"Humans, I don't you will be going back." Aditya, Noah, Alicia and Sylvie all four froze. They felt their bodies turn stiff. Even though the these simple words had no trace of killing intent, everyone felt their backs get cold. It was as if they were being watched by the predator.
Turning their heads behind, Aditya and others was widened their eyes in shock seeing the Fire monster that standing 100 meters away from them.
"A beginner 5th-order"
Even it was cold snowy night of winter season, even the darkness, they were clearly able to see the red glowing body of the Fire ant. The Fire ant appeared to be around 3 meters tall. The ant had evolved to look mor like human. Instead of having 6 legs, the fire ant had two legs.
The Fire ant's foots were morphed into sharp claws. The was entire body was covered by red hard scales that looked more like armors. The red scales on its body was glowing. The ants hands were slightly longer and with its nails morphed into red sharp claws.
The beginner 5th-order mutant Fire ant appeared to have two antennae on top of its forehead.
The ant had the face of a regular human male while its body was a combination of ant and human. On its back, it had two pairs of faint red wings. The wings appeared to be red transparent. The mutant fire ant didn't appear to be using its wings to fly. As a beginner 5th-order it can fly without needing to use its wings.
"This is the first time I have met a beginner 5th-order cultivator. It's an honor to meet you." The ant then licked its mouth while looking at Sylvie. "I haven't gotten the chances to taste the flesh of a beginner 5th-order. But I heard that the meat of 5th-order is very delicious."
Aditya, Alicia, Sylvie and Noah felt disgusted hearing the Mutant ant's words.
"Why are you attacking the human cities? We have never done anything to you." Noah asked while shaking in anger. If this mutant Ant wasn't a 5th-order he already would have attacked mutant fire ant.
The mutant fire ant looked at Noah and then looked down. "It's beautiful. The smell of blood in the air and how easily our race slaughtered the people of your Empire. I have never enjoyed myself this much. The begging and pleading screams of our victims has made this quest even more enjoyable."
The mutant fire ant spoke without bothering to answer Noah's words.
The more the mutant fire ant spoke, the more angry Noah became. He became so anger that his pupils were violently shaking. The mana in his body had become unstable from his rage. His heart beat had reached a new level while his face had turned red from anger.
"Answer the question." Sylvie raised her voice while also releasing a bit of her beginner 5th-order Aura.
The mutant fire ant finally stopped looking down and looked at Noah and Sylvie. As for Aditya and Alicia, the mutant ant completely ignored them as beginner 3rd-order was nothing in front of his eyes.
"I don't think there is any need to answer the question when you all know the reason very well." From it words, Aditya was sure that this mutant ant has heard what they were saying earlier.
"How did your race became so strong all of sudden?" This was the biggest mystery. How this is possible for a race of fire ants to have so many 3rd-order, 4th-order and also 5th-orders in such a short time?
"About that. I apologize but I am not obligated to answer that question. But let's just say that we have received some help from others." The queen had strictly ordered every mutant ant to not reveal the source of their strength which is why the mutant fire ant refused to answer Sylvie's question. Betraying the queen was never a option. To a ant, the queen is their everything.
Meanwhile Sylvie silently looked around. After sensing that there was no other 5th-order mutant fire ant in the Blackwood city or in the surroundings, she slightly felt relieved but the danger was not even close to being over. Sylvie has sensed the presence of more than hundreds of powerful 4th-order mutant fire ants.
Normally for a beginner 5th-order cultivator taking on one or two or even hundred 4th-order cultivators is a very easy thing to do. The problem was that the enemy also had a beginner 5th-order. Sylvie will have no choice but to fight this beginner 5th-order monster. But how will Noah, Aditya and Alicia protect themselves in her absence when their cultivation is in 3rd-order?
"Dark elf, prepare to die. After killing you, I shall enjoy my meal." In the blink of an eye, the mutant fire ant whose name was Ayden disappeared from Alicia, Aditya and Noah's sight.
"Where did he go?" Alicia couldn't stay clam in this kinds of situations. She has in a panicked tone.
Clang!
Aditya and Noah saw and also heard two metal collision sound coming from their right.
When the trio looked at their right, the only thing that they saw was two rays of light. One light was red and the other light was light brown. The red light belonged to the mutant fire ant Ayden while the brown light belonged to dark elf and the guild leader Sylvie. Right now both 5th-order cultivators were moving so fast that neither Aditya nor Noah was able to see them anymore. The only thing that Alicia saw was two rays of lights colliding against each other while making clanging sounds.
"So fast. I can barely see anything." Aditya was slightly impressed how witnessing the clash between two 5th-order cultivators. Unlike Noah who also couldn't see anything, can only see two rays of lights clashing, Aditya whose stats was way higher for a 3rd-order, he was able to blurry faces of Sylvie and Ayden.
"We will have to leave. I can sense the presence of more than hundreds of 4th-order fire ants." If hundreds of 4th-order mutant fire ants surrounds them, Noah felt that it would become impossible for them to survive which he really did not wanted to let happen. Noah wanted to leave things to Sylvie as he believed that the white lotus guild leader can defeat the beginner 5th-order mutant fire ant and safely leave this place.
