One of Moon's crystals wobbled and glowed, searching for a direction, like a compass pointer. For the hunters, this scene was magical.
Special classes with auxiliary abilities were even rarer than combat classes. It's hard to recruit them, and it was the first time the Captain had seen it.
His confidence in finding the queen ant finally rose from 0% to 1%.
The glowing crystal finally stabilized and dangled against gravity and pointed to one of the forks ahead. Tang Yu didn't hesitate and stepped inside.
They kept moving at a normal speed. Every minute or two, they encountered a fork in the road; from 2, 5, 7 roads split.
This maze was even bigger and strange than the maze in the Secret Realm, and it was made by the demonic black ants.
Fortunately, now they have Moon's 'Pathfinding' technique. Every time they encountered a fork in the road, the glowing crystal would point in the right direction.
Everyone could feel that the altitude was dropping as they advanced forward. The Captain and the others who followed in were even warier.
Suddenly, there was a rustling noise.
The Captain was experienced and immediately gave a low shout, "Careful, there's a black ant wave coming. From the sound, it will be here in fifteen seconds."
The searchlight shone towards the front, and soon they saw a dense black ants wave coming towards them. The Captain and his men looked gloomy.
"These ants are weak, but their stings are poisonous. Be careful not to get too close. And be careful not to damage the maze; otherwise, the cave would collapse. In fact, if we had found a way to find the queen, I'd suggest to go back and wait for reinforcements-"
He hadn't finished talking when suddenly the cave was filled with dazzling crimson light emitted from a longsword wrapped in flames.
The sword swung out fiercely as if it was wielding a rain of fire. The entire cave turned bright by the ring of fire surrounding them that burned the ants away.
Tang Yu saved the sword back to its sheath and patted his shoulder off the non-existent dust on his body as if nothing happened.
"Brother… didn't you say you have an architectural ability? What about this flame?" His cousin was stunned.
"I didn't say I can't use flame." Tang Yu shrugged his shoulders and spoke, "If you want to learn, I can teach you, but-"
The cousin's expression brightened, but he heard.
"But, you can't."
"...…" The cousin was heartbroken.
Ordinary hunters weren't very useful against weak but numerous demonic beasts such as the black ants.
Along the way, Tang Yu scorched waves of demonic beast ants. He hadn't had so much fun from the last time he accepted this legacy.
He was having fun by scorching the black ants to ashes.
...…
After several turns in the maze, Moon looked down with excitement. "We're already near the ant queen."
There was a breeze blowing from the front. The team quickened their pace. After walking for a while, they suddenly stopped and stared in amazement at the huge space.
The huge underground space wasn't completely dark, illuminated by dim strange green crystals on the rock wall.
They could see some large black ants moving and digging out these green crystals and carrying them downwards.
The surrounding wall was full of holes dug out by the black ants. Big and small, every ant was doing the same thing.
From their angle, these green dots were moving towards the same direction. These demonic black ants were organized!
Tang Yu was surprised.
Apart from the Extraordinary Grade Demonic Beast, he encountered at Maple Leaf Town. He hadn't met any other beasts with the power to command or control other beasts. Even the demonic beasts gathered near the giant tree at the spirit stone mines that gained intelligence didn't have such power.
Tang Yu didn't think that the ant queen possessed extraordinary strength. Perhaps it was the unique characteristic of the insects.
Even after being demonized, they still retained their original hierarchy and that terrifying reproduction ability.
It was even more difficult than ordinary demonic beasts.
He followed the direction where the green dots converged, and finally, at the end of the underground space, he saw a monster that looked larger than a large truck.
The monster had a huge abdomen, a black body with brown markings, short antennae, a small chest and feet, and no wings.
"That's the ant queen!" Moon spoke up, confirming Tang Yu's guess.
The Captain and the other soldiers were even more excited but also worried at the same time. "The queen is so huge. I think she's not weak, and those black ants are guarding her. I don't think we can win against-"
He looked at Tang Yu and understood that he was the one who made the decision.
He had come all the way down here, and he was convinced with Tang Yu's strength.
At this time.
Sheeesh!
An ear-deafening sharp shriek was heard. Some of the weaker hunters like his cousin couldn't help but cover their ears, their minds dizzy.
The shriek was like a signal. As soon as they heard it, the working ants quickly moved towards Tang Yu's team. They were quickly surrounded by black ants of various sizes.
Chopstick-sized ants, backpack-sized ants, suitcase-sized ants, and even motorcycle-sized ones... These were the ant army.
A black wave rushed towards them from all directions making the well-trained Captain and his soldiers were pale. Their hands were trembling as they held their flamethrowers. The young man could emit flames that could scorch hundreds of ants, or even thousands or ten thousand.
…but what about hundreds of thousands, or millions?
He looked back at the path they had come in. right now, it was their only survival chance.
But the Captain's face was even paler when he saw the path was swarmed by black ants.
They were surrounded.
Tang Yu didn't release his signature Flame Sword and seemed to have given up on resisting.
But then, he swept his gaze at the surrounding and helplessly sighed, "I think it's impossible not to kill the minions before fighting them all. Elaine, I'll leave it to you. Freeze them all."