A fully armed cavalry captain holding a tower shield carefully stepped one foot into the entrance of the cave that was full of sour smell. The black blood that was about to dry up was a little sticky and stuck to the bottom of his boots. Every step he took seemed a little sluggish.
astringent.
Obviously, this expedition mission was not a good job, but since it was his turn, he had to go to the front.
Suldak stretched out his hand to hold the cavalryman's shoulder. The cavalry captain turned his head to look at Suldak and then to the battalion commander Intas with a puzzled expression.
"Let me do it..." Surdak didn't say much, and stepped forward directly. On his arm was a dwarf chain shield glowing with silver holy light, and the other held up a shimmering holy light.
Torch, take the lead into the cave.
The cavalry captain hurriedly followed.
This underground cave was originally supposed to be an underground storage room in the temple. It is said that it was occasionally used to imprison heretics. This kind of multi-functional storage room was built together with the temple when it was built. It is usually not too small.
.
It's just that the Statue of Liberty abandoned this place, and even the priests and priests in the temple have left. The temple in the town has been abandoned, and the grass in the backyard has grown almost as high as the knees.
The commanders of the two cavalry battalions saw that Suldak was leading the charge, so they quickly cheered up and followed with their elite cavalry.
The two of them led a group of cavalrymen to search for survivors in the town, but found nothing.
I chased the retreating red ants with ghost patterns all the way to the temple at the southern end of the town, only to find that the basement was crowded with red ants with ghost patterns. Some of them looked like wormholes, and there were many ghosts.
The soldier ants huddle in their caves and fight to the death.
The cavalry blocked the entrance of the cave, and the ghost-marked red ants in the cave could only come out one by one, and were subsequently cleared out by the cavalry.
After walking six or seven meters down the passage filled with sour liquid, the road ahead became much smoother and filled with an unpleasant smell that was almost suffocating.
The light in the cave was a little dark, and Surdak was walking at the front holding a holy light torch. Although he was not wearing a magic pattern structure at the moment, he was wearing a thick layer of full-coverage heavy armor outside the salamander leather armor.
If you don't look at his face, he looks no different from other cavalrymen in the cavalry battalion after putting on his helmet and mask.
Suddenly, a thin whispering sound came from both sides, and two ghost-striped soldier ants poked their heads out of the black holes on both sides of the cave. After discovering Surdak, they immediately turned their heads flexibly and bared their teeth towards Surdak.
Dak pounced.
There was only so much space in the corridor in the cave, and Surdak could not dodge, so he quickly raised his shield to parry.
A pair of dark red tentacles slammed into the dwarf's chain shield. As a powerful second-level monster, the ghost-patterned soldier ant was extremely powerful. Although Surdak immediately put on a defensive posture, he was still hit by
This blow made him take two steps back, and a layer of holy silver light appeared on the shield. The ghost-marked soldier ants seemed to have been burned, and the sharp tentacles retracted, leaving only a trace on Surdak's shield.
Two shallow dents.
Another ghost-patterned soldier ant rushed up from the other side of Surdak. The cavalry behind them, holding tower shields, quickly took over and bumped into the ghost-patterned soldier ant with their shields.
The cavalry behind quickly thrust out their swords. The knight's sword made of fine steel pierced the hard armor near the compound eyes of the ghost-marked red ants, making a harsh sound.
The halo under Suldak's feet lit up, and a faint magic pattern flashed in his hand. The holy light torch hit the head of another ghost-patterned red ant, and immediately smashed out the olive-shaped head of the ghost-patterned soldier ant.
The large hole, although light brown liquid gushes out of it, makes the ghost-striped soldier ants bite Surdak's arm even more fiercely.
At this time, a long spear stretched out from behind and penetrated deeply along the damaged part of the ghost-patterned soldier ant's head, immediately impaling the ghost-patterned soldier ant on the gun shaft.
Surdak nodded towards Commander Intas who took action in time from behind, and continued to explore forward.
Walking inside, I found that there was a long, narrow and straight corridor inside the cave, which was very spacious.
The dome of the corridor also has an arch structure, and there are masonry columns on both sides as load-bearing supports. There are secret rooms lined up on both sides of the corridor. However, the ghost-striped red ants have grown so large that they have removed the doors and many columns of the secret rooms.
It was also broken by the impact, some masonry structures collapsed, and the earth on the dome dripped down, making it look dilapidated.
The floor of the cave was covered with a thick layer of dark brown liquid that looked like dried blood.
There is obviously still the smell of red ants in the stone chamber, but it seems that they dare not run out.
