marshal is his cultivation base. Which was truly laughable considering that some even managed to acquire a higher position than him even though they did nothing worth mentioning.
"…5th! Whew! How many are left?" - random soldier #1 asked.
"Many! And I have to say, you sure your aren't losing your touch buddy? I'm on my 7th kill here while you just finished your fifth." - random soldier #2 said.
"Oh leave me be, you know my techniques aren't for beasts!" - random soldier #1 replied.
"That's true..."
"Come to think of it, this shit is hella serious." Random soldier #1 gazed around him, "Who knew that there's something like this hiding beneath our home. And it was so close too. Good thing Big Boss knew about it."
"Couldn't agree more!" Random solider #2 exclaimed, "As soon as I saw this, I told my family to move out."
"You live around here?"
"Yeah…my wife's a vegetable vendor you see."
"Oh, good for you then. And good thing the situation hasn't escalated just yet, or else the damages these things could do are immense."
"I absolutely agree. I just hope Big Boss would at least be rewarded handsomely from this, or at least get promoted."
"I wonder about that…" random soldier #1 mused, "Rumors said that Big Boss had been offered with the position already, not just once, but multiple times actually."
"Oh?" Random soldier #2 never heard about this so he asked: "He didn't accept it? Why though?"
"Generals are stationed near the palace." Random Soldier #1 explained, "Which means no holidays for him, and I guess boss didn't want to lose time for his family. But, these are all just rumors though. I'm not aware of the true reason behind."
"HEY YOU TWO! WHAT ARE YOU STAYING IDLE FOR! HURRY YOUR ASSES UP BEFORE I FEED YOU TO THE ANTS!"
"Y-YES SIR!"
***
"Alright, clear the rubbles out everyone. We have time since Sir Bradley's resting."
Back at the tunnel that Bradley drilled, the team that went with him cleaned up the rubble that fell during his rampage. So far, the tunnel followed a stair-like pattern, allowing people to stand properly without needing to use energy by clinging on to the walls.
They busied themselves by clearing up the rubble, Merlin and Beatrice included. There's huge chunks of rocks that fell during Bradley's attack and it's imperative that cleared those out or else the plan won't be successful.
There are at least on person stationed on each intersection. They went and cleared out the rubble by passing it down from one person to the next, and the person who's stationed in the opening of the tunnel was tasked to discard the rubble back onto the queen's chamber. This process continued and will only stop once there are no stones blocking their passage.
After a couple minutes of rest, Bradley exited his meditation and stood up. Bea and Merlin being the closest to his location perked up retreated a few steps. Merlin retreated further from them while Bea stayed a few meters away.
Bradley once again gathered momentum and raised his swords above his head. He spun faster and faster until wind kicked up around him. Bea's eyes flashed and stretched her bow once more, and just like before, she made an arrow made out of compressed wind and shot it towards Bradley, which didn't harm him but instead made him spin faster.
The tunnel went noisy once more, Bea being the closest from his position heard this clearer than anyone else. She also saw that there are more rubbles to clear so she started the heavy lifting with Merlin and the rest joining her after.
"Say..." Merlin spoke which made Bea's attention to be fixated on her, "How far are we from reaching the end?"
"Hmm, let's see…" Bea did some mental calculations before replying, "He makes a turn every 10 meters. So far, we have 20 sections, which means 200 meters of overall distance. We still have 600 meters to go."
"So 60 more sections. That's quite far. We've been here for a few hours, I hope we make it in time." Merlin sighed as she picked up a boulder.
"Relax. We got this. He's a Royal Guard you know? This much shouldn't be too difficult for him." Bea reassured Merlin.
"I'm just hoping that it's worth it." Merlin said which made Bea raise her brow in confusion, "You know, like that Fat bastard and his accomplices, always getting in the way of Boss' ways no matter how many times they were slapped by him. I just hope that this time around, we could just enjoy and celebrate a good deed."
"Ugh! Don't even remind of that Fat Face! If it weren't for Boss' warning, I might've already shot him in the face! Let's just clear up for now…"
Merlin just nodded and followed Bea's advice.