Way of the Knights

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With one final crashing sound. The queen\'s bubble finally landed firmly on the ground. The people who were tasked on severing it\'s connections finally heaved a sigh of relief.

"Whew! Finally!" Malik slumped onto the ground while breathing heavily. His body was drenched in sweat just like the rest of the people here.

"That\'s such a pain in the ass!" Julius whined while drinking huge gulps of water.

Raphael wanted to comment but was also tired that he didn\'t even bothered at all.

"Recover your energies. We still need to push that thing over to the tunnel that Bradley made. I\'m giving you an hour." Luis gave out the order and he immediately sat down to recover.

Upon hearing the order, the team did the same thing, closing their eyes to recover from their fatigue. There are occasional rocks that are being thrown from the tunnel above but none paid attention to it, their sole focus is to finish with this task and kill this thing.

After a hour, all of them stood up at the same time and nodded to each other. They picked their spots and pushed the huge bubble with all their might and aligned it with the tunnel.

Veins in their bodies bulged, signifying that difficulty of their task. The skidding noise from the push echoed across the chamber. The soldier at the tunnel gave them a favor and stopped dropping rocks since he might hit unknowingly hit them.

All they have to do is to push this thing for at least five meters, but that was harder than it seems because they felt like they were pushing a mountain instead.

Nevertheless, with their collective efforts, they were able to do the task and as soon as they finished, all of them limped on the ground while panting heavily. No one said a word since they were too exhausted to even speak.

They recovered for a couple of minutes which is just enough for them to do simple tasks. Luis then released another order.

"Use the hawks to check on the progress of the mission above. Give me reports afterwards."

Julius, Malik and Raphael nodded and used their shared vision to check up on the status of the onslaught.

What they saw above greatly relieved them. The rest of the ants were no more and the workforce were doing clean up right now. As they were informed earlier that these ants are actually a delicacy, they did their best to harvest as many as they can.

The treasures that they saw during the infiltration were being transfered out of the hill. Everything that has value in this place is being swiped clean by the workforce which was to Malik\'s liking.

"All ants aside from the Queen, annihilated." Julius reported.

"Casualty count. None so far." Raphael reported.

"Resources gathering in process." Malik reported.

Luis sighed in relief as he heard the reports. That\'s fifty percent of the plan done, now they only have to worry about the queen and this mission will be over.

While his team are observing the workforce. He decided to sent his partner inside the tunnel to see what\'s happening over there. He then saw that Bradley was still spinning away but they were almost near the location.

\'Good, everything is going according to the plan. I\'m just hoping that it will stay that way.\' Luis thought.

He stared at the queen\'s bubble for a bit and an idea flashed across his mind. He looked over towards Raphael and asked: "How intense could you channel the Purifying Flames?"

Raphael caught unprepared for his question but he truthfully answered. "Enough to damage a Silver Knight."

"Is that so?" Luis traced his chin, after thinking for a while, he then told him, "Recover up to full first. When your done, let\'s try punching a whole on this thing."

Raphael\'s eyes brightened for a bit and without further ado, he sat down and swallowed some recovery pills. Luis then turned to Malik and Julius, they too received orders from him.

"You guys supervise the resource gathering. Three cries from my hawk will signal retreat. Understood?"

"Sir yes sir!" Malik and Julius saluted, Luis nodded to them and they went to carry out his orders.

***

Raphael exhaled and stood up, he then heard Luis ask�

"All recovered?"

He nodded and together they jumped on top of the bubble. Luis nodded towards him and Raphael knew what he meant.

He brandished his sword and knocked it on his shield. He then closed his eyes and channeled his energies. He then uttered: "Purifying Flames."

Then his sword was coated in bright orange fire. Still, with his eyes closed, he focused and magnified the intensity of the flames by feeding it more of his energies. The sword flared with brilliance and Luis could feel the heat rising up every second that he channeled the technique.

"Try stabbing it." Luis asked, Raphael nodded and placed both of his hands on the hilt of his sword, he raised both of his hands and stabbed the bubble as hard as he could.

The sword wedge onto the bubble, the mucus sizzled and dissipated with the heat and Raphael could feel his sword going down even further. Even so, Luis frowned and check the activity inside the tunnel using the shared vision from the hawk and thought: \'It\'s slow.\'

Luis decided to help out, he took out his sword and also channeled his energy. He then whispered: "Violent Sun Flames."

His sword then pulsed with a cyclone of fire, compared to Raphael\'s Purifying Flames, the flames on his sword are more erratic and wild, it was also hotter and deeper in color.

As Luis channeled his energies, the cyclone spun faster and condensed closer to the sword. He then stabbed it on the same spot where Raphael struck his sword and that instantly raised the temperature and melted the hardened mucus from the queen, this was signified by their sword reaching deeper and deeper to the shell.

Luis and Raphael started sweating fiercely, these flames might not hurt them but they can\'t do anything to the heat. It was then that the colony shook that it caught the attention of everyone.

Without pausing from his task, Luis checked the situation above them and saw that Bradley used one of his strongest attack to shatter the wall in front of him. He could then see him signalling retreat from above so he called back his hawk and issued the retreat signal for the workforce.

Three loud cries from his partner which was heard by the other hawks, the rest then issued the same cry and it was heard across the colony.

Julius and Malik shouted: "Retreat!" And escorted the workforce out of the colony.

Raphael\'s heart started beating faster but Luis calmed him down: "We\'re close to where she is, we have time. Focus." He nodded and channeled even more energy to the sword which intensified the flames.

It didn\'t take them long before they lost resistance and saw a deep, murky green liquid splashing around along with an unbearable stench. Luis and Raphael deactivated the flames.

"You wait for me at the entrance of the chamber." He told Raphael, who carried our his orders.

He looked up and saw that Bradley and his team were about to come out, he took something out of his spatial ring which looked like a glass bottle that has a maroon colored liquid inside. He popped the cork and emptied it\'s contents on the hole they made.

As soon as he did that, he saw Bradley and his team rushing out of the tunnel. This was also his signal to retreat towards the entrance of the chamber.

The team was reunited along with Julius and Malik who returned after escorting the workforce towards the surface.

*SCREEECH!!!*

A piercing cry echoed inside the egg. It sounded like someone was scratching glass using their nails, it was painful to the ears.

Smoke was rising from the hole on top of the egg. The whole thing was vibrating fiercely, clearly signifying that the ant queen was in pain. It didn\'t took long before a thin and bony arm popped out from the hole they made. The team felt their heart tightened as soon as they saw this, but before they even panicked, the weapon that they were preparing since the start of their raid finally arrive.

*SCREEECH!!!*

A thick bright orange liquid poured out from the tunnel above the egg. As soon as it hit the surface of the shell, it started melting like snow on summer. This thick orange liquid was also the reason why the queen screech in pain once more.

That\'s right. It was magma. The sole reason why Bradley became a human drill and made a tunnel at a great distance was to drew this here so that they could use it to kill the queen.

It didn\'t took long before whole hardened mucus that was protecting the queen melted from the heat of magma.. It also didn\'t took very long for them, to see the current state of the last monster that they have to deal with.