Erick looked inside the dark tunnel and sighed, He hated such closed spaces, it’s not that he had claustrophobia but it was close, touching the edges of the opening with his hand it came out sticky with a yellow muck “How long is this tunnel?” “You have to crawl for about 80 meters before you reach a second larger tunnel and it’s all covered with this stuff” walking away he shook his head, it’s couldn’t be just a tunnel it had to be a small tunnel as well great.

When the other two Einherjar teams arrived Beta 2 gathered them all “Alright teams, we are gonna be entering the tunnel soon it’s covered with a strange but harmless goop the second tunnel goes towards the south of here but Loki has just informed control he found what appears to be many tunnels under Fairmount Park so, it is likely we will be heading that way at some time, our communications seems to get cut off inside the tunnel so one of the teams will be carrying a landline inside”.

Checking his rifle once again from nervousness he waited for them to get ready “What do you think we are gonna find inside there?” looking to his side he saw Beta 2 approaching him “I don’t know, moles?” “Not likely but good shot, Loki has gone in alone over there” “Loki is kind of insane” “I shouldn’t have allowed him to separate from us” finishing with his rifle he got up “Yeah, you can’t really order us and even if you could, do you think he would have obeyed? They both had to laugh at that thought before he got up, it was time to go.

He was supposed to be the third one inside but, when it was his turn, he stood at the tunnel entrance for a few seconds trying to gather his courage, turning to his side he asked “You think anyone could still be alive inside there?” the Einherjar he was looking at turned out to be a woman, she answered him “I doubt it but, could be” “Alright, alright” entering the tunnel he crawled on his elbows and knees as quickly as he could trying to catch up with the two point men, crawling for what seemed like forever before seeing the exit.

When he reached the end of the small tunnel Beta 2 helped him get out, covered in goop but with his rifle and handgun safe, the new tunnel was much bigger, nearly 3 meters high and 3,5 meters wide, when the fourth Einherjar arrived they started walking with Beta 2 himself as the point man, advancing as fast as they could the tunnel walls were covered with smaller intersecting tunnels at every 12 to 18 meters from all sides.

Soon they crossed another, even bigger, tunnel and had to decide which one to follow, the new tunnel would take them closer to Loki’s last know location so they decided to go that way, it was a tense but boring march and, after nearly an hour walking while fully alert, he was tired and had a small headache, from behind them a short stocky Einherjar approached.

“Command just got in contact with us, Loki has found some kind of giant ant colony, he is gonna try and assassinate the queen alone” “Idiot, it may not even be a single queen for all we know” lifting a boot and looking at the sticky goop that came up with it he asked “Since when do ants produce this crap?” “Since when do ants build man sized walls?” “Good point, you know we should get going I have a bad feeling about this” taking point himself Erick started to move a little faster than was safe, almost jogging down the tunnel, his weapon ready, soon he heard some movement on the side tunnel.

Lifting his hand to call for a stop Beta 2 ordered teams of four Einherjar to check those tunnels while the main bulk of the troops continued moving ahead, when they were reduced to only 28 men he saw the first enemy.

It was one of the cat sized black worker ants carrying a huge piece of bone easily 5 times its own size walking in the same direction they were, taking aim he shoot its body before jogging over and stomping on it

You have slain Dwarf Ant Worker level 1 + 1XP

Kicking the bone out of his way he tried to move on but Beta 2 stopped him kneeling down to look at it Beta 13 got close to them “Do you think those things are storing the survivors somewhere?” “No” Eric turned around to stare at Beta 2 waiting for an explanation “It is winter, very few ants store food for the winter they eat as much as they can and hibernate” “Fuck!”

Refusing to believe it Eric turned and moved on soon they heard a growing noise coming from beyond a bend in the tunnel about 130 meters ahead, as the roaring noise of hundreds of legs moving started to come closer he took a step back and didn’t hesitate to lay belly down on the goop covered floor, besides him Beta 2 and 13 also laid down with their rifles pointing ahead, behind him another three man knelt down and three stood.

The noise grew and grew until he could feel the ground trembling over the passing of many creatures, the first ant over the bend was a small round one, he took the first shoot piercing its head and the thing exploded violently, right behind it hundreds of dog sized ants of different sizes approached.

