This room was nothing like they had seen before, it was truly massive. It was wide enough to fit a street of houses but just high enough in the center that you could fit a grand temple and its spire. In the center of the room laid the queen. The normal Rufas at a glance were as large as their mounts but the queen was at least 10 times larger with hundreds of eggs behind her being carried off by smaller Rufas.

"They are coming," Wen pointed at their chaser. The warrior Rufas that had been chasing until they stumbled into the Queen's chamber were advancing fast.

"What to do? Jace?!" Amierra glancing between the Queen and the advancing beast.

"Stop them! Close the passage!" Jace shouted.

Without waiting for another order, Wenona threw her thunderbolt bombs toward the ceiling of the passage they just came through.

A loud boom followed by the sound of crumbling stone filled the room. Wenona had just managed in the closing of the passage; blocking their pursuers.

"Head's up, that just gives us the attention we don't really want” remarked Zeke.

The queen of Rufas slowly turned its head to face the group, with the gnashing of her mandibles a fine mist sprayed up out of her back into one of the many tunnels on the pourous wall. These tunnels were off in all sizes and condition, some were around the edges, there were a few in the ceiling and even a few could be seen in the floor. The mist that the queen sprayed up was actually her way in calling her troops. Thousands of glittering eyes peered out of the tunnels reflecting the little light they bought with them.

“Ok, think think think, what do we know, what can we do?” exclaimed Lyall, panic.

“I don’t know much, but the ground dwellers are usually sensitive to sounds and lights” retorted Wenona. Lucia smiled in approval.

“They probably don’t even need to see us, to find us” Amierra chiming in.

A line of Rufas now stood stationary in front of the queen obviously to protect her in her chamber.

“This is bad, they think we are threatening their queen," Yurika blurts out, "We need to get out fast, before it's too late."

“Good idea, Lucia, can you find the way out for us once more? We are obviously ran to the wrong passage when we try to outrun the previous Rufas” Jace explains, “we’ll try to pull their attention to us and defend as much as we can, until that time.”

"Okay, leave it to me!" In a flash, Lucia bolts off. Her speed was faster than their blinking eyes. She stopped at the first tunnel and waits for her draught to fall still, nothing.

“Come on, where is it?” She mutters to herself then bolts off to the next one.

The first rufas ant approached the group. With the limited light, it was almost impossible for anyone to do ranged attack. Amierra immediately cast a charming skill at the beast and ordered it to attack the next one approaching, while Jace was throwing fireballs at the tunnel above the queen. His plan was to make the get the attention of the queen. It resulted chunks of the edges of the tunnels blew and dropped on top of the queen. But the queen looked unfazed by this move. Marc who has been illuminating the area as best he can, noticed something. A Rufas in a tunnel right above the group.

“Watch out!” as he shouted the Rufas sent an acid spray from above,

Both Wenona and Scry had to dive out of the way of the splash. In retaliation, Wenona causes an explosion in the tunnel above them crushing the Rufas and stopping any more aerial acid attacks.

Two more Rufas approached the group and Amierra charmed them to fight another two which were near them. Rufas being none the wiser viciously fight the charmed beasts.

Another six approach, three on the left of the group and three on the right. Amierra charmed the far left and right to fight its closest kin. Leaving two that they would have to fight.

“Nope, not this one,” mutters Lucia, she started to sound desperate. She grunted annoyingly before racing off to the next tunnel. This one has Rufas coming out of it to join the queen.

Startled by the sudden approaching face to face with a Rufas, Lucia grunted, “You're in my way.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The ant immediately tried for her head with its mandibles. Lucia swiftly dodged to the side and pulled out her dagger and sliced its left eye and its left antenna clean off. The ant dazed and unbalanced started leaning to the right and charges off gnashing at the air.

Lucia sighed, "Not this one either! urgh!”

Eeeeeecchcrech

One of the Rufas shrieked as Zeke drove his sword through its head. The other lunged at Yurika, she quickly dove to the side and sliced off one of its six legs with her conjured sword. As she stood up the beast turned to face her, but before it could do anything she swung her sword which cleaved its head in half.

Jace on the other hand still hurling fireballs to hit the earth above the queen. He wanted the ceiling of the dome to fall on the Queen, maybe. If the queen died, the chance for the other Rufas to scatter and back away might exist. But he started to see that it wasn't making much progress. He then decided to throw one at the body of the queen in frustration. The fire explodes on its back, but it didn't do anything but making the edges of its armored exoskeleton glow a dark red.

The queen gnashes and released another dose of pheromones into the air, the Rufas who were waiting in the tunnels behind her started to pour out, grab her eggs and take them away.

