The massive tree that had served as their shield stood no chance.
The trunk had been thick enough to withstand arrows, blades, even minor spells—but not that. Not the chaos June had unleashed.
In a single blast, it had been reduced to splinters and flame, torn apart at the roots. Bark scattered like ash, leaves turned to vapor.
And yet, through it all, Dimitri remained standing.
His shield was planted firmly in the ground, scorched and smoking, but unbroken. He knelt behind it, arms locked tight, sheltering Luis and June in the curve of his body. The earth beneath him had cracked, but his stance had not faltered.
When the fire cleared, both June and Luis were unharmed—blinking, shaken, but untouched.
From the side of the crater, Fiona stepped out cautiously, dust brushing off her shoulders as she looked around with wide, worried eyes. Her gaze landed on Noah.
Specifically, the thin tendril of smoke rising from the edge of his hair.
She froze.
Then, with a jolt of alarm, her hands flew to her head. She ran her fingers through the long, red curls as if counting every strand.
"Thank th' bloody stars… thought ey was gonna come out lookin' like a singed sheep."
Noah and Aiko hadn't moved.
The boulder they had taken cover behind was still warm beneath them, the last trace of heat lingering in the stone. Ash floated gently through the air, drifting like snow in slow descent.
There wasn't much space behind the rock.
Noah's body remained wrapped around Aiko, arms across her chest, legs curled protectively around her frame. It had been instinct—pure reaction to keep her safe when there was nowhere else to run.
"Are you alright, Aiko?"
"Y-Yes. Thank you for saving me, Noah-san… ano… you can let go of me now."
Noah blinked. Realization struck him like a delayed hit.
He unraveled himself at once, rising to his feet in a quick, embarrassed motion. One hand went to the back of his head, fingers dragging through his hair.
"My bad, my bad."
Aiko rose to her feet slowly, her hands folded neatly in front of her, head bowed ever so slightly.
A soft blush colored her cheeks, and her gaze remained fixed on the ground—as if the weight of her thoughts was too much to meet anyone's eyes.
"It's fine… You did it to protect me."
Noah nodded once, then turned his attention to the one person responsible for nearly roasting the entire party.
June.
He exhaled, sharp but controlled.
"Your highness, if you're going full terrorist mode, the least you could do is give us a little warning. You know, before the magical bomb goes off in our faces. Not after the flames are already hugging the sky."
June flicked her hair with practiced grace, the kind of gesture that made the ash around her seem like stage dust. Her chin tilted slightly, her lips curved into a smile that was equal parts charm and unapologetic pride.
"I'm terribly sorry to disappoint, darling, but I haven't the faintest control over it."
Noah stared for a moment longer, then rubbed a hand down his face.
"I can't believe she actually admitted that… with that smug on her face."
"Noah, my friend."
Dimitri tilted his head slightly, nodding toward the distance with a subtle motion of his jaw.
Far ahead, barely visible through the thin veil of settling ash, the remaining three Zombie Ants were moving again—not toward them, but away. Their legs churned the scorched earth in sharp, deliberate strides, retreating with unsettling coordination.
They were regrouping. Again.
Noah's flintlocks shimmered into his hands, summoned with a flicker of mana and practiced ease. He didn't need to be told twice.
"Yep. Guess it's the fastest one doing the chasing."
And then he moved.
He dashed forward, not along the ground but upward, launching himself toward the trees. His boots caught bark like they were meant to, using every branch, every jagged limb as leverage. He didn't stumble. He didn't hesitate.
He weaved through the blackened canopy, his speed barely visible to the eye, like a streak of shadow slipping through the bones of the forest. Every step was precise. Every jump measured.
He was no longer waiting for the enemy to come to him.
He was the one hunting now.
Noah closed the distance in moments, the trees barely a blur beneath his boots. The world narrowed to a single focus—their backs turned, their guard lowered, their retreat too confident.
He raised his flintlocks midair, arms steady even as he leapt from branch to branch. Robocrab stirred on his shoulder, its red eye pulsing with light, claws clicking in anticipation.
They struck as one.
Mana Bullets burst forth in rapid succession, each shot sharp and precise. Robocrab's lasers followed a half-second later, streaking through the air in glowing red arcs. The blasts collided with the retreating ants, staggering them mid-motion, slowing their advance.
"Where do you think you're going? It's not break time yet."
The two closest Zombie Ants spun toward him with terrifying speed, mandibles wide, legs pounding the earth.
But Noah had already seen it before—every twitch, every lunge, every pattern. He moved before they even reached him.
A sidestep. A twist. A leap.
He slipped through their strikes like water around stone—untouched, unshaken.
A man honed by repetition, shaped by instinct, faster than thought. Faster than any spell. Faster than anything else.
He didn't adapt to the battle.
He became it.
From behind, Dimitri crashed into the scene with thunderous force, his shield slamming into one of the distracted ants. The impact rang through the battlefield, echoing like the first strike of a war drum.
