A Path of Bone and Poison 43 Into the ant nes

Two figures stood facing the early morning sun. One was a scantly dressed dsrkelf in a dark tattered cloak, on each of her hips was holsters an old, but well maintained looking revolver. Her dark grey skin and green hair made for a strikingly beautiful image.

Beside her was a cat girl. She was taller than the short dsrknelf by at least half a foot. Her blond hair framed her fair skin. A tail that matched her orange cat ears swished behind her. A red line passed from the the top left corner of her face to the bottom right. The mark gave her a fierce look, but did not detract from her beauty, rather it gave her a fierce look. Her face was graced my a toothy smile, that showed off her slightly large canines. Over her shoulder was a large mallet.

The two girls were myself, Yuri Morningstar and my girlfriend and partner Hylia Fury. It had been a week since the trial of the war goddess and Hylia's wounds had finally recovered. I had used this time to Hylia was still herself. All of my probing had soothed my nerves, as I slowly realized the goddess had truly retreated, at least temporarily.

It was time for us to once again venture deep into the dungeon, and we were both nervous as to what instance we would face. Our last experience was a C rank mission. and for all the power we had we were still low leveled beings.

When we stepped through the portal to the dungeon my vision went black. None of the pain from the previous journey accompanied the travel, causing me to sigh in relief. At least I knew this time we would not be entering into a church.

Instead when I opened my eyes in was greeted by a large earthen tunnel. A dungeon prompt appeared before me.

u003cWelcome to the Ants Nest. A D ranked Instance. Instance quest: Clear the ants nest.u003e

[Clear the Ant Nest] D rank.

The Army Ants of the bug god Ishra have begun to mobilize their troops. Clear the ants nest before the troops are mobilized. Time limit 4 hours.

Optional: Defeat the C Ranked ant queen for extra rewards.

Hylia looked at me as she read the notification. "A quest from the dungeon is uncommon, but by no means rare. It symbolizes action in the outside world. The rewards are always nice."

I nodded at her words and grew more determined. I quickly accessed my bestiary and pulled up the relevant information.

[Army Ant]

Tank like warriors with excellent defense and attack power. They are slow, but able to spit acid at a distance. They travel in squads of 5. they have a Hive mind, so what one member of the squad knows, all of them know.

Looking at the information I knew we were in for a tough fight. Even without the time limit these were formidable beasts. It is no wonder the dungeon had issued a quest for this.

Thankfully we were equipped to handle this. By unspoken agreement I entered stealth as I scouted ahead. I only had to travel around 50 yards before I found the first group of ants. I circled back to her Hyla and come up with a plan. Less than a minute later I ran back to the ants and circled around them.

Utilitizing my knew stealth abilities I began to fire as I moved, landing a strike on each of them before once again entering the shadows of stealth. My bullets were unable to pierce their tough shells, but the upgraded poison of my new bullets was of the corrosive type, resembling acid.

The poison began to sizzle as small holes were melted into the carapaces of the ants. They screeched in rage as they turned towards the direction I had fired from, attempting to locate their assailant.

The distraction of the ants was a cue, and Hylia utilized her speed and strength to leap into the frey. Her initial strike shattered the shell of the closest ant, crushing and beneath her. She immediately swung her maul again, causing a crack in the shell of another.

I once again fired a volley of spells, my bullets targeting a single ant. The spell of melting Flesh filled the sir as my poison began to dissolve thr sturdy shell. I quickly stealthed and dodged the glob of acid that were spit towards me. The acid was much more corrosive than my poison, causing large craters in the ground to appear.

Another ant fell to Hylia's maul as she focused her strikes on the ant she had wounded. The ants grew even more enraged at the death of their second comrade, and turned their attention to her.

The nearest and lunged at her, hoping to catch her in its powerful pincers. Hylia did not let this happen as she jumped through the air with her abnormal speed and strength. She landed on the back of the ant, her maul striking the head of the confused ant. Blood splatters everywhere as the head exploded due the strength of the blow.

I abandoned stealth as Ilet my bullets fly towards the remaining ants. With no need for steslthed movements my bullets rained towards the ants. The smell of bodys melting filled the air as the remaining ants fell to the ground.

Hylia nodded at me and we continued down the tunnel. There was no time for rest or unnecessary speaking. The timer was ticking.

Chapter end