—

Raven became richer with barely an effort.

If he converted all of the things he plundered to gold, then the amount he will make would at least be equivalent to his dad’s 3 years worth of salary along with bonuses. Though he felt quite bad since these items were scavenged from the victims of the ants, he decided to not let it bother him too much, they were dead and he had to move on. However, he will make sure that the money he will make from their belongings are put onto good use.

It also very likely that the colony is in high alert right now, it had been a day since Raven left from there and took all of these things away. By now, they should’ve find out that their horde was reduced into a mere pile of shiny clothing and might as well be tracing every tracks they could find to locate him. Too bad, it just so happens that Raven is five steps ahead of them.

Currently, Raven was traveling with the group. Mark and Paul had gotten a fantastic rest and never felt better, same goes for the rest that sank into that deep meditative state thanks to the incense that Raven made before. Now, they are more eager and more suitable for combat.

Jonas took them around for a patrol, the battlefield is eerily quiet which makes most of them wonder what was happening. Raven thought that the ants might be hunting for the culprit, which was him, inside the colony which is why there are no attacks.

But he knew that this won’t last long, who knows how many ants are in there? They won’t miss a chance to attack specially if the queen is nearing that point.

“Oh come on! Really? Now that we are looking for some action, then they retreat? What gives!?” Paul moaned, clearly bored out of his mind from all of the walking.

“I find it strange too. I’ve been patrolling here since these walls were made and we never experienced an idle time like this. I wonder what’s going on?” Jonas cupped his chin while over looking the battlefield.

“We will keep waiting then, it’s not like they will disappear like that right?” Raven smiled and surveyed. There was a tinge of confidence behind his voice that only his friends would be able to tell. And since he said this, there’s no reason to drop their attention.

An hour passed and it was noon, the crew is under the shelter of a tent looking at the ground below the walls. They saw some people who were relaxing, sleeping, meditating, or patrolling here and there. Just like Jonas said earlier, it was extremely rare for this camp to be this idle. Now that he thought about it, he had a correction to make. This is actually the first time that this camp experienced this idle scene. Normally, you would see an ant or four in the battlefield, duking it out with their fighters and other recruits like him but now, nothing’s happening.

And if he’s being honest, it’s giving him a creepy vibe.

*Boom!*

“Holy shit!” Jonas almost fell from where he was when he heard that sound.

He immediately turned around and saw what the ruckus was all about. Although at this point he shouldn’t be surprised, he can’t help it since the way these ants enter the battlefield is really flashy. He lost count on how many times these things have done it, fortunately they don’t appear randomly or else the ground beneath them would truly cave in. He was about to ask Raven and his crew if they want to move out but there was another commotion that caught them unprepared.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

“What’s going on?” Jonas asked. Now the situation just became grimmer.

He wasn’t expecting this at all. Aside from the one who came out earlier, several more ants surfaced up and together they screeched together and charged towards the fighters who were present.

Jonas was stumped, this is probably the most intense attack that they have received. He looked down at the chaos that ensued thanks to the ants. He counted silently and spotted at least 15 ants on the entire battlefield. He felt his knees go weak but it was also the same time that he felt a hand on his shoulders. He turned around and saw Raven wearing a smile while looking at him.

“We will head out soon and help. You go back to the main camp to ask for reinforcements.”

This was his words before turning around and signalling the crew to move out. Jonas wanted to say something but he remembered the things Raven was able to do so far. He figured that it would be best if he followed his advise, but before he did so…

“Be careful…” he said as he turned around and ran towards the main camp.

Raven nodded and with his crew, they jumped from where they were standing.

As soon as they landed, they barely had any time before they saw an ant madly charging towards them. Paul went into a drive and placed himself before the team while having his guard up, Mark and the girls were behind him as well Raven who folded his arms on his chest.

“Cover for each other backs.” Raven uttered and everyone nodded. The ant came closer and closer but before they clashed, Anne stretched her bow and took aim.

The arrow whistled at travelled through the wind, the ant saw this coming but decided to ignore it since it knew that it was gonna land on it’s hard shell. The arrow went closer, it suddenly changed course and landed on one of it’s exposed joints. The ant screeched in pain and continued it’s advance while glaring at Anne.

“Good shot.” Raven praised.

It didn’t took long before the opposing forces met. The ant raised one of it’s legs and Paul received it, he slanted his shield purposely to redirect the impact on the ground which made it harder for the ant to retrieve it’s leg.

Mark took this time to climb on the ants legs clearly aiming for the joints. But before he could continue, he could sense that the ants focus was on him and it intended to stop whatever he plans on doing. The ant raised it’s other leg to slice Mark in two, but before the lef reached him, an arrow from Anne hit the hard shell on the leg, causing it to miss it’s target.

Meanwhile, Ellen and Luna blurred into action. The girls charged forward and hid underneath the ants large frame while it was distracted by Mark. Thanks to their training, they too were able to climb onto the ants legs while not being afraid of falling, this is due to their energy control. Ellen decided to go for the leg that has the arrow previously while Luna went for the left hind leg.

No words were spoken, the three severed the respective legs they were on at the same time causing the ant to fall over. Paul grinned and planted himself firmly onto the ground as he saw the head of the ant falling in front of him. As soon as the ant fell, Paul jumped and aimed his spear, he tightened his grip and swung, throwing the spear straight on the beast’s eyes. As he was falling down, Paul saw Mark throwing one of his sword on the other eye.

Now that the creature was blinded, it was trying it’s best to at least take one down of them. This is when Luna emerged from the back of the beast and jumped onto the head of the ant, she aimed her spear and muttered: ‘Piercing Light’.

A beam of light emerged from the tip of her spear and pierced the head of the ant. The beast screech one last time and then stopped moving. The crew gathered and smiled.

“Good work-“

As Raven was about to praise them, another quake just below them. By now, these people knew about these signs and don’t need Raven’s instructions before moving out of the way.

As they retreated, another ant surfaced from the ground and let out an loud screech. As the team was caught rather unprepared and quite out of breath because they just dealt with one of these. The person who didn’t do much from the beginning decided to take matters at hand.

Raven’s figure blurred from where he was. Before anyone noticed it, he was already at the face level of the ant. The ant was surprised, it tried to swallow Raven but before it could do so, it’s face met his charged fist.

It was like a cannon hit it’s face, the ant lost it’s balance from the impact of a single punch from Raven. It tried to get up but Raven was already on it’s face once more. His raised his arm which looked like it was covered by shiny steel and drove it onto the brain of the ant. Formally ending it’s life. Raven stepped down from where he was and looked at the team.

“Good work everyone.”