Chapter 116
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Humiliation (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Signal flare...! Everyone, charge!"
"Counterattack!"
The signal started with the flare they fired together at the promised time and place.
Seeing it, the orcs waiting in the south and the Dwarf Federation launched a full-force counterattack in unison.
[Bellona flinches]
Bellona had no choice but to be startled.
Just moments ago, she had used the cordyceps magi reinforced by Asmora to shatter the enemy's momentum in their confusion and turn defense into offense.
She had planned to push back the disorganized foes amid their triumphant advance, slaughter them indiscriminately, and claim victory.
But suddenly, the enemies stopped retreating and launched a massive counterattack.
And this wasn't some desperate flailing in a last-ditch effort.
The orcs and Dwarf Federation, who had never coordinated before, struck back simultaneously with perfect timing.
[Bellona orders a retreat]
Bellona hurriedly pulled her forces back.
The Nomadic Swarm lacked the strength to face two forces advancing in perfect sync at once.
The cordyceps magi, their most vital assets, were consumables anyway, and most had been forcibly infected from elven Second Legion prisoners, so their numbers weren't that high.
[Asmora is convinced the enemies have joined hands]
Watching this, Asmora took it gravely.
The main reason they had left the Nomadic Swarm alone was because the Orc Kingdom and Dwarf Federation had been checking and hostile to each other.
Even when they attacked together, claiming they couldn't lose, the two forces fought separately, exposing gaps that the ants exploited masterfully to hold out.
But Scrumm's earnest plea had convinced the Dwarf Federation command, forging a dramatic alliance between the field units.
For the ants, it was a full-blown emergency.
[Asmora asks if they should retreat further]
[Bellona insists she will never abandon this place]
Asmora suggested pulling the front line back further to regroup, promising more troops so they could mount a proper counterattack.
But Bellona refused to give up the territory she now controlled.
This was the city the orcs had been driven from the plains to claim—a spiritual homeland revered by grassland orc tribes since ancient times.
To Bellona, it was practically the symbolic city of the first force she had led to ruin.
Beyond symbolism, it housed the Nomadic Swarm's key resources, like the heart yeast worms.
No matter how nomadic they were, they couldn't resolve everything on the move; they needed a central hub to return to and rest, and Bellona had long designated this place for that role.
Abandoning it all would not only weaken the Nomadic Swarm drastically but shake its very identity.
Bellona, queen of the Nomadic Swarm, could not allow that.
'So her top priority is defending that place.'
Jin-hyuk watched with a grim expression as Bellona stripped even the guards by her side to form a defensive line up front.
Even so, by weaving spiderwebs to block paths, digging traps, and creating poisonous swamps, they could buy some time.
Though it would crumple Bellona's pride even more, assuming she had planned to counterattack with the cordyceps magi.
"Is everyone's stealth perfect?"
"Yes. They haven't noticed us yet."
And a group that had even anticipated the ants' movements was advancing stealthily.
"I don't know their exact method, but they have a tight communication network. If even one eye spots us, the operation fails."
Scrumm glanced around nervously at his handpicked elite squad.
Compared to the tense atmosphere, their getup was downright ridiculous: draped in strange black cloaks, feet clad in massive iron boots.
The cloaks dangled with antennae and legs scavenged from ant corpses, and their bodies were slathered in pheromones extracted from ant remains.
Their goal was to infiltrate perfectly disguised and reach Narqundum, their old homeland now held by Bellona.
"This is where it gets real. From here on, it's enemy territory."
Scrumm swallowed dryly at the sinister spiderwebs strung across every path ahead.
Those webs, mimicking orb-weaver spiders, were laid by spider-ant variants; the moment anything non-ant touched them, lurking spider-ants would swarm to verify identity—a security measure by the ants.
Most of the ant-controlled territory under the Nomadic Swarm was blanketed in such vicious defenses.
"Activate Shadow Imprint."
They activated the function of their bizarre cloaks, tense as they were.
It wasn't just for laughs that they'd attached severed ant antennae and legs; the cloaks bore an illusion spell that perfectly mimicked the adorned subject's appearance.
In other words, wearing these ridiculous cloaks made them visually indistinguishable from ants.
The massive metal boots on their feet were dwarven tech, minimizing vibrations and sound.
Unaware of the ants' hive mind except through hard experience—which was indescribable—they prepared for everything.
"Let's go...!"
Scrumm took the lead and advanced.
A winged scout ant had already flown overhead far above, but fortunately, they went undetected.
'Can we really assassinate their queen like this?'
Belegren, who had volunteered to join, swallowed dryly under his cloak as he eyed the distant plains city drawing nearer.
Most ants that should have swarmed this area were at the front battling the main force, letting them push forward.
