Chapter 16- Ants

"Wooh!"

Maxwell shouted at the top of his lungs as Arion flew at high speeds, but not high enough for him to feel nauseous. Orphelia held onto him from behind as they flew. She was enjoying the thrilling flight too.

Beasts below fled after sensing Arion's aura which he had no plans of retracting. The sun blazed in the sky, shining the tops of the colossal trees, which after close examination were Pine trees.

"There are a few groups of cultivators here. Someone must have spread rumors after noticing the abnormalities." Arion spoke above the wind.

"How strong are they?"

"There are Core Formation Cultivators. They seem like rogue cultivators that banded together."

Maxwell grinned widely, "Good I can try out my strength, they won't be strong with the level of their techniques."

Orphelia hit him on his head with her right hand, "You're only at the 3rd stage, they are a whole major stage ahead of you. Stop being cocky, you can test your strength against them, just don't take it too far."

"I know, I know. Arion can always swoop in if I can't handle it."

"I won't heal you if you get hurt, you can feel the consequences yourself."

"Fine, I won't get hurt badly."

"Arion, we need to land here, the area we put the formation is over here."

"Got it."

Arion dived down immediately, causing Orphelia to fall onto Maxwell, with her chest pressing on his back. He landed smoothly, his flapping wings lifting dust off the ground.

*Cough, Cough*

"What was that! You could've descended smoothly." Orphelia scolded Arion while coughing.

"This was the best way until unless you wanted your clothes caught in the branches."

He then spoke into Maxwell's head with his Divine Sense that he had formed when he broke through to stage 4.

"Don't forget to thank me, I helped you."

Maxwell sighed, alarming Orphelia.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. We best find the Earth Fire before other problems reach us."

They trudged through the dark forest, with Arion walking beside them. They illuminated their path with a small flame from Maxwell's hand.

"Ooh, what's that?" Orphelia asked while pointing at a small anthill that was glowing in the distance.

"That's lava?"

"We must have stumbled across a strong Earth Fire, at least rank 3."

"It won't be easy to get it, there's an anthill."

"Yes, we will have to fight the queen for it."

"This is where I come in." Arion proudly stated while flashing a toothy grin.

"Yes, it is. You keep the queen busy while Orphelia subdues the Earth Fire."

"You don't want it?" Orphelia looked at him, bewildered.

"We have to test out our theory, I'm fine without it anyways. I don't have any plans of becoming an Alchemist in the near future."

Maxwell jumped on the anthill, causing it to implode into a narrow tunnel.

"Of course, they have terribly narrow tunnels. Now I can't even use my spear properly."

Maxwell spoke in frustration after looking around at the small tunnels, the only thing he would be able to do would be piercing ants.

"It's alright, I'll take care of most of them, you can lead the way forward."

"What terrible mobility! My beautiful coat will get ruined."

Arion was forced to squeeze himself inside, he couldn't even turn around with his size. He was angry at the thought of his fur getting dirty and beckoned the two to hurry forward.

They reached a crossroad where the tunnels split into 5 others. The roots of the trees above were visible and some were glowing with Fire qi. Maxwell continued down the hottest tunnel.

They started to sweat the further they delved.

"There's enemies."

Maxwell filled his spear with qi and went ahead. They reached a cavern which contained an assortment of items. They didn't have enough time to look around as they were met with 5 giant and angry ants. They clicked their mandibles at them and attacked.

*Clang*

Maxwell tried to pierce through the head of one, but his spear was met with an extremely hard head that felt like metal. His spear was strong enough to leave a gash in the ant's head that did not penetrate its sturdy exoskeleton.

"They have excellent defenses. Get their legs and eyes."

Orphelia jumped forward and cut the legs of an ant in a swift blade motion. The ant shrieked in pain and tried to bite her with its sharp mandibles. She dodged the attack smoothly and stabbed the ant, straight through its head.

The three ants that were behind came after Orphelia, all enraged.

Orphelia used her Sword Intent and decapitated the 3 smoothly. Their heads rolled, spilling greenish blood. Meanwhile Maxwell had teleported to the head of the ant and pierced the ant through its head, impaling it to the ground. His blood red spear didn't seem to like the blood of the ant and didn't absorb a drop of it.

