Noah stepped forward, slow and measured, as if the weight of what was coming had already begun pressing down on his shoulders.
From his hand, a bottle materialized—glass and faintly glowing, the liquid inside a swirling blue hue that shimmered like a captured sky.
He brought it to his lips and drank.
A subtle warmth spread through his chest, quiet and clean. Just enough. His mind cleared, mana stirring back to life within him—only partially, like a breath caught halfway. A quarter of his reserves returned, not enough to last, but enough to fight.
The bottle faded from his grasp, vanishing without a sound.
"We need to finish this. Fast. Next round, we go in—all in. We take them down before they get another chance to adapt. If they try to fall back, we chase. No regrouping, no resets. No more time for them to study how we fight. The longer this drags on, the more they learn. The stronger they become."
Dimitri raised his sword in answer, eyes steady, smile unwavering.
"All in, then, my friend."
The remaining four Zombie Ants began to stir.
Silent.
Coordinated.
Then, without warning, they sank—vanishing into the earth like shadows slipping beneath water. The forest floor trembled with their movement, not wildly, but rhythmically. Each vibration was a footstep from below, drawing closer with steady, hunting intent.
The ground beneath Noah's group quivered, the soil shifting, pulsing like something alive. They were coming.
And they were closing in fast.
The first eruption came without warning. A spray of dirt and debris burst into the air as one of the ants exploded upward, its body arched mid-lunge, mandibles gleaming with fungal rot.
It lunged toward Dimitri.
He braced himself just in time, shield locking into place. The impact struck like a falling tree. The force rippled through him, metal shrieking under pressure as the blow sent him sliding back across the earth, boots carving trenches in the dirt.
But he held his ground.
The defense held.
The earth beneath Noah buckled—then split.
One of the Zombie Ants burst upward in a sudden, violent surge, its mandibles snapping where his legs had been just a second earlier. Noah launched himself backward in a sharp leap, twisting midair. The ant's jaws chased after him with brutal precision, missing by a breath, but not by intent.
It wasn't random. It was planned.
Before the creature could lunge again, a shadow cut across the battlefield.
Fiona landed hard beside it, her quarterstaff swinging with full force. The steel head of the weapon collided with the ant's skull in a thunderous crack. The blow was enough to stop it cold, its momentum shattered, its legs scraping at the soil in a desperate bid to move again.
But it had stalled.
Noah landed, slid back into formation, and watched the field unfold with narrowed eyes.
"They're locking down the defender. And the fastest one."
His gaze sharpened.
"So their real target is being left exposed."
Noah moved the moment the realization hit. He sprinted, then jumped—eyes locked not on the enemies, but on where he knew they would appear.
June.
Just as he landed near her, the earth erupted on either side of her feet. Two Zombie Ants burst upward in unison, their timing so precise it looked rehearsed. Their mandibles opened wide, aiming to close in from both sides—trap her before she could react.
Noah was already raising his flintlocks.
The twin barrels roared, echoing like thunder between the trees. He didn't aim for the center. He aimed for the legs.
Mana Bullets tore into their limbs with brutal rhythm—one shot after another, hammering into joints and plates. Each hit sent chunks of armor flying, fungal roots twitching and curling from exposed wounds.
The creatures began regenerating instantly—twisted roots writhing out to patch what was broken.
But it wasn't instant.
The damage slowed them, staggered them. And that delay was enough.
June turned and bolted, moving past the snapping mandibles and shattered bark. Her breaths were sharp, but she didn't hesitate.
She ran straight toward Noah.
And behind her, the ants screamed.
Their focus was absolute.
Both Zombie Ants locked onto June with tunnel-vision precision, tracking her every movement with the kind of mechanical hunger that didn't bother with threats it couldn't catch.
Noah, fast and evasive, slipped through their calculations like smoke between fingers—too unpredictable, too mobile to register as a priority.
A mistake.
Noah moved before they could adjust, springing upward with a burst of speed, his figure cutting through the crimson light like a flash of shadow and steel. He landed atop one of the ants, balancing briefly on its hardened shell, then pivoted toward the base of its head.
He pulled the triggers.
Mana Bullets tore into the joint between the neck and thorax—shot after shot punching into root-flesh and fungal mass. The recoil echoed through his arms, the blasts forcing the creature's head to jerk violently from the impacts.
It wasn't enough to kill.
Not even close.
The twisted roots inside the ant pulsed, already mending the damage. Flesh regrew, shell hardened, cracks closed over.
But that wasn't the point.
The moment its head jerked back, the moment its attention snapped away from June and toward the source of damage—
That was enough.
They were distracted.
Fully.
Before the Zombie Ants even sensed it, Aiko was already moving.
She didn't charge. She flowed.
Her steps barely touched the ground, her presence wrapped in silence like a second skin. In the chaos of the battle, it was easy to overlook her—but that was her gift. Her strength wasn't just in the blade she carried, but in the quiet space between awareness and action.
She appeared at the flank of the same ant Noah stood atop, her approach veiled beneath the sound of screeching mandibles and shifting dirt. Her hand rested on the hilt of her katana, breath held, eyes calm.
She drew.
A whisper of steel.
