The Silent Mine (2/2)

And thus, they go further down the trail on the other side of the city, and they find the entrance to the mine without much issue.

Just judging from the lack of guards posted outside, it's already quite likely that the mine is just as empty as the Fox people city.

Having a bad feeling, Haalfrin turns to his platoon and says, "Keep the possessed weapons strapped on you, in case you all need to fly away. Me, Resburn, Faylin, and Jay will go into the mine and scout ahead. If we don't come back within an hour, then retreat! If there's something in there that can kill or stall me, then there's no way you can handle it."

The soldiers all nod in confirmation, and the stand watch with their swords drawn to cover the entrance while Haalfrin goes deeper in with his 3 comrades.

After going inside, Haalfrin's guess about the mine being empty is confirmed.

What's strange is that besides the lack of life found in the mine, all the mining equipment was left, as if the workers dropped them where they stood. There aren't any signs of anyone packing up and leaving either. Everyone just... disappeared.

Haalfrin frowns at this. "The death aura is strong here as well," he proclaims. This sets the other soldiers into even higher alert.

At long last, they get to the deepest part of the mine, where they find a lone woman sitting atop a rock. The woman appears to be completely naked, except for some strange black armor covering her hips, torso, throat, as well as her feet and hands. The armor doesn't appear to be made of metal; it's as if… the armor is a part of her body.

Of course, when Haalfrin tries talking to her, she doesn't answer back; she either doesn't know his language, or she feels like ignoring him.

Either way, Haalfrin doesn't have to actually question her, since he can tell that she's an enemy. She has thick killing intent on her, after all.

He draws his ax and releases some of his other stored up weapons in preparation for battle.

Seeing the humans draw their weapons, she just smiles at them and slowly stands up.

This girl had been told to wait here by her mother, since she had been told to see if any other meats came back. After all, in their days of hunting underground, they've all noticed that prey tends to come back to the same place after a while.

The woman points at the meats and thinks to her hidden comrades, "The extra food has arrived." Tch. Only this much meat. Hardly worth the wait.

Immediately, the dirt explodes beneath the humans, and strange creatures try to use the element of surprise to score a few easy kills. 3 of the humans are grabbed by their ankles before they can even do anything to dodge.

Haalfrin felt the ground shift earlier than everyone, and one of his sword wills immediately stabs beneath him, killing the creature below him with a gush of blood just as its claw wraps around his ankle.

Faylin immediately stabs downwards, and her stiletto jabs beneath a chink in the enemy's armor. Even if her blade is too short to do much damage, the poison on the tip of the blade finishes the job.

Jay simply jumps up with a levitation spell - too quick to be pulled beneath.

Resburn, however... Yeah. He was too slow.

Resburn is immediately pulled underground. Before anyone can even scream, Haalfrin immediately raises his hand, and the entire floor is ripped out of the earth, revealing a dozen tunnels, and a few large, people sized ants dragging Resburn further down the tunnels.

A dozen sword and spear Wills shoot down and barrage the kidnappers. With a gush of green blood, Resburn is free, and he stumbles back up to the surface. Once he flops frantically out of the way, Haalfrin gently puts the floor back down – covering the tunnels again.

The "woman" looks at Haalfrin with a horrified expression, and she immediately morphs into a slightly larger ant before attempting to flee on all 6 legs.

Haalfrin reaches out with his hand and holds the squirming creature in its place with a Telekinesis spell. Before he can do anything, the ant screeches in its own, telepathic language, "Don't waste your lives on this dragon slayer! We don't have enough numbers to kill it!"

Even after her sisters had found the large dwelling place of the meats and encountered powerful foes, she had never felt such dread from a prey before.

The Ant reinforcements just out of view hear the call, and they retreat silently – leaving their remaining comrade to her grizzly fate.

The remaining Ant then looks at Haalfrin resolutely before tearing her own limbs off and bleeding out.

She wouldn't want to be questioned, after all. Mother said that being questioned is bad.

Faylin walks up to the dismembered ant corpse and kicks it irately. "Ah! Ants!? REALLY!?" she mocks. "Why are bugs such a big deal?!"

Resburn shakes his head, "No. Ants are horrifying. I wanna get out of here!"

"No," Haalfrin says, "We need to check for more clues. All of you, stick with me in case there's another ambush.

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Since the battle is over now, Freyya immediately shows up with a box of cake – as usual. She then looks around in confusion and remarks, "Where are the souls?"

"What?" Haalfrin mumbles in between mouthfuls of cake.

"I felt Death aura, but nobody died here," she explains, "So there should be souls here."

"No...," Jay remarks, "We killed a couple Ant Rehkin, so there should be something."

Haalfrin only shakes his head at this. "No, I didn't get any Wills from the corpses. I don't know if these ants actually died."

Freyya sits there and concentrates for a minute before she exclaims, "Oh THOSE ants! Yeah, there was a battle a few days ago where the Ants showed up and wiped out a city. There weren't any ant souls there either. Odd."

The Crow goddess has another thought and gets embarrassed. "Ok," she speaks softly into his hears, "I pick of billions of souls all the time, so I can't be expected to remember every strange instance I come across." She shakes her head and continues, "My avatar for this world at the time snooped around and saw that all of the fallen ant souls were returning to their Queen. She was using a unique magic to revive them."

Haalfrin frowns at this, then turns to Jay and the others and confirms with them, "I just learned from Freyya that these ants are immortal. Their Queen can reincarnate them."

Hearing this, everyone else gets grim looks on their faces. This... could very well be a disaster.

Sensing the gravity if the situation, Haalfrin urgently reaches for his his Far Speak Medallion in order to contact Commander

After updating Commander Fisco on what he's learned during this trip, Fisco immediately tells them to tail the Ants and find the Queen. If he has the opportunity, he should kill her.

Haalfrin puts the medallion back in his bag, and he claps his hand. "You heard the Commander! We have our orders! So… where to begin?"

Jay suggests, "The ants are travelling underground, so we may need to go into their tunnels in order to find them?"

"No...," Haalfrin says, "That's too risky. It's far too easy to ambush us that way. Plus, they can easily change the direction of tunnels by digging or collapsing the ceiling, so following them all the way back is probably pointless anyway. I'll think of something else..."

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In the end, Haalfrin ends up going back to the city, and he sends his flying swords to look for the Foxman guide.

Haalfrin finds the man sitting on a broken wall with a blank expression on his eyes. When Haalfrin sets on the ground, he tells the Foxman about how he learned of the Ant army sweeping through the city from Freyya. The Ants had taken everything with the slightest nutritional value, including the corpses and the blood.

The Fox person must've already guessed that his people were dead, so he stands up and says, "I need to go to our guardian and convince him to avenge us."

"Your guardian?"

"He's a sleeping dragon," the lonely Foxman explains. "He's got 4 horns, so he should be able to handle it!"

"Ah," Haalfrin grins, "one of Fheldin's children. Yes, let's go meet him."

"Us?" the Foxman raises his eyebrow. "It's my Clan who was wiped out, and we're going to see MY guardian. Why would you offer to help?"

Haalfrin does a slight bow. "I was ordered by my commander to find out more about the Ants anyway. I was told to find a way to kill the Ant Queen, in case she's a threat to my people."

And so, Haalfrin and his entourage of floating soldiers fly along on Haalfrin's Wills. They make the long flight over the mountain… and they don't have to go much further than that before they find what they're looking for.

"Sir," Haalfrin says to the Foxman. "I see a large dragon in the distance. There's a lot of fires and explosions over there. I think your Guardian has already found the Ants."