Nine guns blazed into life roaring as they spewed a wave of death and destruction their way, the first ants died without even knowing what hit them but they continued advancing in a constant flow of hundreds advancing over the walls the ceiling and even their dead brethren, they ran fast, faster than a normal men but died even faster as bullets fell upon them like rain.

Erick recharged for the third time and continued to shoot but he started to get worried, the ants seemed to not have an end and, while every dead body made it harder for them to move it also blocked their bullets, slowly they advanced decreasing the distance from 120 meters to barely 65, a huge bronze colored ant opened the way covering nearly half of the tunnel with its huge body, small ants still ran through its legs as it used its mandibles to crush the bodies in its way.

They all focused their fire on the huge creature, it managed to resist a whole two seconds of their concentrated fire before falling over the side, another two such ants took its place, when they finally took care of the three giants the horde had advanced a whole 12 meters and they couldn’t drive them back “We have to retreat!” “They are too fast we can’t escape” from behind them one of the Einherjar screamed “We found a wide open space on one of the side tunnels chief”

“Does it have a escape route?” “Yes” “Do it, retreat!” the three man standing behind them turned around and started to run, the man kneeling got up while Erick got in a crouching position, all six of them started slowly walking back while trying to maintain the advancing ants at a distance, “Beta 2 Command just sent word from Loki he is in trouble! It seems he failed to assassinate the queen and is asking for rescue!”

“Goddamnit! That’s what this is about, the queen is escaping” Eric thought so too but that just opened up another question what do they do about it? When they were just short of 35 meters from the opening Beta 2 decided “We still retreat into the open room” he disagreed “We can’t let the queen escape, it killed too many people in only 4 days if we let it escape we may never catch it again!”

“We are not letting it escape Siegfried, Beta 13 get some charges and block this tunnel after the intersection, we will lure the queen into the open room where all of us can shoot at the same time!” changing his rifle magazine one more time Erick picked up the pace on their retreat.

A small explosion and shaking of the ground warned him of Beta 13 successfully blocking the path, getting to the second tunnel he emptied his second to last magazine, lifting their guns all six of them turned around and ran.

The tunnel they were in was 140 meters long, 42 of which they managed to cover before the ants turned the corner, as they ran Erick covered the rear but the others were just too slow, the goop making it harder to move, thankfully the other Einherjar seemed to have predicted it and scraped the last 50 meters of floor clean of the thing.

He picked up the last two Einherjar with his arms and actually carried them out of the tunnel with barely 15 meters between him and the ant army coming his way, the room had about 250 square meters of open space covered with that strange ant stuff, close to a tunnel at the end of the room were all the remaining Einherjar lined up with their rifles before the Ants even got into the room they opened fire.

Despite the heavy rain of bullets the ants exploded out of the tunnel like angry piranhas after blood covering the room and spreading even as they died, every now and then a small ant exploded taking those around with it, making legs and other pieces fly everywhere, seeing the other 8 men getting into position and recharging their rifles, taking his last magazine he threw it over to Beta 2, and turned around.

Throwing his own rifle to the side he pulled his huge ass sword from his back and smiled, the thing was ridiculously oversized but perfect for a man of his strength, now that he finally had enough room to swing it was time to get to work, breathing deeply he concentrated and felt the burning fire that was his mana on the center of his chest, sending it into his hearth he spread the mana through his veins feeding every cell in his body with nearly half his entire mana pool, more than enough to last him a few hours and make him as strong as possible.

Gripping his sword handle with both hands he pulled it back and readied himself, from inside the tunnel a giant ant, bigger than the titan ant soldiers, pushed itself out from among the crowd, it’s head was enormous and had a strange square shape with two points, kinda like horns, at each side

Titan Ant Knight (Elite) – Level 4

Normal bullets bounced right off it’s skin as it opened the way for another one just like it to walk through, then came a pair of elites from each of the 4 races using the knights for cover and finally walked the four queens.

Titan ant queen (Boss) – Level 6

Dwarf ant queen (Boss) – Level 5

Burst ant queen (Boss) – Level 6

Fire ant queen (Boss) – Level 7

Each of the queens was different but all of them barely noticed the bullets as they looked around the room, their feelers twitching right and left finally focusing on the line of men standing before them, they clicked their mandibles in annoyance.

He too was annoyed, he didn’t have time to deal with those monsters while Loki was nearly dying somewhere, reading his sword he dashed and swung, time to kill those bastards.