They weren't retreating anymore.
They were being cornered.
The two Zombie Ants reacted instantly, mandibles snapping open as they lunged toward Dimitri. The impact would have been brutal—if it ever landed.
But it didn't.
Noah dropped from above like a silent strike of thunder, landing squarely on the head of the first ant.
He fired point-blank, the mana bullets tearing through layers of shell and fungus with violent bursts of light. Before it could retaliate, he was already gone—vaulting off its body and landing atop the second.
Another volley. Another flash.
He became motion in its purest form—bouncing between enemies with unnerving precision, each leap drawing their gaze, pulling their rage toward him like a magnet. Their attention was his now.
They didn't even see Dimitri.
The ant before him began to burrow, its legs tearing into the ground, trying to disappear into the earth once more.
But Dimitri was ready. With a fierce step forward and a roar of effort, he drove his shield into its side, breaking its rhythm, forcing it back up to the surface.
And then came Fiona.
She moved in behind it, swift and silent.
Her quarterstaff struck like a falling star, the steel edge crashing against the ant's exposed carapace. A sharp crack echoed through the air as the blow reverberated down the creature's spine, forcing its limbs to lock mid-motion.
The escape was over.
It would not flee again.
That single moment—that perfect opening—was all Aiko needed.
She moved with the quiet grace of water cutting through stillness. Her katana flashed in a single arc, smooth and clean, as if the blade had been waiting for this exact motion.
The edge found the ant's neck with surgical precision, cleaving through shell, root, and fungus in one silent, decisive stroke.
The head fell.
No twitch. No sound.
Just finality.
Without a word, Aiko stepped back. Dimitri and Fiona followed, their movements practiced and sharp. All three retreated from the corpse in unison, never turning their backs, as if daring it to try and rise again.
It didn't.
But the others did.
The two Zombie Ants Noah had held at bay suddenly stopped their assault. Their bodies sank into the ground with alarming speed, claws tearing into the soil as they vanished beneath the battlefield like burrowing predators.
Noah's eyes narrowed.
"June, they're coming for you!"
June let out a long, tired sigh.
Before she could lift a foot, Dimitri had already moved, scooping her up like a sack of grain without so much as asking. She landed unceremoniously on his shoulder, arms folded, expression unamused as the ground behind them began to rumble.
"Stand on the shoulder of the giant Russian, they said. It'll be fun, they said."
She didn't sound impressed.
But the magic gathering at her fingertips said otherwise.
But something shifted.
The group braced themselves, all eyes on June—expecting another desperate charge, another interruption to her casting. But the earth trembled not beneath her, not near Dimitri's heavy steps or Fiona's steady stance.
It passed by them all.
The two remaining Zombie Ants tunneled not toward the frontline, but behind it. Fast. Purposeful. Straight for the weakest link.
Luis.
Noah's eyes sharpened in an instant. He saw the shift in tremors, the rhythm of the movement beneath the soil. It wasn't random. It was aimed. And it was too late to call for help.
He ran.
Luis was still tucked beneath a tree, hidden as best as a child could hide in a battlefield. His arms wrapped tight around his knees, his head low.
The ground beneath him cracked.
Mandibles burst out.
But Noah reached him first—just barely. He grabbed Luis by the arm and yanked, pulling him clear of the crumbling earth as one of the ants erupted from below.
Then it happened.
As Noah shoved Luis toward safety, another set of mandibles exploded from the ground behind him—fast, deliberate, and waiting. They snapped shut around the boy's outstretched hand.
Luis screamed.
"No—!"
Noah lunged, both hands locking around Luis's wrist, heels dragging through the dirt as he tried to hold him back. The ant was already retreating, burrowing down with terrifying strength. The force was relentless.
Before Noah could dig in, before anyone else could reach them—
Luis was ripped from his grasp, pulled beneath the ground in a blur of dirt and shrieking mandibles.
Gone.
In the span of a single breath, the earth cracked once more.
The two remaining Zombie Ants burst forth from the ground, no longer burrowing, no longer hiding.
They emerged right beside the decapitated corpse of their fallen kin—a body that still twitched, still pulsed with fungal life, slowly knitting itself back together.
But this time… they weren't attacking.
They were holding Luis.
Each had a leg curled protectively around the boy's small form, their mandibles raised like scythes, poised just inches from his neck.
He didn't move—frozen, wide-eyed, trembling in their grasp like a captured heartbeat.
June froze mid-chant, the swirling fire in her staff flickering and dimming. Her lips parted, but no words came. Only the sharp, stunned silence of disbelief.
Her jaw dropped.
Noah stepped forward, gaze locked on the grotesque tableau. His flintlocks remained at his sides, but his fingers were tight on the triggers, knuckles pale with restraint.
He stared at the creatures—at the message they now delivered without a sound.
"I see. So that's the game you're playing."