74 'Ant'iclimactic

With a large army of living and undead ants gathering outside the outpost, the Rangers could recuperate. Taking a few moments to tend to the wounded, they stopped the bleeding and even saved some of the more critically injured, thanks to the mysterious pink salve given out earlier.

Like a guardian angel, Zanir and his retinue had shown up at the perfect moment. They had to give thanks to him, for if it was just the other Rangers arriving, they would have only been able to hold on a few moments longer.

Everyone knew that you needed an army to fight another army, and somehow he was able to capture these ants. Wanting to keep the momentum going, the survivors prepared some hot food for their rescuers, eager to show some gratitude.

Over the meal, they explained what they knew about the ants' recent activity and the distress call. It seemed that the normally stable ants had begun mutating in large numbers recently. By the time the scouts got back with their reports, they'd were attacked, realizing the situation was much worse than they thought.

Normally, the ants had been somewhat intelligent, depending on the queen. It seems that a mutant queen emerged, which was something that had never happened before. Now almost all of the ants were coming out mutated, as either a fire ant or an ice ant.

Finishing up the meal quickly, Zanir told everyone that it would be best to strike while the iron was hot. If they waited until morning, it was only giving the ants time to regroup and attack them again throughout the night.

Using their own troops against them, he would be able to minimize any human casualties. Explaining this to the Rangers, they cheered and shouted out things like 'Let the ants kill themselves'. After calming them down, he asked what kind of ants were out there, since these were just basic workers.

True to the ants that he was already familiar with, there weren't a wide variety of ants. There were the basic workers, which were mindless and easily absorbed, and there were also a few soldier ants, which were simply larger and more powerful workers.

Beyond that, the Rangers also described that the queen ant would be large and powerful. They also told him that she would be protected by the royal guards with her, selected from the largest and strongest soldier ants.

Having gathered up all the research that he could, Zanir decided that it was time to move out. Having finished up their meals, the Rangers joined him, as everyone marched into the restricted anthill area. Noticing large piles of rocks scattered about the area, he couldn't help but ask the Rangers.

They explained that these ants would tunnel and burrow into underground caverns, building a network of mazes below the earth. Bringing the stones and earth back outside, they left mounds of material everywhere.

Since it had already been dug out of Norantal, he absorbed the loose materials. Extra stones and soil could always be put to use. Reducing the mounds also gave them much better visibility over the area. Without the previous obstructions, they could see the giant anthill in the distance.

A seemingly neverending stream of ants came and went from the anthill itself. Having noticed a large group of humans heading towards them, several swarms of ants had been dispatched. Mindlessly driven on, the workers thought that they had the advantage, due to having greater numbers.

If the ants were capable of expressing emotions, like shock and dismay, perhaps they would have. Unfortunately, they were only mindless workers, driven by pure instinct they kept charging onward. A large green dragon danced through the oncoming attackers, sucking them up, as soon as they got close enough.

Before long, the first soldier ants arrived, giving him a bit of concern. Trying to absorb them directly, he actually felt some resistance from their minds. He wouldn't be able to take them as quickly as the workers, due to them recognizing him as hostile and resisting.

Lucky for him, they were only slightly larger and stronger than the regular workers. Fights soon broke out, as the ants battled. Watching the battles, he was relieved the see that his enhanced workers were able to hold their own against the soldiers.

Meanwhile, the undead ants were actually pushing the attackers back. Not being able to feel pain or fear, they attacked without personal concern, causing grievous wounds to the soldier ants. Moving from battle to battle, he captured as many soldier ants as he could.

Once the enhanced soldier ants came out, they turned on their former colony members, pushing them back into the anthill itself. Blocking off the entrance area, the stream of traffic was cut off for the first time, startling the colony.

Knowing that he had angered them, he chose to stay outside the anthill, since fighting them inside would be suicidal. If he just cut them off, they would eventually come out to attack him. Looking around he couldn't help but grin.

The battle around the entrance of the anthill had left corpses and carnage all around. Since his ant army was reaching a large enough size, he was focusing more on the soldiers. Seeing a lot of worker corpses around, he let out his Emerald Crab ghoul.

Salivating, the men watched as the crab devoured several ants. At this point, the ants were larger than the crab, but he still ate about four of them, before seeming to get full. As the mutant ghoul seemed to squish itself together, a notification prompt appeared.

[Juvenile Emerald Crab (Ghoul/Mutant) is attempting to evolve, allow?]

Selecting yes, he saw that the crab once again cracked its shell. Emerging was an even larger young emerald crab. Unlike last time, the changes weren't quite so dramatic. Overall, it looked larger and more intimidating.

As it's size grew, so did the mouth, revealing another row of razor-sharp teeth. At this point, anything that got bitten was going to have a bad day. The secondary pair of claws that spawned from the prior molting, were now larger and much more normal looking.

If there was a big difference, he'd have to say it was the new shell. Coming out a much darker green, the new shell had patches of black spots all over it. He could only imagine how tough it was now, as it seemed like each evolution made its body stronger.

