---
The Ant Queen was in a miserable state.
Her body was extremely thin, her shells were barely clinging onto her body, her eyes were red either from fury or extreme stress. She was tumbling here and there to completely get rid of the magma that's sundering her body. As time goes on, the queen's flesh started smoking from the heat, the burnt smell was starting to linger on the nostrils of the witnesses.
Her piercing cry of anger and shrills of pain echoed across the whole colony. Magma continued spilling out from the tunnel that Bradley and his made earlier and was now filling the whole ground with it. Thankfully, the entrance where Luis and his team were watching was on a higher altitude, or else they won't be able to watch her demise right now.
The Queen knew that there were people who trespassed her territory, but she can't even pursue not to mention kill them since she can't even shake off the magma coating her entire body. She felt that she was being cooked alive by this liquid and where ever she goes, she can't escape this.
The chamber was being filled with magma as time goes on. On her desperate attempts to escape, she looked up to the exit and saw the humans who were behind all of this. With a loud screech, she ran towards them and prepared do absolutely anything to get of this place. On normal cases, she could've just flown away but since her evolution was interrupted, she doesn't have her wings now, only some bony fragments that's also being burned as of right now…
Luis and his team shivered, it won't take any genius to find out what the queen was trying to do right now. Without further ado, Raphael went forward and raised his shield, with the last ounces of his energy he called: "Protection: Aegis!"
Instantly, a bright blue outline of a kite shield appeared in front of him. A second after it solidified and covered the entrance, clearly preventing the ant from escaping her magma prison.
Merlin stepped forward too and casted another blessing to help with him hold up his shield, "Blessing: Call of Arms!" She slammed the staff on the ground and instantly a swirl of energy funneled towards Raphael as he started to feel like his strength was rising.
"Don't let her escape!" Luis roared, he raised his sword and pointed it towards the queen. "Judgement: Punishing Sun!"
Flames condensed at the tip of his sword and formed a miniature sun. Bradley followed suit and raised both of his flaring swords: "Final Move: Wrath of Wind!"
Julius brandished his swords and uttered: "Draw: Blood Letter!"
Malik raised his great sword and also prepared for an attack of his own: "Destroy: Mountain Splitter!"
Bea stretched her bow and prepare what seems like the largest arrow that she could do as of the moment: "9th Shot: Wind Splitting Arrow!"
Their attacks launched consecutively. Fortunately, Raphael's shield allowed the projectiles to pass through and only prevented the enemy's attack.
The charging queen received the attacks, she thought that she could survive their attacks for a second so she decided to ignore it but alas. The attack from Luis blew a hole through her chest and burned her heart. Bradley's attack severed her bony wings, Julius severed her legs, Malik severed her upper body from her lower, and Bea's attack punched a hole on her head.
Just like this, the queen's body fell limply on the floor covered in magma and drowned in it. Smoke rose up and her carcass melted from the heat from it. The tunnel also stopped spouting magma since this everything that's left from the dead volcano is all here.
The team heaved a sigh of relief, it felt like a huge lump from their throats were removed. Luis stared at the remains of battle, he then spoke: "Alright, the hard part's done. We just need to seal this entrance and let the magma solidify on it's own."
"For now, Mission Accomplished team! Good work!"
The elite forces celebrate and the team went back towards the surface to regroup with the rest of the workforce.
***
The Hawk Forces marched out of the battlefield. The Ant Colony is no more.
Everything that has value had been successfully gathered and moved for final inventroy check. They also blew up the ant hill, formally sealing the every entrances possible for the ants and that includes the tunnels that the ants used to pop out on the battlefield itself. All of possible exits had been sealed, and the there would a wide-range renovation in this place to make sure that none like this would happen again.
News of the battle proliferated to every corners of kingdom. Whispers like: "The Hawk is back at it again!" Or, "As expected of our Hero! Good riddance!" And many more conversation like this was happening everywhere.
Everyone was once again blinded by the brilliance that Luis showed.
"Receiving report from a concerned citizen (Jonas, who retired from pursuing his dreams to become a farmer), Luis the Hawk gathered his forces and marched towards the battlefield to fight against the monstrosity hiding beneath. It is said that there, he fought against mutated ants that unlocked a part of their bloodline, they are called Lord Ants.
Regular Lord Ants are rumored to be as big of horse carriages and are natural predators as well. A colony full of this monstrosity was found building up their forces to strike and bring terror to our kingdom. With the use of his wits, valor and unyielding efforts, Hawk and his team annihilated every single one of them, ending the unseen threat before it dealt any damages to the kingdom!"
This is what's been written on the bulletin board that's accessible to public. This is also the reason why Luis was once again pushed to the spotlight and became the talk of town.
From merchants, nobles, people of military background, common folk and even the Royal Family had heard of this. Some people were elated that someone like him was their ally, and some were gritting their teeth because he was once again being the center of attention and drowning them on his shadow.
As for the man who's the talk of the town? He's back on his office, enjoying a very relaxing shoulder massage from his lovely wife, who frequently visited him whenever she's not busy.
"Yes…there…that's the spot…" Luis moaned in delight.
"Can you lower it down? People might hear you and have the wrong idea." Eva blushed as she continued massaging his shoulders.
"I don't care…it feels good…" Luis moaned once more making Eva shook her head in helplessness.
Luis was only like this whenever he's with family, he would always wore this calm and calculating expression whenever he's in front if his subordinates but he gets to be himself whenever his family is around.
"Well? This is a big matter, your supervisors might offer you a promotion once more. Are you going to accept it this time?" Eva asked.
This made Luis ponder for a moment, but it didn't really took him a while to answer her question: "No I won't. I don't to accept that position just yet."
"Why? Is it because you're unprepared to deal with them?"
"No…" Luis shook his head, "It's because I won't have any time for you anymore."
"Awh…" Eva blushed, "Thank you, I am incredibly grateful for that, but I also don't want you to stop pursuing your dreams just because of me, and your son will definitely understand you as well."
"I know…" Luis held his wife's hand, "But I just don't like the idea of being enslaved by people and their expectations of me. It's fine like this since I get to move however I like and those people can't wrap me in their palms."
Luis didn't really have as much loyalty to his supervisors like people believed it to be. The true reason why he was refusing their offers is because once he accepted it, then they would be their chess piece, a plaything even. And he won't allow himself to dance on top of their palms.
He had his own plans, and this includes the safety of his family.
"I understand." Eva smiled and wrapped her husband into a hug, "Just remember. No matter what you do. We will support you."