Anthony, like Master Zoe, had learned to suppress his spiritual force to avoid alerting the ants colony. This of course left him open to surprise attacks like these two interlopers. Must have been very well back considering they could afford a Marine Mare scythe and Iron Bear claws. The Iron Bear was infamous for use by Earth Mages in the same way Water Mages used the Marine Mare for traditional weaponry. There was no sign of the third man, most likely he had been left behind, but the odds were still highly stacked against them. Jason stood completely frozen not wanting to make any sudden movements. For good reason, for with exception of Anthony’s dagger, nobody had any real weapons, merely tools for gathering fungus samples. Master Zoe greeted the strangers by twirling her blunt Orchialcum scalpel in her bony, but nimble fingers.

“Well, what kept you so long?” She laughed through her mask.

“Whoever you are, you are not authorized to be here.” Sir pointed her Iron Bear claw at her foes. “Surrender now, or we’ll have to forcibly remove you from these premises.”

“You sound very authoritative but don’t think these old ears don’t recognize the sound of the Boreas dogs.” She pointed her scalpel at her foes. “Besides, you’re not exactly here on the up and up yourselves.”

“If you know that much, you know we can’t let you leave here alive.”

“I assume you young pups are smart enough to know not to use mage craft in a myrrh ant colony. Unless you want the whole colony crashing down on this area?”

Before she could even answer, a swift strike of scythe came her way. Ms. Zoe hadn’t noticed it until another blade came to stop it. In his hands Anthony's dagger blocked the strike just in time, while Master Zoe stared into the eyes of her opponent. The scythe wielder Al, took no hesitation to quickly retaliate, with a barrage of vital attacks. Anthony was quick to counter them as he led her away from Master Zoe to face her one on one.

As Sir raised her claw to come down upon Master Zoe, she readied her scalpel in a defense stance ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Before she could, Jason came in wielding a set of large dagger-like objects in both hands. They were crudely fashioned and tied with bandages that had been brought along in case of injury. Yet, upon closer examination, Zoe realized that Jason had taken the mandibles of the Ant Queen and fashioned them into a set of broad daggers. With these daggers he held the Earth Mage’s bear claw a bay with all his might.

“What are you doing, kid?!” She pulled her scalpel back to avoid hitting Jason by chance.

“Saving your butt boss!” He managed to push her claw back only for a moment.

“I can handle myself.”

“Not with that leg of yours.” He knew that Master Zoe was strong but no not fast considering her wooden leg.

This was as much a test of speed as strength, and Jason used every once of his strength to push Sir back. The Iron Bear claw is strung but heavy and cumbersome, for each block he held against her, Sir was barely able to recover her balance.

“You can chew me out later for taking the mandibles.” Jason charged at Sir ready to strike, but defense was nigh impenetrable for his speed.

Master Zoe watched her two associates engaged in combat, one on defense against a scythe’s furious attacks and one on offense striking with his set of makeshift daggers. Unwilling to simply sit around and spectate, Master Zoe decided she had to come up with something fast before the tides turned against them. With her Orchialcum scalpel in hand she went back to the Queen Ant’s corpse hoping there was still one gift left for her to give.

Anthony was holding his own against the Al the scythe wielder, from the pattern of her attacks he could tell that she was no brawler, but more of trained assassin. Each strike aimed for vital and critical areas, the throat, the heart, the eyes, and any major artery. In the rush of combat he managed to predict her next likely target, and that would be his moment to strike.

Clank! The sound of crystal hitting bone echoed in the cave as Al watched her bone scythe fly through the air. In a battle without magic, Anthony’s hunting and military skills were invaluable in this fight. As Al recovered ready to fight with her fists if needed he suddenly heard a sound he didn’t anticipate.

Clank! Anthony heard the sound of metal crashing hard enough for him to turn his head. He caught sight of Sir knocking one makeshift mandible dagger out of Jason’s hand and reaching back again for the killing blow. Al was quick to take advantage of this momentary distraction lunging at him with her fist. If she had been a second faster she might have landed a clean shot across Anthony’s face and broken his mask. Yet, he narrowly managed to parry her punch, and capture her as his friend was left vulnerable.

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Crash! The sound of a rumbling Thunder technique of skilled Fire Mages echoed in the caves drawing everyone’s attention. Anthony, turned his head as Sir stopped her lunge in mid swing, inches from Jason’s heart. Jason had closed his eyes just moments before impact to see Sir’s shaking metal claw and her eyes fixated on Master Zoe’s with one hand held high in the air with her fingers crossed.