The blade arced in a single, precise motion—clean, controlled, final. It sliced through the thick neck of the creature with practiced ease, like parting water. The head of the Zombie Ant lifted, hung for the briefest second in the air, then fell with a heavy thud against the forest floor.
The body followed a moment later, collapsing in a heap of twitching limbs and spilling fungus.
Noah leapt off just before it dropped, landing lightly as the body crumpled behind him. His guns lowered for a breath, only to rise again—his gaze already shifting toward the remaining three.
All of them still focused on June.
The remaining Zombie Ants surged forward with sharpened purpose. Their movements had lost the pause of hesitation—they weren't testing anymore. They had learned. And they knew what June could do.
They wouldn't give her the chance to cast again.
Noah moved fast, flintlocks raised. He unleashed another volley, each shot aimed with intent—not to kill, but to slow. Bullets collided with legs, joints, and mandibles, cracking through armor and slicing into fungal muscle. Sparks burst from contact, smoke coiling into the air.
It wasn't enough to stop them.
But it slowed them.
That moment was all Dimitri needed.
He dashed forward through the rain of dirt and debris, reached June in a heartbeat, and scooped her up with one arm. Before she could react, she was hoisted and secured across his shoulder, her feet no longer touching the ground.
"Not exactly the view I'd prefer, but… this'll do."
Even as she spoke, her fingers didn't waver.
June raised her staff, the air around her growing heavy. Sparks flared at the tip, slow and deliberate. Fire bloomed—deep blue at the core, edged in orange and red, and laced with streaks of chaotic green. It danced like something alive, gathering in power.
She was preparing the spell.
And this time, they wouldn't stop her.
One of the remaining Zombie Ants broke into a sudden sprint, its legs clawing into the earth as it launched itself into the air—mandibles open, aimed straight for June.
Before it could reach her, a blur of movement cut across its path.
Fiona.
She collided with the beast mid-air, quarterstaff swinging in a wide arc. The steel slammed into the side of its head with a bone-rattling crack, knocking its trajectory off balance and sending it crashing into the ground with a spray of broken dirt.
"Not in ma watch."
The ant didn't rise.
Because it didn't get the chance.
The spell released.
A roar tore through the battlefield as an explosion of fire erupted from June's staff, a cyclone of flame and color that consumed everything in its reach. Red and blue fire swirled together like warring storms, edged by streaks of green and orange that sparked and twisted through the inferno.
The heat cracked the air itself.
The blast wasn't clean—it was wild. Untamed. It swallowed branches, soil, and shadows alike. The sound alone was enough to make hearts skip beats. Like the forest had screamed.
June's Shard began to shake violently, its core glowing with unstable energy. Bolts of magic fired randomly in every direction—ice splitting bark, lightning striking the ground, bursts of wind carving shallow trenches through the dirt.
June frowned, her voice tight but calm.
"Damn it, not again… uhm, I'm going to need you all to hide. Immediately."
The Shard pulsed brighter.
The explosion surged outward in a blinding wave of fire, swallowing the battlefield in its furious breath. Flames twisted and curled in unnatural colors—red at the core, edged with blue and streaks of flickering green. The very air groaned as the magic tore through it.
The severed Zombie Ant, already weakened, stood no chance. Its body disintegrated on contact, reduced to ash before the scream had even left its broken mandibles.
The remaining three didn't wait.
They vanished beneath the earth, burrowing deep in an instant, fleeing from the inferno with instinctive precision.
Noah didn't waste a second. He caught sight of Aiko, frozen in place, panic wide in her eyes. Without a word, he grabbed her arm and pulled her with him, dragging her behind the nearest jagged rock just as a column of fire roared overhead.
Dimitri was already in motion, one arm pulling Luis close, the other gripping June as he sprinted toward a thick, ancient tree. They ducked behind its massive trunk, the bark groaning under the heat but holding firm.
Fiona dove behind a nearby boulder, her back pressed tight to the stone as fire spilled across the ground like a living tide.
The spell devoured everything.
Trees didn't burn—they vanished, engulfed in one sweeping breath. The canopy above cracked apart, branches falling like embers, turning to cinders before they even touched the ground. Leaves were stripped from their stems and incinerated midair.
There was no time to breathe.
Only to hide—and hope the flame passed before the world did.
"Hang on tae it!"
Fiona pressed her hand to the scorched ground, and a brilliant green light pulsed outward. A wide magic circle bloomed beneath their feet, etched in ancient patterns, its glow steady and strong. Threads of emerald light rose from the soil like vines in spring, wrapping gently around each of them, knitting wounds closed, easing the sharp ache of scorched lungs and battered limbs.
The warmth was soft. Reassuring. A reminder they hadn't been consumed.
Not yet.
When the explosion finally faded, silence fell—heavy and absolute. No embers crackled. No wind stirred. The air itself felt stunned, as if the forest had been holding its breath and now had nothing left to exhale.
The battlefield was gone.
What had once been a thick stretch of twisted trees and moss-covered earth was now a charred crater of ash and stone. Blackened stumps jutted from the ground like skeletal fingers. Smoke curled in lazy spirals from places where the flame had kissed too deeply.
Noah peeked out from behind the boulder, blinking against the haze. He reached up and pinched the singed tip of his hair between two fingers, holding it up with a sigh.
"Well… that wasn't exactly in the script."