There were many skulls stained with blood and mucus piled in the corner of the cave. The skulls were of different sizes. Only then did Suldak realize that the ghost-striped red ants had transported all the residents of the town and the garrison soldiers who died in the battle here.
Surdak walked to the door of a stone chamber, held a shield in front of him, and looked inside with the Holy Light Torch. He saw that there were actually two worker ants with unusual shapes hiding in this stone chamber.
Yes, they have the upper body of ghost-striped worker ants, but the appearance below the abdomen has completely changed. The dark red abdomen, which was originally only the size of a winter melon, actually expanded into a huge ball with a diameter of two meters. The abdomen of ghost-striped worker ants was overly inflated.
, becoming translucent.
Illuminated by the light of the Holy Light Torch, the huge abdomen of the ghost-striped worker ants showed a light red jelly-like shape. The huge abdomen supported their bodies, leaving their front half completely suspended in the air. Their bodies were lying on a corpse.
On top of the pile, he was sucking the sour liquid on it with his hard tube-shaped mouthparts. His stomach was about to explode, but he was still trying to suck it in, like two starving ghosts.
Surdak resisted the discomfort in his stomach and retreated.
Seeing the strange expression on Surdak's face, Commander Intas also walked up to take a look. Surdak felt that when he turned back, his face was a little green, and he asked for it directly from a cavalryman beside him.
A fire scale bullet was thrown into the stone chamber without even looking at it.
With an explosion, a lot of frozen light red material flew out of the stone chamber, and stood sticky on the pillars at the door of the stone chamber.
After the strong explosion ended, Intas explained to Surdak:
"The honey pots of these red ants are also their way of storing food. When they are completely full, these worker ants will move themselves to the top of the cave and die immediately. These honey pots are used when the worker ants cannot become queens.
It will only be used when enough food is found. It can be stored in a cool hole in the ground for a long time..."
Seeing everyone looking at him, Intas reluctantly smiled and asked everyone:
"Are you curious how I know this?"
Without waiting for anyone to answer, he explained:
"I participated in the beast tide ten years ago. At that time, I was still a captain in the seventy-nine cavalry of the Bena Legion. However, those stationed in the border town at that time were all the constructed swordsmen of the Bena Legion. The beasts
At the beginning of the tide, these Constructed Swordsmen fought back and fought all the way to the edge of the Dark Forest. If they had not been unable to cross the poisonous miasma outside the Dark Forest, the Constructed Swordsmen Group might have directly captured the Dark Worm Valley at that time.
"
"So... it wasn't captured?" Commander Hampton asked.
Commander Intas nodded and said: "Of course, if it is really done, maybe a second city on the Bailin plane will be built."
Then he said self-deprecatingly: "Perhaps that battle was too easy. This time, the Lutheran Army was stationed in the northern occupied area. The Provincial Council actually transferred the main force of the Lutheran Army's Constructed Swordsmen to Tara.
Pa dares to quell the rebellion..."
No one was saying anything, and they sent cavalry with repeating crossbows along the way to clean up these worker ant honey pots.
Suldak was always at the forefront.
In his words, his dwarf chain shield is considered a magic shield and has a 'sacred shield'.
As expected, the basement in the temple occupies the entire underground space in the backyard.
There are one or two so-called worker ant honeypots in each stone chamber. Of course, the room is also filled with corpses that have been corroded into disgrace, making the basement of the entire temple look like a tomb.
Finally reaching the end of the underground corridor, the dried black blood on the ground stopped abruptly. A pile of discarded and broken masonry was piled next to the wall, looking like it was caused by a landslide.
But just when everyone thought they had reached the end, Suldak discovered that the bricks and stones scattered in the corners of the wall did not have any blood stains, and it looked like a new landslide occurred not long ago.
Under the illumination of the holy light torch, the blood stains on the ground actually extended like broken masonry.
Commander Intas was also worried that the stone room would collapse and couldn't wait to leave the smelly basement.
Seeing Suldak stop in front of the pile of rubble and rubble, then turn around and come back. The cavalrymen who entered the basement were almost all the elites of the 7th Cavalry Battalion. Intas waved his hand, and these cavalrymen immediately agreed.
Yes, everyone came together to clean up the rubble.
Gradually, as the collapsed masonry was cleared by the cavalry, a larger hole was revealed in the wall.
The entrance to the cave seemed even deeper. There was no light in the pitch-black cave, but the sound of some hard armor scraping could be heard coming from inside.
The dried blood stains at the feet reached here and still extended into the cave, but there was much less blood, and there was no thick layer of condensation.
A cavalryman, under the instruction of Commander Intas, threw a torch wrapped in broken steps and pine resin into the cave.