“What are they doing? Make sure every ant comes through every tunnel, so I will have a hard time to check it?” Lucia complains to herself. She races off to the next tunnel which is massive in comparison to the others, big enough for the queen to go through.

“There are a couple of tunnels off the side of this tunnels, I’ll quickly check them,” Lucia bound to the first offshoot tunnel, “bingo!”

Crunch

One of the charmed Rufas spat acid at its once friend now foe and chomped into it. Another pile of rufas started to approach the group. Amierra once again charmed a couple and preoccupy three of them. Leaving five approaching the group.

“We can't stay like this forever. There's too many of them! ” Lyall said out loud.

Suddenly the Rufas that stood face to face with Yurika flew to the side with a loud boom. One of its legs broke and glided off in the opposite direction. It almost hit Scry's face, but he managed to evade it swiftly.

"Hey! Watch it!" he complained.

Meanwhile, Lucia who was the one sending that Rufas away already stood in front of the group.

“Good news, found a way out, let's quickly deal with these ones”.

Lyall and Scry team up to take one of the rufas down. As it went on one the other would close in to do damage while the other dodged. Jace swiftly downed one by blasting a fiery punch into its face so hard it flew back. Yurika cuts another one down and the last one just explodes into little kibbly bits.

Everyone glanced at Wenona, as the girl just shrugged innocently, "I hate bugs, okay."

“Ok while we have a chance mount up and let's go, follow me” Lucia shouted to the group.

“I’ll try to hide our movements,” Marc said and stood at the back of the group. As everyone mounted up, he conjured a sandstorm with a path through the tunnel Lucia pointed to, at his back. The sandstorm worked as their shield as they moved toward the path.

As the group moved the sound of this unnatural sandstorm was amplified by all the tunnels almost to the point deafening. The visibility started to reduce and the queen decided to move towards them.

“Let's go,” screamed Lucia, competing with all the noises. They all rode off toward the passage while fending off the Rufas that stood in the way, as fast as their mounts would allow them. As they race forward, one Rufas managed to jump over the storm directly unto Lucia who was in front of the group. They didn't see it coming.

Just a second before the Rufas was about to spit acid at Lucia, a massive boulder flew out from the side of the sandstorm, collected and took it into the other side of the sandstorm.

Everyone stared at the whole incident with widening eyes.

"Thanks, Marc, didn't saw that coming," shouted Lucia to the young man who was still at the back of the group, slowly backing away and moved to the exit passage.

"No problem," he replied while still focusing on the sandstorm he conjured.

The group was almost at the tunnel entrance and out of nowhere, these massive mandibles click just above the entire groups head. As a reaction, Jace threw a fireball to where he thought he saw the movement. When the fireball hit they could see a silhouette of the queen's head in this sandstorm illuminated by fire. At a full speed they rode toward the tunnel Lucia found. This tunnel was large enough to ride in by far but too small for the queen.

"Faster! The faster we are in that tunnel, the lesser chance they will chase us!" Jace prodded his mount harshly toward the passage, "Marc, get on your mount already!"

The brown-haired man cast flame wall before him and finally jumped on his mount who was waiting for him anxiously. He spurred his mount and unsheathed a katana from his staff. Charging through the passage while fending off the Rufas that jump out from the Sandstrom wall on his left and right. His blade swung so fast that no one could see how it swished around and cut through the heads of Rufas.

Jace was the first who managed to get inside of that tunnel, followed by Lucia, Lyall, Amierra, Scry, and Wenona. Yurika who was behind Wenona couldn't help to keep checking on Marc worriedly.

"Yuu! Come on! What are you waiting for?!" Wenona shouted, fear for her friend who for some reason slowing down her mount not too far from the mouth of the tunnel.

Then Yurika saw it, the queen's mandible swung straight at Marc's back. She jumped out from her mount and with her mind, she conjured a fireball like what Jace did before.

"Marc, duck!!" She shouted at the young man as her fireball whirled toward the giant mandible. Marc ducked just a second before the fireball shot passed his head and hit the queen's mandible. It didn't really harm it but it was enough to push it back a little. Marc gave her a nod of gratitude. Then suddenly his brown eyes widen in shock as he saw a Rufas jump from the left sandstorm wall and went straight to Yurika without she noticed. He lunged his hand and sent a thunderbolt that hit the Rufas just right before it could touch her.

The thunderbolt sent it flying to the mouth of the passage where the others were waiting. The ceiling exploded, sending down a shower of rocks and closed their only way out.

"YUU!!" Wenona cry out as someone quickly pulled her away before the rocks fell on her and crushed her with it.