'It seems my spear has a distaste for ant blood.'

They collected various herbs stored in the cavern that seemed to be a food storage. They continued forward with Arion not interfering.

As they headed deeper the ants grew in strength and some even charged through the tunnel at them only to meet a quick end to a blow to their neck joints. They collected the better ant corpses and stored them in Spatial Rings. The exoskeleton could be sold as a material for a good amount of Mortal grade Spirit Stones.

They had already spent 4 hours in the tunnel and they had still not found the Earth Fire. The tunnels seemed to slowly descend in a circular manner. They had encountered numerous Storage rooms already and they looted it.

They stepped into a cavern that was much larger than the others they had encountered. It was filled with 50 ants with many being only at Level 1. There were 5 ants at level 2 and 1 at Level 3.

"Is this an ant academy? They have such weak and young ants here."

"Could be, I don't know how ants think."

The Level 3 ant scurried forward on detecting them. He immediately attacked, feeling they were dangerous. The Level 1 ants fled and the Level 2 ants joined the Level 3 ant to fight.

"Finally, a Level 3."

Maxwell released his suffocating Spear Intent. The ants cowered in fear after realizing how powerful he was. Weapon Intent could easily allow someone to kill a cultivator above their level if it was cultivated enough.

Maxwell made quick work of the 5 Level 2 ants. The level 3 ant got back to its senses and prepared itself to fight even if all its senses were telling it to flee. The ant felt like it was challenging a god.

"You're a courageous one. You still fight for the young ants. It's a pity that you aren't strong enough."

The Level 3 Ant died with a hole torn through its torso from a blow containing Spear Intent.

"Why did you do that? We lost so much of precious material."

"It's fine there will be more ahead."

They took a quick break and wiped away the sweat that drenched their clothes. Orphelia had protected her clothes, so they weren't soaked. They decided to leave the young ants alone.

After another 2 hours of traveling and fighting, they came upon 2 ants guarding a tunnel. Both were at the peak of Level 3. They didn't make any moves to attack them, but they blocked the entrance.

They seemed to be ready to sacrifice their lives to protect whatever lay behind them, which was obviously their queen.

"Move, I'll take care of these both." Arion walked forward and went up to the guards.

"You won't move, will you?"

He kicked one of the guards with his hooves in between its antennae. For a second nothing happened.

*Cr-ack*

Cracks spread through the exoskeleton before it shattered, killing the ant.

"How about you?" Arion addressed the other ant that shivered in fear, its mandibles shaking. It desired to flee but its duty held it in place.

Arion crushed its head on the ground by stepping on it, smearing blood all over the ground.

"How was that? Was I cool?"

Arion asked the two of them who were watching.

"Nice, you're very strong. To crush them instantly with pure strength."

"Of course, I'm no ordinary Level 5 beast. I was feared in this forest."

"Okay, let's now head inside. It's time to face the queen and tame the Earth Fire."

They had formed barriers made of qi to protect themselves from the heat. It would have burned them if they hadn't protected themselves.

They headed through the tunnel and ended up in a colossal cavern that was a hundred meters high. It was filled with eggs, many about to mature and the others recently laid. In the center was a colossal ant. It was 20 meters long and had very sharp Mandibles that looked like they could cut through the hard rock they were surrounded in with a touch. It was at Level 5, so its exoskeleton would be extremely tough. Around the queen were 4 ants, a fourth her size. They were at Level 4.

The queen chittered loudly, shaking the cavern "Who are you? Why do you kill my children and interrupt my cultivation?"

The queen was furious and sad at the same time.

"We have come here to take the Earth Fire."

Arion spoke equally loudly while defending Maxwell and Orphelia from the wave of Qi.

"Leave, I will not give the core of my home to someone who has massacred my children."

"Make us." Arion dared the queen.

"Go my guards, kill the two humans. I'll take care of this arrogant horse."

"Say, Max. Could you hold off the four of them?"

"Hmm, I probably can if I try to. You go tame the Earth Fire."

'I can go all out for 10 minutes. If I didn't have this spear, I wouldn't have been able to do this.'

"You get 10 minutes Orphelia. My body can't last longer than that."

"Okay."