“Dax,” Baltore said in a low voice.
I looked around. There were droves of Killer Ants crawling out of the ground in places all over the street.
“Shit! Geeko, Baltore!” I shouted, running forward.
They immediately understood what I was trying to do and matched my timing.
“Devastator!”
“Flare Lance!”
I lopped off the head of the ant closest to me while Geeko’s hammer and Baltore’s magic obliterated the ones on either side at the same time. However, there were more ants than we could deal with at once.
“Aaah!”
“Mia! Y-You little—”
The moment we’d left the girls’ side, a new hole had opened up behind Mia and an ant had jumped at her. Ai, Chisha, and Baltore were all close by, so they’d managed to take it out before she was seriously hurt, but it was only a matter of time before we were overwhelmed with sheer numbers.
“This...is bad. Watch out!”
Killer Ants were weak monsters that even D-rank adventurers could defeat. In a one-on-one fight I’d never lose—in fact, I could even take on dozens of them at once if I had to. But I couldn’t do that while also protecting other people.
Furthermore, these ants possessed another dangerous ability aside from just being able to burrow around. Many of the ants that made it to the surface pointed their asses at people and buildings and then bent their torsos, shooting out a viscous yellow liquid from their behinds.
“What the heck is that?! Some kind of bodily fluid?”
“Waaah! It’s aciiid!” civilians started screaming as the ants sprayed them.
“Shit! I knew this would happen!”
Biting wasn’t the ants’ only means of attack; they could shoot acid as well. Sure, the three of us were veteran adventurers, but we couldn’t take all the ants out before they killed some of Freelea’s residents.
If these things are popping up all over the city, then...
I shot a quick glance at a few other streets and saw people running around in a panic. The city of Freelea had turned into hell, and strong as we were, we couldn’t save the whole city.
Damnit, at this rate they’ll overrun the place! I thought. And that wasn’t the worst of it either.
“Is that...no way!”
A new ant that was much bigger than the others and that had a glowing carapace had crawled out of one of the holes.
“That’s a Commander Ant!”
The Commander Ant’s listing had been the page after the Killer Ant in the guide book, so I remembered its traits quite well. Though it looked like just a bigger Killer Ant, it was far more dangerous than it seemed. Unlike the Killer Ant, which was rated as a D-rank monster, the Commander Ant was B-rank. In the guidebook it had mentioned that the Commander Ant’s “level” or whatever was double that of a Killer Ant’s too, which meant they were around 20 or so.
If those things start attacking too, then...
The situation had been bad enough to begin with, but it was downright hopeless now. At this rate, Freelea might get destroyed. But before the citizens’ panic reached a fever pitch, someone appeared to take control of the situation.
“Listen up everyone! This is Veteram from the Adventurers’ Guild! Us adventurers will engage the ants! In the meantime, citizens—please run to safety!”
Veteram’s gruff voice resounded throughout the city, and when a second later adventurers charged toward the four corners of Freelea, the residents started to calm down a little.
Still, in my opinion...
That’s far too reckless! Those Killer Ants are D-rank monsters! The newbie adventurers won’t be able to handle them!
It seemed Veteram had a plan in mind, however.
“Now! Let’s open those barrels!”
At Veteram’s command, the lids of all the barrels lining the city streets flew open. They must have been rigged to open at a signal.
Inside each barrel was a ton of small, palm-sized bags. I had no idea what was going on, but the moment those sacks were revealed Chisha, who’d been guarding my back, started running toward a barrel.
“Wait, don’t run off alone!”
Chisha ignored my warning and kept running, and as soon as she reached the barrel she grabbed a sack and threw it at the Commander Ant.
“Wha—?!”
Chisha’s aim was true, and the bag burst apart as it hit the Commander Ant’s carapace. Brown powder spilled out, filling the air around the Commander Ant. A second later, its movements dulled and it started staggering about, as if confused.
“Dax!” Baltore shouted, and I snapped back to my senses.
I dashed toward the Commander Ant and stabbed it in the head.
“This smell...was that bag a bag of Smelling Salts?” As the Commander Ant slowly turned into particles of light, I suddenly remembered what I’d read in the dungeon guide about the ants. “’You can control their actions by using certain scents on them.’”
It seemed that information was true, but sadly I didn’t have the time to leisurely analyze what I’d learned, as there were still more holes appearing all over the place.
“There’s more over here!”
“I-I can help too!”
This time Ai grabbed a few bags and threw them at the new batch of ants, stopping them in their tracks. That gave Baltore enough time to finish casting a powerful spell to blast them all to pieces.
Everyone else seemed to have picked up on this strategy as well, as all of the other adventurers were also throwing bags at the ants, from veteran adventurers like us to newbies who probably hadn’t even reached D-rank yet. Even the regular citizens had started grabbing bags and throwing them at the ants. The bags didn’t do any damage, but stopping their movements was still plenty helpful.
“We can do it, guys!”
“F-Fuck! Fine, I’ll go too!”
“Take that you shitty bugs!”
“Ha ha ha! Nice going, Veteram!” I shouted, grinning.
Strength alone wasn’t enough to protect the city, but now that the civilians we would otherwise have to protect were capable of contributing to the battle, we could wipe this infestation out with casualties. This also meant we had the advantage in numbers and not the ants.
It was the ants who were being hunted now, and us veteran adventurers started dispatching them with ease. Before long we’d annihilated every last ant in the city, and there seemed to be no signs of more appearing.
❈❈❈
That went a lot more smoothly than I expected, I thought.
Now that the battle was over, I was taking a look around the city. It seemed Freelea had suffered basically no casualties, which was a shock even despite how much having those barrels full of bags of Smelling Salts had helped.
This is probably all thanks to that guy.
The Freelea of a few months ago would definitely have not managed to handle the situation as cleanly. I could no longer ignore the evidence staring me in the face. Freelea’s adventurers were changing, and mostly for the better. That wasn’t all either.
“Heh. That Veteram did a pretty good job this time around.”
I’d always thought of him as an upstart who’d reached A-rank after us, but I had to admit he’d grown quite a bit.
“This is far more than just doing a good job, Dax,” Baltore said with a conflicted expression.
“Hm?” I gave him a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
“Just think about it. The perfect items to deal with a sudden ant attack were placed all over the city ahead of time. It’s one thing to be well prepared, but this is something else entirely.” Baltore pointed to one of the barrels. “Besides, these Smelling Salts worked far better than they should have. Have you forgotten why the Smelling Salts item is so rarely used?”
“Isn’t that because...”