Roughly eight minutes later, Lathz and the others approached the nest as Akihiko walked out from the shadow of a building and killed another bug.
"Akihiko, we've come up with a strategy to deal with the nest, or at least to see what is like in there." – Lathz spoke and glanced at the seniors who nodded at her – "The seniors will go with us but they won't participate in the battle unless we're in danger." – Her amethyst eyes then glanced at the glowing sickly green hole and a small frown briefly formed on her forehead.
She then explained the plan to Akihiko, which consisted of scouting the nest for any possible escape routes, blocking them if there were, and then dealing with the bugs inside the nest, without taking the fight outside.
Akihiko noticed the obvious holes in it, as did the others, but he also knew that they probably didn't have a better option at the moment.
He nodded at her before Nyza approached him – "We'll be the ones doing the scouting. I'll be in your care." – She explained in a polite but friendly tone.
Akihiko once again answered with just a short nod.
After the team made sure that they had revised their plan and everyone knew their roles, they looked at each other before nodding and getting on a platform Beatrix made.
The platform started to descend into the hole and everyone already got into battle positions.
The peaceful atmosphere from the outside with refreshing breezes, calmness, and silence was almost instantly broken after they entered the hole.
They were barely past 10 meters in but the air became moist and stuffy. When they breathed, they felt as if needles were prickling their lungs.
The deeper they went, the darker it became, and the louder the sounds they could hear.
*Shriek*
*Click*
*Click*
*Howl*
A cacophony of strange and distant noises became louder and louder as the platform touched the ground and the group got off.
They were in a circular pit of a bit more than 100 meters in diameter.
Beatrix chanted something in a low voice and a faint bluish glow appeared everyone but Akihiko, Nyza, and the seniors.
"Woah…" – Olivia muttered as the previously dark surroundings became brighter to her.
"Thanks." – Melissa thanked her with a neutral face.
"…" – Diana smiled at Beatrix and readied her bow.
Lathz then glanced at Akihiko and Nyza, who then faced the giant hole in front of them and vanished from where they were.
"Let's start with the preparations." – Lathz said as Eric, Beatrix, and Melissa started to use their magic.
Inside the hole, Akihiko and Nyza were running through the wide tunnel without making a sound.
They noticed that the tunnel was just a straight path without any other tunnels connected to it, which made it easier for them.
After a few seconds of running straight, they eventually met with some bugs.
There were six beetles the size of minibusses walking in a line toward where they came from.
Nyza glanced at Akihiko who then nodded.
Using the tentacles on her back, she propelled herself toward the bugs.
Arriving close to the first beetle, she used some of her tentacles to pull her to the side while the others had their ends turned into some metallic-looking substance, which solidified and she used to attack the bug.
The tentacles easily slashed through the beetle's neck and its head fell to the ground while the body walked past it.
Nyza ignored the beetle's body and with her other tentacles already pulling her to the side, she twisted her body and maneuvered in the air, throwing herself at the next beetle.
In less than 30 seconds, she finished the bugs without making a single noise before going back to running.
After a few more seconds, Nyza saw another hole, which looked to be their destination, and became more cautious.
When they finally arrived at the exit, her eyes went wide.
Before her was a vast cave with enormous thick pillars covered with what seemed to be eggs of different creatures, spread through the cave.
However, what caught her attention was the sheer number of bugs.
The place looked like a sea, a colossal swarm, with almost no spots on the ground without a bug occupying it.
Praying mantis, beetles, cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, there was almost any kind of imaginable bug in there, and all of them were at least the size of a normal adult.
Recovering from her shock, she turned to see Akihiko stealthily climbing up the walls before arriving at the ceiling and starting to move toward somewhere.
Remembering their task, Nyza also climbed the walls and used her tentacles to hang on the ceiling before moving toward another direction.
The bugs on the ground made strange noises and moved around, walking over each other but without leaving through the tunnel, almost as if they were on standby or duty guard.
Akihiko stopped moving and took small amounts of breath as he tried to calm himself. Due to his senses being sharpened, he was getting irritated by the cacophony of noises down below.
After a few brief seconds, he resumed his task. He scouted the area starting by the walls, where he didn't find any hole or some kind of exit.
He searched as low as he could without getting too close to the bugs.
A few minutes of inspection passed and neither he nor Nyza found anything resembling an escape route.
Then, they switched to searching on the ceiling, which as they already expected, didn't find any either.
They had spent 5 minutes doing their scouting before they noticed a group of bugs going toward the tunnel where they came from.
When Nyza saw them, she noticed that the interval between new bugs going out was longer than when they were cleaning up the surface. Something had definitely changed and she got a bad feeling about it.
After 2 more minutes of searching around, they didn't manage to find anything and Nyza started to prepare herself to return.
It was only then that she noticed that Akihiko wasn't with her.
Quickly looking around, she eventually spotted him on one of the pillars, putting something in between the eggs.
Then, he climbed up and moved through the ceiling to another pillar before doing the same thing.
He did this to all the 7 pillars before going toward Nyza.
Landing beside her, he nodded and ran toward the tunnel.
Snapping out of her confusion, she swiftly followed him while withholding her questions for now.
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"You two are back." – Eric commented when he spotted Akihiko and Nyza walking out of the tunnel.
The previously giant hole that used to be the entrance of the tunnel was now reduced to 10 meters wide and around 7 meters tall.
Nyza noticed pieces of rock, metal, and ice covering the hole to reduce its size. She deduced that they used magic to do this because this was a bit too much to be a skill.
