Chapter 185 - 158: Chimera
"Your subjects were attacked by a human and monsters?" Shire froze for a moment, looking at the Little Ant Queen before him and mulling over what she had just said.
After Nine-finger and his men had transported several crates of honey to the ant nest, the Ant Queen found him and asked him to pass a message to Shire. When Shire and his men met with the Ant Queen, she told him directly that someone had attacked her Worker Ants, killing several. The attack took place at the site of the collapsed sinkhole.
"That area used to be the lair of Giant Spiders and Burrow Bees. Who would go all the way out there?" Shire stroked his chin. ’Could Valentine be back? But there hasn’t been any news.’
"What did the monster look like?" he asked after a few seconds of thought.
The Little Ant Queen before him had already grown much larger, and her abdomen was beginning to swell. She still looked a bit thin, but Shire felt she would soon become a true queen of the nest.
"The monster was huge, and there was more than one. It had three heads. The middle one was like a forest leopard, but bigger. One of the other heads looked like a deer with curved horns," the Little Ant Queen said, wiggling her antennae and gently touching Shire. "Its whole body was yellow, and it had a pair of huge, bat-like wings on its back. It dove straight from the sky, pounced on a Worker Ant, and it could even breathe fire."
"Three heads?" Shire frowned. ’It can fly and breathe fire? This thing sounds like some kind of stitched-together monster.’
’A stitched-together monster?’ The moment the phrase crossed his mind, he immediately thought of a famous monster he had heard of before—the Chimera.
These monsters weren’t common, but there had been many sightings. Rumor had it they were the products of biological experiments conducted by High Tier Great Mages. They were enormous, typically possessing the head of a lion, a goat, and a Pseudo-Dragon. Some Chimeras even had tails like venomous snakes.
Chimeras were generally described as being as brutal as Demons. Some even said the method for creating them was given to the Great Mages by Demons. Their leonine nature sparked a powerful desire to hunt, the Pseudo-Dragon head made them exceptionally greedy, and finally, the goat head endowed them with a vicious stubbornness and the habit of fighting to the death.
’Is someone out here on an inspection tour? And they went specifically to that collapsed area? Don’t tell me those Giant Spiders and Giant Bees were man-made too?’ A corner of Shire’s mouth twitched. He felt like he had just provoked a troublesome opponent.
"What did the human look like?" Shire gestured with his hands in front of the Little Ant Queen. "Was it a human with a beard this long?"
The Little Ant Queen paused, thought for a few seconds, then said, "No beard."
’No beard?’ Shire looked up, thinking. ’So it’s not a Great Mage? Those Great Mages care about their beards as much as any Dwarf.’
’Maybe Valentine sent someone for a "return visit"?’ He folded his arms, pacing in front of the Ant Queen. ’It’s possible. They could be checking if the Giant Spiders and Giant Bees have made a comeback.’
’Even though that old fogey Valentine’s reputation for governing his territory was average at best, he’d probably still care about the stability of his rear flank. He might have even hired a Mage to come check things out.’
The thought of not knowing when the visitor might leave gave Shire a headache. The herbs in this area hadn’t been gathered yet, and the Skeleton Warriors, under Little Claw’s "training," had already started trying to brew potions. He had also asked Mary to custom-make more cauldrons for alchemy and twelve long bathtubs for the skeletons to soak in.
Everything was about to get on the right track. They were just waiting to start harvesting the area, but now a Mage on patrol had shown up. If he were discovered, his entire operation would be exposed.
"What a pain." Shire rubbed his temples and asked again, "Is that person just wandering around that one area?"
After receiving an affirmative reply from the Little Ant Queen, Shire decided to take some people and sneak over for a look. He would observe from a distance with a telescope. If he could confirm the visitor had no special intentions, there shouldn’t be any danger. But if the person was determined to harm the ant nest, then they would need to be dealt with quickly.
Thinking of this, Shire stroked the Ant Queen’s antennae and nodded. "Don’t worry too much. I’ll go check on the situation first. If they’re trouble, I’ll take care of them for you."
With that, Shire led his men away, said goodbye to the Ant Queen, and, instead of riding Worker Ants, walked out of the ants’ Underground Kingdom, heading straight for the "old battlefield."
...
As they drew near, Shire had everyone hide in the woods. The Worker Ants hadn’t harvested many leaves in this area yet, so the forest was still quite dense. Ahead lay the enormous collapsed pit. It was vast, covering the lairs of the Giant Spiders, the nest of the Burrow Bees, and the underground stone chamber.
Shire hid behind a tree, raising his telescope to scan the sky above the pit and the surrounding area. According to the Little Ant Queen’s description, the Mage should be patrolling somewhere around here.
