Chapter 53: The Ant Queen
[Lares has been killed.]
[Lares has logged out.]
"It wasn't even that long... The fourth... He is skilled." Brand sighed.
His son's job was to kill Reylin since he was undoubtedly the strongest player out of the three guilds. If that was impossible, Lares would have stalled him for enough time with his archery...
Alas, he failed.
"You have done a good job, son." Brand felt sour, but his son should've done some damage, and he wouldn't have died without fighting back.
He bought enough time, and for his sacrifice, Brand would do his best to erase the other two guilds!
Ever since the kingdoms announced the guild house and territory, the players' goals shifted.
Brand inferred that the kingdom's idea was to put players in less developed provinces with many threats lingering around.
He was also sure they would put them close to the enemy kingdom so that both kingdoms would have their eyes on them.
That was good, however.
It also brought players closer to the noble title.
With that title, many bonuses and passive income came!
And should a guild disappoint the kingdom here, they would be able to develop the province and their guild house.
It would be also easier to see how players treated NPCs in the territory they wholly owned.
Brand smiled, "The archers are fragile once their enemies come closer. For my son, I've developed the beast tamer's skill."
[Ant Queen(BOSS) Lv. 40 HP: 13000/13000 MP: 20000/20000]
Before Brand and a few tanks from his guild, the ant queen towered.
She was the biggest ant the players saw in their lives, and she was naturally not alone. Below her towering form, many smaller ants stood in perfect rows. They were under the queen's order and summoned through her skill.
They were smaller than the usual giant ants here, and they would disappear once the job's done.
The ant queen would have moved out in case half of her ants disappeared at once. Since they were the monsters that could respawn, she had her own rules for an appearance.
However, Brand called her out with his skills.
Once she came out, Brand's pets, the black wolves with red eyes, howled and ran away toward the players from other guilds.
The boss and her army followed them.
Brand let out a relieved sigh, "It worked, fortunately."
One of Brand's worries was that he was just a standard class user. Although beast tamers weren't that common, it was a class one could learn from interacting with NPCs in the beginner and other cities.
He had an edge, however.
And that was his close connection with the royalty.
They possessed a few means to strengthen the pets, and Brand's wolves eyes were equipped with red lenses.
The wolves also ate pills that added higher taunting skills.
That kind of taunt worked against monsters, and that was what Brand needed.
He would use the ant queen to kill players and snatch their equipment and drop! He also would get rid of the hero, Taste The Onion Guild, and possibly the pyromaniac!
"You gave us enough time, Lares," Brand turned around and followed the ant queen and her army.
-
Ferocious Bear lost track of time.
Every player except a few exceptional ones lost it.
However, once the ant queen appeared on the battlefield, the players realized that the guild competition would end soon.
"It's strange, however. We haven't seen the other kingdom's guilds yet... Why did the boss appear here too?" Maya genuinely asked.
Was their luck that bad? The other guilds were either fighting against each other or ants, and the ant queen wouldn't be their problem for some time!
The ant queen's appearance took many by surprise, and they weren't ready for both her and her army.
The tiny ants were faster, and their whole purpose was to be sacrificed.
What did it mean? The queen's summoned ants continuously charged at players, and their objective was to pin down every player in place.
Then, a few ants stacked themselves on their prey, killing them by bursting out their bodies!
Maya trembled when she saw players dying in those explosions, but the worst had yet to come.
With her wings, the ant queen pushed many other ants at the players. Her soldiers flew past everyone's heads, then landed on the players in a burst of terrifying explosions!
"Maya, I think it's The Royal Lineage's scheme," Titiana whispered through the voice chat, "I notified you about their movements. Initially, I believed they would run away to other areas or possibly assault the guilds from other kingdoms. Still, I forgot about the guild house announcement.
They ran away because they knew about the ant queen coming this way!"
"I didn't expect the ant queen to be this petty! Some players bothered her, and she followed them all the way here?" Maya didn't believe the other guild had such means to control the ant queen, so she blamed the boss herself.
She wasn't a person who could complain about schemes since her hero class also forced her to play with players' feelings.
Nonetheless, Maya didn't believe she would be able to deal with the queen, "Let's retreat and focus on ants somewhere else. We might also bump into other players and snatch their loot."
The competition was about quantity.
Although the ant queen could have brought them a lot of unique items, no one knew what other abilities she possessed and what kind of mechanics she utilized as the boss.
In many games, the bosses were often done through many sacrifices and respawn.
Maya didn't want to take any significant risks and do it more efficiently in the current scenario.
However, as she and her players began retreating, Brand's guild stopped them through their skills.
Magic, arrows, spears landed before them.
Brand also used the environment.
His players cut through the high trees, their forms falling like the giant's hands to bar the retreating players!
Maya's heart sank, and she imagined the worst.
"With them sneaking around, we can't even fight the queen..." The players realized their predicament and felt the victory slipping away...
"Taunt."
However, a loud shout rang out on the battlefield.
It sounded like one voice, but many players were shouting simultaneously. Their taunt skill became like red thunder that slapped the queen!
"That was possible?" Maya asked.
She saw the ant queen turning around and slowly following as more thunder descended from the sky!
Any usual taunt wouldn't have worked. A few more taunts also wouldn't have worked!
However, the commander behind those taunts was on another level.
Each player had a different reaction time.
That was just natural, so combining taunts into one perfect thunder was near impossible.
Lioness saw through her people and new recruits from the competition. She assigned them to teams where their reactions were highly similar.
Then, she just used the guild announcements to order her people around.
Many tanks could affect the queen, and even if they failed to taunt her, the queen would have soon gotten bothered by them and their combination.
Fortunately for the Common Supreme Guild, the vast amount of taunts worked, and the queen made her way in a different direction.
"Sis. Brand began moving," Another man with white hair called Lioness, and he was above Brand with his identity hidden.
That was a player with an assassin class!
Lioness curved her lips up, "Keep pinging his location to me. Vis, you take care of the hero. We are about to end this guild competition."
"Yes." Both white-haired men replied.
-
The ant queen soon appeared before Brand, and his eyes rose, "How did you find me?"