"We didn't find any exits but we couldn't search the ground because it was swarmed inside there. From a rough count, I think there are at least 25.000 or so monsters in there." – Nyza explained the situation to the group and added some other observations before glancing at Akihiko – "By the way, Akihiko, what was it that you did before we returned?"
The others also turned to him, intrigued.
He did some hand signals – "He said that he put some fire talismans among the eggs. They looked important." – Beatrix translated.
"That was a good call." – Lathz nodded – "Can you choose when to activate them or are they the automatic type?"
"He said that he can choose." – Beatrix once again translated.
"Good." – Lathz turned to look at Olivia – "Olivia, you will be our vanguard along with me and Darlan." – They both nodded – "Akihiko and Nyza, rest a bit for now. Now that we haven't found any escape routes, we'll start the operation in 5 minutes." – Everyone nodded and went to their positions to prepare themselves.
While Akihiko and Nyza went to the backlines and rested, Lathz directed the mages to raise some small barriers in front of the hole, behind where the frontline would be. She then grabbed one of the three massive shields lying on the side – "Olivia and Darlan, grab one each." – She adjusted the shield and did some moves to get used to it.
Olivia made a strange face when she grabbed the shield. She was used to fighting with only gauntlets, so the shield made her feel out of place.
After finishing the preparations, the group readied themselves.
The formation consisted of Lathz, Darlan, and Olivia in the front with shields, Roxanne and Diana in the backline as the long-ranged ones, and Beatrix, Eric, and Melissa even farther behind.
Akihiko and Nyza were positioned in the middle, close to the barriers some distance away from the vanguard but still close enough to the tunnel.
"Let's start." – Lathz muttered and after seeing that everyone was ready, she took a tool that Evelyn had given them before going down the hole and activated it.
The lantern-like tool lit up in an eerie light blue light.
"…" – Silence descended among them as the group nervously waited.
After a few seconds, Lathz turned the tool off and put it away.
*Tremble*
A small tremble was felt before a sequence of increasingly stronger ones followed.
"They coming, follow the plan." – Lathz warned everyone as red eyes appeared deep inside the tunnel.
*Tremble*
*Tremble*
*Shriek*
*Click*
A stampede of different bugs spurted out like a geyser, crazily running toward the end of the tunnel.
"They aren't going to hold the line." – The man wearing spartan armor commented when he saw the situation in front of him.
"Leo is right." – The nun chimed in.
"…" – The knight said nothing but she also shared their opinion.
From their perspective, the group's formation was amateurish. They had the theoretical knowledge but that was it. They weren't dealing with a battalion of golems but with a swarm of unorganized enemies that had no clear pattern of moves.
However, what really put them in a bad position was the lack of proper vanguards and healers in the group. Their group was heavily focused on offensive and this was going to take a toll on them.
*Bam*
A giant ant crashed on Lathz's shield and she almost flew away from the sheer force of the impact.
"Fire!" – She yelled.
*Bang*
With a muffled gunshot sound, a bullet pierced the ant's head while an arrow hit the beetle Olivia was awkwardly holding back.
"Shit!" – Almost at the same time, Darlan shouted as a centipede passed by him while he was holding a praying mantis back.
However, before the centipede advanced further, Nyza's tentacles pierced its head and its body went still like it was paralyzed before the centipede crashed on the ground.
Two spiders quickly crawled over an ant's back and jumped over Lathz, just to fall to the ground with shurikens on their foreheads.
Akihiko threw three more shurikens and killed three other spiders with them.
'Bad positioning and awkward roles.' – He noted while killing a mantis with another shuriken.
The bugs themselves weren't that hard to kill, however, their numbers, the surroundings, and the lack of support classes and types in the team turned the whole situation harder than it should be.
Not to talk about the air. The vanguard was having a difficult time since it was harder to breathe, and they were struggling to not get pushed back.
The worst part is that they couldn't take the fight outside because they would get easily surrounded.
"Hah!" – Olivia spun and slammed her shield on a centipede, throwing it back into the tunnel just in time for a praying mantis to jump on her.
*Bang*
The praying mantis had its head blown away by a bullet but it didn't stop and slashed its arms toward Olivia.
*Bam*
Blocking the attack, Olivia held her ground before the mantis eventually lost strength and fell to the ground, dead.
"It might have been too soon for them to face a nest." – Leonard, the senior with spartan armor, commented – "Their lines are already struggling this much with only the first wave." – He added.
"True. Maybe we should show them a demonstration? It should help them." – The nun suggested.
"I wouldn't mind but Ms. Evelyn made it clear that we could only help in case of emergency, Anna." – The knight replied, shooting down the idea.
"I know that Kali, but…" – The nun was interrupted by a louder shriek that shook the whole place.
*SHRIEK*
The bugs all stopped moving briefly before they started moving again but far more aggressively this time.
"Tsk. So there is a brood mother." – Leonard's eyes narrowed as he could see another swarm coming at the end of the corridor, this one being bigger than the previous wave.
"They really weren't supposed to be the ones taking care of this nest." – Anna commented.
*SHRIEK*
With another loud shriek, the cave shook again.
And cracks appeared on the walls used to cover most of the tunnel.
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you're having a wonderful day!
Sorry if this chapter was somewhat strange, I was feeling kinda weird (in mood regards), so it might have affected the chapter.
Please comment your thoughts and drop a review if you like the novel.
Also, add it to your library, it really helps me.
Thank you all for reading, I wish you a good day!
Peace out~ 🍷😎