---


    "Don''t worry, you''re in safe hands. The Hawk Forces are here."


    As soon as the injured people heard Merlin''s words, all of them had the urge to cry. There are people here who are in terrible states. Some were even at the verge of breaking down because of pain.


    Merlin showed a smiled but her chest hurt by this sight. The situation here is even more terrible that what she imagined. She knew that it wasn''t the forces'' fault that they arrivedte but she was somewhat ming herself because she arrived toote. There''s at least 20 people who died, the rest are either missing a limb or groaning in pain.


    She ced a determined expression and waved her staff. Yellow light emerged from her body that gave her a holy look. She raised her staff and uttered: "Salvation Field!"


    Instantly, a yellow brilliance scattered into a vast magical circle that covered the whole bay. The magical circle emitted a brilliant sh of yellow light that touched every injured person in here. Anyone who''s injured that was touched by this light felt like a weight was lifted from their chest. There was a strange calmness that drowned over them, a feeling of being cradled by a cloud. Their injuries started recovering in a faster pace and the process didn''t even caused them any kind of difort at all.


    The people who were previously groaning in extreme pain were now sleeping peacefully, the solemn air that was present disappeared and reced by a calming scene, anyone who gazed at Merlin''s work might say that she is performing a miracle right now.


    "Oh, you used the Salvation Field! The situation must be vert serious huh?" Malik and Raphael arrived dragging injured soldiers on their backs.


    Merlin nodded and said: "These people will experience a severe trauma if I didn''t do anything."


    "The medics are also here, let''s regroup with boss so that we can take down this mess." Raphael said as he gently ced the soldier down.


    "Maya!" Merlin called, instantly a petite and ck haired girl in ponytail walked towards her, she''s were a green overalls with a military vest on her chest and some knee pads.


    "Yes Teacher?" Maya replied as soon as she gotten close.


    "Set up a C-ranked Medicinal Cistern nearby, once the patients wakes up, have drink a ss and check their vitals. Once your''s done with everyone, discuss to them thepensation for their service ording to legal documents, understood?"


    "Yes Teacher." Maya nodded and immediately went to work.


    Merlin nodded to Malik and Raphael, they then proceeded to walk towards the main camp and discuss tactics with Luis. As soon as they stepped inside, they saw Beatrice in there as well as Julius who had already returned from his scouting mission. Everyone saw that Julius is already drawing a map ording to what he saw inside. Luis saw that Julius finished drawing so he ordered:


    "How''s the interior looking?"


    "Ugly." Julius scowled which made the others frown. "The hill has at least has multiple entrances, I''ve counted five but there should be more. Each holes were a tunnel that lead to a certain divisions or another forked path which makes it incredibly confusing."


    "And since this is an Ant Hill, there''s of course ants everywhere." Julius pointed on the map that he made and continued: "Just in this room alone, there are at least 50 of those beasts waiting to be deployed. This room also had multiple holes on the ceilings which they used to emerge in any spot of the battlefield."


    He pointed at another ce on the map and said: "This ce is one of their storage areas, this also where they make their foods from the victims they had." Pointing at another spot, "This ced is where the babies are, and right next to it is where they hoard items they''ve gotten from their victims."


    Pointing one again on the map he said: "This is probably the busiest andrgest area as far as I''m concerned. I''ve seen at least ten Soldier Ants moving to and from this area. There''s also multiple Worker Ants on standby here. I''ve counted hundreds when I got there, but that might change since this ce also leads into a multiple forked paths. I was trying to be careful and only ventured on one path and saw Eggs. Lots of them, guarded by five Alpha Soldier Ants and they are armed for what ever reason. Due to time, I wasn''t able to locate the queen, that''s my bad."


    "This is..." Beatrice was a bit speechless.


    "Their reproduction capabilities are insane, or this ce had been here for a very long time and no one noticed it." Raphaelmented on the side.


    "ording to some records that I''ve read while on the way here, this isn''t the worst case scenario." Luis said which made his subordinates look at him weirdly. "Their bloodline aren''t pure, regr Lord Ants are at size of a hill and those who are stronger are much bigger than that. If their Queen had a pure bloodline, then she would''ve given birth to more, I''m talking thousands here."


    "So see...it isn''t the worst care scenario. That is of course, if we managed to reach here before the deadline." Luis added to make his thoughts clear.


    "When do we move boss?" Malik asked while licking his lips, he had been itching for battle sinceing here, in fact if it weren''t for the fact that Luis was inmand here, he would''ve already charged head first on the ant hill.


    "Let me n a bit, give me at least five minutes." Luis immediately moved and closed his eyes to think.


    To anyone this might look like he was just taking a brief nap but his brain is actually working fast and it''s performing many simtions of what he should expect happening once they started the raid. He had to prepared himself to every scenario present since he''s not going at this alone. There are many lives behind his back and it''s his responsibility to protect them.


    His eyes snapped as soon as the five minutes were over. He then discussed his ns with them: "We will go for a test run first. A covert mission if you will. We will try to scour every corner and get all the details we can."


    "This mission will only include you Elite Force and me. Up for the task?" Luis asked.


    "Sir yes Sir!" The elites answered in unison.


    "I give you ten minutes to prepare, we move out afterwards."


    ***


    Luis and his subordinates were gathered at the spot where Julius entered before. He looked at them and nodded and then Julius did his thing.


    "Mystify..." he whispered. Instantly, a ck fog escaped through his orifices and poured over to his allies.


    As the smoke touched them, it covered their whole body and concealed it as a ck fog. This fog is barely visible on bright ces and totally invisible on the dark. Luis and his team could still see each other even thought they are concealed in a ck fog. With a nod from him, all of them blurred to action and infiltrated the Ant Hill.


    After a while of running. They came across the division that Julius pointed out earlier. It was a room where there are at least 5o ants ording to Julius. Luis beckoned them to stop and signalled to count the ants present. Julius then replied shortly with a scowling expression on his face saying that there''s more or less 80 ants here.


    Luis shook his head and felt a headacheing, it wasn''t even an hour since Julius was here but their numbers already grew. Luis sent the signal to move on and the team went past the ant forces in front of them.


    The next room that where arrived through is the storage area. They were immediately weed by a nasty stench along with a view of what looks like a Mud Ball Hill. But if one inspected each ball closely, they would see bits and pieces of human body parts along with some questionable ingredients mixed in to form each ball.


    Julius felt a sharp re on his back which crept him out so he turned around only to see Beatrice ring at him while on the verge of retching. If she was allowed to speak right now, she would told him: ''I will get you for this.''


    Julius nervously smiled and thought: ''Oh crap, I''m in deep shit right now. I actually forgot to tell them there''s all sorts of nasty in here. Bea isn''t fond of nasty ces so she might be thinking of hurting me when we return."


    His thoughts were disrupted when he heard a scuttling noise not too far away from him. It wasn''t only him who heard this and without needing orders, all of them jumped back retreated, after which they didn''t dare to move even an inch.


    The scuttling sounds that they heard came from two Alpha Soldier Ants who happened to visit the area when they were there.