The torch flew seven or eight meters into the cave, hit the stone wall and bounced to the ground. The fire continued to weaken.
The light alarmed some ghost-striped red ants, and they scrambled to crawl out of the cave again. But just halfway through, these ghost-striped soldier ants stopped, and then cautiously retreated along the cave, leaving only
He went down a dark and deep cave and came out.
"Queen Ant..."
Intas and Surdak said almost at the same time.
Suldak said to the captain of his third squadron without hesitation: "Go quickly and call for more manpower. If there is no problem on the other side of the city wall, call Andrew over."
After saying that, Suldak walked in holding the torch of holy light.
He found that this underground hole should have been newly dug by the red ants with red stripes, and the digging marks on the wall of the hole were still brand new.
A group of ghost-patterned soldier ant guards saw Surdak getting closer and closer. They crouched in the cave and kept spreading their pincer demonstrations towards Surdak, but not a single soldier ant rushed up and saw Surdak.
As Dak and his party slowly approached, the ghost-patterned soldier ants sprayed acidic liquid at Suldak.
The cavalrymen raised their crossbows one after another, and fired a row of crossbow arrows, which immediately angered these ghostly patterned soldier ants.
The soldier ants rushed forward again, and Surdak and the two cavalry stood side by side in front. There was no way to dodge in the cave, and it was all a head-on collision.
The Holy Light Torch in Surdak's hand showed the Holy Thunder Demon Pattern three times in a row. Lightning flowed out sideways, illuminating the entire cave. These ghostly patterned soldier ants were covered with arcs of electricity. A group of cavalry took the opportunity to rush into the cave.
, eliminate the ghost-patterned soldier ants in the cave one by one.
Walking over the corpses of these ghost-striped soldier ants, I discovered that the cave dug by the red ants was actually connected to a natural cave.
The sound of those hard armors rubbing against each other came from inside the cave. This time, a fire-gathering scroll was shot into the dark cave. The magic scroll unfolded in the wind, and a ball of flame ignited.
Falling in front of the cave.
Under the dim light of the fire, a group of ghost-striped male ants were seen guarding a queen ant, slowly moving deeper into the cave.
They move very slowly, mainly because this queen ant is much larger than what Suldak has seen before. Its body is extending several meters backward from the abdomen, and its entire body is actually larger than the ghost-striped male ant.
It grew longer and reached two meters in diameter. It looked like a giant sausage, and there were magic lines constantly lighting up in the lines on the side of the abdomen.
In the dark cave, those bright red eyes exuded a penetrating light.
The dark body is covered with dark red veins. The three pairs of wings on the back of the queen ant have completely fallen off. It is lying on a ghost-striped male ant and is moving deep into the cave surrounded by a large group of worker ants. It looks like
Looked very weak.
There are also a large number of ghost-striped soldier ants in the cave, and they are swarming towards Surdak.
It was obviously not wise for the cavalry to fight the ghost-striped soldier ants in the open area of the underground cave, and Surdak did not rush in to chase the evacuated queen ant.
A steady stream of ghost-patterned soldier ants rushed up, and two commanders, Intas and Hampton, took turns rushing to the front to share the impact of the ghost-patterned soldier ants with Surdak.
It was not until Andrew, who exuded a strong fighting aura, arrived in the cave that the situation was finally opened up.
As a newly promoted second-level warrior, the aura on Andrew's body steadily suppressed these ghost-patterned soldier ants, and with a butcher's ax, he cut a bloody path and rushed into the cave in the belly of the mountain again.
In the center of the cave is an ant nest with countless human corpses piled up. The ghost-striped worker ants have not had time to remove all the fraternal eggs in the nest.
In addition, there are four ghost-patterned male ants in the ant nest that have been sucked into empty shells. Their huge bodies guard the nest like statues.
These white fraternal eggs have light green circular markings on their surface, and each one looks very narrow and long.
Andrew rushed into the ant colony and killed them randomly, breaking through the formation of the ghostly patterned soldier ants, forcing the soldier ants to retreat continuously and protect themselves around the huge ant nest.
The cavalry that kept rushing in not only surrounded the ghost-marked soldier ants, but also surrounded all the ghost-marked worker ants who were busy transferring their fraternal eggs. Under the fire of the company's crossbows, the ant nest in the cave was completely overturned.
The caves in the belly of the mountain extend in all directions. Even if the ghost-striped red ants left some traces of evacuation along the way, Surdak saw that there were no survivors here. After cleaning up the battlefield and taking away all the loot, he led a group of knights to retreat to Plantos.
On the ground of the town, people were sent to block the excavated cave between the cave and the basement of the temple with bricks and mud.