"No one’s here. Did they go back to report?" he muttered to himself. Behind him, a group of goblins, Evita and a few other Centaurs, and several Skeleton Warriors were all sitting in the shade or the tall grass, doing their best to stay hidden.
The goblins were whispering amongst themselves. Judging by their hand gestures, they were likely debating whether it was tastier to eat smoked meat inside a Tree-man Fruit Cake, or to alternate bites of smoked meat and cake.
The Centaurs, however, all held their bows with an Arrow nocked, ready to fire at any moment. They had just been through a battle with the Earth Goblins, and after only a few days of peace, hearing Shan Xi Ao’s retelling of the horrors of the Giant Spiders and Giant Bees had reawakened their combat alertness.
As for the six Skeleton Warriors, they were busy polishing their longswords. Their original ones were long since rusted and would break after just a few clashes. These new longswords had been specially provided by Shire. Compared to the tense Centaurs and the laid-back goblins, the Skeleton Warriors seemed remarkably calm and composed.
’Looks like there’s nothing here for now,’ Shire concluded after a few minutes of observation. He decided to head back and report to the Ant Queen first, then he would bring his people back to check again in the coming days.
He had specifically brought the Centaurs and the Skeleton Warriors, including Elton, this time. His goal was to show them his relationship with the Giant Ants, which would also solidify their commitment to cooperating with him.
"Let’s head back for now." Shire closed the telescope with both hands and stowed it back in his hip pouch. "We’ll come back and check again tomorrow."
He turned to walk toward the Centaurs under the trees, but Evita’s eyes suddenly went wide. She violently drew her bow, aiming it directly at Shire.
TWANG! With the resonant sound of a vibrating bowstring, a Feathered Arrow sliced through the air past Shire. Startled, he immediately dove to the ground. THUD! He heard the sound of an Arrow burying itself in flesh, followed by the furious roar of a beast.
AWOOO! The roar instantly startled the surrounding goblins. They raised their Long Spears and began to form a messy formation, while the Skeleton Warriors had already run to the Centaurs’ side, swords drawn.
Hearing the roar behind him, Shire scrambled forward on all fours. Feathered Arrows from the Centaurs continuously zipped past him. Only when he reached the front of his group did he turn to look back. At some point, two enormous Chimeras had appeared before his forces.
One Chimera already had several arrows sticking out of it, while the other was still hovering in mid-air. The flapping of their huge, membranous wings made surprisingly little noise, which was one of the reasons they were so successful at ambushing their prey.
’If these two are here, the Mage can’t be far off.’ Shire ran behind his troops and began scanning the surroundings. ’Looks like we have no choice but to fight today.’
As the Centaurs fired a continuous stream of Feathered Arrows from their Quivers, both Chimeras landed on the ground in a rage. They reared up slightly and spewed a torrent of blazing flames forward. However, being artificially modified creatures, they didn’t have very large fire sacs, so the range and duration of their fire breath were quite limited.
But it was still enough to force the Centaurs and goblins to retreat quickly to avoid being harmed.
CRACKLE CRACKLE! With a sound of scraping Bone, "Old Soldier" Elton and his five comrades didn’t retreat. Instead, they charged straight ahead. They quickly rolled on the ground, passing directly under the Chimeras’ fire breath, then split into two teams and began to attack the two behemoths with their swords.
The Chimeras’ fire-breathing was interrupted by the continuous stabs. They had no choice but to fight back against the Skeleton Warriors, thrashing their heads and tails. Although there was a huge disparity in size and strength, the Skeleton Warriors’ agile Sword Techniques and coordination brought the fight to a temporary stalemate.
"Don’t stop! Keep shooting!" Shire shouted. At the same time, he ordered his goblins to stand in front of the Centaurs and raise their Long Spears, forming a spear wall to protect the archers behind them like a porcupine.
SWISH SWISH SWISH! A continuous volley of Feathered Arrows was fired. Evita and her kin had switched to broadhead arrows designed for large creatures. They fired directly at the two Chimeras, showing no concern for the Skeleton Warriors fighting around them.
"They can’t die! If they get injured, they can soak in Magic Potion! I can even move them to the Tree-man Region to recover!" Shire yelled, reassuring his troops.
Hearing this, the Centaurs drew their bows without any further hesitation. The wails of the two Chimeras grew more frequent.
Just as Shire was nervously observing the battlefield and scanning the surroundings, one of the Chimeras was finally stabbed through the heart with a sword, and then one of its goat heads was lopped off.
The remaining Chimera was also quickly surrounded and killed by the Skeleton Warriors.
Shire stared at the twitching Chimera corpses on the ground and immediately ordered his troops to reform their ranks, staying on guard against a potential Magic Attack.
They waited for a long time, but only a cool breeze rustled through the forest. It seemed the Mage wasn’t present after all.