The soldier ants started swarming towards Suzaku. Their speed was at least double that of the worker ants he was fighting earlier. And for the first time since the start of the battle, Suzaku was on a defensive.

Suzaku started darting around the cavern. Each time he landed on the cavern floor, he claimed four to five lives of ants. This strategy seemed effective at first, but the ants were able to adapt after a few strikes from Suzaku.

“Grrrrr…we need to have a stronger, at least three times, mana output on our spears to cut of the heads of these soldier ants”

<“That is because of their thicker carapace… their nape is still their weak spot though…”>

“When will this end?!”

<“Just continue to move around, kill any ant that comes close…”>

Magnus started to assume the role of strategist for the fight. He calculated that the soldier ants were indeed far stronger but their numbers were fewer as well. They only seemed endless since there was barely any gap in between each ant as they move around. This illusion was because of its size.

<“Hey Suzaku! Let us try this out, create a small ball of fire on our palm, and then throw it full force to the soldier ants”>

“I thought we don’t want to be buried underneath a collapsed cavern?”

<“Control the output of mana… just enough for a small explosion with a radius of at least a few meters. We will adjust from there…”>

Suzaku followed the idea of Magnus and created a small fireball on his left palm. He then leaped backward from where he was to get a better line of sight. The force from leaping brought him at least ten meters up on the air. He then saw a group of soldier ants rushing to where he was standing. He threw the fireball towards that direction when it landed, a controlled explosion occurred.

The ants caught in the explosion were roasted almost at the moment of impact. Though the attack did not contain much mana, Suzaku modified its composition to have a very high temperature. Because of this, even though the resulting blast was not as visually appealing compared to the flame shockwave, it was still able to decimate more than twenty ants at once.

<“Good, add a little more mana… Let us use this attack instead of the flame spear… let us use their formation against them…”>

“This attack uses less mana than the flame spear, but we can’t keep this up for long…”

Suzaku had a point; that was what Magnus was thinking as he surveyed the surroundings. He observed each fireball is thrown and the resulting explosions. He instructed Suzaku to avoid hitting the walls as much as possible to prevent caving.

With each attack, more and more ants were being killed. But still, their numbers are ever-increasing. The cavern was now filled with worker and soldier ants. Even the ants from the surface started crawling back inside. This was when Magnus noticed that the ants can only dig on softer grounds. No ants were crawling from under the cavern floor that seemed to be as hard as bedrock.

Magnus observed where the ants were coming from. Then he noticed five or six tunnels that seemed to connect this cavern to a floor below.

<“Suzaku! Blow those tunnels up… just leave one intact”>

“Ha! Seems you figured something out!... Leave it to me, Magnus!”

Suzaku started to make his way to the first tunnel. Then he saw that it was indeed a way for the ants to bolster their numbers. He used a fireball to blow the tunnel. The ants inside were burned and due to the contained space, the explosion destroyed the tunnel walls resulting in a cave in. Some ants that were not reached by the blast further inside the tunnel were killed by the collapsing rocks instead.

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When he saw the result, Suzaku immediately realized the idea of Magnus. Sealing off the tunnels will limit the reinforcements of the ants inside the cavern. This will also effectively cut off their escape path should they decide to retreat to what seemed to be a floor below. And if Suzaku leaves only one tunnel intact, he can concentrate his efforts in that area to immediately kill off any ant that may come up from below. He was confident he can do this while exterminating the rest of the ants that were already inside the cavern.

Suzaku continued to blast inside the other tunnels. With each tunnel collapsing, the reinforcing ants also gradually lessened. Suzaku also chose to close off the larger tunnels first. These tunnels were the ones used by the soldier ants due to their size. And since the flow of enemies seemed to be under control, Suzaku started to get the upper hand of the fight.

While Suzaku was following the strategy, Magnus was deep in thought. He was able to afford to take his attention away from the fight since his partner controlled the situation. He was thinking that this might not be the last battle where they will be forced to face several opponents at the same time. He needed to think of a counter to prevent the same scenario to ensue again in the future. They could not afford to fight against an army especially with the possibility of having one or two fighters as strong as them joining the ranks of the enemy. Something must be done. Otherwise, this second chance of life will be a short one.