"..."
The Nomadic Swarm was locked in fierce war across its entirety.
With Queen Bellona's attention mostly on frontline combatants, Narqundum—the orc holy site turned ant nest—was left to worker ants handling chores.
"...?"
Amid this, a worker ant paused mid-haul with food in its jaws, twitching its antennae at something odd.
A group of worker ants. But something was off about them.
No food in their mouths... and despite urgent hive orders to rush nutrients to workers, these ones insolently wandered off-task, doing nothing useful.
"..."
The worker ant crept closer, twitching its antennae.
What are you lot?
The suspicious group huddled, wriggling awkwardly, at a loss.
They looked like workers visually. Pheromones detected.
Even their exoskeleton suggested recent hatchlings—juniors to itself.
So the worker ant casually prodded them with its antennae, stimulating the hive mind.
Why are you slacking?
Overseeing delinquent workers was the prerogative of on-site seniors, no need to bother the queen.
This junior-bullying lasted minutes, but they didn't respond.
As if they couldn't understand.
"...!"
In that instant, the worker ant detected they weren't linked to the hive mind.
Even workers could be born defective or become impaired later.
The hive culled them mercilessly. But even then, hive communication should work.
An alarm instantly rippled through the entire ant hive via the hive mind.
"We've been made! Run!!!"
At the same moment, the ant disguises warped; Scrumm shed his cloak, his greatsword cleaving the suspicious worker's head in one stroke.
[Bellona is startled but delighted]
A small enemy force had infiltrated right under their noses in disguise.
They had come to fight her. Bellona was shocked by the ploy but thrilled all the same.
She hadn't fought on the front lines in ages.
Her queenly duties were heavy, and the swarm was on the back foot—no room for leisure.
But she had no reason to refuse enemies delivering themselves.
[Asmora says to send subordinates first]
As Bellona rose, her massive body bristling with spines, blades, and venom stingers, Asmora stopped her, advising to send subordinates first.
Following the advice, her guard ants charged the intruders first.
That was when Scrumm and his group were sprinting at full speed.
"Those monsters dare defile our sacred altar and legacy!!"
Scrumm raged at the sight of Queen Bellona's chamber in the heart of the ancient temple atop the city's central hill.
That instant, tyrant variants—hornet ants, executioner ants, predator ants—swarmed, shrouded in dark blue Kair barriers, lunging at them.
"Accept a warrior's challenge, vile monsters. You know neither honor nor pride."
Fierce mana blazed anew from Scrumm's gritted-teeth greatsword.
His whirlwind slashes were techniques honed over decades by an orc warrior—his pride.
The tyrants charging with venom stings, razor mandibles, and hooked claws were sliced like tofu, barriers and all, by the swung blade.
Their hulking frames and exoskeletons that repelled blades or even bullets crumbled powerlessly, severed.
This Pulverizing Sword Dance was perfected with a deity's gift restoring his youth.
A master's realm, infused with unachieved youthful experience, will, pride, and skill.
'Beautiful.'
Bellona froze at the unprecedented prowess.
A warrior's lifelong craft was so exquisite, its destructive power so alluring.
She had merely crushed foes with brute force before.
Overpowering with stronger flesh, heavier mass, mightier muscles—ripping them apart.
Bellona realized it was only half the picture.
Scrumm's martial art was what she lacked.
"Accept a warrior's challenge. Queen."
Blade dancing unbroken like a sword dance, Scrumm cleaved through the guards in a flash, coming face-to-face with Bellona's grotesque, mid-sized-heavy-ant bulk.
Four hooked legs shot from Bellona's back toward him, but Scrumm spun his greatsword like a windmill, severing all four weak points in one go.
"No..."
[Asmora screams to run now]
Jin-hyuk muttered with a sinking heart, watching; Asmora shrieked in horror—that instant.
Scrumm parried Bellona's venom stings, slashed through her spewed poison mist, severed her thick forelegs lunging at him—his blade plunged into her chest, slicing the colossal body in one stroke.
A split-second dismemberment of that enormous frame.
"...You were a warrior too."
Scrumm landed, whiskers fluttering, gazing at Bellona's collapsing, bisected corpse spilling fluids, murmuring softly.
He hadn't expected Queen Bellona to duel him one-on-one. She could have fled.
Thud. Her severed head rolled beside the rest.
"Great Warlord!"
"Escape now! Report to main force—we've killed the enemy queen!"
Scrumm panicked at the ants swarming from all sides.
Time was short for escape.
"Kuh?!"
He couldn't block the worker ants charging to self-destruct.
They burst, spraying venom-mixed fluids in resistance; amid the chaos, they seized Bellona's head and fled in a flash.