Ant Army

"I'm sorry, say that again," Hera asked.

'The things that are attacking are ants. An actual army of them. They don't seem that big. Each is about the size of an average adult cat,' Armory explained.

"Ants the size of cats?" Hera said out loud, trying to confirm she heard it right.

"Ants?" Blue turned to the Empress.

"It seems like it," Hera nodded.

"The size of cats?" Shane tilted her head.

"Yeah, why are you repeating what I'm saying?" Hera frowned.

"Are we?" Blue looked at the rest of the group, "I think we are just confused. Just trying to make sure we are hearing things right."

"Yeah, and how are ants the size of cats able to make this much noise?" Adriel asked.

'There are a lot of them. Like, a lot, a lot,' Armory replied, still floating above the wall.

"There are a lot of them," Hera replied.

"A lot, a lot?" Bonnie asked.

'Oh. Never mind. This is how. Some are the size of horses,' Armory added.

"Yeah, but there are also a few the size of horses," Hera continued.

"Horses?" Helena asked.

"Yeah," Hera nodded.

"Ants?" Mylo asked.

"Yeah, ants," Hera nodded.

"The size of horses?" Shane asked.

"And cats," Blue added.

"Yes. Ants the size of horses and cats," Hera replied.

"And they are attacking?" Bonnie asked.

"What are you doing?!" Sammy snapped, "Stop asking questions and move!"

Hearing the turtle scream surprised the entire party. They all shook their heads and rubbed her eyes, "What the fuck was that?" Hera grumbled.

"I don't know. It feels like I was in a trance," Helena quickly cast a spell that removed the darkness in her mind, letting her think more clearly. If she weren't under any effect that changed how her mind worked, it would also temporarily remove all of her emotions. Luckily, this time it actually cleansed something that was clouding her thoughts, "Ok yeah, I was in a trance. Hang on."

The mage used that spell on everyone, and they all felt this fogginess vanish from their minds. It was then that Hera realized where she felt that before. During her meditation, every time she looked at the silhouette, this odd feeling of not being able to think properly would accompany the migraine that came with seeing that hole in reality.

"Shit! It was the curse!" Hera said.

"What?" Bonnie asked, getting an annoyed expression from everyone, "I'm not in a trance anymore. I'm actually asking."

"That feeling. I felt it when meditating. It was there when I looked at the curse," Hera explained.

"How? You were seeing the curse? Like actually seeing it?" Bonnie pressed. A part of her was worried, but the other part was curious about what happened.

"Yeah, I was-" A loud crashing sound came from the wall behind the house again, reminding the group that they had work to do- "I'll tell you later. Let's move."

Hera just glanced at Nimbus, who picked her up and flew towards the wall. If she were going to do anything, she would first have to see what she was dealing with. As soon as she got high enough, she saw the absolute swarm that was trying to invade. No one would be able to count how many ants were attacking. They would reach the wall and try to climb, only to be stopped by one of the many safeguards in place. A magic spell that made the structure too slippery for anything to climb up. Even Spiders would have problems trying to come up the wall. She called her entire court out so they could help fend off the ants from this area. Because of the losses during the Night River hunt, there weren't enough guards to cover all spots in the wall, and this was one of the few places that no one was taking care of.

Still, it wasn't like the monster army didn't have any other options; they were forming a ladder with their own bodies. Since they were facing ants, their ingenuity became a problem. These creatures could overcome almost everything. Hera looked up and started casting an Elemental Poison Storm. Remembering that only she and her court could walk around the area affected by the spell, she turned to the side, "I'm taking care of this wall. If anyone is out there, get out! I'm using an area spell!"

"Hera, is it that bad?" Blue asked from below. She wouldn't be affected by the magic, but she was still there, worried about the situation.

"Have you ever poked an anthill before?" Hera yelled.

"Yeah. By accident."

"It looks like someone poked five, and they all came for revenge," Hera finished the spell and let her magic fall upon the ants. The poison rain started falling, hitting the ants that were moving closer. Unfortunately, there were too many of them. The ants were walking over each other, and they still managed to reach the wall before the poison managed to kill them. On the good side, they were dying, but on the bad side, their bodies were still being added to the ladder.

"Dao. Light them up!" Hera called. Dao was the only one of her blades that could currently deal damage to a large number of enemies all at once. Lurize and Nimbus could also help, but they would have to actually jump in, and the Empress would rather have them by her side like they were now just as Dao sent off the first chain lightning skill and fried a small clump of ants. Hera felt something reforming inside her legacy, "Core!" she gasped with a big smile.

The rapier appeared right away, his voice still a bit groggy, 'I'm up. Damn, that was a long nap. How long was I out?' Core looked around, 'I leave for a couple of days, and you guys start a war against ants?!'

'Well, yeah. You are the only one who knows how fire works, so we figured that ants could be good to burn,' Ooze joked.

"I'm glad you're back," Hera smiled and reached out, so Core could land on her hand, "Thank you for saving me back then. Ready to do it again?"

