Not long after the music began, a blade of wind suddenly smashed against a five meter large stone wall raised by Odysseus where most of the exploration team had taken cover behind, sending rock fragments and dust raining down on the pinned elf and humans as Dice leaned out and popped a few shots at the ants that attempt to flank them before dodged back to cover as another wind blade smashed into the barrier again.
The rest of the team had scattered when the Spider Ant Queen unleashed a barrage of wind blades with terrifying speed. One soldier was caught in the attack as his body was bisected by the invisible force and crumpled to the ground in a gruesome heap.
"Fuck! We have a man down!!" another soldier shouted, desperately firing at the ant queen's face, but his rounds had little effect.
With a shriek, the Spider Ant Queen sent out a flurry of wind blades at an even greater speed, slicing another soldier into pieces and splattering his blood and body parts across the ground.
The Queen then looked ahead and saw three soldiers preparing to fire rockets at her. As they launched their RPGs, she quickly erected a wind barrier, causing the rockets to explode harmlessly against it.
In retaliation, she unleashed two more wind blades at the soldiers, effortlessly slicing them apart in the next instant.
"Odysseus!" Dice yelled over the chaos, "Any ideas on how to take it down?"
"I'm not sure! She appears to have a wind barrier up!" Odysseus shouted back. "She's likely a wind element creature! We need fire-based attacks!"
The Queen remained on her throne of dirt, sweeping her scythe-like arms and throwing more deadly wind blades at the intruders. Odysseus managed to summon another stone wall, providing cover from the deadly blades of wind, while one soldier dragged a comrade who had lost an arm by the wind blade barrage back behind the barrier, where the team's medic quickly began treating his injuries.
Suddenly, a wind blade sliced through the thick anti-spalling cover, penetrating the graphene armor plating and inner trauma plates of the medic. The blade cut deep into his upper chest and shoulder, the shockwave shattering his collarbone and ripping open the surgical-like cut.
Blood gushed out as the medic screamed in pain. Fortunately, Penelope came to his aid and quickly ripped off his armored vest.
"Hold him still! [Minor Heal]!" Odysseus cast a healing spell, placing his hands over the gaping wound. The wound closed slightly, but the degree of damage was too much, and blood continued to flow freely.
Penelope slapped a couple of bandages over the wounds while the spell started to work on the wound, repairing as much damaged tissue as possible.
"He's going into shock!" Penelope shouted as she dug out a tranq shot from her own medical supplies from her own first aid kit and jabbed the shot into the meaty portion of the soldier's thigh while Odysseus cast another healing spell to stabilize him.
Penelope next grabbed the soldier's medical bag, pulled out an automated external defibrillator device and placed the electrode pads on to his chest, startlingly white looking, against the amount of blood staining his body.
"Come on!"
"Eurylochus, take your team and suppress the Queen from the left on my command!" Dice yelled over the sound of gunfire and monster cries. "The rest of you guys, handle the minions! NOW!"
Eurylochus' team, sheltering behind a rock formation, swung out from cover and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the Spider Ant Queen, causing her to shriek in irritation as hundreds of 6.5mm rounds hammered her exoskeleton,
"Fire in the hole!!"
The shout rang out from the distance as Eurylochus, wielding a rocket launcher, fired an anti-tank rocket directly at the Queen. The projectile struck her soft ovipositor, puncturing it before exploding, and jets of slimy fluid burst out as the Queen let out a deafening, high-pitched scream.
"SHRIIIIIEEEEEEEK!!"
The Queen's scream was so piercing that it momentarily stunned the explorers.
"What the fuck!?!?" Dice yelled, covering his ears and wincing in pain. Fortunately, everyone was wearing earplugs for protection against gunfire and the high pitch scream did not badly damage their ears. "Now what?"
The Queen jerked itself violently and shook her rear end, ripping the gutted ovipositor off and started to climb down her throne.
The next moment, hundreds of her soldier ants emerged from the gaps in the walls and ceiling, swarming around her alongside the few remaining heavily depleted worker ants and the horde charged toward the humans.
"Enemy incomi-"
Before the warning could be completed, an ant leaped onto the first soldier it reached, impaling him with its mandibles and ripping his body in half. The rest of the squad opened fire, unleashing a torrent of bullets upon the advancing swarm.
