Turning Ants into Cheese

Myra and Aaron quickly cleared the attacking group of ant soldiers. They might be tough for regular troops, but the intruders this time were simply out of their league and the insect creatures had no choice but to retreat after several of them ended up dead.

When Myra completed setting up the array, she then started gathering all kinds of materials from those ants. They seemed to have chitinous shells and their sizes varied from that of a large dog to that of a horse. Not your typical ant sizes you might have in your garden.

They also seemed to have some acidic substance that would likely help them attack or dig tunnels. Myra took a little bit of everything, including their meat and would inspect it later when they had returned.

Maybe the question if these ants are edible would soon be solved.

After a full day of work they had covered quite a bit of land.

"Aaron, lets end it for today, this takes rather long and we will need several more days anyways, so might as well go back home."

"Sure, let's return to the city. We can ask Alyn and Liam if they want to join us. We can bring them back out here tomorrow."

"Mhm, sure. We haven't been going out for dinner for a while now."

They made their way back to their outpost and just wanted to call Rae, Alyn and Liam to return to the city, when they could suddenly feel the ground tremble.

"It looks like our dinner will get delayed." Myra said, before alarming their friends of an impending attack.

-

There were thousands and thousands of them crawling over the ground and making the earth tremble. No spot seemed to be left without some ant crawling over it.

"They must have come in from the side where the array is not completed yet." Myra pointed out and even she was quite impressed by the sheer amount of ants that were coming their way.

"Can we hold them off?" – "I think so. Maybe?" – "Well that sounds really reassuring."

"Stella, I think I could use some help this time." Myra called her spirit and soon her polearm appeared in her hand. "We are going to mow some ant grass today."

With her spirit weapon in hand, Myra prepared herself for the onslaught of beasts.

"Nock!" she could hear Alyn command the group of Celestial Archers behind her. Myra had never seen them in a fight and was curious how strong her gear and the tips and tricks she taught Alyn would make them.

"Draw!" The flood of ants came ever closer but were still miles away. For any normal archer, shooting something this far away would be really hard if not impossible, but with a group of magic archers, distances changed completely.

The draw weight of their bows alone was measured in tons and no longer in pounds. If you wanted to shoot at something with the strength of a magical beast, you needed enough power and punch through to actually deal damage. A normal bow just wouldn't be enough.

The arrows were made out of magical power and there would not be such a thing as a Celestial Archer without enough arrows. They might run out of magic power, get exhausted, but even with constant shooting it would likely take them half a day at least before they would get tired or run dry.

"Loose!" The over 70 archers released their arrows, arrows that quickly split and multiplied. The 70 arrows that were released, turned into nearly 700, looking like a rain.

Myra was happy with this feature of the bows. They could use a split arrow effect against larger groups, they could use a siege effect to be good against walls and structures.

There was also a mode designed for single targets that caused their arrows to increase their precision and it would make them able to control the flight direction of their arrows slightly.

"It seems rather effective." Aaron commented as the rain of arrows thinned out large groups of ants.

"The swarm of ants now looks like cheese with many holes." Myra agreed, before she got into position in front of the outpost.

"Aaron, clean up anything that gets past us!" Myra shouted before she was already charging at the ants.

"Us?" It took Aaron a moment before he realized who Myra was talking about. "Oh, Stella, I always forget that spirit of hers."

Swinging her polearm wildy, Myra did not bother about keeping the energy of her slashes restricted to a close range. Each swing and cut through the air, would release magic power in the form of a blade, slicing through dozens of meters worth of ants.

Myra made her way through the ants like a scythe through high grass, quickly decimating them. They tried to flood her, but no matter the numbers, they were not able to even get close. They tried to get behind her, but with the polearm covering all directions, the results were the same.

The few ants who made it past her, were picked up quickly by Aaron, with his blade cutting them in half.

With the largest groups cleared, the archers also switched to single target arrows.

"Spread out and give them cover!" Alyn shouted and did what she just told the others, the group could soon be found more spread out, giving them many different ways to help Myra and Aaron deal with the remaining ants.

Finally it was over. The last ant died under Myra's attack and the small group was victorious.