Aditya was the only one who remained the calmest. Hearing his brother in law's panicked tone, Aditya just smiled.
"Brother, we are not leaving without Sylvie."
"But there are more than hundreds of 4th-order mutant fires. We cannot defeat them. It would be best if we leave this to Sylvie." Noah sensed the 4th-order mutant ants flying in their direction.
"Big brother, you can relax. Aditya will handle them."
Noah looked at Alicia and Aditya. He didn't know what was wrong with them. How can both of them remain so calm when facing more than hundreds of 4th-order mutant fire ants? There is no way a beginner 3rd-order can defeat hundreds of 4th-orders. Noah felt that Aditya and Alicia was being overconfident.
Meanwhile, Sylvie and Ayden both continued exchanging moves. The mutant fire ant was fighting with its claws while Sylvie had a green shiny katana which she used to attack the mutant ant.
Clang!
Two rays of lights hit once again before retreating back. After creating a distance of 200 meters, two 5th-orders finally stopped.
'This monster has advantage in both speed and strength. His body is extremely harder. Harder as a 5-star defensive armor. While his strength is frighteningly very high. I can feel that this monster still hasn't used his full strength and speed yet.' Sylvie was having problem to keep up with Ayden's speed. Currently she was using her full speed while the Mutant fire ant has holding back its agility.
Every time their attacks clashed, Sylvie felt her hands go numb from pain. Whenever she blocked the attacks of the mutant fire ant, the shockwave from Ayden's attacks gave her pain. She was sure that her bones had started to crack.
Ants are ridiculously strong. They have the ability to carry between 10 and 50 times their own body weight. If that wasn't enough, Fire ants also had dangerous poisonous ability. Even a normal 1st order fire ant's poison is dangerous enough to paralyze a Peak 2nd-order cultivator.
While no one knows just how strong the poison of beginner 5th-order mutant fire ant was. But Sylvie was sure that if she was poisoned this battle would be instantly over.
The mutant fire ant widened his eyes when it saw the white lotus guild leader take out a faint green breastplate and wear it. The light green armor was also glowing brightly. Looking at the green armor, Ayden felt as if he was looking at hundreds of leaves joined together to form an armor.
"This is a 5-star armor." Ayden was quite shocked.
"For ant that is supposed to live under the ground, you seems to know about armors weapons." Sylvie did not stop there. She then took out two green pauldrons and wore them to protect her right and left shoulders.
If all these wasn't though, on top of that, Sylvie took out two green vambraces and a gauntlet and wore it on her left arm. The only advantage that Sylvie had against this 5th-order mutant fire ant is that she had the supply of mana recovery potions, she had armors, and weapons which can enhance her powers and increase her chances of winning the battle.
'I never expected that one day I would meet someone who can force to me use my armor and weapon. Fortunately I had kept them in my storage ring in case of an emergency.' Sylvie's storage ring had hundreds of healing, recovery, mana recovery, agility boost, strength boost and stamina recovery potions. She also had a custom set of 5-star armors that she made for herself using a large amount of gold coins.
"Sylvie is always prepared for battle. When I first met her, she was wearing full body armor." Alicia calmly smiled. Even if the mutant fire ant was powerful, she truly believed that Sylvie can defeat it.
'5-star amor, I wonder what ridiculous functions a 5-star armor would have.' Aditya had a 5-star weapon but did not had any 5-star armor. Seeing Sylvie using 5-star armors, Aditya as a Rune Monarch class holder can tell that these 5-star breastplate, pauldrons, vambraces and gauntlet are very powerful.
Meanwhile 129 4th-order mutant fire ants had blocked Aditya, Noah and Alicia's path. Compared to Ayden, these 4th-order mutant fire ants had the appearance of a overgrown fire ants. The only outstanding thing about their bodies was the red glow which was easy to spot in the darkness of night.
Looking at their sharp claws and red armor like skin, one would feel as if nothing in this world can harm the fire ants.
"Be careful. Ants are very powerful. Even a 1st-order Fire ant can match the strength of a Mid 2nd-order human cultivator's strength." At this moment the goddess of wealth felt sad and also guilty. She knew that the fight has become even difficult with Aditya having to carry her and fight.
If possible she would like to reduce Aditya's burden any way she can. But in this situation except for praying for everyone's safety the goddess can't really do anything.
'I should have put more time in my cultivation.' Alicia was very talented in cultivation. Her cultivating speed was even faster than Noah. But she was too lazy to cultivate all the times. To her making money was more fun and enjoyable.
Also Alicia's family did not pressure her to cultivate like they did with Noah. Alicia always had a 4th-order guard protecting her so she never really felt the need of powers. Alicia had come here thinking that there will be no 5th-order fire ants and Sylvie can easily protect her.
She realized how naively she has been thinking. At this moment the goddess regretted the fact that she neglected her cultivation. If she had put a little more time in her cultivation, she could have reached 4th-order a lot sooner.
"Here they can come."
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