Eventually, everyone on that side of the zoo met up and they did two more sweeps of the entire area together. Itsy still had a Crocigator with her, using it as a weapon to beat up any creatures they found. Once they were satisfied that they’d found all the monsters they were going to, they returned to the entrance. They found Drim waiting, beating them back even though he’d been alone, a slew of dead ants at his feet.
“So did you guys find a bunch of Fungants too?” Kada asked them when everyone arrived. “Oh, that's what we’ve started calling them by the way. Get it, fungus ants? It’s perfect.”
“There’s no we in that,” Drim scowled at the name. “But yes, I’m guessing they were in all the animals on that side too?”
“Yessiree,” Itsy pulled a handful of them out of her pocket that she’d collected on the way, dumping them with the rest.
“That confirms it then. Ahvra was right,” Drim pulled out his phone and promptly called her. “Hey Ahvra- yup- yes- you were right- yup- so if we— mhmm, yes- how sure are you- You said 85? Good enough I guess- Okay, we’ll see you in a bit- say again- yes, I’ll get you more caffeine. Bye.”
Once he’d hung up, Drim clued in the group. “Okay so, Ahvra has confirmed that these are in fact monsters, but not the usual scenario. Instead of merging with another monster, they combined with a type of fungus.”
“See, I told you that Fungants was the perfect name!” Kada eagerly interjected.
“Fine, sure, whatever. I don’t care at this point,” Drim relented and moved on. “The fungus they merged with is apparently a very rare species that can take over the bodies of the dead and control them to an extent. Coupled with the mobility of the ants, they can take over the brain more directly and even use it to control the living.”
“This is where it gets tricky. From Ahvra’s best guess, this new species is most likely all one organism. Each ant we found is just another extension of the fungus as a whole. There’s probably a main queen Fungant-”
“He did it, he said the thing!” Kada cheered to herself.
“-and if we kill her, it should kill the rest. The idea is that they all need a host to feed off of. Normally, they feed off the main fungus or queen, and get their energy to survive. But when they’re controlling a monster, they’re feeding off their brains. So when we kill the monster, they die if they don’t make it back to the colony right away. They’ve probably been attacking villages to get sustenance for the hosts they’ve been controlling. The Fungants wouldn’t want to lose their own meals.”
“While killing the queen should do it, it’s probably best just to wipe out the whole colony. These things are nasty and could become a real problem if they ever spread. I hate the idea since they’re just trying to survive, but we should wipe these things off Rathe if we have the chance. Like any other ant colony, there’s probably countless tunnels with the queen in a deep burrow.”
“Hmm, maybe have Kada here melt the entire area. Drown them out.” Nachi suggested.
“Not a bad idea,” Drim agreed, “but we need to see the queen die with our own eyes. We don’t know how deep this goes, so we can’t rely on them drowning if we can’t confirm it. Still, that’s on the right track. I think we just need to change it a bit. I’m thinking a team up between Kada and Niloy should get the job done.” Kada cheered again while Niloy groaned.
Everyone but Kada and Niloy retreated to their earlier vantage point: a giant tree Drim had made so everyone could hide up high. Jaid had been asked to keep her railgun at the ready in case things went awry. Even Drim had his bow drawn with an arrow trained at the center of the zoo.
Niloy was very reluctantly clinging onto Kada as they slipped down into a puddle about waist deep. This was so she wouldn’t be swept away in the coming current. The world in front of them started to melt away, sinking into the now liquid ground. Kada didn’t stop until everything was swallowed by the new massive lake. Once the last bit of the tallest building vanished, everything started to spin.
The muddy water of the lake started to swirl around and around until it turned into a giant whirlpool. At first, the water still remained completely level as the sound of crushing destruction echoed beneath it, the buildings and habitats being broken and blended.
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Then, the waves came. Out from the whirlpool, wave after wave flooded the surrounding area. Kada and Niloy bobbed up and down in the liquid dirt as the waves passed beneath them. The center of the whirlpool started to lower as the water was drained out.
Once it made it far enough from the zoo, the water started to resolidify. This created a ring of dirt around the area that was building higher and higher as the waves crested the existing hill and solidified even more. Kada and Niloy went up with it, making sure that they stayed at the highest point.