"Phew, that was close. Just imagine they had overrun the outpost and destroyed all the materials!" Aaron said, happy that they avoided all the trouble.

"You mean, no one told you?" Myra asked him. "Told me what?"

"Just that we have an emergency shield that would have held them off for at least one or two days." Myra said as if it was obvious.

"Do you really think I would leave all these resources with just a hundred people to defend, when we already know that there are thousands or ten thousands of aggressive ants close by?"

"Well, now that you put it like that, if you didn't mention it now I would definitely have thought so yes."

"Mommy! You were amazing!" Rae quickly ran over to them. She watched the battle from the safety of the outpost with Liam, who remained there in case the shield needed to be activated.

"Thanks darling. How about we return to the city and go out for dinner?"

"Yes, I like going out for dinner!" Rae seemed excited. Usually Myra and Aaron would take them to various placed to taste new delicacies.

Restaurants, little food stalls, they wouldn't make any distinction in status or think about what would be appropriate for nobility as long as the food tasted good.

"How about you, Alyn, Liam, will you join us as well?"

"Well" Alyn looked at Liam and their troop and back. "I feel a little bit guilty to leave our group of archers here while we go enjoy some good food in the city. It just doesn't feel right."

Myra laughed at the unexpected answer. "We could take them with us if they want. They would have to find their own place to sleep though like an inn, I don't plan on inviting them over at home."

"We have several rooms, but not enough to house 70 or more people, if we include the servants and other workers."

Aaron worried a little bit about it. "Can you move so many people at the same time?"

Myra nodded. "If you help with it, it should not be an issue. I haven't been using a lot of power over the last weeks. Just don't expect this often."

They quickly gathered all the people who wanted to visit the city, which was basically all of them, except for a few unlucky people who had to guard the place in case of another attack and then transferred them to the capital. They went there in normal clothes, not showing their armor or gear openly.

This time it was obviously more of a drain on both Aaron and Myra, especially after they had already fought the ants and they took a minute to sit down and get a little bit of magic power back.

"Where are we going to eat this time?" Myra asked the question to the group. With so many people around, many places came up, but the place they decided to head to in the end, was a little restaurant at the edge of the city, with a large garden.

"We can sit outside on the benches there, should be enough room for everyone." Liam said and everyone quickly agreed. It was way better than some overcrowded place in the middle of the city.

Compared to the freezing temperatures of the outpost. The mild air in the capital was really a drastic change. Soon the group of people was sitting at the restaurant, with the owner a little overwhelmed, but nonetheless happy to receive them.

For Myra and Aaron, it was just another fight, they were never really scared that anything would happen to them, but for these soldiers it was different. Even though they could fly, they were not as strong or invincible as Myra and they were happy to have survived without even anyone getting hurt.

Dinner was good, the variety of dishes that were served were hearty and filling, not to mention they tasted rather good and the ale was flowing.

Myra and Aaron left a bit earlier with Rae, after they paid for all the food and drinks, which made the soldiers even happier.

"We will go back tomorrow after breakfast, just meet in the courtyard when you're ready. There are still many areas where we have to place down formations, to prevent another attack."

Finally back home, Myra first put Rae to bed, as the little girl was already half asleep in her arms. It did not take any bedtime story today, as the girl was quickly asleep on her own.

Once done, she quickly used a cleaning spell found some cozy pajamas of her own and then relaxed in bed with a nice book to read.

Aaron soon joined her and as he had brought no book of his own, he used that as an excuse to join reading hers. Obviously this included him getting closer and closer and after a few pages, she was basically sitting in his lap.

It got to the point where Myra was really distracted and just put the book away, to cuddle up to him.

"There, are you happy now?" – "Yes, definitely happy."

Aaron wondered if this would end in something more than just hugs today, but was quickly disappointed by Myra's next words.

"Well, now that I have no book, you have to tell me a bedtime story!" Myra declared and the stunned expression on Aaron's face was really adorable in Myra's eyes.

When his story was complete and Myra was finally sleeping, Aaron really wondered if he shouldn't let her read her books a little bit more next time. Sighing, he pulled the blanket over her shoulders and hugged her closely before he also fell asleep.