God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World! Chapter 607: Ant Tide [2]

A thick, acrid stench of burning filled the air. Scorched ant shells, evaporated bodily fluids, carbonized wing fragments, all these odors mingled together, forming a nauseating wall of smoke. The ground was burnt black and cracked, purple blood pooling into small streams that seeped into the flame hardened soil.

But the ant swarm did not retreat. Two hundred meters away, the golden striped ant’s shrieks turned furious and shrill. More ants surged up from the rear, not hundreds this time, but thousands. They trampled over the charred remains of their kin, charging fearlessly into the still warm scorched earth, the purple tide pressing forward once more.

Gabriel’s breathing grew slightly heavier.

That last barrage had not come without a cost. Dark Flame Orb was reliable, but each orb demanded mana, and spamming it against a swarm this size was the fastest way to drain himself dry. Although his current strength was enough to bear it, successive volleys would only widen the gap between what he spent and what he recovered.

And the ants before him, by observation, still numbered in the tens of thousands.

He retrieved two mana recovery potions from his storage and swallowed them directly. The medicinal effect spread rapidly, and his depleted mana began to slowly recover. But he knew that compared to the rate of consumption this battle demanded, this rate of recovery was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Just as he was reassessing the battle situation, the sound of the tent flap being thrown open came from behind him.

Sophie rushed out of the tent. Though Gabriel had said she should stay in the tent, she couldn’t stand it anymore when the noise became unbearable. She swept her gaze across the surrounding scene, and her pupils sharply constricted.

"This is... an ant tide?"

"I told you to stay in the tent," Gabriel’s voice was low, carrying obvious displeasure.

"Did you think I would listen?" Sophie shot back without backing down an inch. She walked quickly to Gabriel’s side, standing back to back with him, her vines unfurling around her to form three rotating vine shields.

In the distance, the golden striped ant shrieked again. This time, not only did the front line worker ants begin advancing, but new types of individuals also appeared on the flanks of the swarm. They were larger than the worker ants, with darker carapaces and no wings on their backs, but their sickle forelimbs were noticeably longer and thicker, their edges gleaming with an eerie blue luster.

Seeing this particular ant, Gabriel’s gaze sharpened as a memory resurfaced in his head.

he thought to himself, trying to shake the thoughts from his head. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to dwell on them as the swarm of larger, more powerful monsters made their move.

The first wave of sentinels began to accelerate. Unlike the worker ants, they didn’t charge in a mindless frenzy. They dispersed, approaching simultaneously from different angles. Their movements were more cautious, more menacing, clearly possessing a basic level of combat intelligence.

Sophie’s vine whip struck first.

Three vine whips lashed out like emerald lightning, precisely aimed at two sentinels attempting a flanking maneuver. But the sentinels’ reactions far exceeded those of the worker ants. They sidestepped to avoid vital areas, and the vine whips only left deep lash marks on their carapaces, failing to kill them in a single strike. The struck sentinels emitted low hisses and, rather than retreating, pressed forward, their sickle forelimbs chopping viciously down at Sophie.

Gabriel’s sword was already waiting there.

A single horizontal slash sent the heads of both sentinels flying simultaneously. Purple columns of blood gushed out, splattering onto the charred earth with a sizzling, corrosive hiss. Sophie seized the opportunity to retract her vine whips, twisting them in the air to whip through another worker ant lunging from the side, the tip piercing through its thorax and pinning it dead to the ground.

Gabriel and Sophie stood back to back.

She could even feel, through their clothing, every contraction and release of his back muscles, the incredible precision and power of his body in combat. This sensation involuntarily pulled her back to moments ago, inside the tent, his arm resting on her waist, his chest pressed against her cheek, his heartbeat right by her ear.

Sophie bit down sharply on the tip of her tongue.

The pain yanked her thoughts back to the battlefield. She poured more mana into her vines, and those emerald plants grew wildly around her, the surface of every vine sprouting fine, sharp thorns.

"There are too many of them," Sophie said, panting, her vine whips ceaselessly lashing one worker ant after another into pieces. "At this rate, we’ll be worn down sooner or later. We have to take out that golden striped ant. Once it is dead, the entire swarm will collapse."

Gabriel knew this, of course. The reason the ant swarm could maintain such tight organization was entirely dependent on the commands coming from that particular ant. In this case, it seemed to be the king, unlike most ant colonies, which had a queen.

If they could kill it, the remaining workers and sentinels would descend into chaos, tearing each other apart or scattering in all directions.

But the problem was, the king was not so easily approached.

Between them and that towering figure lay an entire purple ocean composed of worker and sentinel ants. And the king clearly knew she was the target. Its antennae, longer and more numerous than those of any other ant, were in constant motion, continuously driving more and more ants to swarm toward Gabriel and Sophie.

Before the king stood eight particularly massive individuals, not workers, but Royal Guard Ants. Their carapaces were nearly black in color, their bulk comparable to an adult brown bear, their sickle forelimbs close to two meters long, with barbs growing from the joints. The individual combat strength of these things was far above the workers. Eight of them together, plus the countless worker and sentinel ants, meant breaking through would be anything but easy.

"Cover me," Gabriel said as he suddenly had an idea.