Eventually, the entire zoo was gone, carved out into a giant bowl. The area around it had become a perfectly circular hill around the new crater. In an ironic twist of fate, it looked like a giant ant hill. And at the very center of that ant hill were the Fungants that had been spun into a giant clump, forced out of the ground.
It looked like most of the Fungants had died already, killed by the force of the torrent or drowned by the dirt. Being crawled all over by those that remained was the queen. She was huge—well huge for an ant—about the size of a small dog. Growing out of her abdomen was an equally large fungus with smokey dust sporing out of it in every direction.
Most of the smaller Fungants were running around on top of the fungus in a panic, not wanting to be separated from their source of life. Since the others were too small to be useful in this situation, the queen started to dig into the ground, wanting to get back to safety as soon as possible.
The Fiends needed to take action quickly, or they’d just have to repeat the process of digging up the Fungant. “Gahh, too tired,” Kada flumped onto the dirt at the top of the hill. “You got this, Nini!” she gave a weak thumbs up before feigning sleep.
Niloy groaned again and increased the pressure on her biggest water gun. The spray went wild at first, her arms flying every which way from the recoil. But, she eventually got it under control and then pelted the queen Fungant with a surging stream. Now sufficiently doused, Niloy activated her Curse. The Fungant started to writhe in pain more and more, skittering back and forth inside the bowl until it slumped down dead, melting out of existence.
The imminent threat was gone, but there was still something they wanted to try—a bit of extra-credit cleanup. They hadn’t tried this as the first resort since the two women had never actually tested if their Curses worked together. With her last bit of strength, Kada melted the thinnest layer possible of dirt at the surface of the bowl. Niloy then dipped in a finger.
The entire bowl became a pit of melting acid. All the remaining Fungants, along with some debris that had surfaced, started melting away into the dirt. “Oh, so you didn’t have the energy to attack with me but you had enough to make a dirt blanket for yourself, huh?!” Niloy started kicking at the dirt Kada had embedded herself in. The dirt-tailed mermaid remained unflinching, as if she had really fallen asleep this time.
“Alright, good job everybody,” Nachi gave the same post-mission spiel Jaid had already heard in Tooshifont once everyone joined back up.
“I have a question about the billing,” Gatrim inquired when Nachi was done. “This was so far and above the scope of work. How do we handle the payment with the client in this case?”
“Hmm, a good question,” Drim started, but Gatrim seemed to pay little attention—too proud of himself for asking a good question. “It’s really up to whoever accepted the request. In this case, the information they provided was accurate. They just didn’t know the full scope. So, it’s hard to ask for more than what they budgeted for. However, I will let them know the full situation of what transpired, and if they want to add more for our services, that’s their choice.”
“That said, you should also be wary of the flipside. We completely changed the landscape of this area which we don’t know the owners of. The land for the zoo could have belonged to the government, or it could still be owned privately. They could try to demand a reduction in reward or even remuneration. I’ll handle the turn-in this time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone along the line tries to weasel out of paying.”
“But don’t let them. Regardless of whatever behind-the-scenes problems they have, ultimately, it’s not your problem. Those Fungants had to die for everyone’s sake, whether they accept it or not. We did the right thing here today, of that I have no doubt. I ran into issues like that a lot as a monster hunter. And while I hate to resort to it, even the slightest show of intimidation would shut them up. Honestly, I’d usually just stare at them for a few seconds without blinking.”
“In the end, you’re getting your salaries, so the client payout isn’t really all that important. But everyone has their own beliefs on the matter, so do what you will. We don’t want to be taken advantage of, but also please try to not ruin the reputation of the organization. If that’s all, then everyone is dismissed.”
Somehow, Jaid ended up driving Kada’s car back to the compound with a passed-out Kada and Ahvra in tow. During the drive, a few of Jaid’s childlike clones spawned on their own and braided the two girls’ hair while they slept. Jaid couldn’t even find it in her to be mad. She was more relieved that the chaotic beginning of this mission should now be over, and hopefully she could finally settle in as a regular member and a forever uncaught spy.