“Are you crazy old woman!?” Sir practically screamed through her masked face. “Didn’t you warn us the entire colony could come rushing in here?”

“That should be the least of your worries if you knew what I had in my other hand.” She lifted her other hand covered in translucent blood along with a strange unknown organ that she gripped tightly in her fist. “A pheromone gland of Queen Myrrh Ant, may not look like much but if this gland is broken, it’ll lure the entire colony in this direction in just a matter of seconds.”

“You’re bluffing granny.” She put down her claw and pointed it toward Zoe. “If you do that, we'll all die in this den and you included. You’d have to be crazy or incredibly stupid to do that.” She watched Master Zoe chuckle like a madwoman, a trait that Anthony had come to know very well when she had a crazy idea in store.

“I’ve been called worse.” She smirked as she crushed the sack in her hand and tossed it to the floor.

All seemed silent at first before the sound of scurrying and scratching began to rumble louder than the thunder they had previously heard. Anthony released Al from his grip looking at the organ’s invisible vapors flowing in the air. From her position, Al could see the organ’s fluid starting to vibrate to the sound of thousand footsteps scurrying through the tunnel.

Deep in the cavern mines a swarm of Myrrh Ants began to rush across the walls and floors of the cavern marching like a troop of crazed berserkers with compound eyes flashing with colors of rainbow in response to the call of their queen. The colony was on its way, with the threat of crashing mandibles and six sharp claws tearing through the dirt and rock. Back at the Myrrh Queen’s gravesite, there was only one thing left on everyone’s mind, to escape.

“Al, I’m locking it, you know what to do!” Sir nodded as Al quickly took a small spherical object from her protective suit and tossed it on the ground.

“Take cover!” Anthony knew exactly what that sphere was and he only had seconds to react as did everyone else.

An ice grenade was essentially a ball of water coat with a special Xiangorite coating. In the hands of 4th Circle Water Mage, a simple Avalanche Technique could turn into a deadly weapon of destruction. When the ice expanded inside the sphere, it broke the protective coating inside causing it to react to the metal, converting the dormant sphere into an exploding caltrop. Anthony, Zoe and Jason all jumped behind Queen Ant’s corpse hoping her hard shell would be enough to stop the upcoming assault.

Boom! The ice expanded into a spiked sphere as a swarm of long metal coated ice spray in every direction. Their spikes ricochet off the Queen’s incredibly tough shell, leaving behind clusters of blue spikes embedded in the cavern wall and floor. By the time it was safe to emerge they managed to catch a sign of the two mages escaping through the exit of the catacomb and Sir standing at its entrance.

“Enjoy eternity!” She reached her hands against the cavern walls and pulled.

By using Earth Magic to break the rocks and dirt from the walls and Forging them together she managed to create a solid wall of Earth between the only entrance. Now they were effectively trapped between a wall of rock and a swarm of myrrh ants swarming the tunnel.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Jason called as he rushed toward the wall of dirt and tried to break it apart with both his daggers.

He banged and slammed it like two shovles but it did little to move the solid and sturdy structure.

“Jason, calm down!” Master Zoe notices his hysterical expression beneath his gas mask.

“Have you ever seen a myrrh ant, boss!” He turned his head to look at her calm expression. “If the black ants don’t cut us to death, the white ants will maul us to pieces. Why the heck did you break the pheromone gland?”

“I have a theory.” She simply said.

“This is the devil of time to be testing it!”

The sound was getting closer, Anthony listened to the scurry of claw feet and powerful pincers scraping against the cavern walls. In times like this, Anthony did not intend to go down without a fight, but neither did he want anyone else. Anthony held his blade tightly, while Master Zoe began scrummaging around in her baggage.

“You might want to point those the other way.” Anthony’s words made Jason turn his daggers toward the swarm as his hands were shaking as steady as the floor.

“You look awfully calm for a dead man.” He scoffed before realizing that was all their fate. “We’re all dead, you know”

“Not yet!” Master Zoe picked up the Jar with the Ant Queen’s organ and core and held it up high.

She handed it over to a confused Anthony who wondered what Master Zoe had planned, but she simply said.

“If you don’t believe in miracles, kid, I’d start right about now.”