The Spider Ant Queen retaliated, launching a flurry of wind blades. One soldier was dismembered on the spot, while four others fell within seconds as their bodies were torn apart by the deadly blades.
"RAAAAARRRRRRRR!!"
"Hit them with explosive shots!" Eurylochus roared as he recovered from the Queen's sonic attack. He raised his rifle and fired at the Queen, but the bullets only left minor marks on her armored thorax. Explosions erupted among the ant ranks, and yet the swarm continued to rush forward, killing more men of the team.
"[Chain Lightning!]" Odysseus shouted and cast a spell. A bolt of lightning streaked out from the opening of the cavern, jumping from one ant to another, roasting them where they stood. "I'm not strong with fire-based spells!"
A charge of lightning leaped onto the Queen, but she dismissively deflected it with a sweep of her forelimbs, shattering the lighting charge into a shower of sparks.
With a menacing sweep of her forelimbs, the Queen sent two wind blades directly at Odysseus, who barely managed to leap aside as the blades collided with the rock, exploding in a cloud of dust and fragments. The force of the impact shattered the sides of the opening, leaving deep gouges in the walls where the blades had struck.
"Odysseus!" Dice roared, "Goddammit, as usual, there is always some fuck up in Intel!"
He dropped his rifle on its sling and pulled out a metal box from his back, ducking out from behind the badly degraded stone wall. Leaning forward into the recoil, he fired a larger rocket launcher at the Queen.
The armor-piercing tungsten steel core rocket punched through the wind barrier around the Queen. However, its wind magic was slowing the power of the projectile by half, but not stopping it.
Soon enough, the rocket slammed into the Queen's chest, dumping all its remaining kinetic energy into the armored tip driving deep into her exoskeleton before exploding. The blast rattled her internal organs, sending the Queen into violent spasms and vomiting out bile from her massive jaws.
"Damn, I should have shot that bitch up with my anti-tank launcher more," Eurylochus grumbled as he pulled himself up, switching over to the metal box as well, pulling out a larger rocket launcher and joining Dice in taking down the Queen.
The Queen stumbled backward as the hard hitting High-Explosive Anti-Tank rounds shattered both its forelimbs which she used to block the barrage of bullets, and spasmed as two more HEAT rounds blast blew her segmented neck apart, tearing her head off and a small pulsing fountain of ichor spurted from the Queen's severed neck. Her remaining legs kicked and spasmed as her heart continued to pump hemolymph, still not knowing that the brain was already dead.
A cheer erupted from the team as the Queen stopped her movements, laying on her side with her massive body collapsed and curled up like a ball beside the mound of rock and dirt.
"Fuck yeah! Humanity wins again!" one soldier shouted, driving the flagpole of the Austronesian Empire through a dead ant.
"We hadn't lost a single man before this floor, and now we're suffering 21 casualties," Dice said, surveying the bodies of their fallen comrades, most of them bisected by the Queen's wind blades. "Over 100 troops, and we've lost more than one-fifth of our men. It's a damn shame."
"Uh, Captain, are those supposed to be moving?" a soldier asked, pointing his weapon at the moving eggs. "Are they hatching?"
"Shit," Eurylochus cursed as the egg casings began to crack, and a slimy whitish ant crawledout. "Arghhh!" He swung his machete, slicing and hacking the newly hatched ant in half. "Damn, it is not over yet guys and gals!"
"Incoming!" another soldier yelled as more eggs began to hatch. "Destroy the eggs! Don't let them hatch!"
Penelope and Odysseus, having stabilized the wounded soldier, joined in. Odysseus scooped up a handful of rock fragments from the floor and whispered a spell.
"[Rock Spike!]"
He threw the stones through a magic circle, transforming them into dagger-sharp spikes that shattered clusters of eggs, killing the ants before they could hatch.
Meanwhile, Penelope, her hands sticky with blood, picked up the injured soldier's dropped rifle and fired at the monsters with impressive precision.
Dozens of soldiers switched their guns and fired their shotguns loaded with explosive rounds, shredding huge clusters of eggs and hatchlings.
"Come on! Have some!" one of them shouted, unleashing a barrage of shotgun shells.
A lightning bolt streaked out again from the rear, rupturing more egg clusters as Odysseus continued unleashing his magical attacks.
"I think I'd rather fight a Demon Lord than these disgusting creatures," he grumbled as he casted another spell. "[Chain Lightning]!"
