The Demon King's Hero Of Light 51 Chapter 51 Ants

Aella peered over the ridge at the unfolding scene before her. Alfred, Josephine and Curt lay beside her, watching as well. At the base of the hill, behind them, their horses grazed, taking advantage of the break. They had ridden for several hours, before the screams drew their attention.

"Are those…ants?!" whispered Curt in disbelief.

"Yep," confirmed Alfred.

"But they're so big!" whispered Josephine.

"Their necks look like a good weak spot to aim for," whispered Aella, squinting as she looked over their bodies from this distance.

The ants appeared to be normal ants, just the size of ponies. The town below them had been decimated, with the people being cut into pieces and carted off by the worker ants, after the soldier ants killed them. A small group of people had barricaded themselves in the st.u.r.diest building, the jail, but it was obvious it wouldn't take the ants long to break into it.

"Can you teleport us down there?" asked Josephine, frowning at the distance. "You and Alfred will be done with them by the time we try and run down there."

"I've never tried teleporting with two people before, but I can try?" said Aella, backing up so she could stand without being seen by the sentries.

"If not, you can make multiple trips," said Alfred, pausing to look at them, before nodding and disappearing.

Aella grabbed both Josephine and Curt, each with a different arm, and lifted them, but was straining so hard to hold them, she couldn't get a good picture in her head of where to teleport.

"Multiple jumps it is," she said, putting Curt down and jumping with Josephine. The woman paused a moment to get her bearings before blasting one of the ants that went to attack them, with a burst of water. Jumping back, she grabbed Curt before he could react, and jumped to a different area, a little further away from the ants, so he could draw his sword before he was swarmed. Then she drew her sword and jumped to the back of an ant.

Swinging at its neck, she was disappointed to find it was a lot harder to cut through, then she thought it would be. Her sword still sliced all the way through, but it slowed her down enough she couldn't immediately attack the next ant beside her.

The carapace of the ants was hard enough her sword skittered along the top of it, rather than slicing through, unless she caught a joint, or the neck. After a few of the ants, Aella got a rhythm going, and was killing them left and right. A pile of ant parts grew around her, keeping her moving around so she didn't get buried.

"I found the entrance to the tunnel that leads to their nest," said Alfred, appearing beside her as she cut down the last ant in this group.

"They've probably alerted the others to our attack, so we don't have much time," she said, glancing around until she spied Josephine and Curt, also surrounded by dead ants. Curt had climbed up the remains of a wall, so he didn't get overrun.

"We won't be able to stop killing them until we kill their queen," said Alfred, waving at the other two to join them.

"Their queen?" asked Aella, wiping her sword off and sheathing it.

"The ants have a queen that controls their hive. As long as she's alive, they will grow and multiply like a plague, eating everything living for miles around. Kill her, and they will become mindless, until the next queen hatches."

"That means we'll need to kill all the eggs and babies, too," said Aella, following him as he led them all to the gaping hole under the edge of what must have been a chicken coop. There were feathers everywhere, and one chicken was hiding in the roof of the coop.

She stood there staring at it for the longest time, until Josephine reached them and asked if she was okay.

"One second, I have a friend who loves chickens," said Aella, not quite believing she was doing this. Jumping up and catching the chicken's leg, she pulled it down. It squawked and flapped its wings as if it expected her to kill it any second. The others watched in amazement as she teleported away with the chicken tucked under her arm.

Making sure she appeared on the other side of the room from the chicken that was sleeping on top of the mimic, Aella gently set the new chicken down. It clucked in annoyance, waking the other chicken and the mimic. She didn't wait to see what happened, and teleported back to the others. If the mimic named this one, she would find out later what.

"Ready?" asked Alfred, amused, when she appeared back where she had been.

"Yep," she replied with a smile.

"Does your friend like them to eat?" asked Curt, hesitantly.

"Nope, he named the last one I gave him, Henrietta."

Curt nodded, not quite knowing what to say, and they all jumped down into the hole before them. The bottom was muck from the chicken coop, and it stunk horribly. Josephine quickly used her water abilities to clean off the stench and muck, before they began heading down the tunnel.

"Aella, it's going to get dark really fast. Robert knew how to make his hand glow with flame so we could see in the dark. Do you think you could?" asked Alfred.

She nodded, holding up her hand and thinking about what she wanted. The fire was hesitant at first, to manifest, but she had the air around her hand start circulating, and the fire quickly responded. Her hand looked like a swirling ball of fire as she held it up for everyone to see.

"That's so much prettier than what Robert had done," said Josephine.

"It's probably because she has air as well," guessed Alfred.

The tunnel was extensive and went for a long way, before it began to dip lower. The skittering of the approaching horde was their only warning. The tunnel opened up and the four found themselves facing thousands of the ants, who were on their way to the village.

"We can't let them through!" cried Alfred, pulling his sword out of its sheath. Everyone else followed suit. "Aella, we need the light to be able to see! Guard the tunnel with Curt, while we fight them!"

"No way! You're the Hero of Light! You stand here and make the light!" she responded in outrage.

Alfred paused in shock, as it never occurred to him that someone would tell him no. Then it dawned on him what she had said and he glanced back at the ants Josephine was already fighting. With a nod, he held out his hand, and suddenly the area was so brightly lit, you couldn't tell it was underground.

Extinguis.h.i.+ng her flames, Aella grinned as she took a running leap at her first ant. She quickly lost count as the monotony of killing them set in. It seemed that no matter how many she killed, there were always more to take their place, but she didn't stop. Hours pa.s.sed as she dodged and weaved their crus.h.i.+ng mandibles and waving antennae, sweat dripped down her body and her breathing was ragged. Killing the ant before her, she quickly danced to the side and swung around to face the next, and was surprised to see everyone looking at her.

"That was the last one," said Curt, dumbfounded. "You were amazing!"

"I got tired just watching you," said Josephine.

"Weren't the rest of you fighting too?" asked Aella, confused as she fought to catch her breath. She had never fought that long before.

"They seemed to think you were the bigger threat, and ignored us," said Alfred, his hand still s.h.i.+ning brightly. "The tunnel they were coming from is over there, we should hurry, it's been almost five hours since we came down here. It's probably dark outside by now."

"Has it really been that long?" asked Curt.

"Yes, and we still have about 6 days of hard riding to get to the training fields, once we're done here," said Alfred.

"a.s.suming we don't find other monsters," said Josephine, heading for the other tunnel.

"I have obligations I must attend to each evening," said Aella, glancing at Alfred.

"Can they wait until we're done here?" he asked.

She looked around at the pile of ants that littered the area. "If this is the bulk of the hive, then it can. If you think we're going to encounter another swarm like this, it can't."

"How long will it take?" he asked.

She thought about that seriously. "Maybe a couple of hours?"

"Then we will rest here until you return."

With a nod, Aella teleported to her bedroom. Firion was laying on the bed, balancing a dagger on the tip of one finger, then flicking it to the next. The boy was nowhere to be seen.

"Ready to report?" she asked, as her sweat dried and her hair was quickly blow dried.

"I started leaving a gash on their cheeks as you asked, and then killed the few people who were trying to copy me."

"What about the a.s.sa.s.sins?"

"I think the one who is pulling the strings may be hiding among them. I caught several sneaking around, but didn't kill them, as I thought you would like to know."

"Really? Let's go see them," she said with a grin.
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