Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Their pheromones are thick in the air, and despite the fact that they have gathered all of the glass that was formed in a wide radius around the oasis, they keep on showing up and digging the sand"

"Seems like they are smart enough to try and pretend they have business around here… Do you think they are just curious about this place, or do you think they have another reason to be prowling around?"

The elite swordsman and elite mage discussed amongst themselves as Ir'Houwl silently observed some of the ants a bit further away, their dark red chitin reflecting light as they moved around, spewing pheromones at one another at a startling frequency, it did not seem likely that they were just using them to make trails, it looked more like they were full-on communicating.

Their antennas moving around, and mandibles flexing as they did so, looking like they truly engaged in conversations.

"If I had to make a wild guess, I would say that they are also affected by the mirage and believe that the oasis is something else entirely" considering the current hazard plaguing the desert, that seemed like a fair assumption, these ants had never shown up during the initial days of their arrival or during the dim week, they had only shown up some time after the mirage manifested itself, so it wasn't exactly weird to assume the two were linked in some form of a way.

"We should try to find a way to dispel the mirage for other beings and see if they behave differently"

"We're already on this, but considering the odd manner it seems to function in, it might take a little while with our current resources"

Ir'Houwl listened to the two elites conversing, they were making sense, but the minor lord was having other thoughts about this situation, these ants were clearly in possession of a high level of intelligence, and it definitely seemed like they had moved away from their nest to get get, which meant that currently, they were exceptionally vulnerable as they didn't have the support of the rest of their colony.

"Come over here, and shoot down the ants in that direction, aim for their head, thorax and abdomen individually, we'll check how resilient they are" she said, calling the mage over.

Wand in hand, he took a moment to take in the five ants busy digging around and focused on forming five time the same spell at once, the very one that had wounded the archer over a great distance, waiting for the right occasion as the insects could naturally be hard to read, and fired all invisible mana bolts straight at them.

Despite the difference in distances between the five living creatures, they were all struck at once, not allowed to realise what could have possibly happened before the spell tore right through their durable chitin and out the other side.

Three had their heads blown out in different parts, one having even been decapitated by the attack, yet all still seemed capable of motion anyways, the two with holes in their heads lasted the shortest, as they both walked around as though trying to retreat before going limp.

The one missing its head lasted a few more moments as it tried to pick up the detached part and bring it along before keeling over and dying.

As for the other two, each was struck either in the abdomen or thorax, the gaping wounds were clean, but had been fired precisely to take out the legs in the way as well, throwing them off balance as they writhed in pain, the one struck in the abdomen seemed like it would be fine if left untouched and allowed to escape, whilst the one hit in the thorax would probably die eventually as its heart was damaged, which was nothing like the typical heart of a mammal, but was still direly important.

Still, since they could function for a few more moments with usually instantaneously lethal injuries, similarly to many other bugs, such injuries would normally allow them to retreat anyways.

"Kill them" ordered Ir'Houwl, she had just wanted to test how much they could assume these wolf-sized wants could be trusted to be like regular ants, and it seemed like they could be assumed to function in pretty much the same way, only much bigger, and presumably not with incredible lifting strength as one should know that making something bigger didn't always means a stable increase in their physical abilities.

And seeing how easily the mage pierced right through their exoskeleton, they weren't that durable either, but in a sense, it was only natural, ants did not need to be powerful individually, they were a group and worked in numbers, they just need to swarm whatever they wanted to kill and they would probably be capable of doing it as long as their numbers were high enough.

The mage heeded the order instantly and two more unseen bolts of mana pierced through their heads, bringing them down for good.

Ir'Houwl slightly flicked her hand, and sent forward her red sand, but without adding any draining property to it, simply using it to carry the five corpses back to the oasis without having to step out into the sun, although her own mirage still seemed to be cowering in the distance, it would be best not to test it carelessly again.

"Let the doctor dissect four of them, and send the fifth through the portal for analysis there" despite the grounds covered by the empire, they had yet to encounter any monstrous ant colony until today, but that was only natural, the livings, who had ruled before them probably wouldn't have thrived if their had been such dire competition around.

"Listen, all ants within sight are to be swiftly killed and their corpses to be pulled back to the oasis, do so from safety however… You however" she focused on the elite mage.

"Yes, My Lord?"

"You shall find a group of ant and allow one to escape, track its mana signature and find out where their nest is, if they don't decide to attack during this period of mirages, we'll take the fight to them directly and smoke them out" she said, the mage nodding in understanding.

And she said this, more red sand crawled out according to her will, moving over to where the ants had been killed and draining all traces of blood left behind, leaving the area perfectly spotless, as though absolutely nothing had happened there, ever.

"As for you and all of those capable of draining blood via sorcery, you'll eliminate the remnants, this might just leave the ants confused"

The swordsman nodded as well and both elites set out to inform the warriors of the orders.