Having evolved twice now, he was sure this ghoul would be with him for quite some time. It would make sense to give him a name since he couldn't just keep calling it crab ghoul. Hmm, for now, I guess I'll call you Goro, on account of the four arms.

With his new name, the crab ghoul Goro was strutting around, getting used to his new body. As they were waiting, the Rangers began to set up a temporary camp. Making some minor fortifications, they could hold the ants back, now that they were pushed back to their anthill.

As the men worked to construct temporary barricades around the anthill itself, a rumbling could be heard from deep within. Looking at each other, everyone knew that the ants would be launching a final attack.

Backing away from the anthill, he maneuvered his colony around the entrance, ready to intercept the attackers. Just like they imagined, countless ants started pouring out. Frenzied they attempted to attack, but due to the narrow entrance, they couldn't overwhelm the defending ants.

Soon, the number of workers started dwindling, as more and more soldiers started pouring out instead. Battling each other, the ants burning and freezing powers were rendered useless. The system had actually intertwined a little bit of the mutated DNA from both types, allowing them to resist the effects.

Finally, a large multicolored ant emerged, knocking away all of the smaller ants. Several large and powerful ants came out as well, it seemed the queen and her royal guard had arrived at last. Sensing that her own ants had been captured, the queen roared out furiously, as twin jets of ice and fire soared into the air.

Giving them some space, the regular ants had backed off. Thinking that it had the advantage, the queen attempted to charge at Goro, the only one who hadn't retreated back. While the other ants held off the royal elites, he released the shades to surprise the queen.

Springing out from the shadows, they caught her off guard, as Cerberus lead several ant shades to attack simultaneously. Having focused her effort on striking Goro, there was nothing she could do, having already committed to the attack.

Doubling down on her resolve, she struck Goro, only to find that his shell was much tougher than expected. There was a loud crunching sound, as both her jaws and Goro's shell slightly cracked from the severe impact.

Goro would recover with time, as for the queen, she didn't have a chance to recover. Cerberus attacked with the other shades, directly bypassing her fearsome armored carapace, and striking directly at her life force.

Releasing all of her pent-up fire and ice, the queen tried to detonate her body, in a last ditch effort to take the attackers with her. As a massive explosion detonated, destroying her corpse, the shades simply melted into pools of shadow.

The attack did burn the shades, but it only caused moderate damage from the fire and ice themselves. Without a corporal body, the shockwave from the explosion simply passed through them.

If the ant queen had known that her final sacrifice had been in vain, she would have been livid. After the death of their queen, the royal guard stopped putting up a fight. He was able to absorb these amazing specimens into the system.

Thinking that it was a shame that he had lost the ant queen, and thus his opportunity to have his own 'ant farm' in future, he absorbed what was left of the body and essence. There were two large, glowing spheres left behind, one red and one blue.

Looking closer, he could see that they weren't actually spheres, but what appeared to be small marbles. They gave off massive amounts of energy, with the red one giving off a warm sensation, while the blue gave off a cooling breeze.

Celebrating, the Rangers came over to congratulate him on his victory. This was also another big step for the Rangers. They realized that having a powerful ally, who could help them clean up the restricted zones, was invaluable. If they respected him before, they looked to him as a savior now.

Approaching Garth called out to him.

"Congratulations Zanir, you've cleared the anthill. Looks like the queen had two beast cores, that would explain the dual mutation. Any plans for your cores?"

"Yes, you saw my shade Cerberus during that battle. I feel that fate is calling me to give the cores to her for some reason."

Several of the men called out support of the idea from the crowd.

'She's a beauty! Give her the cores!'

'I could get lost in those stars.'

'Such a domineering creature, I'm glad it's on our side!'

Looking at the monster cores, Cerberus approached. Kneeling before Zanir, the creature prostrated to show it's respect. Scratching her behind the ears, he congratulated her.

"Alright Cerberus, you've been a good girl. Eat these monster cores as your reward."

Handing them over, he watched as the twilight silhouette consumed both of the cores at the same time. It was fascinating to watch what happened next. Not only was Zanir himself surprised, but all of the Rangers were as well.

Red and blue lights started pulsating throughout Cerebus' entire body. Alternating jets of hot and cold air started pulsing out, as the lights started gather towards the base of her neck. Each side had a different color gathering, as the neck itself split.

No blood came out, instead, two small silhouettes emerged from the neck, forming two additional heads. Now totaling three heads, she was now a true Cerebus. Howling at the same time, the normal pitch of the main head was joined by the high pitch of two newborn puppy heads.

Not only did they sound adorable, tiny jets of their respective element came out when they howled. Thinking that the mission was complete, he was surprised to hear the system announcement prompt.

*Ding*

[Sidequest complete.]

[Cerberus bloodline unlocked.]

Along with the announcement, he could feel a searing pain in the base of his neck, on the left and the right. The last thing that he thought before passing out was 'This can not be happening'. After that, he lost consciousness.