Drake didn't have to decipher what the soldier meant this time, before he could ask the man to clarify a giant ant came into view, it had strange markings carved into its dark exoskeleton. The soldier who had just spoken said "elite ant ahead" to those around him.
They formed a shield wall and marched forward with their weapons at the ready, a man inside the group was looking around and saw Drakes confusion, he told Drake "see the markings on the shell on that one, that means its a leader one, the smaller ones follow that one and ambush us through the holes in the cave floor and roof".
Now Drake understood why the others were looking around as if they were looking for a ghost, the walls, floor, and roof were covered in holes a foot wide that lead to who knows where. If enemies were able to come out of those holes there would be no way to prevent being attacked from behind.
And not a moment after he thought so, swarms of ants rushed through the holes and started attacking the soldiers, they came from the front first and slammed into the shields, the soldiers held them back and slipped their blades between the shields quickly killing the ants in front.
However, for every ant they kill two more would take its place and once they started to get into a rhythm the ants came from a different angle, the soldiers on the sides who were focusing on the front, were suddenly pushed back, Several men who didn't react in time had their shields stolen by serrated mandibles, the soldiers in the middle started moving forward to fix the shield wall, but they couldn't get past their allies fast enough and those who lost their shields were dragged away from their allies.
Ants started rushing into the gap in the shield wall and attacking indiscriminately while scuttling around peoples ankles. Chaos ensued and the soldiers who were trying to repair their formation were pushed around by other soldiers attacking the ants inside the wall.
Drake tried to maneuver through the crowd and temporarily secure the hole in the shield wall, however, he found that the soldiers were pushed together from all sides so tightly that he couldn't move. He could see the zero-sum game he was playing, so he bellowed above the noise, "reform a new wall" and patted two soldiers on the shoulder to refer to them.
They looked to those next to them and nodded slightly, then the group created a new shield wall behind the front group. Some of the smarter soldiers near the front saw what was happening and quickly retreated to form into the new shield wall.
The flank of the forward ground suddenly weakened from the loss of people and the already overrun group was completely overrun, the shield wall collapsed from the break like dominoes and those in the center were already preoccupied, those who didn't have several ants clinging to them and tearing them apart tried to retreat.
Drake coldly observed the situation and commanded: "don't open the shield wall, if the ants get inside you will fall like they did".
The men retreating expected the new shield wall to open for a moment to let them in, however, they were stunned when the shields didn't move and they slammed into them instead, the soldiers holding the shield wall had their expressions harden as they saw the disbelieving eyes of those outside.
The soldiers stuck outside turned around and created a small defense with the few men they had, but without the strength of dozens of men supporting the formation, they were easily crushed under the wave of ants almost instantly.
Everyone prepared for the initial shock from the wave of ants, but the shock didn't come, the ant stood several meters away without moving, then to the surprise of all the soldiers the ants turned around and started disappearing back into the holes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile further back from the soldiers on the frontline.
Mages and priests casually walked through the gore of the soldiers who died securing the area, groups of soldiers protected the front and rear of the magic corps allowing them to casually experience the war. Deaths were rare in the magic corps because they were worth hundreds of times more than the soldiers that protected them, so they were often the last to enter a dangerous area and the first to leave when shit hit the fan.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The enemy armies targeted their group occasionally, however, since the norm was to protect the magic corps no matter what, most generals didn't even bother trying to attack them without an ambush prepared. They only had to worry about other mages and absurd existences like Merlin.
So as usual, they chatted casually while walking with an armed guard, suddenly a mage started scratching and brushing himself off frantically, they noticed something was wrong immediately and got ready for combat.
Then all the empty dark holes suddenly started spewing a black liquid out, several mages stepped back and a dozen soldiers approached to see what the commotion was, however, once one of them got close to the spreading black liquid it moved, he jumped back but landed in another puddle of it behind him.
Everyone watch on in horror as the liquid defied gravity and climbed up his body and entered every orifice, he fell to the ground flailing as his lungs were filled with the liquid.
Someone called out "evaporate the liquid quickly" in a strangely deep voice, and the mages who were used to receiving orders thought for a second then started casting. A moment later they sent gouts of flame towards the liquid and almost instantly it melted back into the holes. Now that they knew fire worked on this strange liquid they doubled their efforts and walked up to the holes and sent flames down them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucifer was watching the mage corps for some time now because they were people he defiantly had to kill, so far mages have been the only people who have given Lucifer trouble and he didn't intend to let them live for long.
After the well-timed order, Lucifer managed to trick the confused mages into using fire and once they started shooting gouts of flame down the holes, several mages burst into flames and died screaming.
Lucifer has made random holes tunnel back around into the main walkway specifically for this, if mages decided to get smart ideas and send magic down the tunnels they will find their magic circling around back on them.
Lucifer frowned slightly when an older mage called for everyone to stop once the first few died, then he called for them to freeze the holes closed instead which worked, with the holes plugged up the liquid that was actually the tiny poisonous ants couldn't get through.
He sent a mental command to the ant queen and she sent a command to her soldier ants, a moment later the ants that had been attacking the frontlines showed up inside the frozen tunnels.
These ants spent most of their time digging through solid rock inside the dungeon, so this ice blocking their way was easily taken care of allowing the small ants through again.
Lucifer watched two groups battle, the ants kept flowing through the holes made by the larger variety and the mages kept freezing the holes shut again, some soldiers had made their way in by now and were killing any large ants that occasionally came through.
Although the ants were currently losing Lucifer was still smiling, suddenly one of the younger mages who was drenched in sweat called out, "something is weird with my mana, I can't absorb anymore even with a potion"
Other mages checked and said that something was wrong with them too, now the priests had something to do and they started checking those afflicted, one exclaimed: "you've been poisoned!", then started casting a treatment spell.
However, after the spell came into contact with the person the priest frowned, he said "have you been trying to poison yourself to death, there is no way you wouldn't have noticed this much poison in your system", then he casted again, but this time it looked like the spell took a lot more out of the priest.
After a moment he widened his eyes in shock, he exclaimed "I can't absorb mana either, I've been poisoned too"
Lucifer laughed when they finally noticed, Rick had created a stone that was able to spread a blood mist throughout the dungeon, and Lucifer used its smell to cover up the poison he had been slowly giving the enemies. they had checked the blood-mist once to see if it was dangerous but they never checked again, this was their doom.
They continued fighting the never-ending wave of ants and once their mana started to dry up they called for backup, but in this small hallway the soldiers couldn't defend where the enemies were coming from, they came from the ceiling and floor so the mages were attacked wherever they stood. Soon enough the entire magic core was overrun and killed before the ants disappeared back into the tunnels, leaving behind a group of surviving soldiers that weren't sure if they would have rather died from the ants than survive and face Drake later.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drake commanded the foremost group of soldiers, the ants came in waves so they were able to move after defeating all the enemies in the nearby tunnels, however, Drake was not happy about the progress because the frequency of the elite ants appearing increased, this forced him to create new sheild walls to stop the whole frontline from falling several times, and every time he did this he lost nearly a hundred men from the frontline, worse yet he could see the expresions of his men and he knew what they meant, now he had to watch his front from the ants as well as his back from the soldiers, unless he wants a dagger to the back from a soldier that thinks retreating is a better idea.
After just finishing a battle and losing yet another group of soldiers, a thin man squeezed through the crowd and gave a report to him, Drake bellowed "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED", when he heard about the complete decimation of the magic corps.