The magic circle materialized as another bolt of lightning streaked out, jumping from one egg to another and incinerated everything in its path.
It took them roughly half an hour to clean up the cavern, and after half an hour, a platoon of soldiers had joined in on the cleanup up when the Lieutenant Colonel at the Operations Center deemed the situation critical enough to dispatched reinforcements in.
"Talk about showing up late for the party," Eurylochus muttered, shaking his head as he watched medics carefully strapping dozens of injured soldiers onto stretchers and transporting them out gently while a total of twenty-one body bags can be seen laying in the middle of the field.
"Damn, I'm exhausted," Odysseus said as he stood next to Penelope. He glanced at her and noticed the fatigue in her eyes. "How are you holding up? Any injuries?"
"I'm fine," Penelope replied, raising her blood-covered hands. The crimson stains reached up to her upper arms, soaking into her vest and uniform. "All this blood is from the soldier we helped."
"Good to hear," Odysseus said with a relieved smile.
Penelope then noticed blood on Odysseus' forehead. "What about you? You're bleeding."
"Nothing serious," he shrugged. "It was already healed by my magic, but I haven't cleaned it up yet."
"Let me help," Penelope offered.
"Be my guest," he replied.
While Penelope was cleaning up his wound on his head, Dice walked up to Odysseus, "How are you, sir Odysseus?" He asked the elf.
"I'm doing just fine, Captain. That was quite an experience, though," Odysseus said with a grin.
"Damn it, you elf," Dice muttered in exasperation. "Please take care of yourself. The Lieutenant Colonel, the Emperor, hell, probably even the Elf Queen, will have my hide if anything happens to you!"
"Haha, I'm alright," Odysseus chuckled, brushing the dust off his clothes as he stood. "And well done on taking down the Queen!" He watched the newly arrived troops clearing the dead ants and pointed to the dirt mound where the ants had nested. "The entrance down to the next level should be over there."
"Is it going to be this hard every time?" Dice asked, watching many soldiers on stretchers disappear into the tunnel leading out of the room.
"Hmmm, my theory is that because no one has killed the Queen for many years, she grew stronger and stronger over time," Odysseus guessed, "We're likely the first to enter this dungeon in hundreds of years."
"Wait, so if or when the dungeon 'respawns' the Queen will be easier to kill next time?" Dice asked with a raised eyebrow. "But that would mean all the Boss monsters and Champions on the next level will be even tougher than usual?"
Odysseus nodded. "If my theory is correct, then yes. The monsters will have many years to grow their strength, and we will be the first to encounter them. But there should be a good catch to this, the stronger the monster, the better the materials it provides," He gestured to the Queen's corpse. "I suspect she has a very high-quality Monster Core inside her."
"Great, just great," Dice muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "Damn, I hoped this would be a walk in the park with our modernized weapons. I can't even imagine how you elves fought these monsters with just cold steel and lived to tell the tale."
"That's why mages are highly respected and in demand," Odysseus said with a wink. "Magic makes it easier to clear a dungeon."
Dice shook his head again, this time in mild resignation, and waved Odysseus off. "Go take a rest," he said before turning to the troops. "Alright, you pukes, I need volunteers!" He began pointing at random soldiers who were loitering around. "Yes, you, you, and you. And yes, YOU! There's no one behind you, stop looking!"
Dice led the chosen soldiers to the Queen's dirt throne, handing out entrenching tools. "Carry your entrenching tools and start digging that mound up," he ordered, and the soldiers quickly got to work, shoveling away the dirt.
Before long, they uncovered a large pair of doors embedded in the mound, and the soldiers worked faster, excited at finding the door.
"Hey, everyone," Eurylochus called out, drawing the attention of the explorers. "We found these buried or dropped here around the room."
At his feet lay a large pile of treasure, from pieces of gold and silver coins, gemstones of all shapes and sizes.
"We also found a lot of mana crystals," he added, shining his lamp on another, even larger pile nearby. "In fact, there are dozens of these mana stones all over the place. I'm guessing they came from either monsters the ants hunted or ones that died naturally over time."
Odysseus walked over to the pile of mana stones and picked one up, examining the thumb-sized, greenish crystal as it glittered prettily under the lamplight. He dropped the stone back onto the pile and rubbed his hands together, grinning at the ragged but victorious group.
"Now isn't this the best part of exploring a dungeon?" he said with a smile. "Loot."