Chapter 37: The Art Of Death (VII): Undead Ants Vs Fire Ant Queen Army
If Rezar said he had any idea of what he was doing, then that would be an absolute lie, but the crux of the matter right now was that this was the only way he knew he could survive long enough to turn the tide of what would soon be a terrible massacre around. He looked at the giant ant queen, watching her just as she watched him, he wasn't afraid, but he most definitely didn't want to die, and so to avoid that he had to give it his all.
Then suddenly her ants surged forwards, moving forwards rapidly like wave on the sea, there were many of them, coming from all directions and with the intent of rending flesh from bone, his flesh! Rezar knew he had to whittle down their numbers before they go close to melee range, and lucky for him the ants had good ranged capabilities. Sure he would need to train them fully to know just how far it goes, but there was basic intrinsic knowledge about the creatures he raised from the dead, one of which being that their (Fire acid) ability had a range of five meters.
"Now!"
And they responded, throwing their heads higher into the air for maximum range, something he didn't expect they could do. A rain of fiery red acidic spit fell from the sky onto the rapidly approaching forms of the other ants.
Rezar had no idea that they would be able to improvise like that, this was a lot better than he moles when he first raised them from the dead. But he knew it was not just because the fire ants were a higher quality of monster, but also because he had advance his Necromancer class, and his raise Undead skill was also at a high level. Well it was at a high basic level, now it was Intermediate, even higher.
There were only a few ants amongst his army of ants that were resurrected from Screet's Zombie infection skill, Neema had the same skill but she had avoided killing without her are, it seemed she really like the weapon, and considering it was a bit taller than her and twice as wide as she was, it was hard for Rezar to see why she like it so much. Either way she couldn't use it now as she was right in the middle of a crowd of ants.
The first volley of (Fire acid) fell down on the approaching board of ants, they were coming from all directions and immediately the acid fell down, their already scattered formation became even more scattered as the injured ants stumbled and the uninjured ones crashed over the forms of their comrades, their sharp legs piercing through, and killing quite a few of them. And this was exactly what Rezar wanted, an opportunity to get his soldiers into their ranks, or rather tune their dead into his.
(Raise Undead)
(Skill successful!)
(Three Undead Raised!)
(Raise Undead)
(Raise Undead)
(....)
Rezar could spam this skill for at least fifty times before he had to start getting worried about running out of magic, and by then he was sure he would have gotten a significant part of her army on his side, assuming the ant queen chose not to act. But things can't be as easy as that, the worker and soldier ants had limited magic, and Alex had to take that into consideration as after two volleys, he had the soldier ants stop firing and left that work to the worker ants in between their legs.
The soldier ants stopped and braced themselves for impact, while the worker ants were firing their (Fire Acid) skill at the approaching soldier ants that were significantly larger than they were. Their shots didn't need to be accurate as with how clustered the other side was, no shot was a miss as every hit brought an ant down.
It was not enough to kill them in one strike, but it was enough to severely injure them and let the stampede from behind take care of the rest. At this rate the ants were dying more from them walking all-over themselves without a proper arrangement, than from the assault Rezar was directing.
Now it would be nice to get something straight, Rezar did not even know that it would turn out this way, that the ants would be stumbling all-over themselves, even with so many legs. When the one's struck by the (Fire Acid) skill fell, others would step on them and have their legs stuck in their body, it spoke volumes of just how sharp those legs of their were.
But anyways while they're stuck, the others from the back would experience the same thing with only a few of them getting through, and it was those few that Rezar now had to face. But still there was another rapidly growing situation on the battlefield.
(Raise Undead!)
(Skill successful!)
(2 Undead raised, 1 failed)
(Raise Undead!)
(Skill successful!)
(3 Undead raised)
And the moment this zombies woke up, they didn't need orders from Rezar, they just attacked, causing even more havoc in the ranks of their comrades. This was the first time Rezar had led a fight between two armies, and it definitely won't be the last. But now he was able to learn that it would be extremely hazardous if an army didn't have a proper plan or formation. An army without a formation and proper use of weapons and skills, would definitely call to the hands of an enemy that's prepared, and ready to take advantage of everything on a battlefield.
Rezar was winning, but even at that he wasn't stupid, as his motto says 'Fearless Not Stupid'. They might be winning, but that Queen was smart, and she was still the bigger threat, the only thing truly holding her back was the fact that her ass was too big for her to move around. And as funny as that sounded, Rezar couldn't joke with it. The aim shouldn't be to win, but to escape, he turned around and looked at the tunnel that had brought them here, it had the least population of ants, and most of them had fallen already.
Rezar turned to look at the Queen, a very obvious and annoying grin on his face as he discovered all four of her eyes were right on him. He waved, and her body seemed to shudder in anger and revulsion as she opened her massive jaws to say.
"I'll make you pay for this human! This cavern! This world is not big enough for the both of us! I have seen your tricks and I have seen your magic! Let me assure you! It won't work again the second time! Now beyond from my presence!!!"
"Ehh! What! You're letting us go?" Rezar asked in surprise, but he quickly got his answer as the ants seemed to move back and clear a path for Rezar and his undead.
He didn't expect that, this ant wasn't human so it was hard to figure out what she was thinking. But he had a suspicion, he wasn't too sure as if he had to go by that it made sense but was still stupid. He couldn't estimate how many ants she had, but he reckoned at least a 150 of them had died, and he was able to raise about 25 of that, give or take a few Numbers. But when he looked at the sheer amount of corpses left, his eyes glowed with greed.
"Don't! Even! Dare!"
Seeing how she made sure to highlight every single word with a stomping of one of her massive legs, he knew he wouldn't dare. It seems she was pulling back because she was loosing too many soldiers, but honestly it made no sense as Rezar knew she still had enough to Squash them. All she had to do was give them the order to use the same skill as he had; the (Fire Acid) and they would have been nothing more than sitting ducks considering the sheer amount of Giant fire ants that she had on her side. But nevertheless Rezar was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he made sure to quickly retreat.
His small army following behind him as he slowly went up the tunnel that brought him down here, Neema looked reluctant to leave, and that was proved by the multiple comments of 'Neema Want Fight' she kept on repeating, but Rezar was not putting anymore of his undead at risk, most especially she and Screet. He's had enough of an expedition for today whatever reason the Queen had, is she didn't consider it, then maybe by now there'll be acid chewing through his flesh.
It was best he took the olive branch that was offered and got the hell out of there, but regardless, right now he had learnt a lot. And he felt there were still a couple hundred ways that he could apply what he had learnt in a fight. In a way Priest was right, here were many ways to kill a man, and today he just learnt something new…..a way to kill an army. And of that, he was sure there were many, many, many more ways to do so....and he was going to learn them all.