The 'mole tactic' was comically simple for an official military tactic.
After all, it just required an earth-type mana art to simply tunnel under their enemies and attack them from underground.
However, there was a slight issue with using this tactic.
If you didn't know where the enemy was located, you would not know where to exit the ground for the surprise attack.
Having Delsie, whose enhanced hearing allowed her to listen to vibrations in the ground to locate enemies, was extremely useful.
It's too bad she wasn't anywhere nearby, though, having already departed with Lyn.
The only option for those who remained in the larger group was straightforward.
They needed to keep trying until they found the enemies by pure chance.
Making a rough estimate of their enemy's whereabouts based on their earlier attacks, Rick tunnelled their entire group of five through the ground.
By pure chance, they appeared directly under their first target.
Using this chance, Blaine quickly dispatched it before it could get the opportunity to defend itself.
Rick created a tunnel leading to the vicinity of another nearby enemy, and Lorie sighed as she walked along the freshly caved tunnel floor.
"I hate insect-type creatures…"
Ginny nodded her head with a look of disgust.
"Yeah…"
With beads of sweat pouring down his face, Rick frowned as well.
"A lot of them have venom as well… You need to be careful in case you touch it cause you might get poiso-"
Just as he was about to finish, he heard a thud behind him.
Turning around, he saw Blaine fall to one knee, his face deathly pale.
His usual porcelain skin had turned as white as a ghost, with the auburn-haired youth looking like he was about to pass out at any moment.
Ginny hastily ran over to him, with her hands glowing with a soft aquamarine light.
"Blaine! What's wrong?!?"
Without hiding it, Blaine lifted his right hand and showed it to Ginny.
The skin was horribly melted, with yellow pus spilling from some open wounds.
Ginny's eyes widened as she hastily touched his hand with the healing light.
"When… When did you get hurt this badly? You looked fine moments ago!" Ginny asked in disbelief.
Just then, Cecelia remembered something.
The first needle that had attacked them was actually directed at her.
Blaine had caught that needle with his bare hand due to the lack of time.
It was thanks to her that he was in his current situation.
Sure, he could have asked for healing earlier, but it didn't change the fact that the injury was received on her account.
Cecelia frowned as she bit her lower lip in frustration.
'Why… Why does he have to go so far for me?'
While contemplating her internal struggles, Blaine's hand rapidly healed itself under the warm light.
Soon, it was back to its original state.
Ginny threw the auburn-haired youth an annoyed glare.
"Look, I understand we're in an emergency situation right now, but if you're injured… At least let me know! If you suddenly die from injuries I don't even know about, how am I supposed to heal you then?"
If there was one thing, a medic hated the most… It was a stubborn patient.
Blaine looked at the fuming lady briefly before lightly nodding his head.
Ginny sighed, and the look of annoyance disappeared off of her head.
She lifted her hand and lightly patted Blaine on the shoulder.
"Even if you can fight alongside us, you're only human. Take better care of yourself… Okay?"
Turning around, Ginny threw questioning glances at the other three in their group.
It looked like no one else was hiding any injuries, so they were all set to continue their counterattack.
After throwing a signal to Rick, they resumed their assault.
***
They needed to kill two other such creatures, but they took considerably longer than the first one.
They had a wild goose chase with the second one, as the bee-like monster seemed to sense that its comrade had died earlier.
This almost went unnoticed since there wasn't any way to track them in real time.
If it wasn't for Cecelia's Power Analyzer.
Somehow, the princess realized that the small device could minutely pick up the creature's residual mana, which seeped down from the small airholes Rick left on the tunnel roof.
Utilizing that, the group managed to time themselves with the bee-like monster as it returned to its dead companion.
Taking her spear, Ginny impaled the creature from under the ground, killing it in one blow.
The problem was the third one…
After realizing its comrades were both dead, the creature had gone on full alert.
As soon as it noticed the ground beneath it ripple, it instinctively sent a poisoned needle flying straight into the opening hole.
(CLANG)
Deflecting the needle with his war hammer, Rick commanded a tide of earth to crash into the bee-like monster from behind.
However, before the earth could swallow it, the monster quickly moved and dodged the attack from its blind spot.
"Tsk…"
Clicking his tongue, Rick glared at the creature with undisguised annoyance.
However, it curved into a small smile moments later.
After all, the creature just happened to move just as he anticipated…
"Whelp… I wanted at least one kill. You guys don't mind sharing a core or two with your glorified chauffeur, right?"
Just as Rick spoke, the ground opened up shortly behind him, revealing an auburn-haired youth wielding a glowing white blade.
The insect-type Magical Creature possessed three stinger protrusions that branched off from its tail, each containing a venomous needle the size of a fully grown man's index finger.
Having used one such needle moments ago to attack Rick, only two remained on this specific creature.
However, this was only temporary.
The seemingly empty tail protrusion leaked with clear blood as another venom-coated stinger began pushing out of the monster's hair-covered body.
At the current rate, it would fully regenerate within another twenty seconds.
Blaine raised his sword to slash at the creature, aiming for a swift beheading.
But just as he was about to do so, a sudden whistling rang out.
The small strands of hair on his arm began to piloerect, as Blaine went into a state of alarm.
Manifesting a translucent green wall mid-air in the nick of time, Blaine kicked off it before it could fully form, shattering it into small light green particles.
Luckily, his hastily made measure worked.
Just then, a venom-covered stinger zipped past his earlier location.
Had he continued his attack, he would have had to endure the lethal blow head-on.
Slightly regretting that he instinctively dodged, instead of using his mana art to deflect the attack, Blaine landed on the ground and instantly twisted his body to dodge another attack.
Lifting his sword, he deflected the third attack with the flat body of his blade.
Blaine lifted his head and emotionlessly looked in the direction of the sudden attack.
It seemed the bee-like monstrosities had more friends than they initially let on.