'Absolutely. Please don't make me break this time,' Core replied with a happy voice.

"Never again," Hera smiled and gripped the handle of the rapier, already preparing a sediment to throw.

Using Core, she started flinging pieces of lava toward the corpse ladders being created. The molten rock wasn't enough to melt the ants instantly, but it would slowly destroy their bodies and stop them from continuing to create that structure with the dead bodies. Hera also started using a very old spell, Fire Spray. That one never seemed useful unless she was dealing with some sort of plant monster, but here, things changed. Like a flamethrower, Hera kept any of the ants that started getting too close to the top of the wall away. She also sent Lurize and Nimbus to move along the wall using the same spell to push the creatures back.

As the Empress attacked, a few of the larger ants appeared, and like Armory told her. They were bigger, the size of horses, and much bulkier. A single one of their legs was the same size as one of the other ants' heads. Hera didn't know much about ants in general, but she remembered that some species had variations. Some were workers, and others could be bigger. The queens should even be able to fly in some cases. When that thought crossed her mind, Hera stopped. Looking around, she couldn't see any anti-air defenses, and even in the guard, very few actually used a bow and arrow. She looked back and couldn't see the rest of her party to warn them about that possibility.

"Sammy!"

"What's wrong?" the turtle appeared by her side.

"Can you act like our commns?"

"Of course," the turtle nodded.

"Thanks. Tell them to be on the lookout for any flying ants. If they show up, I don't think we have many ways of dealing with them," Hera said just as she stopped using her Fire Spray spell since the noise it made was too much with this many monsters being burned.

"Oh, that is a good call. I'll tell them," Sammy vanished and headed out to talk with the group.

Hera continued fighting against the ants for another ten minutes, pushing them back with spells every time they got too close and making sure to use the Sediment skill from Core to destroy the ladders they were creating. Things seemed to be going well, but they showed no signs of stopping. The ants seemed to be endless, and they would ignore all the damage dealt by her spells, only focusing on trying to get up the wall. At one point, one of the larger ones got closer, and Hera jumped away to avoid its pincers. However, the ant ignored the Empress and seemed to continue pushing forward. Lurize came running, and body slammed the ant, sending it back down the wall, but that reaction gave Hera an odd feeling.

A buzzing sound reached her ears before she could think more about that. It didn't take long for the source of said sound to show up. From between the trees, a couple of flying ants, larger than the ones on the ground, appeared. Luckily for her, the aerial monsters were still under the Elemental Poison Storm, and before they reached the village, they were covered in poison. The two creatures crashed behind Hera inside the village wall, but they were struggling to move. She believed they would die because of her poison but decided to speed things along by sending Frost and Dao to finish them off.

Sammy popped behind Hera, causing the Empress to jump in surprise, "Oh. Sorry."

"I'm gonna tie a bell around your neck," Hera grumbled, using Core to send another sediment to the ants. She had to keep recasting the spell since the monsters would eventually cover the lava with their own bodies.

"I don't think that would help. Anyway, Blue is going to use a big spell. I'm going to warn the others. Can you start telling the members of the Vanguard? Some places are not doing well, and she's doing that to lessen their burden."

Hera nodded, "Hang on. Nimbus!" she put her hand out for him to kiss, "Royal Quest. Run around the village and let everyone know that Blue is going to use a big spell. How long will it take for you to do a full lap?"

"Five minutes," Nimbus got up after getting 100 thousand mana.

"Perfect. If you see any place that really needs help, use the mana to attack a bit, but focus on telling everyone," Hera said.

The Sentinel nodded and went flying off. Sammy thanked her and disappeared to tell the rest of the group. The Empress continued fighting with Lurize and her court by her side. Daskka was around her neck, spraying fire using Hera's spell through her mouth. No one liked the idea of the snake jumping in the middle of that frenzy of ants. About seven minutes went by, and Hera kept hearing more and more yelling coming from other areas of the wall. She wanted to go help them, but keeping this group of ants at bay was taking everything she had. Trying to take care of another area would only bring her more problems. Seven minutes passed, and she could tell that a few monsters had entered the village. She saw them moving around inside, but the people in the village attacked them and got rid of the monsters, including a few flying ants that were defeated when they tried to grab someone. That's when Nimbus returned, apologizing for the delay. He helped get rid of some of the ants that broke through, and that's why it took him longer to get back.

Hera was about to call Sammy, but the sound of thunder made the entire village shake as a massive storm cloud appeared in the sky. The cloud was spinning, and it came crashing down as if the entire Vanguard was in the middle of a gigantic hurricane. However, they were in the eye of the storm. Most ants caught in the clouds were crushed by its weight. To make matters worse, the clouds were spinning at high speeds, dragging the monsters along and ripping them apart.

Taking a couple of minutes to clear the monsters around the wall, Hera was about to head out to help others when Sammy appeared behind her again.

"Shit!" Hera gasped and almost slashed him, "You really need to warn me when you do that."

"Sorry, but I need you all to gather. Alex stopped moving, and she found the curse."