Suzaku finally sealed off the tunnels except one. He stationed himself near the opening of this tunnel, following the strategy that was mapped out for him. Suzaku was thinking that it was a good thing that someone else was doing the strategy for him. He can fight, but he admitted to himself that strategy-wise, he sucked. He was certain that he lost ten thousand years ago because he did not follow any strategy at all. He just kept on charging against his opponents, certain that he can overwhelm them with sheer strength.

The tunnel that was left intact can only allow one ant to pass through at a time. In a sense, the ants would be in a line inside the tunnel, making them easy to kill by simply using a finger beam to attack. This was what Suzaku did occasionally. Doing so temporarily blocked off the passage, forcing the ants to pull their dead away from inside the tunnel.

Suzaku used the time the tunnel was blocked off by dead ants for him to focus on the monsters already in the cavern. There were only a few dozen soldier ants left and around more than a hundred worker ants. A few fireballs took out the remaining ants after a few moments. And for the first time since the fight started, Suzaku finally had a breather.

“What next Magnus?”

<“We go down… we find the queen… then kill it…”>

Suzaku took a deep breath and readied himself. The ants were almost done in clearing the dead that was blocking the tunnel. He waited until the last monster carcass was taken away when he rushed towards the entrance of the tunnel and release a flame blast from his right palm. He controlled the strength of the attack to preserve the structure of the tunnel he was in, but due to the size of the passage, Suzaku was forced to crawl on all fours as he made his way down to the next floor of the colony.

When Suzaku reached the end of the tunnel, he jumped down and blasted off the ants from where he landed. It took him at last ten seconds before he reached the floor. This was proof that thus the cavern floor was larger than the previous area.

“Tsk?! This floor should be around twice as big as the last one…”

<“This means this can accommodate twice as many ants…”>

No light reached this area. The only illumination it was receiving at that moment was the thin film of crimson aura that was surrounding Suzaku. This prevented Magnus to fully survey the entire floor. Luckily, the ants seemed to be holding off their next attack. Magnus felt as if something was telling these monsters to adjust their approach. Swarming Suzaku was simply not working.

<“Suzaku, shoot one fireball to the air… let us use it like flare…”>

A fireball was then shot from Suzaku’s palm. The explosion lighted the area, revealing what was inside the cavern. Magnus, despite having only a few seconds of light, clearly saw the fighting force of the enemy.

The ants this time had the soldier ants surrounding Suzaku, forming a circle a few meters from him. This time though, they seemed to be not cramped together, clearly having a meter or two between each ant. There should be at least one hundred soldier ants in this vanguard.

Worker ants still made up the bulk of this force. They were scattered into groups behind the soldier ants. They should number around five hundred or so. The distance between each ant was also apparent. It would seem that these monsters learned from what happened on the previous floor. The explosions will most likely still kill them off, but this time its area of effect will only include at most ten ants. This effectively cut the potency of the fireballs down to half its former potency.

Magnus could not help but to click his tongue in his mind. His opponent was intelligent. And it would seem that it could observe and learn from each fight. He needed to adjust his strategy once more. Plus, he must formulate multiple stratagems to prepare for the next floors as well. This was frustrating since he did not know how many floors this colony had. He lost against the ants in terms of intelligence gathering.

The clear difference of the ants’ approach though was only worsened by what Magnus saw along with the changes he noticed. The ants added another type of unit into their ranks on this floor. These were around as big as the worker ants. But these are variance with wings. The new monsters can fly.

The safe space created by leaping and jumping around the battlefield was taken away by just introducing these new enemies. To make things worse, there seemed to be around two hundred of the winged ants, at least the ones Magnus saw. Add to this the possibility of reinforcements from the next floor; this battle is turning into a nightmare.

<“Hey Suzaku! Want to give up?”>

“Hah! You wish… we can take them…”

<“You are not saying that due to pride right?”>

“No… I am just confident we can win this fight…”

Magnus hesitated at first, but the voice of Suzaku renewed his determination. They were outnumbered and outmaneuvered. But they still have one distinct advantage against their opponent. That advantage was their overwhelming power and a clear difference in strength. They must make use of this to secure victory.

Magnus took a deep breath in his mind…

<“ Suzaku! Let’s end this!”>